Triumphant Entrance and the Judgement to Come (Matthew 21:1-22)

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Follow Me

Follow Me

Chet Phillips

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Well, good morning. We are in a series called Follow Me. We're in our third week. We're just taking some time to look in the Gospel of Mark and see what it looked like for the disciples to follow Jesus. Our first week, we basically just covered the idea that the Gospel is news. It is not advice.

It's not here's how you ought to live. It's a story. It's news about something that has happened. That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died in our place for our sin on a cross. He was laid in a tomb and then three days later he rose again fully alive and ascended into heaven as the king of the universe. That's what we believe as Christians.

And we believe that that news, that fact from history, changes everything for us. That we can be made right with God again. That we live our lives in light of that information. Then the next week, last week, we talked about that there are no unrepentant Christians. That part of the Christian life is to follow Jesus, seeing our sin and turning from it. And that is a continual, lifelong process.

That Christians see their sin and turn away from it to Jesus. That it's not repent and do good works. It's not turn away from your bad deeds and do good deeds. It's turn away from your sin to Jesus. And so we're kind of continuing along with that today as we talk about what it looks like for us now to follow Jesus. How does that show up in our lives now?

And I heard this illustration one time and I think it's helpful to kind of get us started today. If I showed up late today, so if I just came running up a second ago and ran upstairs and was out of breath and sweating because I had to run. You know, there's like four stairs there. So, of course, I'd be sweating. And I was like, oh, I'm so sorry that I'm running behind. It's good to see you all this morning.

I feel like because I'm running behind, I should explain myself. So on my way over here this morning, there was a lady who had a flat tire. So I got out to help her while I was helping with the tire. I lost my balance, fell into the road and an 18 wheeler ran over me. So but glad to get all that straightened out and to get here this morning.

Like immediately your response is no. No, it didn't. Either really my are your options at that point is I'm a liar. That did not happen. I just am not good at lying. So I pick something way too extravagant.

And you'd be like, that's not like you. You've done poorly. You know, you want enough details to sound like it's real, but not too many details to sound like it was rehearsed. And you want some credible things. Getting hit by an 18 wheeler is incredible. Either I'm a liar or I'm just crazy.

Like I actually believe I was hit by an 18 wheeler. But my brain just doesn't work right. Like I buy that is not true. Those are your two options. And here's what the point of that is. If if I was hit by an 18 wheeler, the reason you know that's not true is because that would have had visible, tangible, real life effect on me.

Like there are consequences to that. You can't get hit by a portly person on a bicycle and not like have that go poorly for you. There's going to be some scuffs. There's going to be some problems. There's going to be some dirt in my hair. Like it's not going to go well.

You can't get hit by an 18 wheeler and it not have an effect. And the thing is, Jesus is bigger than an 18 wheeler. When when you meet Jesus genuinely, realistically in life, he has a tangible effect on you. It shows up. So for someone to say, oh, I'm a Christian and there's no evidence whatsoever.

It's simply not true. And so that's what we're looking at as we walk through the series is to say that we believe news. We're not saying this is what you have to do to be a Christian. We're saying Jesus died for us. And because of that, it affects us. This event happened and it changes us.

And that actually shows up in our lives. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to jump back into Mark. We'll be in chapter one today. But let's pray real quick. God, we just ask that you and your faithfulness and your love for us would be at work in our hearts today. To help us see ourselves clearly and see you clearly as we continue to ask the question of what it means to follow you.

In Jesus name. Amen. We're going to be in Mark chapter one. We're going to pick up in verse 16 right where we left off last week. So last week, Jesus began preaching.

The kingdom of time is fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. So we just talked about that repentance is the way that you enter into the way you respond to the coming kingdom and the way you live in the kingdom. And immediately following that, we're going to see him begin to interact with people that will be his disciples, would be his followers. So it's on page 543.

If you have a blue and white Bible, if you don't own a Bible, take this one with you. It's our gift to you. Verse 16. Later in the series, we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at that. I will make you become fishers of men. But today we're really just looking at the follow me and kind of their response.

Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. And then immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets. And immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. Okay. So what we just saw is Jesus picks up four disciples, Simon, Andrew, James and John.

Simon and Andrew are brothers. Simon later becomes Peter. Jesus gives him a nickname. And James and John also get nicknames. They're called the Sons of Thunder. That doesn't have anything to do with what we're talking about today, but just while we're covering nicknames.

And so he gets four disciples today. And here's what happens. He walks up into the middle of them working. Simon and Andrew are throwing a net into the water. James and John are mending their nets in a boat. And he just walks up and says, hey, follow me.

And they do. They drop what they're doing and they begin to follow Jesus. And this moment in their lives redirects the course of their life. This moment here where they drop what they're doing and follow Jesus changes everything for them. So that all four of these men, three of them will die for their faith in Jesus.

They will die for having said yes to Jesus saying, follow me. And John dies not of being murdered, but he dies while being exiled on an island for his faith in Jesus. So he dies of old age on an island where he was exiled. He was boiled in oil before that. He just didn't die. But all four of these men, this moment in their lives where Jesus says, follow me, and they say yes, drastically alters their life.

And here's what I want us to see from the very beginning. Jesus is disruptive. Period. Period. He's disruptive. When Jesus comes into your life, things begin to change.

That's just how it works. He doesn't just slide in and everything works swimmingly and exactly the same from that point on. He's disruptive. He steps in and when he steps in and when he comes into your life, he messes things up. He changes up your schedule. He changes up your time.

He calls you away from what you're doing to do other things. Like Jesus automatically, when he comes into your life, is disruptive. Some of you, if you would sit in here today and say, I'm a Christian, but Jesus, he's not disruptive. He fits right in. Fits right into my schedule. He's fit right into my life.

He just slid right in and has just been helpful. He hadn't tried to change anything. Hadn't like, I would just put forth. That's not Jesus. You. It's not Jesus.

Because Jesus is disruptive. That's how he works. That's like saying, I want to get a tattoo, but I don't like needles and I don't want it to hurt. You don't want to get a tattoo. I want, I want a Lexus, but I want it to have the rolly kind of windows. You're not getting a Lexus.

That's not, they don't make those. That's not how that works. And if you say, no, no, Jesus is fit right in. Like he hadn't been disruptive at all. That's not Jesus. You don't meet that Jesus in scripture.

The Jesus that walks around in scripture is absolutely continuously, aggressively disruptive. When Jesus comes into your life, things change. Now I want to show us something. I want us to take a minute to look at something. I think Mark does very intentionally in this passage. So when we write books, so the way, the way Westerners write books.

And if you read books, I know a lot of people in America don't read another book after they graduate high school or college. But maybe you remember reading some while you were in high school or college. Maybe some of you are in high school or college and you're familiar with books there. It's like a television, but you have to, you have like, okay. Anyway, the way we write books is there's information about the scene and the setting and what it looks like. And a good author can really help you like picture it.

So they talk about the way things smelled or the way things looked or what the room was like. They give you some scenery. They paint it up a little bit. So J.K. Rowling or Rowling, I don't know how to say her last name. She wrote the Harry Potter series, you know, Harry Potter, Voldemort, all that stuff.

She wrote a bunch of books and they were all very well written and they're all thick. And they got thicker and thicker as she went. It's like she had more and more to say as she went along. And she does really well with like painting up the scene. But she recently wrote a play called The Cursed Child.

She wrote a play. She what? She co-wrote a play. That's actually not the important part here, guys. I wish you will see in a second. But thank you for keeping me honest.

I don't know enough about Harry Potter to be talking right now. Which now makes me want to say a bunch of bad things. But like, you know, in Harry Potter, Dumbledore Calrissian has to take the ring of power to Mordor. You're welcome. The difference between a book and a play. This is the point I was getting to, although I gave way more information than I needed to.

The difference between a book and a play is this. In a play, every bit of information matters. It's just dialogue. And if they give any other information, it has something to do with the story. If they give any other details, it has to do with the setting. It has to do with what the characters are doing.

It does not, in a play, when someone writes out a play, they don't write up a whole bunch of scenery for you. They don't explain the way people felt. They just give you the dialogue and they give you some key, essential information. The Gospels are written like that. If there's information in the Gospels, it was written down for a reason. It was not just because Mark was like, and it was a pretty day outside, and the breeze was blowing.

He doesn't do that. The information given is important. So we're going to walk back through and we're going to put a little bit of pressure on the way Mark writes this because I think he did it on purpose. I don't think he wrote it out this way by happenstance. I think he was led and through the leadership of the Holy Spirit wrote it out specifically the way he did. And so we're going to look at this.

Okay, go back to verse 16. So he tells us what they were. This is who they were. They were fishermen. That's how they understood their place in the world. That's how other people understood their place in the world.

That's how they knew who they were. They were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their what? They left their what? Yeah, this is participation time.

And I know like we don't usually do this. Nets. Yes, they left their nets. They were fishermen and they left their nets. Okay, let's keep going. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets.

Okay, how does he describe James and John? Does he tell us they're fishermen? No. What's he tell us about them? What's their identifying marker? Son of Zebedee.

So are they fishermen? I would assume so. They're in a boat working on nets. But he doesn't call them fishermen. He calls them son of Zebedee. And then he says this.

And immediately he called them and they left what? I got a lot of time, guys. I'm good. They left what? Yeah. They left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

So they left him in the boat. They left him with the other people who were fishing. They left him with the nets. But that's not what Mark says they left. What Mark says they left was their father Zebedee. So what he just did was he said, Simon and Andrew were fishermen.

That's their identifying marker. And when Jesus called them, they left their nets. And James and John were the son of Zebedee. That's their identifying marker. And when he called them, they left their father Zebedee. Jesus is not only disruptive.

He walks into your life. He takes whatever you use to identify yourself. Whatever is absolutely primary to you. And he says, I'm taking the place of this. You have to let go of this for me. That's how Jesus works.

The only position he accepts in your life is first place. That's why it was important for Mark to write down that the fishermen left their nets and the sons of Zebedee left their father. Because if you ask them, what was the hardest thing to give up that day? Simon and Andrew are going to say, we were fishermen. We had to give up fishing. We had to give up our nets.

We had to give up possessions. We had to give up our career to follow him. That was what was going through their mind. That was what they had to let go of. That's what they were looking at and thinking about when Jesus said, follow me. But if you ask James and John, what did you leave?

They say we left our father. Because that's how they understood their existence. That's how they understood their identity. Let me explain something to you. We were designed by God. We were created.

So we're creatures. We're designed because we're creatures to have something be primary for us. Something has to be foundational. Something has to be the most important. It's just the way we're made. And everyone in this room has something in that spot.

And whatever you use to find your identity, whatever you use to say, this is how I fit in the world. This is what makes me okay. This is what gives me purpose. This is what makes me want to wake up tomorrow. Whatever you put there is God functionally for you. Whatever is your purpose, your identity, how you would describe yourself, how you know you're you and that you matter.

Whatever you put there is God because that was the role he was designed to fill. When he created us, that was the spot that he's supposed to be in. What gives us life and purpose and worth and value is him. That's why when Jesus shows up, that's the spot he claims. It's the only spot he'll take. So when Jesus comes into your life, not only is he disruptive, he is aggressively disruptive because he wants to claim primary role in your heart, in your time, in your life.

So for a Christian, we talked last week about life being a life of repentance, continually turning away from sin. We honestly don't sin until we've put something else in that spot. Until we've looked at Jesus and said, I'd rather have this than you. That's what leads us into sin. Thinking that something else matters more than Jesus so it's worth pursuing more than he is. So that we'll say no to him to say yes to that.

When that happens, we've moved that to the spot of superiority. Does that make sense? Anything that goes in number one slot, everything else ultimately serves that or everything else ultimately can be bumped out of the way, out of life for that. So let me give you an example. On your budget. Let me go back real quick.

A budget is a thing that you use to know where your money goes. Some of y'all. Talk with our toast team. They will help you make a budget. They are helpful. Okay, on your budget, there are things at the top on your expenses that matter more than the things at the bottom.

Unless you like alphabetize it, but just you realize there's a rank system here. There are things you're paying for first before you pay for other things. So when you start to run out of money, there are things you say no to. You pay your rent before your Netflix bill. If you've got that backwards, our toast team will help you make a budget. This is how this works.

First, you're paying your electricity before you're going to Frankie's Fun Park. There are things that go to the top of the list that when things get tight, when money gets tight, you're choosing what are we paying and you're paying what's most important. And if anything gets above Jesus, ultimately he serves that or he'll get bumped out of the way for that. So if you said, my family, my children matter most to me. And Jesus, I love Jesus and I worship Jesus and I follow Jesus, but ultimately my children are at the top. And maybe you wouldn't say it that way, but your life says that.

Here's what happens. Jesus is a means to an end for you to have a good family, to have safe children. Oh, it is so wonderful to know that the God of the universe loves your children and you can ask him for things. And you can ask him to protect your children and watch over your children and help your children. It's so good to know that the God of the universe will help provide for your children. So you're using Jesus for the safety of your children.

Your children are well behaved if they actually follow what the Bible says. They don't cause problems. They treat their parents well. That's one of the ten, you guys. Honor your mother and father. That's in the Ten Commandments.

It actually has a promise. It'll go well with you if you do. Like, that's great. And so if you have children that are in Sunday school and they're reading their Bibles and stuff, it makes them happier. It makes them better. It keeps life good for them.

And Jesus serves your children. But if your family starts falling apart, if your children become rebellious, if their health fails, if God says, I want you to be a missionary, to Africa, suddenly it's a, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I got kids. Can't. I didn't sign on for this. I got to worry about their safety. I got to worry about, like, their primary.

I got to, I started following you because I thought you were going to help me have a good family. I started following you because I thought you were going to help me protect my kids. I started following you because you were, like, what? You see, Jesus is serving them the whole time. And this happens with all kinds of things. So I, I know in my own life, when I have, in my marriage, I've sinned.

I've sinned against God. I've sinned against Anna. And I found, that I know the Bible says you should repent and confess. You should tell your wife what you did. And my response to that is, no, thank you. Kind sir.

Like, this is, this has been a real thing in my life where I have had very big things I needed to talk to her about. Because I have found that when you tell your wife you sinned against her, she doesn't like it. That's something I picked up on. And so I wasn't really willing to talk about it. And here, here's, here's what I came to realize. I was saying no to Jesus.

No to our relationship being good. No to me following him. Because I really wanted to protect the relationship I have with my wife. I was defending that one because I was more afraid of her being upset with me. More afraid of her leaving. More afraid of her, the discomfort that that would cause.

And so what I was saying was, no, no, no, Jesus, you're great for a lot of things, but in my marriage, I'm going to let her kind of rank above you. And we can do this with anything. You can do this with success. You can do this with pleasure. You can do that. I mean, you name it.

So if, if pleasure is primary for you, then your time and your money go towards what brings me the most enjoyment. What makes me the happiest? What, what do I enjoy the most? Like that's, that's how I understand the good life is that I can do what I want. I can eat out when I want. I can go to, to movies.

I can go on vacations. I can, that's the good life. And then Jesus shows up and says, Hey, uh, your money isn't meant to terminate on you. You should actually start giving some away. And you go, Ooh, I really can't. My budget's really tight.

When, when Jesus says, follow me. And when pleasure says, follow me, you follow pleasure. Work. Get your time, your energy. You spend your money on things that help you work better, that make work better, that I need this clothes for work. I need this suit for work.

I need this equipment for work. And, and then when Jesus steps in and says, no, this is how your family life is supposed to work. This is how following me is supposed to work. You say, no, no, no, no. When work says, follow me, or Jesus says, follow me, you follow work. Because the, the one thing Jesus is going to call you to drop is the one thing you're using to give yourself an identity.

And he's going to call you to, to get rid of sin. And he's going to call you to turn away from a lot of things. And a lot of that may be hard. You may like it. The thing that, that you're going to have to wrestle with the most and the thing you're going to want to pick up the most. And the thing that in your story, you're going to say, I had to leave behind is the one thing that you were using.

To identify yourself, to give yourself value and worth. Whatever it was in your heart that was primary. So here, here's our goal today. If Mark was writing about you, what does he say? Jesus walked up to, blank, and he said, follow me. What, what does he say was your identity?

And what does he say you left behind? Now here, I want to point something out to us. James and John stay the son of Zebedee. Simon and Andrew do fish again. Fishing isn't bad. That's not the point of this passage.

Having Zebedee be your dad isn't bad. That's not the point of this passage. Honoring your father, understanding your life in relationship to your father isn't bad. That's not the point. Your children, your spouse, working heart, pleasure. Pleasure isn't bad, y'all.

It's actually really enjoyable. Have y'all noticed that? God made it that way on purpose. The Bible actually says that pleasures are at his right hand forever. Like, he's the one who made pleasure pleasurable. It's good.

All those things are good. Most everything that we would put as primary in our life is actually a really good thing. A gift from God. The issue Jesus has is they can't be number one. And you're going to have to say no to them to say yes to him. That's why he says stuff like, if you come to me and you don't hate your father and mother, your children and your wife, and it's like, whoa, hate?

What? How do you say that? Like, that's crazy. You said to love your enemies, to love those that hate you. How are you then going to tell me to hate my wife? That sounds like really bad marriage advice.

His point isn't to actively hate. His point is that he has to be so far above everything else that nothing else compares. That's why he says if you don't deny yourself and take up your cross, you can't follow me. That's why when people come to him and say, Jesus, I'm going to follow you. And he says, come on. And they say, well, let me go bury my dad.

And he says, no, let me go back and tell my family goodbye. No, it's crazy. What he asks of us, how disruptive he is, but what he steps into every single follower of his and says, this thing right here that you used to make your identity out of this thing right here that you used to say, this is what makes me. Okay. This is what gives me value. This is what gives me worth.

This is how I know life makes sense. That thing right there has to move. That's the place I get. And so for those of us who have said, I'm following Jesus. It's pretty, pretty simple. Not real hard.

I'm not sure he's shown up and done that for you yet. I'm not sure you've moved that out of the way for him yet. So what would, what would your story be? What is it that you sacrifice for? What is it that you give your time and energy and money for? What is it that you use to understand your existence and light up?

You don't have to have it. You can be really poor and it can be money. You just know that once you get money, you'll be happy. You can be single and it can be your future magical spouse that rides unicorns and comes down from rainbow, rainbow land. Like I, I don't know. You could have some future.

Once this happens, I'll be happy. Once this happens, I'll be good. This is what'll fix me. And I'll bend heaven and earth to get to it. And if following Jesus helps me get there, great. I'll let Jesus work for me.

Proverbs 14, 12 says this. We're gonna have it on the screen. I love this verse. It is so helpful to me. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. It's not a very uplifting verse, but it is very helpful.

Some of you maybe have been sitting here going, no, no, no. The thing I'm chasing after Jesus would be totally on board with. It's good. If I get that, it would be good. It's not a bad thing. That's true.

It probably isn't, but this is true. There's stuff that we look at and say, if I just got that, I'd be happy. If I could just do this, it'd be fine. If I could just reach this, achieve this, be this, have this title, have this amount of money in the bank, have this type of success or this type of family or live in this type of place. And what Proverbs says is there's a way that seems really right to you and ultimately leads to destruction. Won't fix you.

Won't save you. Won't save you. Leads to death. So when Jesus steps in and says, I want to be primary, he's actually offering us joy. He's actually pursuing our joy. So, Jesus, if he wanted your begrudging submission, could get it.

Are you aware of that? I don't know. A lot of people just understand Jesus as being really nice. He controls everything and is in charge of everything. He could show up and immediately be like, bow down and you would. Did y'all know that?

We know that? We good on that? He can do that. He can put you in a submission hold. He can do it. That doesn't bring him a lot of glory.

It brings him glory because he's ultimately in charge of everything. But that's not his desire for you. His desire is that you would enjoy him. That you would love him. That you would respond to him. You see, begrudging submission isn't his desire for you.

Enjoyment of him is desire for you. See what? The reason he comes in and says, I have to be primary is because he is primary. He's the best thing you could ever get. He's the best thing he could ever offer you. If Jesus showed up and said, Hey guys, just want to let you know you should all be chasing money.

Then money would be God. And Jesus should serve it. When Jesus shows up and says, you should all get rid of everything and love me. He's saying, this is the best way to happiness because I'm the best thing that exists. And it's actually in our enjoyment of him that he gets a lot of glory. Do you, if some of you are married, some of you are dating, some of you aren't dating yet, but maybe you want to date or want to get married or something.

Do you imagine that when you, before you were married, did you imagine, I can't wait till I meet a person who begrudgingly submits to marrying me. Oh, I can't wait for the day that we celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. And they look over at me and say, I did my duty. And every day was drudgery. Because you're the worst. But I stuck with it.

I can't, I just cry just thinking about it. Like, did you do that? Do you think about that? Is that your goal? Would that be enjoyable? Would you get a lot of pleasure out of that?

No, that, that what you want is someone who loves you for you, who appreciates you, who enjoys you, who wants to be around you because they enjoy you. They like it. 50 years in, they say it didn't feel like 50 years. Some of it, some of it did, but it felt, it was mostly good. We've been married for 50 years, 42 good ones. Like, whatever.

That's what you want. And that's Jesus when he says, I want to be primary. It's not, I want you to begrudgingly submit to you, submit to me. It's, I want you to understand that I'm the best that could ever be offered to you. And Isaiah 55, we'll have this on the screen as well. There's a prophet's writing and he says this, come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and he who has no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Um, this, this is reused, rephrased in the book of Revelation, talking about coming to God, coming to heaven, that that's, he freely gives good things that you don't have to have money to come get from him. That's grace that Jesus dies and freely gives us himself. And he says this, why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? You know, the, the two commodities you'll have in your life that everybody has, you have some money. That's one of them. That's one of the ways that we place value is money.

The other one's labor, your time and energy. And what the prophet's saying is why, why do you spend your money and your time and energy on something that ultimately will not satisfy you, that ultimately will not bring life, that ultimately cannot hold the weight of being the foundation of your life and your identity? Why do you do that? Why does your, why does your labor and your money go to something that will not fix you, will not make you okay, will not satisfy you? Listen diligently to me. Pay attention and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food.

Incline your ear and come to me. Hear that your soul may live. See, I love that. He says, eat what's good, eat rich food. The call of Jesus to us to come to him is not, Hey, I've got a worse offer. You like that good stuff.

How do you feel about terrible things? That's not what he says. He says, come to what's better. Come to what actually satisfies. Come to what actually fills you up. Come to what actually fixes you.

I will make with you an everlasting covenant. My steadfast, sure love for David. In the Old Testament, God came to David and said, I'm going to love you and I'm going to make a king out of you forever. This promise is fulfilled in Jesus. The prophet Isaiah is saying, come to Jesus. And he'll make the same promise with you that he'll welcome you and love you forever.

And he'll give you rich and good food, which is ultimately what your soul needs. You see, we all have something. We all have something that we're using to say, this is who I am. This is what makes me okay. This is what makes me good. This is why I get up in the morning.

There's a journalist named Malcolm Muggeridge. He's talking about political hopes and failures in his book. And he, he talks about that. They had this political guy that they just really wanted to get into office. And they said, we, he said, we got exactly what we asked for. And then he has this quote.

He says, the really terrible thing about life is not that our dreams are unrealized, but that they come true. So the worst thing about life is not that we don't get what we want, but that we do get what we want. And ultimately doesn't satisfy, doesn't fix us. The worst part about life is that all our little dreams come true and it wasn't good enough. Jim Carrey says this. In our culture, I got, I got quotes from a couple of different famous people because in our culture, we've really bought into the idea that if you were really rich, good looking, uh, and had like people knew you, then you, that would be great.

That would be the best. Like we, our culture's kind of just bought into that idea. I know that I've bought into that idea every time the lottery gets really big and I go buy a lottery ticket. And I'm filling out my little Numbers and bubbling them in. It's like the, you know, first time I've done a scantron since high school. And I, I think, wouldn't it be so great to get $43 billion or whatever it comes up to?

You know what I'm saying? Like it's, it's been crazy recently. You remember the one this past summer or whatever, when everybody was going crazy past spring? Like I think I'm running around thinking, oh, it would be so good. And really what I think in those moments is if I had a lot of money, I'd be fixed. I wouldn't want anything else.

I'd be happy. I'd be content. Everything would be good. I'd skip everywhere. I'd giggle. I'd just giggle.

And people would be like, why are you giggling? You're a grown man. I'd be like, I'm so rich. You don't even know. I giggle anytime I want to. Here's a thousand dollars.

Don't tell nobody. Like I could do whatever. Our culture, we really believe that. We really believe that if you had power, if you had fame, if you had money, you'd be happy. You'd be fixed. So I've got a couple of quotes from people.

Because really, celebrities should be the happiest people we've got, right? They should be so content and so happy and joyous and fun to be around, right? Okay. So here's Jim Carrey. I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed so they can see that it's not the answer. Jim Carrey says, I wish all your dreams could come true so that you could know that wasn't it.

Okay, but maybe you're like, well, Jim Carrey, really? Liar, liar? That's who we're talking about here? Here's Brad Pitt talking to the Rolling Stones, like the Rolling Stone magazine. Like, it doesn't get cooler than this, you guess. Brad Pitt, Rolling Stones, this is amazing.

So some of you, I know you've just thought, man, if I could just have Brad Pitt's money or if I could just have Brad Pitt's, maybe his wife or his face or his like abs, life would just be better if I just had a little bit of Brad Pitt. Like if I could just be kind of as cool as Brad Pitt in even his bad movies, life would be better. Here's Brad Pitt talking to Rolling Stones. What does it mean anyway? I had an idealistic thought of what fame is. I thought, yes, lovely, I'm going to be famous and everything will change, but it doesn't.

If you ask me, I say toss all this. We have to find something else. The emphasis now is on success and personal gain. I'm sitting in it and I'm telling you that that's not it. I'm the guy who has everything. I know.

And I'm telling you that once you have everything, then you are just left with yourself. It doesn't help you sleep any better and you don't wake up any better because of it. See, the problem with us is that we won't ever get everything. I'm not going to win the lottery, so I'll continue to believe that it'll fix me. See, these guys have it and they're going, guys, this isn't going to fix you. At best, once all your dreams are fulfilled, you're just stuck with you and there's got to be more to it.

I got one more from Tom Brady. He says this, why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey man, this is what it is. You know, I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, God, it's got to be more than this. I mean, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be.

I mean, I've done it. I'm 27. What else is there for me? When Jesus walked up to Andrew and John, when he walked up to Simon and James, and he said, follow me, his invitation was one of joy and life and hope, even though it ended in hardship and death for them. It was the best invitation they ever got. Because he said, even if this all works out for you, it ends in death.

It doesn't end in joy and satisfaction. It's not what will fill you up. Your only hope is me. And the only position I'll take is first. If you're a Christian, that's the position of Jesus in your life. That's why we continually repent, because we continually see that we put something else up there.

So our goal today, I've got a few questions to just try to help us identify. What do I have as primary right now? What, what's in that spot for me? What have I placed in that spot? So if you're a note taker, take some notes, write some stuff down, and then we're going to end a little bit differently today than, than we usually do.

But I think it'll be helpful. So I've just got some questions, some things to run through pretty quickly to try to help us find, if Mark was writing your story, what would he say? This is, this is her name, this is how she identifies herself, and this is what she's got to let go of for Jesus to be primary. What would he say? This is his name, this is his identity, and this is what he's got to let go of. Okay, what's Jesus not allowed to mess with?

It's pretty straightforward. What in your life can he not touch? What is it he reached for, reaches for, and you pop his hand? Say, no, no, no. I didn't invite you here for that. What's your, can I still go to heaven if?

You hear people ask that question, can I still, well, can you still go to heaven if blank? Sometimes it's a genuine question. Other times it's, hey, can I love this thing more than Jesus and still get there? What's the one thing you've been arguing in your head about? The whole time we've been talking. What's the thing that keeps popping up and you keep going, no, no, no, no, that's not that.

Jesus loves that. That would be great. That's not, that's, that's not it. What's the one thing you don't want me to bring up? What's the thing if I started talking about it right now, you'd be like, okay, this is the worst sermon I've ever heard. That's probably it.

That's the thing you're really afraid he'll come take from you. That's the thing you really have to have. You don't want him to mess with it. Okay. So these are a little less straightforward.

If you're having a hard time thinking about it, really trying to figure out is Jesus in that spot or is something else there? So this is just, is he there? Is he not? Are you reading your Bible? Do you have a prayer life? Is that something that takes up your time?

If we're trying to figure out are we following Jesus? Are you more discipled by Netflix? Or ESPN? Or YouTube? Or some other app I haven't heard about? Does he take up your time or is there something else?

Something else talking to you more, teaching you more about how life should work, about how you should understand your worth and your value? When you see your sin, how do you respond? Do you repent? Are you heartbroken over it? When you see that something else matters more to you than Jesus, what do you do? Do you care?

What's the easiest thing for you to spend your money on? See, there's some things when it comes to your money you have to think about. There are other things where it's like your wallet magically appears in your hand. What will you spend your money on? Where do you place value when it comes to your, when you look at your budget? Is it your own comfort?

Is it most of your money goes to savings because that's one of the best ways to control your future? Is it status symbols like clothes and cars and houses? Something that makes it look like you've arrived? The opposite side of that is where does Jesus fit into your money? Does some of your money go to his church, to his people, to people who don't have money or food? How much of your budget looks like Jesus was radically generous towards you?

So of course you're radically generous towards others. What's the thing you organize your schedule around? And what's the easiest thing for you to organize your schedule around? When there's scheduling conflicts or time conflicts, what wins? Do kids win? Does your own leisure time win?

Does work win? Does work win? What's easily put in the schedule? What gets easily bumped? What are you laboring for? Where's your time and energy go?

All right, let's look at your emotions for a second. What are you angriest about? What do you have the hardest time forgiving? You see, our emotions are usually tied to things we love. What are you most afraid of? What are you most afraid of losing?

Here's the last one, and this is a big one. When you and Jesus disagree, who wins? And is there a specific category where you always win? You see, there's some things Jesus is going to show up, you're going to read in the Bible you already kind of agree with, and so when he says you should do this, you just say, yeah, smart, sounds good. And there are other things he's going to say, you should do this or you shouldn't do that, and you're going to go, whoa, I'm going to need you to explain. I'm going to need you to win me over.

So maybe some of you, when he says, hey, you should be generous, you go, yeah, we should. We should be generous, and we should be giving to the poor, and we should be helping the homeless, and the people who aren't probably don't really follow Jesus. And when he says you shouldn't have sex if you're not married, you go, whoa, but we're in love. But we really, like, we care about each other, plus I'm also pretty sure that passage probably doesn't really mean what people say it means, and they didn't really, you know, it's translated from other, like, you know, and some of you are like, no, no sex.

That's right. We shouldn't have sex unless you're married. And then the Bible says you should have sex if you are married. But, like, those are the rules. But it's like you should give up some of your money, and you're like, well, some, how much, what's the percentage?

It's really tight. My money's tight right now. When you and Jesus disagree, who wins? And is there a category right now where you just win? Jesus died for you. Because he loves you.

When Jesus invited them to follow him, he was already on his way to give up everything for them. And when Jesus invited you to follow him, he had already given up everything for you. He'd laid it all down so that you could be related to him, so that he could bring you back to himself. He's ultimately trustworthy, and he is absolutely after your joy. And that's why he won't let you have the harmful things you want. And that's why he says, I have to be primary, because that's the only thing that leads to joy and life and satisfaction and hope.

And if anything else gets put there, it throws your life out of whack, it robs you of joy, and ultimately it ends in death. Jesus died on a cross so that you could be his, so that you could have ultimate joy and satisfaction and hope in him forever. He's trustworthy. He loves you. And him calling you to put something down is for your own good, for your own joy, even though it's going to be really hard. I think Simon and Andrew forever remembered the day they put their nets down.

And it wasn't just letting go of the nets, it was genuinely deciding, I'm going to follow him and I'm leaving this behind. And I think James and John forever know the day they looked at their father and said, I'm following Jesus. I think they remember it. And I think something happened in their heart that day that every time they saw their father again, they loved him, but he wasn't in the same spot anymore. It wasn't how they defined their life anymore. They were going to follow Jesus.

They were going to go for bust. No matter how that worked out, because they knew Jesus was worth it. And how much more for us on this side of the cross, knowing how much he's going to give up for us to welcome us and to make us his. Can we follow him and trust him? So here's, here's how we're going to end today.

We're not going to play any music. We're not going to make this any smoothier. Here's what I want us to do. If you've been sitting here today and genuinely the Holy Spirit has been pressing on you, this is what you got to put down. This is the thing you're holding on. This is the thing you won't let go of, and you've got to put it down.

You've got to walk away from it. You've got to follow me. If that's you, here's, here's what I want us to do. I just want you to take a minute. I want you to write it down. I want the cards in front of you.

And here's what we're going to do. And here's why we're going to do it. I want us to have the opportunity to walk down and lay the card up here. And here's why. When Jesus came to James and John, when he came to Simon and Andrew, they had the opportunity to make a movement. They had the opportunity to act immediately.

Now, they had to continually reinforce that from then on. It's going to be really hard to stand up and walk over here and lay something down, but it's going to get exponentially harder the moment you walk out of there. This will be the easiest time to lay it down. Because it's just a mental step for you to say, I'm trying to lay this down, Jesus. I want you to be primary. I'm trying to follow you and I'm trying to say no to this.

But every other moment, you actually have to do it. See, James and John and Simon and Andrew had the chance to move. They had the chance to let go of the nets and walk. They had the chance to look at their father and walk. And I want us to have the same opportunity to make a movement, to concretely put this in our brains. This is what I'm trying to do.

I know that Jesus saves me. I know that he died for my sin. I know that I'm free and I don't have to accomplish anything for him and I don't have to earn anything for him. But I know he's got to be primary and I've got to let go of this because it leads to death and it doesn't. It robs me of joy and my hope is found in him. So I want you to have the opportunity to move.

And I want it to not be smooth or easy. We're not cutting the lights off. We're not playing music. I think there was an awkward moment between Zebedee and his sons. And I think if Jesus has been working on you, you need to move. This will be the best time to do it.

And then you'll have to continually do it as you walk this out with church family, as you continually confess and repent this and continually try to set it down. Let's pray. God, we thank you. Thank you that you love our joy and our hope and our life more than we do, that you were willing to die for it, to rescue us, to make us yours. God, we thank you that with you is joy and pleasure and goodness and rich food. And I pray that you'd help us to quit trading it out for something smaller.

Quit chasing after something that won't satisfy us, that won't fill us up. And God, I pray that you'd help us to respond. I pray that you'd help us to respond now. But more than that, God, I pray that you'd help us to respond every day for the rest of our lives to continually follow you, to continue to set something down, to continue to say goodbye to something, and to continue to put you in the place of primacy in our lives. We thank you that you're good and that you're trustworthy and that we can follow you. And we love you in Jesus' name.

Amen. I'd encourage you to respond if the Holy Spirit's been working in you, to know that Jesus looked them in the face and said, follow me, and you have the same opportunity today to follow Jesus, to let something go, and to follow after him where there's joy and freedom and life and hope, ultimate satisfaction. And don't just do it because you feel like you're supposed to, because we're talking about it or because that would be the thing to do. Do it if you actually genuinely are saying, Jesus, I want to follow you and I want you to help me. I'm going to sit down. In a minute, the band's going to come back up and we're going to sing together and celebrate that Jesus is good.

Repent and Believe

Repent and Believe

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Well, hi, how we doing? Wow, not any better than earlier. I was taking a shot. I thought we had woken up a little bit. I'm sorry. We are in our second week of our Follow Me series, and I'm excited about this series.

Last week we got to celebrate baptism, and we got to just kind of intro this series, talk a little bit about what we're going to be doing in this series. And I'm excited because we're just taking some time to say, what does it look like for us in Columbia in 2016 to follow Jesus? Like, how does that show up? What does that look like in life to be a Christian? And I think it's going to be helpful for us because as a church we've got a lot of new believers, a lot of people who are like, okay, I believe this gospel. I believe that Jesus died for my sin.

Like, my faith is there. Now what? Like, what do I do now? And then we've got a lot of people who maybe you've been a Christian a while. You'd say, yeah, I'm a Christian, but it's like I'm just now trying to get into the swing of actually following, letting this kind of impact day-to-day life for me. And so I'm just excited about this series.

We get to just take a little time in the Gospel of Mark to look and see, okay, what did it look like for Jesus' followers? What does Jesus say? What is this supposed to – how is this going to show up for us? And particularly helpful because our culture is just kind of confused about Christianity. So if any Christians on any kind of media, any kind of TV show or anything, like we really have two types of representatives.

Just so you all know, like when somebody is writing a sitcom and they make a Christian character, like here are our options. Condescending, judgmental. Like we've got that character. A lot of times it doesn't have anything to do with actually how they behave. So like if you think of Angela from The Office, she's just condescending, but she doesn't behave any better.

Like she just looks down on everybody and then does the same stuff. And it's like, okay, so hypocritical and condescending. And then we just get kind of like goofy slash weird. So we've got Ned Flanders. Every once in a while in like really intense movies, we'll just have like a weird person on the street holding a sign. Like they're just a bit part where it's like repent, the end is nigh, and that's it.

And then like, you know, the robot kills them or whatever. And so like those are the characters we get. Even in the South where supposed to be the Bible Belt, supposed to be more Christians, we're just kind of confused about what it means to be a Christian, what it looks like to be a Christian. And so like I have conversations with people. I remember I was working with a guy and he found out I was a pastor. We were starting a church.

And he said, oh, cool, yeah, like you're a Christian? I was like, yeah. He said, yeah, me too. I used to go to a Lutheran church with my mom when I was little. And I was like, okay. But that was it.

He didn't have anything else to it. Like there was the, I went to this VBS. Maybe I prayed a prayer. I got baptized when I was young. My favorite one, I was talking with a guy I played football with in high school. And I said, are you a Christian?

He said, Chet, I'm black. So yeah, at the time I was white and I didn't know about the exemption. Like I didn't, I didn't understand. I just was kind of like, I don't know. But like that's kind of, I was born in the South.

My mom went to a Methodist church. My uncle was a deacon. Like we have all these answers for like, this is what makes me a Christian. And you don't find those in scripture. So what we're looking at is saying like, what does it look like to be a Christian?

How does this show up? Because if we actually believe something, it shows up. If we actually believe something, it shows up in how we act. It shows up in what we, like what we do. And that's what we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at. Like you ever met somebody who just believes in coffee?

Like they, they believe in it. I believe in coffee. I had someone tell me earlier that I needed to get a camelback with coffee in it. But like people who believe in coffee, they buy coffee. They get things to grind coffee. They, they have coffee with them when you see them.

Like they, you ever met a vegan that actually believed it? They told you. Ever met somebody who did CrossFit and they believed it? Like they, that's like, that's how they introduce themselves. It's like, hey, I'm Chet. Hi, I do CrossFit.

Well, okay, back up. Like, I don't know. Like if you, you know what I'm talking about? Like someone who's really drank the Kool-Aid for the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. Or libertarians, those people, they believe it. Like they will tell you.

Like if we believe something, it shows up in life. And if we're actually a part of something, that shows up also. So if I told you, and I haven't told many people this, but I am actually on the Dallas Cowboys football team. Like if I told you that, your immediate response is, no. No, you're not. And if I said why, you'd be like, well, how much time do you have?

You don't live in Dallas. No, you're not. You are unathletic. Like this isn't happening. Like do you want me to keep going because it's going to get offensive? Like there would be things.

I'd have to go to practice. I'd have to be there. I'd have to, like, what do you mean? Like you must be defining this differently. And so in our culture, there are a lot of people who say, I'm a Christian. And immediately it's like, you must be defining it differently than the Bible does.

And so as a church, what we want to do is say, like, what does the Bible say to be a Christian? What does the Bible say would show up? What does the Bible say life looks like for us as Christians? And so that's what we're spending the next four weeks just looking at some basic. This is a part of your life if you're a Christian. For every Christian in the room, for every Christian in any room, anywhere, this is a part of your life.

Let's pray and then we'll jump into Mark. God, we thank you that we do get to follow you and that we get to believe good news. I pray that you would, through your Holy Spirit, speak to us this morning and work on our behalf that we might grow in our understanding of what it means to follow you. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

So how do you know you're a Christian? What does that look like? What shows up? And so let's jump right into Mark chapter 1. We'll be in verses 14 and 15 today. We're going to look at the first words out of Jesus' mouth in Mark chapter 1.

If you have one of the blue and white Bibles on the row, it's going to be on page 543. If you do not own a Bible, take this one home with you. That's our gift to you. I want you to have a Bible. So 14 and 15, these are the first things Jesus says.

So it starts off this way. Now after John was arrested, that is John the Baptist. He had a big beard. He wore camels like hair, cloak thing, stood in the woods and yelled at people and ate bugs. So we don't get to hear much about him today, but there's a brief outline for you.

There you go. Eight bugs, lived in the woods, yelled at people. Some of you have an uncle like that. So after he was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God. So stop there for just a second.

We talked about this last week. We said that the gospel, that word there means good news. And that is the primary difference between Christianity and every other religion, philosophy, thought process. That we have news. We have news about an event that happened. See, what Christianity says is that Jesus died on a cross, was buried in a grave, and three days later he rose from the dead.

And that through his death on our behalf, we can be saved. That he can pay for our sin. He can pay our debt before God. And that's news. It happened. We share that.

Christianity is not primarily a bunch of advice. Here's what you need to do to be good. Here's how you ought to behave. Here's the things that you need to do to be a Christian. And so even in this series, what we're saying is here's what shows up if you are a Christian. So we believe the news that Jesus died for us.

And if you actually place faith in Jesus, here's what shows up. Not do these things and then you can be a Christian. If you miss that, you miss the whole thing. Does that make sense? Like if you are a Christian, you'll do these things. Not do these things and you can be a Christian.

So the difference is between a king and a president. So right now we got people running for president and they are trying to show you that they're presidential. Like I'm pretty sure that was actually a thing that Trump said. I'm going to be so presidential it's going to blow your mind. It's like that automatically didn't sound very presidential to me. But okay.

Like you're going to be like, whoa, how presidential is this guy? That's a terrible Trump impersonation, but just go with me. Like they have to prove they look presidential and then maybe we'll let them be the president. Does that make sense? But if you were a king, if you were a prince or a princess and you had parents who were king and queen, they would say things to you like, hey, that's not how a queen Acts.

Hey, that's not how a king Acts. You need to do these things to act like a king and what they would be saying to you is because you're royalty, this is how you live because you're going to be king because you're going to be queen because you're already this identity. This is what shows up in your life. Whereas presidents, it's act this way and you might get to be it. Does that make sense? So what we're saying is if you're a Christian, this shows up.

That's the whole point of this. If you believe the gospel that Jesus died for our sins, if you believe that news and it changes you. Here's what shows up. So here's what he says. We're going to look at Jesus's message. So this is what he began proclaiming the gospel of God.

So we're going to see what he proclaimed. What's the gospel of God? What's he saying? And then we're going to see how he tells us to respond. Okay. And then we'll take what Jesus said in about two, like one sentence, and we'll make that last about 40 minutes.

You're welcome. So Jesus says this, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.

So when he said this to his Jewish hearers, they knew what he was saying. When he says the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. What he's talking about is when God first made everything, it was the kingdom of God. He was in charge. He was the king. And humanity existed under God's rule.

Over creation, but under God. That's where humanity was placed. And everything was good while God was king. But Adam and Eve, our first parents, rebelled against God's kingship. They wanted to be king and queen. They wanted to be in charge.

They said, rather than having our lives orbit around you, we want everything to orbit around us. I want to be the center of the universe. That's what Adam and Eve said. And just so you know, every other human that has ever existed immediately lined up right behind Adam and Eve and said, that's the plan I'm going with as well. So your life has been you at the center trying to get everybody else to orbit around you.

Trying to get everybody else to think about you. Worry about you. Take care of you. Exist around you. That's been your goal your entire life. The way you walk through your day is, what do I like?

What do I want? How do I feel about that? What makes me happy? What makes me sad? That's how we process life. I have an 18-month-old.

That is the core of his little soul right now. My wife and I talk about this all the time. He is such an easy child to be a parent to when he is getting everything he wants. So easy. That's what makes me a great husband. Like, I'm a great husband when I get everything I want.

Like, that's how that works. And he's terrible when he realizes he doesn't get to be the center of the universe. And here's what he does. He throws things. Anything he's holding, or if he's not holding anything, he just throws a fit. He, like, yells and lays on the ground.

We've had to start grabbing him and saying, hey, you're not going to get to act like this. Nothing good happens here. Like, we've begun to train him that he doesn't get to be the center of the world. And here's the thing. I'm the same way. I just know that throwing fits doesn't work.

So I use flattery. Am I lying? I've learned. If you don't want to do what I want to do, my response shouldn't be, ah! And, like, hit you in the head. That's not going to work well.

I've moved beyond 18-month-old Chet, but I'm still doing the same thing. I just want you to care most about me. And that doesn't seem like so much to ask. The problem is, that's the same thing you want. That's why I went, we take a group picture. Whose face do you look at first?

Your face. I've actually taken a picture with just me and my wife. She showed it to me. And I looked and said, that's a good picture. And she has responded, my eyes are closed. And I was like, mental note.

Look at her face first. Before you talk. Because all I did was look at me and was like, I look great. Like, that's... Post that one to the Facebook. She's like, my eyes are closed.

It's like, well, we could crop you out. Nobody's going to care. Just put it on Facebook. But, like, that's... Our life has been, what do I like? What do I want?

And our goal has been to have... And nothing. Nothing makes you more miserable. Nothing makes you more unenjoyable to be around. Or sucks more joy out of your life. Than you having to be the center of everything.

And you worrying about, what do you like? What do you want? How am I feeling? How am I... Like, that sucks joy out of you. So what Jesus says is...

God was the king. And the Old Testament, when we rebelled, the Old Testament promised... After promise, after promise, after promise, after promise... I'm going to fix this. I'm going to right the ship. I'm going to be king again.

We're going to realign humanity and history back where it's supposed to be. And so Jesus steps on the scene and he says... The time is fulfilled. And every Jewish person understood immediately what he's talking about. The time is fulfilled. The promises are coming true.

What God has said repeatedly through Old Testament prophecy. Every time you've gotten together at the synagogue and read this. Every time you've had a festival or a feast. Every time you celebrated the Passover. What we were celebrating was that God's going to fix it. This is going to be the end.

And Jesus says the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Meaning God is on the march. He's on the move. His kingdom is approaching. It's at the door.

And he is going to reestablish his reign over the earth. And here's the thing. Everything works better when God's in charge. You ever been on a team that just had a great coach? And when that coach was there, everything just worked? Great school with a good principal.

Or a great job with a good boss. Or maybe it was your home life. Maybe some of you were blessed. You come from a healthy home life. And when your dad was there. Or when your mom was there.

Everything just worked. And then when they had to travel for business. Or when the boss wasn't there. Everything just started to fall apart. That's earth. God was in charge.

And when he's the king. Everything clicks. Everything works. You ever been around a household where the children are in charge? Functionally? Like they don't have a job.

They don't pay for stuff. They don't drive the car. But they're in charge. Have you ever seen that work well? Like y'all have seen this, right? You've been to Walmart.

Like you've seen like the meltdowns. Where the parents are just trying to appease the child. And like you shouldn't be paying attention anymore. But now you've stopped. And you're going. Just hit them.

Take them down. You're bigger than they are. You can do it. Like you start rooting for the parent. Hey, now would be the time for some discipline. Like I mean just something.

Go for it. Children's miserable. Household doesn't work. That's earth, y'all. We've taken over. And we're miserable.

And this system doesn't work. And Jesus says the time is fulfilled. The kingdom is coming. The king is returning. God's about to fix this. And throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are used interchangeably. So when he says the kingdom of God is at hand. That's also the kingdom of heaven. Meaning when God's in charge. It's heaven. When God's in charge.

Everything works the way it's supposed to. And that's actually what the church is supposed to look like. A little picture of heaven. The way we interact with each other. The way we relate to one another. The way we treat money and time and relationships and forgiveness and hurt feelings.

We're supposed to look like a little picture of heaven. So Jesus says kingdom's coming. Now he's going to tell us how to respond. So a king is on the march. And he's going to tell us here's your response. And here's how this works.

If you are not a Christian. This is how you respond immediately to the kingdom. This is your first immediate response to the kingdom of heaven. To the kingdom of God. And if you are a Christian. This is how you live continually.

It is your continual response to Jesus. So this is how we respond immediately and continually. So everybody needs to be paying attention because you're on one of those tracks. Alright so here's what he says. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.

That is the response. Repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. That's how you respond immediately and that's how you live continually. Okay now we've got to do a little bit of work here. Because we don't use that word a whole lot.

What we do here if you've been hanging out for a while. We use the word repent a good bit. But we don't in life. Like you don't use that word. You're not like late for dinner and go sorry. I turned the wrong way on 378.

So I had to repent and come back this way. Like you don't say that. It's not a word we use. Like you only hear that like maybe in your life. Like a sweaty preacher yelled it at you. Or your grandma said it to you.

Or it feels like some sort of Old Testament word. But it's the first thing out of Jesus's mouth when he starts his ministry. So it's massively important. The simplest. If you want to really shrivel it down. The simplest term is.

It means to change your mind. To change your mind. But it's used with so much weight. And so continually throughout scripture. It has massive implication. What it means is.

Stop the way you're thinking. Stop the way you're acting. And turn away from your sin. Agree with God about your behavior. Agree with God about your sin. What Jesus.

The first thing out of his mouth is. God's coming. And you need to change. God's coming. His kingdom is coming. And you're not going to fit in.

When he gets here. This behavior you've got going. Isn't going to cut it. The creator of the universe is coming. And you need to change. That's Jesus's first thing he says.

Now. I think. We would have wanted him. To say something different. And even culturally. We kind of act like Jesus said something different.

Like repent was like. Old Testament stuff. Maybe his. Bug eating cousin. John said that. They were cousins.

I didn't take out that earlier. But maybe John said that. Said repent. But Jesus. You know what? Jesus showed up.

Like Jesus showed up. And he kind of. He floated. Or at least sashayed. I don't know if he floats. He's got feet.

So maybe he sashays. And his little. His little train was doing like this. And then he said. Guys. Guys.

Guys. Get in here. I just. I came all this way. Because I just. I just want to hug you.

Like that's kind of how we act. Like I'm just here to just say. It's okay. It's okay. Everything's going to be fine. You.

You're special. You are. So are you. Like that's. That's what he came to do. Right?

To just like. Just warm hugs. Like he's Olaf. Jesus is Olaf. Hi. I'm Jesus.

And I love warm hugs. Like that's. And here's the thing. That's not what he says. But can I tell you something?

What he says. Is so much. Better. And so much more freeing. Than what we think. We want him to have said.

Let me explain. One reason why. If Jesus showed up. And said. I'm God. I'm the son of God.

And I just want to tell y'all. You're doing great. And everything's fine. I immediately have some massive problems with that. Because what he just said was. The kingdom of God is coming.

And when it gets here. It's going to look like this. What we already have. Because if we're fine. Then we fit perfectly into the kingdom of heaven.

And what he's saying is. This is heaven. And what Jesus just would have said was. I'm perfectly okay. With sex trafficking. And I'm perfectly okay.

With slave trade. And I'm perfectly okay. With systematic oppression. And injustice. If Jesus showed up and said that. We have massive problems.

That's okay. That's the kingdom of God. That's what heaven looks like. You're not mad about that. Nobody's going to take up the sword. Nobody's going to fight for the weak.

Nobody's going to stand up for the oppressed. Nobody's going to take up the cause of the poor. And the voiceless. Nobody. You're showing up and saying that's fine. That's a problem.

If Jesus showed up and said. Everything's great. Let me tell you something. We would have to take up the sword. We would have to. But no.

He shows up and says. This isn't okay. And so we get to follow after him. In a gracious way. To oppose injustice and oppression. We get to follow after him.

In joining him. In him saying. This isn't alright. And let me tell you why. It's also beautiful that he says this. If you're honest.

If you actually sit alone with yourself long enough. You know that what our culture is telling you. Is garbage. What our culture says is this. You're special. You're wonderful.

There's nothing wrong with you. And you just need to believe and believe. In your heart. In yourself. Just believe in yourself. And even if you have evidence to the contrary.

That you're not special and wonderful. Just negate it. And just repeat to yourself over and over again. No I am special. I am wonderful. That's why we can sit down with somebody.

And they can be consistently lying. Like have a pattern of this. And be like. Hey you're lying. And they say. Well look.

I'm not a liar. Based on what? I believe in my heart. I believe and believe. Like there's just this. This we're told culturally.

To just trust yourself. Believe in yourself. And here's the thing. That only works if we don't think about it. But I actually need Jesus to show up.

And say exactly what he just said to me. There's so much freedom in him showing up. And saying hey. You're not okay. There's things about you that need to change. You can't just say that's my personality.

No. Well your personality makes you a jerk. You should stop. You should fix that. Like there's things about you that are not alright. And you can't just say.

Well this is who I am. This is how. No. He shows up immediately and says. You need to change. Now.

He doesn't stop there. He says repent. And believe the gospel. And for me. I would have thought he said repent. Which means stop sinning.

Surrender. To what God says is correct. What God says is true. What God says is right. You would think he would say that. He would say repent.

And do good. Repent from your bad ways. And do good ways. Repent from your wrong ways. And do the right ways. Right.

Like that's what I would think would be the opposite of that. But what's he say. He says repent. And believe the gospel. What he says is. You need to turn away from your sin.

But I've actually got somewhere for you to take it. You see Jesus went to the cross. To die for our sin. So that our sin can actually be forgiven. That we get to bring him our sin. And he takes care of it.

He calls us to believe. What he's actually inviting you into. Is joy. And rest. And hope. That's the invitation of repentance.

So maybe. This is your first time hanging out. And you're like. Thank you so much. For this uplifting. Heartwarming message.

Of I'm a terrible person. So excited. First of all. If it's your first time. That's the first thing Jesus would have said to you. So you're welcome.

Secondly. It's an invitation. Into absolutely 100% what you need. I'm going to give you a small example. Just between my wife and I. Try to help you see this picture.

Of what Jesus is actually saying. Is so freeing to you. You see. I've been married for seven years. My wife and I dated for four or five. Before that.

She's not here. So I don't have to get that right. Four or five. And. Here's what I need from my wife. In our relationship.

I need her at times. When things are bad. And they aren't going well. I need her to like. Get next to me. Put her arm around me.

Kiss my cheek. Say hey boo. I believe in you. Like this is going to be okay. Like we're going to be fine. Like I need her to look at me sometimes.

And just say hey. Like this is going to work out. We're going to be okay. Like I need her to. To put wind in my sails. I need that.

Like I need her to hope in me. And in us. I need her to have that. For our relationship. Like if she just followed me around. Being like hey.

Just going to let you know you're terrible. Hey. On my way home from work. I made a list. Of how much you've disappointed me. Like if she did that.

It would be massively difficult. To be her husband. Like it would be. It would rip the soul out of me. But. If she wasn't aware.

That I'm a sinner. And if she wasn't aware. That I fail. And fall short. And that I'm weak. And all of her expectations of me.

Were just. I'm perfect. That would crush me. And the best relationship. We could have. Would be me.

Putting on a false front. A veneer. Wearing a mask. Hiding from her. Because I would never be able. To let her know.

That I failed. That I'm weak. That I'm. That I fall short. I got. I would have to pretend.

Around her. So if Jesus shows up. And just says. You're terrible. And stops there. Yeah.

That's crushing. And if Jesus shows up. And just says. Hey. I believe in you. You can be amazing.

What we would believe. Is that maybe other people can. But I can't. And I'm exempted. From that message. But what Jesus shows up.

And says. Is exactly. What we need to hear. Which is. You're broken. And weak.

And I'm going to make that okay. There's hope. And joy. And rest. For you. For all of you.

Who fall short. For all of you. Who can't get it together. For all of you. Who are not able. To always do.

What you're supposed to. For all of you. Who have. Taken your. Your past. And just.

Jacked it up. There's hope for you. You need to repent. You need to surrender. You need to turn from that. But you need to come to me.

Where there's joy. And hope to be found. That's why Acts 3. 19. Says it this way. He says.

Repent. Therefore. Turn back. That your sins. May be blotted. Out.

You see. We turn away from our sin. Because we actually have a place. To take them. To Jesus. We trust.

That he's able to. Pay for them. To cover them. For us. This is. The intro.

And. The lifelong. Process. Of being a Christian. It is a life. Of continually.

Repenting. Of sin. And believing. The truth. Of the gospel. That's.

Life. As a Christian. That we. Don't have to be perfect. That Jesus. Makes us perfect.

And that we can. Continually. Repent of sin. And trust him. And here's the issue. Here's the.

Here's the thing. The opposite. Of. Sin. Is not. Good behavior.

But it's. Belief. It's. Faith. The reason we sin. In the first place.

Is that we're not. Believing the gospel. We're not believing. That Jesus is who he says he is. And that he's accomplished. What he said he's accomplished.

And that joy. And hope. And life. Are ultimately found in him. The reason we're chasing. After these other things.

Is because we're not believing that. And that's why he says. Repent of your sin. And believe what's true. Because if you believe it. It automatically shows up.

You ever had. You ever told somebody. Hey. This is really good. And it looks funny. Like y'all are eating something.

And you're like. You should try this. And their immediate response is. You eat it. Maybe your friends trust you. I don't know.

If I tell somebody to eat something. They're like. You eat it. Like that's the response. Because what they're saying is. If you believe that it's good.

You'll have no problem with eating it right now. But if you don't believe that. I'm at least going to make you suffer with me. You'll have to fake through. And pretend like it's good. So sometimes it's worth it.

Like I'll be like. Like I was lying or whatever. And I'll eat it. And just like. You know. You have to try to fake it.

So that they'll eat some. And then you can be like. Ah. Now we're both idiots. But belief actually shows up.

Like it shows up in how we act. It shows up in what we do. So I can sit down with you. And ask you. What do you believe? And you can tell me everything.

In your little heart. That you believe that it's true. And a better way for me to find out. Would be to audit your time. And your bank account. Because if you actually believe.

That it shows up in how you spend your time. And how you spend your money. You see. The opposite of sin. Is belief. Because belief is what.

Changes our hearts. And changes how we act. And changes what we do. And ultimately invites us into joy. So it's an invitation.

Into joy. The Christian life is a life of repentance. Continually repenting. And continually believing the gospel. That when we sin. All we're saying is.

I don't really believe the gospel here. We're waving a flag. And saying. I don't believe that the gospel is true for me. So when you say.

This is my money. And nobody can have any. And I'm not supposed to be generous. What you're saying is. I don't believe the gospel is true. With my money.

When you're saying that. The best thing I can find in life. Is just to have sex. And to chase women. Or to get guys to like me. What you're saying is.

I don't really believe the gospel is true. That Jesus gives me my identity. And my hope. And my salvation. Like. Anytime we're sinning.

We have a belief issue. First and foremost. Because we don't realize. That the gospel has freed us up. From that. So it's not just to.

Modify our behavior. But to actually change what we believe. So that we can be set free. Okay. So let me tell you.

A couple of ways. That we kind of. Mess this up. There are some of you. In this room right now. You've been a Christian a while.

And you're like. I get the repentance thing. I realize that I'm supposed to see my sin and change. But the point of repentance. Is to lead us. Into the joy.

Of Jesus's salvation. So some of you. Are anxious. You're worn out. Because your whole life. Is trying to.

Fix your behavior. To modify yourself. To find all your sins. And get rid of them. But you've never gotten to the point.

That the point of repenting of sin. Is to believe. That the gospel is true. That you're free. That you're okay. You have three accountability partners.

And y'all get together. And talk about. How are you terrible. Here's how I'm terrible. And you never say. How is Jesus good.

How does the gospel set us free. How do we have. Freedom and hope. And joy in Jesus. Because the point of repenting. Is to believe.

If we're genuinely repenting. We'll grow in belief. And if we're genuinely believing. We'll be repenting. Some of you. May have bought into the.

Southern lie. That you can be a Christian. And that have no effect on your life. That you can say a prayer. I've. Been in church gatherings.

Before like this. Preacher talks about. Ten ways to be a better dad. Three ways you can find. Joy in marriage. And then at the end.

He says. If you want to be a Christian. Repeat after me. Hadn't explained the cross. Hadn't explained the cross. It just says.

Repeat these words. And I. Or. Every head out. Every head bowed. Every eyes closed.

No one looking around. If you want to be a Christian. Just look at me. Okay. Good. I see that.

I see that hand. I see those eyes. Whatever. Like. Just. Y'all been in this?

No? And then he'll say. Say this prayer. Raise your hand. If you just prayed that prayer. You're all Christians.

That's like a magic spell. That's not Christianity. Christianity is that you believe. And you repent. And that's a lifelong process. Of believing and repenting.

Now. If you actually believed. Jesus makes you his. And he'll keep you his. But one of the ways he keeps you his.

Is by continually leading you to repent. Continually changing your heart. Some of you would say you are a Christian. And you have not owned your sin. Acknowledged your sin. It's been years.

If ever. The last time you sat down with someone. And said. Here's how I was wrong. Here's how I sinned against you. Here's how I failed.

And here's how Jesus is good. You think that you can be a Christian. Without repenting. And that person does not exist in the Bible. One of the reasons why the Bible advocates. That at times you should.

Remove people from being a part of the church. Or treat them like they aren't Christians. Is because you address sin in them. And they don't listen. So you address sin in them again.

And they don't listen. So you get more people. And you address sin in them. And then at some point it says. Just know they're not a Christian. Because Christians repent.

Christians see their sin. Agree with God about their sin. Change their heart about sin. And follow Jesus. That is what Christians do. For a lifetime.

You will never outgrow your need for the gospel. But see repentance is a call to joy. And to freedom. In Jesus. It's exactly what we need to hear. You're not okay.

But I can make you okay. You're not fine on your own. And there's some things that aren't going to make it into the kingdom. But I will bring you into the kingdom. Because I'll pay for your sin. So let's say you became a Christian.

You became a Christian when you were in your. You were a teenager. Maybe you became a Christian when you were a teenager. Genuinely placed faith in Jesus. And then throughout your teen years. You really just kind of buy into the lie.

That the best way to have fun and enjoy life is through sex. Because our culture tells you that. Sex is where the good life is. Like if you've ever noticed the magazine racks. When you're in line at Target. What's it say?

What are like all the. Field and stream. All of them. Talk about. Here's how to have better sex. You'll notice.

None of them are saying. You should be having more sex. They've already got us to buy into that. They're just saying. Your sex should be better. Because more apparently didn't fix it.

So you buy into that lie when you're a teenager. That this is how life. This is where joy comes from. This is where hope comes from. And then because you're a Christian. Jesus leads you to repentance.

He goes to work on your heart. And he shows you that life and joy aren't found there. That ultimately they will not satisfy. And that your hope gets to be placed in him. And so you repent. You confess to the people around you.

Confess to your community group. And you turn away from it. Then in your 20s. You just start living your life. You're going for it. And you start realizing.

That you've now bought into the idea. That money and success. That things. That the goal. You hook, line and sink are the American dream. The goal of life is to have stuff.

And if I can fill my house with stuff. And if I can go on vacations. And if I can be comfortable. And if I can have a title. And if I can have. Like I'll have hope and joy in life.

But because you're a Christian. Jesus goes to work in your heart. And he shows you that that's bankrupt. That it's empty. And so you repent. And it's a 10 year long battle.

In your soul. To believe that the gospel is true. And that money won't satisfy you. And it won't fill you up. And it won't give you purpose and meaning. In your 30's.

You start trying to question. Like what. Where does my. Where does my worth come from. Where does my purpose come from. And maybe you answer it with.

It's by having wonderful kids. If I can just have a healthy little family. Then I'll know I'm okay. Maybe it's. It's if I can have a good career. That means something.

If I can wake up every day. And go do exactly what I want to do. Like that's. That's where I get hope from. Maybe you answer it that way. Maybe you answer it with kids.

Or perfect family. Or good Job. But you don't have either. You're not married. You don't have kids. You don't have a good job.

And so you've answered the question. This is what will fill me up. But you don't have it. So you're depressed. You're broken. But Jesus steps in and says.

You're broken. But I've got good news. I've got the gospel for you. Which is. These things won't fill you up. Won't fix you.

Won't give you worth. But I can. And so maybe in your 30's. The biggest thing that he leads you to repent of. Is where your hope and your joy and your worth are found. Maybe you spend your 30's walking through that with him.

Over and over and over and over again. This isn't going to make you okay. This isn't going to fix you. And he reminds you over and over again. That the gospel is true. That Jesus died for you.

To welcome you. To make you his. And to give you worth. In your 40's. Maybe you begin to. Start realizing that you.

You've. Kind of spent your life. On yourself. And you haven't cared at all. That your neighbors don't know Jesus. You haven't cared at all.

That nobody around you. Knows him. And you start realizing. You know. I haven't. I haven't shared the gospel.

I haven't spent any of my life. Towards something that. Eternally matters. And so you begin to. To repent. Jesus begins to work in your heart.

Maybe in your 50's. You start. Really struggling. With the fact. That you still have doubts. And fears.

And questions. And I should be further along. Than I am now. And Jesus shows up. And says. You're never going to outgrow.

The need for the gospel. You're going to need to. Continually repent. And continue to believe. And continually to follow after me. Maybe in your 60's.

All the things. That you've put your hope in. That make you. You. Are falling apart. Your body's falling apart.

Your kids are out of the house. You used to be the one person. That everybody called on for help. And now people are asking you. If you need help. You're going to have to retire.

From your job. Or you can't do it the way you used to. And you start in your 60's. Realizing. I don't have an identity anymore. And Jesus.

Breaks you over your sin. And says. You need to believe the gospel. That your identity. Always came from me. Maybe in your 70's.

You start questioning. What's your legacy. And how's my name going to continue. And he starts reminding you. That his legacy. And his name.

Matter most. And my hope. And prayer for us. As a church. Is that each of us. Would spend our life.

Year after year. Day after day. And decade after decade. Repenting. And being renewed. And called into.

The hope that is only found. In the gospel. Some of you are in here. And you say. I'm a Christian. But I just feel stagnant.

I feel empty. And my question to you would be. When was the last time you repented? When was the last time you sat down. With a blank sheet of paper. And said.

Jesus. Show me my sin. Because I can promise you. He loves to answer that one. Because when he shows you your sin. He calls you to himself.

Every single time. The goal of you seeing your sin. Is so that you would get more of him. When Jesus says. You need to repent. And believe the gospel.

You need to turn away from your sin. And run to me. That's the call. Christians. Repent. And if you say you're a Christian.

And that's not a normal pattern of life for you. The Bible says. To test yourself. To see whether or not you're in the faith. Which means. Hold your life up to scripture.

And see. Is this showing up? It says. To work out your salvation. With fear and trembling. And here's how.

Repentance ought to look. You ought to see your sin. And be broken over it. Your heart ought to break. Over the fact. That your sin.

Caused Jesus to die. I want to. Let's read. Second Corinthians seven. Real quick with each other. Paul says this.

As it is. I rejoice. Not because you were grieved. But because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief. So that you suffered no loss through us.

For godly grief. So your heart is broken. It's grief. You're grieved over your sin. You're mourning it. Godly grief produces a repentance.

That leads to salvation. Without regret. Without regret. That's like a Nike t-shirt. No regrets. Like that's what Christians get to have.

Is a repentance. That leads them to salvation. Where you're not condemned. You're not overwhelmed by your sin. You're free. Your shame and your guilt.

Are gone. Your brokenness is gone. Because Jesus was broken for you. That you are grieved over your sin. But then you're welcomed into joy.

It says worldly grief produces death. Some of you have worldly grief over your sin. It's killing you. Because you're not believing the gospel. It's crushing you. Because you're not turning it into joy.

Which is that Jesus died for it to set you free. Some of you are just condemning yourself. Just telling yourself you're terrible. You get the idea that you're broken. But you don't.

You realize that you don't deserve anything from God. You've fallen face first into the dirt. And you've said God I'm broken. But you need to realize that Jesus bends down. Picks you up out of the dirt. And says I love you.

See on the cross our sin is shown to be terrible. And God's love is shown to be great. Jesus died because our sin is heinous before him. And he died because he loves us so much. That he was willing to save us from it. You need to see your sin.

You need to agree with God about it. You need to be broken over your sin. Your heart should be wrenched inside of your chest. That you know that you don't deserve anything from him. And then you need to be welcomed into enjoying Jesus. As you confess openly to the people around you.

I'm a sinner. Because anytime as a Christian we confess. We're confessing our sin. And that Jesus is our savior. We confess two things. We make the confession of our sin.

And that I wouldn't be able to confess this if it weren't for him. Band's going to come back up here, Matt. Bianca are going to come. We're going to spend a little time this morning. They're going to sing a song here in a minute. We're not going to sing with them.

We're just going to take a minute to sit and ask God the question. Where do I need to repent? Where do you want to work in me? What do you want to cut out of me? What do you want to set me free from? What do you want to draw me closer to you in?

Because his goal is to give you more of himself. Set you free from sin. And welcome you to himself. If you would say you're a Christian. I have a couple questions for you. Do you see your sin?

Do you repent? When you're faced with that your life doesn't line up with scripture. What is your response? Do you run to God? Do you own it? When you're repenting, are you blame shifting?

Well, I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't have done this. And really, it's not sin. It's like I've got some weaknesses. You know, nobody's perfect. Do you actually own the fact that this won't fly in God's kingdom? But Jesus is good enough to work on it in me.

If you're a Christian, do you repent? Do you only repent when someone notices? Do you only repent when you get caught? Or do you own up to the stuff that nobody would know about? The stuff that I'm the only one who knows. And if I don't tell you, no one knows.

But I've got to tell you because Jesus sets me free from this. Some of you right now are saying, I can't do that. That's because you don't believe the gospel. Your value doesn't come from what you've done. Your value doesn't come from who people think you are. Your value comes from what Jesus has accomplished on your behalf and who he's made you.

As a Christian, I get to lay it all on the line and say, these are all the things that would have destroyed me, that would have owned me, that would have sent me straight to hell. But Jesus died for me so that I don't have to. I don't have to be crushed by it or owned by it. If you're a Christian and you say, you know, I repent, I see my sin. May I ask you this? Does your repentance lead you to joy?

Do you end up in belief? Do you end up in celebrating that God is gracious towards you? Ephesians says that he saved us for the praise of his glorious grace. You do not deserve salvation. You do not deserve grace. And in the moments when you see your sin the most, you get to praise his grace.

That he lavished love on you because he's good. And so when you feel like, I don't deserve this, I'm not worthy. Yeah, but Jesus is and he was worthy on your behalf and you are loved and cherished. Does your repentance lead you to joy? Does your repentance lead you to joy? So here's what we're going to do.

We don't repent unless the Holy Spirit helps us. We won't actually see our sin unless the Holy Spirit helps us. And even when we do see our sin, we won't care unless the Holy Spirit helps us. So for a minute, I just want us to pray that the Holy Spirit would go to work on our souls, that he would help us. He'd help us change, that he'd help us see our sin, that he'd help us hate it, and that he would impress upon us the love that he has for us. And then just right where you are, I want you to take a minute to ask God, where do I need to repent?

Where do I need to change? What in me do you want to cut out? Some people are going to need to get up and go talk to somebody. You're going to need to go confess to someone. And that's fine. Because we get to look like a little picture of heaven and Jesus' church confesses our sin and that Jesus is our Savior and that we're free.

We're going to act today like the gospel is true. We're going to believe that we're free from sin, that Jesus rose from the grave, that we're not conquered by our guilt and our shame and our debt. God, we ask that your Holy Spirit would move and work in this place. God, that you would lead your church to repent, that we would hate our sin, and that we would see the cross so clearly, to know that we're free, that we're loved. God, I ask you to work in us this morning.

Sept 18

King Forever

King Forever

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Good morning. So this presidential run has been very contentious. I don't know if y'all have picked up on that. But both conventions seem like they might would go into contested conventions. People showed up at the Democratic National Convention with Bernie supporters showed up and protested at the Republican one. Ted Cruz got booed off stage because he wouldn't endorse Trump.

People started chanting and yelling at him and booing. And it's just been it's been heated. And there's been a lot of angst over this this election. And I think it's going to get worse. I don't know if y'all picked up on that. I think it's going to get worse as we get closer to time.

Here's what happens to me every time there's a there's a presidential election. And every time this goes on, like it reveals something in my heart. I want so badly. I really, really want to believe the stuff they say. Like I want to believe that someone knows what the problem is and is actually going to come fix it. I want to believe that one of the candidates is a is a hero.

One of the candidates is going to come along and and actually accomplish like they're going to go into the White House and make things good or keep things good and defend us. And like I want so badly to believe all the promises that are made every time. Like I really want to believe it. Like I have to I find myself really longing for this stuff to be true. I think that's why people get so bitter, so frustrated. It's not that they don't think they don't think anybody can fix it.

They just start believing that these candidates can't somebody could have, but they're not here to do it. These can't. That's why people immediately start talking about Trump and Clinton. You're going to you're going to raise hopes and blood pressure like that. That's what happens. Like on either side, there's this desire and there's something in us that desires to have a good leader like we're supposed to.

And it's in anything like we're we're we're desire. We long for a good leader, someone to come along and help and to lead and to to to make good decisions on our behalf. Like we we long for this and it it doesn't matter. It could be at work. Having a good boss or having a bad boss makes a big difference. On its team, having a good coach or a bad coach makes a big difference.

Good teacher, bad teacher. Like it makes a difference. Just take a second. I think as I watch the presidential election stuff, I start realizing this isn't just in me. It's not just in me that wants this to be true. It's not just in me that somehow believes that there is a person who could show up and fix things.

Like I think we all kind of there's a there's a belief that somebody could. But take a second. And I just want you to think about somebody who's been a good leader in your life. Could be a parent. Could be a coach. Could be a teacher.

Could be a grandparent. Somebody who made a difference in leading well on your behalf that you just got to kind of follow. You just got to submit to. You just got to follow their leadership and you could trust them. When they made a call, it was it was for your good. When they made a decision, it was for your good.

You knew they were on. They were leading on your behalf. Maybe it was a boss. It was just easy to work for. See, as we're talking through our covenant series, as we're looking at the promises God makes, basically where he bends over and and makes a promise to humanity. He's he kneels and stoops to to promise something to people saying, holding himself accountable to I'm going to fulfill this.

He's given us his own Job description. One of the promises he makes is about a king. He makes a promise about a leader who's going to lead on behalf of others. And so that's what we're looking at today. We're looking at the promise made the covenant made. To David.

Of a king. So let's go to second Samuel chapter seven. Second Samuel chapter seven. And we're going to look at what this promise is. And then we're going to spend a little bit of time today just asking, talking about if this is true, if this promise is fulfilled, if this is real and we actually believe this, how does that intersect with our lives? Like, how does that affect us personally?

So we're going to look at the promise. We're going to talk a little bit about it and what it means. And then we're going to talk about how does that actually affect me when I leave? I go to work when I go to school. How does that affect me? Let's pray.

Let's pray real quick. God, we thank you that you're good. That we can trust you. We thank you, God, that as we all long for good leaders, as we celebrate good leaders, God, I'm just thankful that one of your promises is of a leader, that you promise to step into that void and you hold yourself accountable to keep your promise. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Okay, so here's what we've been looking at all along. We've been talking about everything was good in the Garden of Eden, but humanity rebelled. The fall happened. Sin happened. And so there was this big gap between us and God.

The relationship wasn't good anymore. We couldn't be in Eden anymore. We couldn't be in God's presence anymore. And it was a disaster of cosmic proportions. God in the garden promises the serpent that he will not win. He basically tells the serpent, this isn't going to be the end of the story.

You're not going to win. There's going to be someone who comes along and crushes you. Then God promises Noah, I won't destroy the earth with a flood again. He didn't say anything about other methods. He just says, not a flood. And he promises not just Noah, but everything.

So that promise is made to like all of creation. So the trees and the bullfrogs, they all get that promise as well. Then he comes and talks to Abraham and he says, I'm going to make you into a people and I'm going to give you a place and you're going to be in my presence. And then through Moses, he continues that promise and accomplishes it. So Moses and Joshua get to the promised land.

Moses gets right to the edge of it. Joshua gets to go in. And so God now has his people in his presence, in his place. That's kind of where we left off this past week. He's rebuilding us back up to what we had in Eden, but we saw that we're kind of still far away from that. And here's what happens.

The people eventually ask for a king. And in Deuteronomy 17, prior to them having a king, it says when you get in the land, you're going to want a king. And here are the rules for kings. So he knew they were going to get a king. He knew they were going to ask for a king. It actually says you're going to look around and say that everybody else has a king and you're going to want one.

Well, the other nations have a king. I know you're going to want one. You're going to ask for one as soon as you see that everybody else has a king and you don't. You can have one. Here are the rules. I get to pick who it is.

That's Deuteronomy 17. I get to pick who the king is. And then there were a handful of rules for kings. First three were this. The king cannot have too many horses. All right.

Second rule. Cannot have too many wives. Can't have a bunch of wives. Third rule. Can't pile up too much silver and gold. Okay.

Those seem like kind of odd rules. Like when kings get together and they talk about why they became a king. I think these are like some of the reasons. It's like when there's a king convention. It's like, man, what do you like best about being a king? The women.

What do you like best? The money. Third king's like, I like horses. Good. No, but here's the reason those three rules exist. Here's what he was attacking in that.

When he was putting guardrails around. The point of being a king. Like if you became a king. The reason you liked being a king was. Horses just meant power. It meant the ability to have chariots.

It meant the ability to have cavalry. Like it's when they listed out battles. They would talk about how many chariots they had. How many horses they had. Because that made a big difference in your ability to have power. To move quickly.

To send troops around. And so when he says, you can't have too many horses. What he's saying is the point of you being king is not power. It's not war. It's not your own greatness. You can't have too many wives.

The point of you being king is not your own comfort. Your own prestige. You can't have too much money. The point of you being king is not to gather wealth. To live a life of luxury. So he says those three rules are the rules for kings.

And the fourth one is this. They're going to make a handwritten copy. Which was the only type of copy they could have back then. Just so you know. They're supposed to make their own copy of the law. The king is.

He's going to sit down. He's going to copy the law. And he's going to have a priest basically say, yes, this is an acceptable copy of the law. And he's supposed to read it all the days of his life. So the king can't chase after power, pleasure, wealth.

He's supposed to know the covenant. Know the law inside and out. Because the purpose of the king was to lead his people in faithfulness to the covenant. That's the purpose of the king. And that's how it, if you read through 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. What you see is the king was the front runner for are we doing okay or are we not doing okay as a nation?

That's what the king did. He was, everything rose and fell on the king. Like if he was a good king, it was a good time. If he was a bad king, it was a bad time. They would all start off with this. This person died and this person became king.

And he was a good king because, it wouldn't say because he was really wealthy or because he warred well. What it would say was because he followed after God. Or it would say this person was a bad king because he did not follow after God. And the kings would either lead the people to worshiping idols, to chasing after sin. Or they would lead the people to faithfulness to the covenant. That's important because when God promises a king, what he's promising is a leader who leads in covenant faithfulness.

We've got to understand what a king did, what the role of a king was, so we can understand what this promise was. So, if it was a good king, things went well. If it was a bad king, things went poorly because they make decisions on behalf of the people. So, like when your boss is, I don't know, an idiot. And they make terrible decisions. They make decisions on behalf of all their employees.

When your dad made a bad decision. When you're, when, one of the reasons we freak out about the president is because they get to make decisions that affect us. So, we care. Preferably, the president wouldn't be a moron. Like, if I got to vote, that's what my vote would be. Like, not a moron.

It's like one of the first things. Because they make decisions on our behalf. And so, the king makes decisions, leads on behalf of the people, and sets the tone for what this is going to be like. Alright. You understand what a king does? 2 Samuel chapter 7.

Now, when the king, that's David. So, there's been two kings. Sorry. Saul, they asked for a king. They got Saul. Saul was a pretty good king for a little while.

Then he kind of got off. Like, he wasn't following God the way he was supposed to. So, God anoints David to be king. And eventually, David is king. And we're picking up with David, the king. Who's like the high water Mark for all the kings.

If you got a king action figure in the nation of Israel, you wanted the king David. Like, he was the best trading card, whatever. Alright. Now, when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. Okay.

So, David built a castle, a house. And he looks and realizes that the ark of the covenant that has the tablets, has some of the other Aaron staff, some other things, in the ark of the covenant that represented the presence of God, it's still in the tabernacle. It's in a tent that moves around. And so he says, I'm in a house. God's in a tent. Now, he would have understood that God didn't, like, wasn't just limited by the tent, but he's basically saying, like, it feels weird for my stuff to be nicer than God's stuff.

Like, I feel uncomfortable now. Like, my house is nice, but we need to do something about this, but God can't just be in a tent. So he's basically saying, I want to build a house for God. Like, I want to make, we're in a place now. We're not moving all around. We have a capital.

Let's build a house for God. And Nathan says, Nathan's the prophet. Nathan says, go for it, man. So it's going pretty well so far? Four. But, okay, that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan.

Go and tell my servant David. Thus says the Lord. Would you build me a house to dwell in? Okay, so if you're Nathan, this dream vision didn't start off super well. I don't know what happened. Nathan's a prophet, so he speaks on behalf of God.

David asks him, like, says, hey, I want to build a house for God. Nathan's response is, go for it. And then Nathan goes to sleep, and God's like, what? So I don't know if Nathan didn't ask, if he just, I don't know how that works. Like, I know this happens to me, but I would have just thought it didn't happen to Nathan. Like, people ask me stuff, and I'll just be like, here's an answer.

And then later I'll, like, think, and pray, and read the Bible, and then have to come back and be like, remember what I said? I want to redact it. I want to say something helpful. I do this on a semi-regular basis. I don't know if Nathan had to, but he did this time. So God basically steps in and says, no, Nathan, and Nathan's like, got it, I'll tell him what you say.

All right, go and tell David. This is verse 5. Go and tell David, my servant. Go and tell my servant David. Thus says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling.

In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the Judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all of your enemies from before you, and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more.

And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly. From the time that I appointed Judges over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. Okay, let's see the promises he's made so far. He says, you're going to build me a house? I'm going to make a great name for you, and I'm going to plant my people in a place where nobody bothers them.

I'm going to have my people in my place safe. So he's reminding him some of the promises he's already made. He's making them again, and then he's saying this. Verse 11. From the time that I appointed Judges over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the son of men. But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.

And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. So God says, you're going to build me a house? You're going to build a place for me? And then he says, no, I'm going to build you a house.

And when he says that, what he means is, I'm going to build you a name, a lineage, a people out of you. And then he says, I'm going to have a king that stands before me forever. He'll be to me a son, and I'll be to him a father. And so this promise is fulfilled in two ways. It's fulfilled in Solomon, David's son, who builds the temple, and is the king before God, who God treats. He says, he'll be a son to me, I'll be a father to him.

That just means I'm going to treat him well. And when he sins, I'm not going to get rid of him like I did Saul. That promise is fulfilled in Solomon. And they would have understood that this was fulfilled in Solomon. But he says a few things in there that make it seem like, okay, it can't just be fulfilled in Solomon.

The biggest issue that can't just be fulfilled by Solomon is that he says the word forever three times. So, if he's going to put a king who will rule forever, either that's just hyperbole. Like he's just, he means a really long time. Or, he means that this lineage will continue forever. That will never be broken up. They'll always be one of these kings.

But he Acts like it's a singular person. He will be to me a son, I will be to him a father, and he will reign forever. So, literally, it seems like the promise is there's going to come a king who will actually reign forever. So, here's what happens. Solomon comes. He builds the temple.

He does not stay faithful. He gets a lot of horses, wives, and money. Three of the things he wasn't supposed to do. I think the least problematic was the horses. The wives and money seem to mess him up. Starts worshiping other gods.

God eventually tells him, look, this isn't going to work out for you. Like, you'll get to die safely. But, I'm going to tear this apart, the kingdom apart. He eventually tears the kingdom in half. One, he keeps Solomon's son because it's like, I'm going to keep some of the tribe of David together. But, eventually, both Israel and Judah, that's how it splits, cease to be nations, cease to have kings, cease to have a throne.

But, the promise here is that your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. So, that's not happening. But, the prophets keep promising this promise. So, Ezekiel says this. But, I will save them from all the backslidings of which they have sinned and will cleanse them.

And they shall be my people and I will be their God. My servant David shall be king over them and they shall have one shepherd. Jeremiah says this in the midst of all of this going on. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch. That's in like a family tree. And he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called, the Lord is our righteousness. I think Isaiah saw it most clearly. He says this. For to us a child is born. To us a son is given.

And the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. So the prophets keep coming along and saying God's going to fulfill this promise.

There's going to be someone who comes in the line of David and he's going to rule forever. And Isaiah says, and we're going to call him God, Mighty God, Everlasting Father. So there's coming a promised king. And so God promises, I'm going to send a king. And here's why this matters so much and is so absolutely helpful. And I think it's one of my favorite promises and all the promises God gives and all the covenants he gives.

Here's why. God tells Abraham, I'm going to give you a people. I'm going to give you some land. You're going to be in my presence. Tells Moses the same thing and then gives him the law and says, if y'all follow this, you'll be okay. If you don't, this won't go well.

Then he tells David, I'm going to send a king. And he's going to last forever. And when you know that a king's role is to lead in faithfulness, what he's saying is, I'm going to send a person to guard these promises. He's going to keep them for you. I'm going to send someone to lead in keeping these promises safe, helping you keep the covenant. That's great.

Because I don't know about y'all. Every time something's been nice in my life, I've thought, man, I wish it could stay like this. Do you know why? Because I know it won't. Like every time something's been good, it's like, man, I wish I could just pause and keep this like this. Like I wish it could just stay like this.

This is great. I wish this boss could stay my boss. I wish this coach could stay my coach. I wish this relationship could stay like this. I wish this president could just stay the president forever. Because they're the best one we've ever had.

Whatever. Like, I don't know. Like you just, there's these moments in life where you're just like, I wish this could just stick. Sometimes I think, I wish I wasn't in charge of whether or not this stayed good. You ever have that thought? I wish someone else who was smarter and better would come and just keep this together.

Because if I'm in charge, I have a good idea. I might mess this up. There's these moments. And so when God says, hey, you know all those promises I've made? I'm going to send a person to lead in keeping them together. It's like, oh, that's the best one.

This is the best promise. I'm so glad this one came. I'm so glad you said someone's going to come and keep it together and lead in faithfulness. And so they kept saying, this king is coming. This king is coming. Someone's going to come.

And they believed that it was going to be a political leader. Somebody was going to come and defend Judah and defend Israel and lead and set up a kingdom. The problem was it seems like they missed out on the forever thing. So I guess they thought we'll just have a kingdom and it'll last forever. And here's what happened. The angel Gabriel comes to Mary, who is a young girl who is not married, tells her she's going to have a baby.

And here's what he says in Luke chapter one. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. And you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high. So God in this promise to David says he'll be to me a son.

He'll be called the son of the most high. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end. The keeper of this promise, the coming king who will last forever is Jesus. How surprised are we right now?

It's Jesus. He's the one who comes and keeps his promise. He's the one who comes and fulfills it. He's the king in the line of David. That's why several of the gospels start off with genealogies. Because they're going to show you Jesus comes in the line of David.

He's the promised king. And his kingdom doesn't look like we thought it was going to look. He doesn't overthrow the government. He goes to a throne by way of a cross. His first crown is a crown of thorns. Jesus suffers and dies on behalf of his people.

He does exactly what a good king should do. He lives his life on behalf of his people. Serving them and leading them in faithfulness to the covenant. Here's what happens for those who believe in Jesus. He upholds the covenant for you. He defends the covenant for you.

He keeps you faithful. Like a good king should. You trust Jesus? I don't have to keep the covenant together. I don't have to keep behaving to keep it right. I don't have to stand before God and show him how great I am.

I get to follow after my king who leads in that. Jesus dies on our behalf to keep covenant faithfulness for us forever. Forever. Forever. Forever. Maybe I am the only one.

Maybe I am the only one who when I am following Jesus well thinks. I hope I keep this together. Maybe I am the only one who at times says God I hope I make it to the end. Help me remain faithful to you. Help me to say no to sin. Help me to before I take my last breath.

Help me to still love and follow you. But if I am not the only one. And if there are some of you all in here who feel the same thing. I just want to be there at the end. Take rest and comfort in the fact that you have a king who leads in faithfulness on your behalf. And he keeps it together for you.

And if you have trusted in Jesus he leads you in faithfulness to God. So here is what I want to do. I just spent some time this past week thinking about if Jesus is really an eternal king. And he is really my eternal king. And if I am a Christian. If you place your faith in Jesus.

Jesus is your eternal king. Just wanted to give us some ways that intersects with our life. Some ways that that affects us now. I think there is probably a thousand more. I think there is probably if you wanted to spend an hour this week. An hour every day this week.

Thinking about what it means for Jesus to be your king. I think you could come up with a lot of these. And I think that would be well spent time. But I have got four for us today. Four ways that if Jesus is an eternal king. And you are a Christian.

That this should affect you. Okay. Way number one. Joy, peace, and gratitude. And rest are eternally yours. Joy, peace, gratitude, and rest are eternally yours.

The benefits of having a good king are yours forever. There is just something about knowing that someone who is smart and good is in charge. That lets you calm down a little bit. There is joy in that. There is rest in that. There is hope in that.

There is freedom in that. Knowing that Jesus is a good king. Like there is moments when you just absolutely trust that our government is doing what it is supposed to. There is moments when your parents had to make a decision. But you absolutely trusted they were going to do it well.

The times that the coach had to make a tough call. But you absolutely trusted they would do it well. There is just some freedom in that. I got two quick stories about my dad that I think help illustrate this. Help at least help me remember and picture this. And hopefully it will help you.

When you are little you are afraid of the dark. Maybe you weren't. And that is cool. A lot of people are weird. Most everybody is little is afraid of the dark. And there would be times where you would like have a nightmare.

You would wake up and you would go get my dad. And you would be like hey. I hate to bother you. There is a monster under my bed. I hate to bother you. But there is like a giant creepy something in the closet.

I am pretty sure it is in there. I did not see it. I felt like I could hear it breathing. Like whatever. Like it was just moments. And so my dad would come in.

And he would like turn on lights. And he would open the door. And he would look under the bed. And he would be like look. He would have you look with him. He would be like there is nothing in here.

Nothing in here. Nothing you need to be afraid of. And he would say okay. Okay. Go back to sleep. As soon as he left.

That thing came back. I don't know how it got there. You go back out. And you tell him again. It is back. I hate to bother you.

It is going to eat me. And so he would come back. He would do it again. Sometimes he would do this. He would go okay. See there is nothing in there.

See there is nothing in the bed. Nothing going on. Nothing scary. He would say yes. He would turn the light off. And he would go see.

There is nothing to. Oh no you are right. Oh no. It has got claws and tentacles. And it is seeping ooze. And it is going to eat you.

Oh my goodness. And he would like yell. And then he would cut on the light. And go oh no. This is our imagination. There is actually nothing here.

By about the third or the fourth time. You came and got him. Here is what he would do. He would look at you and say. There is nothing. In your closet.

Or under your bed. I. Am the scariest thing in this house. And you need to be more afraid. Of coming and waking me up. One more time.

And telling me that there is something dangerous in here. I am the scariest thing. And go to sleep. And there was something so freeing. About knowing your dad was the scariest thing in the house. It really was.

Like that was imprinted on me at a young age. And the rest of my life. It was like. If anybody breaks in here. If something bad happens. It is an unfortunate day for them.

Because I live with the scariest thing. Like he is just here. There is something about having a king. That is the scariest thing in the universe. That is just so. Joy filling.

Comforting. And freeing. In the midst of trouble. And pain. That Jesus is the scariest thing. At the end of the Bible.

He kills death. I have said this before. I don't make the rules. I just. I just help explain them. If you kill death.

You win. You are the scariest. He is our king. Who died for us. He is good. He loves us.

He is on our team. He wants joy for us. And we get to rest in him eternally. There was another time I had a coach. A baseball coach. And he was yelling at me.

And I was little. And I was not used to having full grown men yell. He was just one of these coaches that shouted. Like some coaches. You know. Coach.

This one yelled. And. I remember being afraid of him. And I told my dad. I was like. He just keeps yelling at me.

And like I am afraid. He is going to like. Come at me. Like I don't know what is going to happen. But it seems aggressive.

And I think this is going to go bad. I have to fight him. And my dad was like. Look. He is just yelling. He is not going to touch you.

You are going to be fine. He said. But I will make you a deal. I said. What? He said.

As long as he is just yelling. You will be okay. You will be fine. If he touches you. I will break every bone in his body. And I thought.

Deal. Sounds good. So then when my coach yelled at me. I was like. Come at me bro. I know how this ends.

Touch me. It made being coached by him way easier. Because I knew how it ended. And there is something about having Jesus as the eternally forever reigning king of the universe. On behalf of those who place faith in him. That brings so much joy.

And rest. And gratitude. Like we are free. Because he is good. And he has already gone to war on our behalf. And he reigns on the throne eternally.

There will be a day when all of this is gone. And we will stand before him. Free. And loved. And all of that is ours now. All of that joy.

All of that gratitude. All of that freedom. Is ours now. That is why Paul can say things like. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us. An eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

As we look not to the things that are seen. But the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient. But the things that are unseen are eternal. He says light and momentary affliction. The stuff you are going through right now.

It is going to pass away. And there is going to be an eternal king. And an eternity in his presence. And his joy and his freedom and his grace. He says in Romans 8. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time.

Are not worth comparing. With the glory that is to be revealed to us. They are not even in the same ballpark. All the joy. All the gratitude. All the rest.

Are ours already. Because we have an eternal king. Second way. I think this affects us. Intersects with our lives right now. Is you cannot set your heart.

On the promise. Of any lesser king. Can't set your heart on the promise of any lesser king. Here is what that means. You can care about the election. But you can't care so much.

That you lose your mind. Like you. You can't set your heart on. If this person. Is here. We are okay.

And if this person. Isn't. We are doomed. If this person is here. We will be fine. Everything will be magical.

But if it is this person. We are going to. We are going to crash and burn. And you can't allow your heart. To be set. On that.

You can't allow your heart. To believe all the promises. That money gives. Any lesser king. You can't let your heart. Believe.

All the promises. That a relationship gives. All the promises. That popularity. And prominence give. All the promises.

That power gives. All the prominence. That promises. That a job promotion. Gives. You can't let your heart.

Go there. Because you realize. That there is an eternal king. And all of these lesser kings. Will fade away. And will not matter.

And ultimately. History. Is already held together. By the one who went before us. To a cross. Three.

Submission. Is your appropriate response. If Jesus. Is your king. Submission. Is the appropriate response.

So we are used to. Democracy. Where you get to vote. And you can call your senator. And you know. This different stuff.

Kings. You don't get to do that. Kings get to do what they want. And so. It is actually. Very freeing.

To know that submission. Is the way I ought to relate to Jesus. Here is what I mean. If Jesus were a bad king. Submitting to him. Would be terrible.

It would be arbitrary. It would be ridiculous. He would make you jump through hoops. For his own good. When he said. This was bad.

And this was good. You wouldn't really be able to trust him. You might just be doing it. For his own pleasure. For his own joy. For his own.

Whatever. But see. We have a king. Who went to a cross first. So that we could even just be his people.

He loves us. He is for our joy. And our good. All of his rules. Are for our good. One of the things I love from the Old Testament.

Is it says that your law. Your precepts. Your teaching. Make. Wise. The simple.

That God is teaching. His rules. Make. Dumb people. Smart. Smart.

I love that. You ever. You ever. You ever. You ever. You ever.

You ever. In a class. And the teacher. Gave you the test. Before the test. Or gave you the test.

With the answers. Before the test. Do you. Do you know. Who did not. Immediately look.

Really excited. When that happened. The four smart people. They don't want the answers. To the test. They don't want to see the test.

They're going to do fine. On their own. And that's how they get to show. That they're better than everybody. Like the kid. That started crying.

When they handed out the test. Was the kid. Who had no chance. Of ever doing anything. He got the test. There were answers on it.

And he was like. I'm going to tell my mama. Right now. I'm passing this one. I'll wait until after. I take it.

Just in case. But. But I'm. I'm going to pass this one. And there was one kid. Who was like.

This whole class is stupid. That's because they were. Going to be fine anyway. One of the beautiful things. About having a good king. Who teaches us.

What life should look like. Is that if you aren't very bright. Things get to work out okay for you. Just by following what he says. If you've been in life long enough. To know that you don't always make the best decisions.

And that sometimes you chase after things. That end up being really stupid. And that often. If you follow your heart. Like Disney told you to. You're going to train wreck some things.

You're going to do it. Like if you ever see Jiminy Cricket. In real life. You're just going to punch him. Then that promise.

And that submission to a good king. Is how we respond to God. Is beautiful. And freeing. When you just get to follow someone. Who's good.

Who's wise. Who knows how it ends. And they say. This is how sex should work. Outside of marriage. And this is how sex should work.

Inside of marriage. This is what you should do. With your finances. This is how you ought to approach. Work and rest. This is how you ought to approach.

Parenting. In our house. We try to look at the Bible. And we'll go say. I'll go say okay. It's like my job.

To leave my family. I don't know if y'all know that. It's my job to do that. Anna has personal responsibility. But I will stand before God.

On how I led my family. For the whole household. So we all have personal responsibility. But I have responsibility. For our household as well. I love it.

I love it. When the Bible is really clear. On something I'm trying to figure out. Because I get to just say. Okay God. This is what you said.

I don't have to know why. I don't have to. I don't have to sit. And think about this anymore. I get to take it to Anna. And say Anna.

This is what the Bible says. We're going for this one. And at the end of the day. Today. We'll get to stand before God. And I'll get to say.

It's what you said. And I was just shooting for that. I'll stand accountable. For how well I followed it. But I.

As best I can. I get to just cheat. Look at the answers. And say God. Let me follow you. So.

If Jesus is your king. When y'all disagree. You submit. Simple as that. When Jesus is your king. And you disagree.

You submit. Number four. You begin to look like a citizen. Of his kingdom. Jesus is your king. You'll begin to look like a citizen.

Of his kingdom. So. Philippians 3 says this. But our citizenship is in heaven. And from it. We await a savior.

The Lord Jesus Christ. Who will transform our lowly body. To be like his glorious body. By the power that enables him. Even to subject all things to himself. So he's the king.

With all things subjected to himself. And our citizenship is in heaven. Where we await him. To come be our savior. So we'll begin to look like.

Citizens of that kingdom. And all kingdoms. All nations. All cultures. Have a certain. Here's what our people are like.

We just do. That's how it works. So the ancient. Spartans used to tell a story. About a kid who stole. A fox.

I don't know why they had foxes. I don't know where he stole it. But he stole it. And he had it under his shirt. And as he was sneaking off. With the fox.

An adult came. And started talking. To him. So he's holding a fox. Under his shirt like this. This is the story.

They used to tell their children. So if you want to. Looking for a bedtime story. Go with this one. So he's holding the fox.

The adult's talking to him. While he's holding the fox. The fox starts eating his stomach. Chewing into his stomach. And the kid. Doesn't want him to know.

He stole the fox. So he holds the fox. He doesn't. Give it away. That he's stolen the fox. And he talks to this adult.

Until the fox kills him. That's how tough Spartans are. It wasn't a problem that he had stolen. The issue would have been. If he had like. Whined.

While he got eaten by a fox. Okay. So Spartans are weird. I don't want you to get caught up in that. Every culture. Has certain stories that they tell.

Has certain. This is who we are. When there was the. The tsunami in Japan. I remember seeing pictures. Of the Japanese people.

For. It was like a three mile long line. Single file. Japanese people. Waiting to get water. And I was.

Baffled. By this. Because I was like. He ain't getting Americans. To stand in a three mile long. Single file line.

It's going to be a cluster. There's going to be some punching. Some shooting. Like. There's not going to be a. We've got water.

Line up. And we all go. Okay. Okay. I hope this only takes 12 hours. Like we're not doing that.

It's not happening. We made wristbands at Disney World. So that you can just like. Swipe. You don't got to stand there. Like I don't.

I mean. We got the little things they give you. When you want to eat. It's like. If you go do something else. This will buzz.

Because we ain't waiting. There's a certain thing. That goes along with a culture. And a kingdom. And who your leaders are. And how your nation works.

And I want to tell you something. As Christians. We're supposed to have. A citizenship in heaven. And a culture that comes from our king. So we begin to look.

More like citizens of heaven. So let me help you out. If you're a Christian. You will spend eternity in heaven. Because your king will get you there. That is your home.

This is temporary. That's your home. That's your homeland. So I want to tell you a little bit. About your king. And your homeland.

So that you can begin to realize. What kind of citizen. You ought to be. How this ought to begin to show up in your life. We're citizens of a land. With a generous king.

Who gave up everything. On behalf of his people. Who left his throne. And his wealth. And his praise. To go to a cross.

To be stricken with poverty. And to be mocked. And murdered. So when someone in my group. Needs help paying a bill. When I find out my neighbor.

Needs help doing some work. I'm the citizen of a generous king. I open up my wallet. And my schedule. Because that's what my king's like. We're from a land.

With a sacrificial king. So when you're at school. And someone who's nerdy. Wants to be your friend. And the only way. To be their friend.

Is to lose some of your popularity. To take some of their nerdiness. Onto yourself. We've got a king. Who gave up his life. So that we could have life.

We've got a king. Who laid down everything. To sacrifice on our behalf. That nobody made it. To his kingdom. Outside of him.

Personally bringing them there. So yeah. We sacrifice. Because we're citizens. Of a different kingdom. When somebody who's.

In your group. Is consistently depressed. And they call you. They want to hang out. They want to get some lunch. And the only way.

They're going to be not depressed. Is if you. Leave that lunch. Being more depressed. You go to lunch. And you give them.

Some of your happiness. And you take some of their depression. We've got a sacrificial king. Who gave us. His goodness. And took our sin.

Of course. Because we're citizens. Of a different kingdom. In our homeland. Where we'll spend eternity. Sin has been destroyed.

And it's completely unacceptable. We have a king. Who hates sin. So much. That he would die for it. So of course.

We're people. Who fight against sin. We're of course. We're people. Who are open. And honest.

About our failure. Because we have a king. Who's already destroyed sin. On our behalf. And we're designed. To hate it.

In our new land. We'll live. There won't be sin. So we fight against it here. You show up to your group. And you tell them.

How crummy you've been. How petty you've been. How much you've lied to them. We're honest about sin. Because we hate it. We're designed.

To follow after him. In a kingdom. Where sin has been destroyed. We're from a kingdom. Of joy. And celebration.

And singing. So we have fun. Our king sings. Celebrates. In heaven. Every time someone becomes a Christian.

It says the angels celebrate. First of all. That's never gotten old to them. Because they understand what just happened. They understand that a new family member. Has just hopped in for eternity.

We come from a kingdom of happiness. So. We're free to be happy. And celebrate. And dance. Even without white gloves.

It doesn't have to be interpretive. It could just be straight up dancing. Alright. We come from a land of justice and peace. Where our king. Took on injustice.

So that we could have freedom. And justice and peace. So. We care about the marginalized. We care about the voiceless. We care about those who are.

Who are. Poverty stricken. Because that was all of us. We didn't have a voice. We didn't have. Any way to defend ourselves.

But Jesus rescued us. We come from a kingdom. Where death has been destroyed. So we get to be fearless. Because death loses. And it doesn't ultimately have sway over us.

We get to follow Jesus wherever he calls us. Even if that seems certain to go poorly. Because we know ultimately. It will be just fine. The band is going to come back up. If you're a Christian.

All the joy. And rest. And hope. Of having a good king. Is already yours. You can't believe the promises.

Of smaller kings. Submission is your appropriate response. To Jesus. And ultimately. We get to begin to look like citizens. Of a different country.

So we have a king. Who went to war. On our behalf. And his victory. Is ours now. Forever.

So he. He accomplished it forever. On our behalf. And so as Christians. We just get to follow our king. So the response.

For everybody in this room. Is the same. If you're not a Christian. It's to trust. Jesus. As your king.

To win on your behalf. To conquer sin. To set you free from it. And to bring you forever. Into faithfulness to God. To lead you in that.

And if you're a Christian. The response is the same. To continue to believe. That Jesus is your king. And follow him as your king. So that your life changes.

So that your heart changes. And so that you can forever rest. In the fact that he's won the victory. On your behalf. Let's pray.

God we thank you. That you're a good king. And that all the benefits. Of having a good king. Are ours. That we can trust you.

That we can follow you. That we can hold on. In the midst of. Heartache. And difficulty. That we can know.

The end. We can know that one day. We will be. In your kingdom. Where sin is no more. And death is no more.

And pain is no more. And crying is no more. Because you've conquered. All of those on our behalf. God I pray. That you would help us.

To live as citizens. Of your kingdom here. We would remember. What you're like. God that transitioning. From how we lived here.

To how we'll live. In eternity with you. Would not be a drastic jump. For us. Because we would begin. To be led by you.

Changed by you. Daily. God I pray. That you'd help us. To trust you. As our good king.

That came. And fulfilled. This covenant promise. Made to David. That you will reign. Forever.

You will stand. Before God. Forever. On our behalf. In Jesus name. Amen..

Aug 7

Return of the King

Return of the King

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

And so if we're going to say that Jesus is a good king, we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at his kingdom. Now, I know that as soon as we say, all right, we're going to turn to the book of Revelation, there's a little bit of like, okay, this is about to get weird. Like there's just, I don't think we always appropriately view the book of Revelation. And here's how I know this. When you talk to Christians, there's kind of a, people lean one way or the other. So it's like people, you talk to Christians, they're like, yeah, I've read the entire New Testament, except for the book of Revelation.

Like it just kind of a tagged add on thing. It's like, I've read all of it, but not that one. Or you'll talk to people and they've been like, yeah, I read the New Testament and I've read the book of Revelation 47 times. And I've got a chart in my house and I know when he's coming back and I've got a really cool picture of a dragon. Like, it's like, okay, all right. So there's just a little bit of what are we doing when we're reading the book of Revelation?

And so I just wanted to give us a little bit of an understanding of the book of Revelation so that we can actually read it, understand the text, and not be thinking random thoughts the whole time. So Revelation was written by the Apostle John. He's the same apostle who wrote the book of John. He wrote 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, and he wrote the book of Revelation. He was exiled on the island of Patmos. And it says he was, this is all at the beginning of the book, but he says he was praying.

It was the Lord's day and Jesus shows up and basically takes him and has an angel at different points take him and shows him things that are going to happen. He speaks at first to some churches that are currently in existence and then shows him some things that are going to happen. And so he writes, it's a book of prophecy, much like when Isaiah wrote a good bit of Isaiah, there was prophecy when Jeremiah wrote, Jeremiah was prophecy, and it was about things that were going on then and things that were going to happen. And so most of that has been fulfilled, all the Old Testament prophets where they prophesied things about countries or things that were going to take place when Jesus came.

Book of Revelation, most of this is not completed yet, hasn't happened yet. So we're still kind of in the, this is prophecy for stuff that's going to come. Now, here's where, what happens with the book of Revelation. John has shown things that I think sometimes are just, he's actually seeing what's going on. So he gets to see a glimpse into the future and he writes it down as best he can.

This is going to happen. There are other times where I think he's shown images that represent things that are going to happen. So kind of like in the book of Daniel, people have dreams and Daniel interprets them and there's like a giant statue with clay feet and he tells them, oh, the clay feet means this. So there's some of that that happens in the book of Revelation. And John, a good bit of seeing things and he just writes as best he can what it is. So there's one point where he says it sounded like, his voice sounded like the rushing of many waters.

So he's just as best he can. He's like, I heard a voice and it was kind of like if a waterfall could talk. That's what he would sound like. So it's just, he's, he's writing as best he can what, what's going on. And so what we're seeing in the chapter we're looking at in chapter 21 is I believe John is seeing a real thing and writing it down as best he can. So it's not imagery of something that's going to happen.

It's actually a picture of it taking place and he's writing down for us what's going to happen. And so we get, we get off in the book of Revelation. We focus too much on the images and they'll, we'll, you'll, you'll, you think that the book of Revelation is about like a dragon and a beast and the number 666 and the Antichrist. Fair? Like you heard all this out of the book of Revelation? Okay.

Just so you know, just for your own brains, this is free. Antichrist isn't even mentioned in the book of Revelation. I know, right? He's mentioned in John and never shows up in the book of Revelation. So the book of Revelation is about Jesus.

So I'm going to read you, we're going to start in 21 in a second, but I'm going to read you some of the stuff from the first chapter just to help us know what we're looking at. Revelation 1.1 starts this way. The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation is the revealing of Jesus. It's when he comes back. 5 through 7 says this.

Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom. Priest to his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him.

And all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. Amen. So that's how the book of Revelation begins.

And what it's saying is that this book is about what it's like when the king returns and sets up his kingdom. And so that's what we're looking at in the very last pages of the Bible. We're looking at what that kingdom looks like when Jesus shows back up, sets up his kingdom, and begins his rule and his reign on earth. And so we're going to take a little time. We're going to study that this morning. And so I'm going to pray and then we'll hop in.

God, I pray that you would help us to correctly see what your kingdom looks like. The fact that you are a good king and that you have invited us into your kingdom here on earth. And that one day you will return. Everyone will see you and you will set up your kingdom because you are the ruler of the kings of the earth. And so, God, we pray that we would, through your Holy Spirit, get a glimpse into that this morning. We love you.

We praise you. We thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right.

Revelation 21 says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. Okay.

A couple of things. The Bible uses heaven in three ways. It refers to heaven as the place where birds fly. So that's like in the heavens. It refers to heaven as the place where stars are. That's in the heavens.

And then it refers to heaven as the place where God exists and where you go when you die. Those who are God's people go when you die. And so we're going to be looking at heaven, and we're going to be looking at eternity. And so since we're going to be talking about eternity today, this will be point one of 47 for those of you who are taking notes. I want to talk for a really long time to help you feel the weight of eternity. I'm just kidding.

So anyway, but we're going to be talking about eternity. And here's the thing. We will not spend, you will not spend eternity in heaven. You may be thinking, speak for yourself, sinner boy. I'm going to heaven. No one spends eternity in heaven.

What it just said was that the new Jerusalem comes out of the clouds, comes out of heaven to the new earth. And so it says that he saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Now what we don't know, because there's other passages in Scripture that talk about this, if the earth we're on now is just completely gone or if it's renewed, if it's restored. We don't really know, and the text doesn't really clearly say, but we know that we have a new earth or a renewed earth and that heaven comes out of the clouds to meet it. And so it says this, And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, that's verse 3, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. On the new earth, in Jesus's kingdom, there is no death. There is no pain. There is no mourning.

Prior to this in the book of Revelation, it talks about when Jesus shows up. And when Jesus shows up, what happens is he conquers his enemies. Chief among those are Satan, sin and death. The Bible says that Jesus takes Hades and throws it into a lake of fire. And that he takes death and throws him in the lake of fire. Jesus kills death.

Now, I don't make the rules. But if you can kill death, you're in charge. That's just how that works. Like, they didn't ask me. I just know that's how that works. The guy who is scarier than death is scarier.

That's just how that. So, there is no death in the new earth. There's no pain. There's no mourning. Now, think about how beautiful that is. You don't lock your doors on the new earth.

For those who place faith in Jesus and who are rescued and brought into eternity, you don't lock your doors. You always tell the truth because, first of all, you have nothing to hide. And no one is going to use anything against you. There's no one who's going to maliciously seek to use any information you have to hurt you or to posture themselves up or to take advantage of you. Like, our government has a secret service, has CIA, FBI, because we have things to hide. And we don't want our enemies to know stuff about what we're doing and how things work.

Like, every time, like, you watch a movie and there's, like, a great invention and they're always like, this is beautiful. But if it fell into the wrong hands, it could be used for great destruction. Like, every movie ever where they invent something good. And that's just the way that works. Like, we invent the internet, we invent computers, and then people take the time, spend intelligence and effort to come up with viruses for computers. I don't know why.

You think they could do the same thing to make it productive? Anytime we come up with some sort of technology, it's used for pain, for hurt, for destruction. That doesn't happen on the new earth. There's no crying. There's no pain. There's no mourning.

There's no death. You don't go to funerals on the new earth. Every tear is wiped away. There's no cancer. There's no bad news. There's no fear about what's going to happen in the future.

Perfect peace and perfect rest because of it in God's kingdom, in Jesus' kingdom, where sin has been conquered fully by Jesus on the cross. There's nothing to worry about. Nothing bad can happen. Now, here's the thing. Now, here's what we know about that. First of all, that's beautiful.

We all want that. We all have that imprinted in us. We've said this before, and I've checked the statistics again. Ten out of ten people still die. You can Google that. Science.

And here's the thing. Here's what's true about that. Every time someone dies, there's something inside of us that screams, this isn't how this is supposed to be. This isn't how this is supposed to work. There's something in us that knows that this is wrong, and we don't know why. We don't really have, because it's, it happens to everyone, and so you'd think that humans would be used to it.

You'd be like, oh yeah, of course. That's where we're all headed. And, see, you'd work on Monday. Like, that's not, like, that's not how that works. There's something in us that just knows that this is fractured, this is broken, this falls short. So we know, when we read this, that there's no pain, there's no suffering, there's no cancer, there's no disease.

We were talking in my community group on, this past week, Bone and Kelly were in our group, and Kelly was talking about her son. She's got two sons. One's older, one's younger. They were at a clinic, like a, like a doc in a box, you know, and the older son dared the younger one. He was, they were sitting there, like, in the waiting room, and he dared the younger one. He said, I bet you won't lick this chair.

And so the younger son, being wicked smart, like, was like, oh, yeah, I will. So he licked the chair, won the bet, and then the next week they had to come back because he had two earaches, a stomach virus, and bronchitis, and was sick, like, deathly sick for two weeks, which is just the greatest story I've ever heard. I was trying to cook when they told me that. I got to laughing so hard, though I had to step away so I wouldn't catch myself on fire. Here's what we just read. That doesn't happen in heaven.

In heaven, her son can lick any chair he wants. So we read that, and we know that's beautiful, and then here's what happens to us. We immediately go, I don't know how that works. Like, immediately, our brains can't even fathom, comprehend what it looks like where there's no pain and mourning and suffering and fear. Like, even for us, I got into a discussion this week, even for us, pain is good. Like, fire can burn me, so my hand getting hot and me pulling it away is a good thing for me because if I didn't feel pain, I might have just set myself on fire.

Fear is good because bears can kill me, and so if I see a bear, I'm not just like, that guy looks huggable. Like, I have an appropriate amount of fear. Now, in heaven, so where there is no pain and no fear and no destruction and no death, we immediately just don't even have a way to process that. We just don't have a category for, okay, what does that mean? So you immediately get in things like, so does that mean that you won't hit me with a hammer or that if you do, it'll tickle?

Like, how does that work? Like, does it just mean that we won't do bad things because then it would be like, I guess we don't have freedom. We're like robots in heaven. Or does it mean that there is ways to get hurt, but you don't get hurt? You just like bounce back and laugh about it. But immediately, we have no framework for what this is going to look like.

And so here's what happens to us. It does two things to us. One is it makes us, when we think about eternity, it makes us not think about it too much because we just don't have categories for it. And it also kind of pushes back on us so that when we think about spending eternity, for those of us who are believers, and we think about heaven, and we think about spending eternity with God, we just kind of make it faker, ghostier, more vapory. Like, I might have feet, but I don't know why because I'll be floating everywhere. There's just something in our brains that can't handle this.

And so I just want to point this out to us. As we read through this text, it says this, then I saw a new heaven. Okay, so we know about heaven. And that's, and a new earth. So it's a new earth that's being created.

What I said, we don't spend eternity in heaven. We spend eternity on the new earth. Verse two, And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God.

It doesn't say that the dwelling place of man is with God. And we know that he's more important, but I think it's intentionally worded that way. I think what we're being told very clearly is that God makes a new earth, and he joins us here. So when we think about heaven, we think about like, glittery, vapory, like I would hug you, but we would just like, go through each other, and it'd be weird. Like, we just don't have a category for it, but what it's saying is that it's a new earth. So actually, what we already have in creation is a picture, a fractured, broken, messed up picture, of what his original design was.

When God created the garden, when he created earth in the first place, it was good, and he said it was good. Sin, death, destruction messed it up. The goal isn't him then looking down and going, okay, the best we can do at this point is just suck your souls up, and y'all can float around with me up here. No, he renews it, recreates it, and starts it back off the way it's supposed to be, so that we get to spend eternity in a real place. Real as in it exists, and real as in it's a tangible thing. Now, it's different, because there's no pain and no fear and all that.

It's different, but we'll have real bodies. Corinthians 15 says that like a seed is to a plant is what our bodies now will be to our new bodies. So like your body now is a seed, and your glorified eternal body is like the plant that comes from that seed. I have no clue what that means, but it sounds really cool. He talks about the fact that plants, like seeds are kind of similar, but plants look really different. So we'll have some form of body though, some form of tangibleness to us.

Philippians 3, and we'll read more of this section later, but it says, our lowly bodies will be like his glorious body. So Jesus, after he died, had a body. Like people touched him, he ate food, like he ate fish, it didn't just fall through and land on the chair awkwardly underneath him. Like he had feet, he walked places. He also like went into a room where all the doors were locked. So he can do something that we can't.

Like I don't know how that works, but I don't think he was outside jimmying it. Like pulled out his ID and slid it through and busted in. Like I don't think that's what happened. But we have a real body. Here's what this means though. We think sometimes that earth, like that spiritualness makes things better.

So to think about heaven in an earthy way, like that dirt is good, somehow makes it less than. And that we need to spiritualize. And it's like, no, we're just, we float and it's pretty and there's harps and we're in this weird thing where everyone's a baby and wears a diaper and has a harp. And we have this picture in our minds. Like if you talk to a Christian, this is what you'd say. Do you believe in heaven?

Most Christians, because it's Christian doctrine, would say yes. Like yes, believe in heaven. That's a real thing. Or you believe you'll spend eternity with God. Yes. Will you like heaven?

Yes. Heaven's going to be great. Why? I don't know. Bible says it'll be good. Like we just have a little bit of a picture in our brain.

Like I just always think, yeah, heaven's going to be great. I have no clue why. Like I feel a little bit like it's like how you enjoy coming out of surgery. It's like a dopamine wee kind of thing. It's like, I would not usually think this was great, but woohoo. Like that's the way I picture heaven.

Is it like God's just going to hardwire our brains to like floating and that'll be the best. What have you been doing? Sitting. For how long? I don't know. Heaven's great.

Like, and you just, but there's nothing in me now that thinks that that would be great. I just know that the Bible says it'll be great. But when I think about the fact that it's going to be a new earth, you ever look at pictures of earth and you're like, you have this moment where you're like, this is so beautiful. This is breathtaking and captivating. And then you have this moment where it's like, I will never see this in real life. This may just be photoshopped.

I don't even know if this is real because there's like, I won't ever be able to go investigate all these beautiful places that I see. And what we get in eternity is not a floaty spiritual realm, but a new glorified body that's like Jesus's. And we actually have an earth to re, where he redesigns everything the way it was originally supposed to be. So is there pain? No. Is there mourning?

No. Is there sadness? No. Is there death? No. Cancer?

No. Rape? No. Do people take advantage of children? No. No.

How does that all play out? I don't know. Is it real? Yes. Can you touch it, feel it, smell it? Do you actually use your feet for walking?

Yes. Your glorified plant feet, I don't know how many you'll have. It'll be like Jesus's, so he had to. He looked normal-ish. So, so we don't, we don't get this, but here, let me, I want to, I want to keep reading. I want to show you something.

Verse five. And he who is seated on the throne, so kings sit on thrones, behold, I am making all things new. Also, he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty, I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. Okay. Spring of the water of life without payment is a picture of the gospel. It's the fact that we get life, fullness, completeness, joy, and eternity without payment. We didn't rescue ourselves. We didn't redeem ourselves.

We didn't moral ourselves into it. We didn't follow the rules really well. We were rescued, redeemed, and brought in because Jesus followed the rules. The law had to be upheld, and it was upheld by Jesus, not by us. And we're given life without payment. And then it says, to the one who conquers will have this heritage.

The one who conquers means this, those who remain faithful and continue to follow Jesus. Saying that you're a Jesus follower is great. Here's what happens a lot in the Bible. There's two sides to things. So there's the side that we see, and there's the side that Jesus accomplishes.

So the Bible says that Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith, which means that he started it and he finished it. He didn't just save you and say, all right, you got a clean slate. Now figure it out, and I'll see you at the end if you can keep it together. No, he finishes it as well. But on our side, there's faithfulness.

There's us continuing to pursue him, us continuing in the faith, us staying and sticking and following. That's what happens. A real Christian stays a real Christian, continues to grow, continues to follow, continues to fight. And so he says to those who conquer, those who stay in, I will be their God and he will be my son. Here's the thing. Christianity says very clearly, Jesus is the only way to heaven, the only way to eternity, the only way to the father.

Those who are on the new earth got there by way of Jesus. No other way. And so people will say, that's really small minded. It's really limited. You're being really exclusive. If we had control over it, then we could control the inclusiveness or the exclusiveness.

But this is a reality. Jesus is real. He is a real king. And he doesn't cease to be a king based upon our whims. It's one of the things we said early on. There are no runoffs or recounts for kings.

So he's a real king. And here's the other thing. This eternity is with him dwelling with us, where he's our father. It says that we would be sons. If you don't love Jesus, that's terrible. If you love Jesus, that's beautiful.

The next chapter goes and it says that there is no temple. There is no son. That all of that is fulfilled and completed by Jesus and by God, by the lamb. Heaven is about Jesus. It's about the king. The kingdom, the consummated kingdom is about the king, where we spend eternity with the king.

It's not about you and what you like. It's about Jesus. Who he is, what he's accomplished, what he's done for us. We're invited into the relationship that he has with the father, with the Holy spirit. We're invited into being on earth where we dwell with him in the relationship. We were meant to have with him.

You know, sometimes you feel like, I just don't feel like I've been walking with God. Well, I don't feel like I've been following. Well, I don't think I've been hurt here. It doesn't happen in heaven. It doesn't happen in eternity. That we relate to him perfectly because it's about him.

The next chapter says that his name will be on our foreheads. So in the old Testament, he told them to put the law, to bind the law on their foreheads. Here it says that his name will be on us. If you don't love Jesus, that's not something you would enjoy being marked by him forever. And if you love Jesus, absolutely. It reminds me of toy story where, uh, what he gets lost and every once in a while, like he'll roll up his big cloth foot and look at his shoe where it says Andy, where Andy wrote his name on him.

There's just a little bit of that in heaven where we're just forever marked by Jesus. That we belong to the King, not as a subject, but as a son. That's exciting. Now, here's the thing. We, we go through this. We, we see what it looks like for Jesus to be the King, for everything to be in, in heaven is enjoyable because it comes from Jesus.

That we enjoy what we enjoy in heaven because it, it, he's the fountain of joy. The floodwaters of, of everything that is enjoyable in heaven. And here's, when we read about this, when we think about heaven, there's a little bit of like, why does it matter? Why does it matter that we're going to spend eternity on a new earth? Why, why does it matter that this is what Jesus's kingdom looks like? What's, what's the point in us today reading about that?

Is it just for us to hear it and go, ah, it sounds neat. And if I ever get asked the question, will I spend eternity in heaven? I'll say, nope, new earth. Trick question. I win. Like, like, are we just learning it to be able to regurgitate facts?

Like, why does this, why does this matter? Um, Philippians three, and it'll be up on the screen. 20 through 21 says this, but our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. That's what we read earlier by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. The reason it's helpful for us to learn about our King and to learn about his kingdom is that that's where our citizenship is.

Philippians three says that our citizenship is in heaven is, is currently where Jesus is sitting on a throne, ruling and reigning where God is. What that means for us is that we behave like citizens of eternity. We function like we'll function when we get to the new earth where there is no pain, there is no lying, there is no deceit, there is no mourning. We get to know that heaven is a reality, that eternity is real for us, that the new earth is a place that we will spend eternity. It makes a difference. My uncle is, one of my uncles is from Nigeria.

He's a Yoruba people group. And when he came to the U.S., he was adopted by my grandparents. When he came to the U.S., he's a citizen of Nigeria. Like he thinks culturally like a Nigerian, does life like a Nigerian, sees life like a Nigerian. So like they were in West Virginia, he had never seen snow.

And so he, my granddad was having a hard time getting a trash can down his really steep driveway because it was iced up. And so my uncle sees him and is like, absolutely, this isn't okay. Like I've got to go help him. He shouldn't have to do this on his own. Take the trash out. I should be taking the trash out.

And so he just sprints down the stairs, sprints out the front door, meets ice, and goes all the way down the driveway, like out into the road. And my granddad was like, you got to learn what ice is. Like you can't, this is why this is taking me forever. But he's Nigerian. He told one time, he went back to Nigeria, met his wife, was bringing her back to the U.S. and he was trying to coach her up on like, Nigeria is different from the United States. One of the things he said was, and I'm going to do my Uncle Abel impersonation.

He, which by the way, whenever I talk about Cain and Abel, I don't say Abel, I say Abel. And that's a shout out to my uncle every time I do it, because he says, ah, if it was Abel, it would be L-E. It is E-L, that is Abel, which is what his name is. So I'm like, all right, you're right, Abel. Cain and Abel, got it. But he, I told him, I was telling the story to somebody, and I told him later, I talked to him, I said, I did my best Uncle Abel impersonation.

And he said, ah, you mean I do not talk like you? And then he went, I've been speaking English way longer than you have. You don't even speak it correctly, you speak American. You don't even know English. But he said, he told my aunt, BK, he told her, he said, if an American invites you out to eat, that does not mean they are paying for you.

You better have money. Because in Nigeria, if I say, hey, you want to go grab some food, that means I have invited you, I am paying for you. So he was somewhere, and there was a bunch of college students, they were like, yeah, I want to go eat over here. And he was like, yes, I do. Because he thought, free fruit, sweet. And they got there, and he goes, we get there, and everyone paid for themselves.

So I was like, oh. He said, luckily he had some money, he was able to pay for himself, but he told my aunt, I always have money, because Americans, you just never know. Like, sometimes they'll pay for you, sometimes they don't. There's no rule on that at all. But he was a citizen of Nigeria, and so he viewed the world like a Nigerian.

And the truth is, we're citizens of heaven, we're citizens of this eternity. We get to view the world like that. And that's why it's very helpful, and encouraging for Christians, to press eternity into our minds, to consider it, to weigh it. Paul in Romans 8 says, that he considers the suffering, of this present time, not worthy, to be compared, with the glory that is to be revealed to us. He said, he considers it like, he sat down and waited out. Thought about it.

It's helpful for us as Christians, to press eternity into our brains, and it's hard for us to fathom, but it's good for us. Because it frees us up, and it does a few things for us. This is why it's important for us, to not have just this vague, cloudy, heaven's gonna be good one day thing, but now have a grounded understanding, that that is the reality, of where those who've placed their faith in Jesus, will spend eternity. And, the other side of that, is those who haven't placed their faith in Jesus, haven't had their sin paid for by him, spend eternity in hell. Which is just as real, and eternity there is just as long.

And it's important for us as believers, as those who've been rescued and redeemed by Jesus, to have firmly fit into our brains, that eternity, with our king in his kingdom, is coming. Because it does a few things for us. It does a lot for us, but we're gonna talk about a few. One, we get to enjoy life more now, because eternity is real. There's just something about us, that thinks that enjoying life, to the fullest here, is somehow, earthy and wrong, because we're Christians, we should be spiritual. Because that's what we'll be like in heaven.

Spiritual. Someone will be like, do you want a biscuit? And I'll be like, no, this is heaven, I'm spiritual. No, it's heaven. Carbs don't count in heaven. They don't make you take a nap, you can take one if you'd like.

So, there's something about, the fact that eternity is real, and it's on a new earth, that means that as we enjoy things here, we were designed to enjoy things here, we get to enjoy more. We get to know that it's just a foretaste. That all of the beauty, and all of the fun, and all of the laughter, and all of the food, and excitement, and art, and nature, everything that we enjoy, everything that flares up in us, as we enjoy it on earth, is just a glimpse. Just a small window, into what the new earth will be like. Which means that we get to enjoy biscuits, we get to eat bacon, we get to go on a hike through the woods, and let that worshipfully roll up in us, in praise for our creator, and our savior, and our king, who invites us into something much better, for a much longer time.

It means we get to enjoy earth more now, we get to enjoy life more now, because we have a real eternity that is to come, and holiness for us, isn't a complete stepping away, from all things that are enjoyable. Now there's a time, when we fast from food, when we fast from some of the things, that we enjoy on earth, to remind ourselves, that this isn't all that there is. To help our souls hunger for what's true, and real, and eternal. There's also times, where we get to sit at a table, with family, with church family, and just enjoy, the fact that this is just a small window, into what it's going to get to be like.

Revelation says, that it's going to be the wedding supper of the lamb, that we're invited into a feast. That's what we're called into, when he returns, is a feast. There's something in us, that says that spending a lot of time, sitting around a table, and enjoying it with family, there's actually something, really spiritual about that. Really beautiful about that picture, of us enjoying food together, as family, because that's how we'll inaugurate, and start off the kingdom, when Jesus returns. That's what we'll be invited into. So we get to enjoy life more now, if we press eternity, the fact that we will spend, life on a new earth, into our brains.

Second thing that this does for us, is that we do not have to enjoy life now. We don't have to. There's an aching fear, in us, that I think continually grows. Am I enjoying life? Am I having fun? Am I having as much joy, and fulfillment as I could have?

Am I making the best use, of all my time? Am I, there's just something in us, that says, yeah heaven's going to be great, but if I'm going to enjoy a good meal, it's got to happen now. Heaven's going to be great, but if I'm going to, have a good adrenaline rush, it's going to happen now. If I'm going to travel, and see beautiful things, it's going to happen now. Heaven will be nice, I'm sure, but I've really got to do a lot now, because I've only gotten, a short amount of time, to really squeeze in, all the good stuff. There's something, that says that in us, and it's completely wrong.

Understanding that, eternity on the new earth, awaits us, frees us up, to not have a spectacular life now, to not be forced, to squeeze all the juices, out of it. And what that means is, you get to work a nine to five Job, love your family really well, spend your days in Casey, West Columbia, and that be perfectly beautiful, and good, in the eyes of God. Means you don't have to go see Europe, go if you get the chance. Europe's pretty lame anyway, that's why we made America. But, there's just something in us, that constantly feels like, we're missing out, and the truth is, we have an eternity, of better things to come.

And so we're freed up. It also means, that you're freed up, to not be a success, to give a lot away, to give a lot of your time, to those who are poor, oppressed, those who are sick. It means you're freed up, to go to another country, and nurse those, who have Ebola, back to health. And you're freed up, to get Ebola, and die. Because you've got an eternity, to come, of good things. there's just something, there's just something, about knowing that, and pressing that, into our hearts, that frees us up, to follow Jesus, in a way that we can't, if we forget, that that's what's to come. If we forget, that that's the culmination, of what he's doing.

The reason that he calls us, into really hard stuff. It's because he's already, accomplished everything, on our behalf, and he's got much better things, awaiting us. That's why Jesus, over and over and over again, is going to press into, the topic of money, and pair it with, the topic of heaven. He's going to say, don't care so much, about earthly riches, and earthly treasures, and earthly things, that you fail, to realize what's coming. The third thing, this does for us, is that we, see, we more clearly see, what is important. When this image, gets pressed into our minds, that an eternity, is to come.

A real one. Where there are, adrenaline rushes, where there is reality, where you do, inhale and exhale. Where things are tangible. Where it says, that we'll eat, and drink rich food, and the best wine. When we press that, into our souls, it helps us clearly see, what actually matters here. Here's the truth.

Every person in this room, when God designed creation, designed you to exist, for an eternity. And every person in this room, even though sin, has marred his original design, will spend eternity somewhere. And every person that you know, will spend eternity somewhere. And Jesus shows up, the king returns, and he claims his people, and he takes them home. And those who he hasn't rescued, and those who haven't placed, their faith in him, spend eternity, paying for their sin, and their rebellion against him. That's true.

And when eternity, is pressed into our hearts, it helps us see, what actually matters. When we weigh eternity, against what's going on, then it really matters, that 80% of the people, in this city, don't know, or follow Jesus. Then it really matters. It really matters, that that's true, for this city, so probably true, for where you work, and probably true, for the neighborhood you live in. And that matters. We clearly see, what's important.

When eternity, the reality of it, is considered, and weighed, and pressed into our hearts. Here's something, I've thought about some. It says that, for those who conquer, he says, I will be their God, and he will be my son. And I've got two brothers, and, I always think about, what life would be like, if there had only been, two of us. So instead of three sons, there had been two of us.

And I think about the fact that, when you have more people, it multiplies the joy. So I've got two brothers, Logan and Vince, and both of them are slap crazy. And I get to see, Logan react to a Vince joke, or Vince's nonsense. I get to call Logan, and talk about Vince's nonsense. I get to talk to Vince, about Logan's nonsense. They don't talk about me, because I'm awesome.

I get to call Logan, and talk about Vince's nonsense. I get to talk to Vince, about Logan's nonsense. They don't talk about me, because I'm awesome. Our lives are multiplied, by the fact that, there's three of us. I sometimes think about, what life would have been like, if there was four of us. That, that, I get to, Logan gets to see me react, to, to a Vince. There's just, there's something that multiplies, and if Vince wasn't there, I wouldn't get to see, how Logan would react to a Vince. I wouldn't get to see,

How Vince would, there's something about, more of us, that multiplies that. The only reason, it doesn't make sense on earth, outside of God, calling you to a life of celibacy, but for those who have family, those who are married, I was thinking about this, the only reason, like for my wife and I, she's pregnant, we're going to be having a son, and I'm very excited about, the fact that, that he's going to grow up, and have a personality, and I'm going to get to see, I'm going to learn more about Anna, as I get to see her react, and lead a son, and she's going to learn more about me,

And we're going to get to see, and grow more, and love for each other, as we grow in love for, for this kid, who's going to be, terrible and awesome, but the only reason, it doesn't make sense for us, to just have child, after child, after child, after child, after child, after child, is eventually, we're limited by time, and by finances, resources, so like, if we had tons, and tons of children, we probably wouldn't be able, to feed them all,

Run out of things, to name them, just start numbering them, 12, get over here, that's why, if you're going to have, a bunch of kids, don't do the thing, where you have to start them, all with the same letter, because that just seems like, it'd make it more difficult, for you, you just run out, and eventually, one would be like, Josephina, and Jose, and Joseph, and Josanna, and Gary, because I ran out of J's, but,

Here's the thing, those limitations, time limitations, and resource limitations, do not exist, in eternity, and so when God says, that I'll be their God, and they'll be my son, every time, that's true for a person, there's a multiplication, of joy, that we all get to be, in the same family, and we all get to grow, and see each other, and build with each other, and have connection, and life, and joy with each other, for eternity, that's why, that's why the Bible says,

That when a sinner repents, when someone realizes, that they're sinful, and hands that over to Jesus, and Jesus saves them, that the angels rejoice, every time, that hasn't gotten old, in heaven, because they understand, the weight of it, they feel, the eternity, that hangs in the balance, and they know, the multiplication of joy, when there's a new birth, that there's just something, about every time, a seat is added, to the table, of the feast, that there's joy, and that's why it matters,

And that's why, it's good to follow, this king, who invites us, into his kingdom, and that's why it matters, that people in the city, don't know Jesus, and that's why it matters, that our community groups, are on mission, where we seek, to go out of our way, to build relationships, with people, because every time, someone repents of sin, there's a seat, added to that table, and there's a family member, added to that table, and there's an eternity, of a multiplication, of joy,

That we don't even understand, but the angels do, and they celebrate, and we get invited, into that, because Jesus, paid for our mess, and our sin, and rescues us, and not into some, specter fest, where we float around, but a real eternity, where there's tangibleness, and he's our God, and we're his people, and we're his sons, and that's why, it's important for us, to press eternity, into our minds, to remind ourselves, of where our true family is, where our true hope lies,

What really matters, so that we don't waste our days, on things that are going to pass away, and fail to understand, the weight, of what is to come, Matt and Bianca are going to come back up, we're going to sing, and we're going to praise Jesus, and we're going to take communion, we've got it set up on this table, right over here, and communion for us, as believers, is a reminder, that the gospel is true, it's a reminder, of what Jesus accomplished, for us on the cross, that he had a real body, and shed real blood, that the God of the universe, took on human form, and for us today,

It gets to be a reminder, of not only what he's done for us, but what is to come for us, the fact that a new earth, where there's real flavor, real tangibleness, reality, with him forever, that as we as believers, partake in what he did for us, on the cross, that we as believers, will get to partake, in what he does for us, in eternity, it's the meal that reminds us, of the feast that is to come, he says he, in the last supper, with his disciples, he says, I won't taste of the vine again, until I eat it new, with you in the kingdom,

He's held that promise, he doesn't pick up the cup again, until we show up, and so we today, get to take communion, as believers, reminding ourselves, of what is to come, of the feast that will be for us, and an eternity, that will be for us, so that we get to be for him here, Father we thank you, we thank you for all, that you've done for us, for the reality of the cross, and the reality of the eternity, that we're invited into, by your grace, that as we place faith in you, you rescue us, you redeem us, you seal us, and that one day,

All those who have genuinely, repented of their sin, to have you rescue, and redeem them, will spend eternity with you, where it's about you, where our hearts are set on you, God help us, through your Holy Spirit, to press eternity, into our minds, and into our souls, lest we forget, we praise you, we thank you, in Jesus name, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen,

Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen,

Kingdom Parables

Kingdom Parables

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Well, good morning. Jesus is a king. Jesus is the king. And that's what we've been spending the past several weeks talking about is that Jesus comes as a king, that he comes to us through history as the eternal king. So the Old Testament is going to say that there's a prophesied king who's going to come in the line of David.

And then the New Testament is going to say that king is Jesus, the eternal king that is the king of kings, that princes will rise up and bow down to, that is in charge of everything, is Jesus. And so what we've been doing for the past several weeks is we've been looking at what it means for Jesus to be king, for him to be a king, the king of our lives, of the universe. And what does it mean for him to have a kingdom and what does his kingdom look like? How does it work? And so that's what we've been spending some time doing. So the first week we looked and said that you can't have two kings.

That's not how kings work. And so some of you may have read, you know, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and you said there are two kings in that one. That's a made-up story. That's never happened. And there's talking animals there. Like there's other things going on.

You can only have one king. And so Jesus shows up, says he's king. Herod, who is a king, tries to kill him. And that we basically have the same options. We can get off of the throne and quit trying to be king of our lives. Or we can try to fight Jesus.

We said, so you can't have two kings. Then we looked at how we respond to Jesus' kingdom, that we respond in repentance, that he comes and we change to him because he is in charge of everything. And then last week we spent some time talking about the fact that since he is an eternal king, he deals with eternal problems. And his kingdom is a kingdom of light that advances against the domain of darkness and that we actually, as church, family, get to be a part of that advancing kingdom. So what we're going to do today is we're going to be in Matthew chapter 13.

And we've been spending some time in Matthew. Pretty much this whole series has been in Matthew. So we were in Matthew chapter 1 and 2. Then we were in 3 and 4. And we spent some time in 5. And so we're jumping on ahead into Matthew 13.

And Jesus, a good bit of his ministry, would tell stories. And we know them, we call them parables. Which just means, and I said early on, that he told confusing stories. And some of them are. Because sometimes he just says, the kingdom of God is like this. Or following God is like this.

And he'll just tell a story. And he just, he doesn't explain it. He's just like, it's like this. Boom. And he just walks away. And you're like, well, what are you talking about?

What does that mean? And so, so we're looking at some parables. And we're going to look at just a few short ones in Matthew 13. That where Jesus says, this is what my kingdom is like. This is what the kingdom of God is like. And so, the two things we're going to see as we look at, we're going to look at four parables.

But they kind of come in chunks together. Two main points Jesus is making is that the kingdom of God advances. And that the kingdom of God is priceless. And so that's what we're going to be looking at today. I'm going to pray. And then we'll hop in and look at Matthew 13.

God, we just thank you for this opportunity to gather together as church family. Pray that you would, through your Holy Spirit, teach us, lead us, and help us to continue to grow in what it looks like to be a gospel-centered community on mission in our city. Thank you for your grace and your goodness towards us. In Jesus' name, amen. Matthew 13, page number is up there. If you're using one of the Bibles that's in the pew, one of those blue and white Bibles.

If you don't own a Bible, take that with you. That's our gift to you. If you do own a Bible, leave that here. Unless you know of someone you can give it to. Matthew 13, 31 through 33 is the first one we're going to read. And it says this.

He put another parable before them. And so what we said is that a parable is just an illustration, a story, where Jesus is going to basically, like we would say a simile. It's going to say this. The kingdom is like this. And so he put another parable before them saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree.

So that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Okay, so he's going to tell two back to back, and that's the first one. And what he's saying is that the kingdom advances. The kingdom of God advances. And what we're going to look at, we're going to kind of look at it in two different ways. But Jesus has a bunch of people around, and then he would just teach.

And sometimes he would just teach with authority, which just meant that he didn't have a text. So synagogue leaders would open the Bible, and they'd say, they'd read it, and they'd talk about it, and they'd say, this is what it means. Jesus would just be like, you know how the Bible says this? I say this. And it's like, you can't do that. Are you allowed to do that?

And so people would follow him around, and he would teach with authority. And then he would teach parables. So he would just say, the kingdom of heaven is like this. And sometimes he would explain them to his disciples, and sometimes he wouldn't. And here's what's great about this parable. First of all, we hear that, and we're like, okay, good.

The kingdom of parable is like a mustard seed that a guy planted. And I know all of you are like, yes, mustard seeds. I know so much about them. Like, I mean, I had to Google stuff, because I'm like, I want to find out how big mustard seeds are, what mustard plants are like. Because the most I know about mustard is French's is the best kind. That's about what I got when it comes to mustard.

But here's what's great about this parable, is that Jesus undersells the kingdom, it seems like. So if he had looked at them and said, the kingdom of heaven is like a cedar from Lebanon. All this Jewish audience would have been like, mmm, good. Like, that sounds great. Like, but he says the kingdom of heaven is a mustard seed. Everybody was like, what?

Run that by me again, boss? Like, how does that work? What are you talking about? It's kind of like, and he doesn't explain it, and we're going to kind of unpack it. But it's kind of like the, you know, ogres are like onions kind of thing.

It's like, why? Because they have layers. Well, parfait has layers, and it's better. And so that's kind of what I think they were hearing. It's like, mustard seeds, you're going to have to do a little more here to explain what you're talking about. But let me just unpack a little bit of the story here.

So he immediately, when he says this, everybody's like tracking because it's like this was a weird thing for him to say that the kingdom is like. Mustard seeds are tiny. So that if you took a mustard seed, you could pinch it in between your fingers and play that which hands the mustard seed in kind of game. Like, and let someone guess because they're really small. If I held one, it would just kind of could sit right there about as small as a BB, if not a little bit smaller. Mustard seeds are really small.

And so when he says they're the smallest of all seeds, he means all the seeds that they were familiar with. He's not speaking scientifically as the creator God. He's speaking in context with the people he's talking about because there are smaller seeds than mustard seeds, but not that they would have been familiar with and used. And he's talking about in the context of a garden. So what he's saying is mustard seeds are the smallest seeds y'all use to plant in your gardens.

But here's what happens. Once you plant it, it grows into pretty much a small tree. So that it becomes the largest garden plant. So large that birds come and make nests in it. That's his parable. That's what the kingdom is like.

And so what he's saying, first of all, is that if you got to choose, no one would pick the kingdom based off of how it's going to get started. That it's going to be so epically underwhelming when it starts. So that Jesus is walking around. He has a ministry for about three years. This is the God of the universe has a ministry for about three years. When he dies, 120 people.

God of the universe plants a church. Three years. 120 people. Like I've read books that would be like, we need to coach that guy up. He's doing some things wrong. Like there was 6,000 at one point and he told them to eat and drink his blood.

That's poor strategy. He freaked everybody out. Like Jesus, when big crowds would come, he would say really hard things to him. And so what he's saying is that his kingdom is going to be very small, very seemingly like it's not going to do anything. So that when he dies, he dies and then three days later he rises again and there's 120 people that are following him.

And you wouldn't think, well, obviously that's going to take over the world. Obviously that's going to have massive impacts on world history. Obviously this guy who spent most of his time with 12 men, one of whom betrays him. So even that gets cut down to 11. Obviously that's going to turn the world upside down. But it does.

And that's his point. Is that the kingdom advances externally. And that's the way we're going to look at it today. Is that this first one we're going to look at is it advances externally. Which means that more and more and more people are going to become believers. Are going to follow Jesus.

And that's exactly what happened. So there was 120 then. There are now in the world 2 billion people that follow Jesus. That claim him as king. That submit and surrender their lives to him. 2 billion.

120. I read this quote. And I think it's interesting because I don't understand mustard. Basically mustard plants, once you get them going, are hard to get rid of. And they spread and they grow in unlikely conditions. So that when we were looking up some of the places that mustard grows, it's like Russia and Africa.

And Egypt. And Australia. Like it was all these. It's like, so it's not a regional climate type thing. Mustard is a hardy plant that grows well. And once it gets to growing, it's hard to get rid of.

It says this. The point in other words. This is John Dominic Crossan. The point, in other words, is not just that the mustard plant starts as a proverbial small seed and grows into a shrub of 3 or 4 or 5 feet in height. It is that it tends to take over where it is not wanted. That it tends to get out of control.

That it tends to track birds within cultivated areas where they are not particularly desired. And that, Jesus said, is what the kingdom of God is like. Like a pungent shrub with dangerous takeover properties. So mustard can grow in unlikely situations and grows well once it gets going. One of the best examples, I think, in modern examples for us is the Chinese church. So the church in China under Mao, Mao Zedong, in 1949, he decided he was going to get rid of the church.

He's one of the guys who called it the opiate of the masses. And he wanted to stamp out and get rid of the church. So what he did was there's about a million believers in China. He sent away 10,000 missionaries. So there were 10,004 missionaries in China and about a million Chinese believers.

He sent all of the 10,000 missionaries out. It was referred to as an unwanted Exodus or undesired Exodus. So that was 1949. So it was about 60 years later in China. The estimates, because it's not really legal to be Bible-believing following Christians in China. There are some state-sanctioned churches, but they kind of have regulations on what they're allowed to talk about.

So there are a lot of underground churches. But the estimates on how many believers there are in China now, 60 years later, under a very repressive attempt to stamp out Christianity and religion, is somewhere between 50 and 100 million. So it was a million, and he was like, well, let's get rid of them. And it didn't work. Because that's what Christianity is like. It's like a mustard seed that's very difficult to get rid of.

They estimate that about 10,000 people become believers every day in China. So he got rid of 10,000 missionaries, and there's 10,000 added every day now to be missionaries to China. Because that's the way the church works. Because that's what the kingdom is like. It's like a mustard seed that starts off really small and underwhelming, and then grows and grows and advances and moves and becomes really hard to get rid of. That's why we get really excited about church planting.

That's why we get really excited about community groups and why we want to launch community groups all over our city, why we want to plant community groups all over our city, because a handful of believers in Jesus genuinely following him as king is a dangerous thing. A beautifully dangerous thing when it comes to being a part of his kingdom advancing. Because the kingdom does advance. And it will advance. And so one of the things we need to know as believers, and especially as we try to build with people and we're trying to build relationships and trying to help people meet Jesus and show what it looks like to follow Jesus, and sometimes that can be discouraging, Jesus says the kingdom advances.

Period. Matthew 16, Jesus says, I will build my church. Which means that all of our effort, all of our energy is worth it, because he is going to advance his kingdom. All the energy you put into building relationships with your coworkers, all the energy you're putting into trying to just be a good neighbor and love and bless people in our city, with the hopes that some might would meet Jesus and with the hopes that some might would just be blessed by the fact that you know Jesus. It's worth it. Because the kingdom does advance.

And that's why we care about and get excited about things that look small and like not super likely like they're going to do great things, because that's what the mustard seed is. If you laid them on a table and said, all right, we're going to grow the biggest plant and let kids pick which one they wanted, or if you didn't know anything about them, not a lot of people are going to be like, oh, this tiny one. Duh. It's going to be great later. That's why we get super excited about it. I was having a conversation with my grandmother.

She's a sweet lady. This is a fun conversation. But I had a conversation with her on vacation this year, and she said she, she, my granddad had been a pastor, so she was asking questions. She always asks them questions about the church, church plant, what, what it is, what we're doing, what a church plant is, because she's just kind of, you know, it's a new idea to her. And so she said, she said, let me ask you something. I said, what?

She said, if God called you to a church, would you go? I was like, what? She said, if God called you to pastor a church, would you? And I said, well, if God told me to, sure. She said, really? I said, yes, ma'am.

And she said, well, I'm going to pray that he calls you to a church. And then she said, cause I just, this thing you're doing, I don't really know what it is. And I was like, I was like, okay, well, just caveat conversation I had to have with her, which was if God calls me, sure, I'll do what God wants me to, but I don't think he's going to. And if a church just calls me, no, for several reasons. One of which being that they don't have good sense. And that sounds like a bad idea.

If those are the kind of decisions they make. So anyway, but that's why we get super excited about what we get to be a part of. That's why, that's why it's worth the energy and the effort we're putting in to start something new in West Columbia. And, and why it's amazing and exciting that we have five community groups and the options and the opportunities to have more eventually. Because Jesus doesn't need much. And he actually likes to show off with something really small and seemingly insignificant.

Because he gets a lot of glory from it. That's why I get real excited that we're a ragtag scrub team. Because it's like, Jesus, you're going to have to show up for this to be good. And he can, and he does. And he says that his kingdom does advance and will advance. And then it says, all right, so first, that's the first one.

And we were looking at him. He's saying his kingdom advances. We're looking at him in two different ways. Kingdom advances externally. So people will meet Jesus.

More churches will be planted. More groups will be launched. 33. He told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened. Again, just kingdom of heaven's like this.

And he doesn't explain it. It doesn't go through. Just, that's what it is. I just want to time out for just a second. One of the things that I, it's very exciting just, just to kind of look at when he tells these stories. The first one is a man takes a mustard seed and plants it.

And the second one is a woman takes 11 and does this. And so even in just Jesus is telling parables, he's inviting everybody in to be a part of his mission. And it's just, it's just cool. So I just wanted to point that out. But the way we're going to look at this one, just mental image wise, and he's just saying the kingdom advances, but the kingdom advances internally as well.

So the kingdom advances externally and the kingdom advances internally. So you take a bunch of flour and he says that it's, how many measures? Three measures of flour, which was about 50 pounds, enough to feed about a hundred people. And so when Jesus first started and he was like the kingdom of heaven's like a mustard seed and some of our outdoorsy gardeny type people were like, I'm tracking. This sounds great. Like a tree.

Okay. Hmm. And then some of, some of us were like, okay. And now he's talking about bread. So I'm like, all right, all right, I'm listening.

Carbohydrates. I'm tracking. Tell me more about this lady with the bread. Do you have any samples that I might understand leaven better? But here's, here's how leaven works.

You take a little bit of starter, which is just like a gross ball of goo. And then, uh, you feed it. You can feed it flour and the starter stays together. And then you add just a little bit to the bread you're using and yeast spreads through all of it. So you can't have like half yeasted.

You can't, you can't have like, it's going to take over the whole thing. So when she adds yeast to this, she can't just have a little bit or she adds a little bit and it takes over 50 pounds of it. That he says it leavens the whole lump. And here's the thing. It doesn't look different. It just operates differently.

It doesn't have this magical external change. It's just going to work differently when you stick it in an oven. When you cook it, it's going to rise. It's going to have different internal properties. And here's what's great about that. What he, what we're looking at here is that the kingdom advances internally.

So some of you became believers. This is what Jesus does inside of our souls. Is that he takes over everything. And that's beautiful and terrifying. But Jesus takes over everything.

So some of us are in here like, man, I'm a Christian, but I just, I'm just not getting it right. Like I'm just messing it up. I feel like a lump. He leavens the whole lump. So if you're like, I'm a lump, good.

Leaven's going to take over the whole lump. That's what he's going to do. That's how that works. And here's the thing. If you become a Christian, you don't look different. It's not like people become a Christian and start smiling like an idiot all the time.

That's not how that works. Why are you so happy? Well, I'm glad you asked. That's not how that works. I'm a Christian. I love Jesus.

My face looks like this most of the time. Like, it's not what happens. It's not an external thing. He changes internally. He takes over our souls. My other grandmother, I just got grandmother stories today, but my other grandmother, when we were growing up, my parents would have to go out of town some and they would invite our grandparents to come watch us.

And so they would just come stay at our house and watch the three boys. And so at first it was just like, they would invite them in and they would be like, just, just hang out, watch, be grandparents, do your, do your grandparent thing. And, but my grandmother, her name is Ea, which is just Yoruba, which is African language means grandmother, but Ea can't sit still and not do things. So when they're like, come relax, just get to be a grandparent. She's incapable of that. So she would, she would get into everything.

So like before they came anyway, we had to like clean the house and hide stuff. And inevitably at the end of the week, she would have found it and been like, Oh, we're, we're reorganizing all this. She, she came one time for like four days when they came back, she had rearranged the kitchen. So that like my parents came back and would like open to get a plate and there'd be cups. And it was just like, why? Why would a person do this?

And the great part was that my parents were just like, we'll get used to it. Like they didn't change it back. It just seemed like too much work, but she didn't like the feng shui of kitchen organization. I don't know. I don't know what drove her to do that, but she just reorganized. So then what they had to do is this happened about once a year.

They started giving her jobs. They started when she was coming, they were like, Hey, we want you to watch the kids and paint these two rooms and do wallpaper. And it got to where they had a list long enough that it was like, do this first, this second. If you get to this until my grandparents would come watch us and like redecorate our house. But my parents had to like point them in the right direction because otherwise they were just going to get into everything.

Here's what happens though. Jesus does that in our souls. So for the most part, most of us, we want to become a Christian because we, we see a glaring need for Jesus here. Jesus, I want to place my faith in you because I need you here. This is a hot mess. I need you active here.

And he shows up and he does that. He changes us. He moves us. He rescues us there. And then you're like, thank you so much. Have a seat.

And he's like, Nope. It's not how that works. Jesus comes in. We talked last week. Jesus isn't a cat that just, we add to our life to add a little bit of comfort and a little bit of, when I feel sad, I get to hug and pet. And then he goes and kind of minds his own business in the corner.

Jesus is a king. And so Jesus leavens the whole lump. He takes over everything. So we'll invite him in because we need help with our children. And then, and then he's like, he helps you learn how, what that looks like and rearranges your view on parenting. And then he's like, you want to talk about, let's talk about finances.

And you're like, whoa, no. Hey, let's talk about your view on relationships. No, no, no. That's not, that's not why you were invited in. And then let me, let me just tell you this. He's going to leaven the whole lump.

C.S. Lewis said at one point that, that God loves us the same way that an artist loves a masterpiece in a lot of ways. And that by the time an artist is done with a masterpiece, that if the canvas could talk, it would be a very painful process because there would be times when he had to restart and re scrape and re, re begin what he was doing. And, and, and over time, eventually the canvas would just be saying, couldn't I just be a sketch? Couldn't you just like make me nice enough? And he says, no.

See, God doesn't have a sleepy love for you. He has an active love for us and that we're satisfied way more quickly than he is. So most of us reach a place and we're like, I feel pretty good. And he's like, no, we got, we got a lot of work to do because I care about you enough to continue working when it's difficult. Because he's going to leaven the whole love. He is going to take over internally.

So here, here's the thing. Romans says that we'll be conformed to the image of his son, that we're predestined to be conformed to the images of his son. Romans 8 says that. And so what's going to happen is that over our life as a Christian, if we've genuinely placed our faith in Jesus and are following him, he's going to continue to change our outlook on, on everything that our, our, our way we look at money is his, the way we look at relationships is his, the way we view marriage is his, the way we view sex is his, the way we view every bit of our time, everything belongs to him. And he's going to continue to take over.

And here's the thing we've said repeatedly that kingdoms only advance militantly, that a kingdom advances against the kingdom militantly. Jesus, because he loves you and is gracious to you is going to militantly take over your soul. And so a lot of times we draw lines in the sand and we hunker down and we say, all right, if you want this one, you're going to have to take it. We draw battle lines and we say, all right, Jesus, this is going to be a fight. Jesus wins. He's going to, and he cares enough about you to fight you.

And so some of you, maybe that's, that's your story. You became a Christian and you're like, man, this has been like a fight. Since I became a Christian. And Jesus cares enough about you to not stop, to not, not let you go and to continue to advance in your soul, his kingdom, because of his gracious love for you. And he's going to take over the whole thing. So.

Let me give some encouragement, because that is true. If you are here and you're saying, I just don't feel like I'm growing. Keep following, keep fighting, keep putting yourself in the right positions, keep trying to get as close to his grace as he possible. Gather with your community group, gather when we get together on Sundays, keep reading scripture, because Jesus is going to leaven everything. He is going to, his kingdom is going to advance in you. And if you've been fighting him, surrender as quickly as possible.

It's the best advice I can give you, because he is not going to be satisfied. There are no holdouts of your old kingdom allowed anymore. There are no areas that Jesus doesn't get to be. There are no dark corners and closets that he's not going to mess with. There are no places that his light isn't going to penetrate. And surrender as quickly as you can.

And ask him to help you surrender. So that he might continue to advance his kingdom in your soul. Because he's going to. Okay. So here's what we're going to do.

Oh, let me say this. As you become a Christian, a lot of times people think that I will sin less. And that's true. Ish. But that's not the predominant way that we grow as Christians.

One of the predominant ways that we grow as Christians is that we see our sin more. We see it more clearly. We see it more often. And so a lot of times you're thinking, oh my goodness, I didn't even realize that this whole aspect of my life was not in line with, I feel so terrible. And it's God's grace to show us our sin. That's one of the ways that he helps us grow.

And so as we continue to grow as Christians, we're just going to see more sin and have more areas we get to repent, more areas we get to surrender. And so sometimes people think, oh, I became a Christian. I was doing really well. And now I know that I've got this scenario and this scenario and this scenario. And the truth is, you had him the whole time. Jesus and his grace is now showing them to you.

And that is growth. And he is going to take over everything. Okay. Now we can jump down. Matthew 13, 44. So in between these sets of parables, he explains another one that he told earlier in Matthew.

And so we're just skipping over his explanation and jumping to 44. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Okay. Two stories, two parables.

First one, there's a guy in a field and he finds a treasure in the field. So we don't know why he was in the field, why he was digging in this field that he didn't own, but he's there. He finds a treasure. Maybe he just, the treasure was there and he covers it up. So he hides it.

He's like, Oh my goodness, I found a treasure. Like, have you ever thought about like daydreamed about finding treasure? At least when you were eight and wanted to be a pirate. Like, so he finds treasure and he covers it up. And then he's like, like, what do I do? And he leaves and he sees a for sale sign.

And he, dear diary, jackpot. Like, so he goes and sells everything that he has. He's just, just like, Hey, Hey man, I need to sell my truck. Like I need to, I need my, I got to sell my car. Like I got to sell everything I got. I got to sell my house.

And he sells everything that he has. I mean, nowadays he'd be like hitting up eBay, selling his lamp. Last thing, just so you know, if you're going to sell everything on eBay, sell your computer last. It's just a helpful tip. So, so he sells everything that he has. And his, his family, I just, could you can just assume that people around him think he's absolutely crazy.

And in his joy, he shows up and he's like, how much you asking for the field? And they're like, this much? And he's like, they don't know about the treasure. And so he buys the field, sold everything he had, buys the field in his joy. The second one is, uh, kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. So this guy's a merchant.

He buys and sells thing and it sells things. And he loves pearls. He loves fine pearls. Like, so he's, he's out merchanting, buying and selling. Uh, and he finds a pearl of great price. And, and it would seem from the parable Jesus tells, that he knows the value of the pearl.

And the other guy, apparently he buys it from knows it's valuable, but maybe not as valuable as it actually is. But he goes and sells all that he has. So he goes with his merchanting and sells everything he's got and comes over and buys that pearl. And that's what the kingdom of heaven is like. Real quick. How much does the kingdom of heaven cost?

The first guy. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man fell and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells. Yeah. All that he has. And he buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold. All that he had. And bought it. Here's what Jesus is saying. Well, here's what we see from the parables. The kingdom costs.

Everything. All that we have. That it takes everything. What this means for us as believers is that there is no non-radical form of Christianity. There is no normal run of the mill Christianity that when we become believers, everything is on the table. It's not, I'll decide where I'm going to work.

No, that's on the table. I'll decide what, what, what kind of, what I'm going to study in school and what, what I'm going to do with my life, what my goals are. No, that's on the table. I'll decide who, who I marry and how my relationships will work. No, that's on the table. When we approach Jesus, everything's on the table so that he gets to tell us where we live, where we go, what we do, how our life's going to play out.

Everything belongs to him that we show up and we submit to him as king. And everything is on the table because he is Lord. And so it's not, we read the Bible and decide whether or not we want to do this. Our choice isn't, is this good or is this bad? And is this what we want to do? Our choice is to submit and follow because he's Lord.

And it costs everything. What's beautiful is that's not the point of the parable. He says that, he says that it costs you everything, but that's not his point. And that's not the point he's making in the parable. So Jesus says earlier, he says that the kingdom is going to advance.

It's going to continue. It's going to move. People are going to meet Jesus. People are going to surrender and follow him. And that the kingdom is going to advance in your soul. And it's going to take over every last square inch of you.

And it's going to cost everything. But that's not the point he's making in this parable. Here's what's beautiful about this. The kingdom is worth everything. The point in the parable is that it's priceless. That these guys give up everything.

They sacrifice everything. And they don't feel like it's a sacrifice. I saw recently that there was a professional football player whose name I will not say because it's Samoan. And it's like, he and his brother both played. His brother had kidney issues and had to stop. And then when he found out that his brother needed a kidney, his immediate response was, he can have mine.

And he was a 99% match. And I was reading the article. And so the article was, professional football player has to stop playing football to give up his kidney. And so he sacrifices his kidney. He sacrifices his playing football. But at no point does that register as a sacrifice to him.

Yeah, he gets it. He had to lose weight to be in shape enough to give the kidney. And he's got to do rehab. And he can't play professional football anymore, which I'm sure is something that he has poured countless hours into. And in his brain, it's like, yeah, but that's my brother. So this is a sacrifice, but not really.

And that's kind of just a glimpse into what Jesus is saying about the kingdom. When we understand the kingdom, that yeah, yeah, it's a sacrifice. And yeah, we're giving up everything, but in our joy, because of the matchless worth, the immeasurable worth of what we're getting out of it. So what I find to be true is when, when I'm frustrated by the amount of work I'm putting into following Jesus, I feel like he's asking a lot. And I can't believe that I got to do this to be a Christian. I can't believe that other people get to live like this and do this with their, and I got to do this.

What, what I, what I've realized is I don't get the weight of my sin when that happens. I don't understand what's been given to me in the gospel. When my heart goes there, I've missed this parable because what I'm thinking is, yeah, it does cost everything. And what I'm missing is that it's worth everything and that we still get the better deal because it's priceless. That what's been given to us in Jesus has no value. You can't, you can't put a price tag on it.

It has, it's not even in the same category. So that, that they give up everything, but they don't see it that way. It's priceless. And that's what Jesus is saying. And that's what Jesus is saying. We need to understand about the kingdom is that it, yeah, it costs everything, but he's already accomplished everything for us.

So, um, I think it was last year, uh, a guy, the gas station I go to all the time called Murphy Express on Augusta road, which is right near my house. Uh, a guy won the mega millions lottery jackpot, $400 million, which is always fun. When you talk to people about someone winning the lottery, because they'll be like, yeah, but after taxes, but it was like 200 million. And it's like, bro, it's $200 million given to you for free. That's a horrible thing to complain about. Like you missed the point here, but he wins $400 million.

You ever sat and thought about, oh man, like when that happened, I thought, man, which it really doesn't matter. It was close to my house. Cause he just picked random Numbers, but it feels like it matters that it was close to my house. It's like, man, what if I won the lottery? Like you ever think about that? Like what you would do if you won the lottery.

And there's just this moment where it's like, ah, there'd be a lot of freedom with that. You wouldn't have to work. I mean, you could have, you wanted to, if you felt what you were doing fun, you wouldn't have to. Anytime your boss got on your nerves, you'd just be like, I quit. Cause you didn't need the money. You have to do what you want.

You wouldn't have to work. There's this immediate feeling of like, I wouldn't have to worry about my future. Like I'd be in control of circumstances because of the amount of money I'd have. I'd get comfort and rest. I just, I wouldn't, the stress and the weight that I carry just wouldn't be there anymore. That I just, I'd be free.

That's what, that's what you play out in your mind. And you may not add those words to it, but that's what you're thinking. When you go there about thinking about what you would do with $400 million, and you just think, oh yeah, I could put a roller coaster in my backyard. And I could pay people to run it. And that would be a good use of my money. Like you just, you go through and you think about all the stuff that you could do and the joy that it would bring you and the, the freedom that it would bring you and the comfort and the control and the power.

Like you just, all of these things that immediately you find rest in just this idea. This idea of what that would accomplish for you. And so what Jesus is saying in this parable is, God has the winning lottery ticket, but he's in the witness relocation program. So he can't go on TV. He can't go cash this thing in. It's not allowed to, but he's going to sell it to you.

Whatever you got. Here's my house. Here's my car. Here's everything I have. I'm going on an adventure. Here's my car.

Cause I'm just going to hold a ticket for a while that says I get $400 million. And I don't mind leveraging everything I have for this short period of time because of the great amount of worth that I'm going to get out of it on the back end. No brainer. And it'd be as if you couldn't talk to your family about it. So they thought you'd lost your mind.

I can explain a little bit about what's happening, but I can't tell you everything yet. You're not going to get everything yet, but just trust me. I know you don't see it, but just trust me. Jesus is saying the kingdom is that for our entire lives. That what he's accomplished for us in the cross, you don't have to work anymore. You don't have to prove your value and your worth because Jesus has already given it to you in the cross.

That when Jesus died, he took your sin. He took your debt. Some of you think, oh man, if I had $400 million, no more credit cards, no more credit card debt. I'd be out of debt. All my school loans paid off. Everything.

I just go pay cash for a house. How much? $300,000. This is going to be a while. Jesus paid our debt. Gone. And he didn't give us a clean slate.

He gave us his slate. He didn't put his back in neutral and say, go work it out. He gave us his righteousness. So we don't have to work anymore. You don't have to prove your worth. You don't have to earn it.

You don't have to be at the end of your life and look at Jesus and say, did I do well enough? He's already accomplished everything on your behalf. We know that regardless of how everything works out, there's a sovereign king in charge of the universe who's adopted us into his family and has perfect control over everything. That our hope and our security and our future is set because of what has already taken place on our behalf because of Jesus. That our invitation into the kingdom is priceless. And that every bit of everything that we give up for it is never wasted.

And at the end of the day, when we put everything, when we put everything on the line, at no point have we reached paying back what's already been given to us. At no point has it become an even trade. And that's why he says in his joy, he sells everything. Because he knows what he's getting. See, Jesus says that the kingdom is going to advance. More people are going to be brought into his kingdom.

And that the kingdom is going to advance in our souls. And that it's going to cost us everything. And that it's worth it. It's priceless. And that what we get out of it cannot be measured. Can't be counted.

That the value of the kingdom is uncomprehendable. So that when we think about what we're doing and what we're a part of, at no point does it tap out in our wildest imaginations of what has been given to us in Christ. At no point have we reached what it actually is. The band's going to come back up. We're going to sing and praise Jesus for the fact that through him, through his sacrifice on the cross, we get invited into his kingdom. That his kingdom does advance in us.

That it does advance in this city, in this world. And that it's worth everything. That what he's accomplished for us in the cross is priceless. Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your love. Thank you for the hope that's been given to us in you.

We pray, Lord, that through your Holy Spirit, you would help us to see the pricelessness of your kingdom. The great value and worth of what you've already accomplished for us in the cross. And God, we ask that you would do what you promised to do. That your kingdom would advance in our souls. That we would repent of sin. That we would continue to follow you.

That we would, when we see our sin, God, we would praise you for your grace. That you've covered it. And that you've been gracious enough to show it to us. God, we ask for your kingdom to advance in this city. For more groups to be launched. More leaders to be trained.

More churches to be planted. More relationships to be built. That God, you would take mustard seeds all over the world and continue to grow them. That your kingdom would continue to grow. And God, we ask you that you would help us to see, to taste, to feel the pricelessness of what has been accomplished for us in the cross. That an unpayable debt's been paid.

That wealth and riches, eternal grace and love, favor has been applied to our account. That we've been welcomed in because of your sacrifice. We love you. We praise you. We thank you. In Jesus' name.

Amen.