July 7, 2024 • 33 mins
What is the Kingdom of God and what are its characteristics? This talk explores the freedom one can experience by interacting with the Kingdom of God.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, thank you, thank you, thank you.
In 1998, jim Carrey starred inthe movie the Truman Show.
It's a movie that dealt withissues of free will and
manipulation, and if you havenot watched this movie from 1998
, or if you're going to watch it, you can close your ears for
(00:22):
just one minute, because I'mgoing to ruin the ending for you
here.
In this movie, truman Burbankis an individual who is living
what he thinks is his normallife, but as he finds out that
the whole thing has been set up,he's living in the middle of a
movie set, even though he feelslike he's living his normal life
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, and he was being deceived hisentire life.
This morning, in a sermonentitled Mustards and Monarchs,
we're going to look at the issueof the kingdom of God through a
parable that Jesus said.
It's a topic that we think isvery abstract, but it is
something that we are in andsurrounds us.
Turn your Bibles, if you will,to Matthew, chapter 13, and we
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will read verses 31 to 34.
Matthew, chapter 13, 31 to 34.
Let me read it for us.
He put another parable beforethem, saying the kingdom of
heaven is like a grain ofmustard seed that a man took and
sowed in his field.
It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is
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larger than all the gardenplants and becomes a tree, so
that the birds of the air comeand make nests in its branches.
All these things Jesus said tothe crowds in parables.
Indeed, he said nothing to themwithout a parable.
I've divided this sermon intofive parts.
In the first part, we will lookat the grand story.
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In the second part, we willlook at description with
pictures.
In the third part, we will lookat this specific parable and
call it comparative greatness.
In the fourth part, where Ihope to spend most of our time,
I want to look atcharacteristics of the kingdom.
And fifth, very quickly, wewill look at citizenship in the
kingdom.
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First, let's look at the grandstory.
The basic question is well,what is the kingdom of God?
And the simple answer is it isthe reign of God and,
specifically, the rule of Christ.
There are multiple terms thatare used to describe this the
kingdom of Christ.
There are multiple terms thatare used to describe this the
kingdom of heaven, the kingdomof God, the kingdom of Christ.
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And many times the question ishow is the kingdom of God
related to the church?
And the answer is the kingdomof God is a much broader concept
and the church is a thin sliverin the middle of the kingdom of
God.
It is part of the kingdom ofGod.
We may not have thought aboutthe kingdom of God too much, but
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it is the entire story ofhumanity and the Bible.
This was the plan of God fromthe beginning.
God created the universe andmade Adam and Eve in the garden
of Eden and he wanted to be kingover them.
But Adam rebelled.
He sinned.
When Adam sinned, there wasanother kingdom that was
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introduced, the kingdom ofdarkness.
But God wanted to show theworld that he still wanted to be
king and he wanted the kingdomof God on earth.
And so he chose one group ofpeople called the Israelites and
he wanted to show them that hewould be king over them.
But the Israelites did not wantGod to be king.
So in 1 Samuel 8, verse 7, itreads and the Lord said to
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Samuel they have not rejectedyou, but they have rejected me
from being king over them.
Eventually God sent them intoexile.
They went to Assyria and theywent to Babylon and they were in
exile and most of them nevercame back.
Some of them did come back andGod was not king over those
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people.
The last book of the OldTestament is the book of Malachi
and the first book of the NewTestament is the book of Matthew
, and there's only one page thatseparates the two.
If you turn from Malachi toMatthew, it's just one page, but
that one page represents 400years.
There was 400 years of silencewhen God was not king.
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There was 400 years where thepeople of Israel did not hear
from God, and during that timethey were under the oppressive
reign of the Roman Republic.
In 63 BC, general Pompey cameand conquered Jerusalem.
In 44 BC, julius Caesar wasassassinated after five years of
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being the ruler.
And in 27 BC, octavius Caesar,or Augustus Caesar, the adoptive
son of Julius Caesar, becamethe first Roman Emperor.
And it is under the Emperorship of Octavius Caesar that, in
a little town in Bethlehem,that Jesus was born.
So this is the grand story,from creation to the time that
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Jesus was born.
Second, let's look atdescription with pictures.
We all know the first miraclethat Jesus did.
Let me ask you a questionwhat's the first sermon that he
said?
What's the first sermon thatJesus said In Matthew, chapter 4
, verse 17 is his first sermon.
From that time Jesus began topreach saying Repent, for the
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kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The first message was aboutrepentance, and the constant
theme of his sermons was aboutthe kingdom of God.
One of the important reasonswhy Jesus came was to inaugurate
the kingdom of God.
One of the important reasonswhy Jesus came was to inaugurate
the kingdom of God, which hadbeen silent for 400 years.
But Jesus does not define thekingdom of God.
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He describes it only throughparables.
Actually, one-third of theteaching of Jesus is in the form
of parables and one-third ofthe parables about nine out of
30 parables is directly aboutthe form of parables, and
one-third of the parables aboutnine out of thirty parables is
directly about the kingdom ofGod.
And so the parable starts withthe phrase saying the kingdom of
heaven is like, and the kingdomof God is such a complex topic
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that Jesus uses pictures todescribe it.
You know, when you have lessunderstanding about something,
the more pictures you need.
If you grew up in a Christianhome and had Christian parents,
the odds are that you probablyhad a children's Bible, and in
the children's Bible, thesmaller the child is, the more
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the pictures there are.
In the smallest children'sBible there is one line at the
top, on the sixth day, god madeanimals on the earth, and in the
bottom line says and he createdAdam and Eve.
And then there's a big pictureright in the middle that
occupies 90% of that page.
It's about a bunch of animalsand Adam and Eve playing hide
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and seek between the trees.
And so the idea is that theyounger we are, the younger we
are, the less understanding wehave, the more pictures that we
need.
And so you come to the adultBible, and there are no pictures
, because our minds cannot graspinfinite concepts.
Let me give you an example.
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Mathematically, there is nonumber called infinity.
You may say well, I did studyabout infinity back in school.
Yes, if you took a number anddivide by one, the answer is the
number right?
Five divided by one is five,and five divided by zero is
infinity.
So how can I say there is noinfinity?
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Well, try to think about it.
Think about the greatest numberyou can think about.
Let's call it x.
Okay, having thought about thegreatest number you can think
about, if that is x, I can thinkabout a number that is x plus 1
.
One more than that, andtherefore it's not the greatest
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number.
Let's say that for the next 250years you are counting numbers
and at the end of the 250th yearyou count to the greatest
number you have ever thought of,and still I can count one more
number more than that.
You see, there is a gap betweenthe highest finite number and
what is infinity, and the mindscannot grasp what is infinity.
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We are limited in ourunderstanding simply because we
are finite and therefore we canonly have a partial view of the
things of God.
Thirdly, let's look atcomparative greatness.
Matthew, chapter 13, verse 31,reads the kingdom of heaven is
like a grain of mustard seedthat a man took and sowed in his
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field.
There are a variety of mustardseeds, from white, yellow to
brown to black.
Here in the west you usemustard seed as in sauces and
paste, but in the east, in SouthIndia for example, you put it
in curries.
So you take this black mustardseed, put it in two tablespoons
of oil and you've got to let itpop.
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If you don't let it pop, it'stoo bitter, and so we let it pop
, and it's a very small seed Ican put 10 of them on my
fingernail.
And when the Bible says that itis a smaller seed.
The Bible is not trying to be abotany textbook.
Jesus is saying this becausethat was the culture at that
time.
In fact, there was a phrase inthat culture where they referred
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to something very small asbeing as small as a mustard seed
.
So Jews would say I'm bleeding,but it's as small as a mustard
seed.
A drop of blood as small as amustard seed.
Or they would say, a break inthe ceremonial law that is as
small as a mustard seed.
So what is this parable on thekingdom of God highlighting?
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This parable is highlightingcomparative greatness,
highlighting comparativegreatness.
It is seemingly small, but whenit grows it is big enough to
have birds build nests on thetrees.
So it is a small concept, or aseemingly small concept, but it
is colossal in its reality.
And Jesus uses multipleparables to try to explain the
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kingdom of God, and then hedemonstrates the characteristics
of the kingdom of God.
And then he demonstrates thecharacteristics of the kingdom
of God, and that is what we willturn to.
Fourthly, let's look at thecharacteristics of the kingdom
of God.
The idea of evil on one side andgood on the other side.
That is a well known ideathat's the basis of many stories
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, many books, some religionsthat there is good on one side
and there is evil on the otherside.
So for every bad bank robberthere is a good cop that will
eventually find the bad bankrobber.
For every joker there is aBatman.
So the idea of evil and goodopposing each other, that is a
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very common idea.
But as a philosophical viewthere is a problem with this
thinking and the philosophicalview is called Manichean dualism
.
And in this philosophical viewthe idea is that good and evil
are opposite and equal.
Good and evil are opposite andequal.
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Good and evil are opposite andequal.
The Christian view is not thatthey are opposite and equal.
The Christian view is thatthere are two kingdoms.
There is a kingdom of darknessand there is a kingdom of God.
But the kingdom of Godoverrules the kingdom of
darkness.
The kingdom of darkness is notequal to the kingdom of God,
overrules the kingdom ofdarkness.
The kingdom of darkness is notequal to the kingdom of God.
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The kingdom of God overrulesthe kingdom of darkness and
brings in the rain ofrighteousness In the kingdom of
darkness.
There are two kinds of evil.
First is what is called asnatural evil.
Natural evil has to do withanything in nature.
So earthquakes, tornadoes,hurricanes, fires, volcanoes,
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anything in nature, mostdiseases are natural evil and we
all know somebody who has adisease, or we ourselves have a
disease, and it's all naturalevil.
But the second kind of evil ismoral evil and in moral evil
this is a kind of evil becauseof the moral activity of a
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person.
It can be a human being or aspiritual being.
I have a friend who is fromKenya.
He's a speaker but he lives inKenya.
He was in the US for a littlebit and he came here to preach
but he found out that in histown in Kenya called Kijabi,
where he has an orphanage, thatthere were these severe floods
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and so he rushed back and hewanted to protect his orphanage.
There were severe floods thatwiped out towns and ruined the
roads and washed awaycommunities, but it spared his
orphanage.
And soon after the flood therewere some earthquakes that
happened to that city and soonafter the earthquakes there were
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riots that happened in the citybecause of some political
unrest.
But you can see the differencethe earthquake and the flood are
natural evils.
The riot is moral evil.
We were once part of the kingdomof darkness and Jesus
introduced us to the kingdom ofGod.
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So in Colossians, chapter one,verse 13,.
It says he has delivered usfrom the domain of darkness and
transferred us to the domain ofdarkness and transferred us to
the kingdom of his beloved son.
During his earthly life, jesusdemonstrated the characteristics
of the kingdom through hismiracles and his exorcisms.
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Even in the lord's Prayer wesay thy kingdom come.
That's the King James Version.
We say your kingdom come, yourwill be done.
What are we saying?
Your kingdom, as it is inheaven.
Let your kingdom come andoverrule the kingdom of darkness
that is here.
There are two characteristics ofthe kingdom of God that I want
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to highlight.
First, the kingdom of Godbrings freedom from natural evil
.
The kingdom of God bringsfreedom from natural evil.
Mark, chapter 4, verse 39 to 41, reads and Jesus awoke and
rebuked the wind and said to thesea peace, be still.
And the wind seized and therewas a great calm and they were
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filled with great fear and saidto one another Jesus showed his
power over natural evil.
He healed many diseases andshowed his power over natural
evil.
Second, the kingdom of Godbrings freedom from moral evil.
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Jesus performed at least sevenexorcisms and there must have
been many others, because hesaid he cast out many demons,
but there's record of at leastseven exorcisms that Jesus
performed.
Matthew, chapter 12, verse 28,says but if it is by the Spirit
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of God that I cast out demons,then the kingdom of God has come
upon you.
He attributes his exorcisms tothe coming of the kingdom of God
.
The coming of the kingdom ofGod gets rid of moral evil.
About 15 years ago I went backto India and I was there one
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Sunday and that was a baptismSunday.
The way it was done in thatchurch is that when there's a
baptism, we go to anotherlocation where Campus Crusade
for Christ has a big baptismpool, and so our church members
get baptized at that pool.
This was a common practice inthose churches nearby where
multiple different churcheswould come to the same pool so
they didn't have to have theirown baptismal tank.
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So our church members therewere about four or five of them
that needed to get baptized wewent to this baptismal tank and
when we got there there was alsoanother church that was there.
We we agreed to go first andthe pastor asked me to baptize
the four or five believers.
I went into the water.
I baptized the five believersas they all came out.
Then I was about to come outwhen the pastor of the other
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church asked me brother, do youmind baptizing our four or five
believers?
I said no problem at all.
And so the next group ofbelievers came one, two, three.
The fourth one was a lady whowas about in her 40s.
Obviously I had not seen thischurch before or seen these
believers before, and she camein.
The way I do it is, I ask twoquestions, which is standard.
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Have you put your faith injesus christ as Lord and Savior?
They say yes.
And then my second question isdo you intend to live for him
for the rest of your life?
And if the answer is in theaffirmative on both counts, then
I baptize.
And the way I do it is I havethem fold their arms like
they're praying so I can grab ahold of it.
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I put my hand at the back oftheir neck so as to stabilize it
, and then I baptize.
And so I asked her thesequestions have you believed in
Jesus as your Lord and Savior?
She was silent, and soon shestarted to sway and sway and
sway and sway in circles, and Iwas holding her.
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I knew that this was not thestrength of a 40-year-old lady.
There was a supernaturalstrength to it.
It took a minute for the peopleto realize what was going on.
I thought she was going to dragboth of us down, but we prayed
over her because obviously therewas something supernatural in
her past and there was somesupernatural reason why the
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powers didn't want her to getbaptized.
And so we prayed over her andwe baptized her.
There are demons everywhere.
There are demons everywhere.
There are demons everywhere.
If you read the book of Daniel,you will know that there are
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demons that are arrangedgeographically, geographically
arranged.
They're organized andgeographically arranged.
They're organized andgeographically arranged.
About five years ago, I wasinvited to speak to a group of
people in a West Asian countryand they asked me to speak for a
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week on the topic of God.
So for six hours every day,three hours in the morning,
three hours in the afternoon Ispoke on the topic of God.
So this is a West Asian country, but the people that were there
were from a Muslim country andthe plan was for them to learn
about God and the Bible and thengo back to the Muslim country
that I'm not going to name andbe missionaries there, and so
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these brothers were herelistening to the word of God.
What I did was I would speakthree hours in the morning,
three hours in the evening, allweek on God, and then in the
evening I would hang out withthem and hear their stories.
One of the brothers that wasthere.
Before I talked to him, Inoticed that there was something
different about his face.
Since I'm trained to look atfaces, I noticed that his lower
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jaw was kind of in front of hisupper jaw and there was what is
called as a vertical discrepancyof his maxilla and mandible.
Then, one of the days I got totalk to him, he told me that, as
he was disillusioned with theIslamic faith, he explored other
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religions and he started todeal with the occult and he said
for about two years, everynight a demon would come and
abuse him.
He was in so much pain that heground his teeth and ground his
jaw that his face had collapsed.
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In the West we don't really talkabout demons, right?
Well, you know, we came fromthe Enlightenment 500 years ago
and reason explains everything.
But that's not true.
Just like Verbal said in theusual suspects, the greatest
trick the devil ever pulled isto convince the world that he
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does not exist.
I want to be very clear aboutsomething, though If a person is
not a believer, then a demoncan get inside of them.
That is called demon possession.
But once a person becomes abeliever, the spirit of the Lord
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is in you, and once the spiritof the Lord is in you, there is
no demon that can come in you,but the demon can always
influence you from the outside.
That is why the Christian lifeis not an isolated life.
You live in community, so thatwe don't get influenced by the
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demons or by the world.
This is not a Bible study.
I'm not doing a Bible study onSatan and demons.
This is not the time for it,but let me give you some
examples of demonic influencefrom the Bible.
Some examples of demonicinfluence from the Bible
Addictions of any kind.
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Addictions of any kind.
Addictions of any kind.
If you are not a believer, youcan have a demon in you causing
addictions.
My family deals with drug andalcohol.
We do rehab for drug andalcohol addiction.
We know the power thataddiction has on people.
It is a non-human power thatyou can't do anything about.
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How?
About pervasive evil?
Some of the world's ruthlessdictators are most likely
possessed by the devil orpossessed by demons.
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The Bible also talks aboutphysical sicknesses.
The bible talks about mentalillnesses and psychological
issues.
The bible also talks aboutspiritual oppression.
I remember about 25 years ago Itaught on the topic of satan
and demons and for some reason Istretched it out over two weeks
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.
Those two weeks were, at thattime, one of the worst
experiences for me.
There was so much of spiritualoppression sitting right on my
head, it was just so much tohandle.
How about aversion to spiritualthings?
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2 Corinthians 4, 4 says the Godof this age has blinded the
minds of unbelievers so thatthey cannot see the light of the
gospel of the glory of God.
I want to emphasize that notall physical illnesses is caused
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by demon possession orinfluence.
Not all mental illnesses iscaused by demon possession or
influence, just like not all sinis directly because a demon is
causing you to sin.
You can sin because of our ownweak nature.
A demon is causing you to sin.
You can sin because of our ownweak nature, but we have to
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consider the possibility thatsome of our illnesses, some of
our things that happen anythingon this list could be from demon
possession if you're not abeliever, or demon influence if
you are a believer.
The parables of Jesus show adescription of the kingdom of
God.
The miracles of Jesus show thecharacteristics of the kingdom
of God.
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So essentially, the entire lifeand ministry of Jesus was all
about the kingdom of God.
Ladies and gentlemen, in Jesusthe kingdom of God is here.
The kingdom of God overcomesmoral and natural evil and
brings in the reign ofrighteousness.
On earth we can have only apartial manifestation of the
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kingdom of God On earth.
We can have only a partialmanifestation.
Why?
Because of the coexistence ofthe kingdom of darkness.
There is a coexistence of thekingdom of darkness.
There is a coexistence of thekingdom of darkness, but in
heaven there will be thecomplete manifestation of the
kingdom of God, because there isno kingdom of darkness.
So in Revelation, chapter 21,verses 3 to 4, it says and I
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heard a loud voice from thethrone saying Behold, the
dwelling place of God is withman.
He will dwell with them andthey will be his people, and God
himself will be with them astheir God.
He will wipe away every tearfrom their eyes and death shall
be no more.
Neither shall be mourning orcrying or pain anymore, for the
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former things have passed away.
This, ladies and gentlemen, isthe unrestrained, complete
manifestation of the kingdom ofGod.
It starts as small as a mustardseed and fills the heavens.
Fifth, and very quickly, let'slook at citizenship in the
kingdom of God.
How does one become a citizenof the kingdom of God?
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How does a person become amember of the kingdom of God?
In John, chapter 3, verse 3, itsays Jesus answered him.
Truly, truly, I say to you,unless one is born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God.
All we need to do is to believein Jesus and be born again, and
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once that happens, we end upliving in this in-between phase
where we are living in thekingdom of God but we're also
living associated with thekingdom of darkness.
It is always going to be thosetwo kingdoms together as we live
together, and then it is onlyin heaven that we will have no
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shadow of the kingdom of evil.
Let me end with one picture.
This is a picture of a15-year-old Meghan Markle.
For a second, I want you toforget whether she's a lying
manipulator or whether she's apioneering victim.
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Okay, let's forget about thatJust a second, but I want you to
see this picture of MeghanMarkle, age 15, with a friend.
She's outside Buckingham Palaceand about 20 years later she is
inside Buckingham Palace.
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How does a person go from beingoutside the palace to inside
the palace?
You do it by associating withthe sun from the palace, isn't
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it?
The small to colossal idea ofthe kingdom of God is also seen
in Jesus Christ.
Jesus had a scandalous birth.
Born to an unwed mother inBethlehem, he grew up in a tiny
town called Nazareth, a town sosmall that it has no mention of
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it in the old testament, and thetown so poor that there is no
archaeological remnants fromthat town.
And when he died he was buriedin a tomb that was not his own.
And three days later he met amotley crew of people that were
frightened and scared.
And yet he is the Alpha and theOmega, the beginning and the
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end.
He is the image of theinvisible God, the firstborn
over all creation.
He is the one through whom allthings were created, in heaven
and on earth, visible andinvisible, whether thrones or
dominions, or rulers orauthorities.
All things were created throughhim and for him.
And he is before all thingsthings, and in him all things
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hold together.
He has the name that is aboveevery other name, and it is at
his name that every knee willbow and every tongue will
confess to the glory of god, thefather.
Ladies and gentlemen, this isthe son who will take you into
the palace and into the kingdom.
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I'm going to give theopportunity for two groups of
people to respond to this sermon.
If there's anyone here who'snever invited Jesus into your
life and you're not part of thekingdom of God, I'm going to ask
you to stand up and we willpray together.
For the second group of people,if there is anyone here who is
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under the burden and the bondageof the kingdom of darkness, I'm
going to ask you to stand upand we will pray together.
If there's anyone here whoknows somebody or is related to
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life, you can pray this prayerafter me.
It's not a magical prayer, butif it's a prayer that comes from
the bottom of your heart, jesuswill answer it.
You can pray something likethis dear Lord Jesus, I am a
part of the kingdom of darknessand I cannot save myself.
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Thank you that you came toinaugurate the kingdom of God.
Thank you for your life, thankyou for your death, thank you
for your resurrection.
I ask you to come into my lifeand make me complete, make me a
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child of the kingdom of God, andthank you for the promise of
eternal life.
In Jesus' name, amen.
I'm going to pray for those ofus who are standing up.
I'm going to pray for those ofus who are standing up.
If you don't know Jesus, thefirst step is to come into the
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kingdom of God.
So, for those of us standing upwho are praying for freedom
from demonic forces, the firststep is coming to know Jesus,
and I'm going to ask you to saya phrase.
I want you to say the phraseJesus is Lord and mean it.
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All right, let's say the phraseJesus is Lord.
If he is not Lord, then we canhave demon possession.
No one can say Jesus is Lordexcept by the spirit of God,
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heavenly father.
I pray for those of us who arestanding up.
Thank you that Jesus came todestroy the works of the evil
one.
We thank you that he who is inus is greater than he who is in
the world.
I pray for every person here,whether they are struggling
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themselves or they arevicariously standing for someone
else.
I pray that, in the name ofJesus, that you would set them
free.
I pray that, in the name ofJesus, that you would set them
free.
I pray that, in the name ofJesus, you would get rid of
every demonic oppression, everydemonic influence that is upon
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their lives, whether it is fearor not being able to forgive, or
pervasive sin of whatever kind.
I pray, holy Spirit, spirit,that you would move in power
upon their lives and you wouldset them free.
I pray that this would be thestarting point of a long life of
freedom in Jesus Christ.
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Thank you that you came to setus free and we are free.
Indeed, in Jesus name, I prayAmen, thank you.
Good morning, thank you, thank you, thank you.
In 1998, jim Carrey starred inthe movie the Truman Show.
It's a movie that dealt withissues of free will and
manipulation, and if you havenot watched this movie from 1998
, or if you're going to watch it, you can close your ears for
(00:22):
just one minute, because I'mgoing to ruin the ending for you
here.
In this movie, truman Burbankis an individual who is living
what he thinks is his normallife, but as he finds out that
the whole thing has been set up,he's living in the middle of a
movie set, even though he feelslike he's living his normal life
(00:44):
, and he was being deceived hisentire life.
This morning, in a sermonentitled Mustards and Monarchs,
we're going to look at the issueof the kingdom of God through a
parable that Jesus said.
It's a topic that we think isvery abstract, but it is
something that we are in andsurrounds us.
Turn your Bibles, if you will,to Matthew, chapter 13, and we
(01:07):
will read verses 31 to 34.
Matthew, chapter 13, 31 to 34.
Let me read it for us.
He put another parable beforethem, saying the kingdom of
heaven is like a grain ofmustard seed that a man took and
sowed in his field.
It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is
(01:28):
larger than all the gardenplants and becomes a tree, so
that the birds of the air comeand make nests in its branches.
All these things Jesus said tothe crowds in parables.
Indeed, he said nothing to themwithout a parable.
I've divided this sermon intofive parts.
In the first part, we will lookat the grand story.
(01:48):
In the second part, we willlook at description with
pictures.
In the third part, we will lookat this specific parable and
call it comparative greatness.
In the fourth part, where Ihope to spend most of our time,
I want to look atcharacteristics of the kingdom.
And fifth, very quickly, wewill look at citizenship in the
kingdom.
(02:08):
First, let's look at the grandstory.
The basic question is well,what is the kingdom of God?
And the simple answer is it isthe reign of God and,
specifically, the rule of Christ.
There are multiple terms thatare used to describe this the
kingdom of Christ.
There are multiple terms thatare used to describe this the
kingdom of heaven, the kingdomof God, the kingdom of Christ.
(02:29):
And many times the question ishow is the kingdom of God
related to the church?
And the answer is the kingdomof God is a much broader concept
and the church is a thin sliverin the middle of the kingdom of
God.
It is part of the kingdom ofGod.
We may not have thought aboutthe kingdom of God too much, but
(02:50):
it is the entire story ofhumanity and the Bible.
This was the plan of God fromthe beginning.
God created the universe andmade Adam and Eve in the garden
of Eden and he wanted to be kingover them.
But Adam rebelled.
He sinned.
When Adam sinned, there wasanother kingdom that was
(03:11):
introduced, the kingdom ofdarkness.
But God wanted to show theworld that he still wanted to be
king and he wanted the kingdomof God on earth.
And so he chose one group ofpeople called the Israelites and
he wanted to show them that hewould be king over them.
But the Israelites did not wantGod to be king.
So in 1 Samuel 8, verse 7, itreads and the Lord said to
(03:35):
Samuel they have not rejectedyou, but they have rejected me
from being king over them.
Eventually God sent them intoexile.
They went to Assyria and theywent to Babylon and they were in
exile and most of them nevercame back.
Some of them did come back andGod was not king over those
(03:56):
people.
The last book of the OldTestament is the book of Malachi
and the first book of the NewTestament is the book of Matthew
, and there's only one page thatseparates the two.
If you turn from Malachi toMatthew, it's just one page, but
that one page represents 400years.
There was 400 years of silencewhen God was not king.
(04:21):
There was 400 years where thepeople of Israel did not hear
from God, and during that timethey were under the oppressive
reign of the Roman Republic.
In 63 BC, general Pompey cameand conquered Jerusalem.
In 44 BC, julius Caesar wasassassinated after five years of
(04:43):
being the ruler.
And in 27 BC, octavius Caesar,or Augustus Caesar, the adoptive
son of Julius Caesar, becamethe first Roman Emperor.
And it is under the Emperorship of Octavius Caesar that, in
a little town in Bethlehem,that Jesus was born.
So this is the grand story,from creation to the time that
(05:07):
Jesus was born.
Second, let's look atdescription with pictures.
We all know the first miraclethat Jesus did.
Let me ask you a questionwhat's the first sermon that he
said?
What's the first sermon thatJesus said In Matthew, chapter 4
, verse 17 is his first sermon.
From that time Jesus began topreach saying Repent, for the
(05:31):
kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The first message was aboutrepentance, and the constant
theme of his sermons was aboutthe kingdom of God.
One of the important reasonswhy Jesus came was to inaugurate
the kingdom of God.
One of the important reasonswhy Jesus came was to inaugurate
the kingdom of God, which hadbeen silent for 400 years.
But Jesus does not define thekingdom of God.
(05:54):
He describes it only throughparables.
Actually, one-third of theteaching of Jesus is in the form
of parables and one-third ofthe parables about nine out of
30 parables is directly aboutthe form of parables, and
one-third of the parables aboutnine out of thirty parables is
directly about the kingdom ofGod.
And so the parable starts withthe phrase saying the kingdom of
heaven is like, and the kingdomof God is such a complex topic
(06:18):
that Jesus uses pictures todescribe it.
You know, when you have lessunderstanding about something,
the more pictures you need.
If you grew up in a Christianhome and had Christian parents,
the odds are that you probablyhad a children's Bible, and in
the children's Bible, thesmaller the child is, the more
(06:38):
the pictures there are.
In the smallest children'sBible there is one line at the
top, on the sixth day, god madeanimals on the earth, and in the
bottom line says and he createdAdam and Eve.
And then there's a big pictureright in the middle that
occupies 90% of that page.
It's about a bunch of animalsand Adam and Eve playing hide
(06:59):
and seek between the trees.
And so the idea is that theyounger we are, the younger we
are, the less understanding wehave, the more pictures that we
need.
And so you come to the adultBible, and there are no pictures
, because our minds cannot graspinfinite concepts.
Let me give you an example.
(07:21):
Mathematically, there is nonumber called infinity.
You may say well, I did studyabout infinity back in school.
Yes, if you took a number anddivide by one, the answer is the
number right?
Five divided by one is five,and five divided by zero is
infinity.
So how can I say there is noinfinity?
(07:44):
Well, try to think about it.
Think about the greatest numberyou can think about.
Let's call it x.
Okay, having thought about thegreatest number you can think
about, if that is x, I can thinkabout a number that is x plus 1
.
One more than that, andtherefore it's not the greatest
(08:05):
number.
Let's say that for the next 250years you are counting numbers
and at the end of the 250th yearyou count to the greatest
number you have ever thought of,and still I can count one more
number more than that.
You see, there is a gap betweenthe highest finite number and
what is infinity, and the mindscannot grasp what is infinity.
(08:29):
We are limited in ourunderstanding simply because we
are finite and therefore we canonly have a partial view of the
things of God.
Thirdly, let's look atcomparative greatness.
Matthew, chapter 13, verse 31,reads the kingdom of heaven is
like a grain of mustard seedthat a man took and sowed in his
(08:50):
field.
There are a variety of mustardseeds, from white, yellow to
brown to black.
Here in the west you usemustard seed as in sauces and
paste, but in the east, in SouthIndia for example, you put it
in curries.
So you take this black mustardseed, put it in two tablespoons
of oil and you've got to let itpop.
(09:11):
If you don't let it pop, it'stoo bitter, and so we let it pop
, and it's a very small seed Ican put 10 of them on my
fingernail.
And when the Bible says that itis a smaller seed.
The Bible is not trying to be abotany textbook.
Jesus is saying this becausethat was the culture at that
time.
In fact, there was a phrase inthat culture where they referred
(09:35):
to something very small asbeing as small as a mustard seed
.
So Jews would say I'm bleeding,but it's as small as a mustard
seed.
A drop of blood as small as amustard seed.
Or they would say, a break inthe ceremonial law that is as
small as a mustard seed.
So what is this parable on thekingdom of God highlighting?
(09:57):
This parable is highlightingcomparative greatness,
highlighting comparativegreatness.
It is seemingly small, but whenit grows it is big enough to
have birds build nests on thetrees.
So it is a small concept, or aseemingly small concept, but it
is colossal in its reality.
And Jesus uses multipleparables to try to explain the
(10:22):
kingdom of God, and then hedemonstrates the characteristics
of the kingdom of God.
And then he demonstrates thecharacteristics of the kingdom
of God, and that is what we willturn to.
Fourthly, let's look at thecharacteristics of the kingdom
of God.
The idea of evil on one side andgood on the other side.
That is a well known ideathat's the basis of many stories
(10:43):
, many books, some religionsthat there is good on one side
and there is evil on the otherside.
So for every bad bank robberthere is a good cop that will
eventually find the bad bankrobber.
For every joker there is aBatman.
So the idea of evil and goodopposing each other, that is a
(11:05):
very common idea.
But as a philosophical viewthere is a problem with this
thinking and the philosophicalview is called Manichean dualism
.
And in this philosophical viewthe idea is that good and evil
are opposite and equal.
Good and evil are opposite andequal.
(11:26):
Good and evil are opposite andequal.
The Christian view is not thatthey are opposite and equal.
The Christian view is thatthere are two kingdoms.
There is a kingdom of darknessand there is a kingdom of God.
But the kingdom of Godoverrules the kingdom of
darkness.
The kingdom of darkness is notequal to the kingdom of God,
overrules the kingdom ofdarkness.
The kingdom of darkness is notequal to the kingdom of God.
(11:47):
The kingdom of God overrulesthe kingdom of darkness and
brings in the rain ofrighteousness In the kingdom of
darkness.
There are two kinds of evil.
First is what is called asnatural evil.
Natural evil has to do withanything in nature.
So earthquakes, tornadoes,hurricanes, fires, volcanoes,
(12:12):
anything in nature, mostdiseases are natural evil and we
all know somebody who has adisease, or we ourselves have a
disease, and it's all naturalevil.
But the second kind of evil ismoral evil and in moral evil
this is a kind of evil becauseof the moral activity of a
(12:34):
person.
It can be a human being or aspiritual being.
I have a friend who is fromKenya.
He's a speaker but he lives inKenya.
He was in the US for a littlebit and he came here to preach
but he found out that in histown in Kenya called Kijabi,
where he has an orphanage, thatthere were these severe floods
(12:56):
and so he rushed back and hewanted to protect his orphanage.
There were severe floods thatwiped out towns and ruined the
roads and washed awaycommunities, but it spared his
orphanage.
And soon after the flood therewere some earthquakes that
happened to that city and soonafter the earthquakes there were
(13:16):
riots that happened in the citybecause of some political
unrest.
But you can see the differencethe earthquake and the flood are
natural evils.
The riot is moral evil.
We were once part of the kingdomof darkness and Jesus
introduced us to the kingdom ofGod.
(13:36):
So in Colossians, chapter one,verse 13,.
It says he has delivered usfrom the domain of darkness and
transferred us to the domain ofdarkness and transferred us to
the kingdom of his beloved son.
During his earthly life, jesusdemonstrated the characteristics
of the kingdom through hismiracles and his exorcisms.
(13:57):
Even in the lord's Prayer wesay thy kingdom come.
That's the King James Version.
We say your kingdom come, yourwill be done.
What are we saying?
Your kingdom, as it is inheaven.
Let your kingdom come andoverrule the kingdom of darkness
that is here.
There are two characteristics ofthe kingdom of God that I want
(14:19):
to highlight.
First, the kingdom of Godbrings freedom from natural evil
.
The kingdom of God bringsfreedom from natural evil.
Mark, chapter 4, verse 39 to 41, reads and Jesus awoke and
rebuked the wind and said to thesea peace, be still.
And the wind seized and therewas a great calm and they were
(14:42):
filled with great fear and saidto one another Jesus showed his
power over natural evil.
He healed many diseases andshowed his power over natural
evil.
Second, the kingdom of Godbrings freedom from moral evil.
(15:05):
Jesus performed at least sevenexorcisms and there must have
been many others, because hesaid he cast out many demons,
but there's record of at leastseven exorcisms that Jesus
performed.
Matthew, chapter 12, verse 28,says but if it is by the Spirit
(15:27):
of God that I cast out demons,then the kingdom of God has come
upon you.
He attributes his exorcisms tothe coming of the kingdom of God
.
The coming of the kingdom ofGod gets rid of moral evil.
About 15 years ago I went backto India and I was there one
(15:54):
Sunday and that was a baptismSunday.
The way it was done in thatchurch is that when there's a
baptism, we go to anotherlocation where Campus Crusade
for Christ has a big baptismpool, and so our church members
get baptized at that pool.
This was a common practice inthose churches nearby where
multiple different churcheswould come to the same pool so
they didn't have to have theirown baptismal tank.
(16:14):
So our church members therewere about four or five of them
that needed to get baptized wewent to this baptismal tank and
when we got there there was alsoanother church that was there.
We we agreed to go first andthe pastor asked me to baptize
the four or five believers.
I went into the water.
I baptized the five believersas they all came out.
Then I was about to come outwhen the pastor of the other
(16:38):
church asked me brother, do youmind baptizing our four or five
believers?
I said no problem at all.
And so the next group ofbelievers came one, two, three.
The fourth one was a lady whowas about in her 40s.
Obviously I had not seen thischurch before or seen these
believers before, and she camein.
The way I do it is, I ask twoquestions, which is standard.
(17:00):
Have you put your faith injesus christ as Lord and Savior?
They say yes.
And then my second question isdo you intend to live for him
for the rest of your life?
And if the answer is in theaffirmative on both counts, then
I baptize.
And the way I do it is I havethem fold their arms like
they're praying so I can grab ahold of it.
(17:21):
I put my hand at the back oftheir neck so as to stabilize it
, and then I baptize.
And so I asked her thesequestions have you believed in
Jesus as your Lord and Savior?
She was silent, and soon shestarted to sway and sway and
sway and sway in circles, and Iwas holding her.
(17:44):
I knew that this was not thestrength of a 40-year-old lady.
There was a supernaturalstrength to it.
It took a minute for the peopleto realize what was going on.
I thought she was going to dragboth of us down, but we prayed
over her because obviously therewas something supernatural in
her past and there was somesupernatural reason why the
(18:06):
powers didn't want her to getbaptized.
And so we prayed over her andwe baptized her.
There are demons everywhere.
There are demons everywhere.
There are demons everywhere.
If you read the book of Daniel,you will know that there are
(18:32):
demons that are arrangedgeographically, geographically
arranged.
They're organized andgeographically arranged.
They're organized andgeographically arranged.
About five years ago, I wasinvited to speak to a group of
people in a West Asian countryand they asked me to speak for a
(18:54):
week on the topic of God.
So for six hours every day,three hours in the morning,
three hours in the afternoon Ispoke on the topic of God.
So this is a West Asian country, but the people that were there
were from a Muslim country andthe plan was for them to learn
about God and the Bible and thengo back to the Muslim country
that I'm not going to name andbe missionaries there, and so
(19:17):
these brothers were herelistening to the word of God.
What I did was I would speakthree hours in the morning,
three hours in the evening, allweek on God, and then in the
evening I would hang out withthem and hear their stories.
One of the brothers that wasthere.
Before I talked to him, Inoticed that there was something
different about his face.
Since I'm trained to look atfaces, I noticed that his lower
(19:40):
jaw was kind of in front of hisupper jaw and there was what is
called as a vertical discrepancyof his maxilla and mandible.
Then, one of the days I got totalk to him, he told me that, as
he was disillusioned with theIslamic faith, he explored other
(20:00):
religions and he started todeal with the occult and he said
for about two years, everynight a demon would come and
abuse him.
He was in so much pain that heground his teeth and ground his
jaw that his face had collapsed.
(20:27):
In the West we don't really talkabout demons, right?
Well, you know, we came fromthe Enlightenment 500 years ago
and reason explains everything.
But that's not true.
Just like Verbal said in theusual suspects, the greatest
trick the devil ever pulled isto convince the world that he
(20:48):
does not exist.
I want to be very clear aboutsomething, though If a person is
not a believer, then a demoncan get inside of them.
That is called demon possession.
But once a person becomes abeliever, the spirit of the Lord
(21:15):
is in you, and once the spiritof the Lord is in you, there is
no demon that can come in you,but the demon can always
influence you from the outside.
That is why the Christian lifeis not an isolated life.
You live in community, so thatwe don't get influenced by the
(21:37):
demons or by the world.
This is not a Bible study.
I'm not doing a Bible study onSatan and demons.
This is not the time for it,but let me give you some
examples of demonic influencefrom the Bible.
Some examples of demonicinfluence from the Bible
Addictions of any kind.
(21:58):
Addictions of any kind.
Addictions of any kind.
If you are not a believer, youcan have a demon in you causing
addictions.
My family deals with drug andalcohol.
We do rehab for drug andalcohol addiction.
We know the power thataddiction has on people.
It is a non-human power thatyou can't do anything about.
(22:19):
How?
About pervasive evil?
Some of the world's ruthlessdictators are most likely
possessed by the devil orpossessed by demons.
(22:40):
The Bible also talks aboutphysical sicknesses.
The bible talks about mentalillnesses and psychological
issues.
The bible also talks aboutspiritual oppression.
I remember about 25 years ago Itaught on the topic of satan
and demons and for some reason Istretched it out over two weeks
(23:01):
.
Those two weeks were, at thattime, one of the worst
experiences for me.
There was so much of spiritualoppression sitting right on my
head, it was just so much tohandle.
How about aversion to spiritualthings?
(23:22):
2 Corinthians 4, 4 says the Godof this age has blinded the
minds of unbelievers so thatthey cannot see the light of the
gospel of the glory of God.
I want to emphasize that notall physical illnesses is caused
(23:45):
by demon possession orinfluence.
Not all mental illnesses iscaused by demon possession or
influence, just like not all sinis directly because a demon is
causing you to sin.
You can sin because of our ownweak nature.
A demon is causing you to sin.
You can sin because of our ownweak nature, but we have to
(24:05):
consider the possibility thatsome of our illnesses, some of
our things that happen anythingon this list could be from demon
possession if you're not abeliever, or demon influence if
you are a believer.
The parables of Jesus show adescription of the kingdom of
God.
The miracles of Jesus show thecharacteristics of the kingdom
of God.
(24:26):
So essentially, the entire lifeand ministry of Jesus was all
about the kingdom of God.
Ladies and gentlemen, in Jesusthe kingdom of God is here.
The kingdom of God overcomesmoral and natural evil and
brings in the reign ofrighteousness.
On earth we can have only apartial manifestation of the
(24:48):
kingdom of God On earth.
We can have only a partialmanifestation.
Why?
Because of the coexistence ofthe kingdom of darkness.
There is a coexistence of thekingdom of darkness.
There is a coexistence of thekingdom of darkness, but in
heaven there will be thecomplete manifestation of the
kingdom of God, because there isno kingdom of darkness.
So in Revelation, chapter 21,verses 3 to 4, it says and I
(25:12):
heard a loud voice from thethrone saying Behold, the
dwelling place of God is withman.
He will dwell with them andthey will be his people, and God
himself will be with them astheir God.
He will wipe away every tearfrom their eyes and death shall
be no more.
Neither shall be mourning orcrying or pain anymore, for the
(25:33):
former things have passed away.
This, ladies and gentlemen, isthe unrestrained, complete
manifestation of the kingdom ofGod.
It starts as small as a mustardseed and fills the heavens.
Fifth, and very quickly, let'slook at citizenship in the
kingdom of God.
How does one become a citizenof the kingdom of God?
(25:57):
How does a person become amember of the kingdom of God?
In John, chapter 3, verse 3, itsays Jesus answered him.
Truly, truly, I say to you,unless one is born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God.
All we need to do is to believein Jesus and be born again, and
(26:21):
once that happens, we end upliving in this in-between phase
where we are living in thekingdom of God but we're also
living associated with thekingdom of darkness.
It is always going to be thosetwo kingdoms together as we live
together, and then it is onlyin heaven that we will have no
(26:44):
shadow of the kingdom of evil.
Let me end with one picture.
This is a picture of a15-year-old Meghan Markle.
For a second, I want you toforget whether she's a lying
manipulator or whether she's apioneering victim.
(27:07):
Okay, let's forget about thatJust a second, but I want you to
see this picture of MeghanMarkle, age 15, with a friend.
She's outside Buckingham Palaceand about 20 years later she is
inside Buckingham Palace.
(27:27):
How does a person go from beingoutside the palace to inside
the palace?
You do it by associating withthe sun from the palace, isn't
(27:48):
it?
The small to colossal idea ofthe kingdom of God is also seen
in Jesus Christ.
Jesus had a scandalous birth.
Born to an unwed mother inBethlehem, he grew up in a tiny
town called Nazareth, a town sosmall that it has no mention of
(28:12):
it in the old testament, and thetown so poor that there is no
archaeological remnants fromthat town.
And when he died he was buriedin a tomb that was not his own.
And three days later he met amotley crew of people that were
frightened and scared.
And yet he is the Alpha and theOmega, the beginning and the
(28:39):
end.
He is the image of theinvisible God, the firstborn
over all creation.
He is the one through whom allthings were created, in heaven
and on earth, visible andinvisible, whether thrones or
dominions, or rulers orauthorities.
All things were created throughhim and for him.
And he is before all thingsthings, and in him all things
(29:02):
hold together.
He has the name that is aboveevery other name, and it is at
his name that every knee willbow and every tongue will
confess to the glory of god, thefather.
Ladies and gentlemen, this isthe son who will take you into
the palace and into the kingdom.
(29:28):
I'm going to give theopportunity for two groups of
people to respond to this sermon.
If there's anyone here who'snever invited Jesus into your
life and you're not part of thekingdom of God, I'm going to ask
you to stand up and we willpray together.
For the second group of people,if there is anyone here who is
(29:52):
under the burden and the bondageof the kingdom of darkness, I'm
going to ask you to stand upand we will pray together.
If there's anyone here whoknows somebody or is related to
(30:21):
life, you can pray this prayerafter me.
It's not a magical prayer, butif it's a prayer that comes from
the bottom of your heart, jesuswill answer it.
You can pray something likethis dear Lord Jesus, I am a
part of the kingdom of darknessand I cannot save myself.
(30:44):
Thank you that you came toinaugurate the kingdom of God.
Thank you for your life, thankyou for your death, thank you
for your resurrection.
I ask you to come into my lifeand make me complete, make me a
(31:07):
child of the kingdom of God, andthank you for the promise of
eternal life.
In Jesus' name, amen.
I'm going to pray for those ofus who are standing up.
I'm going to pray for those ofus who are standing up.
If you don't know Jesus, thefirst step is to come into the
(31:32):
kingdom of God.
So, for those of us standing upwho are praying for freedom
from demonic forces, the firststep is coming to know Jesus,
and I'm going to ask you to saya phrase.
I want you to say the phraseJesus is Lord and mean it.
(31:57):
All right, let's say the phraseJesus is Lord.
If he is not Lord, then we canhave demon possession.
No one can say Jesus is Lordexcept by the spirit of God,
(32:24):
heavenly father.
I pray for those of us who arestanding up.
Thank you that Jesus came todestroy the works of the evil
one.
We thank you that he who is inus is greater than he who is in
the world.
I pray for every person here,whether they are struggling
(32:51):
themselves or they arevicariously standing for someone
else.
I pray that, in the name ofJesus, that you would set them
free.
I pray that, in the name ofJesus, that you would set them
free.
I pray that, in the name ofJesus, you would get rid of
every demonic oppression, everydemonic influence that is upon
(33:12):
their lives, whether it is fearor not being able to forgive, or
pervasive sin of whatever kind.
I pray, holy Spirit, spirit,that you would move in power
upon their lives and you wouldset them free.
I pray that this would be thestarting point of a long life of
freedom in Jesus Christ.
(33:34):
Thank you that you came to setus free and we are free.
Indeed, in Jesus name, I prayAmen, thank you.
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