December 3, 2024 • 34 mins
In this episode of the Manhood Tribes Show, we explore the deeper meaning of the title 'King' for Jesus.
Host Don Ross dives into the essence of the gospel, clarifying that it's not just about personal salvation or forgiveness of sins but about recognizing Jesus's kingship and the availability of His kingdom to everyone.
We examine the epic, purposeful, and resilient nature of a masculine faith and discuss how men can live out their roles in Jesus's kingdom today.
Tune in to rediscover the gospel and learn to live a life aligned with Christ's teachings.
00:00 Introduction: The Title of Jesus
01:01 The Manhood Quiz
01:34 Series Overview: The Way of the King
03:18 The Three Pillars of Masculine Faith
05:06 The Story of God and Humanity
06:40 Understanding the Gospel
13:15 The Gospel: Not About Me, About Jesus
15:54 The Gospel: Not About Salvation, About Kingship
19:58 The Gospel: Not About Forgiveness, About the Kingdom
23:54 The Gospel: Not About Heaven, About Now
26:20 Living in Jesus's Kingdom
31:04 Invitation to Join Jesus's Kingdom
33:28 Conclusion and Next Steps
💪 Want to know how you measure up as a man? Take our free quiz, called How Manly Are You? and learn how you can get better at being a man. Download for free at manhoodtribes.com/manly. 💪
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Don Ross (00:00):
Okay, man.
If you were to give Jesus atitle.
What title would you give him?
Maybe, you know, a lot aboutJesus.
Maybe you just know a little,but you probably have heard him
talked about at least enoughthat you could say that you
think he's a.
Teacher.
That he's Lord.
(00:22):
Savior friend.
God, like what title would yougive?
Jesus?
Well, I think in the story ofthe scriptures, there is one
title in particular that thewhole story is really trying to
drive us to.
And that title is what we needto talk about today on the
manhood tribe show.
Let's jump in.
(01:02):
Guys want to know how youmeasure up as a man?
I've got a great resource foryou.
It's called how manly are you?
And it's a free quiz that youcan take to figure out how you
stack up against what it meansto be a man.
And when you take the quiz,you'll also get some free
resources to help you figure outhow you can get better as a man
in the areas where you wouldlike to grow.
(01:23):
So go to manhoodtribes.com/manlyto download your free.
How manly are you quiz today?
That's manhoodtribes.com/manly.
Men welcome to the manhoodtribes show.
My name is Don Ross.
I'm your host.
And it's good to be with youtoday because we are continuing
(01:43):
in our series that I'm callingthe way of the king.
Now here on the manhood tribeshow.
When I create a series, what I'mtrying to do is really address
kind of a big problem in men'slives and see if we can come up
with some.
Not all out solutions, but atleast directions towards how men
can be able to address thatproblem in their lives.
(02:06):
And with this series, what I'mreally trying to talk about is
the problem that a lot of guysin our culture are having right
now, which is they are lookingat faith and their lives and
just going.
I'm not sure this really worksfor me.
Like when it comes to the wholechurch thing, like, I'm just not
sure that I fit in there or I'mutterly bored.
(02:29):
Anytime that I go or everythingthat gets talked about in those
kind of Christian circles justfeels like it doesn't have much
to do with my actual life.
I get you.
I understand that, especiallyfor men, that can be a real
challenge.
And so in this series, I'mtrying to figure out how we, as
men can develop what I wouldcall a masculine faith.
(02:51):
What does it look like as a manto relate to God?
How do we do that in a waythat's like manly.
And is that even a thing?
Is it even appropriate to applythe word manly to faith?
I would say that I think it is.
And I think in order to do that,we're going to have to think in
a few big categories.
(03:12):
I brought these categories up inthe first episode and you're
going to hear me touch on themin each episode of this series.
But there's really three bigcategories that I think helped
shape what a masculine faithreally looks like.
The first is that it needs to beepic.
And that just means that ourfaith needs to be a story that's
really big and needs to bebigger than our own individual
(03:33):
lives.
Or even then like are thecurrent events of our existing
world right now.
It needs to be big.
It needs to cover the entiretyof human history and our human
future as well.
And there needs to be lots ofroom for all of us to have a
part to play in that story.
Okay.
So that's the first thing.
It needs to be epic, but thesecond thing is that it also
needs to be purposeful.
(03:54):
Especially for us as men, weneed to have a part to play.
We need to have a role in thestory.
We need to feel like we havesomething to contribute to
what's going on to the world,around us and to the story that
we're a part of.
As men, we are wired for action.
And so if we don't havesomething to contribute
something to do faith, isn'treally ever going to feel
(04:18):
relevant to us.
Okay.
So we need an epic faith.
We need a purposeful faith.
And the third thing is that weneed a resilient faith.
And that just means that whenour faith stands up against the
hardest things that life canthrow at us, all the tragedy,
all the pain, all the shame, allthe difficulty, our faith needs
(04:39):
to be able to stand the test.
It needs to be able to hold itsown against all of those really
big challenges that we, as menare going to face in the world
and it needs to come out reallygood.
On the other side, it needs tocome out.
Maybe even looking better thanbefore we started down the road
of those challenges.
So epic.
(05:00):
Purposeful resilient.
A masculine faith definitelyneeds to include those things.
We started out in the lastepisode by talking about the
story of God and humanity, andreally trying to understand just
how big and how broad that storyis, but also where we fit into
it.
And that we do have a reallysignificant part to play that
(05:23):
God designed us as human beings.
To be able to rule and governhow life works here in this
physical realm that we callearth, that we are meant to
represent him in this space.
And to rule as he would rulehere on the earth.
That's a really important partthat we have been given.
(05:44):
But if we look around, it'spretty easy to see that.
We as men.
Have messed it up more often,more often than we have
succeeded.
And you can tell that not justfrom your own life and all the
mistakes that you have made, butyou can just look around at the
world and see like, Hey, we'renot doing so hot.
Most of the time.
We're more violent and cruel toeach other more often than we
(06:06):
are kind and peaceful.
And just the world is not a verysafe place to live in for many,
many people around the world.
And none of that represents whatit looks like to live in God's
kingdom.
So we need to talk about thenwhat God's kingdom really is all
about and how it is that we, asmen are meant to bring it to the
(06:29):
world.
So in order to do that, I'vesaid that we're going to cover
six big things.
The first one was the story, andtoday we need to cover
something.
That's going to help usunderstand a little bit more
about God's kingdom.
So today the thing that we needto cover is the gospel.
Now.
The word gospel, I know is avery churchy, very religious
(06:49):
term.
And if you've heard it at all,you've kind of just heard it
used in terms of like, you know,the gospel truth, meaning like
something that you're neversupposed to disagree with, or
you've heard some preacherthumping at you with the gospel,
you know, and that you've got tobelieve it and you've got to
accept it and you know, allthose kinds of things.
It just has a lot of this, likechurchy religiousness around it
(07:12):
without a lot of actualunderstanding.
Handing in the church world, theterm gospel is just kind of a
term that gets thrown around andaccepted, but.
Most people, aren't really surewhat it even means and what it
has to do with our ownindividual lives.
And so that's what I want to tryto unpack today because the
gospel is actually superimportant to us understanding
(07:35):
everything else about what Godis doing in our lives and what
the way of the king reallymeans.
Now.
I asked at the beginning of thisepisode, what is a title that
you would give to Jesus?
If you had to just give him one,what would you give him?
And you may can gather from thelanguage that I've already used
(07:56):
in this episode that I thinkthat the title that's most
important to give to Jesus isking.
King.
Really the whole story of thescriptures is trying to tell us
that Jesus is king of theuniverse.
That through all of his life andthrough the story of what he
lived, he has become king overall of the universe.
(08:20):
And we are meant to be able togive our allegiance to him.
So that we can experience lifein his kingdom, but I'm getting
ahead of myself a little bit,and we need to go back and
understand a little bit aboutwhat this word gospel means so
that we can get a better graspof Jesus as king and Jesus and
his kingdom.
The word gospel really justmeans good news.
(08:43):
It comes from a Greek wordcalled you on Galyon.
It's the same word that we getare English words, evangelize or
evangelism from.
And it really just means goodnews.
But it means a particular kindof good news.
See, this word came out of thetime of the Roman empire.
And it was the kind of word thatwas used.
(09:05):
Whenever a messenger would comeback from a battle and he would
come running into the city andhe would have good news to
proclaim.
He would proclaim the good newsthat because of this battle,
your king is now this personwho, you know, won the battle
or, you know, maybe it wasbecause of some kind of treaty
(09:25):
that like your territory had nowbecome part of this other
kingdom over here.
And look, here's the good newsis that so-and-so.
Is now your king.
Well, you might can get from theway that I'm talking about it.
This may have not always beengood news, but the messenger,
you know, was a servant of thisnew king.
And so he's always trying to puta positive spin on it.
But really what he's doing isproclaiming to the people of
(09:48):
that town or that city.
That you now have this person asyour authority figure.
Your lands, your property, yourtown, your city, and everything
about your lives.
Now comes under this person asyour king.
That's what a gospel message wasall about.
(10:10):
It was about proclaiming who wasnow king over you.
Sometimes that was good news.
If you got a good king,sometimes it was not so good,
especially if you had had a goodking already and now the new
Victor or the new Lord was notsuch a good king.
It meant that things were notgoing to go well in your life.
(10:31):
And so even though the king wasdescribing it as good news, You
probably knew that it wasn't somuch.
So why is it then that we say.
The good news about Jesus isactually really good.
Well, that's what we need tounderstand.
C N America.
Uh, and for most of the Westernworld for the past, you know,
(10:52):
several centuries, we have beentalking about the gospel and
some pretty specific terms.
If you've heard a gospelpresentation at some point in
time in your life, you'veprobably heard it go something
like this.
Jesus died on the cross as asacrifice for your sins so that
you can be forgiven.
And if you will accept him,you'll be saved so that you can
(11:15):
go to heaven when you die.
That is what most Americans haveheard preach to them as the
gospel message.
I want to say to you that noneof those things is wrong.
In fact, they're all good andreally right.
And wonderful.
Now we're going to have someways that we're going to finesse
them and even correct them justa little bit as we go forward in
(11:37):
the series.
But what I do want to say to youpretty emphatically is that
while those things are true,They are not the gospel, at
least not in the sense that thegospel is talked about in the
Bible.
The gospel is the good news.
It is the proclamation thatJesus has become king.
(11:58):
It is the announcement thatJesus is now king over all the
universe.
Not only that it is also theannouncement that his kingdom is
available for anyone to enter.
Okay.
So let's unpack some of thosethings, because this is where we
need to kind of get down intothe nitty-gritty.
Of helping us understand thisidea of the gospel, because I
(12:21):
know if you're like me andyou've grown up in American
culture, especially if you'vegrown up around the church.
Some of the things that I'msaying, you may be scratching
your head going.
Uh, what is this guy talkingabout?
Like, he's saying that thegospel isn't what I've heard.
It said it is like, does thatmake him a heretic?
Like, do we need to listen tothis guy?
I know you've got some questionsand I get it.
I want to try to unpack thosethings for you guys who are
(12:42):
familiar with the gospel.
But I also want to try to givethis message to people who have
not heard it, or maybe haveheard it in a way that turned
them off to begin with.
And I want to say to them, it'smaybe not what you thought it
was.
So let's try to discover what itreally is.
I want to give you four ideasthat will help you understand
what the Bible is really talkingabout when it talks about the
(13:03):
gospel.
And I'm going to do that bysaying some ways that it isn't
what we've heard it preached as,but it's actually something
else.
Okay.
So let's, uh, to give you anexample, let's just start with
the first one.
The first of those four ideas isthat the gospel is not about me.
It's about Jesus.
(13:24):
The gospel is not about me.
It's about Jesus.
See the gospel that most of ushas heard actually is about us.
Now, Jesus is kind of the mainfigure in the story, but the
gospel message that we've beenpreached is really all about my
forgiveness of sins and me beingsaved so that I can go to heaven
when I die.
(13:44):
It's really all about what needsto happen to me so that I can
secure a good future for myself.
But that's not the point of whatthe gospel is all about.
The gospel isn't about me.
It's about Jesus.
In the Bible, the writers ofwhat are called the gospels,
which is really the first fourbooks of the new Testament and
(14:05):
kind of just the story of thelife of Jesus.
They're called the gospelsbecause they are telling of the
good news and they are actuallyproclaiming this idea of God's
kingdom coming to earth and ofJesus becoming king.
Now, when we look at thosestories, we see that Jesus very
often talked about God'skingdom.
(14:25):
He talked about the kingdom ofGod and how it was coming to
earth.
And the ways that the kingdom ofGod was like this, or was like
that, he told all these parablesto try to illustrate what the
kingdom of God was like.
And he invited people into thiskingdom of God, way of living.
That was really different thanwhat most of them had
experienced, trying to be.
(14:47):
God's good people.
The biblical writers even triedto draw our attention to Jesus
becoming king.
When we see the pictures of himbeing crucified before he's
crucified, he is.
Uh, robe is placed on him aswell as a crown of thorns.
And then when he is put up ontothe cross, there is a sign above
(15:08):
him that says Jesus of Nazareth.
King of the Jews.
So there's all kinds of imagerythroughout the story, but
especially in his crucifixionscene where we see that Jesus is
inaugurated as king.
It's just not an, any way thatany of us would expect.
The point of all, this is to saythat Jesus is the centerpiece of
(15:30):
the story.
Not me.
Not you.
Not us.
We are an important part of thestory.
And Jesus in a lot of ways ismodeling for us.
The part that we are supposed toplay in the story.
But there is no doubt that theannouncement is about the fact
that Jesus has become king andwe are offered the opportunity
(15:52):
to give him our allegiance.
The second statement that weneed to talk about is the idea
that the gospel is not aboutsalvation.
It's about kingship.
Okay.
So again, for those of you whohave grown up around the church,
you have probably heard that thegospel is all about getting
saved and that even what we aresupposed to be doing as
(16:14):
Christians is about helpingother people get saved.
But that really isn't themessage of the new Testament.
That's not what the scripturesare trying to teach us.
The scriptures are trying toteach us that the gospel message
isn't about salvation so much.
It's about kingship.
It's about understanding thatJesus has become king.
(16:34):
It is a proclamation of who isnow king.
Up to this point, as I talkedabout in the previous episode.
Humans had been under theslavery of rogue, spiritual
powers, all of those spiritualbeings who had rebelled against
God back in the early days ofthe creation story and who
Yahweh had turned over thenations to their authority.
(16:58):
Humankind had been living underthe slavery of those rogue
spiritual beings.
Even worshiping many of them asgods and as deities and
following their rules and theirdesigns for human life.
But God through Jesus now issaying you don't have to do that
anymore.
God's kingdom is now availableand Jesus has become king.
(17:21):
So the question then is if Jesusis proclaiming himself as king
over everything.
Am.
Am I going to follow him?
Am I going to take him seriouslyin that?
Am I actually going to believethat he is king over everything?
And am I going to like, chooseto recognize that as true?
That is the point of the gospel.
That is the decision that thegospel should drive us to is
(17:44):
being able to say.
Is Jesus really king.
And if so, what am I going to doabout it?
There's a letter in the Biblecalled Romans.
That's written to the people ofRome during biblical times.
And Paul, the writer of thatbook says that if we will
confess with our mouth, thatJesus is Lord and believe in our
(18:05):
hearts, that God raised him fromthe dead, then we will be saved.
This is the kind of response tothe gospel message that Paul
thinks is appropriate.
He's saying that we shouldconfess with our mouth, that
Jesus is Lord.
Now.
In Paul's day, he was sayingsomething very specific and very
threatening by saying that Jesusis Lord.
(18:26):
Because in Roman culture, whatyou were required to say was
that Caesar was Lord.
And so Paul is offering a veryspecific alternative to that
saying that.
Not only is Jesus king over allthe universe, but he's king over
you in a way that Caesaractually isn't Caesar is not
emperor of the whole world.
(18:47):
He is not Lord over your life.
He doesn't demand ultimateauthority over you.
Jesus does.
And Jesus is the kind of kingwho deserves it, but are we
going to confess that out loudin such a way that everyone else
around us would know that that'swhat we think.
And that's the way that weintend to live.
That's the question that Paul isreally driving at.
(19:09):
If what Jesus is saying is true,what are you willing to do about
it?
If I give my allegiance to Jesusas king, then it has a lot more
to do with how I'm living mylife than just about going to
heaven.
When I die.
It's going to impact and affecteverything about the way that I
live, because Jesus is my kingand a king demands allegiance.
(19:33):
He demands that everything aboutthe way that I live would
reflect his kingdom.
And that's what he is reallycalling us to.
So that's what leads us to thethird statement.
Okay.
So the first two statements,let's just go back and review
them.
The first one is that the gospelis not about me.
It's about Jesus.
(19:53):
The second one is that thegospel is not about salvation.
It's about kingship.
The third statement is that thegospel is not about the
forgiveness of sins.
It's about the availability ofJesus's kingdom.
Okay, let me say that one moretime.
The gospel is not aboutforgiveness of sins.
(20:13):
It's about the availability ofJesus's kingdom.
Now to be sure Jesus does offerus the forgiveness of sins.
And he accomplishes that for usthrough his death on the cross
and the shedding of his blood,which takes away the sins of the
world.
That is certainly offered to us,but it is offered to us as a
(20:35):
part of becoming part of Jesus'skingdom.
It is the offer that we areinvited into and it comes with
so many good and wonderfulthings.
And forgiveness of sins is oneof those things, but it isn't
really the point.
The point is that Jesus haskingdom is available and it is
available to everyone.
(20:57):
C go back to the story that wetalked about in the last
episode.
Up to this point, being a partof God's people, God's family
God's kingdom was actually onlyavailable to one nation.
At that point, it was availableto the nation of Israel whom God
had chosen.
He had created his own nationafter handing all the other
(21:18):
nations over to rogue spiritualpowers.
You always said, this is goingto be my people and I'm going to
be their God.
And so his kingdom was onlyavailable to Israel.
But through Jesus, through hisdeath.
Through his resurrection, thatkingdom now becomes available to
anyone.
And this is what God hadintended all along.
(21:39):
He wanted the kingdom of Israelto be a light, to all the
nations.
He wanted them to be able toshow to the world what it looked
like to be part of Yahweh'sfamily and how to live according
to the good way that Yahweh hadintended for humanity all along.
But they failed time and timeand time again.
And so Yahweh took a differentroute.
(21:59):
He sent Jesus as his son to showto the world what it looked like
to live the kind of life that wewere always meant to live.
But it took a perfect sinlesshuman to be able to live that
way.
And so then Jesus died a sinlessdeath to be able to forgive us
of our sins, but to offer to usaccess to his kingdom, to be
(22:23):
able to say now anyone not justthe people of Israel, but anyone
who's a part of any nation cancome out of slavery to darkness
and to rogue spiritual beings.
And become a part of Jesus'skingdom simply by giving our
allegiance to him.
All we have to do is confessthat he is Lord and that those
(22:44):
other powers or other rules oflife that we have been following
those things are not Lord overus.
And in fact, Jesus is, and indoing that, we become part of
his kingdom and we receiveforgiveness of sins and we
receive eternal life and wereceive grace and mercy and all
the other incredible benefitsthat come with Jesus kingdom.
But the point of that.
(23:05):
Is that his kingdom is nowavailable and accessible to
everyone through his death,resurrection and Ascension.
That is the message of thegospel.
It's not primarily aboutforgiveness of sins.
It's about the availability ofJesus's kingdom.
So, what does Jesus's kingdomlook like?
(23:27):
Well, he spent his whole lifeteaching and modeling for us
what that kingdom looked like.
And that really kind of bringsus to the fourth point.
So again, let's review.
The gospel is not about me.
It's about Jesus.
The gospel is not aboutsalvation.
It's about kingship.
The gospel is not aboutforgiveness of sins.
(23:48):
It's about the availability ofJesus's kingdom.
And now, lastly, our fourthstatement.
The gospel is not about going toheaven when you die.
It's about entering Jesus'skingdom now.
Now, this is a big one.
This is probably one that if,again, if you've grown up in and
around the church, this has beenthe essence and the point of
(24:08):
what our faith has really beenabout, about going to heaven
when we die about getting savedso that we can go to heaven when
we die.
Right.
That's kind of been the point.
But the gospel in thescriptures, isn't about that.
That's not the point of thegospel.
The point of the gospel is notabout going to heaven when we
die, but about being able toenter into Jesus's kingdom now.
(24:32):
That's the message that Jesuswas trying to convey.
And when the gospel isannounced, that is the point is
that we can do something aboutit now, and it affects our
lives.
Now that is really the goal andthe idea of what the gospel is
about.
Now for those who do give theirallegiance to Jesus, are we
going to go to heaven when wedie?
(24:53):
We're going to talk about thatin one of a following episodes.
The short answer is yes, butthat's not the whole story and
we've kind of made it the wholestory.
So we need some correcting inthat regard, but we're going to
talk about that later on.
The point though, is that if wegive our allegiance to Jesus
now, It affects us now.
It causes us to livedifferently.
(25:15):
It should cause us to live theway that Jesus lived, because we
are giving our allegiance tohim.
We are saying that he is Lord.
We are confessing that as ifthat should have all the
difference in the world abouthow we live.
If Jesus is really king, then Ineed to serve.
As my king would have me toserve, I need to live as he
(25:37):
would ask me to live.
I need to do as he commands meto do.
I need to obey, and now that's aword that we don't always like,
but that word is all over thescriptures.
Jesus calls us to obey.
He's asking us to obey hiscommands.
And he's not just looking forsubjects.
He's asking us to obey.
(25:59):
Because he created us to havethe kind of life that is meant
to be beautiful and blessed.
And in obeying, we live thatkind of life with him.
But we don't get to experiencethat if we continue to live
life, as we think it's bestdesigned and to pursue the
things that we just think areour best ideas or are going to
bring us the most pleasure.
(26:20):
Jesus isn't after that kind oflife, he wants us to bring his
kingdom here into the world.
And to do that, we need to livethe way that he lived.
We do that by living as adifferent type of community of
people and inviting others intoit.
So it's not just about how Ilive individually, but it's
about connecting with otherpeople who are living and
(26:42):
following Jesus as well andinviting other people who aren't
yet a part of Jesus's kingdominto that kind of community.
We live like Jesus lived bypreaching.
And talking about the fact thatJesus is king, helping other
people understand what it meansthat Jesus is king and how we
can be a part of his kingdom andwhy that's better than following
(27:05):
any other rival rulers thatthere are around us.
And those things can bespiritual powers, but they also
can be just forces in the worldlike money or sex or fame or
whatever else that undeniablyhave spiritual forces behind
them.
But in our world, Today mightjust look like the things that
everybody else is doing.
(27:27):
We follow Jesus's rule bydemonstrating his power over
spiritual forces.
Now this may be a new one foryou.
This might be a new category.
But if you look at Jesus's life,this is something that he did
over and over again.
He came and demonstrated to theworld that Yahweh was not just
one of other spiritual beings.
(27:48):
He was not just one among many,but he was the one of one.
One of a kind, he was the holyof Holies.
That's what that means.
He is set apart from all otherbeings.
Yahweh is the creator of allspiritual beings.
And because of that, he hasauthority over all of them.
And Jesus came and demonstratedthat authority.
(28:09):
He cast out demons.
He spoke to evil spirits andcommanded them.
He did things that no one elsehad ever done before, but that's
because he was operating in thepower of God, who is the creator
of all those spiritual beings.
And so we need to be able to dothe same.
In the ways that spiritualpowers are active in our world,
that run contrary to Jesus'skingdom.
(28:32):
We are meant to step into thoseplaces and confront them.
Now men, this is an especiallyimportant role for us as
warriors and Kings.
We are called to take a standfor Jesus, his kingdom in the
world.
And that is going to put us inopposition to the spiritual
powers of other kingdoms.
We are meant to fight againstthem.
(28:52):
We are meant to exercise Jesus'sauthority over them.
We'll talk more about what thatlooks like and some following
seasons and series and episodes,but for now, I want you to know
that that's part of what itmeans to be a man who walks in
the way of the king.
You are meant to exercise yourauthority over spiritual beings,
because Jesus has given you hisauthority to do so.
(29:15):
We do all of that.
We, we walk in the way of Jesus.
We do all of the things that hedid.
By modeling the same kind ofsacrificial love that he modeled
for us.
We give up our lives for thesake of others.
Now for some of us that mightmean actual death.
That might mean a sacrifice.
That involves loss of life.
(29:36):
But for most of us, that's goingto just mean I'm sacrificing
myself in a whole lot of otherways.
I'm giving of my time in someways that are uncomfortable, I'm
lowering my status in some waysthat kind of feel humiliating.
I'm giving of my money thatbecomes painful in some ways to
live.
But I know that this is.
This generosity is going to helpothers be able to live well.
(29:57):
I'm doing all of those thingsbecause that's what Jesus
modeled for us.
And that is the way of hiskingdom.
We sacrifice for the sake ofothers so that they might be
able to live well, trusting thatall of our needs and resources
will be met in Jesus.
He has an unlimited abundance ofresources in his kingdom.
And he will, he will give themto us as we give them to others.
(30:22):
And eventually we will see God'skingdom come from heaven here to
earth.
And that's the point of themessage of scripture is that
heaven is coming to us.
We don't just go to it.
When we die, heaven comes toearth and we will get to see
that with resurrected bodies andlive on the earth and dwell with
(30:44):
God for all of eternity.
But in the meantime, we aremeant to live and to model
Jesus's kingdom, as he showed ushow to be able to do it.
All of that will happeneventually.
And for now, the point is thatwe accept Jesus as king and we
live according to his kingdom.
(31:04):
Now I want to challenge you.
Some of you are listening tothis and you're going.
Man I've been following Jesusand I've been going to church my
whole life and the stuff thatyou're talking about doesn't
sound very much at all.
Like what I have learned.
I can understand this is maybe alittle bit different.
What I want to challenge you todo.
If that's the question that youhave is to just pull out your
Bible.
Read through one of the gospelsread through the gospel of
(31:26):
Matthew or the gospel of Luke.
And just look and see are thethings that I talked about in
this episode, in that gospel,does it help you to understand
those scriptures may be a littlebetter than you've understood
them before is the way thatJesus talks about his kingdom,
the way that I'm talking aboutit now.
And if, so, maybe there's somethings here that are worth you
listening to, and kind of,re-examining what you've
(31:48):
understood as the gospel.
But for those of you who havenot been exposed to this before,
or who have maybe heard someother version of the gospel and
just haven't been interested inresponding to that or have
thought, you know, what, I'lldeal with that later in life.
But for now I'm going to livethe way that I want to live.
I want to actually challenge youto consider this gospel a new, I
(32:08):
want to challenge you toconsider that Jesus is king over
all the world.
And his kingdom is available toyou.
And if you will choose to livein it and to make Jesus your
king, that that will bring toyou the best possible life that
you could experience.
May not look like what you thinkit might, but it will be the
(32:29):
best life that you canexperience because it will be
the life that God has intendedfor all of us to live and to
model his kingdom and to bringhis rule here to the earth.
So, what do you need to do to beable to make Jesus your king?
Well, it's just, like I talkedabout before.
You confess with your mouth,that Jesus is Lord.
And you believe in your heartthat God raised him from the
(32:50):
dead.
If you can do both of thosethings, then you will be saved.
You will be a part of Jesus'skingdom and all of the benefits
that come with it.
But you will need to confess itwith your mouth.
And that means it needs to bedone publicly.
Uh, other people will need tohear it and it will need to
start to affect to affect theway that you live.
So if you're not connected to acommunity of other people who
(33:12):
are following Jesus, you need tostart to find that that in most
places it's called a church.
You need to find a churchlocally.
That believes and understandsthese ideas about the gospel and
who you can jump on board with.
Okay.
That's what I want to challengeyou with today.
If that's you and you're readyto do that, then let me just
pray a simple prayer for you nowso that you can make that
(33:33):
decision.
It doesn't take any kind ofmagic to it, but I'll give you
some words that you can followalong with.
Jesus.
I confess that you are king ofthe universe.
And I want to make you my king.
I believe that God raised youfrom the dead.
And I give you my allegiance.
I bring all of my life underyour authority.
(33:56):
I want all the benefits of yourkingdom.
And I want to live according tothe way that you live.
Jesus.
Amen.
That's it.
That's all that it takes.
You would now be a part ofJesus's kingdom and you're
entitled to all the goodness andall the blessings that come with
it.
This is really crucial becausethis invites you into the story
(34:18):
and gives you a role to play.
We're going to continue to talkmore about what that role looks
like and how you live that outin your relationship with God
and your relationship withothers and in all the things
that are apart of your life.
I can't wait to talk to you moreabout that in our next episode.
I'll see you then.
Okay, man.
If you were to give Jesus atitle.
What title would you give him?
Maybe, you know, a lot aboutJesus.
Maybe you just know a little,but you probably have heard him
talked about at least enoughthat you could say that you
think he's a.
Teacher.
That he's Lord.
(00:22):
Savior friend.
God, like what title would yougive?
Jesus?
Well, I think in the story ofthe scriptures, there is one
title in particular that thewhole story is really trying to
drive us to.
And that title is what we needto talk about today on the
manhood tribe show.
Let's jump in.
(01:02):
Guys want to know how youmeasure up as a man?
I've got a great resource foryou.
It's called how manly are you?
And it's a free quiz that youcan take to figure out how you
stack up against what it meansto be a man.
And when you take the quiz,you'll also get some free
resources to help you figure outhow you can get better as a man
in the areas where you wouldlike to grow.
(01:23):
So go to manhoodtribes.com/manlyto download your free.
How manly are you quiz today?
That's manhoodtribes.com/manly.
Men welcome to the manhoodtribes show.
My name is Don Ross.
I'm your host.
And it's good to be with youtoday because we are continuing
(01:43):
in our series that I'm callingthe way of the king.
Now here on the manhood tribeshow.
When I create a series, what I'mtrying to do is really address
kind of a big problem in men'slives and see if we can come up
with some.
Not all out solutions, but atleast directions towards how men
can be able to address thatproblem in their lives.
(02:06):
And with this series, what I'mreally trying to talk about is
the problem that a lot of guysin our culture are having right
now, which is they are lookingat faith and their lives and
just going.
I'm not sure this really worksfor me.
Like when it comes to the wholechurch thing, like, I'm just not
sure that I fit in there or I'mutterly bored.
(02:29):
Anytime that I go or everythingthat gets talked about in those
kind of Christian circles justfeels like it doesn't have much
to do with my actual life.
I get you.
I understand that, especiallyfor men, that can be a real
challenge.
And so in this series, I'mtrying to figure out how we, as
men can develop what I wouldcall a masculine faith.
(02:51):
What does it look like as a manto relate to God?
How do we do that in a waythat's like manly.
And is that even a thing?
Is it even appropriate to applythe word manly to faith?
I would say that I think it is.
And I think in order to do that,we're going to have to think in
a few big categories.
(03:12):
I brought these categories up inthe first episode and you're
going to hear me touch on themin each episode of this series.
But there's really three bigcategories that I think helped
shape what a masculine faithreally looks like.
The first is that it needs to beepic.
And that just means that ourfaith needs to be a story that's
really big and needs to bebigger than our own individual
(03:33):
lives.
Or even then like are thecurrent events of our existing
world right now.
It needs to be big.
It needs to cover the entiretyof human history and our human
future as well.
And there needs to be lots ofroom for all of us to have a
part to play in that story.
Okay.
So that's the first thing.
It needs to be epic, but thesecond thing is that it also
needs to be purposeful.
(03:54):
Especially for us as men, weneed to have a part to play.
We need to have a role in thestory.
We need to feel like we havesomething to contribute to
what's going on to the world,around us and to the story that
we're a part of.
As men, we are wired for action.
And so if we don't havesomething to contribute
something to do faith, isn'treally ever going to feel
(04:18):
relevant to us.
Okay.
So we need an epic faith.
We need a purposeful faith.
And the third thing is that weneed a resilient faith.
And that just means that whenour faith stands up against the
hardest things that life canthrow at us, all the tragedy,
all the pain, all the shame, allthe difficulty, our faith needs
(04:39):
to be able to stand the test.
It needs to be able to hold itsown against all of those really
big challenges that we, as menare going to face in the world
and it needs to come out reallygood.
On the other side, it needs tocome out.
Maybe even looking better thanbefore we started down the road
of those challenges.
So epic.
(05:00):
Purposeful resilient.
A masculine faith definitelyneeds to include those things.
We started out in the lastepisode by talking about the
story of God and humanity, andreally trying to understand just
how big and how broad that storyis, but also where we fit into
it.
And that we do have a reallysignificant part to play that
(05:23):
God designed us as human beings.
To be able to rule and governhow life works here in this
physical realm that we callearth, that we are meant to
represent him in this space.
And to rule as he would rulehere on the earth.
That's a really important partthat we have been given.
(05:44):
But if we look around, it'spretty easy to see that.
We as men.
Have messed it up more often,more often than we have
succeeded.
And you can tell that not justfrom your own life and all the
mistakes that you have made, butyou can just look around at the
world and see like, Hey, we'renot doing so hot.
Most of the time.
We're more violent and cruel toeach other more often than we
(06:06):
are kind and peaceful.
And just the world is not a verysafe place to live in for many,
many people around the world.
And none of that represents whatit looks like to live in God's
kingdom.
So we need to talk about thenwhat God's kingdom really is all
about and how it is that we, asmen are meant to bring it to the
(06:29):
world.
So in order to do that, I'vesaid that we're going to cover
six big things.
The first one was the story, andtoday we need to cover
something.
That's going to help usunderstand a little bit more
about God's kingdom.
So today the thing that we needto cover is the gospel.
Now.
The word gospel, I know is avery churchy, very religious
(06:49):
term.
And if you've heard it at all,you've kind of just heard it
used in terms of like, you know,the gospel truth, meaning like
something that you're neversupposed to disagree with, or
you've heard some preacherthumping at you with the gospel,
you know, and that you've got tobelieve it and you've got to
accept it and you know, allthose kinds of things.
It just has a lot of this, likechurchy religiousness around it
(07:12):
without a lot of actualunderstanding.
Handing in the church world, theterm gospel is just kind of a
term that gets thrown around andaccepted, but.
Most people, aren't really surewhat it even means and what it
has to do with our ownindividual lives.
And so that's what I want to tryto unpack today because the
gospel is actually superimportant to us understanding
(07:35):
everything else about what Godis doing in our lives and what
the way of the king reallymeans.
Now.
I asked at the beginning of thisepisode, what is a title that
you would give to Jesus?
If you had to just give him one,what would you give him?
And you may can gather from thelanguage that I've already used
(07:56):
in this episode that I thinkthat the title that's most
important to give to Jesus isking.
King.
Really the whole story of thescriptures is trying to tell us
that Jesus is king of theuniverse.
That through all of his life andthrough the story of what he
lived, he has become king overall of the universe.
(08:20):
And we are meant to be able togive our allegiance to him.
So that we can experience lifein his kingdom, but I'm getting
ahead of myself a little bit,and we need to go back and
understand a little bit aboutwhat this word gospel means so
that we can get a better graspof Jesus as king and Jesus and
his kingdom.
The word gospel really justmeans good news.
(08:43):
It comes from a Greek wordcalled you on Galyon.
It's the same word that we getare English words, evangelize or
evangelism from.
And it really just means goodnews.
But it means a particular kindof good news.
See, this word came out of thetime of the Roman empire.
And it was the kind of word thatwas used.
(09:05):
Whenever a messenger would comeback from a battle and he would
come running into the city andhe would have good news to
proclaim.
He would proclaim the good newsthat because of this battle,
your king is now this personwho, you know, won the battle
or, you know, maybe it wasbecause of some kind of treaty
(09:25):
that like your territory had nowbecome part of this other
kingdom over here.
And look, here's the good newsis that so-and-so.
Is now your king.
Well, you might can get from theway that I'm talking about it.
This may have not always beengood news, but the messenger,
you know, was a servant of thisnew king.
And so he's always trying to puta positive spin on it.
But really what he's doing isproclaiming to the people of
(09:48):
that town or that city.
That you now have this person asyour authority figure.
Your lands, your property, yourtown, your city, and everything
about your lives.
Now comes under this person asyour king.
That's what a gospel message wasall about.
(10:10):
It was about proclaiming who wasnow king over you.
Sometimes that was good news.
If you got a good king,sometimes it was not so good,
especially if you had had a goodking already and now the new
Victor or the new Lord was notsuch a good king.
It meant that things were notgoing to go well in your life.
(10:31):
And so even though the king wasdescribing it as good news, You
probably knew that it wasn't somuch.
So why is it then that we say.
The good news about Jesus isactually really good.
Well, that's what we need tounderstand.
C N America.
Uh, and for most of the Westernworld for the past, you know,
(10:52):
several centuries, we have beentalking about the gospel and
some pretty specific terms.
If you've heard a gospelpresentation at some point in
time in your life, you'veprobably heard it go something
like this.
Jesus died on the cross as asacrifice for your sins so that
you can be forgiven.
And if you will accept him,you'll be saved so that you can
(11:15):
go to heaven when you die.
That is what most Americans haveheard preach to them as the
gospel message.
I want to say to you that noneof those things is wrong.
In fact, they're all good andreally right.
And wonderful.
Now we're going to have someways that we're going to finesse
them and even correct them justa little bit as we go forward in
(11:37):
the series.
But what I do want to say to youpretty emphatically is that
while those things are true,They are not the gospel, at
least not in the sense that thegospel is talked about in the
Bible.
The gospel is the good news.
It is the proclamation thatJesus has become king.
(11:58):
It is the announcement thatJesus is now king over all the
universe.
Not only that it is also theannouncement that his kingdom is
available for anyone to enter.
Okay.
So let's unpack some of thosethings, because this is where we
need to kind of get down intothe nitty-gritty.
Of helping us understand thisidea of the gospel, because I
(12:21):
know if you're like me andyou've grown up in American
culture, especially if you'vegrown up around the church.
Some of the things that I'msaying, you may be scratching
your head going.
Uh, what is this guy talkingabout?
Like, he's saying that thegospel isn't what I've heard.
It said it is like, does thatmake him a heretic?
Like, do we need to listen tothis guy?
I know you've got some questionsand I get it.
I want to try to unpack thosethings for you guys who are
(12:42):
familiar with the gospel.
But I also want to try to givethis message to people who have
not heard it, or maybe haveheard it in a way that turned
them off to begin with.
And I want to say to them, it'smaybe not what you thought it
was.
So let's try to discover what itreally is.
I want to give you four ideasthat will help you understand
what the Bible is really talkingabout when it talks about the
(13:03):
gospel.
And I'm going to do that bysaying some ways that it isn't
what we've heard it preached as,but it's actually something
else.
Okay.
So let's, uh, to give you anexample, let's just start with
the first one.
The first of those four ideas isthat the gospel is not about me.
It's about Jesus.
(13:24):
The gospel is not about me.
It's about Jesus.
See the gospel that most of ushas heard actually is about us.
Now, Jesus is kind of the mainfigure in the story, but the
gospel message that we've beenpreached is really all about my
forgiveness of sins and me beingsaved so that I can go to heaven
when I die.
(13:44):
It's really all about what needsto happen to me so that I can
secure a good future for myself.
But that's not the point of whatthe gospel is all about.
The gospel isn't about me.
It's about Jesus.
In the Bible, the writers ofwhat are called the gospels,
which is really the first fourbooks of the new Testament and
(14:05):
kind of just the story of thelife of Jesus.
They're called the gospelsbecause they are telling of the
good news and they are actuallyproclaiming this idea of God's
kingdom coming to earth and ofJesus becoming king.
Now, when we look at thosestories, we see that Jesus very
often talked about God'skingdom.
(14:25):
He talked about the kingdom ofGod and how it was coming to
earth.
And the ways that the kingdom ofGod was like this, or was like
that, he told all these parablesto try to illustrate what the
kingdom of God was like.
And he invited people into thiskingdom of God, way of living.
That was really different thanwhat most of them had
experienced, trying to be.
(14:47):
God's good people.
The biblical writers even triedto draw our attention to Jesus
becoming king.
When we see the pictures of himbeing crucified before he's
crucified, he is.
Uh, robe is placed on him aswell as a crown of thorns.
And then when he is put up ontothe cross, there is a sign above
(15:08):
him that says Jesus of Nazareth.
King of the Jews.
So there's all kinds of imagerythroughout the story, but
especially in his crucifixionscene where we see that Jesus is
inaugurated as king.
It's just not an, any way thatany of us would expect.
The point of all, this is to saythat Jesus is the centerpiece of
(15:30):
the story.
Not me.
Not you.
Not us.
We are an important part of thestory.
And Jesus in a lot of ways ismodeling for us.
The part that we are supposed toplay in the story.
But there is no doubt that theannouncement is about the fact
that Jesus has become king andwe are offered the opportunity
(15:52):
to give him our allegiance.
The second statement that weneed to talk about is the idea
that the gospel is not aboutsalvation.
It's about kingship.
Okay.
So again, for those of you whohave grown up around the church,
you have probably heard that thegospel is all about getting
saved and that even what we aresupposed to be doing as
(16:14):
Christians is about helpingother people get saved.
But that really isn't themessage of the new Testament.
That's not what the scripturesare trying to teach us.
The scriptures are trying toteach us that the gospel message
isn't about salvation so much.
It's about kingship.
It's about understanding thatJesus has become king.
(16:34):
It is a proclamation of who isnow king.
Up to this point, as I talkedabout in the previous episode.
Humans had been under theslavery of rogue, spiritual
powers, all of those spiritualbeings who had rebelled against
God back in the early days ofthe creation story and who
Yahweh had turned over thenations to their authority.
(16:58):
Humankind had been living underthe slavery of those rogue
spiritual beings.
Even worshiping many of them asgods and as deities and
following their rules and theirdesigns for human life.
But God through Jesus now issaying you don't have to do that
anymore.
God's kingdom is now availableand Jesus has become king.
(17:21):
So the question then is if Jesusis proclaiming himself as king
over everything.
Am.
Am I going to follow him?
Am I going to take him seriouslyin that?
Am I actually going to believethat he is king over everything?
And am I going to like, chooseto recognize that as true?
That is the point of the gospel.
That is the decision that thegospel should drive us to is
(17:44):
being able to say.
Is Jesus really king.
And if so, what am I going to doabout it?
There's a letter in the Biblecalled Romans.
That's written to the people ofRome during biblical times.
And Paul, the writer of thatbook says that if we will
confess with our mouth, thatJesus is Lord and believe in our
(18:05):
hearts, that God raised him fromthe dead, then we will be saved.
This is the kind of response tothe gospel message that Paul
thinks is appropriate.
He's saying that we shouldconfess with our mouth, that
Jesus is Lord.
Now.
In Paul's day, he was sayingsomething very specific and very
threatening by saying that Jesusis Lord.
(18:26):
Because in Roman culture, whatyou were required to say was
that Caesar was Lord.
And so Paul is offering a veryspecific alternative to that
saying that.
Not only is Jesus king over allthe universe, but he's king over
you in a way that Caesaractually isn't Caesar is not
emperor of the whole world.
(18:47):
He is not Lord over your life.
He doesn't demand ultimateauthority over you.
Jesus does.
And Jesus is the kind of kingwho deserves it, but are we
going to confess that out loudin such a way that everyone else
around us would know that that'swhat we think.
And that's the way that weintend to live.
That's the question that Paul isreally driving at.
(19:09):
If what Jesus is saying is true,what are you willing to do about
it?
If I give my allegiance to Jesusas king, then it has a lot more
to do with how I'm living mylife than just about going to
heaven.
When I die.
It's going to impact and affecteverything about the way that I
live, because Jesus is my kingand a king demands allegiance.
(19:33):
He demands that everything aboutthe way that I live would
reflect his kingdom.
And that's what he is reallycalling us to.
So that's what leads us to thethird statement.
Okay.
So the first two statements,let's just go back and review
them.
The first one is that the gospelis not about me.
It's about Jesus.
(19:53):
The second one is that thegospel is not about salvation.
It's about kingship.
The third statement is that thegospel is not about the
forgiveness of sins.
It's about the availability ofJesus's kingdom.
Okay, let me say that one moretime.
The gospel is not aboutforgiveness of sins.
(20:13):
It's about the availability ofJesus's kingdom.
Now to be sure Jesus does offerus the forgiveness of sins.
And he accomplishes that for usthrough his death on the cross
and the shedding of his blood,which takes away the sins of the
world.
That is certainly offered to us,but it is offered to us as a
(20:35):
part of becoming part of Jesus'skingdom.
It is the offer that we areinvited into and it comes with
so many good and wonderfulthings.
And forgiveness of sins is oneof those things, but it isn't
really the point.
The point is that Jesus haskingdom is available and it is
available to everyone.
(20:57):
C go back to the story that wetalked about in the last
episode.
Up to this point, being a partof God's people, God's family
God's kingdom was actually onlyavailable to one nation.
At that point, it was availableto the nation of Israel whom God
had chosen.
He had created his own nationafter handing all the other
(21:18):
nations over to rogue spiritualpowers.
You always said, this is goingto be my people and I'm going to
be their God.
And so his kingdom was onlyavailable to Israel.
But through Jesus, through hisdeath.
Through his resurrection, thatkingdom now becomes available to
anyone.
And this is what God hadintended all along.
(21:39):
He wanted the kingdom of Israelto be a light, to all the
nations.
He wanted them to be able toshow to the world what it looked
like to be part of Yahweh'sfamily and how to live according
to the good way that Yahweh hadintended for humanity all along.
But they failed time and timeand time again.
And so Yahweh took a differentroute.
(21:59):
He sent Jesus as his son to showto the world what it looked like
to live the kind of life that wewere always meant to live.
But it took a perfect sinlesshuman to be able to live that
way.
And so then Jesus died a sinlessdeath to be able to forgive us
of our sins, but to offer to usaccess to his kingdom, to be
(22:23):
able to say now anyone not justthe people of Israel, but anyone
who's a part of any nation cancome out of slavery to darkness
and to rogue spiritual beings.
And become a part of Jesus'skingdom simply by giving our
allegiance to him.
All we have to do is confessthat he is Lord and that those
(22:44):
other powers or other rules oflife that we have been following
those things are not Lord overus.
And in fact, Jesus is, and indoing that, we become part of
his kingdom and we receiveforgiveness of sins and we
receive eternal life and wereceive grace and mercy and all
the other incredible benefitsthat come with Jesus kingdom.
But the point of that.
(23:05):
Is that his kingdom is nowavailable and accessible to
everyone through his death,resurrection and Ascension.
That is the message of thegospel.
It's not primarily aboutforgiveness of sins.
It's about the availability ofJesus's kingdom.
So, what does Jesus's kingdomlook like?
(23:27):
Well, he spent his whole lifeteaching and modeling for us
what that kingdom looked like.
And that really kind of bringsus to the fourth point.
So again, let's review.
The gospel is not about me.
It's about Jesus.
The gospel is not aboutsalvation.
It's about kingship.
The gospel is not aboutforgiveness of sins.
(23:48):
It's about the availability ofJesus's kingdom.
And now, lastly, our fourthstatement.
The gospel is not about going toheaven when you die.
It's about entering Jesus'skingdom now.
Now, this is a big one.
This is probably one that if,again, if you've grown up in and
around the church, this has beenthe essence and the point of
(24:08):
what our faith has really beenabout, about going to heaven
when we die about getting savedso that we can go to heaven when
we die.
Right.
That's kind of been the point.
But the gospel in thescriptures, isn't about that.
That's not the point of thegospel.
The point of the gospel is notabout going to heaven when we
die, but about being able toenter into Jesus's kingdom now.
(24:32):
That's the message that Jesuswas trying to convey.
And when the gospel isannounced, that is the point is
that we can do something aboutit now, and it affects our
lives.
Now that is really the goal andthe idea of what the gospel is
about.
Now for those who do give theirallegiance to Jesus, are we
going to go to heaven when wedie?
(24:53):
We're going to talk about thatin one of a following episodes.
The short answer is yes, butthat's not the whole story and
we've kind of made it the wholestory.
So we need some correcting inthat regard, but we're going to
talk about that later on.
The point though, is that if wegive our allegiance to Jesus
now, It affects us now.
It causes us to livedifferently.
(25:15):
It should cause us to live theway that Jesus lived, because we
are giving our allegiance tohim.
We are saying that he is Lord.
We are confessing that as ifthat should have all the
difference in the world abouthow we live.
If Jesus is really king, then Ineed to serve.
As my king would have me toserve, I need to live as he
(25:37):
would ask me to live.
I need to do as he commands meto do.
I need to obey, and now that's aword that we don't always like,
but that word is all over thescriptures.
Jesus calls us to obey.
He's asking us to obey hiscommands.
And he's not just looking forsubjects.
He's asking us to obey.
(25:59):
Because he created us to havethe kind of life that is meant
to be beautiful and blessed.
And in obeying, we live thatkind of life with him.
But we don't get to experiencethat if we continue to live
life, as we think it's bestdesigned and to pursue the
things that we just think areour best ideas or are going to
bring us the most pleasure.
(26:20):
Jesus isn't after that kind oflife, he wants us to bring his
kingdom here into the world.
And to do that, we need to livethe way that he lived.
We do that by living as adifferent type of community of
people and inviting others intoit.
So it's not just about how Ilive individually, but it's
about connecting with otherpeople who are living and
(26:42):
following Jesus as well andinviting other people who aren't
yet a part of Jesus's kingdominto that kind of community.
We live like Jesus lived bypreaching.
And talking about the fact thatJesus is king, helping other
people understand what it meansthat Jesus is king and how we
can be a part of his kingdom andwhy that's better than following
(27:05):
any other rival rulers thatthere are around us.
And those things can bespiritual powers, but they also
can be just forces in the worldlike money or sex or fame or
whatever else that undeniablyhave spiritual forces behind
them.
But in our world, Today mightjust look like the things that
everybody else is doing.
(27:27):
We follow Jesus's rule bydemonstrating his power over
spiritual forces.
Now this may be a new one foryou.
This might be a new category.
But if you look at Jesus's life,this is something that he did
over and over again.
He came and demonstrated to theworld that Yahweh was not just
one of other spiritual beings.
(27:48):
He was not just one among many,but he was the one of one.
One of a kind, he was the holyof Holies.
That's what that means.
He is set apart from all otherbeings.
Yahweh is the creator of allspiritual beings.
And because of that, he hasauthority over all of them.
And Jesus came and demonstratedthat authority.
(28:09):
He cast out demons.
He spoke to evil spirits andcommanded them.
He did things that no one elsehad ever done before, but that's
because he was operating in thepower of God, who is the creator
of all those spiritual beings.
And so we need to be able to dothe same.
In the ways that spiritualpowers are active in our world,
that run contrary to Jesus'skingdom.
(28:32):
We are meant to step into thoseplaces and confront them.
Now men, this is an especiallyimportant role for us as
warriors and Kings.
We are called to take a standfor Jesus, his kingdom in the
world.
And that is going to put us inopposition to the spiritual
powers of other kingdoms.
We are meant to fight againstthem.
(28:52):
We are meant to exercise Jesus'sauthority over them.
We'll talk more about what thatlooks like and some following
seasons and series and episodes,but for now, I want you to know
that that's part of what itmeans to be a man who walks in
the way of the king.
You are meant to exercise yourauthority over spiritual beings,
because Jesus has given you hisauthority to do so.
(29:15):
We do all of that.
We, we walk in the way of Jesus.
We do all of the things that hedid.
By modeling the same kind ofsacrificial love that he modeled
for us.
We give up our lives for thesake of others.
Now for some of us that mightmean actual death.
That might mean a sacrifice.
That involves loss of life.
(29:36):
But for most of us, that's goingto just mean I'm sacrificing
myself in a whole lot of otherways.
I'm giving of my time in someways that are uncomfortable, I'm
lowering my status in some waysthat kind of feel humiliating.
I'm giving of my money thatbecomes painful in some ways to
live.
But I know that this is.
This generosity is going to helpothers be able to live well.
(29:57):
I'm doing all of those thingsbecause that's what Jesus
modeled for us.
And that is the way of hiskingdom.
We sacrifice for the sake ofothers so that they might be
able to live well, trusting thatall of our needs and resources
will be met in Jesus.
He has an unlimited abundance ofresources in his kingdom.
And he will, he will give themto us as we give them to others.
(30:22):
And eventually we will see God'skingdom come from heaven here to
earth.
And that's the point of themessage of scripture is that
heaven is coming to us.
We don't just go to it.
When we die, heaven comes toearth and we will get to see
that with resurrected bodies andlive on the earth and dwell with
(30:44):
God for all of eternity.
But in the meantime, we aremeant to live and to model
Jesus's kingdom, as he showed ushow to be able to do it.
All of that will happeneventually.
And for now, the point is thatwe accept Jesus as king and we
live according to his kingdom.
(31:04):
Now I want to challenge you.
Some of you are listening tothis and you're going.
Man I've been following Jesusand I've been going to church my
whole life and the stuff thatyou're talking about doesn't
sound very much at all.
Like what I have learned.
I can understand this is maybe alittle bit different.
What I want to challenge you todo.
If that's the question that youhave is to just pull out your
Bible.
Read through one of the gospelsread through the gospel of
(31:26):
Matthew or the gospel of Luke.
And just look and see are thethings that I talked about in
this episode, in that gospel,does it help you to understand
those scriptures may be a littlebetter than you've understood
them before is the way thatJesus talks about his kingdom,
the way that I'm talking aboutit now.
And if, so, maybe there's somethings here that are worth you
listening to, and kind of,re-examining what you've
(31:48):
understood as the gospel.
But for those of you who havenot been exposed to this before,
or who have maybe heard someother version of the gospel and
just haven't been interested inresponding to that or have
thought, you know, what, I'lldeal with that later in life.
But for now I'm going to livethe way that I want to live.
I want to actually challenge youto consider this gospel a new, I
(32:08):
want to challenge you toconsider that Jesus is king over
all the world.
And his kingdom is available toyou.
And if you will choose to livein it and to make Jesus your
king, that that will bring toyou the best possible life that
you could experience.
May not look like what you thinkit might, but it will be the
(32:29):
best life that you canexperience because it will be
the life that God has intendedfor all of us to live and to
model his kingdom and to bringhis rule here to the earth.
So, what do you need to do to beable to make Jesus your king?
Well, it's just, like I talkedabout before.
You confess with your mouth,that Jesus is Lord.
And you believe in your heartthat God raised him from the
(32:50):
dead.
If you can do both of thosethings, then you will be saved.
You will be a part of Jesus'skingdom and all of the benefits
that come with it.
But you will need to confess itwith your mouth.
And that means it needs to bedone publicly.
Uh, other people will need tohear it and it will need to
start to affect to affect theway that you live.
So if you're not connected to acommunity of other people who
(33:12):
are following Jesus, you need tostart to find that that in most
places it's called a church.
You need to find a churchlocally.
That believes and understandsthese ideas about the gospel and
who you can jump on board with.
Okay.
That's what I want to challengeyou with today.
If that's you and you're readyto do that, then let me just
pray a simple prayer for you nowso that you can make that
(33:33):
decision.
It doesn't take any kind ofmagic to it, but I'll give you
some words that you can followalong with.
Jesus.
I confess that you are king ofthe universe.
And I want to make you my king.
I believe that God raised youfrom the dead.
And I give you my allegiance.
I bring all of my life underyour authority.
(33:56):
I want all the benefits of yourkingdom.
And I want to live according tothe way that you live.
Jesus.
Amen.
That's it.
That's all that it takes.
You would now be a part ofJesus's kingdom and you're
entitled to all the goodness andall the blessings that come with
it.
This is really crucial becausethis invites you into the story
(34:18):
and gives you a role to play.
We're going to continue to talkmore about what that role looks
like and how you live that outin your relationship with God
and your relationship withothers and in all the things
that are apart of your life.
I can't wait to talk to you moreabout that in our next episode.
I'll see you then.
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