[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Good morning.
I hope that you are thinking about this concept of kingdom, and when you think about it, there are certain things that come to your mind. For me, the first remembrances I have of a king may have been Burger King. Okay, I'll get rid of that one. The second one is I remember watching cartoons growing up, and I hope you won't be offended when I share with you something that's probably like 60 years old. I don't know. But there was a cartoon where a king was there and he was demanding of Yosemite Sam Hassen Feffer.
I heard somebody in the back said Amen. All right. Yeah, you're right. Well, Hassenfefer happens to be Bunny Stew, so you can imagine that this would be something Bugs Bunny wouldn't want at all. But when I think about Hasenfeffer, that's all I can think in my mind. Or when I think about kingdom, that's what I imagine. I imagine a king who's like, demanding and requiring a lot and shouts all the time, bring me more horse and Heffer. That's how I hear it in my head. And I think about the kingdom. That's what I think of the king on his throne being hard to deal with all the time, always demanding certain things. Not an easy guy to be around, those kinds of things. Very demanding, condescending, kind of elevated above everybody else and not really in touch with the people. Right. That's how I imagine it. But this challenged my thoughts when I in 1995, I watched a movie called First Night and there's a love story and all that stuff. I don't want to get so sidetracked by all that, but what I want to focus on is what was the representation of this kingdom. It was King Arthur and Camelot. And if you know those things don't exist. They never did exist. They were strictly, you know, English lore or legend. Or, you know, some things that they wrote in literature. But the idea was that the king was noble, that he was good, that he was thoughtful, that he provided for his people, that he knew their needs and he looked after them, that he cared about every single person within the kingdom.
And he was the kind that he ruled so thoughtfully and so carefully and so lovingly that everyone within the kingdom respected and honored him. And so it was one of those situations where the thing was pretty nice set up. It's a utopia of sorts. But the idea was that we love and support and trust in our king. And our king takes care of us, offers us provisions, gives us, gives us a good life, raises the standard of morality, and then ultimately he protects us.
And I think on some level, that's kind of what we want, right? That's what we want. We idealize those kinds of things and imagine a world in where our leaders were that kind of people. And it's so hard these days to look at all the lying that you see and all the disingenuous thoughts that are being shared from politics and all other things, that it's hard for us to imagine this.
But what would you say if I told you this is kind of what God gave us years ago?
If I think back to the garden, you know, God was our king, and he placed in the garden Adam to take care of things and to tend things, not for his own glory, but for the glory of God. And so he provided for him Eve, and he provided all these different things that he needed. He really made it so beautiful and so perfect for him. That man was really set up with life for a long, long time. And it was a beautiful thing to see the provisions and the care and the concern that God showed for them, really. He just gave them one rule, right? Just don't eat of this fruit. And of course, they did send it into the world. And they began to feel the brunt of their consequences, of the decisions that they made to rebel against them. And so they're cast out.
But still, if I think about it, God still loved them, right? He still wanted to do for them. He still wanted to provide for them. He reaches out to a man named Abram and he says, hey, I want you to go to a place that I'll show you.
I'm going to make a great nation out of you. Your descendants are going to be as multiple as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. And anyone who blesses your people, I'll bless them. And anyone who curses your people I'll curse them. And so he just said, I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to grow you into this beautiful. This beautiful nation. And of course, a lot of things happen. Abraham tries to take things into his own hands. There's all sorts of things that happen in the middle of all that rebellion and all kinds of things. And you look up and his huge family from his son Jacob, from his grandson Jacob, you know, they end up over in Egypt and they're enslaved there.
But it's interesting, isn't it? I mean, if you think about it, God hears their cries, he hears their call.
He sends Moses over to deliver them from Egyptian slavery. And while they see the power of his might, the 10 plagues, and his demonstration of his ability to overcome every obstacle that you can imagine and to bring them out of that, it's. It's in that situation that we see these children of Israel.
And even through all of those things and all those provisions, as God is trying to be their ruler, he's the one who's trying to lead them. You know, Moses gets to Mount Sinai and he says these things because God has revealed them to him. He says, now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice. This is talking to God. And keep my covenant. You shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Can you see it?
That God is saying, I want to be the one who rules over you. I want to be the one who's watching after you. I want to be the one who provides for you and takes care of you and gives you this. And here's the other thing that's special about this. It's not gonna be like, I'm gonna rule over you in harsh ways. No. I'm gonna make you a nation of priests, like people that will worship me. And in that worship, we'll grow as a spirit, spiritual body together. You're going to be a holiness. You're going to demonstrate righteousness. You're going to all these things. God wants to rule over us, and it's our obligation to follow Him. So he says that.
And I just want to. It just kind of came to my attention that God has always wanted to lead us.
He's always wanted to shape us after his image. He's always wanted us to follow his will and to watch that refinement take place in all of us.
But, you know, what happens is we have a God who provides all these things for us. We Take him for granted. And then we start thinking about the things in our life, our sin, our decision making. It pulls us in different directions, and we find ourselves kind of struggling along. And then we get to the point where if my God could just fix everything, if my God could just do all these things for me. And we see the things that we're struggling through, the things that we're sorrowing over, the battles that we're facing, the things that are not right in our life, and we say, if God would just do this. I'm afraid what's happened is. And I don't mean to make this into a childish thing, but it's almost like we've turned our God into something like this, where if he'll just fix our two or three things in our life that we want to make right.
If I could just have a few things, and those few things would be, one, I'd have enough money to take care of my family the rest of my life. I'd have the right kind of leadership in this world. I'd have the right kind of job. I would have the things that make me happy. If all of us are really being honest, whether we want to admit it or not, to some degree, we have reduced him to a vending machine. Like, we just say what we want and we expect God to respond to our need and to do that. And in doing so, the Israelites, over time, instead of, you know, falling in this situation where they were ruled by God, instead they chose rather that they wanted to rule like God.
And so that perspective is very different, isn't it? And that makes me the focus of my life. It makes me the center of attention. It makes me the one who decides to do everything.
So what happens here?
This says First Kings. This is actually First Samuel, chapter 8, verses 6 and 7.
About this time, Israel is asking for a king.
The situation is this.
They've been through some things. They've struggled. They've had some tough times.
Samuel and his boys have not done very well. Samuel's done fine, but his boys have not done very well. And the people of Israel say, that's enough. We want to be like everybody else. We're watching all these other kings are going out into battle, and they're leading their.
Their kingdom and victory. And we don't have that. We've got all these judges, and we're tired of being judged by other people. No offense to you, Samuel, but we want somebody else. And so here in First Samuel, chapter eight, this pleased Samuel, and he went to the Lord and He prayed to him and the Lord said to Samuel, obey the voice of the people.
Give them what they want, because they haven't really rejected you and assist them necessarily. They've rejected me a long time ago. They've left me a long time ago. They got self absorbed and wanted what they wanted and forgot that I'm the one who provides all the things for they have left me, they've left my rule. They have not rejected you, but they've rejected me.
And so, man, we can see this has happened for a long time.
And ultimately what they did is they, like us, are sometimes how we do. They opted for a lesser king.
And so we get Saul. And Saul is what he is, right? He starts out like gangbusters and then by the time it's over with, he's like, ugh, he's no good. He's no good. And there is a king that comes along and his name is David, and he's fashioned after the heart of God. And although we can see all of his mistakes and they're all so awful, right? And we acknowledge that he was not a perfect person. It was that David who, even as though he was ruling, recognized that he was not fully in charge. Listen to what he says.
He says this to God, I will extol you, my God, catch this and king, and bless your name forever and ever. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
David is the man, so to speak, but even he acknowledges that it's really about God's rule in our life.
Well, Israel go through a lot of things and in fact they end up in, you know, captivity. They end up having, you know, kingdoms come and take over them. Jerusalem's destroyed. They battle and battle and battle and they're having all this tough time. They have a series of terrible king after king after king, and ultimately they get to the spot where they really are waiting for, for something much better than what they have. And so you'll see these prophecies in Isaiah and you'll see this mention that there's going to be a son given, a government will be on his shoulders. You see that he's going to come from the throne of David and you're going to see that he is going to be a king who rules forevermore. And then you flip over to Malachi, chapter three. And in all of this Sorrow and all this struggle, they find themselves looking for something much deeper. And he says, hey, listen up.
There's a messenger that's coming. And the Lord whom you seek, he's gonna suddenly appear in the temple. He is coming, says the Lord of Hosts. He is coming to be here. And so you hear these words, you hear these prophecies about something coming that's much greater than what you've experienced before, that it's gonna be the kind of thing that's gonna restore the nation of Israel back to its prominence and make it powerful and make it awesome again. And it's gonna be where something amazing is happening. And we have this king, this anointed one of God that is going to bring about everything that. That we ever imagined.
And then you have 400 years of silence where no prophet is speaking, no one's giving you another indication.
And we don't know why. Maybe the Lord was just fed up and said, hey, these people need to be in timeout for a long time. But if you can imagine for 400 years, not hearing another word from God, except for the last thing you heard was that there is a promised son of God, There's a Lord, there's a king that's coming to rule.
And so you imagine that, and you long for it and you crave it. You know, our country is, what, pushing almost 250 years.
And I think, you know, if we went back and was able to watch what was happening in 1776 and all the battles that were being faced and all. All the weird things, all the weird clothing and the powdered wigs and all that mess, you know, like, we can't really connect with some of what they were going through on some level. But imagine for 400 years, there's nothing. We're just kind of going through the motions and doing the things that we need to do. And, you know, they're getting further and further and further away from what God wants them to be.
So then a good bit later, 2000 years ago from now, there is a king that arrives on the scene.
And of the king, it referred to him as the son of God, King of kings, lord of lords.
He's the bringer of peace.
He's a savior of sorts.
And yet this is not the one they were promised, because this is actually Caesar.
See, these are the kinds of things that they said about him. You see, they worshiped the Roman emperor. And so Caesar has a stranglehold a little bit on this area. And you look up and there's situations that Caesar is The king. Now, there may be a Herod involved in this, but the Herod at that time and that dynasty of the Herodians was a time where they were basically owned by Rome. And Rome allowed them to be in power so long as they did the things that Rome wanted them to do. And so truly, Caesar Augustus is ruling. And you've got a really complicated and complex and really conflicting things going on at this time. You've got, you know, the Roman rule, and they're taxing and taxing too much.
But then you've got, you know, the people who are in power and the Jews, but the king that is of the Jews is not really a pure Jew. And so he's. He's really not held in high regard by different people. But because he will do what the Caesar wants him to do and build elaborate buildings and make the place beautiful and those kinds of things, you know, the Roman emperor will allow him to continue to lead. You got the Sadducees and the Pharisees who have made an agreement with the Romans to remain in power within the temple and those kinds of things. And as long as they can practice their things the way they want to, they're fine with things. But they have to acknowledge that this is kind of oppressive. And it's a fearful thing to have people, you know, who want to worship the king, which is so irreverent and blasphemous to them.
But then you got the regular people of their time, and it's just oppressive all across the board.
What has happened to these promises of God?
And it's looking back now after Jesus life and everything, that Matthew begins to write these words to help us understand what God was doing all along and to see how he was putting some things in place to bring us God, the king that we needed, that we longed for so deeply. And so in Matthew, chapter one, verse one through 17, we won't read all that, but understand that there was a system that God put in place, and there were things and people at different times and place providentially. If you look in that genealogy, you're gonna see some really unusual names like Rahab the Harlot. You're gonna see things like Ruth, you're gonna see other people that make us kind of like, wow, how did God do all these things? But you can see the clear line that brings it all the way down through David and through, all the way through to Jesus. And that's an amazing thing. We can look back and see that. So that's one of those things where this is the time where Jesus is brought into the area. And so what we see in Matthew chapter three, and we're going to be in chapter three and chapter four today, is that you have John the baptizer, who comes around and he starts saying some things like this. He says, repent for your sins and return to God, for the kingdom of heaven is near. And that's a pretty powerful statement when he says, the kingdom is here. And if you can imagine all those complicated things being addressed at one time for him to come, you know, it says out of the wilderness. And that's a prophecy that's fulfilled in Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 3, that this guy who is the herald of this new king is not like someone with a trumpet and really nice clothing. He's kind of a weirdo out in the middle of nowhere doing weirdo things, right?
And he is the one that God chooses to use as this herald of Jesus coming.
So the message that he has is pretty clear. It's the king is coming and repent. Let's read about it in Matthew, chapter three, starting in verse four.
Now, John wore a garment of camel's hair and leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Mmm, don't that make y' all hungry for lunch?
Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. So he's teaching this message, and they're coming and they're confessing their sins.
But look at how he zeroes in on some of the religious elites.
Verse 7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. And then he looks at them square in the eyes and he says, bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
And don't presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.
For I tell you, God is able to make from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
But even now, the axe is laid at the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Now, his words would have caused him to step back a little bit and to go, who does he think he's talking to here?
But then he continues on, I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, and whose sandals I'm not worthy to Carry. And he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Listen to this. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. And the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
You know, he's saying there's a harvest coming, and it's not going to be about me just separating the wheat and the chaff with the wind, and the wind taking the chaff away. No, he's saying he's gonna collect that stuff and he's gonna burn it up with unquenchable fire. There's some intensity in what he's saying to them, and that's the message that he comes. What I want us to understand is when he talks about the kingdom, sometimes we have this in mind that we're talking about a territory. We're talking about, you know, walls, and we're talking about, you know, a castle, and we're talking about those kinds of things. But when he's talking about the kingdom, whether you're talking about it in the Old Testament or the New Testament, those words ring out. The idea of kingdom is this sovereignty, rule, reign, dominion.
And so when we think about that, that's the concept that needs to come when we think about what the kingdom is. And so he's saying here that the kingdom of heaven is near. So when he says that, what he's saying is the reign and rule of heaven is now here on earth, and God has always reigned on earth. But what he's saying is there's something very special about this time that's coming that's going to bring heaven back down to earth. And so here we have the king's introduction. Obviously, if this is going to happen, there's got to be a herald of a king coming. So then let's read in verse 13 of chapter 3.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, says to be baptized by him.
John would have prevented him, saying, I need to baptize you, and you come to me.
And Jesus answered him, let it be so for now, for this is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
Then he consented.
And then when Jesus was baptized immediately, he went up from the water. And behold, the heavens were opened.
And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
I hope that when you imagine this scene that you see this king that is coming. He's not Coming in robes. He's not coming with an army behind him. He's not coming with trumpet sound or any of those kinds of things. He's actually coming to do what the other people there are doing. Although he has no sin to repent of. He comes to say, hey, I want to find myself doing the right things. I want people to see that this is a moment, a defining moment of sorts. And so it shows his humility, it shows his humanity.
But also what we see in this is heaven's endorsement of what's going on here is my beloved Son in who I am well pleased on some level. This is not just a baptism of sorts, but this is like an initiation. It's a moment where his ministry is going to be launched. And it's in that moment that people can see something amazing is happening. They can hear this voice. They can see the Spirit of God there. And all of a sudden, all that has been promised about him begins to come a little bit alive to the hearts of the people there. And we know later, as Jesus talks about his kingdom in a couple of different places, in John 18, he says, My kingdom is not of this world. In Colossians, chapter one. Later, we find out that the apostles, you know, taught these things that by him were all things created, Heaven and earth, visible and invisible, Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And for in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. What am I saying through all this? I'm saying that Jesus came with the power and the force of heaven.
And so his message, his lordship, the reality that he is king, the message of repentance, which reminded everybody that this kingdom is coming with a requirement for all of you to make some changes in your lives, for all of you to repent of your sin and to move away from some things and to adopt the way I think about things. That message resonated with people, but because he was called king, you can imagine the uproar and the ripple effect that it had. Now, the way I can kind of imagine this. And I'm sure a lot of you watch superhero movies and different things like that. You know, sometimes they create these sophisticated special effects where, you know, Thor or the Hulk will come down and pound their hands on the ground or maybe even slap their hands together. And it creates like a bubble and an effect that causes everyone to be moved and to be pushed back. And I kind of see that in some way, that as God sends Jesus down from the earth, that he Kind of crash landed from heaven on earth. And with that came the power of his message and all these things. But it wasn't in the sense of a military. It wasn't in the sense of, you know, power in the sense that we think of physically speaking. No, that power came in movement, meaning people were moved to make a change.
That power was seen and recognized in change in people's lives.
That power came and revealed itself in his compassion and love for other people.
See, this is a whole different kind of king.
And it's heaven coming down to earth. The Bible tells us in John chapter one that in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God.
And it says in verse 14 that the word put on flesh and he dwelt among us, and we beheld him as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. God in the flesh. In Colossians chapter one, it reminds us in him the full Godhead dwelt, heaven landed on earth in the form of Jesus.
But right after this, and I think this is so powerful, us to be reminded is that after his baptism it says the Spirit took him away and he went into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. In the context, we know that that takes place for 40 days.
And you know, we often say to people who are baptized here, hey, when you come up out of that water, we pray for them and we say, hey, we know you're going to stumble. You know, as Andrew said last week, you had good 30 minutes, good 30 minutes. And then after that, you know, we start messing up again. Right? Why is that?
It's because the devil's near.
And can you imagine for 40 solid days when you wake up, the devil is right there in your presence.
Can you imagine saying, hey, I want to take a moment and maybe do some thinking on my own, maybe pray a little bit, maybe kind of work through this as I'm, you know, kind of setting myself up for this ministry. And.
And the devil is right there everywhere you go. He's there at your breakfast, at your lunch, at your dinner.
He's in your thoughts. Those moments where you kind of drift off into not thinking about anything, and then all of a sudden you get a trigger of something that's maybe a temptation or a struggle.
Isn't it interesting that that's what Jesus did right after his baptism?
Great kings understand the struggles of their people, and Jesus was certainly that kind of king. The Bible says in First John 2:16, that there's these things that exist. It's the Lust of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Those things are existence right now. And those are the same things that we struggle with. Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 15, verse 14 and 15 say that he was tempted in all aspects as we are, yet without sin.
Isn't it interesting that Jesus would go through that? Why do you think he would go through that?
Well, because we can relate to him, because he's a king that understands the struggles that we're going through.
And can I say for just a moment that maybe what he went through is exactly what we endure?
I mean, can we see that in the morning when we wake up that there's temptations right there in front of us to do the wrong thing?
Can we say when we have someone who responds to us unkindly, that maybe we find ourselves ready to be triggered and to respond right back to them? Can we say, hey, there's struggles in my life. There's frustrations that I'm dealing with. Can we see that there's temptation and struggle and that the devil is right there with us all the time?
It's Jesus who shows us through God's word and his powerful expressions of his knowledge and faith in God that the devil has to flee when we resist him.
And he showed us that he's so amazing in that this king cares for us so immediately. It says after this that Jesus went about and he said, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.
So let's talk about repentance for just a second. Repentance is more than just saying, I'm sorry. We've kind of talked about this a little bit. I showed a picture the other day about, you know, two people in the get along shirt. You know, we kind of get paired up together and we say, you tell your brother or your sister you're sorry, now go over there and give them a kiss. And instead you go over there and go and lick them up inside their face. You know, that's not really what God is looking for.
He's not looking for us to just say I'm sorry about things. And I think often maybe we think to ourselves, I said, I'm sorry, and that's enough.
But what he's talking about here is a requirement on our part to turn away from our sinful behaviors, the things that pull us aside. And he's saying, I want something to happen deep inside your heart that says, I don't want to do the things that are sinful or that are bad behaviors or things that take me further Away from God? No, I want to turn back to God. I want Jesus to rule my heart. I want his heart to rule my priorities. I want his heart to drive my decisions every day. I want his heart to navigate me through the challenges that I face in life.
I want his heart to be the thing that leads me in my daily activities.
That's what repentance is. It's saying, I can't do this on my own. I must have Jesus ruling in my heart to help me through this.
And that's what he's calling for.
And notice that he goes out and he invites people to the cause.
We're not going to read it, but he goes and immediately he finds, you know, Peter and Andrew and it says, he talks to them. He says, come, follow me. They immediately leave their nets. And then he goes find James and John. And then we know through a series of scriptures and as we continue to read that he's getting more and more of these followers. And you know, when you look at it, it's not like the super spiritual people that he's going to find, right? It's not like he's going to find the elites. He didn't go to the Sadducees or the Sanhedrin and find those people and say, hey, I want you to follow me. No. They would have probably rejected him. He, he went to people who were looking for something, deeper things that gave hope to them. So he found some fishermen, he found a tax collector, he found a person who was really materialistic. He found a zealot, someone who would just assume kill you as look at you. Those are the kinds of people that Jesus found and said, I want to invite you into this. Well, why would he invite those kinds of people?
I think because what they did is what we must do.
And that is that we must surrender our rule for his rule.
So what does it mean to be kingdom minded?
In Matthew, chapter 4, verse 23 and following, it says this. And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom.
Notice that. The Gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease, every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria. And they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures and paralytics. And he healed them.
And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.
What I want us to understand being kingdom minded is really what his followers did with him.
And that is they allowed him to begin shaping who they were.
Notice there's not anything miraculous about what the disciples were doing in that moment. It was all Jesus. And by the way, when he rules our lives, it is all about Jesus.
But they just walked alongside him. And in the process, they saw him change the lives of other people. And what's taking place on the inside of each one of them is a deeper and deeper submission to this man who loves me and he's looking out for what is best for me, and he cares and he's compassionate.
That's the force of the kingdom. So he changes not only those that he touches, but also ourselves in our own hearts.
So what do I do to get this kingdom mindset?
Here's just a couple things.
First of all, change everything in my heart that's in opposition to the king's will.
Now, how do we know that? Well, we read Scripture. Scripture gives us a good idea of what his will was, a lot of the teachings that he did. And we're going to get into all those. I mean, we're going to hit the Sermon on the Mount here in just a little bit. We're going to hit, you know, a lot of his parables and the things that he taught. We're going to find out a lot of things about ourselves as we look into his Word and we compare ourselves to what it says.
It's going to require us to change some things.
And so we've got to be willing to do that. Change everything, listen everything. Sometimes we think, well, this is my sin. This is my thing that really is just for me. And anybody else has to know about this. This is just between me and it's okay. I'm not perfect. Nobody can be perfect. So I allow myself the freedom to partake of these things or this thing over and over. No, change everything.
Repent from everything in your life that does not come in fluid companionship with what Jesus wants you to do.
And then do this walk every day knowing that the kingdom is here.
You know, when we read about the kingdom and the conversations that are had and the preaching about the kingdom, you know, oftentimes when we think about the kingdom of heaven, we think about that something in heaven.
But, you know, if you really just follow the line of thinking, Jesus is saying the kingdom of God is here, and we understand it as the church, but it's just the idea, the rule and the reign of Jesus in our hearts is here right now.
And as I said, we're gonna look in the Book of Matthew, we're gonna See, these elements of the kingdom being taught and what it requires of us is for all of us to abandon that lesser king that we find ourselves wanting to follow, which sometimes is, oddly enough, ourselves, and to latch onto the King that can rule in our hearts and change our lives forever.
So this morning, are you willing to submit to the King? Are you willing to give over those things that you're holding onto, saying, hey, that's my. That's my sin, that's my thing.
Are you willing to relinquish it all? Because that's what's required to be kingdom minded. And as we read Jesus words and as we see what he does and how he carries himself and how he teaches people and loves people and heals them, we're going to get more and more like him.
Are you ready to walk with him? If you need prayers from the congregation here, then you know that we'll do that and we'll love you and we'll be right here with you.
If you're a person who's saying, I need to give my life to the King, then the way we do that is pretty simple.
It's believe with all of our heart that Jesus Christ is the King of Kings, he's the Son of God, he's the one that's been promised, he's the anointed one, he's our Savior.
And then you are willing to put those things in your life that are not wholesome aside. You want those things buried. And so we have baptism. Baptism is a burial which causes a person to die to themselves, be buried in a watery grave, and to be raised up to walk a new life. And when that happens, then your heart and your mind is stuck on letting Jesus drive your life.
If that describes who you are this morning, I'm begging you, don't wait any longer. Give your life to Jesus today. If you have a need, please come while we stand and sing.
