Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] When we celebrate baptisms around here, people love it.
[00:00:04] I think one of the things that they love is to hear the stories of people's life change, that God intersects people's lives and their lives are forever changed.
[00:00:15] Something I love about those stories is oftentimes in the midst of those stories, people will thank someone who is especially helpful that God used in their life to, to help them cross the line of faith and come into a relationship with him.
[00:00:31] If you're a follower of Jesus and you watch that, something in your heart should say, I wanna participate in those stories. I want God to use me in the life of another person.
[00:00:44] God wants to use you in the life of your friends and your family.
[00:00:50] That's his plan A for changing the world.
[00:00:55] As we've been going through this series In Romans chapter 8, one of the kind of premise of the whole series is that what God wants for us is not that heaven would be a place that we go to when we die, but that our, the purpose of our faith would be that we would bring heaven to earth while we live. That's the message of Jesus when he said the kingdom of God is right here. We to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth.
[00:01:22] And this is a picture that we've been using to try to get our mind around. This idea is that heaven is to come to earth and we are God's plan A to do that. We are to be his witnesses in the world to what he has done.
[00:01:40] And here's what I know happens when I start to say that in, in a room like this, there are people that instantly start to feel guilt and shame like, I know I should do this. We start to disqualify ourselves. We start to tell ourselves, I'm just not smart enough, I don't know enough about my faith. What if somebody asked me a question and I don't know how to answer it?
[00:02:02] My life doesn't even look the way that it probably should. I've got my own problems, I've got my own questions and doubts. And we can immediately start to disqualify ourselves.
[00:02:14] The truth is, if you're looking at just yourself and your ability to be a witness in this world for Jesus, you are disqualified.
[00:02:25] But Jesus wants you to know that when we receive His Holy Spirit, we receive power.
[00:02:35] Power to be his witnesses in this world. You cannot be a witness for Jesus apart from the power of the holy spir. And that's been this message around this series in Romans chapter eight. But we're actually going to look at Acts chapter one today. Because there is. Therein is the promise that Jesus gives to his disciples. This was the last time that he was going to talk to those that were closest to him. It was after his death, his burial, his resurrection. He spent 40 days teaching them about the kingdom of God. But then he gives them this command.
[00:03:09] Acts, chapter one.
[00:03:11] Starting in verse three, it says, after his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God. He was reminding them of everything that he had taught them about the kingdom of God, also called the kingdom of heaven. And this idea that we're to bring heaven, heaven to earth, that is the purpose of our faith. Verse 4, it says, on one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command.
[00:03:45] Do not leave Jerusalem.
[00:03:49] Do not leave Jerusalem. But wait.
[00:03:53] Why? Why wait? Wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
[00:04:01] For John, baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
[00:04:09] Here's what Jesus knows about us that left to our own devices, we'll have a propensity to get ahead of him, ahead of what he's doing. He's telling his disciples, don't go until you have power.
[00:04:27] You won't have power to be my witnesses until you have the Holy Spirit. He's saying, I want you to go, but you need to wait for power.
[00:04:38] But then it's really interesting, the disciples interrupt him in the middle of this command, this commission that he's giving to them. Because they've got a question.
[00:04:49] Here's what they asked. Then they gathered around him and they asked him, lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
[00:05:00] Now, I believe that somewhere in the heart of Jesus, there was a little bit of disappointment in their question.
[00:05:08] Because he had been teaching them for three years and then for another 40 days after his resurrection about the kingdom of God. And never once did he teach them that. That this was an earthly kingdom, a political kingdom. But still, in their mind, they thought, that's what's gonna happen. We are gonna overthrow Rome, and Israel is gonna be in the rightful place of ruling over this, over them again.
[00:05:36] But Jesus says, no, my kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. It is not an earthly political kingdom. It is not a kingdom that is built on power. It is not a kingdom that is accomplished or achieved by force.
[00:05:53] And honestly, that was a really good thing for them because they didn't have a lot.
[00:05:59] They had no money. They were incredibly Poor.
[00:06:03] They had no political power. They had no influence.
[00:06:09] Jesus understood that. But what he was going to give them would trump all of that, would be more important than anything. He was going to give them the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:06:20] Verse 7, he continues. Then he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power.
[00:06:31] You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and ultimately to the ends of the earth.
[00:06:44] Jesus is saying, you are my plan A.
[00:06:49] If we are going to take this message to the world, friends, you are the ones that are going to do it. When we live in this overlapping where. Overlapping space where heaven is coming to earth, we are the ones that, that carry the message that Jesus is king.
[00:07:11] That's what we are, witnesses of that truth, that Jesus is king.
[00:07:17] But here's what often happens in our culture when we hear that word witness and we think about what it is that Jesus is asking us to do.
[00:07:25] What we believe is that that primarily means that we just need.
[00:07:32] We need to tell people that Jesus is king. And friends, yes, that is true. But here's what I want you to grab ahold of today. That is only half of the story.
[00:07:46] We aren't just to tell people that Jesus is king.
[00:07:51] We are to.
[00:07:56] Show people.
[00:07:58] We're to show people what does the world look like when Jesus is king.
[00:08:06] It's not just telling.
[00:08:08] It is show and tell.
[00:08:12] You remember that as a kid, right?
[00:08:15] They did it back in the 70s. I don't know if they still do it now, but show and tell was like my favorite thing. You got to bring something to, to the class that was really important to you, something that you were excited about. And you got to show people what it was.
[00:08:30] This is what it is. And you got to tell them about it, tell them why it was important to you.
[00:08:38] Friends, that's the picture of what Jesus invites us to do in being his witnesses. It's not just telling. It's show and tell.
[00:08:47] It's like two pedals on a bike. We show them what it looks like when Jesus is king and we tell them how it is that Jesus can become their king. It's show and tell. Show and tell. That's what it means to be a witness in the world.
[00:09:03] And we see this in the life and ministry of Jesus.
[00:09:07] If you were just to read through the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and look at his life, massive amounts of what he did was simply to show people what the kingdom of God was like.
[00:09:18] Just think a little bit about the miracles of Jesus. What was the purpose of his miracles? Was he just trying to show off his power and let people know who he was and that he was who he claimed to be? That was a piece of it. But what he wanted at the very core was to help them understand this is what it looks like when my kingdom comes to earth. Why was it that he was continually going around healing diseases and sicknesses? Because he wanted them to know when heaven invades earth, when I restore all things one day there will be no sickness, there will be no disease. He wanted them to understand heaven is coming to earth.
[00:10:00] When he does something like feeding 5, 10,000 people at a time from a little bit of loaves and a little bit of fishes. What is it that he's trying to communicate about the kingdom? He's trying to help people understand that in my kingdom there's abundance. There's abundance in my. We don't have to hoard and hold on to stuff because my God, my king, when Jesus is king, there will be abundance. We will provide for everyone. When the little boy comes with five loaves and two fishes and they feed everyone, it's this picture that there will be abundance in my kingdom one day. We see almost on every other page, Jesus is delivering people from demonic forces.
[00:10:45] Jesus wants people to understand when heaven comes to earth and that is fully completed, there will be no influence of the evil one in this world anymore. He will be banished forever. He's giving people a picture and a taste of what the kingdom looks like.
[00:11:03] I love it. Just who he hung out with, who he had around the table with him. The outcasts, the marginalized.
[00:11:12] What is it that he was trying to communicate about the kingdom?
[00:11:16] In my kingdom, Jesus is saying, everyone has a place at the table.
[00:11:22] There's no pecking order in my kingdom. Everyone is welcome around my table.
[00:11:31] And then the ultimate thing in his life and ministry, his sacrificial death, was a reminder that in his kingdom, it is a kingdom of reconciliation, Relationship is restored, relationship between God and man. That Jesus took on himself the sin, our sin, and he gave us his righteousness, that great exchange. He took what he didn't deserve and he gave us what we didn't deserve so that we could be reconciled to God. But not only are we reconciled to God, but as an outflow of that, we are reconciled to one another. In God's kingdom, there is reconciliation. Relationships are restored.
[00:12:18] That is what the kingdom looks like. And that's what Jesus was modeling over and over again with his life and ministry. This is what the kingdom looks like. He was showing what it looks like, but he also told.
[00:12:33] He told what it looked like when Jesus was king. When he was king. And probably one of his most famous teachings, what we would call the Sermon on the mount, Matthew chapter 5 to Matthew chapter 7. Many theologians would call this like his manifesto of what the kingdom looks like. What would relationships and life and the world look like if Jesus was the King of people? Here's. Here's what I want you to try to understand, if you can. I'm going to. What I'm going to do is I'm not going to try to repreach all of the Sermon on the Mount. We did that a couple of falls ago. We don't have to redo that. We don't have time for that. But I just want to try to describe to you some of the outflow of if we lived like Jesus was king and the things that he said in the Sermon on the Mount.
[00:13:20] This is the kind of world that we would live in. Just imagine if this was your neighborhood, if this was the people that you lived around. What if the people, the neighborhood that you lived in, if people were humble, they were completely humble and they looked out for others. In fact, they actually looked out for others oftentimes more than they looked out for themselves. They were always looking for an opportunity to love and to serve another person.
[00:13:46] What if when there was brokenness in that neighborhood, there was brokenness and pain, that their heart moved with mercy and empathy toward those people? They didn't stand back looking at the problems, but they stepped in and they brought help and to hope into those places. They were salt and light in those places in the neighborhood.
[00:14:10] What if in this neighborhood, there was never any bitterness or anger between people?
[00:14:18] In fact, whenever any of that just started to even surface at all, they were adamant about resolving conflict. We need to be right with one another. We need to keep our hearts pure toward one another.
[00:14:29] What if that was the neighborhood?
[00:14:32] And get this. What if in the neighborhood there were some people that were actually our enemies?
[00:14:38] How would we relate to them if Jesus was king?
[00:14:44] They would be loved.
[00:14:46] They would be loved. And people would actually seek to bless those, bless those people that were persecuting them in this neighborhood, there would be sexual integrity. People would live inside the bounds of God's standards for our sexuality.
[00:15:03] They would do to others as they would want done to them.
[00:15:09] That would be the mantra. That would be the decision Making deal in their life.
[00:15:15] What am I gonna do? I'm gonna do what somebody else would want me to do, what I would want them to do for me.
[00:15:22] That would be what they would do. There would be incredible amounts of forgiveness because this group of people would understand how much they've been forgiven so that they would extend forgiveness to others again and again and again. They would love and care and forgive.
[00:15:38] They would be generous. They would be incredibly generous with what they had because they believed that God owns everything.
[00:15:47] He owns all of my stuff. I can share. God can supply more for me. There wouldn't be this scarcity mentality that I've got to hold on to my stuff. It would be a generous group of people.
[00:15:58] You know what else?
[00:16:00] They'd be chill.
[00:16:02] They'd be so chill, they wouldn't be anxious.
[00:16:08] They wouldn't be worried about stuff. And it's not because they don't care. And it's not because their lives are easy. But they understand that if Jesus is king, I may not understand everything that's happening around me, but I know that he does and I can trust him.
[00:16:23] So they would be relaxed.
[00:16:26] They wouldn't worry.
[00:16:28] There wouldn't be an air of judgment. There wouldn't be this sense where I have to have a sense of superiority over other people.
[00:16:36] People would actually be more aware of their own sin and brokenness and less judging of other people's sin and brokenness, not because it doesn't exist, but because we're focusing more on ourself than even other people.
[00:16:49] We would keep our word even when it's hard and costly. We would keep our marriage vows even when it's hard and costly. We would be careful about what we say about anyone because we would understand everyone is made in God's image.
[00:17:07] So we'd be careful.
[00:17:09] We don't want to use our mouth to desecrate something that God loves and values. So just imagine, if that's your neighborhood, Wouldn't you want to live in a neighborhood like that?
[00:17:24] I mean, I'd just be awful, right?
[00:17:27] No, no, no.
[00:17:29] If that neighborhood existed, and that's what exists when Jesus is king, everyone would want to live in that neighborhood. You would want your kids to grow up in that neighborhood. You'd want your kids going to those schools. You would want to be a part of that. Here's my point.
[00:17:46] When Jesus is king and we live our lives, when the church lives their lives like Jesus is king, it is a neighborhood that people want to live in. And that's why we need to show people genuinely what does it look like when Jesus is king?
[00:18:06] Show the world.
[00:18:08] That's why we do. We talk about this kingdom offering that we're doing, trying to raise $100,000 to help a handful of organizations that are doing things that we believe are the kinds of things that bring God's kingdom to this earth, that bring heaven to this earth. Because in God's kingdom there will be no unwanted and uncared for kids and widows. So there shouldn't be on earth when his people are bringing God's kingdom to this earth. If Jesus is king, that means that every life matters and every life that is in crisis and that's abused, it matters. They need help and hope. We can bring that. That's the picture. We get the opportunity, friends, to bring heaven to earth. And this is just, I mean, I mean, let me just say this. A hundred thousand dollars in the scope of what needs to happen in this world is a drop in the bucket.
[00:19:02] And the truth is, is that many of you are, are generous and involved in lots of different ways that you're bringing heaven to earth. But that's what it is.
[00:19:10] That's what Jesus calls us to be, that we would show the world.
[00:19:13] Show the world what it looks like when Jesus is king. Here's how Peter said it. I love how he said it in 1st Peter 2:12. Live such good lives, good lives among the pagans. And when he says pagan right there, in our vernacular, that can be kind of a derogatory term. It wasn't in those days. It just simply meant someone that God is not the focus of their life. Maybe you would call it irreligious, but God is not important to them.
[00:19:42] He says, live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day that he visits us.
[00:19:53] What is Peter saying?
[00:19:56] When we show the world what it looks like when Jesus is king, they may not believe everything that we believe, but they would look at our lives, they would look at how we're living and just say, I would want to be a part of that I want to be a part of. That's what it means to show the world the kingdom.
[00:20:17] But it's not just showing the world the kingdom. There is a part where we tell people, we've got to tell people, how does Jesus become king? How does Jesus become king of our lives? In individually, that is the gospel, that is the good news. How do we explain to people how Jesus can be king?
[00:20:39] Because we enter the kingdom.
[00:20:41] When we place Jesus on the throne of our life, we put our faith. We put our trust in him, in his sacrificial death, on our behalf. I said it before, I'll say it again. He took our sin.
[00:20:58] He didn't deserve that. He gave us his righteousness. We didn't deserve that. So that we could have a restored relationship with the Father. You can say it a lot of different ways, but we enter the kingdom, we make Jesus our king. When we surrender our life to him, we say, jesus, you're the boss. You're on the throne of my life. I'm no longer.
[00:21:21] I bow my knee to you.
[00:21:24] That's what we tell people.
[00:21:26] We tell people how they can come into a relationship where Jesus is king.
[00:21:32] And I believe that this is probably true. Some of you, when you're imagining yourself having a conversation like that, you're actually internally having a little bit of an allergic reaction.
[00:21:43] You just feel like, I don't know if I want to do that. I feel like I'm trying to sell something to somebody. I don't want to do that to the people that I love.
[00:21:52] And here's the challenge. In the world that we live in, we are culturally conditioned to keep our mouth shut.
[00:22:01] Don't talk about faith. Faith is private. It is not a public matter.
[00:22:06] And when we think about having those kinds of conversations, what it does is it makes us uncomfortable, all of us, me included.
[00:22:14] But that's why what Jesus promised is so important, that we have his spirit in us.
[00:22:22] And when he promised the Holy Spirit, he promised the comforter.
[00:22:28] That's what he called the spirit. You would have a comforter. Why do you need a comforter?
[00:22:33] You need a comforter in life because sometimes your life is uncomfortable. If our life was just super easy all the time and doing this witness thing was super easy, we wouldn't need a comforter. But Jesus promises the comforter.
[00:22:48] Here's what I want you to think about. And I don't know that this will alleviate all of your discomfort, but here's what I want you to think about as it relates to our world.
[00:22:58] Because I believe this is true.
[00:23:01] Everyone.
[00:23:02] Everyone. Everyone in this room, everyone outside of this room, everyone is preaching some gospel.
[00:23:09] They're preaching some good news. Whatever they think the good news is, they're preaching something that they think will make their life better, make your life better, will make this world better, make us a better person, that will give us hope in this life. Everybody is preaching something like intermittent fasting.
[00:23:32] Everyone's into intermittent fasting. This Is the most important thing Mindful meditation apps. You've got to get this app. The benefits of cold plunging. You've got to do this if you want to be healthy Food hacks for fitness people.
[00:23:47] This movie. You've got to see this movie.
[00:23:51] This restaurant. Oh, this restaurant is just to die for. You've got. You'll love it.
[00:23:58] Pickleball.
[00:24:02] This is the fastest growing religion in our country.
[00:24:06] Meet my Lord and Savior, Pickleball.
[00:24:10] Everybody's preaching something.
[00:24:13] I've got a friend at the gym that I go to and he's probably about my age, but this dude is ripped. He's just ripped. People all the time are asking him and he is telling them, how do you get. Get that way? He is evangelistic about how he does his bodybuilding. He is so into it.
[00:24:36] Nobody is asking me what I'm doing, but everybody is asking him because he can show.
[00:24:44] He can show what he's got, but he can also tell how to do it.
[00:24:49] That's what Jesus is asking us to do.
[00:24:53] That we would show and tell about the kingdom of God.
[00:24:57] That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We just simply talk about the thing that means the most to us. And it's probably not pickleball. It's probably not intermittent fasting, but if you were a follower of Jesus, it should be him.
[00:25:12] We just tell. We tell the story of what he's done in our life, how he's changed us, how he's been impactful in our life.
[00:25:23] And here's what I believe that we need to do as we talk with people about the impact of Jesus in our life.
[00:25:29] We've got to be humble, we've got to be honest, and we've got to be authentic.
[00:25:36] And here's what I mean by that.
[00:25:38] If you've followed Jesus for any amount of time, I believe that there's some amazing thing and he's done in your life. There's been incredible amounts of growth in your life.
[00:25:49] But I also know that this is true.
[00:25:51] You've had your share of challenges.
[00:25:54] You've had really difficult things. In fact, two of the messages in this series was just like, how do we deal with the suffering that we experience in this world, in this life? As a follower of Jesus, you've had challenges, you've had breakthroughs. Yes, you have great hope in what Jesus is doing in your life, but you've also had suffering.
[00:26:17] You've had questions, you've had doubts sometimes about what God is doing in and through your life. You've had Failures.
[00:26:26] If you were going to show and if you were going to tell, tell people, you've got to tell them about the good, the bad and the hard. We've got to be a authentic. That's what it means to be a witness for Christ.
[00:26:43] So here's the question that I have for you.
[00:26:47] Are you living your life hidden?
[00:26:52] Are you kind of an undercover Christian? There's things going on on the inside, but you never talk about it to anybody. You never try to show them the kingdom of God. Are you. Are you compartmentalizing your spiritual life, hiding it off so that nobody can see it?
[00:27:09] And there might be reasons for that, but here's what I want you to understand.
[00:27:13] People don't need a perfect example of following Jesus, but everyone needs a living example.
[00:27:23] They need to see a picture. What does it look like in your life when Jesus is king? What is the good, the bad and the hard of that? What is it that I need to know if I want to make Jesus my king? That's what it means to show what the kingdom of God is like and to tell people how Jesus can be their king.
[00:27:45] So let's get personal for just a minute.
[00:27:50] If what Jesus said to his disciples is true, and we believe that it is, and he's saying the same thing to us, that means in terms of bringing heaven to earth, his followers were it.
[00:28:06] He no longer has a physical body here on this earth, but what he does have is a spiritual body that has our physical bodies that have God's spirit in us, working in us and through us. That's his plan A, and he's got no plan B. We are his body.
[00:28:27] You know what that means? That means that our eyes are his eyes.
[00:28:33] We need to see the world the way he sees the world, with compassion and empathy.
[00:28:39] Our feet need to be his feet that are willing to move toward and run in to the places where good needs to be done in this world.
[00:28:49] Our hands. Our hands need to be his hands that step into the places where people need to be blessed in this world. We need to be willing to show and to tell what the kingdom is like.
[00:29:04] Here's what I think we need to do.
[00:29:06] This would be my encouragement to you every day, every day as you step into your life, our ordinary life, that can be extraordinary when we're relying on the power of the Holy Spirit. We step into that and we ask God, give me your eyes. I want my antenna up. I want to be able to see your kingdom coming to earth. Where do you want me to step in? Where do you want me to be the one to bring your invisible and invading kingdom of heaven to this earth.
[00:29:40] In your office, in your school, at the gym, your book club, your daycare pickup, the dog park, I don't care. Wherever you are in our ordinary life, are we seeking to ask the Holy Spirit, show me where I can bring heaven to earth. And Jesus promise to us is that we're not alone.
[00:30:03] However uncomfortable that might feel to us. He promised, I will send the comforter to be with you.
[00:30:12] So why don't we do it?
[00:30:15] Why don't we just live our life day in and day out like this?
[00:30:20] Sometimes I think we look at the pictures of the witnesses in the scripture and we just think, there's no way I can be like that. I think that you look at Peter immediately after Acts chapter one, Acts chapter two. The Spirit falls immediately. He. He is preaching to thousands of people.
[00:30:38] Most of us are gonna look at our lives and just say, I don't know that that's me.
[00:30:42] I don't know that I'm gonna preach to thousands of people. We look at the life of Paul, this religious intellect that was able to engage with the smartest people of that time to help wrestle, to help understand how Jesus fits in to everything in the world. Most of us don't have the kind of intellect that Paul had. So we just think, I can't do this. I'm an out. I'm out. I am disqualified.
[00:31:10] Here's what I want to tell you about today that I believe has the power to encourage you.
[00:31:16] I want to share with you about one of the greatest evangelists in the New Testament. And we don't even know her name from John, chapter four. We only know her as the Samaritan woman. And. And here's why I believe this story can give us hope.
[00:31:32] The reason is, is because God picks unlikely people, unlikely people to do his divine purposes.
[00:31:41] This woman had so many things going against her. If anybody wanted to disqualify themselves, it would be her.
[00:31:49] She was a Samaritan, hated by the Jews. How was she going to be a spokesperson for this Jewish rabbi in this message of the kingdom? And she was a woman in that culture lower in the pecking order.
[00:32:04] How was she gonna be a spokesperson, a witness for this Jewish rabbi?
[00:32:10] And she was living an immoral lifestyle, and everybody knew it.
[00:32:18] Disqualified.
[00:32:20] Everything would tell you this woman was disqualified. But she met Jesus.
[00:32:25] She realized he's the Messiah, he's the king. She realized Jesus is king.
[00:32:32] So what did she do immediately? She went back to her town and she told everybody, come and see a man.
[00:32:43] Come and see a man. That told me everything that I've ever done. She made an invitation and it changed her.
[00:32:50] Here's how the scripture says it. John 4:39.
[00:32:55] Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me everything I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them. And he stayed two days.
[00:33:08] And because of his words, many more became believers. They said to the woman, we no longer believe just because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves and we know that this man really is the savior of the world.
[00:33:25] She simply made an invitation.
[00:33:30] Come and see.
[00:33:32] Come and see a man.
[00:33:35] Here's the application. Here's your assignment.
[00:33:38] I've read the statistics this week on the number of people that would come to church with someone that they love and, and they trust. And the numbers are astounding.
[00:33:48] The vast majority of people would come if people made an invitation to them.
[00:33:54] But here's the thing, friends. This isn't a perfect kingdom of God place, but we seek and we pray to make this a place where people can experience a taste of what the kingdom is like. We want this to be a place that is welcoming when people show up here and it's like, we've got a place for you, we want you here. We've got ushers and greeters, people in the parking lot trying to help people.
[00:34:18] No, you have a place at the table here.
[00:34:23] This is a place where we long to see that people are serving one another, that we don't just walk in here thinking, what's in it for me? How do I get what I need out of this? But we actually come in here as followers of Jesus with a posture that says, how do I help other people? How can I serve others? Think about them more importantly than myself. That's the kingdom of God that is bringing heaven to earth. And when we come to this place, we will continuously lift the name of Jesus high.
[00:34:55] He is our king. There is no other king of Kings, Lord of Lords. He is worthy of everything in our life.
[00:35:03] And we will call you over and over to be an all in follower of him. There is no king but Jesus.
[00:35:10] But we would want people to feel known and loved. We want you to be connected with an even smaller group of people where you can actually life on life, feel that experience of being known and loved by other people. Because that's what the kingdom is about, being known and loved.
[00:35:28] And if you Come here. We are gonna be honest and authentic about our life and our faith.
[00:35:34] If you've been around here very much, you know that I'm not that worried about trying to project to you something about my life that makes you think that my life is better than it is. I tell you how it really is. I wanna tell you the good, the bad and the hard. Because that's what the kingdom of God is like. It is challenging. But we wanna talk about how we lift our hand to our king and he grabs us and he walks with us through the good, the bad and the hard. That's what we can experience here. And what we want is to invite people into that with us.
[00:36:09] My challenge for you is just ask God's spirit, who.
[00:36:16] Who would I invite?
[00:36:17] Who would I invite to come to be a part of this with us?
[00:36:23] To hear who Jesus is, to hear his name lifted up?
[00:36:28] Because we believe.
[00:36:30] We believe that our lives are better when Jesus is on the throne. And we believe that we are better at life when Jesus is on the throne and he is our king.
[00:36:44] Invest in people, invite.
[00:36:48] Because that's what Jesus has called us to do.
[00:36:53] We're it.
[00:36:55] This plan to see heaven. Come to earth, to see the reality of Jesus being king. To show the world what that's like. To tell the world how to become his king. It's on us.
[00:37:09] But we're not alone.
[00:37:11] We have a comforter who's with us, who wants to work in us and through us to bring heaven to earth.
[00:37:20] Let's pray.
[00:37:24] Jesus. So many times when I think about what you've entrusted to us, it feels overwhelming because we acknowledge Jesus. It's the most important thing happening on the planet.
[00:37:39] You bringing your kingdom to this earth. And you've asked us to do it.
[00:37:43] But thank you that we're not alone. Holy Spirit, fill us.
[00:37:47] Empower us.
[00:37:48] Give us your eyes to see this world. Show us moment by moment, day by day, step by step, action by action. How do you want us to bring heaven to this earth? What do you want to do through us? Jesus, our life is yours.
[00:38:06] We are surrendered to you. Our knee is bowed to you.
[00:38:12] Use us to bring heaven to earth.
[00:38:15] It's in your powerful and resurrected name that we pray. And all God's people said, amen.
