S8E8 - What is the Kingdom of Heaven? - Part 2

in and through our lives. I'll give you a hint. It's not waiting for the shooter drop or the end to come. Jesus actually tells us we can experience the kingdom of heaven now. Welcome to the Forgotten Jesus podcast. I'm your host, Adam French, where you learn about the real Jesus from the Bible. I'm here with pastor Robbie Gallady and Candy Gallady, both biblical communicators, accomplished authors. Robbie is the pastor at Long Hollow Church and the founder of Replicate Ministries, a discipleship ministry that touches churches all over the world and gives a real personal material for just an everyday believer. How people be disciples who make disciples. Come on, absolutely. You can get a lot on our website ReplicateMinistries.com or replicate.com. I think it's Replicate.com. It used to be URLs. It's not org. It's not org. It's not org. Maybe not. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's not. Just look at the notes. Guys run that. Yeah, but it's all kinds of resources, reading plans, if I think sometimes, especially for the new believer, you're going, "All right, where do I start? How do I read the Bible?" Or maybe you've been a Christian for a long time and you just went to church and listening to the sermon, you're like, "How do I get into the Word?" Or as we always say, Bible engagement. How do I engage the Bible? Replicate has incredible tools for you can engage the Bible on a daily basis. I've used them from teenagers to men and women in prison to senior adults all across the board, college students. It's an effective tool. I think it's the best tool available right now on planet Earth. You just worked to engage. You just made a new plan. It took the plan and made it for True North Earth, reading plan for those in addiction to help them. True North, we have a ministry here called Celebrate Recovery for Students who are going through any struggles. What we wanted to create was a chance for them to go deeper. I like to come and share in a biblical peer environment with trusted people. That's what CR for students is. I can come and say, "Hey, Robbie, last week. I looked at this. I didn't. Will you hold me accountable?" I'm feeling this way and you get to share. We want to go deeper. We want to say, "How can I do a study that helps me really root out the reason why that?" Because all that stuff is symptoms. Alcohol is just a symptom. Drug is just a symptom. There's a root cause of that. It's a spiritual malady. When we live a life along biblical principles, we can root that out. We have to take those actions. True North is a study that we're doing with students. We're in week eight. I'm just doing it week by week. I think it's going to become

maybe a workbook. We have about 25 students that are going through it right now. They just did a big step was they did an inventory of their entire life. Everything, every harm that they had caused another person or every harm that had been caused them, they wrote out and they also balanced it with some good things that they did. Then the second part of that was we had three trusted leaders that were vetted that they were able to go and share that inventory with. We do that because we want them to be able to see patterns. We see this is a pattern. This isn't one situation. This is a character defect. We talk about being bent to our strengths. We never talk about being bent to our sin struggles. Robin and I have a pretty similar personality. We're more likely to say something we shouldn't to move too fast, to push too hard. We're Josie. My wife on a mechanic is more like more reserved, more relaxed. Stand up for yourself. Those are two different. We can go into sin struggles, but that's our bit. Getting students to see, hey, you have a tendency to struggle with this. You don't need to go here. You don't need to be a part of this. You need to set up some healthy boundaries. That's the inventory section they just finished and excited for. Thanks for bringing that up. I think one day we'll probably get with the publisher and try to get that out. You know what reminds me of? If your car has problems, let's say it's got transmission or engine problems, nowadays the cars are all electronic. When you bring it to a dealership or a mechanic, what do they do immediately? Right away, they hook it up to the computer. It's a diagnostic check. The diagnostic check basically looks at the history up to this point to cause the problem. That's good. That's what you're saying. It's helpful for adults to do this. Candy and I did this years ago. I was going to say, I remember that. It was revolutionary to me because I had never But I remember one was not necessarily things I had specifically done But more of like the pattern of life that had happened there was this really big pattern of loss and I had never like like whether it was lost for a period of time whether it was loss of health whether it was a loss of a person, but there was just this pattern of Loss like over the course of my life that I never had even identified before and I thought that was really fascinating You haven't you had to you had to grieve it too. So if you didn't identify you can't grieve it In a fear like when I would leave home to go speak or for the weekend to go somewhere to preach She'd just it would really be overwhelming and we realized she hadn't dealt with she buried it and didn't do and so she's

Don't eat you brought to the service and don't let that's powerful celebrate recovery actually has a step study that kind of has a similar path And we this is a while. We typically have about 50 people Not constantly like once one ends another one starts for students. No for adults 12 I mean every day every week at our at our at our church. There's about 50 people going through step studies just constantly And doing the inventory stuff the man any book has an inventory section. It's more about your woundedness And I use the phrase Struggle. Yeah, so kind of like with what you're saying any struggle that you have there's kind of a process that you can go through that But people have a I want to say this real quick people always wonder about the steps like is it secular? Is it Christian like do we need the steps since like no you don't need the steps? But the steps have what I say a same biblical basis it all came from pastor Bachman who was just had a had a movement where it was just a group of discipleship where he had six principles that everybody lived by well Bill Wilson is the founder of AA went to that group and got sober and started inviting his buddies And they got so big just going through this discipleship ministry that he said listen you can just start your own thing That's where a was formed. So the 12 steps actually originated from what the sermon on the Mount Yeah, which we just went through in Matthew and the book of James So they obviously we don't agree with some of the things they changed after that But the reason why we use the steps is because we just said hey We're able to pull out this pathway that'll help you walk through your heart and get to the root cause of Why the things that you're struggling with are happening why you're drinking why you're And there's power in naming and identifying something like that. It's there. It's really something about giving it a name and starting to understand That pattern is just life-changing if someone like chooses to go there. It is yeah, speaking of naming That's what Jesus is doing when he's calling out Foundations and calling out trees and fruit and all that in the sermon of the Mount because you have to understand where you are Before you can move forward. And so we're coming off the heels last week of the sermon on the Mount We didn't get we didn't get as far as we want it But that was okay, yeah because we did talk about Okay, no, but we did establish the the Kingdom of heaven and the Kingdom of God Synonymously are the same thing and it's a it's a place. Okay, we established that The Kingdom of Heaven is also a person

Okay, what does that mean? Who is it? Jesus Jesus when Jesus shows up the Kingdom is there. He's the new temple. Yes. He's the new temple, right? He's the new temple and then finally the Kingdom of Heaven So it's a place a person and a what finally it's a p power power power. Yeah, it could be promised But it's a power the power when Jesus would heal people he would say the Kingdom of God has come upon you Yeah, okay, so keep those three in mind person place power and I want you to go to the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist So Candy you're gonna go to mark you're gonna go to Matthew three Adam. You're gonna go to mark one Candy go to Matthew three and this is the beginning so go back a couple of pages in the sermon on Mount This is the beginning of the ministry where we're introduced to a man named John the Baptist for the first time So just contextualize what we're reading here. This is the first book of the New Testament and It's first in our Bible. So we're first introduced to John the Baptist this way And we're gonna see two things about John John has a message and John gives a timeline two things, okay? John talks about Something and then he tells us when it's gonna happen. Okay, so Candy you read chapter three Matthew three one through two okay one or two in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and Saying repent because the Kingdom of heaven has come near one here yet okay it's interesting John says two things what is the content of John's message he says repent which is an action but let's just look at the second part repent why repent means turn around get your mind like like mine right get your heart right confess sin cleanse yourself before Lord why because the kingdom of heaven kingdom of heaven okay is what or has come near has some near near now the King James used to say the kingdom of heaven is at hand hand was that mean to be at hand present yeah or an arms reach it's right here so notice John's message John what are you saying because I thought I thought for your American Christians the kingdom of heaven is somewhere out there somewhere in the future somewhere chronologically away no sorry about here now notice what he saying the word here doesn't it can mean here as in or near can be like near chronologically or it can be near as in spatially or in proximity yeah that's the better way proximity that's what he's talking about near so the kingdom of heaven is near proximity how could John say that how can he say the

kingdom is right here it's all it's right around his boys don't miss it well I would say because he's thinking of a person yes and he knows he doesn't know who the person is yet by the way because remember John doesn't know Jesus fully is going to ask because like there's a story where they jumped they jumped in their belly well he knew in the womb like cousins when they cousins yeah yeah they're related to the room yeah John leaps yeah but yes he leaps but again you got to remember how much do you remember in your mother's womb well nothing but I mean we don't have to remember it consciously to know it do you know I'm saying ain't nothing but the power of Jesus in Mary's word they don't even get Robert to look up on that one you don't that was Stuart that was like Stuart from Saturday Night Lobb oh yeah it's not off to start handling it's not off to that I'm good enough I'm smart enough and I still like me or Robert oh that's so funny you don't have to know it was said you said I was so deep I forgot you don't have to know like consciously you don't have to consciously know it to make it true like yes John was a baby in the womb but he knew inside his body that the the Savior had entered the room in Mary's womb and I think the spirit of God spirit of yes yes of the spirit yeah so okay yes any problem I would say he probably had you know speculation or inclination to say yeah I think I think he probably suspected it because obviously if all your cousins are back biting and hitting and fighting and Jesus is just chilling was he at the temple teaching everybody you probably take okay something's different about him but I don't think he knows for sure he's gonna stake his life and claim on it but he does know from God God told him remember John God says listen you will know the Messiah when the spirit of God descends upon him and Jesus and John told him I didn't know the spirit God told me you will know in the spirit descends upon him okay as a dove not not a physical dove but like it up okay so John's first message is about the kingdom and it's coming it's here it's right around us now watch this mark one Adam go mark one and I want you to see this is the first introduction to Jesus his first words

formerly in ministry his first words ever were Luke chapter 2 when he was a child baby in the temple must be about my father's house these are the first words launching his ministry watch this 14 and 15 verses 14 and 15 yep watch this after John was arrested Jesus went to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God so this is Jesus proclaim right okay the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near near I thought it was two thousand year see how ridiculous we start saying this in the text you're like what are we talking about it go ahead repent and believe the good news yeah okay Jesus same message stick into it yeah once your pony right he's the one yes and that's and that literally is the entire ministry message of Jesus watch this Jesus is gonna preach about the kingdom of heaven Jesus is going to teach about it Jesus is going to demonstrate it Jesus is going to tell parables Russia's every parable is about the kingdom of heaven now remember when he tells parables the parables are not like Jesus doesn't say all right boys close your eyes and picture something in your that's not how Jesus told parable a rabbi told parables like this that be walking on the side of a hill Jesus oh hold on guys come gather around Judas put the bat put the money back down come over here you know and it's a and he'd be pointing in the distance on the side of a hill Come here Matthew, listen. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sow seed. You see where some falls on the rock? That's how he taught. He'd take him to the seashore. They were always pointing. There was not, they were not picturing in their mind. He was pointing to real. They were there three, three and a half year. Right here. Hey, come over here guys. John, James, you know about fishing.

What's this? You see that man? The kingdom of heaven is like a man who throws a net into the sea. And he gathers the fish, but he doesn't separate them. The father does at the end of time, whatever. - So you're saying this is the first thing Jesus said in his ministry? First public, public preaching sermon Jesus. - Look at the first two words, it's wild. What's the first two words saying? - The time boy, we talking about time. - He says the time. - And but it's crazy because he kind of hints. He's like, hey, it ain't later, it ain't yesterday. - A good point. - Yeah, you see what I'm saying? Like he has a sentence with near. So the sentence says the time and the last word is what? - Fulfilled. - No, the last word is near. - Near, oh yeah. - The time is near. - Yeah, that's good. - He's like, I'm here. - Well, and fulfilled means all of the promises culminate in this moment. Why? Because I'm here. - Right.

- Okay, so the first message of John, kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God, same thing. First message of Jesus, kingdom of God, okay? The sermon on the Mount, the last message of Jesus, I mean a sermon on the great commission, is Jesus' last charge to them to live out the kingdom? How do we live out the kingdom? Make disciples of our nations baptizing, teaching obeying. That's what the kingdom of heaven is about, okay? Now, get to the book of Acts. The book of Acts, after we get out of Matthew, the book of Acts is, we call it the Acts of the Apostles. It actually should be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. Because that too is the act of agent and all of it. These are just different people used by the same person, the Holy Spirit, and to think that you could be used to the same scope and significance is exactly accurate today, okay? God, the Spirit didn't change, he's the same back then. Now, watch this. Now we get to Acts one, Kenny, I want you to read verses four through eight, but we're gonna stop at verse five. And this is Jesus about to check out. He's resurrected, been with him for 40 days, he's about to check out, and he says, verse four. - While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father's promise, which he said, you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water,

but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days. - Okay, so, okay, now let me just frame it. Jesus says, all right, I gotta go. And remember, this is just to help you. When I'm reading the Gospels or Acts or a narrative, watch this, I try to put myself in the account, in the story. So, and I learned this in seminary. When Jesus is teaching the Sermon on the Mount, which is all about, by the way, I didn't say this, but let me just clarify. The Sermon on the Mount is about, anybody ask you, what is the Sermon on the Mount about? Just for time, I'm gonna give you the answer. The answer is, Kingdom Ethics. It's about how it's an invitation and a challenge. Jesus is inviting you. If you want to live out the Kingdom on Earth, this is it right here. But it's also about how human beings can flourish on Earth. And I use that word specifically. Jonathan Pennington wrote a book called "Humans Flourishing in the Sermon on the Mount," I think. And he said this and it changed everything. When Jesus uses the word "blessed," okay? "Bless," macaryons. We always think blessed as in, "Cade in your blessed," what does that mean? "Cade in your blessed man." That means what?

- God's favors on you? - Yeah, favor. But nobody's like possessions. Like, man, he's rolling. He's got a nice car, he's got a nice jewelry. He's got a nice bling, you know? Hashtag bling, you know? That's what we always think blessed. That's not, it can't be that, 'cause the first words are blessed to the poor in spirit. What are you talking about? "Blessed," now, the CSB or the HCSB, the original version, tried to soften this out and say, "Happy." How happy are those? And again, that's closer because happy's been high. - Oh, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, it's like happy. - You know what I like. - You know what I like. - Yeah, yeah. So, the best translation is flourishing. I love this. So think of it this way. Insert that word, flourishing or the poor in spirit. So it's a present day action with future implications. Not just today, but future. Blessed are the humble. Okay, flourishing or the humble. You see the difference. Okay, so that's what the kingdom of heaven message is about. Now, back to the program. Jesus, so when you're listening,

serving on the Mount, I'm on the shore, I mean, I'm on the hillside in the grass, listening to Jesus teach. I'm watching him use his hands and point. When the disciples are handing out food with baskets of fish, I'm actually helping clean up in a sense. In my mind, that's what I'm thinking. Or I'm watching them hand out the elements and the food. When Jesus is here, okay, let's picture it. He's on the, he's got all his disciples around him. The angels are over his shoulder. and Jesus says I boys one question left okay you get one question last question before I go getting a frame it the thing about this one question left you got to talk amongst yourselves what are you going to ask me now let's just do it for a moment for example sake let's just imagine right now there's a knock at the door of the podcast room and all of a sudden I say y'all don't y'all didn't know this because I invite a special guest Jesus come on in Jesus come on in Jesus himself walks in the room and we say kate and pull up at you oh better yet take my chair Jesus I'll sit on the floor okay Jesus imagine we're all in this room together Jesus is sitting in this chair you get one question before he leaves you're gonna ask him one thing here's the question are you gonna ask him what they ask him that's it probably not why it's the question think about this one question left this is all this is the last one before he's gone note it read it candy and I want to show you what's on their minds and it just shows us the way they're thinking verse six this is the question they ask so when they had come together they asked him Lord are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time they still are asking not just restoring the kingdom figured out he's the temple yeah restoring the kingdom to who the nation the people the land where are we gonna rule yes when are you gonna get rid of these Romans who've been destroying us and taxing us when are you gonna come bring back peace and destruction they are literally asking the same and the Jewish people asking the same question today and Jesus responds watch this not with going to a place but he tells them this not waiting for me to come here or Christians today trying to go there he does something that flips the script notice what he says he said

to them it is not for you read it candy it is not for you to know to know time or periods that the father has set by his own authority oh he's out there you know what he's saying here he's saying it's not for you so he's saying stop worrying about this by the way if you if you're in end times and this is why i'm so passionate about revelation in times yes it's so true well here's the thing i'm in here's the thing agreement with you on this honey if you are consumed with flip charts and overhead slides and chronological end times and predictions jesus you're going against the words of jesus this is what he's saying what he's saying is it is not for you to know he's saying don't waste your time yeah he says you don't even have authority over don't yes and time is when period is how long don't worry about those things god has set them yeah and then he says watch this but here's what you should do but you will receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in jerusalem and agidia and samaria and to the end of the okay you know power is it's another word for kingdom okay so watch this axe begins with a with with a reminder of the very mission and message of jesus and john and the whole ministry of jesus axe begins with okay hey jesus when you set up the kingdom no no you don't you guys are missing it the kingdom is not here or there jesus even said that the kingdom is not you see it here or someone say there it is the kingdom is in you he says the kingdom is breaking in you to break through you the kingdom is a power it is a dunamash you know a strong power watch this guess how axe ends you got to remember when the jewish culture is using language they don't when they're writing books they don't have bold italics big arrows that you know sticky little things you could put in your they don't have a highlight earth say this word what they have is the language so what they use is literary techniques to draw attention to something one of the techniques is to bookend a chapter or a book or a section with the same concept in order to draw attention that everything on the ends shows you what's in the middle now before we go there take a while guess guess what just go on the limb guess what axe 28 the last verse is about go with an axe 28 adam i want you to read 23 and candy i want you to read 30 but we're going to start with axe 28 some of you like i've never i've never known how axe ends let me let me set it up axe is divided into two sections around two people axe one through twelve is about peter about the jews the jewish people so in a sense and by the way Jerusalem judia samaria ends of the earth for those listening that is the paradigm that is the outline you Luke uses for axe he starts with the jews on one through three there in Jerusalem four then they go to samaria the eunuch um and then they go to judia or judia

then they go to Samaria, then Paul takes it 13 on to the ends of the earth. I did a whole sermon on this years ago, if you're interested, but I talk about how that's the outline of acts, but it's more than that. Acts is divided into two men. One through 12 is Paul, 13 through 28. I mean, one through 12 is Peter, and then after 12, Peter's gone. You don't hear about Peter anymore, because now the mission is going to the world and Paul takes it from 13 on to 28. Paul the Apostle here, right here, Paul is in a prison, okay? He's in his first prison stint, not his second one, but the first prison stint is a two year prison sentence, not in a mammer time prison. Candy and I went to this in Rome, where he spends the remainder of his life for the end of it and dies. Vivi, you talk about it, over and a little hole in the ground, bro, and a hole in the ground. Yeah, let me show you the pictures, yeah. Mammer time prison, they have it there, and then they put him out the hole and walked him to his death, and we stood on the spot where they chose out. Didn't you say you could see out his window, like where he used to die? Yeah, just a little bit. Yeah, just a little bit. Where they were going to take him.

Okay, that's how he ended his life in Rome. This is in a rented house that the Christian's ministry supported him. So all of his friends, Timothy, Silas, Barnabas, they sent money and supported him, paid his food. And Paul in this home is chained to a guard from Rome, okay? That was dead. We always think like handcuffed, that's probably not handcuffed. It's probably in a long chain where you could walk around in the home, you know, but he's on house arrest. Now, Paul says this is actually a blessing. It looks like a curse because you would think, well, how would God use two years in prison? Paul, well, let me tell you how God used Paul's prison sentence and somebody who's struggling right now needs to hear this. Why? Because during those two years of Paul's prison sentence, two things happened. Number one is what? He writes not one, not two, but four letters. Four letters of our New Testament, Vivian, are gone without Paul going to prison. Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians. I mean, yeah, Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and, no, San Galatians. Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and is it Philemon? Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, I think that's right. I think that's right. He writes, in fact, check that right, I'm ahead of them, tell me, I got to sign and try to think

about something else. - It's not one of the Timothy's. - No, it's not Timothy. I think it's Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. I think that's the four letters he writes. Okay, those three of those four writes. Okay, watch this. He writes those four letters and then it says, he starts preaching to the imperial guard that's handcuffed to it. Paul says of Philippians, it has become, I want you to know, brothers, that my imprisonment is for Christ. It's become known to the whole imperial guard and to the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And you're gonna remember, the imperial guard would be connected to him for eight-hour shifts and they would sit down and they would say, hey, Claudia, what's your name again, Claudia? Yeah, have you heard of a man named Jesus of Nazareth? No, I've never heard of him. Let me tell you about him for the next eight hours, this dude. And then after Paul leads this guy to the Lord, he says, all right, send your buddy in Titus. - Yeah. - I mean, literally God gave him a front row seat to lost people, they give, I mean,

so just to think about for you, if you're listening, you may think your present prison is a sentence, if you're even literally incarcerated. God's using it to strengthen you and advance the gospel. Don't miss the ministry opportunity that is cloaked in what could be a prison sentence, like Paul, that's what he did. Paul made the most last episode of his time. He redeemed the time, okay? So here's Paul at the end of his life, and Paul is going to, and Acts is going to tell us what Paul is doing, verse 23, Adam, read it. - 23. - Acts 28, 23. - After arranging a day with him, many came to him at his lodging from dawn to dusk. He expounded and testified about the kingdom of God. - Wow, what is Paul talking about? One message, he said, "Be even Paul, stick it to it." Kingdom of God, he tried to what? - He tried to persuade them about Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets. Some were persuaded by what he said, but others didn't. - Okay, so basically, yeah. So Paul didn't win everybody, Lord, but he won some. But here's the point, law and the prophets, the Old Testament, and I can't even watch this. These are the last two lines of the book of Acts, the last two lines, watch this. - 30 or 30.

- 30 and 31, we're going to get them both. - Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house, and he welcomed all who visited him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. - Okay, so here's Paul. Paul's saying, "If I have one message, it's the kingdom of God." Remember, the kingdom of God is not how to go to heaven. Paul, what are you doing? These people need to go to heaven. You have to understand, the Jewish culture back then was not concerned with going to heaven in the afterlife. They believed, they were sharing in the inheritance. That's what they believed, right or wrong. But they didn't care about tomorrow. They were concerned about today. Right. The challenge with most modern Christians today is we're so preoccupied with having the right barcode on our spiritual heart so that when the spiritual scanner God comes into the sky on the rapture day, we get scanned up and behold the roll up, yonder. I'll be, I mean, that's all we're worried about. And what it breeds is fatalism and laziness, escapism. Yeah. It's all going to hate Egypt and I was, well, wait for God. Marinathic. Come on, Jesus come and I get that. I want Jesus to come to, but Jesus is not waiting for us to wait for him. Jesus wants us to go out, make a difference where we live, work and play.

So the, the question we're going to close with, and this is the million dollar question and it brings us back to the sermon on the mount, which I think is the heartbeat of the whole sermon on the mount. How do we see the power of the kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God today where we live, work and play? That's the question. It is the question. Cause that's what I want to know. I want to know, are you saying I can see miracles, experience, power, see extraordinary things in my own life today? Because, you know, most people have been sold a bill of goods that the Christian life is come on Sunday, hear a sermon, go to Sunday school and go home and suck it up. That's what most people's Christian life was telling my discipleship group a couple weeks ago. I said, guys, you're going to understand the Christian life is an adventure. That's why it's called the great commission and not the great mission. It could have been the great mission. God could have said, I don't need you. Don't need, you know, obviously you're going to send and mess it up anyway. I'll do it without you. No, the great commission is cooperation with two parties, God working in us and we cooperate with God. And so if that's the case, that's what the make a disciples mission is for there's a long hollow, you'll aim in this, because that's what we're all about, making disciples. We want to live out our God, this our mission. So we want to live out our God giving calling as we follow Jesus and make disciples every single day. That's where we live, work and play. Okay.

So the question is the Christian life or the thing is the Christian life is not a passive spectator watching God do our work. I tell my group, I get to wake up every morning and I get to say, Holy Spirit, I lost the mic. I say, Holy Spirit, what do you want to do today? Yeah. And I follow you. I don't want to get too far ahead of you. I'm not going to get too far behind you. I want to stay and step with the spirit. What do you want to do today and through me? And every day is an adventure, bro. It is. Now, most people don't live that way. So the question is, how do we usher the kingdom? I'm going to show you words of Jesus. How do we usher the kingdom into our present day life today? And the answer is in the sermon on the Mount. Go back to Matthew chapter six, Jesus embeds it in the middle of the center of the sermon on the Mount. You could say this is the center. If you take the verses, if it's not the center, it's very close to it. The Lord's prayer. The Lord's prayer. Now, let me just tell you how we go. Now, what's interesting about this section is it's like uncommon for Jesus because or even how Matthew structures it, because normally when a rabbi teaches, they'll teach in threes to like tell the same thing three times. And you would assume this is how you would assume Jesus says, don't practice your righteous for others to be seen by them.

If not, you won't have any reward from your father in heaven. He's not talking about just reward tomorrow. He's talking or remember, you're going to change your mind. He's talking about experiencing the blessing of the kingdom today. We always think some store up in treasure. Yes, that's part of it. But Jesus wanted to know you miss out on the rewards today. You miss out on the joy today. You miss out on the power today. And then he says, he just takes three of the big things, three of the big ways you can live out your righteousness. What he starts with, he talks with starts with giving, then he goes to prayer. And then he goes to fasting. Now you would expect because he starts them all the same way. So whenever you give, so whenever you pray, verse five, you would expect verse nine to be and whenever you fast, but he doesn't do that. It breaks the, it breaks the flow. It's odd. Why would he break the flow? Because I think what he does is Matthew saying, this is how you live this out. This how you live the whole thing in it. Okay. Watch this. I was raised Catholic where we prayed this prayer as kind of a mantra, as kind of a, you know, wrote prayer and we prayed it. And I'm not saying you can't do that. You could pray the Lord's prayer, obviously, but I prayed it with the wrong perspective. Here's how I prayed it. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be

done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day. Okay. What was I praying? Your kingdom come, your will be done. What was I praying? In my mind, what was I thinking when I prayed that? Your kingdom come here will be done. That's my phone. Um, what were you praying? You just a routine prayer. I was praying, God, your kingdom come, your will be done. Later. Here's a moment. Yeah. I gotta get rid of this phone, huh? Okay, so Mike keeps going. I sit back passively until you bring the kingdom to earth and fix all the problems here. That's how I prayed that. That's how most people pray their prayer. Your kingdom come, you're what Marinatha come Lord Jesus and fix this mess. That's how most people pray their prayer. That is not what Jesus implied, okay? What Jesus implied was this. Jesus is using a Hebrew technique called a parallelism. We said this before when we studied this, but just for a recap. It's the same thing in the Old Testament when it says,

your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path. Remember this? Lamp and light are the same. Path and feet are the same 'cause one's a foot on a path, one's a path. So basically it's a parallelism. He's saying the same thing a different way. They both go together, okay? Same concept here. When Jesus says pray your father who's in heaven in the realm of heaven, the agenda of heaven, the plan of heaven. If you want to bring heaven to earth, here's how you do it. Watch this. Your kingdom comes, think of it this way. Your kingdom will come when your will is done. Where? In my life and your life. This can encourage somebody really right now 'cause see we've been taught, well if you really want to make a difference in the kingdom you better preach the thousands or you better have a platform or you better get on YouTube or Instagram. You better talk to people or you need to sing in front of thousands or you need to be both. That's what we were taught. And if I'm not on the stage

and if I'm not behind the, then I'm not making a difference. That's not what Jesus is saying. This shows you that we usher in the kingdom with our little light that God has given us let little out of mind. I'm gonna let it shine right where you are. Here's how you let it shine. By obeying the words of God. So what that means is this. When I go home and treat my wife with respect I bring a little piece of the kingdom where I live. When I go to the workplace and I don't tell a lie and I tell the truth, I bring a little piece of the kingdom where I live. When I find my taxes and don't cheat on my taxes I bring a little. When I don't curse, when everybody else is cursed, when I don't entertain nasty immoral stories, when I get tempted to look at porn and put it away I bring a little bit of heaven to where I live. And the longer you do that, heaven advances where you live, work and play. It's not on the stage when everyone sees it starts with a step of obedience when no one's watching but God. - That's good. And I think that's right there is where the rubber meets the road between your, like my will and God's will. I have the strength and the power to do Adam's will. But I need the power of God to do God's will.

- That's a good point. - And so when we start our day like you talk about all the time, when we start our day with Jesus we get into God's words and the word gets into us and you said, "Hey Lord, what would you have me to do?" Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do? Then we're walking and our will is our thoughts and our actions. Then we see the world and everybody around us through God's eyes and we're able to impact the world through God's power 'cause he's working through us. That's why when we think of prisons, we don't think, let's wait till they get out. - Right. - When we think of prisons, we don't think, man, well, let's figure out which ones didn't commit murder or rape and we'll talk to the other guys. No, when we think of a prison, we think of, Paul, we think of a church plant. We say, all right, there's 12 prisons in Tennessee, let's plant 12, let's put 12 churches there. - And let's see who's hungry and ready to learn and let's send them the seminary in prison so we can equip them when they get out. 90% are getting out. - That's what we wanted to do. - 90% are getting out. - With some of the ministry, we got all this stuff going on. So like where did that come from? That came from God and can we do that?

No, but God's power working through us, we can accomplish it together. And that's what the whole thing is about the kingdom is now. And I think that's why people go, well, I try but I stopped or, you know, and it's because, well, did you obey what God said? Did you do it in your strength and your power? 'Cause a lot of times, this is the whole Henry of Blackbee thing. It's like, let me think of some things that I can do for God, no, no, God's already at work. Jesus said, apart from my father, I do nothing. He said, the kingdom's already here. - You just find out. You find out where God's calling you. - That's why hearing from God is so important for me and all of us, it should be. Every morning, I believe the last chapter of the book, I talked about this, if Jesus is the sovereign son of God and he said, I gave up my divine prerogative for Philippian 2. The son did not think equality with God a thing to be grasped but humbled himself, taking on a form of a surname, being found in the likeness of men. What Jesus did is he willingly gave up his, in a sense, his prerogative, his divine, unfair advantage over creation and became like us. Meaning, I think Jesus even says, I don't know when the father's coming back for the end,

So there are certain things the son hinders himself, it's hard to understand this, hinders himself or gives up knowing to show us what it's like to obey the Father and to listen to God. So I think every morning when it says Jesus got up very early in the morning, when it was still dark, went to a desolate solitude place to pray, this is what I think was happening. I've been thinking about this a long time. What happened in those times? I think God, when Jesus isn't, no, okay, so I'd ask you before we go, what is Jesus doing during those prayer times? You ever thought about this? I felt a lot and sat in the porch thinking about a lot 'cause I ain't even asked him like, what were you doing that? Okay, I don't know for sure, again, I'm speculating, but I'm certain, it could be wrong, but I'm certain. Jesus did a whole lot more listening than talking. This is my hunch. Yeah, he talked about the day. God, hey man, I can't believe that demon came out like that. Wow, it was insane. You understand, this is his father. He's talking to his dad, he's like, man, those people really attack me today. You know, Golly, I don't think I can hang in there, son. I think he did a lot of listening, and here's the main thing that he was listening for. I think every morning, Jesus woke up, watch this,

and sought the father in order to download his spiritual agenda for the day to the hard drive of his heart. And he said, all right, daddy, what do you want me to do? 'Cause he said, I don't do anything without the father. Tell me, I don't say anything without the father instructing me. Everything I do is from the father. God, you gave me everything. I did a lot, so he had to be listening a lot. He had to listen a lot, now watch this. If the sovereign son of God, if anybody didn't need to do that, there's one man on planet earth who is Jesus. And yet the sovereign son of God spent time every morning with the father to get the plan for the day. Listen to me, brother or sister, how much more do you as a mere mortal, me as a mere man, you as a mere woman need to spend time listening for the heavenly agenda of the father for our day? That's powerful. Friends, listen to me. That's why, wait here, it changed my life. I don't do it perfectly, but I do it way more than I ever did before. And I always say, there's a pre-ports Robbie who, you know, ingenuity, intellect, he led by strategy, man, I had it all, intellect, PhD, I had it all, you know, write books and study and mentors, I had it all. And then there's poached, poached, porch Robbie, which again, I don't get right every time,

boy, I'm listening a whole lot more. And I'm just telling you, it goes, oh, a whole lot better. It's not easy, but it goes a whole lot better on this side of the porch. - It's so good, that's so powerful. Thank you so much for listening. If you're wondering, how can I get, how can that happen in my life? How can I get the kingdom of God, the power of working through my life? I just wanna tell you, you can get this book, wait here at Amazon, lifeway.com. Any places that sell books, you can get this book. I just wanna encourage you to do that. It's a seven-week video that can go with it as well. What's the website? - Wait here challenge, wait here challenge. Wait here challenge.com, the here is H-E-A-R, in case you get that mixed up. So please get that book. You can get with your family, get a group of friends that go through it and kind of help you understand how to meet with the Lord each day. - And you mentioned your books, I think we got it here. - That's right, we got it here. - This is Adam's book, Mandinity. If you're a man and father wounds or just understanding your identity, the greatest gift you can have,

or the greatest understanding is to understand who you are in Christ and who you are. And many men struggle for this. So men's group, men's study discipleship, I commend this, you can get on Amazon. Somebody email me, text me last week, you say, "Hey, someone gave me your number, "I hope it's okay, but I want to find out "how can I get Mandinity?" And I say, "Hey." - Awesome. - Awesome. - That's good stuff. And you may be thinking, "Well, how can I come apart of the team? "If you're not coming apart of the forgotten Jesus podcast team, "hit subscribe, you can like, you can comment, "you can share this." We try to respond to every comment that's on there. And we'd love for you to join our team, to help everyone understand who the real Jesus is. (upbeat music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) [BLANK_AUDIO]