God is so good. And I am so grateful to be walking with so many people that have this revelation of who he is. Thank you. It is such a amazing time that we’re walking in. It’s such an amazing time that is in front of us, and we’re going to be continuing to walk in the goodness of God. Over the last nine months, we have been diving into a series about the Kingdom of God, and today we’ve been planning to wrap it up.

01:46:15:03 – 01:46:47:22
Unknown
And that message for me has been so important to who I am, what I have been created for is connected to this message, and I have never felt it more clearly, more instrumentally as I do now, to what God wants us to be a part of as a church, as a community, as individuals. And so today, the service has been amazing.

01:46:47:22 – 01:47:17:22
Unknown
And we’re going to we’re going to bring some important stuff. And don’t worry, I’m very aware of time. So we’ll be we’ll be walking with Holy Spirit and and I hope to see what you guys think. And then like Jonathan said, we’ve been on this series called The Kingdom Way. And man, I think it’s been more than a series.

01:47:17:24 – 01:47:42:10
Unknown
It’s really been a formation that he’s walking us through, I believe, as a people, as a church. And I know Jonathan said it, but for me as well, there’s just been so much depth in the understanding of what it means to walk in the kingdom, and that it’s not just something out there in the future. It is something that we get to walk in here and now, right?

01:47:42:11 – 01:48:13:09
Unknown
The kingdom of God is within us. It’s righteousness. It’s peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It’s it’s now, it’s now, and it’s so much bigger than we understand. And there’s such peace when we actually can begin to focus in on what God is doing. And I believe there’s such a freedom and a lifting of the weight that we put on ourselves sometimes as believers, that we have to get this right and we have to get that right.

01:48:13:09 – 01:48:37:08
Unknown
But we truly understand what he’s giving us access to with the kingdom of God. If we truly understand what the gift of salvation and what he did on the cross really did for us, there is such a liberty. It’s not about the works. It’s not about getting it all right. It’s about submitting to a loving God who wants everything for us.

01:48:37:10 – 01:49:05:22
Unknown
He wants everything for us and it is not a difficult thing. It is a wonderful thing and his life is shown through it. Amen. Amen. So this last nine months, I promise I’m not going to go through all 26 sermons that we went through. We’re not going to do that kind of a summary, okay. But I will say that week by week through these nine months, Jesus has been showing us what the kingdom looks like.

01:49:05:24 – 01:49:38:04
Unknown
See, the Kingdom way is not theory, it’s reality. And Jesus himself brought so many teachings in parables so that we can understand how his kingdom works and how it collides with the world, how we are called to live in it. Each week we’ve stepped deeper into the clash of kingdoms, into the call to the citizenship, to the kingdom of God, to the challenges of of our decision making and how we actually walk out our lives to the confrontation with darkness.

01:49:38:04 – 01:50:21:08
Unknown
And above all, we’ve learned that the Kingdom of God is unshakable, unstoppable, and alive within us. And now that we’re coming to the end of this series, it’s not just wrapping something up to leave it behind. We are recognizing that God has been building in us, and he’s been establishing his kingdom that does not. And revelations 1115 it says, and the seventh angel sounded, and there were the sounds of voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.

01:50:21:09 – 01:50:53:14
Unknown
You know what, you guys? This means that the kingdom of God isn’t uncertain. It’s not fragile. It’s not up for debate. He established it. He already did it. Hebrews 1228 brings us into reality. I believe it says, therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Come on. Since we are receiving, this is a present tense word.

01:50:53:14 – 01:51:27:03
Unknown
You guys. This isn’t a past tense or even a future tense. This is a present tense. We are receiving the kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear not someday not hoping down the road, but now we are receiving an unshakable kingdom. You see, the kingdom is unshakable.

01:51:27:06 – 01:51:34:03
Unknown
But I think the question to us today is, is it unshakable in us?

01:51:34:05 – 01:52:10:18
Unknown
Is it unshakable in us? So today we’re going to wrap up our series on the Kingdom with this question what’s rattling you the Kingdom way? What’s rattling you? Now I’m excited because we just went on a trip to Europe and spent three weeks celebrating a 25th anniversary. There was no agenda on this trip. It was great. But we’re followers of Jesus and and he always uses what we do to speak to us.

01:52:10:18 – 01:52:42:27
Unknown
And in this time we we got to visit four different countries. And throughout this time, I’m just encountering all this evidence of previous kingdoms, you know, previous nations that rose to these pinnacles of power and in these moments built incredible cities and had these incredible times of of maybe conquest or abundance. There was there was maybe a profiting happening among the citizens.

01:52:42:27 – 01:53:03:14
Unknown
And, and we saw the evidence of the existence of these powers. But in every one of them there was a common theme. And that theme was that they didn’t last.

01:53:03:16 – 01:53:44:23
Unknown
We saw kingdoms that were great, that had their moment of pride, their moment of celebration. But then they came to an end. What is it that causes a kingdom to end? I got some pictures that I wanted to share with you, to give you maybe some of some of the perspective that I was a part of. But the first thing that you recognize when you’re reading about these, these kingdoms and these empires and these nations that that formed, was when the demise started to occur.

01:53:44:26 – 01:54:27:15
Unknown
You could point to the loss of shared values. You could point to a loss of understanding what made them great. You could see that the citizens were losing touch with what was important, and in the end, that affected its longevity. It affected its stability. It affected its abundance. You saw frequently this element of pride show up because failures come after success breeds arrogance.

01:54:27:17 – 01:55:05:22
Unknown
And that success of these nations often brought an elevation of one’s pride. And when you saw that so consistently from nation to nation, from empire to empire, it was an easy observation to connect with. You often saw corruption when leaders began to serve themselves instead of the people. Frequently, there was a weakening of moral strength among leaders, and that translated into a weakening of empires.

01:55:05:23 – 01:55:45:05
Unknown
A weakening of trust. That was there was less cohesion even among the leaders, because of the corruption and the breakdown of those moral positions. You saw division emerge in these kingdoms, which was typically linked to these failures of mankind, to walk in a a moral position of strength. There was a failure to raise up the next generation. There was not this passing on of understanding.

01:55:45:08 – 01:56:00:20
Unknown
There was not this example of leading in strength and high ground. You you passed on those selfish ambitions.

01:56:00:23 – 01:56:15:20
Unknown
You could see comfort. You could see complacency begin to grow. In each of these places we visited. Were we able to get any of those pictures?

01:56:15:22 – 01:56:33:11
Unknown
What we’re looking at behind us is, is a political building in Athens today, and this building is representative of of the government, the democracy that exists there today. But this wasn’t always the the case.

01:56:33:13 – 01:56:42:18
Unknown
Next picture. If I throw my hand up, I’m, I’m throwing that next picture to you.

01:56:42:20 – 01:57:19:20
Unknown
Here we’re looking at the Acropolis in Athens. And this came before. But this was at a time of, of great influence in Athens. But it was driven by false gods. This this picture you’re looking at here is a temple that was erected for a god of their of their making. And today we see what it remains a tourist attraction, an example of of history that has gone before us.

01:57:19:20 – 01:57:23:08
Unknown
Maybe things to learn.

01:57:23:11 – 01:57:49:23
Unknown
Here we see a stadium, and these stadiums were built as temples in this. In this Greek culture, they would perform plays and and activities that were forms of worship to the gods that they were idolizing in their time.

01:57:49:25 – 01:58:15:11
Unknown
Go for it. So this was the Pantheon in Rome, and you could see there’s we’ll just kind of scroll through some of these Roman pictures here. The pictures in Rome, these are ruins in, they call them the Roman Forum. And these are all examples of the Roman Empire and what they built. Yeah, we’ll stop it right here. Go ahead.

01:58:15:14 – 01:58:46:02
Unknown
Here, you’re looking at the Roman Colosseum, a majestic example of of the the Roman history and what they accomplished and what they built. And there’s evidence on this building of of the way the impact of Christianity showed up. This Colosseum was built by the conquest of the Jewish people and the Jewish empire. And they took that gold and created this.

01:58:46:05 – 01:58:57:10
Unknown
But then through history, there was a moment when the Christian faith impacted the Roman world. So.

01:58:57:13 – 01:59:03:10
Unknown
I’m trying to say with incredible impact.

01:59:03:12 – 01:59:31:03
Unknown
That they had, they started building churches, and what they needed to do was get resources to build these churches. And so the holes that you see in the the sides of these columns are, are pits that were dug out to extract the marble and the iron holds that were keeping the marble in place, because they wanted to use those resources to build the church.

01:59:31:06 – 02:00:09:02
Unknown
Yeah. The impact of the Christian faith is seen in history right alongside the evidence of men building empires, of men trying to build places that accomplished their agenda. What I loved about the Roman Empire, and what I love about it in context of today’s message, is the New Testament is happening right in the middle of this empire’s existence.

02:00:09:04 – 02:00:44:01
Unknown
And at the time Jesus shows up, a shift has occurred in the Roman Empire. It shifted from this republic led by senators. With this form of representation of its citizens. With this form of freedom and an opportunity, it shifts from that into monarchy rule, this centralization of power and that centralization of power begins the demise of the Roman Empire.

02:00:44:07 – 02:01:37:04
Unknown
But at the time Jesus shows up, it is at its peak. But the shift has taken place, and it’s where we see evidence of corruption. It’s where we see evidence of lost, shared values. But the kingdom of God is different. The kingdom of God is the bright and morning star. It is the the declaration of God that the world got it wrong, that he is the truth, that faithfulness is the way to life, that righteousness is the path of freedom.

02:01:37:07 – 02:01:58:25
Unknown
In revelations 2216, there is a declaration being made by Jesus. John is has received this vision from angels. He’s he’s on the island of Patmos and and he is getting this download from heaven.

02:01:58:28 – 02:02:36:18
Unknown
At this time when the Roman Empire is killing, persecuting, oppressing those of Christian faith. And in this particular chapter or verse it says, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star. This is such an interesting declaration that he’s declaring I’m the root and offspring of David.

02:02:36:20 – 02:02:42:14
Unknown
What is the significance of that with the Kingdom message?

02:02:42:17 – 02:03:20:08
Unknown
Jesus was the author of King David’s kingdom, who was given a promise that his kingdom would be established forever, and then he became the offspring in human form of this kingdom lion, to usher in a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And so the final message that we read in the Bible from Jesus himself is a reminder of his kingdom that is being established in the earth.

02:03:20:11 – 02:03:58:07
Unknown
And then he announces that he is the bright and morning star. That last star that you see in the sky is dawn breaks to remind us of what is coming. The day, the day, the the time of awakening, the time of of opportunity and progress. The time of doing. Jesus is establishing his Kingdom. And so when we have spent nine months talking about this, we’ve we’ve brought evidence of what it is.

02:03:58:10 – 02:04:12:01
Unknown
We’ve brought evidence that it’s it’s here to last. And we have brought to light that it’s a kingdom that can grow in any condition.

02:04:12:03 – 02:04:47:00
Unknown
Which means no condition can silence it, which means we are able to rise in this promise in this hour. And I think it’s really great to connect the earthly kingdom kingdoms to this. And what John, I was talking about, when you know the reasons that kingdoms fail. I think it’s important to still understand that God’s kingdom is not going to fail, but we also choose whether we’re going to be part of his kingdom, and we choose how we’re going to step into it.

02:04:47:01 – 02:05:13:21
Unknown
His grace is sufficient. We just have to receive it. And I think it’s a challenge to us as we continue to step in to this, to not grow weary, to not grow arrogant. Right? These all these things that crushed kingdoms. Satan has the same tactics against us. It’s the same things he throws against us. He wants us to be arrogant and proud.

02:05:13:23 – 02:05:39:03
Unknown
He wants us to not not be aware of how we’re passing things to the next generation. He wants all of these things to come into place just the same as he’s done for centuries and millennials. But the kingdom of God is unshakable. So if the kingdom of God is unshakable, it’s being formed in us. I think the question really becomes, how does the kingdom of God actually move forward?

02:05:39:04 – 02:06:13:14
Unknown
Right? It’s not through systems or structures or programs. The kingdom advances through people whose lives are shaped by the king. People who say yes to God. The kingdom moves forward every time someone says yes to God. Do you understand that? It doesn’t have to be a massive yes. Every yes moves the kingdom of God forward. It advances through people who respond to the call of God.

02:06:13:18 – 02:06:39:02
Unknown
We talked about that throughout this, these, parables and these messages that we’ve been talking about when we talked about the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20, God is constantly calling us to partner with him, to partner with him, not to work out, not to work for our salvation, to partner with him in the advancing of the Kingdom of God here and now.

02:06:39:05 – 02:07:02:12
Unknown
He gave us the examples of salt and light in Matthew five that we are salt and white light where not in the church walls. Where are we salt and light in the world? Yes, the kingdom doesn’t stay contained. It shows up everywhere we go. We see it in the parable of the Good Samaritan that kingdom advances through love.

02:07:02:12 – 02:07:33:22
Unknown
All of these different things that we’ve talked about over the course of this last year is about the kingdom moving forward. Every time somebody says yes to the call of God and lives it out. So what does this kingdom look like when you define that word kingdom? Look it up in the dictionary. It’s going to give you a definition, a realm or sphere of independent action or control.

02:07:33:25 – 02:07:44:29
Unknown
A realm or sphere of independent action or control. Think about what that means for you.

02:07:45:02 – 02:08:03:23
Unknown
If the Kingdom of God is operating in your life. It means you now possess an independence to act and independence to control your life.

02:08:03:25 – 02:08:43:21
Unknown
The Kingdom of God is in you. So when we are talking about what it looks like, we’re talking about how you show up in the places you go. What are you managed? Because the fullness of Jesus in you is what the gospel accomplished. You’re not earning any of his righteousness, but you are deciding whether you’ll release it, whether you’ll embrace it in greater measure each and every day.

02:08:43:29 – 02:09:19:28
Unknown
We talked from parables about the sower in Matthew 13, casting seed upon different kinds of soil, but the open and responsive reception to God’s Word was the best soil. The person that received God’s Word freely and openly and allowed it to interrogate their life, allowed it to build their life. We saw the challenge with the wheat and tares in Matthew 13 as well, living with faith among those without faith.

02:09:20:00 – 02:09:55:17
Unknown
We saw the parable of the two sons in Matthew 21. Daily decisions matter, but it is the alignment and the obedience with the kingdom that pleases the father. The rich fool in Luke 12, where we have misplaced priorities, remembering that in the end all that will remain is God’s kingdom. All the kingdoms of the world are going to become the kingdom of our God.

02:09:55:19 – 02:10:23:15
Unknown
What’s our priority? And then in Matthew 1344, the treasure and pearl parables, a reminder to live with that purpose of what we’ve found, that we would not let go, that we would do everything it takes to hold on to that field, or that pearl of great price, because we know its value, which means we know its purpose for us.

02:10:23:20 – 02:10:56:07
Unknown
It’s in that place that we are captured by the fullness of God’s love. I read a scripture in revelations 20 that really was a great revelation to me, because it continued to expose the qualities of the kingdom of God in verse four. I think we have a slide. It says, then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge kingdom rule, right?

02:10:56:07 – 02:11:20:26
Unknown
Kingdom authority. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus, and for proclaiming the Word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their forehead or their hands. They all came to life again, and they reigned in the kingdom with Christ for a thousand years.

02:11:20:28 – 02:11:42:21
Unknown
So the principle that we see here is about the thrones. Thrones belong in ordinary human history. To the victorious, to the loud, to the untouchable. Yet in John’s vision, the enthroned are not the beast elites, but the faithful who suffered.

02:11:42:23 – 02:12:06:01
Unknown
Thrones are reserved for those who sacrificed their lives. Do you see the Kingdom principle? Our world puts the strongest, the mightiest, the loudest on the thrones to lead, to guide, because they demand the respect. They show that they can pull it off.

02:12:06:03 – 02:12:38:26
Unknown
But God puts the faithful, those who embraced his truth and his love in the face of danger on the throne of his kingdom. This is the principle of God, the principle of his Kingdom, and it is consistent. Now. We position ourselves now, if we so choose.

02:12:38:29 – 02:13:11:11
Unknown
So let the kingdom of God be your desire. As we are stepping away from this series. Let it be your desire. Let your embrace of God’s kingdom be constant. It shows up in amazing ways. It shows up in a church culture by the embrace that we have for one another, where we dispel fear of one another, where we dispel isolation and and protectionism.

02:13:11:13 – 02:13:45:29
Unknown
We are becoming salt and light. And so a church that’s reflecting the kingdom of God spends time together. A church that reflects the kingdom of God knows how to walk. Embracing the needs of those around them, knows how to give of themselves, knows how to walk in a place of of his abundance, of his supply. A church culture embracing kingdom includes these people hungry for his word.

02:13:46:02 – 02:14:27:26
Unknown
There’s a desire to draw from his words of life, to make those a part of our world. A church reflecting the kingdom of God has a a love for him and a passion for worshiping and honoring the King. It is it is a an active prayer life that shows up when the Kingdom way is constantly growing in your life because you’ve discovered the authority of Christ.

02:14:27:28 – 02:15:03:12
Unknown
That is the the beauty of this message. And Jesus, when he said on the cross that it is finished. Was talking about this, was talking about his kingdom being established, an unshakable kingdom that is no longer dependent on the systems of men, but on the transformation of souls that come from him and Him alone. Amen. Amen. The reality is, the kingdom of God is what’s supposed to form us.

02:15:03:18 – 02:15:36:13
Unknown
Jesus is supposed to be what forms us and whether we like it or not, we are being formed every day. Right. But we determine what we allow to form our lives. And passivity is a choice, and it will allow the culture and habits and other priorities form us. But if we are intentional, Jesus can be the one that forms us.

02:15:36:16 – 02:16:11:19
Unknown
The kingdom and understanding and walking in the kingdom can be what forms us and shapes us on in every day. The Kingdom of God isn’t just something we believe. It has to be something that is active in our lives. It actually doesn’t do us any good in in theory, it doesn’t do us any good on the paper. It is a here and now, living out every day in community, living out every day in our lives, at work, in our relationships and our decisions and our pressure.

02:16:11:19 – 02:16:35:21
Unknown
What do we do about it? We said we heard it in Hebrews 12, right? We’ve already received and we are receiving an unshakable kingdom. So let us have grace that we may serve. It is only through the grace of God, and I believe that there are people in this room. And although we are all in different places, maybe some of us have followed God for decades and decades.

02:16:35:22 – 02:16:47:29
Unknown
Some of us are new to the faith or just returning to the Lord. Many of us are somewhere in the middle, haven’t been alive for decades and decades and decades. Right?

02:16:48:01 – 02:16:58:02
Unknown
But the same thing applies. It doesn’t matter. Following Jesus always looks like taking the next step.

02:16:58:04 – 02:17:25:12
Unknown
Following Jesus always looks like taking the next step. And it doesn’t matter where you are, take the next step. Because we are receiving an unshakable kingdom. I just love that scripture when I was going through things this week, we are receiving. We are continuing to receive an unshakable kingdom and it’s an invitation for every single one of us.

02:17:25:14 – 02:17:45:02
Unknown
You know we are in a world that is shaking. We are in a world of turmoil. We are in a world that is upside down and inside out. And if we were to pay attention to hard to everything going on, it will shake us to the core. What do we trust? What do we believe? How do I know what to believe?

02:17:45:03 – 02:18:10:04
Unknown
How do I know what to do? Actually spoke on it last week about knowing who to trust, right? But the truth is Jesus Christ and He is giving us. And we are receiving an unshakable kingdom that we don’t have to be shaken by the turmoil and the things that are being thrown at us every day. We can stand secure and who we are.

02:18:10:04 – 02:18:34:22
Unknown
We can see insecure and who he is, and in the kingdom of God that he is calling us into, and that we are walking out every day. We need to be convinced to give our lives to his Kingdom. This is what we get to do. It is an honor to give our lives to the Kingdom of God. To see him at Vance.

02:18:34:24 – 02:19:14:11
Unknown
So our challenge to the church is we are stepping away from this series is to not lose pace with this message last week. Today we continue to hear of marvelous testimonies that are direct results of this revelation, direct results of this growing faith in our lives that his Kingdom is being established, and the result of it is a greater power for healing, a greater power for deliverance, a greater power for provision, a greater faith to walk through the fire, a greater faith for the opportunities that God has prepared for us.

02:19:14:11 – 02:19:45:28
Unknown
It is in that place that we discover the beauty of our father, and it is for some of us, so present, so alive. How is it showing up in your world? Or are you being rattled? Are you being shaken? If you are, celebrate it. Because what you got to get to the bottom of is his kingdom. Where is that in your life?

02:19:45:28 – 02:20:00:11
Unknown
Where is your expectation set? Where is your heart secure? Because it’s it’s it being able to say that I trust God no matter what.

02:20:00:13 – 02:20:49:00
Unknown
I trust you, God. Man. I did not like what just unfolded. I don’t like what I’m looking at. God. But I trust you. Can we say that in that place there is so much strength, so much healing, so much joy and rest. So this is our our challenge. This is our our beckoning to this house, that everyone would be inspired at a greater level to say yes to God’s kingdom in your life, to say yes to allowing the fullness of his plan to unfold, and to recognize that it will not divide you from one another.

02:20:49:02 – 02:21:05:24
Unknown
In fact, that’s how you can test whether you’re hearing clear, because that that element of deception still exists. Satan has not been bound.

02:21:05:27 – 02:21:37:14
Unknown
He hasn’t been assigned that pit. That seal has been placed on him. So what he’s doing is trying to deceive nations. We got to be able to recognize deception from truth, and the kingdom is what reveals it. Wednesday night we talked from first John, and John is giving a challenge for us to be able to recognize how to discern spirits, how to test spirit.

02:21:37:16 – 02:21:49:23
Unknown
And he gives one answer if they declare that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus came in the flesh.

02:21:49:26 – 02:22:07:02
Unknown
That’s an interesting statement for another day, but that alone is able to identify whether someone’s telling you the truth, whether the influence you’re living your life according to is legitimate or not.

02:22:07:05 – 02:22:35:18
Unknown
Church. The kingdom is worth it. There’s evidence of it happening in our house. There’s evidence of it in each of our lives. People are giving testimony to it and we want to say, continue, grow strong. We love you. In closing, I just want to end with this one statement if we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, then every one of us is being invited to live in it more fully.

02:22:35:18 – 02:22:48:24
Unknown
And then we don’t just carry the kingdom, we release it. Amen. Church.

02:22:48:26 – 02:23:09:00
Unknown
So we’re going to pray to close service. I want to invite visitors. If this is your first time here, we go to a fellowship afterwards and we share a meal together, and we have food that is ready for anybody that is brave enough to join us. But it’s at the table that we hear stories. We get to share testimony and discover life that each of us are living.

02:23:09:00 – 02:23:37:09
Unknown
And so do join us. Father, we thank you for this day. I thank you for this house. God. We glorify your name and recognize that you alone deserve the praise. You are the Savior and King of our hearts and God. We ask that this revelation would grow and that this place would be able to glorify your name. Lord, as we live our lives and embrace father, each step that you have for us, in Jesus name, Amen.

02:23:37:11 – 02:23:39:05
Unknown
Love you guys. God bless.