Pastors Brian and Jacque Lother
Brian: This past Tuesday, if you were a legal citizen of this country, you had the privilege of being able to vote in our election. Every follower of Christ has kind of a dual citizenship in a sense. I'm an American. I was born in America. My sister's only half American, because she was born in Canada. She is naturalized, she says. But I'm just natural. But she is been naturalized. I'm so thankful to be an American citizen. There isn't another country in the world that I would prefer rather to live in than America. I know we have a lot of weaknesses and I know we have a lot of issues as a nation, but I'd still rather live here than any place else in the world. I'm so thankful to be an American. I'm thankful that I have been born in this nation. But I'm also a citizen of another kingdom. I'm a citizen of the kingdom of God, which happens to have residency on the earth at the moment. I'd like to read a verse that the Apostle Peter kind of talks about that in one Peter 2 verse 9, where he says this.
Jacque: But you are God's chosen treasure priests who are kings.
Brian: Look at how he combines that. Priests who are spiritual leaders and kings who are in a sense, earthly leaders.
Jacque: Priests who are kings, a spiritual nation.
Brian: And he uses this word nation to really signify what we really are to be on the earth. It's like a nation from heaven on the earth.
Jacque: Set apart as God's devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience his marvelous light. And now he claims you as his very own.
Brian: Now get this for a second. He, he claims us as his very own, but it's not in the negative sense that oftentimes we can think of that like I own you. It's not in that context, but it's in a different context. And here is what he says about it.
Jacque: He did this so that you would broadcast his glorious wonders throughout the world.
Brian: What an honor we have to broadcast the glorious wonders of God. Now let me ask you a question. If any of us had the opportunity to just leave this earth like the apostle Paul did, and be take transported to heaven and get a tour of heaven. And then as Paul was sent back, although he said I'd prefer to stay there-- and I tell you what, Bob Hansen today, Randy's dad, he loved his wife dearly. He loved his family. I tell you what, you'd have to twist his arms strong to leave heaven right now to get him to come back to Earth. You would.
But if we had the experience Apostle Paul and were in heaven and given a tour of heaven in a sense, and then sent back to Earth, do you think we could keep quiet about the things we saw? Not at all. This is why he says that we were to broadcast his glorious wonders throughout the world. So those who follow the way of Jesus on earth, what we do, is we become partners with God in bringing peace regardless of our nationality. Because everybody in the world is given the opportunity to be able to become a part of God's kingdom. It doesn't matter if you are American, Canadian, Brazilian, Russian, Ukrainian, English, Italian, Nepalese. Those who are part of the body of Christ, who are followers of Christ, are given this opportunity to bring the peace of heaven to the earth.
There are also times, and we've all probably experienced this, there are times when our earthly kingdom that we are, whether we are Americans or Italians or Nepalese or whatever, there are times when our earthly kingdom calls us to participate in something that is not aligned with our heavenly kingdom, because we live in a fallen world and not all of the earthly leaders are redeemed. And so their thought process is altogether different than how God thinks. As a matter of fact, God even says this about us at times. He said, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Even as followers of Jesus, sometimes his thoughts are different than ours, aren't they?
How much more would God's thoughts and God's ways be different from someone who actually has not really yet met the Lord and, and come to know him in a personal way? And so when our earthly kingdom that we are a part of with this dual citizenship, when that kingdom comes into conflict or tension with our heavenly kingdom, then we find ourselves in a place that I call the valley of decision. Aren't we? We are in between the proverbial rock and the hard place. There are times where we have to choose one over the other.
Now, how we do that represents how we are really part of the kingdom of heaven. But this valley of decision at times can put us in a place of tension or conflict. for example, if I'm in the corporate world, my corporate career kingdom may tell me that that profit is the bottom line, the bottom line of the company is just making money. But when I'm living in God's kingdom, some sometime God's kingdom tells me to help take care of the poor at the expense of myself. Sometimes the kingdom of God tells me to take care of our environment at the expense of my bottom line, not just dumping all sorts of chemicals and poisons into rivers and streams because it's easy to get rid of it that way.
There are times where we are called to not exploit the poor, for example, to value those who've helped us to get where we are at as a company.
There is a policy in many companies that once someone in middle management or even upper management hits a certain age out the door, regardless of how good they are, because they've been accumulating raises through the years, and it's cheaper to hire someone who's 25 than to pay someone who's 55. And so these are conflicts at times that happen between our earthly citizenship and our heavenly citizenship.
At times, my national kingdom may even call for me to go to war. And yet God's kingdom tells me to love my enemies and to respond to my enemies with love. That's a challenge, isn't it? It's a hard thing to know how to do at times. And I think the fact of the matter is, and it's very understandable that in an earthly kingdom, earthly kingdoms cannot endure and cannot survive without internal constraints such as police or what I'd call external constraints, which would be military.
America would not be in existence today if we didn't have good military. It just wouldn't. It wouldn't. We would be invaded from the north to south and the east and the west, and when they were done raping our country, they'd leave or try and take over. These are real conflicts that happen at times between the kingdom of God and our earthly kingdoms. How do we know how to navigate that? My one and only suggestion is you have to listen to the spirit of God to tell you what to do and not judge somebody else for what they think the spirit of God is telling them to do in those situations.
I say all of that to say this: this fallen world, this very military society, it was the world that Jesus introduced his kingdom to. He didn't set up his kingdom on Mars where there were no inhabitants. They came to earth where there were all of these fallen human beings used to doing things in a very self-centered, self-preserving way. Jesus introduced this new concept of what God's kingdom would look like. It wasn't going to be political and it certainly wasn't going to have a structure or an institutional edifice to it. It wasn't going to have any of that. It was going to be something very, very simple. And it was this: the simple rule of God in the human heart, that God would take up his throne in our hearts and rule from our hearts.
Now, I know that there have been church leaders, especially since the 20th century, but probably some even before that who have, dare I say the word prostituted, that whole concept to use God to further their own individual kingdom needs. But in reality, what God wants to do is take all of our hearts and unite us together in a loving, caring community, regardless of our earthly kingdom alliances. Regardless of whether we are Italian or German or American or Russian, God wants us to unite our hearts in the kingdom of heaven. An interesting story about my father: My dad immigrated to Canada when he was about five from Poland. I, I believe my grandma was, was partly fleeing because of the persecution against Jews. And there are some documentation in our family tree that she was Jewish, although she kind of kept that hidden when she came to Canada, I think for obvious reasons at the time. My dad was German. They were from Germany and they were living in Poland at the time.
When my dad started to court my mom, my grandpa, my mom's dad didn't like my dad at all because he was German. He was from a different tribe. There are a lot of tribalism that has been carried forward even among the body of Christ. We have tribalism against other churches, and this is not part of how God thinks. I'm thankful that my grandfather came to a sense and realized my dad was actually really a good guy even though he was a German. Because obviously that was at the beginnings of Hitler coming to power and all the anti-Jewish sentiment in Germany. But also as an English person, there was a lot of anti-German sentiment, so that was carried over. But in the kingdom of God, it doesn't matter what our earthly heritages are, God is desiring us to have this unity among us as the community and body of Christ.
In Jesus day, Israel was, as we know, an occupied nation by Rome. Rome had been ruling with an iron fist for many years, many decades by that time. The religious leaders of Israel wanted to give the Romans the left foot of fellowship. You know what I mean by that, don't you? Kick those guys out of here. And instead of teaching his followers how to fight against the Romans to give them military strategies and how to get them out of their country, Jesus actually taught them how to love the Romans. It's pretty amazing, isn't it? It's pretty amazing.
We've never known what it's like to be an occupied nation. we don't know what it's like to live under the oppressive rule of a foreign leader or dictator. This is really hard for us to really kind of emotionally connect ourselves to. But Jesus came on the scene not trying to get rid of Caesar or even Herod for that matter, but he came on the scene to bring a different kind of kingdom into that earthly kingdom, which was certainly no easy task. Can you imagine the task of trying to do that? Especially when the religious leaders had been praying and most of the Jewish people had been praying for centuries, how long, oh Lord, are we going to be under this oppressor? They were longing for a deliverer to come. They prayed for deliverance, didn't they?
Their concept of a deliverer was like King David, who kicked all the Philistines out. We need a David two to come on the scene and kick all the Romans out. Jesus taught, however, that if a Roman soldier commanded somebody to carry their gear one mile, they were actually not only supposed to willingly comply with a good attitude, but then carry it a second mile. We read this in Matthew chapter 5 verse 41.
Jacque: If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.
Brian: This was in the context because a Roman soldier could scribe anybody just working in their fields, "Hey, you come and carry my gear for me." And the Roman law was they had to do it for one mile. Jesus comes on the scene and instead of saying, let's figure out how you don't have to carry that a mile, Jesus comes on the scene and says, not only carry it a mile, but carry it an additional mile. I want to read the whole portion here in a different translation, beginning at verse 38 to verse 42.
Jacque: Your ancestors have also been taught take an eye in exchange for an eye and a tooth in exchange for tooth.
Brian: This was actually from the Book of Exodus. He wasn't just quoting some philosopher, but the teaching in Exodus was f you are responsible for losing causing someone to lose their sight in one of their eyes, that person has the right to take the sight out of one of your eyes. Or somebody gets in an altercation with you and they knock out one of your teeth, you get to knock out one of theirs. So that's the whole concept of I for an I or tooth for tooth. Jesus said, your ancestors, all of the people up to this present time have been taught this from the Book of Exodus. This is what you've been taught. However, Jesus said, "I say to you something different." And here is what Jesus said.
Jacque: However, I say to you, don't repay an evil act with another evil act.
Brian: his is a whole new teaching. This is not something that they were aware of. But let me ask you a question. Of all the people who have been recorded in the Bible, who is the only one that was God? Jesus. Jesus. Jesus needs to be the lens that we interpret all a scripture with, not just go to the Old Testament and find out where one of the psalmists was and angry at his neighbors. And he is venting to God and writes something about, Lord, make my neighbors children fatherless, and take that verse out of context and then start praying that against your neighbor. No, we need to take the lens of Jesus and how he interpreted things. So he said, however, I say to you something different than what you've been taught. Even though you've been taught this from the Bible, I'm telling you something different. And here is what I'm telling you.
Jacque: Don't repay an evil act with another evil act, but whoever insults you by slapping you on the cheek, turn the other to him as well.
Brian: Pastor Jeff did a great job of teaching this just a couple weeks ago where this is really not dealing with, like, when we talk about turning the other cheek, this is not talking about if somebody comes up to try to actually really harm you and physically attack you. This was like if someone slaps you on your right cheek, the only way to get slapped on your right cheek was to backhand. The assumption was that everybody was right-handed. And so to slap someone on the right cheek, you have to backhand it this way. And that was a sign of an insult. It was like an owner of a slave or a superior to an inferior. They would insult somebody by slapping him that way. What Jesus was saying, if somebody insults you that way, well turn the other cheek, let them insult you again. But he wasn't saying that you shouldn't be able to defend yourself if somebody breaks into your home and tries to kill you or kill your wife or kill your children. That's not what Jesus was teaching here.
Jacque: So even with the insulting word, you should just be quiet, not send another one back.
Brian: So whoever insults you by--
Jacque: Slapping you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well. If someone is determined to sue you for your coat, give him the shirt off your back as a gift in return.
Brian: This is another whole context; the whole context here is suing somebody. So here is the picture that Jesus is painting. Somebody sues you, they take you to court. The custom in that day was a person had an under garment and an outer garment. The outer garment was a coat. The only other garment they had was a garment they wore under it. Jesus is saying, if you are in court and somebody's trying to sue you to take your coat, give them your undergarment also, and be there basically naked in the courtroom, which would be a humiliation not only to you, but also to the one who's suing you. It's a humiliation publicly to the one who's actually suing you. This whole thing about you hurt my feelings, you humiliated me, I'm going to get my revenge. Jesus is really dealing with that whole subject of how we deal with wounded feelings, rejected feelings, being offended. How do we deal with all of that kind of stuff
Jacque: With humility?
Brian: With humility.
Jacque: And should people in authority take advantage of you? Do more than what they demand. Learn to generously share what you have with those who ask for help, and don't close your heart to the one who comes to borrow from you.
Brian: Someone is in need and they ask to borrow something from you. Jesus is really telling us here not to say, well, what kind of collateral do you have? How can I help you? How can I help you? This is the kingdom of God. When we go back to that whole story about the asking a person, go a mile, the whole thing that Jesus was saying here is that whole second mile, see the first mile is slavery. You have to do it. But the second mile is freedom. The second mile is freedom that you have. This is the liberating power of loving your enemy. There really is power in loving your enemy. When you really love them, you release them. You forgive them. They no longer actually have control over you.
Remember when Wurmbrand, who was a Romanian in prison, imprisoned by Ceausescu, and he was in prison because of just his stand for Christ. He was in chains for a number of years. As he was in chains in the prison of Romania, what he would do was the chains would have a certain pitch as they would jingle, and then he would sing to that pitch praises to the Lord. That's how he kept loving his enemies.
In God's kingdom, there is still wars to fight, but there is spiritual wars. We talked about that. We sang about that in the first song we sang, "Can there be a real victory without knowing a real fight? Wrestling principalities, just by praying all through the night." In God's kingdom. There are still wars to fight, but there is spiritual wars against a spiritual enemy. I don't know if any of you have watched a recent series on TV called Stranger Things, but there is a wonderful quote that one of the guys makes in that series, Stranger Things. The quote is this, “If you don't believe in Satan, how are you going to fight him?" If you don't believe in him, how you going to fight him?
Ephesians chapter six, verses 10 through 18, at the very end of the book of Ephesians, Paul writes this about this whole concept of kind of spiritual warfare and what it entails.
Jacque: Now, my beloved ones, I have saved these most important truths for last be supernaturally infused with strength through your life union with the Lord Jesus.
Brian: How many of know that there is really a strength in having a relationship with God? That goes without saying. Right? There is strength that we get, inner strength that we get to just help us to overcome the adversity, the wilderness, as Pastor Jeff was talking earlier today..
Jacque: This sentence is a picture. Imagine the picture. Stand victorious with the force of his explosive power flowing in and through you. I mean, just think of the picture, that sentence. Put on God's complete set of armor provided for us so that you'll be protected as you fight against the evil strategies of the accuser.
Brian: Don't ever forget there is a real enemy. It's not just a nebulous evil in the world. It's a real spiritual power. It's a real spiritual being with underling beings, if I can use that expression. Fallen angel, Lucifer, Satan was cast out of heaven. He tried to set himself up above God. When that happens, he will be humbled. He was cast out of heaven. In God's wisdom, he allowed Satan to come to the earth. I'm not sure exactly when all of that transpired in terms of the timeline of, of the Earth. I don't know if that happened before the creation of man or if happened after the creation of man. I don't know how long Adam and Eve lived in the garden before they sin.
I would hope it was more than 10 minutes. It could have been a hundred years. It could have been a thousand years. It could have been a hundred thousand years. I don't know how long they lived, but the history of mankind kind of begins with the fall of, of Adam and Eve. That's where our kind of where our human history begins. I don't know if Satan was cast out of heaven and he went right to the garden, or maybe he'd been there for, for centuries before that. But all I know is that he is real. He is a real being. About a third of the heavenly angels were deceived by him, and they were cast out of heaven. And they are all real. They have power.
Jacque: It's been called the kingdom of darkness.
Brian: Yes, kingdom of darkness or the God of this world is another description of him. I also know this: no matter how spiritual we are and how close we are to the Lord, if it wasn't for Holy Spirit, I believe the scripture say this, that even the very elect would fall, the very elect would fall the very highest spiritual beings or human humans on the earth would fall if they were exposed to the full weight of the power of the enemy. So that's why we need to be covered in this armor that God that Paul is talking about here in Ephesians six. We also have to know the greater is he that's within us than he that's in the world. We don't need to live in any fear, but we also can't live in ignorance as well. Let's go on.
Jacque: Verse 12.
Brian: Yeah, do verse 12.
Jacque: Your hand to hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms.
Brian: How many know that when you have a conflict with somebody else, it's real easy to think you are in hand to hand combat with that person. Isn't it? Whether it's your boss or neighbor or whatever it might be, someone in your family, brother-in-law, what have you, it's real easy to think that the conflict you have is with another human being. But the word of God teaches us something different: our hand to hand combat is not with human beings, but with what?
Jacque: For they are a powerful class of demon, gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage.
Brian: Yes, there is a powerful class. We use the word demon Gods in the sense of the gods of this world, or the God of this world, and evil spirits that hold this dark world in.
Jacque: Because of this, you must wear all the armor that God provides. So you are protected as you confront the slanderer. He is a liar. For you are destined for all things and will rise victorious.
Brian: We need to wear this spiritual armor of God that God provides for us, so that we will be protected from this slanderer, this person who is speaking lies to you and to me. He speaks lies, slanderous things. He says things to you about yourself that would never enter the mind of God to say. He does. The problem that we have is at times we don't know God good enough to discern that that's not God actually speaking to us. That's why we have to keep reminding ourselves that God is good all the time, not just part of the time. God is good all the time. And so, these slanderous things, these humiliating things, these reminders of your failures, the reminders of your guilt and your shame: this is not God speaking to you. This is not. These are not the words of our Lord to you.
The words of our Lord to you are come on to me, all you who are heavy laden and weary, and I will give you rest. But the words of the enemy are: you are not good enough, you are not smart enough, you are not measuring up. You'll never amount to anything. You can't do this. These are the words of the slander or the enemy of our soul.
Jacque: He holds us in bondage with those lies
Brian: He does. Because of this, and because God has allowed the enemy to have access to our minds, that's why we have to take captive our thoughts. We'll talk about that in a second. But that's why we have to have a filter of knowing who is God speaking, who is God and who isn't God. Right?
Jacque: I think the enemy can put thoughts into our mind, but I don't think he can read my mind.
Brian: No, he can't.
Jacque: He only has a one-way access.
Brian: It's a one way. Verse 14.
Jacque: Put on truth as a belt to strengthen you, to stand in triumph; put on holiness as the protective armor that covers your heart.
Brian: There is truth for us to wear to live by, which means there is untruth, shall we say, that we can also live by. The problem is, the way of the transgressor is hard. It's hard on us if we actually don't live according to how God has designed us to live. So different than putting sugar in the gas tank of your car. Sugar goes on raspberries, but it doesn't do any good in your car. Just put a half a pound of sugar in your car and see what it does in your gas tank. It will gum everything up. Why is that? It's because that engine wasn't designed to run on sugar. It was designed to run on gasoline or diesel fuel.
Even though we have the option to do these certain things, it doesn't mean there aren't going to be incredibly negative consequences to them in our lives if we don't gird ourselves with, how shall we then live as France or Shafer wrote about back in the seventies. How should we live? The word of God tells us how to live. Read the book of Proverbs. We read one chapter of Proverbs a day or half a chapter of Proverbs a day, and it'll tell you how to live. Sometimes we might say, "well, I don't understand why I should do that." It doesn't matter if you understand it. Just do it. Just do it. I think that could be a good slogan someplace.
Jacque: T-shirt. We need a t-shirt, Rachael.
Brian: We need a T-shirt. Just do it and then underneath it we'll say God's way. Just do it. Just do it.
Jacque: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. That's good.
Brian: We need this built. We need to know the truth and how we are to live so that we can actually live fulfilling prosperous lives. Let's go on, verse 15.
Jacque: You are preaching very good today.
Brian: Oh, thank you.
Jacque: Stand on your feet alert, then you'll always be ready to share the blessings of peace.
Brian: Yes. We need to be alert about the things around us. We need to be aware of the needs of other people. We need to be on the lookout for them so we can extend this peace to these people.
Jacque: And we need to have that peace in us to give it out.
Brian: Absolutely. Verse 16.
Jacque: In every battle, take faith as your wrap-around shield for it is able to extinguish the blazing arrows coming at you from the evil one.
Brian: Faith is obviously really important, but it's not really how much faith we have that is important. It's who we have our faith in that is important. Because Jesus even said if you just have faith the size of a mustard seed, that's all the faith you need. As long as that faith is in Jesus, in God. If we have our faith in Christ, then we will have this. I like this picture, this wrap around shield. Most of us think of a shield as just a frontal thing, but the shield of faith actually wraps all the way around us. That's really cool picture.
Jacque: That's what this translation is, a lot of picture. Embrace the power of salvation's, full deliverance.
Brian: So again, when we come to Christ, there is a whole deliverance that God has for us, not just a partial.
Jacque: Like a helmet to protect your thoughts from lies, and take the mighty razor-sharp spirit sword of the spoken Word of God. Pray passionately in the Spirit as you constantly intercede in every form of prayer at all times. Pray the blessings of God upon all his believers.
Brian: If we just kind of did this every day, we would be so much further ahead in the game, wouldn't we? We would be so much further ahead. Hallelujah. There are also intellectual wars that we have to fight against. Bad ideas. You know, not every idea every human being has is a good one.
Jacque: And we get to read every one of them on the internet now.
Brian: We do. It seems like that, don't we? There are bad ideas, and some of those bad ideas keep people from knowing the Lord. In second Corinthians 10:3-5, we see this again where Paul says this.
Jacque: For, although we live in the natural realm, we don't wage a military campaign employing human weapons using manipulation to achieve our aims. Instead, our spiritual weapons are energized with divine power to effectively dismantle the defenses behind which people hide. We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture like prisoners of war every thought and insist that it bow an obedience to the anointed one.
Brian: Isn't that good? We capture, just like prisoners of war would be captured, every thought that would come into our minds that insist, that are against God and we insist that they bow to God.
Jacque: We demolish every deceptive fantasy. The enemy can lie to us. And then pretty soon we grab it and we believe it, and then we add to it, and then we see something. And then that just only makes us think it more. That's a deceptive fantasy. There was a lady in the church years ago, and she came to me one day and she said, "I'm leaving Hope." I said, "Why?" "Because you and I just can't get along." I said, "What?!" She said, "Yes, you just don't like me." You know? And she just went on and I said, "I don't even know where that came from." But somehow she had built that life from the enemy. Maybe one time she said hi to me and I was racing by with my brain somewhere else. And then that added to it, and then something else added to it. She left the church. I could not convince her otherwise that I truly loved her, but that is a deceptive fantasy that the enemy-- we ask God to blow his spirit and fan the flame in our heart. But if we get the wrong spark going, the enemy fans that flame, and it's a bondage and a lie.
Brian: We used to sing a song, "Many are they that rise up against me," and so forth. This is really a song about what the enemy says to us about all these people that rise up against us and this, and they say this and they say that, but this is what the Lord says: you are not guilty. This is what the Lord says. Because we are covered with the blood of Christ. We are we are redeemed by his cross. He has clothed us in a robe of righteousness. We stand before the Lord. We struggle with understanding this because in our judicial system, a judge just can't declare somebody who is guilty, not guilty.
I know that there are people who have been guilty of crimes, but because of the nature of our judicial system, the evidence was gathered in an improper way or violated human rights or whatever. And so therefore a verdict was declared of not guilty, but they were still guilty. But before Jesus, it's a whole different type of system where he treats us as though we were never guilty, and he declares over us that we are not guilty because his blood-- We see this at the communion where Jesus said, "This is my blood, which is shed for you, for the remission of your sin," the removing of your sins. It's not just a covering of our sins. The word atonement means covering, a coffer means a covering of.
That was the concept in the Old Testament, that you would make a sacrifice and that sacrifice would cover up your sins. You take the covering off and what's there? Yeah, your sins are still there. That's why when people died, they actually didn't go to heaven in the Old Testament. They went to paradise. Paradise from the scriptures seemed to have two holding tanks, in a sense: one for the unrighteous and one for the righteous. That's why in the story Lazarus and the rich man, the rich man didn't know the Lord, and he was in torment and Lazarus, who had been poor, was in paradise. There was this big gap between the two. When Jesus died, and during the three days he was in the tomb, he went to paradise, and he led all those people who had looked forward in faith to Jesus. He led them free out of paradise. That's why we just need to understand the value of what Jesus has done and provided for us. Because our sins aren't just covered anymore. They've been removed.
Jacque: His mercies are new every morning. We sang that today. As we repent and turn from sin, our slate is wiped clean. I just love that. It's just fresh each morning.
Brian: I want to finish with this. I got a ton more stuff I want to say, but I'll have to do it another time when Pastor Jeff or Robert gives me a chance to speak again. But I'm sure we've all seen movies where someone is holding a sign that says, "Repent for the end is near." You ever see a movie like that? Or maybe a guy sitting in the end zone of a football game and when they are kicking a field goal or PAT, they hold up the sign, "Repent for the end is near." But Jesus never said to repent for the end is near. Jesus said to repent for the kingdom of God is near.
He said, "Repent for the kingdom of God is near." you. If I repent because the end is near, then I'm just apologizing for my past to give me some place to go when I die. But if I repent because the kingdom of God is near or the way of God is near, or the rule of God is near, then I'm actually deciding to change my self-centered approach to life, and I'm going to join in partnership with God to help bring about God's way of love in the world. That's what I'm doing when I repent because a kingdom is near. I'm going to join in this partnership with God to help bring his ways to the earth.
The last time I spoke here, we prayed that kingdom come thy will be done on earth through me as it is in heaven. I repent, not because the end is near. I'll tell you why I repent. I repent because the beginning is near the beginning of a new life, the beginning of a new day, the beginning of a new age is here and I want to be part of it. I want to be part of what God is doing. I want to be part of it. Christ gospel, this good news, this gospel message of the kingdom and his called for us to repent was never intended to just be a command to regret our past. As a matter of fact, we don't need God to command us to regret our past. We have the enemy to remind us of our past, and we regret it, don't we? That's that voice that we need to stop listening to.
But God wants us to repent in his re in his command for us to repent was never intended just to be a command to regret our past, but it's always been an invitation to help bring about a new future for us. Every day is a new beginning. Every day is a do over. And his command to us to repent for the kingdom of God is near, is an opportunity and an offer for us to walk into that new beginning that God has for us today. Today.
Father, I thank you that God, you give us this armor to where you give us Father this protection. You give us everything we need for this life as well as the next. Holy Spirit, we ask that you give us wisdom because Father, you have so much more for the world than what the world is experiencing right now. When we look at our neighbors, the enemy does not have flesh and blood. The enemy is an unseen enemy that can rec great havoc in this world and in our lives. But Lord, you've given us the tools and the weapons to know how to fight. But one of those weapons, Lord, is truly love, grace, and patience with those who offend us, who insult us, bringing your kingdom, your principles to the earth, learning how to truly turn the other cheek, learning how to really pray for those who spitefully use us, pray for leaders who we disagree with, leaders who make immoral decisions. You ask us and invite us to lift up prayers for them, so help us, father now to bring your kingdom in heaven to the earth through each and every one of us by walking in this grace and love that you have made available for us. Pastor Robert, would you come, please?
Robert: Well, you know, we are coming up to holiday season. Well, the first holiday is my birthday next week. Just throwing that out there. Well, during this holiday season, we get many invitations to different things, but the greatest invitation that ever went out is the invitation to enter into the kingdom of heaven. My prayer today, two areas I want to pray for.
First, I want to extend that invitation, especially to our online community. We have our faithful that watch with us, but we don't know. You may be joining us today; you may be joining us later in the archive of the broadcast. I'm not going to assume that you've entered into the kingdom of God. The hour, the time of salvation is now. The invitation is there and it's the easiest invitation to respond to. The Lord makes it easy for us. The time is now because the Lord is moving on your heart now. Through this message, through his spirit, the invitation goes out, and it's such a lovely invitation and it allows you to examine your heart.
We can think we are all that in a bag of chips, but if we are honest with ourselves, we know that we have great deficiencies. But we have such a loving God. He doesn't care about that. He wants you just where you are because he knows that you, and no matter what you do, you can't change you. He can, and he wants to, and he wants to invite you into his family.
All he does is ask you for this: As you examine your heart, you confess to him as Lord and say, "I'm a sinner. I'm separated from you. And I no longer want to be separated from me. I want you to be Lord of my life. I want my sins to be forgiven, and I want your warm embrace of love and connection to never leave me. And I agree to follow your way. And so, Lord, I asked that you take me into your arms right now as I dedicate my life to you, that I turn away from my former way of life, my former way of thinking, and I submit to your will for my life. So I come to you today in humble gratitude for accepting someone like me, and that I do believe that you sent your son, Jesus Christ, to die for not only the sins of the world, but to die for my sins. I believe that he rose again. He is no longer in that grave, and so he has defeated the power of death over my life. And now he is preparing and has prepared the way for me to spend my eternity with the creator of the universe."
Now, I don't know how you did that, prayed that prayer, but if you did, and you are joining us online, we want to hear from you. We would like to continue the fellowship with you. We would like to pray with you. We would like to get connected with you and disciple you in this way of Jesus. I want to pray for those that join us every week. You are part of the household of faith. But in response to this message, I want to pray a prayer that we allow God to show us his way when it comes to our enemies. I was in the board meeting yesterday and we had a s heard a song that says, how can we love our enemies if we don't learn to disagree? We are not going to always agree on things, especially your enemies, but if you can't learn to live with that, how are you going to love on them? We may not know how, but guess who does. The author of the commandment.
So we pray to you, Jesus, show us your way, mould our hearts to look like yours so that when contentions arise, when differences surface, when disagreements flare, we don't resort to the fleshly system and the carnality of this fallen world, but we yield to your way. I pray that we will become willing, obedient, servants, ambassadors of our heavenly nation so that we could be that salt and that life in our earthly nation. Lord Jesus, we ask you to do whatever you need to do within us so that we can truly be representative of you and your kingdom. And Jesus mighty name we pray. Amen.
Brian: Thank you, Robert. Pastor Robert will be serving communion after the service today, for those of you who want to have communion. If you are watching livestream today and you are within a 15- or 20-minute drive of the church, you've got time to get here for lunch if you want to come for lunch. We invite you to do that. For those of you who are here, we certainly invite everybody to stay. I don't think there is another church in town today serving catfish and spaghetti. So it'll be good. It'll be good today. Let's stand together and let's raise our hands together. Let me bless you.
Now, may the Lord bless you, and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you be clothed in the wonderful armor of our God from heaven. This we pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful, wonderful day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 11-13-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.