The Kingdom of God: Kingdom Culture — Ps Grace Guneyi (TGA)

Sunday the 12th of October, 11:00AM Gathering, Tauranga Location
Ps Grace Guneyi on a Freedom Centre 2025 series:The Kingdom of God — “Kingdom Culture“


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Freedom Centre is a Five-Fold church that exists to Encounter, Equip and Release.
Led by Senior Pastors Adem and Grace Guneyi.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

It's a good day to be in church. Amen. Amen. And we're carrying on with our series this morning. I'm really like, I feel like I'm so nervous to try to repeat the 9 a.m. preach because I went so far off script. I'm not sure if I'm going to land in the same place. But just pray for me. But I'm really excited to bring a word with you this morning. And, you know, this series has been awesome so far. I mean, even from just the first sermon that Pastor Adam brought, so many people just like, man, it's about the kingdom and unlocking something over us. So we're really like excited to continue to build on that. And Pastor Jacques did last week. And so I want to bring this morning another layer to this understanding of the kingdom, right? And so today I want to talk about the culture of the kingdom. The kingdom culture. Because you know, every single kingdom has a culture of its own, right? And we also, as humans, we have a culture of our own. And so, you know, this morning you came in the room and you have a background, you have a family, you have a bloodline, and you have a culture. And, you know, you probably already know this about me by now that I am um half Italian and half Australian. Adam is a quarter Italian, so we just consider our kids more Italian than anything else, right? He says no, but that's how I consider them. They've got more Italian blood than any other blood, you know. They were born in New Zealand, so they're Kiwis anyway, right? So it's all just kind of whatever. They're the most like mixed race kids like around, and so you know, we just kind of go with it. But, you know, there's it's interesting that we each have like a drive to understanding our own culture, right? And so this is why I think ancestry.com and all of these places where you can go and find out your your lineage, your descendants, where are you from? I think there's a part of us that's interested in that because you know, we want to know, I guess, what am I made up of? Where am I from? Where's my family from? And you know, every one of us has a human culture because we're all humans, but we also come into a kingdom culture when we entered the kingdom of God. Right? And so, really, this morning is understanding, yes, there's parts of us that have human culture, but the culture of the kingdom, where it clashes with our human culture, because it doesn't always, but where it does, we need to adopt the culture of the kingdom. Right? So, you know, when you become a Christian, you're not told this is exactly how you have to eat, this is exactly how you have to dress, this is exactly how you have to be. No, there's room within the kingdom for our human culture, right? There's humanness that we still live amongst and we still love and we still appreciate. And this morning I'm gonna open up to you a little bit of my culture just as we move through this sermon, and you know, hopefully you enjoy that. Um, but you know, we're gonna uh like I still have culture, I'm still Italian, I still come from an Italian family, I come from an Australian family. That's still in me. But where my Italian culture clashes with the culture of the kingdom, I bring it into submission to the culture of the kingdom, right? And so it's not about eradicating culture, it's only about knowing where does my culture now come against what the word of God says. And that's where I need to submit it to the word of God. And so we're gonna kind of look at that this morning. And so, really, what is culture? Right? Culture is the shared attitudes, values, and beliefs of a group or a community. So it's it's the shared attitudes and the values and the beliefs. And I think what we do really well in church, what we do well as Christians when it comes to kingdom culture, is we do well with the beliefs. We do well with the beliefs. What do we believe in? I think sometimes we struggle with the values, what's important? What is the emphasis on? Am I giving emphasis to the same things that the Bible gives emphasis to? And then there's also the you know the shared attitudes. Is my attitude matching the attitude of the kingdom? You know, I think some people believe I can just add Christianity to my life and all those other things can remain the same. No, there are some kingdom attitudes that should override the attitudes of your culture, right? And so this morning I want to unpack what they are. And I first just want to read Luke chapter 4, verse 42. It says, Now when it was day, Jesus departed and he went to a deserted place, and the crowd sought him and they came to him and they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent. So Jesus came to preach the kingdom of God and to model the kingdom of God to us, right? And so, you know, how how culture is modeled is it's it's what it looks like, it's how it's seen. And so I have a bit of an example here this morning. I'm just gonna move back for this side of the room. You know, I went, uh, you know, I care a lot about food. And you're gonna learn that more and more over the next, you know, half an hour or so. And I I try to not care about food. I can't stop it, okay? I can't turn it off, I can't turn it down. It's something that I I care about. And it's not just that I love it, I do love it, I love it, but I also have really strong opinions about it. And I I want to have less strong opinions, but I just I can't. So these are my opinions. So, you know, uh Adam and I, we love food, we love Italian food, and so if you've been seen an Italian restaurant in Toronga, I've been there. I've tried them all. Okay, so if you see me in one of them, you'll know it's good. Okay, if I'm there, it's a good restaurant. I don't go back to restaurants that aren't good, okay? Like I'm here for the top tier. So there's a restaurant in Toronga, and we still go there because it's actually a great restaurant, but we went there recently, and you know, every single time we go to a restaurant, if there's bread on the menu, if there's an option to start with bread, we're gonna start with bread. Okay, I don't know how you can resist bread. I've never met a loaf of bread that I didn't want to have. Like, I don't know, I don't know what world you live in where you can say no to bread. So if it's on the menu, we order it. We had our honeymoon in Port Douglas. We literally went out for dinner every night, we ate different breads all around Port Douglas. Just every restaurant that had bread on the menu, we were eating it. So we always get it as a starter. So we got the bread at this restaurant here in Todanga, and we're like, yep, focus your bread. And this here today is my presentation of how you should serve bread in an Italian restaurant, right? Because how many people know the Italian restaurant is only as good as it is authentic? Right? So I don't want some, you know, you do these like fusions. You can fusion with the Asian and whatever, don't fusion the Italian, okay? There's no such thing. We don't want you to just don't touch it, okay? It's not a fusion place. So we go there and we order the bread, we order the focaccia bread and we have the bread. We're like, yeah, it's good, you know, the bread's good. This is the right way to serve bread. You have your bread, you have your oil, olive oil, the best oil you can get your hands on, right? This is the way you pull out the good oil. You have your balsamic vinegar and salt. So you put the oil and the vinegar into a bowl, and then you dip your bread in that bowl, and then you dip it in a bit of salt and you eat it. Okay, this is the correct way. I invite you to try this at home for lunch today. Balsamic vinegar oil, you'll love it, okay? But so we have this, we order the bread, and then what actually happens is there's something else that appears on the plate at this restaurant, and this is what it was. It was hummus. Okay, now I know you say hummus, okay? It's hummus. Everyone say it with me now. Humus. Okay. I love that for Rotarua, like at the watch party, hummus. I'm sorry guys, that you I made you do that over there. Um, but this is what appeared on the plate, and so immediately, I'm offended. Okay, immediately the respect level for this restaurant has gone down, okay. What is going on here? Is this a weird hybrid Turkish situation? Why have we got hummus on the plate? Like hummus is not Italian, and you know, I understand it because I've never seen people like kind of try to embrace Turkish culture like I've seen in New Zealand. There's Turkish restaurants everywhere here. You know, we came over here, I've never seen so many Turkish restaurants, and I came from Melbourne where all the Turks are. There are not that many Turkish restaurants. You go to the supermarket in Melbourne, you will not see 60 different hummuses like you will here. It's just not a thing, right? And so it's just it's Kiwis just love hummus and they love, I'm gonna just say Turkish food, okay, because it's more like chicken wraps, but it's it's okay. We're not gonna call it a kebab. It's a nice chicken wrap. No shade on the chicken wrap, okay, but it's not a kebab, it's fine. It's fine. So we get this on the plate, and I'm immediately like, I have lost respect for this restaurant now because you've tried to merge, this is wrong. You know, when you go to a restaurant and they've like got Asian dishes and then also Indian dishes, and then also, and you're immediately like, they can't do things well. Like, just stay in your lane, you know? And so this is like, I immediately am like saddened by this. And you know, I I am again, I'm someone with strong opinions, so this matters to me. You know, my children, my my main goal, one of my main goals for their life, I mean, I want them to follow the Lord, you know, I want them to like be strong, amazing people, and I also want them to never eat spaghetti from a tin. Those things are like they're up there for me, you know, and again, it's not spaghetti. We can call it soft noodles in baked bean sauce if you want. We can call it that, okay, but it's not spaghetti. To the point where my daughter, when she was about my middle daughter, she would have been about maybe 10, like nine, like not that long ago, went on a play date, and at the play date, someone served her spaghetti on toast, first time in her life. She comes home. They've never seen it in my house. I don't think they even knew what it was until they were like seven or eight. Like, they don't even know. This is not even something we talk about. So she comes home and she's like, Mom, I had spaghetti on toast. And I was like, oh. And I was like, and what did you think? And I'm I'm I'm praying to the gods, like, please, what did you think? And she's like, I loved it. You brought shame on our household today. You're done. You're done. Like, and so even now she's still jesting me. She's like, you know, Mama, why don't we get some spaghetti? I'm like, don't say that word in this house. If that's spaghetti, if you want to eat the spaghetti with the baked bean sauce, I'll never cook spaghetti again for you. You'll never take, like, it's too much, right? I'm trying to tone it down. But this is like, it's important, right? And so there are some things, if you dilute it, right? If you change it, if you add things to it that doesn't belong, it's now no longer authentic. And this is what we do with the kingdom. You know, the Bible talks about how we're ambassadors for the kingdom. We're ambassadors, we are representatives of the country that we come from, we're representatives of the kingdom of God. Ambassadors live in embassies, they build embassies, and you know, embassies, even on the earth, they are built with the the architecture, the culture, the importance, the values of the country that they represent. And so I wonder for us, are we building embassies that look like the kingdom, or are we building embassies where it's like, you know, a little bit of hummus, it doesn't really matter. We're kind of not holding to the values of the kingdom. We're not holding to the culture of the kingdom. And so this morning I want to look at what a some of that culture looks like. So, uh, John 17, Jesus says, But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth, your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have also sent them into the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they may also be sanctified by the truth. This is Jesus praying for his disciples. He's speaking to us, and twice he says, they're not of the world, just as I was not of the world. If you think that your Christian life is going to feel like you are accepted, you belong, you are at peace in the world, you've missed it. We were never meant to be of the world. We were never meant to feel as though we fit in in the world. I would like to say to you this morning, if you don't feel you're really fitting into the world, that's a great sign. That's a great sign that you carry the culture of the kingdom. And you know, Jesus, when he prays for them, he actually doesn't say, Oh Lord, give them comfort that they're not of the world. Oh Lord, give them peace that they're not of the world. Like, you know, just like help them along. No, what he says is sanctify them by your truth. And then he says, your word is truth. And so how are we, how are we supposed to live as though we're in the world but not of the world? We're supposed to be sanctified by the truth of what the word of God tells us. And so that is why our whole culture, everything about who we are as believers, needs to come from the word of God. But I would challenge you today that there are some things that exist in the embassy of the church, in the embassy of our homes, in the embassy of our lives that actually don't come from the kingdom, they come from the world. And so it's just a little bit of hummus, but at the end of the day, it's deteriorating the authenticity of the embassy. That's what it's doing. So 2 Timothy chapter 2, Paul's speaking to Timothy, and he says, Therefore, you must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. So Paul's saying to Timothy, You're like a soldier who's gone on a mission, right? And you have to endure hardship while you're a soldier. No good soldier is gonna get all caught up in the civilian life of the place that he was sent. So if we're from representatives of the kingdom, we're not supposed to get so tied up in the affairs of this life. We're not supposed to be consumed with building a life here, yet so many of us follow a version of Jesus that's just a little addition to the most important thing, which is my life. Right? But that's not what a good soldier does. And it's actually not just because that's you know the rule, it's because that soldier wants to please the one who enlisted him. It's because that soldier realizes God has an opinion on how I live, God has an opinion on what I do with my finances, God has an opinion on how I speak to my wife, on how I behave as a young adult. God has an opinion, and my goal as a good soldier is to please him. That's what Paul's saying. So we have to, you know, understand that when we're operating out of a kingdom, this is not a democracy. And Adam touched on this last week, and it was so good. A kingdom is run by a king. Nothing matters in the kingdom except what the king says. That's what matters. But we're so entrenched in democratic belief that we think it's really just what I interpret about what the king says. You know, it's my like way that I've accepted what the king says, it's my view, my lens through which I see what the king says. No, that's not kingdom, that's hummus on the plate. It's it's ruining the authenticity of the embassy, right? So we don't we don't want to be those people. And so there's a few things I want to go through this morning about what culture looks like. And now, like I want to first say there's so many things, right? And we could go into love, we could go into faith. I'm not gonna go into the many, many things. I wanted to bring some things I felt the Lord point out and some things that maybe you haven't thought of, right? Because we know the embassy should be love, we know the embassy should be faith. We get that, but I want to say to you a few things that I think that culture pushes back against that we need to fight for. And so this is what it's a little bit like. You know, in Italian families, like family is a big thing. La familia, my family is a very important thing. And it's not just something important because I say it's important, it's important because it's how I live. It's important because I give my time to my family, I give my energy to my family. Family is a value, and it's not a value I just like throw out there, it's a value that I live by. And there are some values and some culture things we as believers need to live by. And I want to read to you Matthew chapter 10. It says in verse 5, these twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying, Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, nor do not enter a city of Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. This is not just like it's who we are, this is what we do as people of the kingdom. So this this whole wave of Christianity that is like questioning signs and wonders, the whole like, you know, this movement of like maybe God wants to heal, maybe he doesn't, it's really up to him. It's anti-kingdom. Because Jesus said when like he's sending out the 12. He's like, guys, this is your mission field. I'm telling you exactly what to do to go and build the kingdom. Preach, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. And you know, I think it's interesting even in church life, sometimes we go, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, you know, raise the dead. Like, yeah, you know, try, maybe, I don't know, and then that's the end. But we get to decide what do we think about deliverance? Where did we get the idea that it was up to us? Where did we get the idea that it was our opinion of what the Bible says that's the kind of Christianity I build? I just don't see that in scripture, right? If the embassy is meant to look like the place that it came from, it has to look like the words of Jesus. It has to look like what he instructed us to do. You know, this is why we get all these silos, healing ministry, deliverance ministry. You know, I'm gonna focus on this one part, my whole life, and this isn't like, but if my whole life is just deliverance, I'm still missing all the other stuff. And you know, I think that happens. People do that because people have to be raised up to fill the gaps the church is missing, right? Like parachurch, love parachurch, but really should parachurch exist? Probably not. Probably if the church fully functioned in its wholeness, we wouldn't need parachurch things to pop up. Probably if the church handled deliverance properly, we wouldn't need deliverance ministers popping up. But the Lord will raise them up to do what the church won't do. Right? And so it's about understanding what kind of embassy am I building? Am I is my embassy looking like it's supposed to look according to the kingdom? It's supposed to look like signs and wonders. That's not meant to be some additional thing. You know, the embassy is not just the church, it's also your life. This is why we love the fivefold, because it's to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. The healing and deliverance should be happening at your dining table. The healing and deliverance should be happening in your house, at your workplace, wherever you are, because you are an ambassador for the kingdom. Right? And it's great to be connected to a church that does all of that, but that is not the goal. That is not, if it's happening in the church I'm in, then cool, it's happening. No, it needs to be happening in me because I am on the same mission the disciples were on. Go and preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. That's why I should be motivated to do that, because it's what the king asks me to do. You know, Italians are also really big on food, like I've already said, right? Hospitality is really huge. And so my whole life I thought, you know, you grow up and you think these things are normal, and then you meet other people and you're like, oh, that's not what everybody does, right? So I grew up in a very hospitable home and my mum always had people over, and my, you know, my nonna would never come to visit us as a family, my mom's mum, she would never come to visit without big tubs of like bolognese sauce, lentil soup, trays of lasagna, you know, like bags of pizza dough. She never ever, ever turned up without food. And so then my mom never went anywhere without food. And now I have a very strong conviction I'm I can't really show up anywhere without food, right? Because that's what I was taught, that's what I was raised in. And so, you know, hospitality is big, and so you know, I have people for dinner and have people over, and you you serve people food, and there's a joy in me when people eat what I make. I don't want, I don't, you know, I don't know why. I want to turn it down, but if I make something and someone eats it, I just feel this sense of like purpose. It's this sense of like I'm doing the right thing in this life, you know? This is what I should be doing. Everyone gains a little bit of extra weight, fantastic. You know, like I feel like I've, you know, I'm doing what I should do. And so, you know, if you come to my house and and I'm feeding you, that's it's big for me. And so, you know, sometimes people come and they're like, I'm like, hey, you know, do you want some dessert? Do you want a cup of tea? And they're like, no, no, thanks. And I'm like, so you hate me. Just say it to my face. You know, and I've Paul, Jesse, and Hannah are probably looking at each other. They maybe don't remember this, but they did come to my house and they did deny a cup of tea. But they did eat dessert. Hats off to you guys. They had the dessert that I made. But you know, if someone says they don't want a cup of tea, I'm like, I said, do you want a cup of tea? Sometimes I'll get the teacups out and I'll get the teapot full and I'll just right before I'll just push it toward them. Tea? Yep, it's pouring. Like it's it hurts me if you won't do this, and I don't want to be that way. I just am, I can't help it. But this is like, it's just part of who I am. You know, I went, I didn't say this at the 9 a.m., but we went recently to lunch, and at this beautiful couple's house, they were so sweet, they made us a beautiful lunch, and then they she made a beautiful carrot cake, it was on the bench. So I see the carrot cake on the way in, and I'm I'm kind of like neither here nor there with carrot cake, you know, it's not a fave. Um, but you know, it can be really good. Depends on the spice, maybe. I don't know. So she we go and we have lunch, and normally what happens is if I don't want to have dessert, um, then I'll say no, and Adam will always say yes. So he'll like, you know, carry that for us. Like he's, you know, we're we are gonna eat it. And so this one day I was chatting and she said, Would you guys like some cake? And he snuck in with the no. He was like, no, and then she asked me, and I said no. And then the lunch went on, and I was just in turmoil. We have rejected her carrot cake, like she made this cake for us. So then she got up and went into the kitchen to get more drinks, and I followed her in and I was like, I'll have carrot cake. I've changed my mind. I'll I'll have it. I know you made it for us. Oh, we'll have it, I'd like it. And she was like, It's okay, Grace, don't worry, you don't have to have it. And I was like, No, I will, I will. I'll have it. But I just felt I couldn't sit there, I felt so rude. And then she was like, I've got people coming over tomorrow. Like, I'll serve them the cake. And I was like, Oh, thank God I won't have it then. Give it to them. Like it was just unyou, and I we got in the car and I'm like, Adam, what are you doing saying no to the carrot cake? Like that was out of line. And he's like, You always say no, and I always have to eat everything. This time I said no. Unbelievable. But it matters, right? It matters, and so it's understanding what actually matters to God. So I want to read to you Matthew chapter 5, verse 10. This is uh one of only two times where God, where Jesus actually speaks and tells us who the kingdom of heaven belongs to. In Matthew 5, verse 10, the Beatitudes, we know this is his first sermon, he says, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven, those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, righteousness matters in the kingdom. And we don't live in a world where righteousness matters. We actually live in a world that kind of argues there's no real right or wrong unless it's very extreme. Like there are genuinely Christians who don't believe it's wrong to kill an unborn baby in the womb. Because it's just not really, it's you know, it's sort of like, no, we have to constantly pull ourselves out of the culture of the world, back to the voice of the kingdom. What does the king think of this? What does the king say is right, and what does he say is wrong? And outside of that, I have no other opinion. It's not up to me, none of it's up to me. But the the the devil has slowly eroded the church. Slowly, just a little bit of hummus, just a little bit of what you know tickles people's ears, just a little bit of what, you know, it's just kind of up to us. No, there is still such a thing as right and wrong. Right and wrong exists, righteousness and unrighteousness exists, and we can never stop fighting for a world where we seek righteousness. What is right, what is right and what is wrong. And there are some things that are neither right or wrong, right? Not everything is exactly morality, but for the things that matter, watching the church pull away and step away from right and wrong is a very scary thing. That if we're gonna create an embassy in the church and in my life that represents the kingdom, I have to learn what's right and wrong. I have to come back to the word of God. It says in Matthew chapter 6, verse 33, we love this scripture, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. You know, and it comes actually after like, don't worry, don't worry about this, don't worry about that. Like, there's all these things that Jesus is talking about, and then he says, But seek first my kingdom and my righteousness. It's not just the kingdom, like seek for you know, like live for God. No, no, no, yeah, do that, but also what's right, and then everything else that you need will be added to you. A lot of believers miss this. Seek it first. You know, I think, you know, I actually I'd like to seek it third. First, I'd like to seek you know, comfortable family life, financial status, and you know, safety, the kingdom. But it but then so what I'm actually doing is I'm trying to get all these things, but Jesus says, if you seek my kingdom first, I'll give you all those things. Interesting, right? And if we could understand the power of what Jesus is saying, we would unlock all of those things. But instead, we do it backwards. We think, no, I'll do that. I'll I know how to do that, I'll do that on my own, and so I try to do things of my own strength instead of seeking the kingdom and seeking his righteousness. That's actually what we're called to do as believers. And so in Romans 14, there's kind of this debate about what's right and what's wrong. And there's that some brothers are saying this food's wrong to eat, and others are saying this food's right to eat. And so Paul's speaking to them, and he says in verse 15, if your brother is grieved because of your food, then you're no longer walking in love. Do not destroy your food, the one for whom sorry, do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let your good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. So Paul's saying, you're in debates about what you should and shouldn't eat, but the kingdom of God is actually not about eating and drinking, it's about righteousness and peace and joy. And what's right in that moment is not eating so that you don't offend your brother and break your witness. And people revert this scripture and they say, see, like we want to be the weak person in this story, and we say, See, no one can tell me what to eat. Everybody should eat. You know, if I if I, you know, want to eat it, then they should. Does that make sense? We we reverse it so that we're the one who gets to do what we want. But what righteousness is, is actually laying your life down so your brother's not offended. Not being the brother who is lives are laid down for. Like we're picking the wrong guy in the story. Righteousness is actually what what does God want me to do in this situation? How do I honor people? You know, we've we've been too busy preaching a gospel that is like, you know, Jesus loves you, he wants to make your life better. But then after you start to understand the kingdom, it's it's yes, Jesus loves you, yes, your life will be better, but actually we're called to live out the kingdom principles on the earth, and sometimes that will cost you something. But we bring people in on a weak gospel, and then we're trying to drag them down a road of like, hey, time to learn a little more now. And they're like, hey, wait a second, I didn't sign up for this. I didn't sign up for this. I signed up for like love and joy and rainbows, and Jesus is gonna take my sin away. And I was crying because I felt really bad that day, and now you're trying to tell me how I should live. Now you're trying to tell me there's a right and a wrong. Hang on a second, that's not what you told me. And then we wonder why people don't stay in church, we wonder why people don't stay following Jesus, because we started off with a compromise gospel. But the truth is, right and wrong exist. The truth is the kingdom of God is seeking his righteousness. The salvation call should be God has an opinion on everything, and your life will be pursuing his opinion. Your life will be discovering what God says about this, what does the king say? Forget the democracy, your opinion doesn't matter anymore. You signed up to Jesus. Sorry. Did we not? Is it in the fine print? It's like a snap in the fine. I never read it. In the fine print, it says I have to do what he says. Oh my god. I thought it was just about like, you know, him just like loving me and making me feel good. No, that's not what embassies carry. There's a version of Jesus out there that says that's okay, but we're not about that. We're about building embassies, embassies that reflect the kingdom of God. That's what we're going after. You know, Italians actually, we all we all dance the same too. I don't know if you know this. If you go to an Italian wedding, you'll see the Italian wedding dance. It's called the Tarantella. And it's this dance, you know, everyone comes together, it's like, you know, and you go around in a circle. And you know, if you come to an Italian wedding, you will dance the tarantella. It doesn't matter who you are. If you don't want to dance the tarantella, someone will come and grab you by the hand and they will bring you up and you will dance. That's how it works, right? Like this is something that we do, it's part of our culture. And it's it's good. I love, I love being part of culture. I love the things that we get to like come together on and enjoy. I love that we have food culture. I love that there's things we do. You know, I love about Kiwi culture. Maybe not everybody relates to this, but Kiwis are so like active. It's such an outdoorsy, active country. I've never been around people like this at all. Like, I realize in conversations with new people, you can actually say to people, what's your hobby? And then we'll have one. They'll be like, our family, boating, our family, mountain biking, our family, fishing. Like we bring each other along in these cultural like hobbies. You know, in Australia, you ask someone what's your hobby, I don't think they even really know what to say to you. I'm 75 minutes from the beach. I don't know, I haven't seen grass in seven weeks. Like, what do you mean? That's kind of how it is, right? But you know, these are things that we do together. So, you know, the Italians they dance the tatantala. And so there's this things in the kingdom we should do, there's things in the kingdom we should be. And so this is Matthew chapter 5. Again, the same sermon. Jesus is getting up, he's preaching his first ever sermon. And this is the first ever sentence. Like, this is extremely important. Imagine you follow Jesus, he's the Messiah. You're like there, you're like, he's getting up to preach, guys. You sit down, and this is the very, very first thing that he says. And it's Matthew chapter 5, verse 3. It says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So we know the kingdom of heaven belongs to two people: those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, and the poor in spirit. And you know, I used to not really understood what this means. I was like, you know, the poor in spirit, like the you know, the lowly, sad ones, broken people, people who are really hard done by. But poor in spirit actually means humble. It's not about brokenness, it's actually about humility. Poor in spirit isn't something you get from a hard life, it's something you choose because you're submitted to God. It's humility. And so Jesus is saying, Blessed are those who are humble, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I think one of the greatest spirits in opposition to the church right now and individual believers is the spirit of pride. Ooh, it's everywhere. Call it pride, call it Leviathan, whatever you want. It's a spirit of pride that comes against everyday believers and it deceives you into making yourself something you should not be. When you understand democracy, when you understand the kingdom and not democracy, this is easy for you. There's a king, and I am in submission to the king. There's a king who actually even appoints people in his kingdom to do different things, and I'm also in submission to them. It's not rocket science. It's not hard. You know, people who have a spirit of pride generally can't even see anointing on anybody. You are the judge and the jury. You decide if someone's anointed, you decide. You know, I see that person, they've got this ministry. I don't know if I like it. I don't know. This is a little bit of a wake-up call, but it's actually up to the king to decide who does what, who's anointed. It's it's actually not up to you. See, people with a spirit of pride, it's always about what I think. Because I am so knowledgeable that my opinion is actually kind of the most important opinion. That is literally the goal of our society to teach us who do you want to be mayor? Which poster sign do you like? You decide. Why should we decide? Like, should we really decide? And now we have to decide, right? Now we need like majority godly people voting so we can turn the but it's not about qualification anymore. It's not about who's actually the right person for this, it's not about succession, it's literally about the men the people choose. It is a dangerous system, and so we've adopted that system and we've tried to bring it into the church. What should we do in church environments? The people choose. What's right and wrong? The people choose. That's pride. It's not up to the people to choose, it's up to the word of God to choose. Right? And so I want to I want a church environment that lets me like be me. Let me have my moment, let me be significant. It's not about you, it's not about any of us, it's about the king. It's all about the king. Our whole lives are entrenched in opinion on opinion on opinion. You tell me what you think. It's hummus. Humus, Dale, humus, humus. Right? It's all it's all opinion, it's all pride. Pride actually is so connected to entitlement. When you have a prideful spirit, you how do you know? How do I wonder if I have this? You are you feel entitled to things. You feel entitled to be thanked, you feel entitled to have an opportunity. That's not kingdom. It's it's just not how it works. It's up to the king, right? It's just up to the king. Entitlement says, well, you know, they didn't thank me and therefore I'm not going to do it anymore. That's pride. If you came into church and you were you did what you did for the Lord because you wanted a thank you, you missed it. You took serving and you made it trading. When I I'm owed something, this is now a trade. And you know, that's what it's like in church environments. People serve and then they're like, hey, you didn't. And I think, oh, I'm sorry. Were we trading? You should have told me up front we were trading. I didn't realize this was a trade. You know, I thought it was like, hey, we love the Lord, we're here for G. Oh, you were on, oh, you were trading. My bad. Sorry, let me make sure I do that enough. Thank yous for you. Make me like, let me make a mental note that you're actually trading. That's my bad. You know, maybe you should have just told me that up front. Hey, I'm here to serve, but also this will be a trade. I'll only be happy doing it for as much as you say hello to me and thank me and honor me, then I'll continue doing it. Oh, sorry, we're in trade. My bad, my bad. I'll make a note, I'll put you on the trade list to make sure that I find you in church and say thank you to you. Like that's a reality of what happens. And this is meant to be the embassy. It's meant to look like the kingdom, it's meant to look like the king. But someone said, you know what, but kiwis love homo's. We should just bring a little bit. People love to be thanked. People love, you know, let's just, you know, more people will come and eat here if we just bring what they want to eat. But that's not what embassies look like. Embassies look like the kingdom, nothing more, nothing less. It says in Luke 14, 11, Jesus is speaking about this moment where people are choosing where they sit at a dinner, at a banquet, and he says, For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. I can honestly say I've never seen anything more true. People who try to be exalted will be humbled by God. And people who are humble, God will elevate. And then all the traders look at them and they're like, What why did they get elevated? Because they were humble. Because they obeyed the word. It's nobody's job to do that for you. It's the job, it's me, it's my own job, it's my own responsibility. And so I think sometimes what happens is we, you know, we want discipleship, but not the kind of discipleship where I get corrected. You know, I want discipleship, but always pat me on the back and tell me that I'm great. The second, you know, immediately if someone struggles with pride is when you correct them. If they and they handle it or they don't handle it. And when they don't handle it, you have an authority wound, maybe. And again, it comes from, you know, you've been hurt, you've been rejected in the past, authority figures wounded you. It's it's not to say it's evil, it comes usually from brokenness. But what it does is it allows space, the unforgiveness that you have, the bitterness that you have, it allows space for the enemy, a spirit of pride gets into your life, and now no one tells me what to do. But that's not kingdom. In the kingdom, we come into submission to the king, we come into submission to the structures of it. And immediately our world, everything in us is don't tell me what to do. Our whole society don't tell me what to do, don't tell me how to live. That's not up to you, that's up to me. It's just not in the kingdom, though. It's simply not in the kingdom. So we have to be an embassy bold enough to live with the conditions, with the culture of the king. An embassy bold enough to say, hey, you want leadership? Here's a correction. Can you handle it or not? Do you know why that matters? Because if you don't have that, you'll be in leadership and you'll fall. Like it's not gonna end well for you. And so this is if we can't kindly do that when things are the stakes aren't so high, we're gonna have a problem when they are. Right? This is this is what discipleship looks like. And I don't just want the kind of discipleship where you tell me I'm great, I want the kind of discipleship that makes me look like Jesus. The kind of discipleship where someone says, Hey, you know, that's not great for you. That's not really like that's not the character of God. You think you should deal with that man? I I want that kind of discipleship. We should want that, we should embrace that in the kingdom, not run away from it. Italians also, you'll know this about me maybe based on the last 20 minutes or half an hour. Is that Italians are very expressive and they're very loud. There's a lot of this, you know, you'll see it all around Freedom Center. There's a lot of this, people are picking it up, and I love it. Just do it together. You know, I mean, I've got the wrinkles of a 45-year-old because my eyebrows have no chill. Like, just, you know, I'm just constantly like just, you know, because that's who I am. It's I'm expressive. I didn't know, like, I didn't try to become like this. I didn't, it's just in me, it's who I am, it's Italian culture. We speak loud, we have a lot to say, right? And I I do have a lot to say, hence, you know, you're here listening to me, but I've always had a lot to say from when I was a little girl. Like you go to an Italian family gathering, everyone's yelling, everyone has an opinion, you know, and it's other European cultures too. I remember the first time I went to Adam's family gathering. So we're just dating. Mind you, I'm 19 years old, yeah, I'm young. And you know, my house was loud, but not like aggressive, right? Like we're kingdom people. So my parents are like my dad, my mom, love the Lord. So yes, we're loud, but nobody's like fighting. You know, it was a very peaceful home. And so we go to Adam's family's house and we're having dinner, and his family members start like screaming at each other. They're like arguing, proper arguing. And I don't know what to do. I'm terrible with conflict, I'm like sweating, I don't know, I can't, I don't know who to look at. I'm so embarrassed. I'm like, they're never gonna speak to each other again. There's a huge falling out. What are the chances that I'm here, you know, for this huge family blow-up? So we get in the car and I'm like, babe, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for what happened today with your family, like this huge fight. I'm I feel terrible for you. And he's like, what are you talking about? Like your family, like they were screaming at each other, and like, you know, your auntie and your dad, and they they yelled at each other so much, and he's like, Grace, that's just how they talk. No fights happened today. I was like, wow, okay. You know, I was not used to that, and still it's exactly the same. Like, that's just their culture, right? So there's this loud, there's this expressive culture that comes out of European culture a lot. And this is something actually that comes out of kingdom culture, Matthew chapter 11. It says in verse 11, assuredly I say to you, among those born of women, there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. This is a kingdom principle, it's a part of our culture. You know, people want this to say the kingdom of heaven suffers gentleness and the calm take it by peace. The kingdom of heaven suffers, you know, meekness, and the really contemplative ones take it by love. Acceptance. Don't rock the boat. You know, just tone it down. We can just be, you know, just what you said is inflammatory. It was inflammatory. You didn't consider the 700 other groups of people who may not have loved what you said. I think you should just say that. It says the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. What it's saying is in the kingdom realm, in the realm of the spirit, there's violent things going on. And you know, sometimes Christians don't accept that because you don't see in the spirit. You ever seen a demon? Not very friendly. They're just like, you know, these little, like little tiny men with pokey things out their head, sitting on people's shoulders. Oh, you caught me. That's not what demons look like. You know, I deal with this a lot in the prophetic culture because people start to be open to the spirit realm and they get scared. Like, I saw this thing and it was ugly and it was scary, and I'm like, good, now you see in the spirit. It is ugly and it is scary and it is violent. Well, there's a war going on in the heavens, there's a war going on in a different realm. The kingdom of heaven is suffering violence, it's a violent situation. But you know, we should just be really just don't upset anybody. That's just not who we're called to be. If we want to advance the kingdom, we need to be a bit violent too. It says, it doesn't even say like the the zealous take it by force. The word chosen is violent. And that's not even a word we use in church because it's like, well, that's a bit much, you know, we shouldn't be violent. But there's a measure of violence we should be. We should be violent in that we will not settle until the kingdom of God advances. That we will not stop, we will not shy away. But we're building church culture where we're we want to spend our service sitting in solitude. That's great. Have solitude at your house. This is not the place for solitude, this is the place for fire and power and the kingdom of God to advance. I mean, you can sit with God and you should sit with God, and there's a time for the secret place, but it's a secret. It isn't this. Just sit with the Lord. Yes, sit with him, sit with him in your secret place. This is not our secret place, this is our corporate place. This is our get excited, get fired up, people are going to hell place. That's what this place is meant to be. But people are trying to soften it because they're deceived by the enemy. If I can make the church weak, then the kingdom won't advance. If I can make the church afraid of opening their mouth, afraid of saying that's not okay, afraid of saying these things that the world has accepted, we cannot accept them. If the enemy can do that, then the culture of the kingdom is diluted. It's all hummus and no balsamic vinegar. That's what it is. You know, you know, there's this element of understanding what this looks like. This is compromise. And I again, I don't want no shade on hummus. I upset Adam and Pierre. Sorry. Humus is great. This is my own one from home, okay? We eat this. It's better if you make it, but you can't, we can't always make it, right? We buy it. I recommend greater hummus. It's great. It's a free ad for you guys. Um, you know, this is not hummus is not bad in this in my example, okay? As in in real, sorry, in real life, we love it. But in my example, it is bad, okay? Just to clarify for the hummus lovers on the front row. You know, when we bring this to the table, we bring it because it's appealing to people, right? And it looks like don't talk to the young people about sex outside of marriage. You know, sex outside of marriage, you're like, let's just just kind of keep it as like, you know, they're the reason we can't talk to them about it is because like they're all broken and they come from situations that are hard and they've slipped up and like, you know, the poor things, you're like, let them just, you know, just a bit of hummus. But it doesn't belong on this plate. It just doesn't belong. And it's not that they're not broken, it's just that we can't constantly just go grace, grace, grace. That's what this is. It's all grace and no truth. It's like just love everybody, shh. Don't don't call out the sin. That's a bit offensive. Don't say that abortion's wrong. Listen, listen. Just care for the mothers. It's hummus, it doesn't belong on this plate. It's out of proportion, it's upside down, it's wrong. This is like, you know, God only heals when he wants to heal, and I don't know because my someone that I know died, and so let's just leave that there because if we leave it there, more kiwis will come and eat. Because kiwis love hummus. So let's put hummus on the plate so that we get it, we get more kiwis through the door of our restaurant. No, let's keep it authentic because it doesn't belong here. That's what we should be doing. And you know, the worst part is it's just an add-on. It's like, you know, we all we love all of this stuff too. Like, there's a moment for all of that. But this is just a little extra, like, just please people. You know, just don't challenge them. You know, this is the like, hey, don't, you know, don't talk about money. People get upset about that. Don't talk about money. You know, like everybody should just do it as they feel, like, don't bring it up. Like, that's for them to read privately with the Lord. Like, because you know, the money will just fall out of the sky somehow and advance the church. So let's not talk about money. No, that's hummus. If Jesus spoke more about money than many other topics, then we're gonna speak about money. Stop being afraid to make the embassy look like truth because it pleases people if we do it this way. That's what the enemy wants. Let's appeal to the flesh of men and women to grow the church. Can I tell you something? It never grows the church. Maybe it grows it in number, but it doesn't grow it in power and it doesn't forcefully advance the kingdom. It doesn't. Because you trap yourself in a version of preaching where you can never tell the truth now. Because now, if I take the hummus away, they won't come anymore. They'll be like, hey, I came here for hummus. How dare you rob me of that? I'm not coming back anymore unless you're gonna give me some of that. We're like, listen, we've actually had a conviction, we don't want to do hummus anymore. Oh well, I'm leaving. And so what we do is we keep it because this keeps people in our churches, this keeps family members. This is like don't rock the boat with your parents when they're crossing the line. Hey, look, my family, my mum, her whole family was steeped in idolatry, Catholic idolatry, to the point where when she got saved and said to her father, I can't have this idolatry around my children. We're talking the most extreme of the Catholic idols. I my non-nu, when I was probably 15 years old, I didn't know his first name. I could not, I could not understand, I didn't know his name because he cut my mom off so severely because she said, I will not bring my children under your Catholic idols. That's called no hummus. No hummus. But what's easier is like just you know, don't upset mom and dad, don't upset the family unit. Let's just keep this here. But this is compromise. This is compromise, and then we wonder why we don't have the fullness of the kingdom operating in our lives because we've accepted things that we shouldn't. We don't stand up for things that we should. And you know, I really feel to tell this story. I have never told this story, I don't think, for years and years. But my one of my family members on my mom's side, we're living in a really like openly very sinful way. And you know when your kids are little and you just you need help and so you do what's easy. So my mom sent me to this person's house overnight. The next day, when they picked me up, no, sorry, they picked me up in the middle of the night, I could not sleep, and I was like an amazing sleeper. I could not sleep there, I was hysterical. So they came and they picked me up. I was probably about two years old. When they picked me up, they brought me home in the morning and I had a huge lump on my face. You've probably seen this scar, right? I had a huge lump on my face. And my mum, my dad, they didn't know what it was. They're trying to get rid of it, they're trying to squeeze it, went on and on, and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger. Eventually they took me to a doctor and they were like, it's a cyst, some kind of like tumor, we need to cut it out. So they take me in for surgery, they cut it out, they find one tumor, like a kind of a small one on the outside of my face, but embedded into my jaw is this huge tumor. And so they cut it all out and they, you know, they basically send it off for testing. They come back to my parents and they say, We don't know what has happened here, but the DNA of this tumor is not human. It's like it comes, it's it's it's like the DNA looks like it's from a cat, like it's not a human. We have no idea how this got into your daughter's face. This is we've never seen anything like it in all of our career. Can I tell you something? It was demonic. They put me out of ease and comfort, they put me into the care of someone who was openly living in sin that they had a conviction not to do, but they ignored their conviction and they sent their little girl to stay at that house, and now I have the testimony on the side of my face the rest of my life. But that's just true. We all want to pretend it's not that serious. We all want to pretend. You know, the Bible says stay away from idolatry, but also like not really. No, it really just says that. And we have to understand there's a spirit realm at work. You know, demons they don't need your permission, they only need your participation. They don't need your permission. We think like all only demons can only access me if I'm like, you know, it's not up to you. It's not up to you. This is a kingdom, this is not a democracy. You choose when the enemy gets a foot in your door. No, it's how you live, it's what you expose yourself to, it's what you compromise on, it's where you allowed hummus on the plate of what God's actually asking you to do. So why don't you stand to your feet? I never tell that story. Because it's probably one of the more intense stories. But I felt like that's a word for someone here today. There's some kind of idolatry in your life, in your family's life, and you have felt conviction from God to stand against it, but you have not. Let it serve as a warning that the spirit realm is much more serious than you think it is. That if you decide, oh no, it won't harm me, that does not mean it won't harm you. Oh no, it won't harm my child, that doesn't mean it won't harm your child. We can't just plead the blood while disobeying the word of God. And that's what we want to do as parents. Let them on the screens, let them be exposed to all the demonic and then plead the blood of Jesus every night when they're in bed. No, it doesn't work like that. It just doesn't work like that. There are things that are operating in the spirit realm and they're waiting for it, not because they can snatch you whenever they want, they cannot. But if you open up a door, the enemy can rush in. And so I just want to challenge you this morning, and I'm gonna pray for us because I believe that this is an opportunity for us to say, Lord, I've stepped outside of what you want for me. I see things in my life where I've taken on my own culture, I've taken on the world's culture, and I have missed the culture of the kingdom. And today we're gonna make it right. So if that's you, I just want you to shut your eyes. If there's things in your life that you need to get right with God, Holy Spirit, I thank you for every person in this room. Lord, would you purify us? Would you purify us? Lord, would you would you take out everything that's in us that comes from a culture outside of your kingdom? Lord, we have no interest in building a life that doesn't reflect the kingdom of God. And Father, would you raise us up with boldness and courage to stand against the walls of the enemy, to stand against the things that, although they may be appealing, they are not of you. Lord, would you show us where the compromise exists in our homes, in our mouths, in our lives? Lord, we don't want anything that is not of you. We don't want anything that is not of you. So, Father, I pray that you would empower us right now. Lord, that you would even reveal right now in our spirit deep conviction of the things that never belonged that you want us to get rid of. Deep conviction of the places that we've compromised, Lord, where we've tolerated idolatry, where we've tolerated gossip and slander, Lord, where we've tolerated sin, where we've tolerated compromise, Lord, no longer, Father. We want to be purified to be just like you. So, Father, we just honor you in this place right now. We glorify you. Would you come and touch us with your spirit? Thank you, Lord.