SPEAKER_01: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: Helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandParkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to the Old Testament book of Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, what I'm going to read is going to come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: And let me begin with a confession.
SPEAKER_00: There are times if you read much of the Bible where you're going to read things in the Bible and your prevailing thought is going to be, What in the world did I just read?
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: I say that because we're depart in Daniel chapter 2, Old Testament book of Daniel, that is one of those parts.
SPEAKER_00: You're just kind of like, what the what?
SPEAKER_00: The what?
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: So let me just give you the context, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We're preaching through the book of Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: We took a break for the past couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_00: One of our other pastors preached the last week we had Jason Gray, uh singer-songwriter from Nashville here.
SPEAKER_00: And we're picking back up in Daniel chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start reading verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to talk to you this morning about the one reality that you were created for.
SPEAKER_00: The reality that you were created for.
SPEAKER_00: And we're right in the middle of a chapter.
SPEAKER_00: What has happened is Nebuchadnezzar, who is the he's the king, he kind of rules the known world at this time.
SPEAKER_00: He had a dream.
SPEAKER_00: It was very troubling to him, so much so he couldn't get back to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: And so he issued a decree and said, Hey, usually a king would have a dream, and then he would say to his little enchanters and magicians that he has on the payroll, hey, come and tell me what this means.
SPEAKER_00: And in this case, he up the annie, he said, I'm not going to tell you the dream.
SPEAKER_00: If you guys are really real, I want you to tell me the dream that I had, and I want you to interpret it for me.
SPEAKER_00: And so they were like, nobody can do that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the only person that could do that is God, and he lives in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't dwell with men.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel, this young teenager, he's about 16, 17, best we can tell.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel has three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they get together, have a prayer meeting at their off-campus apartment, and God reveals the dream and the interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: Where we left off last time was Daniel said, Hey, because the king said, I'm going to kill all you wise men, you wise men, if you can't tell me the dream and the interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: And Daniel goes, Don't kill anybody.
SPEAKER_00: We've heard from God.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you what God's what God's revealed.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we drop in on it.
SPEAKER_00: And what's revealed in Daniel chapter 2, starting verse 31, is this one reality that you and I were created for.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look, let's look at verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he says, This he says, You saw, O king, and behold, a great image.
SPEAKER_00: The image mighty and of exceeding brightness stood before you, and its appearance was frightening.
SPEAKER_00: The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, it's partly, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
SPEAKER_00: As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.
SPEAKER_00: And then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold all together were broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found.
SPEAKER_00: But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
SPEAKER_00: But this is the dream.
SPEAKER_00: Now we will tell the king its interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and whose hand he has given wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, the birds of the heaven, making you rule over them all.
SPEAKER_00: You are the head of gold.
SPEAKER_00: Another kingdom inferior to you shall rise, shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze which shall rule over all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things.
SPEAKER_00: And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these.
SPEAKER_00: And as you saw, the feet and the toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: But some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw, iron mixed with the soft clay.
SPEAKER_00: And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle.
SPEAKER_00: As you saw the iron mixed with the soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.
SPEAKER_00: And in the days of those kings, just mark verse 44 in your Bible, and in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people.
SPEAKER_00: It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.
SPEAKER_00: Just as you saw that, a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold.
SPEAKER_00: A great God is made known to the king what shall be after this?
SPEAKER_00: The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.
SPEAKER_00: Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell down upon his face, and he paid homage to Daniel and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him.
SPEAKER_00: The king answered and said to Daniel, Truly your God is God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.
SPEAKER_00: Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole providence of Babylon, and the chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: But Daniel remained at the king's court.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what what do you what what what does all that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you read something in the Bible you don't understand, there's three timeless truth, three principles of biblical interpretation that help us kind of get at what the Bible's saying, and they are this observation, okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's the first one.
SPEAKER_00: Observation, interpretation, and then application.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say them again.
SPEAKER_00: Observation, just kind of looking.
SPEAKER_00: What do I observe?
SPEAKER_00: What do I see?
SPEAKER_00: What stands out to me?
SPEAKER_00: What's here on the page?
SPEAKER_00: Observation, interpretation, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Now I see what I see.
SPEAKER_00: What does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: That's interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: What did it mean in its original context?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for me today?
SPEAKER_00: And then application, okay.
SPEAKER_00: How do I apply that to my life?
SPEAKER_00: So I want to take those three principles and lay them down over this passage that we just read, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Number one, observation is verses 31 to 35.
SPEAKER_00: It's basically where Daniel interprets the dream.
SPEAKER_00: It begins with, You saw, O king, behold, a great image.
SPEAKER_00: And then he describes this, for lack of a better word, this statue, this image, and the top part of its head and shoulders was made out of gold.
SPEAKER_00: And then the next part was made out of silver.
SPEAKER_00: And then the next part was made out of bronze, and then the legs and the feet were made out of iron, and the legs were made out of iron.
SPEAKER_00: And he gets to the feet, and it's this mix of iron and clay.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard the phrase feet of clay?
SPEAKER_00: Say amen.
SPEAKER_00: This is where it comes from.
SPEAKER_00: Basically, it's saying when someone says, Oh, he's great, but he has feet of clay, they're saying this is his weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now just on an observation level, just kind of looking.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of one of those dreams where you just think you get up from this and you say to yourself, Mimer itself, do not eat Chinese food after 11 o'clock at night.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is like, hey, we went out to dinner, we went to the concert, and then on the way home, we went to Waffle House.
SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't have done that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so it's this weird, crazy, chaotic vision of this statue.
SPEAKER_00: It's made out of four different kinds of steel, of, of, of elements, of like precious, like there's gold, and then there's silver, and then there's bronze, and then there's iron, and then there's clay, just by a show of hands.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you, when I read that description, you thought, I know exactly what that's talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the look on y'all's face is uh isn't that your job?
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's why you're here.
SPEAKER_00: Dance monkey, get on with it, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So here's the point there are things you're going to read in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: You're in good company if you read that.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's what you don't want to do.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to read that and go, that doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible doesn't really apply to life in 2020, okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is why it just don't stop at observation.
SPEAKER_00: Get to the second part, interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: Basically, what you see is five kingdoms.
SPEAKER_00: I've listed them out here for you.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible, because God knows the future, and the Bible is the breathed out word of God, the Bible doesn't predict the future, the Bible tells the future.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible doesn't predict the future like this may or may not happen.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells the future.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you remember this, but when I was a kid, we had those little magic eight balls.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Hello, and you'd shake it and you'd look at it and say something.
SPEAKER_00: I remember I had a stepsister that just that thing was like the canon of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, I've got to consult the magic eight ball.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember getting in bed one night just thinking, my stepsister's a witch.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have to kill her as soon as we're done here.
SPEAKER_00: Because it was always like, let me ask the magic eight ball.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a magic eight ball.
SPEAKER_00: We don't shake this and kind of go, okay, who's gonna win the election?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Trump, I knew it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's just a joke.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I sent the email yesterday, you all.
SPEAKER_00: I made a joke how the Democrats infected the president.
SPEAKER_00: Within five minutes, I had 61 responses.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what I thought.
SPEAKER_00: And then I got Democrats kind of going, no, don't you stop making fun of us.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I wrote the same thing back to all of y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Two words, lighten up.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, one guy wrote back and said, get a life, but he's a friend of mine to play golf with.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, and so you got these five things here.
SPEAKER_00: Let me explain what it is you're looking at because history will bear this out.
SPEAKER_00: He tells him in the interpretation part, which starts in verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: He says, basically, the the head of gold, that's you, Nebuchadnezzar, that's you and the Babylonian kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, when he's listing stuff out there and he's describing the reign and the scope of his rule, it's kind of sounds like what God said to Adam back in Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, wherever there are people, you rule over them.
SPEAKER_00: And Nebuchadnezzar's like, that's right, I'm awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the head of gold, which, by the way, a little foreshadowing the next week, because when men get over the age of 50, maybe 60, we start thinking about our legacy.
SPEAKER_00: He says, because God basically tells him, Hey, you're the statue, the top part that's ahead and the shoulders appear of gold, that's you, but there's a kingdom coming after you.
SPEAKER_00: So in the next chapter, what does Nebuchadnezzar do?
SPEAKER_00: He goes out on the plains of Dura and he builds this big statue that's 90 feet tall and nine feet wide, and it's made out of gold.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like my kingdom's fading, I'll show you.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: So the top part, that's the Babylonian kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: That's Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: The next part is the Medo-Persians, the silver is it represents the king.
SPEAKER_00: You go Google it and you see who succeeded, what empire succeeded Babylon, and they'll tell you, the Medes and the Persians.
SPEAKER_00: They were led.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the Bible raises his voice and gets out of.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the Bible just goes, ps, psych, watch this.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of those places.
SPEAKER_00: The Medes and the Persians were led by a man named Darius.
SPEAKER_00: Darius was ruthless.
SPEAKER_00: They would conquer a country and then he would make that country pay him tribute.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what currency he would make them pay him in?
SPEAKER_00: Silver.
SPEAKER_00: And God just kind of says, This next part, this is the Medes and the Persians, led by Darius, the guy that loves silver.
SPEAKER_00: He's like the Hunt brothers before the Hunt brothers.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Keep going.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, all right.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so the next part is bronze.
SPEAKER_00: That's Greece.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, how do you know it's Greece?
SPEAKER_00: Again, just check history, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh Greece, the armies of Greece led by God named Alexander the Great, who got off his horse and wept because there were no more worlds to conquer.
SPEAKER_00: He was vaclimed because there was nothing else to do.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, the Greek armies were known for having these beautiful shields made of bronze.
SPEAKER_00: The next little iration, the iron and the clay, this is a reference to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: This is a reference to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I draw your attention to verse 44.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get to that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: He says, hey, that Rome, because Rome was a ruthless military machine.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, overwhelmingly powerful.
SPEAKER_00: They just routed.
SPEAKER_00: They were so much more advanced.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, our present system of government is based on the Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Like our idea of the Senate, we got that from Rome.
SPEAKER_00: And so much of the Western world was influenced by Rome.
SPEAKER_00: It was probably the most far-reaching empire kingdom in the history of humanity at that time.
SPEAKER_00: But then, towards the end of that, he I mean, just the description part, just the observation part, you look and you see in verse 34, he says, As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces.
SPEAKER_00: The iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, the gold, all together were broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors.
SPEAKER_00: And the wind carries them away, so that not a trace of them can be found.
SPEAKER_00: But the stone that struck the image became the great mountain and filled the whole earth.
SPEAKER_00: This stone is a reference to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And even more so, it's the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Which is why, look at verse 44.
SPEAKER_00: It says, And in the days of those after it lifts off, and he says, You saw iron mixed with soft clay, he's telling you, hey, this is how this is why the Roman Empire, how the Roman Empire falls.
SPEAKER_00: It falls because they interburied with the wrong people.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and they turned their hearts uh uh against us in allegiance to Rome, and and it falls from within.
SPEAKER_00: But then the Bible says in verse 44, notice this, it says, In the days of those kings, talking about the the the the rulers of this of the this kingdom of iron, in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just stop here and ask you a simple question.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus comes on the scene, what country, what government is occupying Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_00: Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Way back in Daniel chapter 2, the Bible kind of winks at us and says, Hey, by the way, in the days of these guys, the the the the these this kingdom of iron and their and their kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: Now, a couple things by way of observation, and then I'll show you what this where this happens in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: About about these five little kingdoms here, actually the first four.
SPEAKER_00: Uh each of these kingdoms has a successor.
SPEAKER_00: He says about the kingdom, hey, there's gonna be no but there's gonna be nobody coming after this, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh he and in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like, hey, and after this there comes somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's never going to be destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I mean when I say this is the reality you were created for.
SPEAKER_00: You were listen very carefully.
SPEAKER_00: You were not created just to have your sins forgiven and go to heaven when you die.
SPEAKER_00: You and I were created to live as citizens of the kingdom here in this earth.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll unpack that a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you just think, if you went to church and they scared you to death and told you you're gonna go to hell, you better come to Jesus and get your and get forgiveness and go to heaven when you die, and then you get you that that's great.
SPEAKER_00: It motivates you for about three weeks, and then you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
SPEAKER_00: And at some point you look around and you just think, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what I'm supposed to do for the next 70 years, but this is pretty lame.
SPEAKER_00: You're supposed to live in and dwell in and enjoy life in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't preach kingdom, we preach heaven, hell, sin forgiveness, but we'll get to that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, these key each of these kingdoms has a successor.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, notice that as these metals decrease in value, they increase in strength.
SPEAKER_00: As they decrease in value, gold, silver, bronze, iron, clay, uh, as they decrease in value, they increase in strength.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: These people trust in their military might.
SPEAKER_00: These kingdoms are ruthless and they rule through just brute force.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the Bible says some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a third thing I want to say.
SPEAKER_00: This is a stone that's Jesus representing the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Jesus inaugurates the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you say, now what do you mean when I say this is the reality that you were created for?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying, oh, as a Christian, you don't get to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: But what I am saying is we got to stop thinking of heaven as just the reward for all of this.
SPEAKER_00: The real reward for Christianity is life in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Let me unpack that just a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 1, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 1, Jesus is coming on the scene.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Now after John, John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: Repent and believe in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: How simple is that?
SPEAKER_00: Hear it again.
SPEAKER_00: The time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: Four things I want to draw your attention to.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: The time, notice in the Bible, when it comes to time, time doesn't run out, time fills up.
SPEAKER_00: Like I heard some guys talking in the hall this morning about the Aggies yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Oh, they didn't lose, they just ran out of time.
SPEAKER_00: You got the brakes beat off of you by Alabama's what happened.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I would I would change channels and flip back, and it wasn't getting any better.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, they're gonna they're gonna come back.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, finally I was like, 42.
SPEAKER_00: Man, Nick, call off the dogs, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But he says that notice what he says, he says, the time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: Now we we live in chronos time, chronological time, time runs out.
SPEAKER_00: In the Bible, time fills up.
SPEAKER_00: That's why they talk about Jesus being born.
SPEAKER_00: It says in the fullness of time.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, right here, hey, the time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want to say to you.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to hear this in 2020, especially in 2020.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody is in control of time.
SPEAKER_00: You are not at the mercy of just waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I can't wait for the calendar to rip 2020 off.
SPEAKER_00: There's a God in this world and He's in control of time.
SPEAKER_00: He dwells outside of time, he dwells in eternity, and he has influence over time.
SPEAKER_00: When the time is fulfilled, here's the second thing: the kingdom of God is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know this is some of you are kind of like, uh this is all new to me.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it as if I was standing here holding a hula hoop.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is the realm within which what God wants done gets done.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a bunch of 40-year-old bachelors in their mom's basement playing risk.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is the realm within which what God wants done gets done.
SPEAKER_00: And we get to, that's why when Jesus taught the disciples to pray, part of the prayer was, you know, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus says to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, hey, unless you're born again, you won't see the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, now watch this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: So what do you do?
SPEAKER_00: You repent and you believe in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You repent.
SPEAKER_00: The motivation to repent and believe in the gospel is not, you want to go to hell?
SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not, you want to go to heaven, you got to repent and believe in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The motivation to repent and believe in the gospel is this is that this reality that you were created for, life in the kingdom is here and now and it's available.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: Because way back in Daniel chapter 2, where these people were being oppressed, where these people were taken captive to Babylon and pressed into service of a pagan king named Nebuchadnezzar, these people, these four teenage boys, sovereign God who dwells outside of time and lives in eternity and controls everything, says this in verse 44.
SPEAKER_00: And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people.
SPEAKER_00: It'll break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reality that you and I were created for.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we repent and believe the gospel, because this is what we were created to experience.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, no one captures it better than way back in the 60s in England, there was a preacher by the name of Martin Lloyd Jones.
SPEAKER_00: I try to tell you this story at least once a year, and it's on purpose because I want this to be this language to be in the water around here, around Grand Park Way.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because Martin Lloyd Jones is trying to get his people to understand what life in the kingdom is.
SPEAKER_00: Like I talk about life in the kingdom, and y'all are like, Well, I go to church, I read my Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have repented and believed in the gospel eight times, and you just keep, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this.
SPEAKER_00: But but we never talk to you about living in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Lloyd Jones explained to his people like this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Hey, listen, if there was a king that was a good king and he ruled over a kingdom, and he got word that an invading army was coming from far off, and they were coming to declare war on him.
SPEAKER_00: And so he sent out his army to fight them out on the battlefield.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's this big battle going on.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if they had lost, he had a plan.
SPEAKER_00: He said, If my army loses, I'm gonna send back military attaches and they're gonna tell everybody, get ready, the invading army is coming.
SPEAKER_00: We are at war.
SPEAKER_00: We need archers up on the castle wall, and we need the heavy cavalry over here with the heavy horses, and we need the infantry here.
SPEAKER_00: But if the king wins, I'll send back you and Galeon, messengers of good news, to tell all my people, hey, the king is one.
SPEAKER_00: Continue to live in and enjoy the peace that the kingdom has provided.
SPEAKER_00: And so, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: The king wins, and he sends back news to all his citizens and says, Hey, the king is one.
SPEAKER_00: I've defeated every foe.
SPEAKER_00: Just continue to live in and enjoy the peace that the king has provided.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's one of the reasons, if you'll notice around here, we don't talk a lot about being warriors and soldiers for Jesus and fighting the good fight and getting out there uh so much so that I have to be careful that I don't mock that.
SPEAKER_00: Like this past year, I was at a fundraiser breakfast for uh a ministry, uh, and their keynote speaker was a guy.
SPEAKER_00: He got up and first thing he said, he introduced himself and he said, I want you to know uh we're we're at a big hotel ballroom and we're having breakfast, and we had breakfast, and I was still hungry because it wasn't much breakfast.
SPEAKER_00: And so he said, I want you to know I'm a warrior for God.
SPEAKER_00: And I turned to the people at my table, none of whom I knew, and I just said, Hey, are you gonna eat that biscuit?
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't care one snit about this.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy's frothing at the mouth, we're in a post, we're in a fight for the soul of our nation.
SPEAKER_00: And we gotta and I'm like, hey, that piece of bacon, are you gonna eat that, ma'am?
SPEAKER_00: You know that?
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, sir, this is our keynote speaker.
SPEAKER_00: We flew him in.
SPEAKER_00: You should pay him respect.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, I said, I I respect him as a person, but what he's saying, all it's gonna do is motivate y'all to try harder.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna just continue to live in the key in the peace that my king has provided and eat your bacon if you're okay with that.
SPEAKER_00: And so I took the bacon, folded it up, put it on the biscuit, and I looked at the lady over there.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Hey, you're gonna eat that butter?
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, Sir, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: I'm enjoying the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Because if I got to go out and fight today to ensure victory, we're in deep weeds.
SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't get people assigned the pledge cards.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, I said, I'll make a donation if the guy will stop right now.
SPEAKER_00: You want money?
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you money.
SPEAKER_00: Just shut your yapper with all the war talk.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a soldier.
SPEAKER_00: I know soldiers, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You're not one.
SPEAKER_00: I know soldiers that go out on a mission and they lay out in a field for like four days to get one shot at the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Those are soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: You are wearing a suit and makeup, because this is on TV.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a soldier.
SPEAKER_00: And so after it was over, they're rolling, they're taking the chairs up, and it goes, people were offended because I thought I was being helpful.
SPEAKER_00: Apparently I was being rude.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're like, Well, sir, could you explain to us your attitude?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Listen, y'all think y'all are gonna go out here.
SPEAKER_00: This is why people aren't interested in Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: You sound like a bunch of desperate crackpot lunatics that are fighting some invisible enemy, and we're gonna overcome and win.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just telling you, the king is one.
SPEAKER_00: The king is one.
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna finish that orange juice?
SPEAKER_00: And the guy goes, Dude, do you even care?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, absolutely I care.
SPEAKER_00: But what it's the issue is not do I care?
SPEAKER_00: The issue is do I understand?
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all go to church?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, we go to first this and second that and third that and holy presbyterian, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: Does your pastor ever preach, ever teach y'all the gospel of the kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus says in Matthew 24, when all hell's breaking loose, he says, Oh, by the way, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached.
SPEAKER_00: Well, our church, we have our own K through 12 high school, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Your church is the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: That's your problem.
SPEAKER_00: The hotel workers are stacking chairs and rolling the table, the round tables away, and my table's just sitting there.
SPEAKER_00: And the hotel, one of the guys who works at the hotel is like, man, keep going.
SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I'm down with this.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, like run DMC.
SPEAKER_00: I'm down with the king.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I like run DMC.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I do too.
SPEAKER_00: It's tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that's right on time.
SPEAKER_00: The people at my table are like, Are you speaking in tongues?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Here's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that not the people that go to these things with you, not the people in your Republican Ladies Lunch League or whatever you who you get together and panic with and tell yourselves it all depends on us and our grassroots efforts.
SPEAKER_00: Now, God stopped me after the first service and he said, Hey, I think I get all that, but what about spiritual warfare?
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians, I said, Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he says, Hey, put on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, have your feet shy with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
SPEAKER_00: We can be at peace because the good news is the king is one.
SPEAKER_00: And when the Bible says, hey, in Ephesians 6, when you've done all to stand, stand.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm not disrespecting the keynote speaker.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just standing and enjoying a butter bacon biscuit.
SPEAKER_00: Because it was a cheap little breakfast with a little scoop, little fruit cup.
SPEAKER_00: I mean a little melon baller of scrambled eggs and two pieces of bacon and one little biscuit.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, really?
SPEAKER_00: This is$80 a plate?
SPEAKER_00: This is what you gave me?
SPEAKER_00: I can't fight the fight with this.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're stacking chairs and rolling the tables down.
SPEAKER_00: And all I said, why is this news to y'all?
SPEAKER_00: And one guy said, I've never heard anybody talk about the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: I said, How long have you been in church?
SPEAKER_00: He said, since I was six.
SPEAKER_00: The dude was 61.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I just want to say to you, the people have used you to pay for their buildings.
SPEAKER_00: They haven't really done you any, they've done you a disservice, sir.
SPEAKER_00: Because the king has won.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not disrespecting this person.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying the king has won.
SPEAKER_00: And because the king is won, we get to rest in and enjoy this peace that the king has provided.
SPEAKER_00: And this peace is not threatened by COVID-19.
SPEAKER_00: My kids are like, hey, Dad, I mean, this is back in March, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Or April.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, should we be concerned?
SPEAKER_00: Sit down, dinner one night.
SPEAKER_00: I looked at him, I said, Hey, by the way, and my oldest was in England on a mission trip when this thing broke out.
SPEAKER_00: I said, You may not get home.
SPEAKER_00: You may have to be a Yank the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy England.
SPEAKER_00: Full of people with bad teeth because they don't believe in dentistry.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling this on the phone, and my wife is like, That's not helpful.
SPEAKER_00: I want her to appreciate America.
SPEAKER_00: So she has to come back and quarantine in our home for two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And she's in our home and she said, Dad's February.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Hey, babe.
SPEAKER_00: I dropped my fork and said, The king is one.
SPEAKER_00: And I know I'm talking about myself.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, I know, I know, I know talking about God.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad your well-being depends on something bigger and your dad?
SPEAKER_00: If I say yes, do I get in trouble?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not this flippant, like I don't really care.
SPEAKER_00: But it's basically, hey, this not threatened by COVID-19 or presidential election or economic uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom is getting, if you believe this, the kingdom's getting bigger and bigger and filling the whole earth so much so in the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, chapter 11, verse 15, then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Just like Daniel 2 says.
SPEAKER_00: All this political rhetoric.
SPEAKER_00: Just smashes them.
SPEAKER_00: So, three principles of understanding the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: There's observation, what do we see?
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, there's interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean?
SPEAKER_00: This is what it means.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom has come and it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
SPEAKER_00: And every time you and I obey, we enlarge the scope and the experience of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Every time you do the right thing, when no one's looking, the kingdom gets bigger.
SPEAKER_00: And you begin to understand this is the reality I was created for.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to just obey when people are looking at me.
SPEAKER_00: My mom and dad can leave and go to a nice quiet dinner without our us kids.
SPEAKER_00: And not worry about what you're looking at on the internet while they're gone.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're you're you're you're a person of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I'm 15.
SPEAKER_00: You're still part of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reality you were created for, and it's better than any non-reality you find on the internet.
SPEAKER_00: And so you don't need to get preached the gospel of behavior modification or sin management or try harder, because the news that the king is one has so found you and unwound you, you've never gotten over it.
SPEAKER_00: And so when someone gets up and says, I'm a culture warrior, I want you to know that about me, you're just like, I'd rather eat biscuits.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm kind of fat, that ain't good.
SPEAKER_00: But I'd rather do that than listen to that.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as the hotel people are like, and the guy's standing there, he's like, Don't hurry, man, you're bringing it, you keep talking.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Hey, you got any more of that bacon back there, bro?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Oh, yeah, I'll get you some.
SPEAKER_00: Brought me a plate of bacon.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy don't even he don't even know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's just like, hey man, you you you you religious?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh no.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can be religious and go to hell.
SPEAKER_00: Religious people put Jesus on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: All right, all right.
SPEAKER_00: You just straight up bringing it, huh?
SPEAKER_00: And it's bacon, it's good, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: And I just looked at the people and I said, I gotta go.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm sorry, I don't know what y'all do at your churches.
SPEAKER_00: Have your academies and everything where you you insulate your kids from the world.
SPEAKER_00: How are people gonna know?
SPEAKER_00: See, the kingdom was so consequential when prostitutes in the Bible heard about it, they didn't want to be prostitutes anymore.
SPEAKER_00: What's your plan for making that happen?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna formulate the moral action network.
SPEAKER_00: Third step in the process, there's observation.
SPEAKER_00: What do I see?
SPEAKER_00: Interpretation, what does it mean?
SPEAKER_00: And then thirdly, application.
SPEAKER_00: So, what is it?
SPEAKER_00: How do I apply this to my life?
SPEAKER_00: So, what do I take away from this in 2020?
SPEAKER_00: Let me just list off some things because I just I just read this and I just stared at it and I just said, God, what does this mean for me?
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, like popcorn, you put it in the microwave, and there's nothing all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
SPEAKER_00: I had 17 things.
SPEAKER_00: I pared it down.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad?
SPEAKER_00: If I was Don Mitten, I'd give you all 17.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the first one: God mercifully communicates to those who don't know him.
SPEAKER_00: God mercifully communicates to those who do not know him.
SPEAKER_00: He showed this vision to Nebuchadnezzar, who is a pagan king who worships other deities, and he just wants to add God.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he appreciates God, but he didn't know God.
SPEAKER_00: And God reveals to him and comes to him in a dream and says, Hey, bro, here's the deal.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's gonna all go down.
SPEAKER_00: This is great.
SPEAKER_00: You're the head of gold.
SPEAKER_00: Congratulations, but there's one coming after you.
SPEAKER_00: This is great, this isn't all there is, and what's to come is better.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself this question today: do you ever have this nagging, gnawing sense that there's more to life than what you experience?
SPEAKER_00: And I would say to you, that is God.
SPEAKER_00: That's God saying, hello, you were the reality you were created for is that to is to be a person who lives and expands the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: You were not created to go to church.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying, therefore, don't come to church.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: We come to worship on Sundays because it's the first day of the week, and this is where we get taught the word of God, and it finds a resting place in our head, in our heart, and it finds expression in our hands.
SPEAKER_00: And we read about a God that mercifully communicates to those who do not know him.
SPEAKER_00: He shows this vision in Nebuchadnezzar, basically says, Hey, you either you become part of God's kingdom or you get crushed by it.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he, it's it's the parable of the uh of the wicked tenets in Luke chapter 20 in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling the story and he says, Hey, this certain man had this vineyard and he rented it out to people.
SPEAKER_00: And he went off in a far country and he sent some of his representatives to say, Hey, I'm gonna go collect some of the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And they and they they said, get out of here.
SPEAKER_00: So he sent somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: He said, get out of here.
SPEAKER_00: He said, a third guy, uh a servant, and and they beat him up and cast him out.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, the owner of the vineyard said, Stop me if this sounds familiar.
SPEAKER_00: The owner of the vineyard, God says, I'll send my own son.
SPEAKER_00: Surely they won't treat my son that way.
SPEAKER_00: And what did they do?
SPEAKER_00: They killed the son.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is Jesus talking in Matthew in Luke chapter 20, but he references Daniel chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is telling the parable to a bunch of religious morons, and he goes, So what's the father, what's the owner of the vineyard gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, I guess just tough luck.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Oh, no, contraire, Moher.
SPEAKER_00: He says, This, he said, What then is this that is written?
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 20, verse 17, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces.
SPEAKER_00: That's conversion, that's becoming a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.
SPEAKER_00: That's judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And basically, what Jesus says to these people is, hey, you didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on you.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh, you either you fall on this stone and be broken to pieces, or this thing's gonna fall on you and it will crush you.
SPEAKER_00: Again, falling on that stone is conversion.
SPEAKER_00: You should ask yourself, has that ever happened to you?
SPEAKER_00: You say, How do I know?
SPEAKER_00: Real simple, have you ever become someone you've never been?
SPEAKER_00: This is what led me to faith in Christ when I was 18.
SPEAKER_00: I was in a conversation with a man.
SPEAKER_00: I thought I was a good person.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I partied a lot and raised a lot of cane and this, that, and the other, but I even in that I thought I'm I'm basically a good person.
SPEAKER_00: I had a conversation with a guy, and I said, Well, I'm you know, I'm basically on that.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Have you ever begun a relationship with God?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, How do you know?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, I mean, I said I believe in God.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, I might ask him, Do you believe in God?
SPEAKER_00: The demons in hell believe and tremble, son.
SPEAKER_00: He had my attention at that point.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Have you ever come to a faith relationship with Christ?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, How do you know?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Well, you become somebody you've never been before.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Oh, I'm the same person, kind of cocky, like, I'm the same person I've always been.
SPEAKER_00: This man smiled and said, Then you don't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That led me to faith.
SPEAKER_00: Because I just thought, I was like Nebuchadnezzar, I will add your God to the God of me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll have this pantheon of gods.
SPEAKER_00: No, but here's the beauty.
SPEAKER_00: What do you take away?
SPEAKER_00: God mercifully communicates to those who do not know him.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, wisdom is not a lesson to be learned, but a relationship to be enjoyed.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is not a lesson to be learned, but a relationship to be enjoyed.
SPEAKER_00: This is Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel, as best we can tell, 16, 17 years old.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why do I say that?
SPEAKER_00: Because some of you in this room, you don't have to be smart.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to read a bunch of religious books for God to communicate to you, for God to reveal Himself to you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the wisest people I know are very blue-collar, simple, plain, down-to-earth people.
SPEAKER_00: Again, but they just they have a relationship with God that they enjoy.
SPEAKER_00: Here's here's a third takeaway: God knows the future.
SPEAKER_00: God knows the future.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me ask a real practical question.
SPEAKER_00: Does that simple statement still have the capacity to move your heart?
SPEAKER_00: Does that have the capacity just to cause your heart to go, oh yes?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you like and the the place this this shows up is in your prayers?
SPEAKER_00: When you're thinking about making a decision or you lose your job, or or just pressure, like, hey, we got more bills than money at the end of the month.
SPEAKER_00: When you pray to God, do you accuse God of ignorance or do you just acknowledge that God knows everything?
SPEAKER_00: Here's another takeaway.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, when I say God knows the future, uh, the Bible is just replete with examples of that.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you one from Isaiah 46, verse 9 and 10.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Remember what happened long ago.
SPEAKER_00: This is God talking.
SPEAKER_00: This is God pulling his sleeve up and going, get a load of me.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what happened long ago.
SPEAKER_00: For I am God and there is no other.
SPEAKER_00: I am God, and no one is like me.
SPEAKER_00: I declare the end from the beginning and from long ago, what is not yet done, saying, My plan will take place and I will do all my will.
SPEAKER_00: And beloved, I just pray your heart will be warned by the simple truth that God knows the future.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another point of application: all earthly authority is transient by nature.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't get too twisted up about a presidential election.
SPEAKER_00: Uh life's never been about the ever-changing earthly kingdoms.
SPEAKER_00: And I have friends that are all in it.
SPEAKER_00: They invite me to, hey, you want to come to this, you want to come to that?
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: I think the kingdom of God has got Democrats, Republicans, libertarians, independents, whatever y'all call yourself this week, whatever, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: It's just hodgepodge, all these people.
SPEAKER_00: So I vote.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm a Christian, I vote according to my values, not TV commercials.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all could save a lot of money on that.
SPEAKER_00: If I need you to come into my house and tell me how to think, I'm a very not smart person.
SPEAKER_00: So I get phone calls from people, they're candidates.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'll just call and see who you're voting for.
SPEAKER_00: It's none of your business, but I can tell you, not your guy.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife's like, Won't you just hang up?
SPEAKER_00: Because God wants me to have a little fun.
SPEAKER_00: That's why.
SPEAKER_00: When the phone rang, it came up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: You can have fun with this one.
SPEAKER_00: And I do.
SPEAKER_00: And I tell them, hey, by the way, what you do, legislation you enact here on this earth, you're gonna be judged for in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't like that.
SPEAKER_00: So don't call me.
SPEAKER_00: What lady told me this week?
SPEAKER_00: So, well, sorry, you don't have to get personal.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't call you, ma'am, you called me.
SPEAKER_00: This is my personal phone number.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how you got it.
SPEAKER_00: This is a personal conversation.
SPEAKER_00: I'm having fun.
SPEAKER_00: What about you?
SPEAKER_00: Not really.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another application.
SPEAKER_00: Who you marry matters.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: What's it got to do?
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the Roman Empire failed because they intermarried.
SPEAKER_00: They got out over their skis and they just thought, hey, it doesn't matter who we marry.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it does.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not about, hey, women are a weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's like, hey, are you saying women are a weakness?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm saying if you marry the wrong person, that is a hard fight with a short stick.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you a weird question.
SPEAKER_00: Are you empowered to be humble in your marriage right now?
SPEAKER_00: Like this happened yesterday, okay, at my house.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I was making this up, but I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: This happened, my wife and daughter gather up, they go, Oh, we're gonna go watch so and so.
SPEAKER_00: The reasons they're running across country meeting, we're gonna go watch them.
SPEAKER_00: In my mind, I just thought, you're gonna watch them run across country meeting?
SPEAKER_00: No, you're not.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna line up, you're gonna watch them take off, and you're gonna walk over here and watch them finish.
SPEAKER_00: You can watch them run, and my wife's like, just don't be so concrete, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Just geek.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to go.
SPEAKER_00: I said, good, because I love those people, but I don't want to go watch, hey, take off, finish.
SPEAKER_00: That's not really watching anything.
SPEAKER_00: But they leave.
SPEAKER_00: I felt bad because I was kind of snarky with my wife.
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was funny, it wasn't that funny.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then I walk in the kitchen, it's filthy.
SPEAKER_00: And I walk in the living room, and there's like a pile.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not kidding, from the stage that tall of clean clothes that she'd gotten out of the washer, I mean out of the dryer, and just stacked them up there to fold them sometime.
SPEAKER_00: And I was looking around and I just thought, I know my wife's doing when she gets back.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I hear you, ma'am.
SPEAKER_00: I hear you.
SPEAKER_00: And clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit's like, hey, fat cell, why don't you do it?
SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, and here's why I do it.
SPEAKER_00: Because I did it, I cleaned the whole kitchen, loaded the dishwasher, folded all the clothes, and put them up.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you would have thought I gave a kidney to a dying person.
SPEAKER_00: I was carrying those clothes, like, oh, she's gonna appreciate this.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know where this goes.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, I'm just coming my way.
SPEAKER_00: She's gonna come home and bow down and go, What have I done?
SPEAKER_00: She walked in and she went, Oh, thanks.
SPEAKER_00: I was mad for about two seconds.
SPEAKER_00: That's all you got.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
SPEAKER_00: Hello.
SPEAKER_00: College football's on.
SPEAKER_00: I could be doing a lot of other things, but see, here's the thing: are you empowered to be humble in your marriage?
SPEAKER_00: Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's not thinking of yourself at all.
SPEAKER_00: My wife so thinks about me and my needs that I don't have to.
SPEAKER_00: It would be the height.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I clean the kitchen and put the clothes up.
SPEAKER_00: It would be the height of idolatry to be married to a woman who's always thinking about my needs, and then me go, I'm gonna think about my needs too.
SPEAKER_00: What are some other things I need my wife to do for me?
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: She does everything.
SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, so I'm freed up.
SPEAKER_00: I'm empowered to not think about myself, to be humble in my marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And so I don't clean the kitchen because so ladies don't go home and go, hey, did you hear that?
SPEAKER_00: The pastor cleaned the kitchen because your man's gonna go.
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_00: He's been empowered.
SPEAKER_00: Because his wife's always thinking about his needs, and it's very humbling because I can't take offense, I can't look around, and when I do something, kind of go, aren't I awesome?
SPEAKER_00: No, that's what I'm supposed to do.
SPEAKER_00: I what else can I do?
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing else for me to do.
SPEAKER_00: Everything I need is taken care of by somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: Very humbly and very the way God designed marriage to be.
SPEAKER_00: So I say that to say who you marry matters.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in this room right now and you're not married, let me just say this you're not being punished, maybe you're being protected and prepared.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another one because the because of the reality of the kingdom, the gospel is news, not advice.
SPEAKER_00: Because of the reality of the kingdom, that the king is one, that Jesus says, Hey, you should repent and believe in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the kingdom of God is here.
SPEAKER_00: Then because of that, the gospel is news, it's it's not advice.
SPEAKER_00: How many how-to sermons have you heard in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Where you just walk out and you're just like, Really?
SPEAKER_00: Can I get a gas voucher?
SPEAKER_00: I drove 17 minutes to get here for that.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, back to the hotel.
SPEAKER_00: The people finally left.
SPEAKER_00: The people that worked, I said, Hey, can I I'll stack these chairs?
SPEAKER_00: And the guy's like, Hey man, would you pray for me?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Now I'm gonna put my hands on your shoulders, they're gonna freak you out.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to tell me how to pray for you and don't say anything cheesy like good health.
SPEAKER_00: You got good health?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Yeah, let's don't bore God to indifference with nonsense.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get down to the get down where God's got to rise up as a mighty man of war and bring the kingdom to bear.
SPEAKER_00: This man just burst into tears.
SPEAKER_00: And I just grabbed his face.
SPEAKER_00: Total stranger.
SPEAKER_00: I just held his face and put my forehead on his head and just prayed over him.
SPEAKER_00: His coworkers are like, I got done.
SPEAKER_00: I said, kind of looked like we were making out, didn't it?
SPEAKER_00: One of them was like, that's that much for me, bro.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be touching me.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: When people see the kingdom, they want it.
SPEAKER_00: They just want it.
SPEAKER_00: They're just like, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00: You notice they're not that they're not that crazy about church.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you invited some of your friends, they're like, yeah, how do I tell you no, real nicely?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the last thing being praised and promoted is not a sign of selling out.
SPEAKER_00: This thing ends.
SPEAKER_00: You still with me?
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: Uh this thing ends with Daniel and getting praised by the king.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, basically, the ruler of the free world is prostrate on his face before this teenage Jewish exiled boy, paying homage to Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: And then he and then the Bible says right here, he says, verse 48, then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: What are you like when you get praised or complimented?
SPEAKER_00: That's a weird question.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible says man is tested by the praise he receives.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why it's a test.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're not careful, everything you start doing in the future after you get praise is to get more praise.
SPEAKER_00: And more praise.
SPEAKER_00: It's like clickbait on the internet.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a dopamine hit.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, I posted something.
SPEAKER_00: People liked it.
SPEAKER_00: If you like that, I've got more.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I hear Christians all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not getting promoted to work.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's because I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably because you're not good at your job.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Pastor, right?
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Some people got an anti-Christian bias, but if you're good, your company wants to promote you.
SPEAKER_00: And so when it happens, don't think I'm getting promoted.
SPEAKER_00: I must not, I must be selling out.
SPEAKER_00: I better bring my Bible and put it on my desk at work.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows I know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: How about be a man of integrity?
SPEAKER_00: How about be a woman that doesn't gossip?
SPEAKER_00: And when they ask you why, you say, because of my faith.
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't think the king won the battle that he won for me to live like this.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm not like the rest of you hens here at the water cooler.
SPEAKER_00: This, I said all that to say this, and I'm done.
SPEAKER_00: You still awake?
SPEAKER_00: This is the reality you were created for.
SPEAKER_00: You were not created just to be forgiven and go to heaven when you die.
SPEAKER_00: You were created, you repented, and you believed the gospel so that you could be part of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: We like to teach the Bible and give you some space to think about.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just voice a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Some questions come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Just take a moment and just kind of think about what you heard today.
SPEAKER_00: God thinks that uh sometimes the Bible's like, oh, what is that?
SPEAKER_00: But the more we look at it, the clearer it becomes.
SPEAKER_00: And so clarify anything in us, head and heart, that needs to be clarified right now.
SPEAKER_00: God thinks that uh you initiated something, you know, you inaugurated something, the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: It just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and one day it's gonna fill the whole earth.
SPEAKER_00: And we get to be a part of that because that's the reality we were created for.
SPEAKER_00: We were not created just to be forgiven and then try harder.
SPEAKER_00: We were not to we were not created to be forgiven and told we're getting we get to go to heaven when we die and be miserable in the meantime.
SPEAKER_00: No, we we get to live in the kingdom because the king is one.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're not warriors, we're not soldiers for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We're beloved sons and daughters of the king.
SPEAKER_00: We were not put on layaway and made promises, we were paid for in full.
SPEAKER_00: Just so we would never have to wonder about our value.
SPEAKER_00: We were paid for in full.
SPEAKER_00: We're so humbly grateful for that.
SPEAKER_00: So we say thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a guest, I want to say thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_00: You're always welcome.
SPEAKER_00: If you had the opportunity to pull those guest cards in your seat back pocket in your roll and fill it out, in just a minute, when you're dismissed, would you just drop one of these wooden boxes by the doors?
SPEAKER_00: You'll see some people dropping other stuff in there.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we receive our offering.
SPEAKER_00: So as the Spirit leads you, you obey, okay?
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple things coming up in the life our church wants you to know about.
SPEAKER_00: So let's check out our video announcements this week.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: This Wednesday, our monthly impact night for students in grades 7 through 12 will happen at 6:30 p.m.
SPEAKER_01: at the warehouse.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great night to bring a friend for dinner, games, and worship.
SPEAKER_01: Our men's weekend is less than two weeks away.
SPEAKER_01: Men come join us on October 16th through 17th here on our campus.
SPEAKER_01: This year we are joined by speaker and author, Jared Wilson.
SPEAKER_01: Jared is not a catalytic agent of change or a visionary.
SPEAKER_01: He's a failed church player and once made a mess of his own marriage.
SPEAKER_01: He likes food too much and worries way too much about what people think.
SPEAKER_01: And he's definitely not all that he's cracked up to be.
SPEAKER_01: However, he knows that Jesus loves it.
SPEAKER_01: And if that resonates with you, be sure to register at grandparkway.org slash events.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new or would like prayer, or you have any questions, come find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_00: We'd like to close our service with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_00: So if you would stand to your feet, hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is the reality that you were created for.
SPEAKER_00: It is not dry but nourishing like beef jerky.
SPEAKER_00: It is good like pie.
SPEAKER_00: Depart now and enjoy this reality in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.