10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,1
on earth as it is in heaven.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
So it's, it's been a little while since I've been behind the pulpit. As most of you know, I typically take a break from preaching during the month of July, not just to give me a break, but really just to allow other elders, other pastors, the opportunity, to preach and for you guys to hear them. It's one of my favorite months because I get to just sit, and I get to listen, and receive. And it's just been amazing this past month. I'm really thankful for the elders and pastors who have preached.
Joel Brooks:And I wanna say that if you have really enjoyed that, listening to those the other pastors and the elders, more than you typically do on a on a Sunday morning, having a chance to listen to them for the entire month, I would encourage you to go to the 4 o'clock service. During that time, I'm gonna be preaching maybe once a month. But we're gonna allow the the other pastors, the other elders more of an opportunity to preach. And, I know that they resonate with a number of you. And so I'm excited that you guys would have the opportunity to hear from them.
Joel Brooks:Another plus with that is you don't have to rush out. You don't have to worry about the parking yet, because you get there as early as you want, stay as late as you want, since it's our only afternoon service. So I would encourage you to go to that, the 4 o'clock service. I know a number of people have already chosen to do that today, But today's our 1st day doing that. And before we open to God's word, I do have, a couple of announcements I want to go through.
Joel Brooks:And that is this. For many of you, most of you, today is the last day of summer. That school is starting this week. Things have changed. Your summer schedule is changing now into more of a school schedule.
Joel Brooks:And what this actually means is over the next few weeks, our attendance is going to grow. You think we're full now, just wait till our college students get back, a month from now. So we're gonna be pretty tight. And, we don't have that much room. So we're gonna have to do a number of things to accommodate for that.
Joel Brooks:We might have a smaller sanctuary, but we are no longer a small church. We have close to 2,000 members. 2,000 adult members. We have almost 600 children under the age of 12, which which means we're going to have the world's largest youth group coming up at some point. But what it means is is our members, are no longer traveling over the summer, that it is going to get kind of tight.
Joel Brooks:And praise God for this. But we're in need for everyone's help. Currently, to pull off a Sunday, we need a 150 volunteers every single Sunday for us to do our Sunday services. And I would love for you to begin volunteering. What I'm actually asking every one of you is to consider is volunteering 1 Sunday a month for one of the services.
Joel Brooks:So to volunteer 1 Sunday a month for one of the services. So it's pretty easy. Whatever service you normally come to, either volunteer to serve during the service before or to stay and volunteer for the service after. But we need help with children's ministry. We need help with hospitality.
Joel Brooks:We need an entire parking team. We would love to have that. And so I would encourage you to sign up. Just go to our website. The information is there in your worship guide.
Joel Brooks:It's our website slash serve. And you can sign up for what area you are interested in. And then the deacon over that ministry will get in touch with you. And besides serving once a month, which you are all going to do, you could also serve every single week by doing a few things. First, help us out with parking.
Joel Brooks:Single guys, raise your hand. Come on, single guys. Alright. You are supposed to park as far away as you possibly can every single Sunday. That would be a huge help for us.
Joel Brooks:We have a parking lot down the alley. We have a couple parking lots there. You could park at Avondale Park or the library. That would be a huge help to us. If if you don't do that, I'm calling you out from the pulpit.
Joel Brooks:Just at least check those spots first. If you if you don't have little ones that you're responsible for, that you have to get safely into the building, I would encourage you to first see if you could find parking farther away, before finding parking immediately around, this building. That would be a huge help to us. Second is this. When you do come into this building, start filling up the sanctuary from the front first.
Joel Brooks:Huge help if you could do that. Sit tight. Sit close-up front. For those of you with the Baptist roots, I know it goes completely against, how you were raised. But, this is Redeemer.
Joel Brooks:It's not Redeemer Baptist. It's Redeemer community. And so, if you could start filling up from the front. And that way, when those come in later, it's a lot easier to find seats for them. That would be a huge help for us.
Joel Brooks:Also, welcome those around you. Do not assume that the person sitting next to you has been here for 10 years. Assume that they are a first time guest. Talk to them. Make them feel welcome.
Joel Brooks:Finally this. If you have any unchurched friends, invite them. I know that you're just we're we're crowded. We're we're full. And yes.
Joel Brooks:Invite them. Because that studying that gospel will be a great way to introduce them to Jesus. And if that means we have to tear down walls, or you guys have to sit here on the stage or do whatever, we will make it work. But I don't want, our size or how full we are in this building to hinder you or to stop you from inviting your lost coworkers or your neighbors. So be sure to do that.
Joel Brooks:And I guess I do have one final announcement. That's if you do have $20,000,000 that you would like to give us, so we can maybe have a larger sanctuary. The offering boxes are there in the back. You have not because you asked or not, and I have asked. So, just write it out to Redeemer Community Church.
Joel Brooks:It'd be great. We are we are trying to make plans and preparations, obviously, for our growth. One of the things you've noticed is a couple buildings down, the building on 41st Street there, the church is bought. We're in process of renovating it. You'll start to see more construction happening over the next, few weeks months.
Joel Brooks:When that's done, we will triple our children's ministry size. We will at least triple our bathrooms, which will be fantastic as well. Another important number for you to know is 2,000 adult members plus all the kids, we've got 5 toilets. It's just, it's a miracle what happens here every single Sunday. Absolute miracle.
Joel Brooks:Anyway, those are some of the ways that you guys could help us out every single Sunday. And so, thank you for doing that. Alright. We're gonna continue our study on the Lord's Prayer. And this morning, we're gonna look at 2 petitions in particular.
Joel Brooks:Wanna look at thy kingdom come, and then thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Really though, you should see those as a single petition because God's kingdom coming is his will being done on earth as it is in heaven. I know we typically, when we think of a kingdom, we think of it as a noun. We think of, you know, like a castle or a palace, you know, or walls or gates, whatever it is. But, biblically, it's probably best for you to think of kingdom as a verb.
Joel Brooks:It's the rule and the reign of God. And so when the kingdom comes, that means his will is being done. His rule and his reign is happening here on earth just like it is in heaven. And so that's why we are combining these petitions and looking them looking at them as a unit this morning. And so if you would, pray with me the Lord's prayer.
Joel Brooks:Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Joel Brooks:For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Amen. When you think of Jesus and you think of the gospel that he proclaimed, what do you think of? What message comes to your mind?
Joel Brooks:What would you say was the heart of Jesus' preaching when he went from town to town and preached to the masses? Or or what was the topic he expounded on when he gathered his disciples together and it was just them? What did he teach them about? The answer might surprise you. The topic that Jesus taught on more than any other topic was the kingdom of God.
Joel Brooks:And it's not even close. A month from now when we do begin our study in the gospel of Mark, we will read in chapter 2 that when Jesus launched his public ministry, we read that he came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe this gospel. In Matthew, when Jesus began His public ministry, He went around saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In Luke, He began proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.
Joel Brooks:In the gospel of John, the start of that gospel, we have that conversation with him and Nicodemus. And he tells Nicodemus that unless one is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Even in the book of Luke's or the book of acts, it begins with these words. Jesus presented himself alive to them after a suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. Hey.
Joel Brooks:That one to me is really remarkable because Jesus has just risen from the dead. And He's gathered His disciples together. And what is He teaching them on? Is it a theology of the resurrection? Is it about the Holy Spirit?
Joel Brooks:What what is He teaching them on? We read that he taught them about the kingdom of God. All in all, you will find that Jesus mentions the kingdom 149 times in the gospels. 51 times in the book of Matthew alone. 49 times in Luke.
Joel Brooks:This was the heart of Jesus' teaching. It was the heart of His gospel message. Now by contrast, do you know how many times Jesus taught on substitutionary atonement? And by that I mean, do you know how many times he taught that Jesus was going to die for your sins? That he was going to take your place on the cross so that you might be forgiven?
Joel Brooks:Do you know how many times Jesus taught on that? Maybe once. During the Lord's supper, when he took the cup and He said this is my blood poured out for the forgiveness of many. I guess He alluded to it in March 10 when He said that the Son of Man didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom. But He never fully taught on how He was going to die on the cross for our sins, rise 3 days later so that we might have newness of life, what we so often associate with the gospel.
Joel Brooks:Now, please hear me. Jesus, 100%, He died on the cross for you. 100%. He died that you might be forgiven. Paid the penalty for your sins.
Joel Brooks:He 100% rose from the dead 3 days later so that we might have life. But that was not the thrust of Jesus' teaching. The apostle Paul and Peter and John, they'll expound on that later. But that's not what you find in the gospels. Substitutionary atonement is actually just a small piece of what we find to be a much greater story.
Joel Brooks:Maybe you think of it as a small chapter of a greater story, which is about the kingdom of God. So why isn't the kingdom of God discussed more today? Why don't you hear pastors all the time just always proclaiming the kingdom of God? Frankly, it's not because it's not all there in scripture. It's just because it's hard to get a handle on.
Joel Brooks:If I were to ask every one of you right now, get out a sheet of paper and I want you to write out in a single sentence for me, what is the kingdom of God? I would get as many different answers as there are people here. It's hard to get a handle on. But, of course, getting all those different answers isn't necessarily a bad thing because Jesus gave many different descriptions of the kingdom of God. When Jesus talked about the kingdom, He would teach people things like, the kingdom, well, it grows secretly.
Joel Brooks:It grows slowly. It's like a like a seed that might grow into a a tree or it's like leaven that's worked into dough and over time, it will cause it to rise. So he would teach that it's secret, it's slow. And then he would go on and talk about how the kingdom of God can come suddenly in power. He would tell people how the kingdom of God must come to us, but then He would say how we are to go and we are to enter into it.
Joel Brooks:He would talk about the kingdom of God being in Heaven. And then he would look at people and he would say the kingdom of God is within each of you. He would talk about the kingdom in the present tense. And then He would speak of it as a future event. Sometimes, the kingdom was far away from people.
Joel Brooks:Other times, He would tell them the kingdom of God is near you. Sometimes, Jesus would describe the kingdom of God coming with fire and with judgment. But the more common, you know, picture he would give it, of it was of a feast, a celebratory feast in which every single person is invited. So what exactly is the kingdom of God? It's kind of hard to get a handle on, isn't it?
Joel Brooks:Answering that question is like, you know, answering if you're a parent, if your child asks you, where do babies come from? You're like, where do you start? There's so many ways to answer that question. Do you start with, you know, the twinkle that was in your mother's eye? Do do you, you know, answer it with, you know, talking biology?
Joel Brooks:You know, the physical difference between a man and a woman? Or do you the Jesus approach and go parable and you talk about the birds and the bees. You know, how do you how do you answer? I wouldn't know because I have 3 daughters and my wife had to answer that question all the time. So I I got to avoid that discussion.
Joel Brooks:She did those for me. But how do you describe the kingdom of God? Can I tell you when sitting down to write this sermon, I kept writing different outline after different outline, not knowing where to start? Because honestly, the topic is so big. It's so broad.
Joel Brooks:All you could think of is what you're missing, what you're not including. So I didn't even know where to start. And so finally, I settled on this. We're just going to start at the very beginning. Start at the very beginning.
Joel Brooks:The bible, the whole bible, is the story of the kingdom of God. Actually, it's really a story of 2 kingdoms. You have the kingdom of heaven and you have the kingdom of earth. Where you have the kingdom of god and the kingdom of fallen man or the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of Satan. There didn't used to be 2 kingdoms, though.
Joel Brooks:There used to just be 1. When God created humans, He created them in His own image, and He gave them dominion over the world. You read about this in Genesis 1 verses 26 to 28. We're created in His image, and He and He gave mankind dominion over the whole world. That's kingdom language.
Joel Brooks:Dominion. He created humans to rule and to reign over this world. But we're created in his image, meaning he created us to reflect His rule and His reign in this world. And if mankind did that, if we ruled in a way that imaged who God was, well then, God's will would be done on earth just as it is in heaven. And so the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the earth or man would be united.
Joel Brooks:Heaven and earth were united in the Garden of Eden. God even used to walk with Adam in the cool of the evening. But then somewhere along the way, we know when when man sinned, that was them deciding that they did not want to reflect God's rule and his reign. They wanted to do their own thing. They wanted to, to self rule.
Joel Brooks:And so, they left. They rebelled against the kingdom of God and they started their own kingdom. God expelled them out of the garden, but they still ruled. Mankind still ruled. But they ruled in such a way that it brought sin and death throughout the entire world.
Joel Brooks:They exercised their dominion through violence, selfishness, taking from one another. Using their God given power not to spread a blessing, but to spread a curse. To harm instead of to heal. And I don't have to convince any of you of this because you know this to be true because it's the world we now live in. A broken, fallen world.
Joel Brooks:This is the kingdom we are in. It's no longer a kingdom in which God's will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. It's a kingdom now in opposition to God's will. The kingdoms of heaven and the kingdom of earth are divided. Calling people to come back into his kingdom.
Joel Brooks:He's gonna call them to, like, once again, come underneath my rule and my reign. And He's calling them out of the kingdom of darkness to come back into His kingdom. And so He calls people like Abraham, or He calls Moses, or He calls King David. He calls these people to come in and be a part of His kingdom. To be an alternate society to the fallen kingdoms of the world.
Joel Brooks:And they sort of did. There were times that they submitted to the, to the lordship of God. But then we also know that there are many times that they sinned. But thankfully, god did not give up on this world. He wanted to redeem this world.
Joel Brooks:So we read that when the time was right, God brought His rule and His reign back into this world by coming to this world as Jesus. Jesus was fully God. He was fully human. And He came to be the image bearer that we were supposed to be. He came to once again unite back together heaven and earth.
Joel Brooks:Now we are gonna look at all of this in a lot more detail as we go through the gospel of Mark. In particular, we're gonna we're gonna really unpack this a lot when we come to how Jesus referred to himself when he talked about himself as the son of man. That is a term that has so many royal undertones to it. But I do want us to go ahead, even though we'll be looking at that in a month, just to go back to that first chapter of Mark and hear these words again. Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Joel Brooks:Repent and believe this good news. I love this. I I try to I try to picture what it would have been like to hear that for the first time 2000 years ago. To to hear Jesus coming up and saying, I've got some really good news for you. The kingdom of God that you've been waiting for, that all of humanity has been waiting for, all of history waiting for this one moment.
Joel Brooks:It's here. I've arrived. The kingdom of God is at hand. Would you turn from your ways and believe this good news? And it is good good news.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus talked about the kingdom, it was unlike what any of the other prophets had preached about the kingdom. Because they were just preaching about the kingdom. But listen to what Jesus said. He doesn't preach about the kingdom, He brings the kingdom. He's bringing it because He's the King.
Joel Brooks:He brought the rule and the reign of Heaven down to earth. So wherever He went, the kingdom of God was present. Wherever He went, the will of heaven was at that moment being done on earth. Jesus came ruling and reigning as a king. And you might be thinking, well, I mean, I hear what you're saying.
Joel Brooks:But a king? Jesus didn't look like a king. He he didn't reign like any king I've ever heard about or or read about. I mean, he didn't have an army. He didn't conquer other kingdoms.
Joel Brooks:He didn't, you know, take taxes. He He didn't have a palace. He didn't have all these servants serving Him. He wasn't like any any kingdom I've seen or any king I've seen. And I would say, exactly.
Joel Brooks:Because the kingdom of god is unlike any kingdom of this world. The rule and the reign of Jesus is unlike the rule and the reign of any other leader this world has ever seen. Jesus came as king, but not to be served, but to serve. He would go to the poor. He would say, blessed are you.
Joel Brooks:Who says that? Blessed are you, for yours is the kingdom. He he would hang out with the lowest of the low in society, the tax collectors and the prostitutes. And he'd he'd eat with them. He'd drink with them.
Joel Brooks:And then he would forgive them of their sins. Wherever he went, the blind would see. The lame would jump up and dance. The deaf would hear. He would make lepers clean and He would heal everyone from their diseases.
Joel Brooks:He would make people whole again. He brought life where there was death. He would turn mourning into dancing. And instead of using His power to wield a sword, He used His power to break bread and to feed the masses. He could turn a barren wilderness into a place of feasting.
Joel Brooks:The only enemies that Jesus directly took on were the demons, in which He could cast them out by a mere word. Begone. So through Jesus, we actually got to see what the rule and the reign of God looks like in this world. And what it looked like was people becoming whole again. It looked like healing.
Joel Brooks:It looked like joy. It looked like life. Then as Jesus went around doing these things, he would invite people to come and to follow him, to surrender their lives to him, to obey him, and to become a part of his kingdom. He would teach them what it looked like to become a citizen of His kingdom. And so He would say, hey.
Joel Brooks:You wanna you wanna submit to my lordship? You wanna come underneath my reign? You wanna be a citizen of my kingdom? This is what you would do. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Joel Brooks:You were to love your neighbor as you would love yourself. And don't just love your neighbor, but love your enemies as well. Even bless those who persecute you. You should humbly serve one another. You need to be faithful to your spouse.
Joel Brooks:You need to keep your word. If someone hits you, turn the other cheek. Forgive one another. If you have 2 coats, give to the one who has none. Freely share your belongings to one another.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus is teaching these things, what he's teaching is this is what my kingdom looks like. This is how you live underneath my reign. You said, you do this, you will become a city on a hill, or you will become an alternate kingdom to the fallen kingdom of this world. You'll be a light shining in the darkness. This is the kingdom of God and it's the kingdom that we are called to live as citizens in now.
Joel Brooks:When we pray thy kingdom come, we're not just praying for a future event. We're not I mean, yes, it's true. We are praying that Jesus would come in power and He would establish His reign over the entire world. But what we're also praying is Jesus now in this moment, would You be king of my heart? Would You come to me and be king?
Joel Brooks:I wanna live as a citizen of that future kingdom now. Think of it this way. I wish we had the disciples talking about this publicly because then we would have gotten Jesus' answer to this. But, Jesus taught his disciples to pray the Lord's prayer, which we've been studying. Part of the Lord's prayer is thy kingdom come.
Joel Brooks:But don't miss the context of that. Jesus had just come to them and said, the kingdom has arrived. And this is how I want you to pray. Pray thy kingdom come. Like, could you run that by me again?
Joel Brooks:I I thought you just said the kingdom was here, but now you're asking me to pray for your kingdom to come. And there's a whole lot to unpack there. But Jesus means, I think, at least a couple of things. 1, He's like, yes, the kingdom has come with Me, but you personally, your heart, you have to submit to my lordship. The kingdom has to come personally to you in your heart.
Joel Brooks:So you need to be praying, thy kingdom come and invade every fiber of your being. And also, I think Jesus is alluding to here that the kingdom was not gonna come full in His lifetime right there. He was going to die, rise again. He has ascended. He's ruling now.
Joel Brooks:And He will come again to establish his reign and fall over the entire world. And so we long for that day and so we pray for thy kingdom to come. But right now, we're saying, Lord, would Your kingdom come in here? Would it transform me and change me? The best teaching we have of this comes from the apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 3.
Joel Brooks:These famous words when he says that we are citizens of heaven. Hear these words. Philippians 3, verse 20. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me tell you what Paul does not mean when he says our citizenship is in heaven.
Joel Brooks:He does not mean this. Heaven is your true home, and your goal in life is to someday leave this godforsaken earth and to go home. That is not at all what Paul is talking about. I know that is what a lot of people think the Christian hope is. That someday we will leave this world and we'll get to go home to heaven.
Joel Brooks:But that is not the hope of the new testament. The hope is not that we go to heaven, but that heaven comes to us. It's for Thy kingdom to come. It's for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. And this is exactly what Paul is teaching about here when he talks about our citizenship.
Joel Brooks:You see, Philippi, he's talk this is in the book of Philippians. And so he's talking to the, those who live in Philippi. They would have readily got this because Philippi was a colony of Rome. And so they were Roman citizens even though they lived in Philippi. And basically Rome sent, you know, a bunch of their citizens to go and establish the city of Philippi.
Joel Brooks:And so those living there were Roman citizens. And what that meant is this. While they were living there, they adhered to Roman law. They brought in a Roman culture and they still served the Roman emperor. They served Caesar.
Joel Brooks:What it did not mean was that they just wanted to work in Philippi, but then go back home to Rome when they retired. That's not what they were longing for. They wanted to bring everything that was a part of Rome there in Philippi. To live under the Roman laws. Under the Roman rule.
Joel Brooks:And what they would need from time to time, as you know, some insurrections would happen or things like that, they would need the full power of Rome to come and to help them. Sometimes they would need the emperor himself to come and to help them out. And there's actually a technical Greek word for that. It's called the The perusa was when the emperor would come to the city to set things right again. It's the exact same word Christians use to describe the coming of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:The Perusia. And the idea is this. Yes. We are citizens of heaven living here on earth. And so our goal is to make this earth as heaven like as possible, to live according to its rules, to submit to the lordship of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And we're doing this in the midst of an evil culture all around us. And so what we need, we need Jesus for you to come and to purge this world of its evil and to make everything right. And that's why Paul says our citizenship is in heaven and from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So to be a citizen of heaven does not mean we long to go off to heaven, but we long for heaven to come to earth. And until that day happens, we will live as citizens of heaven.
Joel Brooks:We'll live according to its rules, its laws. Let me be crystal clear about this. What it means for us as His people, as His church, as citizens of heaven, is that we will be vastly out of step with our culture. This means that the views that we have on money, on power, on sex or sexuality, on marriage, on justice, mercy, forgiveness, what we believe about one's social status. Those things are going to be vastly different than what the kingdom of this world holds to.
Joel Brooks:And that's okay because we're not citizens of the kingdom of this world. Our citizenship lies in heaven. Anyone here have dual citizenship? Anyone? Oh, yeah.
Joel Brooks:England. Yes. You're great. England. There there bunch of Brits here.
Joel Brooks:It's great. Welcome to America. I I love that. I think it's the coolest thing ever to have dual citizenship. I don't know what the benefits are, but it just it's really cool having those 2 passports.
Joel Brooks:You can't have a dual citizenship with heaven and with earth. Can't have it. You have to choose. I think a lot of us, we want this dual citizenship. We want to, you know, we bring out our passport and a Monday through a Saturday.
Joel Brooks:We want to live as a citizen of earth. We wanna live according to the laws of the fallen kingdoms of this world. And so we use that passport. And then Sunday, because we know people are checking, and so we're going through customs. We're like, I'm actually a, you know, citizen of heaven as well.
Joel Brooks:And we're like, well, come on in. And then we live according to those laws on a Sunday. And you have that dual citizenship. But there's no such thing as a dual citizenship between heaven and earth. You have to choose.
Joel Brooks:Who determines how you live? Is it is it your culture? Is it your old college professor? Is it the latest internet article or podcast that you were just listening to or some talking head, you know, on the media? Who determines how you live?
Joel Brooks:Do you know how Jesus ended His Sermon on the Mount, which really is a summary of what it looks like to live according to the the laws of the of His kingdom? He ends it with this. If you listen to my words, if you obey me, it's gonna be like building a house on a rock. And no matter what hits it, it will never crumble. It will be there forever.
Joel Brooks:If you do not listen to my words, you're a fool. Says that, you're a fool. You're building your life on sand. And the storms are gonna come and that house is gonna be gone. Why would you ever live your life according to the laws of a kingdom that's fading?
Joel Brooks:We live our life according to the laws of heaven. His kingdom. Our citizenship lies there. And yes, this means one of our grossly out of step with our culture. It might even mean we're persecuted, it might even mean we get killed.
Joel Brooks:Because Jesus lived that way and they killed Him. But it also means that we have the hope of the resurrection, that we will be vindicated in this. And so, we need not fear what the world throws at us. But as we're being persecuted, as we're in the midst of this dark culture, our prayer is Lord, would your kingdom come? Oh savior, would you come?
Joel Brooks:Would you purge this evil? Would you make the world whole again? And can I tell you just I'll I'll end with this? Just some practical ways that this has transformed me this week. First off, you begin not giving a rip what you hear on TV or on the Internet, media.
Joel Brooks:Who cares what the kingdoms of this world that are fading away, what they believe? I wanna build my life on the rock of Jesus. The kingdom that will endure forever and ever. And so you just begin like, oh, it just it's just noise. It's just noise.
Joel Brooks:I'm a citizen of heaven. And then it was little things like this. This is my next door neighbor, one of them. Not you, Halton's mother. Next door neighbor.
Joel Brooks:I realized it was like, my next door neighbor. That's not you. They they have a teenage son who had a wreck. And, so his car was all messed up. They don't have the money to fix it.
Joel Brooks:And so I've spent a good time this week just going over there and just, like, taking off the front end of the car and just, like, trying to put everything back together. I haven't really felt like it. I've I've been sick this week, tired. It's it's it's boiling hot outside, all of that. But the reason I was doing it was because of the kingdom of God.
Joel Brooks:It was just in my mind. It was like, how do I live according to as a citizen of the kingdom? Well, I'd do unto others as I would have them do unto me. I love my neighbor as I would love myself. And I would hope somebody would do this for me.
Joel Brooks:And as I began to think of that, I get to live as a citizen of the kingdom now. What was a chore became an absolute joy because I knew what I was doing was gonna endure for all of eternity. I was living into that life now. And I began to get excited thinking, what's it gonna look like when everyone does this? When Thy kingdom comes and all the world is filled with everyone loving their neighbor as herself, is everyone doing unto others as they would have them do unto You, Oh my gosh.
Joel Brooks:What a glorious kingdom that will be. Come, Jesus. Thy kingdom come. It began to wet my appetite for what is to come. What a joy it is to be citizens of that kingdom now.
Joel Brooks:And pray with me. Jesus, I pray, in this moment, if there's places in our lives where we have dual citizenship, you would expose that to us. I would hear your irresistible call in our lives. Surrendering to your lordship is such a sweet surrender, Because serving you, Lord Jesus, is freedom. It's joy.
Joel Brooks:It's life. So in this moment, Jesus, would you call people to yourself. And we pray this in your strong name. Amen.