We talk about the kingdom of God and I want to talk about why that's important why we should Value

this why we should pursue this in the right perspective to have on this And just bear with me if I cough or
anything a little bit.

I've got a little bit of a cold and I believe that it's just gonna be healed Yeah, so Briefly yesterday I men-
tioned something out of the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 11 of verse 14 I talked about the attitude of
forcefulness that from those days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of God suffers violent the vi-
olent Take it by force and talked about the fact that Violence in the kingdom this attitude of forcefulness
in the kingdom is the opposite of what passivity is and I think it's important to Reemphasize this and be
aware of this in our understanding of the kingdom of God And to be aware that God is looking for me to
be postured in an attitude of pursuit One of my favorite verses in the Old Testament is Psalm 84 11 and it
says the Lord God is a sudden shield He will give grace and glory and then it says to this No, good thing
will he withhold from him who walks uprightly?

Which to me means as important as it is to cry out It also is equally important to just change my posture
and the posture of uprightness No, good thing will be withheld from me I think the ray that we posture
our heart before God is very significant and I think that he's wanting me to posture myself in an attitude
of Pursuit especially in regards to the kingdom Now one of the problems is for so many years within Pri-
marily the North American Western Westernized Church the understanding of what the kingdom of God
is has been greatly misconstrued has It's very misunderstood and because of that people have not Come
into an attitude of pursuit in regards to the kingdom because there has been a small kingdom lens which
breeds the fruit of small expectations and God doesn't want us to have a small expectation a small mindset
concerning the kingdom He actually wants us to have the kingdom worldview He actually wants us to un-
derstand what this is and how it affects everything how it affects our eschatology how it affects The way
that we live our life when we understand that the kingdom is at hand that the kingdom has come near and
so It's a very big deal So the first thing I want to cover is defining the kingdom and the book of Mark
chapter 1 14 of 15 it says this after John was put in prison Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good
news of God The time has come he said the kingdom of God has come near repent and believe The good
news so everything that Jesus was proclaiming his essential message of his life was the kingdom the king-
dom was the centrality Of the Gospels is what you find him continually proclaim He's what you find him
continually releasing it was something that if you've ever wondered why were people so enraged at the
Apostles?

Why were people?

killing them and Torturing them and beating them.

Why was this going on?

I think part of the issue that would cause such an enragement and such a Hatred towards them was the
fact that they were announcing Caesar is not our king, but Jesus is an Inti right a great New Testament
scholar that meant most of you are probably familiar with Inti right as has done a great deal of work to
Reinforce the belief of Christos Victor to reinforce the belief that through the cross what Jesus was doing
was actually Going through the process of being enthroned as king over the earth and I believe that's what
the kingdom is it's it's it's a really big deal and when It says here that the kingdom of God has come near
in the book of Mark For one more on 14 through 15.

It means that the kingdom is breaking in upon us So I'm going to go through a little bit of defining what
the kingdom is if you look into the Greek it comes from a Greek word which means basilia and Basilia
means two things the first thing it means is the authority to rule as a king the second thing is It means the
realm over which the ruling and the reigning of this king is exercised So we have to realize first Jesus has
been given authority to rule and reign as king The second thing is as a king.

We need to see how far that authority is Exercise how far it extends and there's two powerful passages in
the psalms that go over this the first one is Psalms 103 verse 19 It says the Lord has established his throne
in heaven and his kingdom rules overall The second is of Psalm 145 verse 13 your kingdom is an ever-
lasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all Generations this gives us the scope of the
lordship of Jesus the scope of his dominion the gospel of the kingdom The gospel comes from a word eu-
angelion It's a compound Greek word that has a dual meaning in the beginning part of that word you see
where we derive things like our word eulogy and The second part of that angelion where you breaks
down into the word angel, which is synonymous with messenger in the Greek So what this word means is
the good message the gospel is the euangelion the good Message and it's more than the fact that we go to
heaven when we die The gospel is so much more than we go to heaven when we die and a Great professor
Michael Horton who's the professor of theology and apologetics at Westminster Seminary in California
He unpacks in a really beautiful way the fact that this good message You know in the old days The way
that news would get around Happened through a group of people called heralds you're the Christmas song
hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn King so they would go and proclaim and announce when
significant things happen in their day such as the wedding of a monarch Things like this would be an-
nounced or the death of a king or the inauguration of a new king they would announce things like this and
so the gospel is the announcement of the kingship of the lordship of Jesus Christ and It's more than we go
to heaven when we die in mark one We see that Jesus is announcing the kingdom of God in this instance
is breaking in to your midst when Jesus was born into The earth this was the cosmic in breaking of God's
kingdom into the here and now And it has the kingdom has two elements see we're dealing with that we're
living in the tension right now Between two truths the first is the fact that there is a coming age of the
kingdom of God in Essence this is going to be when the perfect will of God is enacted on the earth and as
essentially everything runs on a monorail of the will of God and this is going to be what happens what
and the second coming of Jesus, but the confusion has been the I believe The second coming and the lack
of emphasis on his first coming the lack of emphasis on what did he come to do in the here and now?

And what did he empower his disciples to do?

What did he do when he sent out the 72?

What is our commission see the great Commission has become the great omission?

So we need to understand what the kingdom is we need to understand what it empowers us to do we need
to understand why?

It's important.

So we are not we are not yet in the Consummation of the fullness of the kingdom of God, but we are in
the inauguration of the kingdom This is what Jesus brought about and it's important for us to understand
this because it empowers and shapes the way that I live my life The gospel of the kingdom is a very big
deal We have to view the kingdom of God through the lens of the now and the not yet most of the
churches only embrace and understood the not yet aspect of the kingdom and ignored the now of the
kingdom and Jesus made it very clear that even though we're not in the full Consummation the kingdom
of God has come near the kingdom of God is at hand.

It was his central message so a kingdom lens means that we step into the Understanding that because he's
obtained victory because he sits enthroned because he's Lord over the earth We've been given delegated
authority as citizens of the kingdom of God to enforce his rule and reign Undo the works of Satan bind up
the brokenhearted the same commission that Jesus quoted powerfully in a moment when he stood in front
of the temple this Isaiah 61 prophecy of everything that he was Coming to do everything that the Messiah
would do everything that would be enacted to undo the works of the enemy Jesus tells them today the
scripture is fulfilled in your midst and every eye in the place was fastened upon him And we have the
same Commission That's a beautiful thing to realize that we're co-laborers with Christ and the advance-
ment of the kingdom of God That the Holy Spirit doesn't just come and rest upon me and empower me to
sit in a pew But he empowers me he empowers me for purpose He empowers me for destiny he empowers
me for advancement and so that leads me into the second thing I want to cover here, which is manifesting
of the kingdom and in the book of Luke Chapter 11 verse 20 one of my favorite verses on the kingdom
But if I drive out demons by the finger of God then the kingdom of God has come upon you now This is
in the context as what would happen time and time again The Pharisees would be brought into a place of
offense at Jesus and I say very often the Pharisees were not evil people They were not evil people.

They were people with an expectation that Jesus that the Messiah would come in a certain manner and As
I referenced earlier in T right he points out that the kingdom Came through Jesus in the form of humble
love He did not come as an overt conqueror now.

They had two expectations for what the kingdom of God was two prophetic expectations first was they
understood Daniel or They read Daniel So Daniel gave them a cosmic expectation for the kingdom and
they were familiar with the Davidic prophecies And so the other aspect was they expected a Messiah to
come from the lineage of David that would overtly Conquer the kingdom of Rome usher in the kingdom
of God and the ruling of this age That they expected this to happen when the Messiah came and Jesus
comes and flips everything on its head He comes in the complete opposite manner in which they were ex-
pecting so they weren't evil, but they misunderstood and they missed him and This sheds a lot of light on
things like wondering why in the world the apostles were so confused at the sayings of Jesus at the ac-
tions of Jesus it's because they Believe that a Messiah would come But they didn't understand the manner
in which you would do so Hey guys, we'll be right back to the message I just wanted to let you know that
voice of the Apostles one of our flagship conferences is happening soon We have amazing speakers in-
cluding Bill Johnson Heidi Baker, dr.

Randy Clark and many others We'd love to see you there in person, but if you can't make it you can also
attend online Click the link to learn more now back to the message It sheds light on things as well like
The rebuke that we see given to Peter when Jesus has get behind me Satan just before this Have you ever
wondered why did Jesus rebuke him?

Just before this happens Peter tells him Essentially when Jesus is prophesying these things will happen to
the Son of man and this death will occur Peter says no Lord It can't be so It can't be because they did not
expect his death Even though he told them time and time and time again Understanding what the kingdom
was and how they expected the kingdom of God to come helps to shed light on some of these issues So
that's a little bit of rabbit trail back to Luke 11 But if I drive out demons by the finger of God then the
kingdom of God has come upon you a Major part of the way that the kingdom came and the way the
kingdom still comes is through the enacting of the supernatural It's why we pursue this healing is not just
a side issue It's not just a cherry on top to the rest of the course It's not an addendum to the gospel healing
is since as central to the gospel Healing is central to the reality of the manifestation of the kingdom of
God and I love this verse You know there were 148 verses on the kingdom of God in the New Testament
and One of my favorite theologians dr James Callis points out in a in a great book the significance of the
miracles and the synoptic Gospels that out of these 148 references to the kingdom of God in the New Tes-
tament Whenever the kingdom is tied to the command to announce Or proclaim the kingdom it is not
once Happening apart from its connection to signs wonders and miracles Not once has it happened apart
from the connection to healing or deliverance And that's a powerful thing and this is still the way that the
kingdom comes Something else I want to read here It's found in the book of John chapter 12 I'm gonna
read out of the NIV first now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and
Raised him from the dead continued to spread the word Many people because they had heard about that
because they had heard that he had performed this sign went out to meet him So the Pharisees said to one
another see this is getting us nowhere look how the whole world has gone after him I love that and the
passion translation and words of this way All the eyewitnesses of the miracle Jesus performed when he
called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead kept spreading The news about Jesus to ev-
eryone the news of this miracle of resurrection calls the crowds to swell With great numbers as great
numbers of people welcomed him into the city with joy But the Pharisees were disturbed by this and said
to each other We won't be able to stop this the whole world is going to run after him So Jesus we find in
Given many parables of the kingdom through Jesus, but one of the ways that Jesus Eludes to the kingdom
is he says it's like leaven And he warns against 11 of the religious spirit He warns against 11 of Herod and
the leaven of the Pharisees But he also says that the kingdom is like leaven which means that it actually
comes in and weaves itself into every area of society It's something that gets into something.

It's impossible to get it out and I love reading this that the Pharisees were so Disrupted when this miracle
took place and they could not stop the people from coming to Jesus in great numbers They couldn't stop
the crowds from coming to Jesus And so there's this connection here between this passage and in Luke 11
of the miraculous power of God to heal save and deliver directly tied To the kingdom and to the king-
dom's manifestation.

So a major way we make it manifest to the world is through the supernatural The gospel divorce from
power ceases to be the gospel It ceases to be the gospel with the moment.

It's divorced from power.

It's not Jesus was not just someone Coming with good sayings to help us enter into better morality He was
ushering in announcing proclaiming and demonstrating the kingdom of God and that's what we're to do as
believers The coming of Jesus was the announcement of the kingdom breaking in and there's more to
come in the future But we also get the taste of it in the here and now I love in the wedding of Cana when
Jesus says don't you know that my hour is not yet come?

And what does his mother do?

She doesn't take no for an answer She pulls on it That's the attitude we're to have we're saying let's take
some of this sets to come and let's taste of it in the here and now In the words of George Elden lad one of
my favorite scholars on the kingdom of God He says that humanity in the person of Jesus was experienc-
ing the presence of God's future The presence of God's future in Jesus life we see the reality of the rule
and reign of God the kingdom of God coming in power his will To crush the works of Satan according to
first John 3 8 it was being Manifest and actualized as he not only proclaimed the good news of the king-
dom But he demonstrated the good news through healing of sick bodies driving out demons cleansing of
lepers and raising the dead to life He demonstrated the kingdom by things like freeing the oppressed and
extending radical forgiveness and the doing is just as important as the telling Another example is in the
book of Romans chapter 15 verse 19 the Apostle Paul writes by the power of signs and wonders through
the power Of the Spirit of God so from Jerusalem all the way around to Lyricum I have fully proclaimed
the gospel of Jesus Christ You see multiple instances by the Apostle Paul where he ties the gospel to
power where he ties the gospel to the manifestation Of signs and wonders and in the Greek this this word
Fully proclaimed that this passage fully proclaimed the gospel means that as Paul traveled these regions
were filled up with the gospel They were filled up not just by the words that Paul preached but by the ac-
tions that came alongside those words to validate the kingdom It's very interesting that Paul's understand-
ing of the preaching of the gospel is directly connected to the demonstration of power through signs of
wonder And if first Thessalonians 1 5 is another example Paul says because our gospel came to you not
simply with words But also with power with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction in Matthew 10 7 and 8 It
says as you go proclaim this message the kingdom of heaven has come near Heal the sick raise the dead
cleanse those who have leprosy drive out demons freely you have received freely give Jesus tells us This
is what we should do to proclaim the kingdom and this is still what we do This is still what we do.

We the gospel was receiving and giving away Receiving and giving away There was a healing evangelist
in the middle of the great healing revival of the 40s and 50s How many of you have studied the healing
revival the 40s and 50s your people men like a Alan or Roberts Jack Co Someone who is not quite as
known as some others But was a very powerful minister in his own right Raymond T Ritchie has a quote
that That I really love he says healing is the dinner bell for salvation Healing is the dinner bell for salva-
tion and so the reason we're to to have such an attitude of pursuit of force when it's regarding the miracu-
lous is because It demonstrates the not only the reality of the reign of God But it demonstrates the good-
ness of God that draws men under repentance Evangelism is becomes tremendously easier when you do it
through power It becomes tremendously easier through doing it with power and I could I've got story after
story I'm gonna I think I should share some stories about this a few years ago and And see it doesn't You
guys know this already and you've been hearing this throughout this whole week It's not just because you
have one of these in your hand It's for every single believer that's part of the beauty of the kingdom of
God is inside every one of us and it's expanding and Of the increase of and of the increase of his govern-
ment.

There will be no end It's for every single believer every one of us is Living in the reality of the nearness
of the kingdom of God and we all get to do this and it doesn't happen We don't have to be on The buzz of
coming off of a great conference in order for it to happen Now things like this are great We're gonna you
guys are gonna leave here and be off the buzz of this empowered event and that's wonderful But it also
happens in the highs and the lows of everyday life And so I wasn't Off of the buzz of a power encounter.

I was simply out of Dunkin donuts a few years ago Anybody loved who let's do a poll Dunkin donuts ver-
sus Starbucks in here Dunkin Starbucks.

Yeah I'm gonna lose the meeting if I keep going so I was out of Dunkin donuts a few years ago and I
don't remember what I ordered but I had struck up a little bit of a conversation with another man That was
in line with me and as I'm leaving I turned and I said Something like have have a great day.

God loves you and he said no he doesn't he actually said that is a lot of bull Is what he told me?

and Yesterday I spoke of the fact that words of knowledge can come through spontaneous speech and I
turned and I looked and I said no It's not he does love you and he cares about you and he cares about
Anna Marie.

Who is that?

This is in the middle of the Dunkin donuts and so tears come into his eyes and Now these these stories
that you hear when we're telling these stories it seems like You know, it's these Superman moments, but
you feel like Clark Kent in the moment You know, it's like Nearly every time when these things happen
you're scared to death It's like you're arguing with someone and it shoots out of your mouth and you expe-
rience it like the matrix in slow motion You want to stuff it all back in?

But tears come into his eyes And he said the enemy is my daughter.

I said that's right.

She has an injury to her ankle from soccer, doesn't she?

He said yeah, she's had that she's been a lot of pain.

I said God's healing right now He's also touching your back and I walked over place my hand on his back
He starts weeping his backs getting hot God's touching his back healing his back He says who are you?

And I said I'm a Christian I'm a follower of Jesus the way that he's touching your daughter the way he's
touching your back right now He wants to touch your heart in the same way.

Do you want to give your life to him?

He said yes, I do Gives his life to Jesus opens the door through this encounter to several of the employees
He's Dunkin donuts.

They're sort of like subways where they're tiny you darn there.

They're not big Settings so everyone is watching this happening So what everyone is seeing is the king-
dom of God breaking into their midst And what happens as a result of this is people say we want to know
this same Jesus what we're seeing happen to this Guy we want some of that in our own lives And out of
the eight or so employees there are six of them gave their lives to Jesus And this is what happens when
you demonstrate the kingdom This is what happens when the kingdom draws near it draws People to ac-
cept the king when they witness the goodness of the reality of his kingdom And this is just something that
happened in a Dunkin donuts Several years ago in Georgia where I'm from I'm from deep south Georgia
by the way you'd never know it Because I don't really have any accent, but the rest of my family could be
on Duck Dynasty So I'm in Georgia and I just got through reading at a pizza restaurant You know so
many of my testimonies for some reason they're wrapped and ball food in some way and So I was I just
got through reading at one of my favorite pizza restaurants downtown, Millageville, Georgia where I'm
from and I'm standing there Actually wasn't standing I was sitting on a little bench and Talking with a few
friends of mine who are there visiting me and we see this large group of college students from the nearby
Military college walking by us and one of them is on crutches.

It's obviously in a lot of pain is wincing we start conversing with him and find out he has a broken knee
and torn ACL and So as we're talking with him, we just say can we pray for you and he says well It won't
do any good And we said well, would you would you just let us pray anyway?

And he said are you it was funny said are you a Catholic or Protestant?

And I said why does that matter?

He said well I don't know if you'd be willing to pray for a Catholic and it was a little bit of a funny ex-
change there and he Said yeah, we're willing And God's willing to heal you And so we could tell he's
completely put off and he doesn't believe he has no stock in any of this And we just said would you just
let us welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit to come and heal and he said sure We start praying for him
We're praying for him outside this restaurant now all of his friends are standing around it's a group of
about 10 or 11 of them and His leg I'm praying there along with one of my one of my good friends named
Matt his leg starts doing this And we're watching this and his eyes get like this and he looks up at us He
was what's happening?

What's happening?
And we say this is Jesus He's healing your leg right now and his leg gets done vibrating all the pain leaves
He tests it out is completely healed and now in the middle of this moment He looks and he starts evange-
lizing in the middle of the moment saying to people Jesus is healing my leg right now Jesus Just heal me
come and get prayer come and get prayer and he's shouting this and see We're the we're the ones who are
supposed to be doing this and this person that we're praying for He takes our job.

He starts evangelizing everyone.

Look at what Jesus is doing It's the nearness of the kingdom it compels people to give their lives to the
king I'll tell you another story I Have rarely told this publicly.

I believe I've only told it publicly on two occasions, but I feel like I feel like For whatever reason like I
should share it As another story from my time when I was in Georgia, see I'm just telling I'm telling you
things not this isn't I'm not telling you this to build myself up I'm telling you these things to show you the
reality of what happens when you just give yourself to the Expansion of the kingdom of God and the fact
that it draws people to the Lord and so I Was in a moment of I used to go on very long prayer walks I
don't really do this anymore, but I would go on prayer walks for An hour or two hours at a time and some-
times it would lead to things like a treasure hunt and sometimes it would lead to Nothing.

I'm just walking and being with the Lord and I was walking and I lived in a very rural area surrounded by
a lot of woods and I Didn't realize that it was getting very late.

It was getting dark before I knew it my prayer walk led to me being lost and so I Had sort of a back route
that I would take walking through the woods to make my way to my house and I had found myself in a
different part of the woods.

I didn't really know where I was at and So I am lost at my phone, but there's no signal And I'm walking
through the woods and I see a little bit of fire and I think What first I didn't know was a fire you see a lit-
tle bit of light and if it's from a great distance You don't know what the source of light is So I see this light
in the middle of the woods I get a little bit closer a little bit closer a little bit closer.

I see it's a campfire I see a group of people uncircled around the fire To make a long story short.

It was a group of witches And so I somewhat upon them there's a dead cat in the middle of the fire and
They're chanting And now imagine, you know in the middle of the night pitch black you stumble upon
this in the woods.

I was terrified I'm standing there watching this and I'm pinching myself.

What is this even real?

And someone asked me how did you know there are witches one time when I told this I said well They
were dressed in all black with their hoods up chanting with a sacrificed animal in the middle of a fire pit
So I'm watching this and I'm scared to death and I'm honestly the only thing on my mind.

I was not thinking how can I lead them with Jesus?

I think I've got to get out of here And I tried to back up slowly and you know if you've ever seen a scary
movie.
I Step on a stick and it snaps So they turn around and they see me and the leader looks at me and she
yells.

What are you doing here?

And I'm frozen.

I Don't have anything to say in response and she yells it again.

What are you doing here?

Frozen She says it one more time and all of them are looking at me and I'm thinking that you know, this is
it I'm I'm dead And For whatever reason just in a moment of the Holy Spirit inspiring courage I spoke up
and I said I'm here to tell you I'm here because God sent me here to tell you that he loves you And now
the leader of the other little group is of the ten or so girls they were all they're all female the one who's
yelling at me Where I was frozen now.

She's frozen and Then she starts absolutely wailing and all of the other girls turn and bolt They run off
into the end of the woods.

I have no idea where they went never saw them after that and now this girl she's wailing and crying and
weeping and I Had a moment where I sort of waited this out when she remains a little bit more of her
composure and she's crying so hard She's actually shaking and I find out her story that her mother is actu-
ally a Pentecostal believer For several years and and she tells her testimony how she started off becoming
interested in the occult and she starts off as a wiccan and she gets a little bit more into the new age side of
things and and very interested in the supernatural but from from the From the from the wrong perspective
and She's sharing this with me that her mother is a Pentecostal believer and and she would tell her every
day over the last one and a half or two years I'm praying for you.

I'm praying for you sweetie that you would know Jesus I'm praying for you that you would know Jesus
and she would tell her mother again and again about how much she hated Jesus that She worshiped Satan
and go on this long thing and earlier this morning her mother told her again I'm praying for you sweetie
that you would know Jesus and she said the only way I'm ever gonna believe any of this is if Two nights
someone comes up to me sent from God to say that he loves me So she gives her life to Jesus she starts
evangelizing to the rest of the people in her group And I gave her my number to keep up.

I kept up with her over the next year as she would Share devotionals with me and talk about how she was
growing more in love with the Lord and this just this has been one of the most radical things I've ever ex-
perienced So what happens when the kingdom of God is coming near Is it draws people to the king?

and It can happen even when you're afraid Can happen in the middle of the woods when you're lost and
when you're terrified?

And when you don't know what's going on?

The kingdom of God has come near the steps to practically manifesting the kingdom The first is to con-
tend for healing the second is to contend for justice and the third is extending radical compassion The
third thing I want to cover is the fact that we are in the midst of an unshakable kingdom an unshakable
kingdom another story is my wife my wife Camden here in case none of you have met her We were in In-
donesia a year ago a little over a year ago and we're ministering and it was one night That I had this whole
plan this whole direction.
I was going to go in the teaching of God completely Completely annihilated my plan And he said bring
Their whole youth group up onto the stage and pray for them in front of everyone and now this particular
church Was very used to the supernatural but very used to the supernatural only in the sense of the occult
They were not used to the supernatural in terms of Christianity in any way shape or form their experience
of Christianity for the most part was very powerless this this particular church we were at we found out
later about their history and Lord said bring their youth group up on the stage and pray for them in front
of everyone Now it's not really that something that I normally do so I didn't want to do it, but it was so
strong I knew I couldn't resist it So I called their youth group up Begin praying for them and The Holy
Spirit just came and I mean in a profound measure just It was sort of quiet atmosphere and in a moment
The shift came as the wind of the Spirit came into the room bodies are dropping everywhere There are
people being filled with the Holy Spirit deliverance is happening and it starts sweeping and just probably
had about 2,500 People in this church and it just swept throughout the whole place People are dropping to
the ground and everyone stands up without me inviting them and they all flock to the front and the kids
are being Touched and the healings are happening and tumors are being dissolved off the people and all
this is going on and at the end of this Meeting a man comes up to me who was one of the chief witch doc-
tors in this region And he'd been watching all of this going on and there are Muslims that were giving
their life to the Lord and All these things that are happening and he's he comes up to me And you can tell
sometimes in a moment if a person is trying to intimidate you and he comes up to me in a very intimidat-
ing manner And he says all the Christians here Are afraid of me?

Any stops and he says but you're not your team's not why aren't you afraid of me?

And I said why don't you you because obviously this man is one of the chief witch doctors has a great
deal of power And I said, why don't you use?

The spirit that's with you to see who's with us and you'll know why we're not afraid And so he stops and
he does so and his eyes light up and his eyes get filled with tears and he says who is that And I'm able to
share the gospel with him and lead him to Jesus He's witnessing the reality of the kingdom is witnessing
the reality of Jesus and his greatness and his kingship of his lordship We're in the midst of a kingdom that
cannot be shaken or in the midst of a kingdom that cannot be The kingdom is nothing without its king
And our kingdom can't be shaken because our king can't be shaken in the book of Hebrews chapter 12 It
gives us this powerful dichotomy of our Christian experience in verses 28 and 29 before this it the di-
chotomy is it tells us the fact that everything that can be shaken will be shaken and not the Same time we
are inheritors of an unshakable kingdom In Hebrews 12 28 and 29 it says this therefore Let us be grateful
for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus Thus, let us offer to God acceptable worship with
reverence and all for our God is a consuming fire one of my favorite translations of this is By the late the-
ologian Eugene Peterson from his message translation and he says do you see what we've got an unshak-
able?

Kingdom and do you see how thankful we must be not only thankful but brimming with worship deeply
reverent before God for God is Not an indifferent bystander.

He's actively cleaning house torching all that needs to burn and he won't quit until it's all cleansed God
himself Is fire as I said, this is incredible news that our kingdom cannot be shaken because the fact that
our king can't be shaken Despite any discouragement or any disillusion from the world around us We
have to anchor ourselves in the truth of his lordship and his kingship See 99 I'm fully convinced 99% of
the warfare we encounter is only over the issue of perspective The enemy comes to bring a smokescreen
of misdirection that bears the fruit of misalignment they would come out of alignment with the purposes
of the father and It's all distractions Distractions come to alienate my heart from the revelation of his
kingship They come to alienate your heart We have to anchor ourselves in the truth of his lordship and the
truth that he sits enthroned and we rest in that revelation We rest in that revelation The enemy will do ab-
solutely everything he can to bring distractions and discouragement before you But the truth is the fact
that the kingdom can't be shaken and the kingdom is here like Lebanon It's expanding and the kingdom
will continue to advance So I want to encourage you to press forward through this I love in the book of
Hebrews when it says we are not of those who shrink back We're not of those who shrink back Press for-
ward in the advancing of the kingdom Don't live in a way that focuses on the external shaking focus on
the king and his unshakable kingdom We stand on the shoulders of the victory of Jesus We stand on the
shoulders of the victory of Jesus and Under his lordship the kingdom is unshakable This is our inheritance
This is our inheritance is what we have as citizens of the kingdom You (soft music) (music)