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The stench of his cell was almost more than he could handle. He had the dimensions of his cell memorized, four steps, turn, four steps, turn, four steps, turn.
He doubted now and he hated himself for it. He was so certain just months before when he stood knee deep in the Jordan River baptizing people and he looked up and he saw his cousin, the one known as Yeshua Jesus approaching. He was so certain in that moment that he heard the spirit of God tell him, this is the one you've been waiting for. This is the one the prophet spoke about. This is the Messiah.
He was so certain in that moment he baptized Jesus and Jesus came out of the water and there was a dove that landed on his head and a miraculous voice from heaven that said, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. He was so certain in that moment, but now he doubted.
I mean if he was the one, where's the kingdom that the prophet spoke about? If he was the one, why is Rome still in charge? If he's the one, why, John's thinking, why am I sitting in prison?
And so he has some of his followers come to him in prison and he says, listen, I want you to go find Jesus and I want you to ask him this simple question, are you the one? So they do, they go find Jesus. Jesus is speaking to a large crowd. They interrupt Jesus in the middle of his message and said, John, your cousin, John the Baptist, he wants to know, are you the one?
You can almost imagine Jesus maybe smiling a little bit.
And he says, you tell them what you see, go tell them what you hear, go tell them what the crowds see and hear, tell them the blind see, the deaf hear, the cripples are walking, the lepers are healed, tell them the dead are coming back to life, tell them the poor are hearing the good news.
And so they take this message back to John and they tell John while he's sitting in prison, said here's what Jesus said, he said to tell him what we're seeing, what we're witnessing, that the blind are seeing and the deaf are hearing, the cripple are walking.
And so here's a picture, a selfie that John took then at that moment, he's sitting in prison, this was a selfie of John and obviously it isn't because they didn't have cameras in, but I guarantee you if you put yourself in John's sandals, that's the look that you would have on your face. You'd be a little bit like, wait, what?
Because you'd probably be thinking this, wait, wait, wait, wait, I'm a great prophet. I mean the prophets before prophesied about how I was gonna be the one that was gonna introduce Jesus and now you're telling me that he's doing all these miracles. The blind are seeing, the deaf are hearing, lepers are being cleansed,
cripples are walking, dead people are coming out of the grave, and yet I'm still in prison. Where's my miracle? In fact, John would never get out of prison, he would eventually get his head cut off.
But what I want us to notice this weekend is what Jesus does after he gives the answer to John's disciples, Jesus turns and he starts to speak to the crowd again, and what he tells that crowd should have a profound impact on you and I. It should change the lens we look through. It should change our perspective,
the big picture we see our world in. It should change how we live the minute details
of our ordinary everyday life. So let me show you what I mean, Matthew chapter 11, if you have your Bibles, open to Matthew 11, hold that spot, and then find Philippians three. We're gonna start in Matthew 11, we're gonna go to Philippians three. Now, if you've been at Rock Point for a while, how many of you have been at Rock Point for over a year? Okay, raise your hand, okay, alright, quite a few of you. If you've at Rock Point for a while, you're waiting for me to give you the big idea,
I'm not gonna do it. I'm gonna wait, about halfway through, now there's some creatures of habit in here and you're like freaking out right now, go, we always get the big idea in the introduction,
just take a breath, it's gonna be okay, I'm gonna reveal it a little bit later, okay? But here's what you need to understand, before we jump into this passage in Matthew chapter 11, there's something that you need to understand, otherwise this isn't gonna make today, otherwise when you read this, the Bible, it won't make very much sense.
A friend of mine sent me this lyric from a country song. Now you may go, you like country music? I'm from Montana, you get kicked out of that state if you don't like country music, okay? So there was a lyric, it's a recent song that came out and this woman says, we could use a little more heaven down here.
I don't know who wrote that song, but that's good theology. That is really good theology, we could use a little more heaven down here. See, here's what you need to understand, the Bible talks incessantly about this kingdom. Jesus actually used the words kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God 170
plus times. He only used the word church three times, but he talked about the kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God over and over again. 170
plus times he talked about that. But here's the idea of the kingdom, the Bible from cover to cover talks about kingdom. The Bible story begins with God creating out of nothing, he creates this perfect kingdom where heaven and earth are in perfect harmony. You have to understand this or you're gonna miss much of the Bible, okay? Heaven and earth are perfect harmony, there's this kingdom.
The problem for a lot of us is whenever we talk about heaven in the church, we talk about heaven and hell,
heaven and hell, heaven and hell. You know the Bible hardly ever talks about heaven and hell? Almost every time the Bible talks about heaven, it's including earth, heaven and earth. The kingdom starts heaven and earth in perfect harmony.
Sin enters, heaven and earth isn't in harmony anymore. If you don't believe me, scroll through social media today. Heaven and earth is no longer in perfect harmony, sin has entered the world, right? The end of the story, the very end of the story, we saw this last week, Jesus does not come back as a little baby in the manger, he comes back as a warrior king setting up his fulfilled eternal kingdom, and heaven and earth are in perfect harmony again. Heaven and earth were in perfect harmony, heaven and earth are not in perfect harmony now, Someday heaven and earth will be in harmony again. But if you've put your faith and trust in Jesus,
you're part of this kingdom. The kingdom that Jesus keeps talking about, the kingdom we're gonna talk about today, you're part of that kingdom now. And part of our role as Jesus followers is to display
what this world would look like when heaven and earth are in perfect harmony again. So when you and I feed hungry people, it's as if to say someday there's not going to be any hunger when heaven and earth are in harmony. When we fight against the sexual exploitation of children, it's as if we're saying someday there's gonna be no human trafficking when heaven and earth are in perfect harmony. When display love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithful ness, gentleness, self control, when we display that, we're displaying what heaven and earth look like in perfect harmony. Why? Because we're part of this kingdom.
Okay, now with that in mind, watch what happens, this is so good. Matthew 11, okay, Jesus has just answered the followers of John, said you go back and tell John, the blind see, the deaf hear, the crippled are healed. You go back and tell them that. And then look at verse seven, as John's disciples were leaving,
Jesus began to talk to the crowds, talk about him to the crowds. So he turns back to the crowds and he starts to talk to them again. What kind of man did you go into the wilderness to see? Was he a weak reed swayed by every breath of wind? You
should underline this verse, highlight this verse, circle this verse, put a star next to this verse, put little exclamation points in the margin next to this verse, because this is such good news for you and I, because what Jesus is doing is he's defending John who's doubting. And who here hasn't doubted before?
Who in here hasn't at times said, God, where are you? Why? What's going on? And this would be a perfect time for Jesus after this to turn to the crowd and said, oh, don't lack faith like John, but he doesn't do that. He defends John.
He turns to the crowd and he said, hey, hey, some of you are maybe thinking that John is some weak kneed coward. Oh, no, no, no, no.
You didn't come clear out in the desert from your villages and communities to see some weak kneed coward talk. You came out here to see a man of courage. You came out here to hear a man speak with boldness. That's why you came out. Jesus is defending this doubter.
Keep reading, verse eight. He says, or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No, people with expensive clothes live in palaces.
Jesus is saying you didn't come out here to hear a man that's always flattering others. If that's what John was about, he wouldn't be living out in the desert wearing camel skins, he'd be in some palace wearing nice clothes, that's not who John is, and in fact, if you kept reading the next few verses, Jesus continues to defend John.
Then we get to verse 12, oh verse 12. Okay, now before we talk about verse 12 though, I have to give you a little language study.
I was a little weak, but I'll take it. Again, I joke about this sometimes, but I know there were a lot of you driving here today going, I hope we get a language study again. You do, you do, okay. So remember, remember, this is important to get, the newer testament was written in Greek two thousand years ago, so the Bible that you and I are reading is probably the English translation of that. There are some Greek words that are very difficult to translate. It's the same thing as any, sometimes you can translate from French into English or from Spanish into English and there's words that are difficult to figure out how to translate. One of those words is found here. Now I don't wanna give anybody doubt, no one leave, promise me you're not gonna go get in your car today and go, I don't know if I can trust the Bible anymore. You can, you can. There's one of two ways you could translate this Greek word, and both actually are okay.
Both, they don't disagree with the theology of scripture, neither one of them. The first way you can do this, go ahead and put that up, Matthew 11 verse 12, and from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, this is the key, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing.
That's one way you could translate it. Let me read you another translation. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence. They're totally opposite, right?
One is saying the kingdom of heaven is subjected to violence. Now this is what I'm saying, neither way is wrong. You'll look at different translations translated either way. Neither way is wrong because the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence.
I mean Jesus was nailed to a cross. For two thousand years, Christians have been martyred all over this world. The kingdom of heaven is subjected to violence. That's a fine way to translate it. I personally think the better translation here is what you see here. The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing. Here's why, the word is only used one other time in the New Testament, it's in Luke, and it translated
this way. But it also fits with the context. Remember what's happening.
John is doubting. John says go ask Jesus if he's the one. They come and ask Jesus in front of the crowd, are you the one? Jesus said, you go back and tell him, he actually quotes right from Isaiah, you go back and tell him the prophet Isaiah is being fulfilled, what are you guys seeing? The blind see, the deaf hear, the lepers are being healed, the cripples are walking, dead people are coming back out of the grave, the poor are hearing good news, go back and tell him. Then he turns to the crowd, he's going, ho, ho, ho,
come don't down on John because he's doubting. No, no, no, John is a bold, courageous person. And then Jesus is probably saying, they're thinking what John is thinking. Okay, where is this kingdom though? We've heard all this, our prophets have talked about the kingdom, but where is it?
This is why I think this is what Jesus says. Listen, from the time that John the Baptist started preaching, the kingdom of God has been forcefully advancing. You may think that it's in retreat. You may think that it's not happening because you don't see it, but the kingdom of God has been forcefully advancing.
Hold on to that idea. Couple months later, months later, Jesus takes, it's found in Matthew 16, you can read it later, Jesus takes some of His disciples on this crazy journey.
I've read this story many times in the Bible and I never really caught where they go is so crazy. If you ever get to go to Israel, oh, it's so amazing, it will make the Bible come alive, but if you ever get to go to Israel, Caesarea Philippi is gonna be one of your favorite places to visit because you're gonna leave the Sea Of Galilee, that's where Jesus spent a lot of times with his disciples. You're gonna get in your little van or your little bus and you're gonna drive 20 miles uphill, 20 miles uphill, 20 miles uphill. Now they didn't have little vans and buses they could get in back then, so when Jesus took his disciples to Caesarea Philippi, they walked 20 miles uphill,
and it was in a region that few Jews would venture into back then because it was considered to be a pagan region.
Terrible stuff went on there, so Jews would rarely go there. Why does Jesus take his disciples there? Here is what you are going to love if you ever get to go Caesarea Philippi, imagine behind me this massive cave. Caesarea Philippi, if you go there today, that cave is still there. At the time of Jesus,
there was that cave and then a temple that Herod built. They would do child sacrifices in this. This cave had this deep, deep, they called it the abyss. And in fact, there was a nickname that they started calling it, it was the Gates Of Hades or the Gates Of Hell. So Jesus takes his disciples on this long walk.
They get up there and he says, who do people say that I am? You can read this later, Matthew 16. They said, some say you're John the Baptist, John's been killed now. Some say you're John the Baptist, come back to life. Some say you're Elijah. And then Jesus says, but who do you say that I am? This is where Peter says,
you're Christ, the son of the living God, you're the messiah, you're the one we've been waiting for. And Jesus says, oh Peter, this didn't come from you. On this rock, I will build my church. It's the first time Jesus used that word literally saying, on this rock I will build my gathering of people who have been called out and then you can almost imagine him pointing to that massive cave and not even the gates of Hades, not even the gates of hell will stop it.
Now put Matthew 11 and Matthew 16 together, here's what Jesus said two thousand years ago, the kingdom of God is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell will stop it.
The kingdom of God is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell will stop it.
Flip over to Philippians three now. Flip over to Philippians three, Paul, this is decades later after Jesus did that, decades later this guy named Paul is sitting in prison, he's writing to Jesus followers in Philippi and he's gonna be writing about this kingdom
that we're all part of. If you put your faith and trust in Jesus, you're part of this kingdom, that two thousand years ago Jesus said, my kingdom is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell can stop it. Look at Philippians three, starting in verse 19, he's gonna be writing about the enemies of the cross. He actually says when he's writing, he's going, I have tears in my eyes to write about the enemies of the cross, if you read the prior verses. Then describes
the enemies of the cross, Philippians three verse 19. He says three things about them, look at it here. They are headed for destruction. The reason he's crying is he's writing this, he's saying the enemies of the cross, their end isn't gonna, it's not gonna go well for them. Number two, their God is their appetite.
They live for the momentary pleasures of this world. That's all they live for, enemies of the cross, that's all they live for, is for the momentary pleasures of this world. Number three, they brag about shameful things. They're so ignorant and foolish
that when they do things that they should be ashamed of, they don't even realize they should be ashamed of it, they brag about it. But here's the key, the end of the verse. Here's what he says, and they think, another language study,
okay, that was weak, and they think, pronounthus is the Greek word, which is where we get the word focus, and their focus is only about this life here on earth. That's the fundamental problem with them.
The reason they're focused on the momentary pleasures of this world is because they're only focused on the things of this earth. They're only focused on the temporary. Now, I've said this before, if you've heard me speak, I always say, look for big buts in scripture. When you read scripture,
there's big buts in scripture, and big buts in scripture are good, and there's a big, ginormous,
huge, beautiful but in the start of verse 20. Look at this, look at this. Verse 19 finishes, and they think their focus is only on things of this earth. Verse 20 starts with? But. Oh, no, it's a big beautiful but. You gotta say it like you mean it. But. But we
are citizens of heaven. We are citizens of the kingdom of God. We are citizens of the kingdom of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives and we eagerly are waiting for him to return as our savior. You see the difference? There's one where he's saying their focus,
everything they live for is for the momentary pleasures of this world, but oh, we're from a different kingdom.
We're from a different kingdom, our focus is on the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, what kingdom is that? It's the kingdom that Jesus said two thousand years ago, my kingdom is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell can stop it. And
that's the kingdom that you, if you put your faith and trust in Jesus, that's the kingdom that you and I are a part of. And you know, two thousand years of history has displayed this truth.
When I was in Israel years ago, I remember standing at the Hippodrome in Caesarea, it's not the same as Caesarea Philippi, Caesarea is right down on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It's a beautiful place, you'll see a picture on the screen. But Herod, at the time of Jesus, he built Caesarea as a port city and he built what they call a Hippodrome. Now, if you ever watched any of those movies about the Roman times, remember how they would have the chariot races?
This is one of the places they would do it. You can see the track where they would do the chariot races. They would also have gladiators fight in there, and then when Rome decided that they wanted to get rid of these pesky people called Jesus followers or Christians, and they made it illegal,
they decided that in the hippodromes and places like this, they would take Christians and have them slaughtered by the gladiators in front of a cheering crowd. They would have lions come out and tear them apart in front of a cheering crowd. Well, remember standing right down in the dirt of that hippodrome and it was almost surreal as I stood there and I looked down at the dirt and I thought to myself, two thousand years ago, some of my brothers and sisters in Christ, they bled out right here. This ground soaked up the blood of some of them.
Rome, the most powerful empire in the world at that time said we're gonna wipe out Christianity, but they couldn't do it because two thousand years ago Jesus said my kingdom is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell can stop it. Yeah.
And two thousand years of history now we've seen the same thing, haven't we? Dictators and evil regimes have tried to wipe out Christianity and they couldn't do it because two thousand years ago Jesus said, my kingdom is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell can stop it. In 2016,
our country, The United States, check me on this one, can go back, you can find out. There's a written record that in 2016, The United States said that what ISIS was doing to Christians in The Middle East was nothing short of a genocide. Our country said that. 2016,
what ISIS was doing to Christians in the Middle East was no less than a genocide, but I can tell you that those Middle East countries are not gonna wipe out Christianity because two thousand years ago Jesus said, my kingdom is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell will be able to stop it.
Is that good news? In
China, for decades now they've been trying to wipe out the church, it's illegal to be a publicly practicing Christian in China, and so they have all these underground churches, they've been trying to wipe them out, but they haven't been able to do it and they never will. In fact, what they're discovering now is they believe that the church in China is the biggest church in the world.
Why? Because two thousand years ago Jesus said, my kingdom is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell can stop it.
We just saw this on the news a few weeks ago, didn't we, Taliban taking over Afghanistan. And what quickly became apparent is that the Taliban started to go kill the underground church that was there. Which means, let me put this in perspective for you. That means in
some places there were 50 Christians that worshipped God one week and then the next week none of them were alive. That's what's happening over there right now. And some of them that survived and they got out of the capital city, they went out of the city, these
reports are just coming from the underground church in just recent days. The ones that got out of there, of the capital city alive, they gathered together and began to pray and they were like, what should we do? Where should we go? Where should we hide? And they decided we're gonna go back into cabal and we're gonna tell the Taliban about the love of Jesus.
And I don't know what happened to them, but I do know that the Taliban is not gonna get rid of the church in Afghanistan because two thousand years ago Jesus said, my kingdom is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell will stop it. Wow.
And you're part of that kingdom if you put your faith and trust in Jesus. I'm part of that kingdom if I put my faith and trust in Jesus. That's the kingdom that we're part of. And this kingdom, oh, it's a weird, peculiar, odd, strange kingdom, it's not like any other kingdom that's ever been on this planet.
You know, all the other kingdoms that you read about, you can go to places like Nineveh, which was the beautiful, most powerful city in the world at that time, and now you go there and it's a mound of dirt.
Most of the kingdoms that we read about in this world now we read about in history books, they've come and they've gone. The kingdom that we happen to live in, The United States Of America. If Jesus doesn't come back first, someday, I don't know if it's we're
alive or hundreds of years from now, but this kingdom will come and go like all other kingdoms. There's only one kingdom that will last forever. Jesus said, my kingdom is forcefully advancing
and not even the gates of hell will be able to stop it, but the kingdom that we're part of is so strange. Here's the big idea, those of you that have been waiting, you're like, oh good, finally the big idea. Here's the big idea for today, okay? The kingdom of God is forcefully advancing not by the love of power, but by the power of love.
That's the strange kingdom that we're part of. Every other kingdom that's ever been on this earth, they advance, they move forward, they take more land by power, by might,
but Jesus two thousand years ago said, that's not how my kingdom works, my kingdom doesn't advance by the love of power, but by the power of love, Which is why the last night of Jesus' life when he washed the disciples' feet and he said I want you to love this way because the world's gonna know your mind, by your
love. The
kingdom is forcefully advancing and not even the gates hell can stop it, and yet this kingdom is a strange, peculiar, odd kingdom because it's not advancing by the love of power, but by the power of love. She heard a knock on her door, She went and answered it and there was ISIS standing there.
They said, we need the tax. Because in the country she was living in, if you were a Jesus follower, you had to pay a tax to ISIS. They said, we need the tax, we are burning down your house. She said, I don't have the tax, give me a little bit more time, I'll get the tax, don't have it yet. And they said we need the tax, we're burning your house down. And she said just give me a little bit more time, my daughter isn't taking a shower, I just need a little more time. And they you don't have any more time, and they lit her house on fire starting with the bathroom.
And she barely made it out, she got her daughter out, but not before her daughter had fourth degree burns. If you don't know anything about medical field, fourth degree burns means that you are not just burnt on your flesh, are burnt clear down to the bone.
Most people don't survive fourth degree burns and this little girl didn't. Her mom managed to get her to a hospital and as she is holding her little girl, as her little girl is dying in her arms, this is a little girl who is following Jesus
not that long ago on the other side of the world and these were her last words to her mom. Mom, forgive them.
The kingdom of God is forcefully advancing not by the love of power but by the power of love.
I've shared stories from this book before, you'll see a picture on the screen, it's called the cross and the switchblade. If you've never read it, go on Amazon and buy it, it's worth it. It's a story that takes place from like the 60s or 70s, and there's this rural pastor
named David Wilkerson that starts feeling that God was calling him to go into the inner city of New York and preach the good news of Jesus, the love of Jesus to the prostitutes and the drug addicts and the gang members, So he goes into the inner city and he comes
in contact with one of the leaders of the Mau Mau gang, was one of the most feared gangs in New York City at that time, and his name was Nikki Cruz.
And Nikki Cruz is finally getting tired of David Wilkerson talking about this Jesus, so one day he finds David Wilkerson on a street corner, pulls out his switchblade, opens it up in his face and he says, if I see you in this corner again, I'm gonna cut you into a thousand pieces. David Wilkerson said,
Nikki, every one of those thousand pieces will still love you. The kingdom of God is advancing not by the love of power but by the power of love. Philippians
chapter three again, remember, I just want to remind you who wrote Philippians again. I told you before it's Paul, remember his old name was Saul. Saul was kind of the Isis of his day. Remember Saul was the guy that was going around and killing Christians and dragging them off into captivity and putting them in dungeons,
and on his way to Damascus to go kill some more Christians, Jesus shows up in this powerful miraculous way, and that moment Saul
went from being a persecutor of the church to a defender of the church. He was marching as part of this kingdom of God that is forcefully advancing, not even the gates of hell can stop it. Well decades after he has that miraculous intervention in his life and becomes a Jesus follower, he's sitting in prison and he's writing this letter to these Jesus followers in Philippi.
But I want you, and I'm gonna put it on the screen, but I want you to see how Eugene Peterson paraphrases this, because in the message sometimes it paraphrases verses in our modern English and it does a marvelous job of capturing the idea and how we, you and I talk in our everyday talk. He does that well with this verse, but I want you to remember that Paul understands
that he's part of this kingdom we're talking about. Paul understands he's part of a kingdom that is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell can stop. So look what he writes, verse 10, Philippians three verse 10, I gave up all that inferior stuff, he's talking about his resume, he was just listing his resume, he had a good resume. I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally,
experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it. Here's what Paul's saying. I know that there's a kingdom that is not gonna end. I know there's a kingdom that even when I take my last breath
in this earth, I'm gonna be part of that eternal kingdom. I know there's a kingdom like that out there. A kingdom that Jesus said is forcefully advancing, not even the gates of hell can stop it, and I want to be part of that kingdom. That's what he's writing. Look at, he goes on, verse 12, I'm not saying that I have
all this together, that I have it made, but I'm well on my way reaching out for Christ who has so wondrously reached out for me. He's saying something that's so important because Paul was kind of the celebrity pastor of his day. I mean he wrote most of the New Testament.
See the danger with big churches, and Rock Point's our church, we go to church here too, so I'm not saying there's anything wrong with big churches, but the danger with big churches is you see the person standing up here, but you don't really know us,
and sometimes you're like, wow, they have it together, I mean they're such great, and then some of you get to know us and you're like, wow, they're a mess, They're screwed up as I am, they're struggling with this, yes,
yes we are, and that's what Paul wrote two thousand years ago. When Paul was writing the Philippians, he's saying, I don't have this together, I haven't figured this out, I'm not living this perfectly, I'm just saying that I believe so much in this kingdom that I'm not stopping.
I'm pushing on forward. I'm reaching for Jesus even though I'm a mess, even though I'm still struggling with this. But then look at verse thirteen and fourteen. He keeps going, says, friends don't get me wrong, by no means do I count myself an expert in all this. It's almost like he had to emphasize it again. It would be like me standing up here, you seriously think I have it all together? Come spend a week with me. I don't have it together, trust me, that's what Paul is saying. Friends don't get me wrong, by no means do I count myself an expert in all this, but I've got my eye on the goal.
Where God is beckoning us onward to Jesus, I'm off and running, oh I love these last words, and I'm not turning back. I'm not turning back. I'm not turning back.
Paul's saying, I understand that now I'm part of a kingdom that Jesus said two thousand years ago for you and I is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell can stop. This kingdom that is forcefully advancing not by the love of power, but by the power of love. And Paul is saying, I understand I'm part of that kingdom now, so even though I don't have it all together, even though I'm still broken and trying to
work through all this, I'm not turning back. See, I'll will get personal with you and just share that years ago when I was studying and coming to understand all the things we are talking about today, it was a transformative moment in my life.
Because I came to realize as I was understanding the truths we are looking at today that I had done what a lot of you have maybe done, where I had slowly in my Christian life kind of morphed into just kind of going through the motions.
And I had somewhere along the line I started taming my dreams and visions and I had started apologizing to people for wanting to become the man that God made me to be and I started tiptoeing around my critics a little bit. And then I read this and I began to understand this and I went, wait, wait. What am I doing?
I'm part of a kingdom that's forcefully advancing that not even the gates of hell can stop. Why would tame my dreams and visions? Why would I apologize for wanting to become the man that God wants me to become? Why would I tiptoe around my critics? And for you, I say the same thing to you.
If you've put your faith and trust in Jesus, why would you just kind of meander through this life? Why would you tame the dreams and visions that God gave you? Why would you ever apologize for wanting to become the man or woman that God made you to be? Why would you tiptoe around your critics? Why would you just kind of
play the Christian game, you know, where you show up to church every once in a while and you you grab your Bible, blow the dust off of it and read it, why would you do that? If
it's true what Jesus said, and it is, if it's true two thousand years ago when Jesus said my kingdom is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell can stop it, and regimes and evil dictators for two thousand years have tried to stop Christianity and they haven't been able to do it. Why would we
mess around with this? Why not like Paul say, I'm all in and I'm not turning back. I haven't figured it out, I still mess up, but I'm all in and I'm not turning back.
See, I think that maybe today Jesus really has three applications for us or three ways that we can apply this to our lives, three challenges for us and the first one is maybe what I just said.
Maybe for some of you, you have to do what I did a few years ago when I was looking at this again and realizing, I don't know where it happened, I don't know what happened but somewhere along the line, I started taming these big God dreams that he had given me. I started just kinda
meandering through this Christian life instead of living it boldly. Maybe the first challenge you need to take is say no more. Like Paul, you are saying, I am all in and I am not turning back. A second challenge that I think Jesus has for us today is
remember the kingdom of God is forcefully advancing, not by the love of power but by the power of And so I pray that right now that God would put in your heart and mind just someone's face, a name of someone that you need to love.
I pray right now that God would do that. Jesus, would you do that, spirit of God, would you do that for everyone in here right now, give them the face, name of someone that they need to love.
I don't know who that is, I don't know how you're supposed to love them. That's between you and God. When I put this message together, I felt the same challenge and God was telling me to love someone who is not easy for me to love. But I am gonna do it
because the kingdom of God is forcefully advancing not by the love of power but by the power of love. So whoever that is, whoever God put on your heart, before the sun goes down today,
would you somehow maybe send them a text message. Maybe send them a letter. Maybe simply say, I forgive you. I don't know what it is. What happened with you? Maybe it's an act of service to them. I don't know what it is, but would you choose to love someone because we are part of this radical, crazy, peculiar, odd kingdom that advances not by the love of power but by the power of
Third challenge for us. And I gotta tell a story to get this across. I wanna end with this.
So right after high school, my buddy and I, we got an apartment right across the street, so remember I'm from Montana, that's gonna help you with the story. Right across the street from us was this huge granary, it was like three stories building and big grain silos, but it was abandoned, it was empty, so my friends and I thought this will be really great to go in here and like sneak in and we'll go run around in there, and it the coolest building I'm telling you right now, three stories, catwalks everywhere, little tunnels leading to other places, I mean it's like a dream building for some guys to find, right? We'd go up to the top of the silos, one of the guys had like rappelling equipment, so we'd tie off and we'd rappel down the silo at like two in the morning. Now I know, I see some kids in here and parents are
wanting me to say this, this was stupid, okay, I know that, I know that, and it's gonna get more stupid as I go along. I'm not saying this was a good idea,
I'm not proposing that you do this, I'm just, you'll see where I go with the story, okay. So my friends and I would go in there, and it was so much fun, we did this for a couple of months, well one night we're running around, big flat roof, we're running around on the roof, have our flashlights on, which isn't very smart if you're trying to keep from being found, right, running around on the roof with flashlights on. All of sudden we hear a car, it's like two in the morning, we hear a car engine going, we
look down, police officer down there, we're like, uh-oh, so we start running down through the floors and we all like escape through different windows, me and my buddy one direction, they're still in the building, the other friends of mine, and we start running across the parking lot, all of a sudden I hear another car engine,
cop right there, his spotlight comes up on us in the middle. Now again, parents, I'm gonna let the children know this, okay, stupid, stupid, really stupid what we did, alright?
Because you know how the fight or flight thing kicks in? The flight thing kicked in right there. Would have been a lot better just to be like, oh, okay, okay, and they would have slapped her hand and said, hey, you're trespassing, don't do that, but I took off running, and I run and I grab my friend and we run back in, we dive through the broken window, and then I gotta go tell my other friends, warn them in the building that hey, the cops are here, so I run down, I see some flashlights run around the corner, I think it's my friends and I go, hey guys, and two cops turn around and go, Bill over here, I still remember the guy's name, Bill over here, they start chasing us, we're running now, I can see their lights bouncing on the wall in front of I can hear their gear, but
I know the building, so we're running through all these, and I kid you, I mean this is like a dream building. There was one part where
this room had this little tiny tunnel, it dropped down like eight feet, and then it tunneled in and it popped up in another little room in this building, it was so cool. Well, I knew the cops didn't know about that, so we dropped down in there, we go up, we pop out the other side, there's a window in that other room, we were gonna crawl out the window and we were gonna be home free, no problem, Except we get to the window, another cop car pulls in. I mean the whole city showed up at that building.
And another cop car pulls up, so now we're looking, they don't see us yet, but we're looking around, there's two fifty gallon drums sitting there kind of in the middle of the room. So we run around and we sit down behind the 50 gallon drums and we can hear that cop walking up,
pulls out his flashlight turns it on, it's like one of those movies, we were sitting there behind these drums, like from me to the front row there, and you could see the shadow from the drums up against the wall and we're hiding behind that, and then I can hear his radio going off and they're like, yeah, bring in the canine unit, we're like.
Now the guy I was with, he has like three overdue VHS videos, young people that's kinda like pre DVD days, okay?
He's so afraid that he's gonna go to the big house for like a life sentence. Those are the kind of dangerous people I used to hang around with. He's like, oh, got some more. So I kid you not, we're sitting there, we can hear them talking about bringing in the canine unit, flashlights going around, he thinks he's going to the big house for a life sentence because he's got three overdue videos and he's so freaked out, I start hearing this.
And I'm going
Flashlight's going around.
We're gonna be okay.
This is the challenge I needed the most. Because I don't know about you right now, I keep reading the news and hearing what's going on in our country and around the world and I get so caught up in fear and anxiety and anger and I think Jesus is saying to us, shh, it's okay.
Because two thousand years ago he said my kingdom is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell will stop it. For two thousand years, dictators and countries have tried to stop Christianity from spreading and they can't do it. My kingdom is unlike any other kingdom.
It's forcefully advancing not by the love of power but by the power of love and when you read the news and you get so caught up in anxiety and fear and anger, you're missing it because you're part of a different kingdom. Shh, it's okay, it's okay.
When you came in, you were handed some elements for communion. And if you didn't get them, right now we're gonna have ushers walking, raise your hand, they'll bring them to you, just raise your hands if you didn't get any, we have some ushers coming up and down the aisle. And what better message for us to pause
and celebrate communion together. And so if you've never used these before, there's a little tab, just click that tab down. There's a little piece of cellophane. You just peel it back on the top and you'll get a little wafer like this.
But remember the kingdom, if you put your faith and trust in Jesus, the kingdom that you and I are part of is unlike any other kingdom. It's not advancing by the love of power, but by the power of love. And the last night of Jesus' life, he displayed this.
He was celebrating the Passover meal with his disciples. The Jewish people had been doing it for fifteen hundred years. Jesus had done it every year of his life. He'd done it with the disciples for three or four years, but he does something on this night that was unlike any other night. Not for fifteen hundred years had the Jews ever done this. Jesus had never done this. On this night, during the meal, he takes a piece of the bread
and he looks at those guys and he says, Hey, for now on, whenever you take this, I want you to remember my beaten battered body. This is my body. I want you to remember my beaten, battered body. They wouldn't have gotten it that night,
but the next night when they stood at the foot of the cross and they saw Jesus hanging on the cross, oh, it would have hit. And so as we take this, would you remember that the only reason that you and I are part of this kingdom that we've been bragging about today is because of what Jesus did on the cross.
And so would you take this and remember the sacrifice of Jesus for you and I.
And then Jesus took some of the wine, some of the juice, and again he did something that had never been done before. And he said, This is my blood. And for now on when you do this, I want you to remember my blood that was shed for the sins of the world.
My friends, they wouldn't have gotten it that night, but the next day when they saw the blood dripping off of his body, they would have gotten it. So as we take this, we remember that the only reason that you and I are part of this kingdom that is forcefully advancing and not even the gates of hell can stop is because of what Jesus did for us two thousand years ago on the cross. We remember that.
Would you stand up? And as we get ready to sing this next song, oh, would you listen to the words of the song? Jesus, the way maker, the one who said, I'm building a kingdom that is forcefully advancing out of the gates of hell will stop. Jesus, we love you.
We love you, and I pray that we can live out this kingdom well, God. I pray that we can relax. We can relax, not get so overwhelmed with fear and anxiety and anger over what we see in our country and our world, because we're part of this kingdom.
God, that we can love the way you love, that whoever that is that you put on our hearts and minds, that we will love them the way you love them, God.
I pray that we can recognize that if we understand what this kingdom is about, God, how can we live this half heartedly? How can we not say like Paul did, I'm all in and I'm not turning back. Jesus, thank you for what you did on that cross two thousand years ago to make this all
possible for us. We love you Jesus and all God's people said, amen.
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