The Kingdom of God was preached by the forerunner of Jesus (John the Baptist), by Jesus Himself, by His disciples, and should be preached by us now.
But what is it? How do we preach it? What does it look like?
If you’ve ever wondered about questions such as these, then this message will give you a good foundational understanding of the Kingdom and several other topics that come from a larger study of the Kingdom of God such as:
How does God’s Kingdom come?
Is it already here?
How do we inherit the Kingdom or not?
Humility
Brokenness
Demonstrations of power
Being childlike
The Millennial Reign of Christ
and more…
There is much more that can be said about the Kingdom of God than what is contained in this message; however, it will give a great foundation to anyone who is new to the topic, and will be an encouraging refresher and challenge to others.
For the longest time I thought that “Hallowed” was an adjective describing God’s name. I mean, honestly, it isn’t a word that we use all that much in everyday conversation, and to me it seemed to describe God’s name–like saying His name is Holy.
However, I have since learned that “hallowed” is actually a verb. So, this phrase is not describing God’s name as much as it is declaring action on our part toward His name. It means “to be honored as Holy”. Yes, His name is holy, but this simple phrase is a challenge to us. We are to honor His name as holy.
How do we do that? How does that affect the way we live our lives? I discuss answers to these questions in this teaching, and go further into explaining what God could have meant when He told us to be holy the way that he is holy. Is that even possible? Did He really mean for us to be holy in the same way that the transcendent creator of all that exists is holy? If so, what happens if we’re not?
The scripture has so much to say about the concept of God’s holiness and His people’s holiness. This message serves as an encouraging look into the dynamics between the two.
After Jesus uses the word Father in the disciples’ prayer, a word that expresses great intimacy, affection, and acceptance in God, He immediately uses a phrase that makes God completely untouchable: In Heaven. Why the great disparity?
On the one hand, we seem invited to accept God as absolutely close and accessible. On the other hand, he is lifted into the cosmos. Ineffable. Unreachable.
How are we supposed to manage such a dichotomy in our daily lives? How do we wrap our theology around a God who is both so imminent and transcendent?
This teaching attempts to give some biblical clarity around these two ideas about God, and shows how–for the believer–God being “In Heaven” doesn’t put him so far away as we may have thought; although, His worthiness of being highly exalted is not diminished in the least.
We will come to this conclusion by looking at scriptures that answer the following questions:
What is Heaven?
What does that make God?
How do we approach Him?
What is our position with the God In Heaven?
I think you’ll enjoy this message. You can read the attached notes and listen to the audio above. Feel free to “like” this post below and leave your comments. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
If there is one thing for certain about Jesus’ desire for his church, it is that we would live, work, and love in oneness.
As a matter of fact, Jesus prayed that we would be one in the same way that He and His Father are one. Wow!
John 17:11, 21 (NIV) 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name–the name you gave me–so that they may be one as we are one… 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
So, what would that look like? What would it mean for our daily life? How would it affect our lives individually and as a community of believers? How does it affect God?
In the attached lesson above I seek to answer these questions, and I discuss what the Bible says about how we achieve this unity. You can read the notes and listen to the teaching. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
You can’t find a scripture that ever says that he is, and you can’t find him displaying the attribute of “being nice” in the scriptures. What He is, though, is so much better…
God is kind.
In this lesson I talk about what the debt was that Jesus really paid, and what the most natural reaction from us should be to the grace he showed us: walking in love and kindness.
I then talk for some time on the differences between being nice and being kind, why it is important to understand the difference, and why being kind should be our goal–not being nice.
Here is a chart from the attached notes that gives you an idea of some of the things that I talk about:
Kindness has to do with one’s nature. Inward condition.
Nice has to do with how we appear to others. Outward action or appearance. It is so much related to outward appearance that it is commonly used to say things like:That’s a nice car. That’s a nice house. He has a nice smile.
Is always rooted in the Truth (based on scriptures about Kindness).
Can be rooted in DECEPTION. “I was just being nice.”
The Bible tells us to be Kind.
The Bible NEVER tells us to be nice.
Finally, I present some warnings from scripture to those who do not walk in love.
There are more slaves in the world today than there were during the transatlantic slave trade.
www.ExodusCry.com explains:
The latest global estimate according to the International Labor Organization (the United Nations agency that deals with global labor issues), calculates that nearly 21 million people are victims of human trafficking worldwide. Roughly 4.5 million of those victims are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Many people are unaware of the modern slave trade. Women and children, and even men in some cases, are literally bought and sold like products. In one of the best documentaries ever created on this topic, Nefarious: Merchant of Souls, one brothel owner in Amsterdam compared it to ordering a pizza.
Some people in society actually argue that prostitution is an issue of women’s choice or freedom of expression. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is largely about slavery, greed, manipulation, and control.
I spoke about this topic shortly after learning about human trafficking. To become more aware of this issue, you can listen to the audio of my message and read the notes. However, I would strongly urge you to watch the Nefarious documentary and check out the ministry behind the documentary Exodus Cry.
Growing up. That term can be used to mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. In this lesson I seek to uncover why it seems many Christians never make it past the most basic levels of maturity in Christ.
This is a touchy subject, because no one ever truly wants to admit their own immaturity; however, it is something that we all deal with in our walk with God, and something that we all must outgrow.
Although I’m sure many of us can observe those around us, and even our own selves if we are willing to be honest, and recognize the fact that we may not mature as quickly spiritually as we do physically. Some of us still struggle with the same things after being Christians for many years, yet others seem to grow up very quickly.
Why is this? That is the question I attempt to answer in this lesson, and I believe it begins with gaining an understanding of the beings that God created us to be.
A couple of years ago I started thinking a lot about self-reliance. You know, being able to take care of my family even if the economy takes a turn for the worse, or if the power goes out for a week, or if I lose my job. There is a lot of great information out there about practical ways to prepare for your family, and then some crazier “hollywood-ized” presentations of “prepping” that would lead you to believe that being prepared to take care of your family has to come with a conspiracy theory, or paranoia, or maybe even a little bit of craziness.
The more I studied about prepping, the more I began to be concerned with whether or not my concern was rooted in fear or a lack of trust in God. So, I began to search out this topic in scripture and found that–not only is prepping found all throughout the Bible–it is actually an act of faith to be prepared. God honors preparation.
This lesson teaches a Biblical perspective on prepping, and endeavors to give Biblical grounds for why Christians should see physical preparation for hard times as an act of faith in God to do what He has always done.
One scripture that I’ll add here that I believe is always great to meditate on when it comes to prepping would be:
Luke 12:15-21(NIV)
15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
There are many ways in our walk with God to have fire and passion stirred up inside of us; however, absolutely nothing can replace the power of the Word of God to stir our hearts to burn. When we actively seek understanding from Jesus as we study the Bible, then we absolutely burn inside–whether we immediately recognize it or not. The disciples on the road to Emmaus experienced this. After realizing that they had been speaking to the resurrected Christ, they looked at one another and said “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
I originally taught this lesson in 5 parts, but here the audio is presented in one lesson with the original notes provided split up into days. Here are the topics covered:
Day 1: Why Study the Bible? In this lesson I discuss the main reason to study: to know the Truth, and the truth is a man.
Day 2: How to Study the Bible In this lesson I explain the main differences between Bible Study and Devotional Reading.
Day 3: Creating a Bible Study Action Plan In this lesson I discuss why many of us don’t study the Bible, and offer 4 main types of Bible study that provide an easy entry point into Bible study. I also provide information about many helpful study tools.
Day 4: Journaling (Pray-Reading the Scripture) In this lesson I give direction on a commonly used technique for truly seeking truth and engaging with the Holy Spirit while studying the Bible.
Day 5: Practice Journaling In this lesson I give further advice on specific ways to read through a passage of scripture to get the most out of it: Repetitive Reading, Emphasis Reading, and Negative Reading.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the teaching, or to answer any questions you have. Leave comments below.
The Bible tells us in Zechariah 7:9 to administer True Justice. I find it striking that there may be such a thing as “false justice” implicated in this statement. In this teaching I discuss what true justice and false justice are. I discuss the difference between them and how they can be recognized.
I also explain three arenas in life that we can be sure that true justice has its proper place:
Spiritual Justice – an inward reality
Personal Justice – an interpersonal reality
Social Justice – an outward necessity
In spiritual justice I explain the legal aspects of what Christ did for us in the courtroom of heaven.
In personal justice I discuss a trap that many of us often fall into of battling for “fairness” over true justice in our interpersonal relationships, and how that can affect our view-point on true justice in other areas of life.
Finally, in social justice I talk about the fact that many modern social justice movements are designed, at their foundation, to actually deceive and lead people away from the truth, and I discuss exactly why the Bible tells us to administer “true justice”.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can listen to the attached audio and/or read the PDF notes, and let me know what you think below in the comments.
