A Kingdom Without End
Notes
Transcript
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
PRESERMON:
CHURCH IS LIT UP!
MEETING AFTER SERVICE RIGHT HERE IN THE TENT.
Introduction:
Let me start by talking about generational social media.
I’m old enough to remember when Facebook was a social media platform for college students only. Anyone else remember that? It was exclusive. You needed an email address from a university in order to join. It was current. It was cool. It was better than MySpace.
Then it was opened up to everyone and suddenly it’s into the billions of users.
Then Instagram comes along and offers everyone something that Facebook couldn’t offer, and that was access.
Facebook would cap the amount of friends you could have at 5,000, and then you needed to create a page, and all of a sudden people no longer feel personally connected. But I remember in the early days of instagram thinking that I could see what this celebrity doing! I can see their pics. I can see their lunch!
As this level of access was monetized, and of course the subsequent additions of platform into the social space, such as Snapchat, Tik Tok and the continued socialization of YouTube. we began to see the rise of the influencers.
Today, becoming an influencer or a famous YouTuber is an actual career choice for people. This to me was crazy until I saw how some of these people lived. I mean, that little kid Ryan who does Toy Reviews is a millionaire. He plays with toys and reviews them and I saw that his net worth is 32 million.
Is there any wonder kids want to drop out of school and make youtube videos all day???
Now if you are wondering what any of this has to do with Christmas, it doesn’t. It’s just fun facts.
I’m kidding.
I said all of that to talk about how we have become influenced by these platforms and the people on these platforms. And if you are not on social media, you are still influenced by the media and I want to lean in on that in just one moment.
What is influencing you and who are you influencing?
TRANSITION
What is the Kingdom of God?
What is the Kingdom of God?
As we celebrate the birth of our Lord this Christmas season we read this familiar passage of scripture. I spoke about this last year and really focus on the word INCREASE. As a matter of fact, that became our word for 2022. It was a prophetic declaration over our church for 2021, and we saw that come to pass.
Can I get an amen on that?
We saw God increase our impact in the city as we served more than previous years, we saw God increase our weekend attendance, we saw God increase our Baptisms, we saw God increase the families who joined our church, we saw God increase our finances and we saw God increase our resources. Now let me ask again, how many of you are grateful for what God did in 2021?
When I read this verse today I see that his increase, which is tied to His very identity, is His nature.
It’s in His nature to increase things. God doesn’t come and touch something with the expectation that nothing happens.
We did well Lighthouse by aligning ourselves with the nature of God.
Someone say, alignment.
Alignment determines your direction.
This world is moving in many directions.
Your direction can be moved by how you vote.
Your direction can be moved by your education.
Your direction can be moved by experience.
Your direction can be moved by your influences.
Have you ever seen someone make a silly purchase because they were influenced to do so?
How many of you remember those Sketchers Shape Ups?
This shoe company went on record and marketed these magical shoes that had the ability to tone your back side. And they went and got a model to back this statement.
And then they got sued for a lot of money because these magical shoes couldn’t fix what someones lack of exercise.
Someone say direction.
This world is moving. It’s been moving before you got here and it will continue to move long after you leave. Your decision is to determine what you are going to align with.
We made the decision to align ourselves with the word of God.
We made the decision to find the nature of God, the movement of the Holy Spirit and latch our train onto that thing and go for a ride.
So, let me just stay right here for a minute. What are you aligning yourself with? What are the things and who are the voices that you have aligned yourself with, for better or for worse? What influences have shaped your alignment?
I want to preach to you today that if you can align yourself with God, and the things of God, you are aligning yourself with the one unchanging truth of the world. Kingdoms come, and Kingdoms go, but the word of the Lord remains forever.
Don’t get aligned with the finite when you can get aligned with the infinite.
Whose Kingdom?
Whose Kingdom?
As Isaiah writes about the increase of his government and peace, he goes on to include the throne of David and His Kingdom in that same phrase.
So let’s break that down together.
The Throne of David is an earthly representation of God’s plans.
Remember it was the people who picked Israel’s first King, Saul, but it was the Lord who picked His king, David.
This sliver of Israel’s history give us just enough illustration to show us how God’s plans work.
God planned to lead Israel and to be their King. This was God’s infinite plans.
All the other Kingdoms of the world had earthly Kings. Kings who led, wore crowns, who had robes, scepters, etc. This was the world’s finite plans, because remember, Kings and Kingdoms pass away.
Israel chose their King based on the outside qualities, and God chose his King based on the inside qualities.
As time played out, the King that Israel chose was a flop, and so God steps into the plans of Israel and redeems them back to himself. He does this by picking his King.
Now remember, what He touches increases.
They find this King, David, in the fields as a shepherd. After he is anointed, he is no longer just a shepherd but is supernaturally equipped to fight giants, lead armies, and know the will of God. What God touches, increases.
But let’s look at why I believe God touched David and set him aside to be his King for Israel.
David aligned his heart with God.
The writer said he was a man after God’s own heart.
Someone say ALIGNMENT.
This doesn’t mean David was perfect, but throughout his rule we do see that he was aligned.
For this, his throne is used as the throne by which God’s will is accomplished.
Your alignment makes you available to be used by God.
I love this… not your works, not your personality, not your good looks, but your alignment.
We said last week that God just needs our yes. I have found that you say yes to whatever you are aligned with.
If you are aligned with it, it has your heart. If it has your heart, it has your time, it has your resources and it has your attention.
When God saw David’s heart, he established his throne through him. What that meant, was that the Messiah to come would be from David’s lineage.
If Jesus did a 23 and Me, he’d see that way up the family tree was David. The King that God himself chose.
Now becuase God chose that Kingdom, it increased, and it’s now an everlasting Kingdom.
The Kingdom Without End
The Kingdom Without End
Now let me jump into the New Testament and show you how all of this was playing out in Jesus’ time. Remember, the Old Testament prophets all speak about the Kingdom of God. They spoke of a Messiah who would come and establish this Kingdom forever.
When John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, begins his earthly ministry he had a very narrow mission statement.
“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand.”
You gotta love that. John was a simple man, but he was lazer focused.
He’s telling everyone that this Kingdom, that they had waited on, was here!
This is such an important announcement that he’s making, but at the same time, it’s kind of past its due date. The Messiah has already been here for 30 years. He hasn’t started His ministry, but if His birth marks the beginning, then it’s 30 years in.
Here’s what’s going on… the Kingdom of Heaven was here, but revelation hasn’t occured yet.
What is revelation?
Revelation - It is events or happenings used to shift your focus or attention to something that was previously unseen.
It doesn’t mean it didn’t exist, it just meant that they couldn’t see it yet.
Luke 2 records that Simeon met Joseph and Mary in the temple at Jesus’ dedication and when he held Jesus he knew that he was seeing the Messiah. So to Simeon, the words of John the Baptist are late, but to the people in John’s congregation this was revelation.
I believe some of your prayers are already answered, you just can’t see it yet. But there is going to come someone or something that God is going to use and you’ll be able to see what was already there, you just couldn’t see it yet!
And that has always been the problem with God’s Kingdom. People are looking for something outwardly, and God has not changed. He still looks inwardly.
Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
Thousands of years after David is selected and God speaks to the Prophet Samuel about how God choses, and here we are in Jesus’ time still explaining to everyone that the Kingdom of God is not observed outwardly but within.
God’s Kingdom is an infinite Kingdom, an increasing Kingdom and a Kingdom that is constantly moving, and yet we want to bring the same measure to His Kingdom as we do to the worlds Kingdom and it won’t work. His Kingdom is within.
Endless Kingdom
Endless Kingdom
Now as I close this I want to bring this all together. I want to sum all of this up.
Part of what has made the Kingdom of God an unstoppable force has been the participation of humanity.
God does not need us, but he choses us.
He invites us into his plans and his purposes.
This is what makes the Kingdom of God an endless Kingdom. When you join in on what God is doing, when you align with God, you are joining in with millions of others who are bringing the Kingdom of God to their place and their space in this world.
You bring the kingdom of God into your homes.
You bring the Kingdom of God into your work.
You bring the Kingdom of God into your family.
You bing the Kingdom of God into your communities.
As I shared last week, my prayer is that you don’t allow this month to pass you by and get sucked into the hustle and bustle of this season, and miss the opportunity of this moment. Someone say opportunity.
There are a couple times of year that people’s hearts are softened for the gospel, and Christmas is one of them.
My prayer for you Lighthouse is that you would boldly use this season as an opportunity to bring the Kingdom of God into places you’ve not allowed him in.
My prayer for you Lighthouse is that you would see this month as another opportunity to be light to your world. That you bring change into your world. That you would be open and available for God to use you to reach someone this Holiday season.
This Wednesday we have a chance to do that for the 120 families who are coming. We are going to close by praying for each of them.
Next week, as you have an opportunity to invite someone to our service and allow us to serve them through our Christmas program.
And I want you to pray about what God would want you to do and who he would want you to speak to. Then, I want you to make the ask. I want you to align yourself with what God is doing here on earth.
God is already working, and he invites you in, and your small ask can make every bit of the difference.