The Joy of Growing the Kingdom of God

I think we’ve had some spectacular guest speakers we enjoyed over the last month or so. I am so glad to be back up here to share with you today. And those of you who are, oh, what’s, who, what now? Oh, my wife. Okay.

Absolutely. Absolutely. All of them were great. And my wife included. Yes.

She is amazing. She’s always amazing. I don’t ever have to worry about, about her. If I ever need somebody to speak that I know is going to do a great job, she will do it. So, yeah, I’m just glad to be back up here, guys.

And if you’re new with us today, thank you for being with us, attending with us today. You can connect with our table. You got a blue card? Y’all got those blue cards with you? Yeah, they’re in.

You can do prayer requests and you can fill that out in any way you want to. If you want to be baptized, which we have baptism coming up soon, lots of things are happening and we want to be able to connect with you. If you just want to know more about our church, we’ll be glad to connect you with some of the information of what we are, who we are, how we started, where we’re going, and super excited about what God has in store for salt church. Amen. Amen.

All right, so we are in a, a series, which we’re going to finish it up here at the end of the month, and then we’re going to start a series on Nehemiah. I’m going to talk about Nehemiah. I’m going to talk about some hard work. So y’all get ready for that. But today I want to talk about the joy of expanding God’s kingdom together.

The joy of expanding God’s kingdom together. And we’ve been talking a bit about joy this summer, just kind of experiencing joy. And this can be a season where we’re kind of getting to the end of the season or in the middle of the season. Then you start getting to the dog days of summer. So some of you are like, oh, where did the joy go?

You know, when the warm weather first came in, you all were cooking hot dogs and going to the beach and you had all these vacation plans. Some of you are on vacation now. By the way, our online people were so glad you tuned in with us today. And some of you are on vacation. Many of you are on vacation, actually, a lot of our people are here and there enjoying themselves this summer, but some of you are probably at the place.

Where’s the joy? The joy is missing. I thought summer would bring joy for some of you. You think winter brings joy because you’re cold weather people, and then you learn that winter doesn’t necessarily. I know, I think it’s weird, but there are people that are there.

But joy is temporal when we focus on the here and now, joy is temporal when we focus on hearing out, we’re meant for more. The reason we lose joy is because we are meant for so much more. Because we are citizens and members of something else. When we’re believers, when we become believers, we become citizens and members of a kingdom. A kingdom to be a part of.

And not only that, to build. Not only just to sit and be a citizen under, but to build a kingdom. And there’s something special about building something, right? We’re a church. We’re a small church, and we’re growing and we’ve got opportunities to grow.

And there’s something special about growing something. Some of you who are small business people, or maybe you’re, maybe you have a large business and you know what it feels like, how good it feels when you finally make it right. Like, you’re like, wow, it grew. I’ve got people working for me. I’m able to help people, give people jobs.

We’re able to do awesome projects. I have friends who own small business, and they just like to look at their work and say, wow, that looks good, you know, and give a great project. There’s something special about something blossoming and becoming and growing and becoming mature, and there’s something special about that. But we aren’t just meant to build a life. We aren’t just meant to build a business.

We aren’t just meant to build a bank account. We aren’t just meant to build a retirement. So many people go into retirement and there’s a depression rate when they go into retirement. I spent all of my life building a retirement plan to come to retirement and realize that this isn’t it. Because we are built for something more.

We have something more. We are meant to build this thing called a kingdom. We are citizens of something greater, but not in the way we understand it. It’s one that isn’t of this world. We see this throughout scripture from the very beginning to the end.

In fact, first mentioned, Daniel talks about this kingdom of heaven, or kingdom of God that we’re talking about today. In Daniel 244, it says, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will be destroyed, that will never, excuse me, never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms, the kingdoms of this world. It’s not like the kingdoms of this world, right? It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.

Matthew 2423 Jesus begins to teach. He goes about Galilee, teaching, teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming this gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. In Matthew ten, it says, and then Jesus sent his disciples out, and this is the commission he gives them to proclaim the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God to the world. He says, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It is here.

I am ushering it in. I am beginning this. And in revelation 1115 says, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and Jesus Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. There is a kingdom beyond what we see here that is available. And this simple definition of the kingdom.

A lot of people are like, what in the world is this kingdom? I hear about it. I see it through the Bible. I even study it. Let me just give you my simple definition.

It’s the perfect, perfect sovereign reign of God through Jesus Christ over the entire universe. The perfect, we can interchange that word perfect with the good sovereign or the just sovereign or the holy sovereign, or the redeeming sovereign, or his perfect will or his perfect plan for the entire universe, that everything he does is perfect. Everything he puts in place is perfect. Whether it’s good, whether it’s bad, it is perfect. It’s his perfect will.

And Jesus is king. Jesus is king, and we are citizens of that kingdom. When we become followers of Christ, we are now citizens. We are now members of this kingdom. So let’s talk about that for a minute.

The characteristics of this kingdom, what does that look like? Well, it’s already, but not yet. It’s already because Jesus says, I come, and I’m bringing a kingdom. I’m here, and I’m bringing a kingdom, ushering in a kingdom, but it’s not yet, because there’s something in the future that’s gonna happen, and he’s gonna redeem everything back to himself. The whole universe is going to be restored.

Here’s what John Piper says. The kingdom of God is God’s reign, his sovereign action in the world to redeem and deliver people, which is happening now. God’s kingdom is here, and then at a future time, finish it and renew his people and the universe completely. Praise God for that, that we got something to look forward to. It is here.

It is working. It is moving, but it’s not yet. And it’s both visible and invisible. It’s visible and invisible. When Jesus sent his disciples, he said, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The kingdom of God is at hand. It is here, and it is going to be visible. Yet Jesus said when he was standing before the courts when he was being sentenced to be crucified, they asked him, what is your kingdom? What kingdom is this? Who are you king over?

And he says, this, my kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place. It is invisible. It’s not like the world’s kingdom.

It is a kingdom beyond what we can see. It is an invisible kingdom. But yet it’s here. It’s here. We see it through the church.

We see it through our service. We see it by the church being here. We see your testimonies of that, your testimonies of the goodness of God that he saved and rescued you by grace. We are testimonies in the church. And its presence brings about in the world good things.

We hear all these statistics, false statistics, that is, of how the church is harming the world. But if we really look at the grand scope of things, we know that the church brings way better good to the world than any other organization in history. That we bring good cause. The kingdom of heaven is a betterment to society. It’s good news for sinners, too.

It’s good news for those who feel like they’re so dark and deep in sin, that we have this good news that they can be saved and they can be rescued. And we see the benefits of that. It says in James 117, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, the father of the kingdom of heaven. It comes down from heaven, right? Kingdom gives us good and perfect things.

Every good and perfect gives. Who does not change. Like shifting sand. We have a king that does not change. He is good always in everything we can trust, and we can believe that our God is good.

But it’s not your normal kingdom. Because this king traded in his crown for a cross. He decided to be a servant rather than a ruler. He ruled in a different way. That God king gave his son so that the world could live.

This is not your normal kingdom. It’s an eternal kingdom and from another world, as Jesus said. And this kingdom is priceless. That’s my second point. It’s priceless.

If you’ve got your notes, you can fill in your blank there. Keep up. Study this during the week. Right. It’s priceless we forget that, right?

I think I forget how priceless it is. Jesus tells us it’s priceless because he uses two parables right back to back to prove it. And when he used the same story over and over again to emphasize his point, like you do when you’re trying to emphasize something, you say it over and over again, and you use a deeper meaning for it because you’re trying to get the point across. This is what jesus was doing. He says, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field.

When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went, and what did he do? He sold all he had. He sold all of his surfboards. He sold his boat. He sold his.

He sold his house. He sold. He sold everything because it was so priceless. He sold his retirement plan. He sold it all.

Why? Because it was priceless. And he bought that field because of that treasure. And he says again, again, disciples, I tell you, listen to me. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.

And when he found one of great value, he went away. And what did he do? He sold everything. He sold everything he had and bought it. Why is this so good?

Why is it. Why is this gospel? Why is this kingdom? Why is it so precious that we want to sell it all? Well, I think the psalmist says it very clearly.

Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all of his benefits. There’s benefits? What are those benefits? Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases? Praise God.

He one day we will all of our physical diseases. And right now, your spiritual disease is healed. There’s one reason. Right? And it redeems your life from the pit.

Right? He pulls you out of the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desire with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. That’s priceless right there, guys. That’s a priceless gift. And we.

The question is, do we realize or do we know how priceless this gift is? Or do we forget? Maybe we know, but we forget sometimes how priceless this gift is that we’re willing to just let it all go. And it’s global. It’s global is my next point.

It’s not just us. It’s everybody. It’s under this kingdom, under this king Jesus, that we have a global community, a global family, a global citizenship. That’s why ephesians says it like this. There is one body and one spirit.

Just as you were called to one hope, when you were called one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, one God and father overall, right? He’s father. So my buddies over here in this church down the road, we might have some theological differences, but that’s okay. We’re all a part of the same plan. We’re all a part of the same church.

We can. We can debate about what we believe, about certain different things. But, man, I’m telling you, we stand on this principle and this principle along, that God, Jesus is king and he is Lord over all, and his kingdom is being ushered in through us. And it says he is God. He is father of all.

He is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us. And this is what Paul’s getting to to each one of us, whether it’s a body of believers such as salt church, or it’s an individual believer, he has graced us. He’s given grace. Each one of us.

Grace has been given as Jesus or Christ, rather, apportioned or administered. Some versions say administered it, meaning that we’ve all been giving special graces and special gifts. All of us churches have been given special graces and special gifts. None of them were wrong. Well, some of them might be wrong.

Let’s just pull back a little bit there. But we all stand on the tenets of what we believe, that Jesus Christ is Lord and he is sovereign, and we work together and we pursue the kingdom of God forever. Built on the apostles, on the prophets, on the teachers, pastors, evangelists, and it goes on down to you. It’s almost like a military. Not just a family, but a military order in which we all have gifts and we all have offices, and we all have places in the body of Christ.

And when we’re working and moving in what God has graced us with, there’s nothing we can’t do. There’s nothing we can’t do. Just as an earthly kingdom is structured, God’s kingdom is structured. We have jobs to do, you have jobs to do. And then it’s a continual expanding reality.

It’s a reality. I put that reality word in there on purpose because it is absolutely a reality. The kingdom of God is reality. The kingdom that you cannot see is as real as you in this room right now, there is a reality. Jesus is reality.

And he’s opening up our eyes, he’s opening up our hearts to the reality of his kingdom and opening everyone to the reality that he is king over this earth. He’s opening lives, he’s raising lives. And it started with just a ragtag group of people we like to make them so saintly, right? And then you guys watch the chosen, and y’all realize they ain’t so saintly, you know, they did a good job of portraying these regular ragtag group of people. Matthew 13 says, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.

Although it is the smallest of all seeds, yet it grows into the largest of garden plants and becomes a tRee. It expands. It’s continuing to expand. It started in that in Jerusalem, Judea, SAmaria, to the ends of the earth. And today we have 2.

4 billion christians, to be exact, in this world. It grew from something very, very, very small until the greatest movement in history. By the power of the holy spirit moving through people and entering into his kingdom, they grew his kingdom. What’s the purpose of the kingdom? Like John Piper says, redeem and deliver people, and then at a future time, finish it and bring it to completion.

And what is the purpose of the church? To capture God’s heart for that. To capture God’s heart. Do we have God’s heart for the world? Do we have God’s heart to expand his kingdom?

Or do we like our little community groups where we come together and we’re just happy and we go home for the week and we live our lives, and maybe we talk about Jesus a little bit. Are we really interested in sinners? Somebody asked me the other day, or I told somebody in a conversation the other day, I said, man, I just love sinners. What, you love sinners? Yes, I love people who don’t know Jesus, because God loved people that don’t know Jesus, and Jesus loved people that don’t know Jesus.

In fact, he was called out for hanging out with sinners. Tax collectors, those snakes in the grass. You know, he was. How dare he hang out with them. You need to go, Jesus.

You need to go to your community group over there now. Nothing wrong with community groups and salt groups. Gosh, you got to be in those, because that’s where you grow, and that’s where you fellowship, and that’s where you learn to do this right and you do this together. But what are we doing as churches in and out and in and out on Sunday? What are we doing?

Are we expanding the kingdom of God together? It’s continually expanding and it’s growing, and we have to capture the heart of God. God says to grow his kingdom. He says, go out into the world and grow his kingdom. So what does this mean for salt?

What is this salt thing anyway? Like, we’re called Salt church. A lot of you, hopefully most of you that have been tending for a while, know why we call ourselves Salt church. But salt always makes a difference. Just a little bit of salt goes a long way is what we say here.

Just a little bit of salt goes a long way. And you are salt. Why? Because Jesus tells us we’re salt. It says in Matthew 13 513, he says, you are the salt of the earth.

But if the salt loses its saltiness, if you just go, if you just sit on church on Sunday morning and don’t go out in salt, then you just kind of lose your saltiness. In fact, you become salty the other way. Sometimes you sit in church and complain about how bad the world is. Well, Biden trump, blah, blah, blah. That’s what we do as christians, it seems like, and that’s what America sees in us instead of us being out there, that we’re expanding the kingdom of God in our work, in our life, in our hearts for others, bringing people to church with every necessary way we can, doing what we can to expand his kingdom.

He says, you are, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It can’t. And it is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. And then he says, you are light to the world. You are a light of the world.

You’re a light of the world. That means you light up the world, the church. You light up the world. Do you believe that? Do you believe that you light up the world?

I think a lot of people don’t believe they actually light up the world. Christ lights up the world. Through Christ, we light up the world. We are the kingdom of God. We are a light to the world.

As light expands, so should the kingdom of God expand into the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. And in that day, they would walk down through mountains and look down in valleys at these big, massive cities and see the beauty of it. Have you ever been up on a cliff or look down into a city? I remember when I was in college at Appalachian State University, I’d take a hike up on a mountain.

I could see all of Boone down in the valley, on the valley, and I would see it lit up in this valley and how beautiful it was and how glorious it was. It just warmed my heart just to see that. Wow, that’s something. That’s something. That’s what the kingdom of heaven is.

You’re a light to the world. You are a city on a hill. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. What do you light a lamp for? And put it under a bowl instead?

They put it on stands. Are you putting your light on a stand and gives the light to everyone in the house? Lights up the whole house. It lights up everything. We turn off these lights, you won’t see anything.

Just these little bit of lights in here. They change the entire environment. They do. Doesn’t take much. It just takes us.

It takes us in the same way. Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify who? Him? Not us. Not our church necessarily.

It’s God. It’s King Jesus. We’re glorifying. We’re glorifying King Jesus. And whether it’s us as individuals becoming more like Christ or it’s a church, together, growing, expand.

There’s joy in that because there’s beauty in that. That’s what God wants us to do. That’s what he’s built us for. To be light, to be salt, to expand, to grow the kingdom of God across this earth. And we should be excited about that.

So you wonder why the joy is not there. I’m a Christian, but there’s no joy because you’re not living out what God called you to do, to go out and make disciples look at the joy of expanding the kingdom here. Jesus came them and said, and all of you know this. I don’t even have to read this if you’re a believer. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

Jesus says that I am the king. And here’s what the king’s telling you to do. You will receive power from the Holy Spirit and you will go out. Therefore, go make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy spirit. Acts one seven says it like this.

And he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or dates. So stop trying to figure out everything, guys. But here’s what I’m going to give you. Stop trying to prophesy somebody in office that’s going to heal our nation. We pray for our nation, we are concerned for our nation, and we know what happened yesterday, and there’s a lot of chatter about that.

And, wow, what a miracle that Trump didn’t get shot. Yeah. And whatever side of the aisle, whether you’re a Trump fan or you’re a Biden fan, or you’re nowhere and you’re just like, oh, my gosh. Remember that Jesus is king. Remember that Jesus is king.

And he ordains and he structures and he puts things in order the way he wants to. And it’s not for you to decide the times or the dates that the Father is going to do what he’s going to do. But here’s what I will say. But you will receive power from the Holy Spirit. So we need power from the Holy Spirit.

First and foremost, that comes on you, and you will be my witnesses. Where to Jerusalem? To Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Let me just talk about those three.

Those three areas right there. First of all, Jerusalem. What they simply did when Jesus told them to go to Jerusalem is obey. Because honestly, guys, it didn’t make a lot of sense to go to Jerusalem. Why would we go back to Jerusalem?

That’s where Jesus was tried. That’s where Jesus was found. There’s a Sanhedrin there that wants us dead. Why would we go back to Jerusalem? Why would we go back to Virginia beach?

Why would we go back to Norfolk? Why would we go back to Portsmouth? Why would we go back to wherever it is? Why would we do that? I don’t understand it.

God. Sometimes we don’t understand why God calls us to specific things in specific places. But what we do is we obey. We obey. And he told them, I want you to go back to Jerusalem, and I want you to pour into Jerusalem.

I want you to be in Jerusalem. Some of you don’t know why you’re in Virginia beach. I’m not saying Virginia beach is a great city. I know why you’re here. But listen, some of you are like, and I’ve heard it, why am I in Virginia beach?

You know, like, complaining. There’s so many tourists and there’s so much military, or vice versa. You know, I don’t want to, you know, I wish I was home because I am in the military. I want to go, you know, whatever it is, why are you here? Because God called you here and put you and orchestrated you to be here.

In this moment of time, you are called to your Jerusalem. Salt church is Jerusalem is Virginia beach. It starts in Jerusalem. And Jerusalem didn’t make a lot of sense, but they went and they gathered together about 100 of those people that nobody even hardly knew, except maybe by their relationship to Jesus. And they began to pray, and God began to move.

Next month, we’re going to do some prayer. We’re going to have Tuesday evening prayers through the month of August, and we’re going to pray that the God, the sovereign God of the universe would give us the power to expand his kingdom through our church. And they prayed and they received power. And they began to minister. And they began to minister.

And they began to minister to that little place in Jerusalem. Little place. Jerusalem. They began to minister and they devoted themselves to the apostles teachings. They listened to the teachers and they grew in Christ.

And they broke bread together and they prayed. And everyone was filled with awe because of the signs and wonders that were happening among the apostles and prophets. Praise God for signs and wonders and miracles. And all the believers were together and everything they had was common. And they sold and they brought their money together.

They helped the needy. And every day they continued to meet together in the temple. And they just loved each other. They broke bread in their homes. They ate together, and they had glad and they had sincere hearts.

It wasn’t about them. It was about others. It was about the kingdom of God. And it was so contagious that the Lord added to their number. Not monthly or yearly.

Daily. Daily. It grew. They weren’t just going to church. They were to church.

They weren’t just going to church. Don’t just go to church. Be the church, guys, let’s be the church. Stop coming to church. Start being the church.

Okay? Let’s expand the kingdom of God. Bring people. Talk to your neighbors. Talk to everybody around you.

Be salt and light. Leave a city on a hill. Be light unto the world. They want it. They need it.

They’re hopeless. Nothing ever got them anywhere in life. They’re in their retirement plans and they’re not figuring it out there. They’ve got the best job they’ve ever had, and they’re like, why am I still empty? You know, I’ve got this big house.

I got a boat, I got a cardinal. I’m out on the water right now, and somebody’s sitting out there on the water on a boat right now, and they’re concerned about their life. They don’t know what to do. They don’t know why life is and what it means. We are called to Jerusalem.

We got to be the church, and we got to grow the church because that’s what God tells us to do. We got to grow the kingdom. God. And we also need to expand our outreach. Judea and Samaria, they were the surrounding communities.

Throughout every letter in the Bible, we see Paul exhorting other churches for what they’ve done, for how they supported not only the ministries that he was a part of, but the churches that were going through famines at time and having hard times and money. Was low, people were hungry, whatever that looked like. We see churches helping churches, churches helping churches. Because we’re a global kingdom. We’re not just a Virginia beach.

We’re not our individual village. Village is good, but if it’s not helping other villages, it’s no good. If you’re just into your own little world, it’s not that good. It’s not what God intended. And you’ll just be a miserable Christian.

So we’re kingdom focused. We go outside of our church, we go outside of denomination lines, and we touch, we connect with all of them. A few years ago, during the pandemic, we did an online service with our friends at Risen church. Me and the pastor got together, we sat in front of a camera, had a good Easter service, completely different theological views. That was okay.

We loved each other and we had a good time doing it. And we led a lot of people to Jesus. Amen. And that’s what the expanding the kingdom of God is all about, that we share in the work that God is calling us to do. Romans 1226, one corinthians 16, one.

I know I’m throwing you a lot of scripture here. Two corinthians eight, nine acts 1127 and 30. All these scriptures and more. You can just go and read things yourself. Just read the letters and you’ll learn that it was all about the global church.

It was all about this church here and this church there and this church. It wasn’t just about Virginia beach. It was about what else was going on in the world. And then finally, we need to expand our hearts towards goddess to the ends of the earth. What’s God’s heart to the ends of the earth?

God’s heart is for all people. God’s heart is for all people. And my question is, do you have a heart for God and his people? Do you really want to see people know Jesus? Do you really want to see people in eternity in the new kingdom with you?

That’s what God wants. God wants every person he possibly can. The scripture says he holds back his raft. That’s where we get salt from. Just because just our little bit of salt holds back God’s wrath, God’s judgment, God’s perfect judgment, because he’s a good king, right?

And you see all the bad stuff going on in the world, well, God’s going to make all that right because God is a good God in the end, God fixes all of that. But guess what? He allows these things to happen because there’s one person that still needs to know him. Some there’s one person whose heart is still open to hearing about him, that it’s not too callous. It’s not too far.

They’re not too far away from him. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people tell me, just give up on that dude. There’s no way that dude’s shady. When we started Salt church, there’s people I was just ministering to, people who were far from God. Oh, give up.

Give up. No way you’ll ever, ever reach that person. We have people right here in this church that are some of those people. Hey, that’s a good thing. Amen.

They love the Lord. They don’t miss Sundays. They’re here. They’re not too far from God because God’s heart is for all people. Look at Paul’s prayer.

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all of the Lord’s holy people. That’s the whole church. To grasp how wide, to grasp how deep and how high the love of Christ is. Do we know how deep it is? Do we know how wide it is?

Do we know how long it is? Do you know how his hand is not too short to save? Do we have his heart? And to know the love that surpasses knowledge. Because there’s no way we can even understand the love of God outside of the Holy Spirit because we don’t have it in us in our own making.

But God’s love is so much more than we can even fathom. That you may be filled to the measure of all, the fullness of God that you may. I want the fullness of God. I want the fullness of God. I want God’s heart.

Do you want God’s heart? Do you want God’s heart? What are you going to do about it then? 450,000 people in Virginia beach and a majority of them don’t know Jesus. And even the ones that go to church, the percentage of them, a lot of them don’t know Jesus.

They’re not a part of the kingdom. They’re going to go before Jesus. And I see Jesus with tears in his eyes, saying, depart from me. I never knew you with tears in his eyes. He’s not a God who’s like, ha ha ha, you’re going to hell.

He’s not that type of God. He cares. So what are we going to do about it? Had a mandeh years ago when I preached a, when I was serving at another church and I preached a message on evangelism and he came up to me. And he said, leon, I get what you’re saying, but I just don’t have a heart for lost people.

I don’t care. I know it’s wrong, but I don’t care. What do I do about it? What do I do about it? Well, I could tell you.

I could tell you to read your Bible. You know that’s good, right? You can read your Bible, read your Bible, get the word of God, and it tells you what God’s heart is, right. I could tell you to go to church more, which is a good thing. That might be a reason why a lot of people, their church tendencies way in the last 30 years has dropped significantly in regular tenders.

And that might be it. I don’t know. I could tell you to go to Bible studies and go to small groups more. That’s a good thing. And you grow there and you learn and you develop relationships and you see the heart of God through people.

You could. That could be it. I could tell you to fast more. Maybe you need to fast. Maybe you need to pray.

I could tell you to pray more. Get on your knees and pray. But those are all good. But. But the truth is, I can’t tell you what it is.

Only God can do that. I’m not. I’m nothing. Some super prophet that can look into your heart and say, that’s where you need to fix it. That’s not what I do.

I just simply teach the word of God. And I know what God’s heart is. He wants to reach the world. He wants to expand his kingdom. And I can tell you, when we do become a part of that, we experience this thing called a joy, unspeakable and full of glory.

I know that. So my question is, are you on your face asking God, what is it? I can’t tell you, but God can, because all of us are in different places in our spiritual journey. I don’t know where you are with your relationship with Christ, but he can show you his heart, and he wants to show you his heart. Are you open to hearing from him?

Are you open? You’ve got to know his heart. Let’s pray. Father, thank you for the power of your word, the power of your kingdom. We pray that your kingdom would continue to expand across the city.

Lord Jesus, we pray that you would have. Would use our church and use our people and use our gifts, Lord, and give us a heart for those who are lost, those who are sinners. Lord, those need to know you, God. I pray, God, that we would not be selfish, that we would not be self centered, that we would not be focused on ourselves in our little worlds. Lord, but we realize that your heart is across the earth.

Across the earth. Your praises and your glory will be made known. You say in your word, Lord, that one day all will praise you, that every knee will bow and every heart will confess and tongue will confess that you are Lord, jew, gentile, the entire world. Everyone will eventually bow at your feet. King Jesus.

So, God, we make the choice today to bow at your feet now, to not think about tomorrow and all the things that go on, but today, just simply, simply kneel down and obey. We just want to obey you today. Obey you today. What are you placing on our hearts, Lord? What are you showing us, God?

Touch us, Lord. Open us up to that thing or those things that perhaps we are missing in the church. Lord, I pray for those who are trying to discover new directions in their lives, God, that you would just begin to open up doors to reveal those things to them. Those who are praying for next steps, God, that you would begin to show those next steps in their spiritual lives. But most importantly, God, I pray for those who may not have given their lives to you today, that someone in this room today hasn’t made a decision to follow you.

They believe you’re a good teacher, a good prophet, or have some good things to say. But perhaps they don’t know you, but they’re ready today. Maybe their first step to following you, Lord, is just simply giving their lives to you, surrendering their lives to you. And if that’s you today, listen to the voice of the holy spirit and give your life to Jesus. Just give it over.

Lord, I believe that you are the son of God and you died on the cross for my sin. Forgive me of my past. Forgive me of my present, Lord, even forgive me of my future. Lord, I’m going to trust in you. Lord, my future is your future now.

I want to experience the joy that passes understanding, a joy that even the apostles could go to the grave rejoicing. The early church could go to the grave rejoicing when they were being martyred and persecuted. Lord, I wanna experience that, Lord. God, would you give me that joy? Would you come into my life?

Would you come into my heart? I decide today to follow you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Praise God.

Hallelujah. Thank you, king. Thank you, lord. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah.

Amen.