Why the World Needs the Kingdom of God

Why can't we get the Israelis and the Arabs to stop fighting? Why can't we get the North and South Koreans to stop fighting? I mean, the only reason they're not fighting right now is because there's an American army there. Why can't we get the Democrats and Republicans to stop fighting? Why can't we get the school board to stop fighting? Why can't you get your kids to stop fighting?

Why can't we fix this? Now, earlier I talked about how we have to understand there is a God of this age. And the God of this age is not the Creator, Eternal God. He's allowed Satan to have a time here, in which human beings are exposed to good and evil, so that we can learn to choose between good and evil. How does Satan influence us? Let's go to Ephesians 2. Because even as Christians, we are affected by Satan more than we realize. Ephesians 2 and verse 1. Paul here is writing to the church at Ephesus, and these people are...

Of course, Christians are in the church there in Ephesus. So he's talking directly to them. And he says in verse 1, "...and you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins." So he tells the people there in the church at Ephesus, those Christians, he says, "...you people were dead. You were dying. Your lives didn't work. You were failing." But God has given you life. God has changed the direction you were going in.

Verse 2 says, "...in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, just as the others." He said, the prince of the power of the air, the god of this age.

You know, that's an interesting term. Years ago, when I first came out of college, I thought I wanted to be a big radio star, so I went into radio for a while. And now, of course, it's even more dramatic the way information is passed through the air. You can pick up a cell phone, connect to a satellite in outer space, and talk to someone on the other side of the world and see their picture. And it's almost real time. There's almost no delay in what's going on. Well, you know, that's the way Satan is. The air around us is charged with his attitude, his way of feeling, his way of thinking.

And we absorb it. We don't even know it. Anger and hatred, greed and envy. These things that have become part of our nature. We are, as Paul says here, by nature the children of wrath. We've absorbed these things. They've become part of who we are. We live in rebellion against God's dominion, against God's authority. We live in rebellion against his kingdom, because we live in a world in which the god of this age is in rebellion against his kingdom.

But God wants us to change that. God wants us to come home. God wants us to come back to what we were originally designed to be, which is to be his children. His children are in a loving relationship with him, in a loving relationship with our brother Jesus Christ, and in a loving relationship with each other.

And this is why we can't fix it. Until we get right with God, we will never get it right with each other. Ever. We have to be right with God and right with Jesus Christ. Then we can get it right with each other. Then we will find the ways to actually solve the conflicts we have between each other. God wants you to open his life, or your life to his life. He wants you to open your life to his dominion, to his rule. He wants you to love him and to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

Now we know Jesus Christ is coming back, and we talked about that. He's coming back after the most terrible time in human history. I won't take the time to go there, but you can read the Olivet prophecy, the longest prophecy given by Jesus Christ himself, and in Matthew 24. Actually, it's Matthew 24 and 25 because both of those chapters were given at the same time.

All that information was given at the same time. And he discusses what it's going to be like before he returns. Now, earlier I said, I know that no matter which political party is in power, our government will fail. He said, well, how do you know that? Because Jesus Christ said so. Matthew 24 doesn't describe a time when somehow the world is prepared for Christ's return. There is a thought sometimes if we could just... if the Christians got seized power in the United States, and we would prepare this country for Christ's return, it won't work.

Why? Because according to Matthew 24, the world isn't prepared for his return. In fact, according to Matthew 24, many of the people who are his followers aren't prepared for his return. As in Matthew 24, it says, his own servants will beat each other and mistreat each other. The world before Christ's return is a world on the edge of self-destruction. Natural catastrophes will explode. I mean, we're living in a drought right now that we're beginning to realize just how serious a drought can be here in Texas.

You know, Texas is one of the biggest cattle producers in places in the world, and people are selling off their cattle herds. They're selling off the breeding herds. To re-establish a herd is very difficult. It takes a lot of money. To re-establish a cattle industry in Texas would take years. Texas is one of the leading producers of cotton in the world.

And the cotton crop isn't growing right. Will there even be one next year? They're starting to predict that this is at least going to go on in another year, this drought. There may be little relief now and then, but they don't see any major relief for a while. These natural catastrophes, according to Matthew 24, are just going to get worse. Now we say, well, there's always been natural catastrophes. There's always been earthquakes. There's always been tsunamis.

And that's true. But even the scientists tell us that over the last couple decades, those things have increased like no other time in history. Plus, there's another issue. There's over 6 billion of us on this earth. An earthquake 300 years ago couldn't do near the damage it can do now. There's just more of us. And you don't think we could go into chaos real quick?

Why don't you think about something? Why don't you imagine San Antonio without electricity for one week? Just think about San Antonio without electricity for one week. People will be killing each other in the streets. We live on the edge of chaos. It's hard to believe that because we live in the greatest civilization man has ever known. The world couldn't collapse. Well, it wouldn't collapse in 24 hours, but it could happen very quickly.

And once again, one of the reasons why is the God of this world wants to destroy humanity. So we forget there's a spiritual battle going on, and the God of this age wants to destroy humanity. And according to Matthew 24, Jesus Christ says, if He doesn't come back when He does, no human flesh would be saved alive. When Christ comes back, we'll have proven one thing.

Humanity will have proven over the course of its history that neither Satan nor us can create a peaceful, loving, working society. We've proven it. We've had our chance to try everything. God is giving us all this chance to say, try it, kids. Go ahead. You want to do it your way, do it your way. And when you get to the place where you're on the edge of total destruction, when you read Revelation and the whole world, I mean, the environment's going to be destroyed, there's going to be massive wars, economy breaks down all over the world, there's going to be massive starvation and disease epidemics.

I mean, it's just absolutely frightening what's going to happen before Christ returns. And then just before we destroy ourselves, He comes back. And what does He do? Now, there are, as I mentioned earlier, there are hundreds of verses in the Old Testament and, surprisingly, how many verses in the New Testament to describe what it's going to be like when Jesus Christ comes back.

I'm going to go through four passages. What's it going to be like when He comes back? Now, we know in Revelation, the first thing He does, there's a couple things He does real quick, and one is He removes Satan. In other words, the God of this world, He comes back and says, guess what? You don't have dominion anymore. Remember, Satan does not rule because he's stronger than God. He rules because God gave him permission to. And when God takes back that permission, He doesn't have it anymore. This isn't—you know, if this is a battle between good and evil, if the earth as we know it is a battle between good and evil, God's losing, this is the battle between good and evil.

This is God letting him have some permission for a while, and then God takes his permission away. His dominion, His rule, His authority, the kingdom of God, and God says, you can't have my children anymore. And He takes him away. That reality stops. I can't even imagine what that's like. I don't think any of us can. I don't think we can imagine what it's like to suddenly wake up and we're not under the influence of Satan.

Because it's much more powerful than we realize. That's why Paul called him the God of the age. And that's gone. And Jesus Christ returns. Now, removing Satan, there's something else he does right before that. And that's very important for those who have the vision of the kingdom of God now, who live by that kingdom of God now. Paul talked about it in 1 Corinthians 15.

It's called the resurrection chapter. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 15. The first thing that Jesus Christ does is he resurrects all the saints. And the saints who are alive are changed. Now, when we talk about saints in the New Testament, that isn't the way people... They don't use that word the way people use the word today. Once again, they didn't speak English, but the equivalent word in Greek. When people think of a saint today, they think of a special class of Christian, right?

That reached sainthood. Saint in the Scripture was anyone who had responded to God, repented, accepted Christ as their Savior, and received God's Spirit, and were living the kingdom of God in their lives now. They were saints. So when Christ comes back, there's not different classifications of Christians. Well, there's dead ones and alive ones. All the saints get resurrected. All the saints get changed. Now, what is that going to be like? And this is very important because this is part of the goal. This is part of the vision of the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 15, 22. Paul says in this whole chapter is about the resurrection. I'm just going to pick out a couple verses. But as an Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order, Christ the First-Roots, afterward those who are Christ at his coming. So when Christ comes back, he has a group of people that are prepared for something.

When God calls somebody today, it is not just to worship God and have God's dominion in your life now. It is to be prepared for this vision. Christ is going to change the world and he's going to use others to help him do it. And to be a Christian today means to be prepared for his coming, so that you can be a tool in the hands of God and a servant to Jesus Christ in changing the evil world.

Now, what's it like to be in that resurrection? Verse 35. Paul says, now, I know people are going to ask this question, but some will say, how are the dead raised up and what body do they come? So what's it like? Are you like a ghost? Do you sort of float around and are you just a disembodied spirit? I mean, what's it like to come up in the resurrection? Are you physical? What are you?

Verse 36, he says, Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow you do not sow that body that it shall be, but mere grain, perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as he pleases and to eat its own body. He says, you know, when you put that little piece of seed in the ground, the corn stalk looks totally different than the seed, doesn't it? He says, well, we are buried in the ground in our deaths as physical human beings.

What we come up as in that resurrection is different. Okay, well, how different is it? What is it? Verse 39, all flesh is not the same flesh, but there's one kind of flesh of men and other of animals and other birds and other... I'm sorry, and other animals and other fish and other birds. He says, look, you know, we can just see from observation. You look at the scales on a snake or a lizard.

You look at human beings. I mean, we're different. Today, science is able to classify animals into all different kinds of animals. You've got mammals, you have birds, you have reptiles. He says, there are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies, but the glory of the celestial is one, the glory of the terrestrial is another. There's one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. For one star differs from another star in glory. Now, this is verse 42. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, is raised in glory.

It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown in natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. Paul says, when Christ comes back, and we know a little later, he tells when this will happen.

Verse 50 says, Now this I say, brother, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. But we shall be all changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, for at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Now, if you put together what is said in the book of Revelation, you see that the last trumpet is the return of Jesus Christ.

So Paul says that the last trumpet, when Christ returns, all those who are prepared for that kingdom are changed. They inherit the kingdom. They see God as He is. And he says, well, you wonder, well, what kind of body will I have? He says, well, let me explain it this way. Look at the moon, which is a hunk of rock. No, he didn't know that. But he knew it was dead, and it reflected light.

And look at the sun that generates power and light. And he said, the difference is, your body now is like that rock, that moon. And in that resurrection, you will be like the sun. That's the promise of the kingdom. Now, you know, when you're 20, the resurrection is not a major issue. There reaches a point in life where you start thinking more about the resurrection, right?

You realize this really ends at some point. This physical life doesn't go on forever. It's the first time you get sick, and it takes you a long time to recover. Or you break your arm or blow out your knees and realize you're never going to be able to play basketball again. You start to realize, I'm not indestructible here. It's the first time someone you love dies.

And it really comes into your mind to realize, you know, nobody goes through this physical life and gets through this physically. And you start to realize, I want something beyond this. Well, the kingdom of God involves beyond this. And when Christ returns, He removes Satan and He resurrects the saints. That's why, buying in, if you will, accepting this kingdom of God, accepting God's dominion in your life now, that's what you're looking forward to. That's the goal of your life, being changed, meeting Jesus Christ in the air, coming back with Jesus Christ to the earth. You know, when you go to meet Jesus Christ in the air, you don't hang around in the air forever. Christ comes back to the earth, stands on the Mount of Olives.

It splits in two. And He does, just like the Old Testament prophet said, He sets up His kingdom in Jerusalem. There's a new temple that will be built in Jerusalem.

And the Son of God will be there, not this time as a carpenter. He'll be there this time as the King of Kings. He'll be there this time in His full glory as the Son of God. And there He will set up the kingdom of God with its monarchy and with its territory and with its subjects and with its laws, with its way of life.

Jesus Christ is not going to set up a multicultural religious system. And that's not very politically correct. But there will be one God that will be worshipped, and it will be the Father of Jesus Christ, and there will be one Son of God that will be worshipped, and it will be Jesus Himself. There will be one world government. Any world... You know, these one world government movements that come along, there's always some attempt to bring humanity into one world government. Sometimes through political reasons, sometimes like Adolf Hitler, through massive just violence.

You know, they're never going to work, and they're never going to produce any good. Because who's going to be charged with that? And what do we do with all the different people? You know, you think of all the different empires over the years. The Roman Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Greek Empire, the Persian Empire, the Chinese Empire... All empires have failed because they got bigger and bigger and bigger and they did not handle the diversity of its culture and the diversity of its religious systems.

And besides somebody deciding along the way, I don't want you in charge anymore. So I'm going to get an army and I'm going to take the kingdom away from you. That's what the history of humanity's been! One world government. He resurrects the saints to serve Him in establishing the way of peace.

The way of peace. One of the things He's going to have to do when He comes back is He's going to literally set up a government that will bring peace. Can you imagine when an edict comes out that says, all armies are disbanded? So the Iranians jump in their tanks and say, yeah, we'll show this Messiah and nothing works.

Isaiah, chapter 2. Of all the prophets, Isaiah is the most eloquent in explaining the future kingdom, the coming of the Messiah, the coming of the Christ. In fact, I read some place where Isaiah was called the William Shakespeare of the Old Testament prophets because he's writing stuff so eloquent. His descriptions are so... He paints these incredible word pictures. Isaiah 2, verse 2. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house... Now, when you see in Hebrew poetry, certain words will be, you know, are an image.

We do the same thing in English poetry. There's words that are used to create images, but they actually mean something else. In other words, they don't have the concrete meaning. The mountain here means government. You'll see that over and over again throughout the prophets. When you see mountain where it's a literal mountain, you'll be able to tell, you know, by the context. But in the poetry, you'll see that all the time. The mountain of the Lord is the kingdom of the Lord.

That the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it. Everybody comes to worship the one God. There will be no Islam. There will be no Christianity, as we know it, because God's going to set up a pure religion. There will be no Hinduism. There will be no Buddhism. There will be the pure religion that we're all trying to learn now. That's what we're supposed to be doing now, learning that true way of worshiping God.

One of the hardest things for human beings to accept is that God determines how He will be worshiped. We want to worship God how we want to worship God. We want to make up the rules, which means we don't want God's dominion. We don't understand the kingdom. He goes, He says, Many people, verse 3, shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. And He will teach us His ways. Finally, somebody has solutions. Finally, war is being stopped. Poverty is being fixed. Families are being healed.

Drug addicts are being healed. Alcoholics are being healed. A new way of thinking, murder, is being erased. People begin to understand the basic rights that God gives us as human beings, that we have to love each other as we love ourselves. He says, And we will walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law. We have to be very careful.

So many Christians today really put down the idea of the law of God. Jesus came to free us from the law of God. Well, understand, Jesus said He's coming back to establish the law. So the idea that Jesus came to do away with all law is not biblical. Of course, all He'd do is read the Sermon on the Mount, and you can see that. He Himself said that's not true. He's coming to establish the law of God, to give real understanding. And He says, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people.

And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. And nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. And that's just not going to happen between nations. That's going to happen between peoples. That's going to happen between ethnic groups. That's going to happen between religious groups, because there won't be any different religious groups. Ethnic groups and ethnic divisions won't matter anymore, because all people will be the people of God. There can't be prejudice when everybody is your brother and your sister with God, right?

How do you have prejudice in that kind of relationship? Families will be fixed. That's what He's going to do. That's what we can be part of. But you know what? If we're going to do it then, we'd better learn it now. We have to learn it now. That's part of what we're supposed to be as Christians. When Jesus Christ returns, He creates an entire new society. In Zechariah, we get a little window into what that's going to be like. Look at Zechariah 8. Zechariah is one of the minor prophets. He's between Habakkuk and Malachi, if that helps.

Zechariah 8. This is the vision. This is what you and I are trying to have God help develop in our lives now. Not perfectly. But I tell you what, it won't be perfect then, either. Because there will still be human beings involved. He's going to have to teach. People are going to have to learn. People are going to make mistakes. But it's going to be a totally different world.

And who's going to be helping him do this? The saints. Zechariah 8, verse 1. Again, the word of the Lord of hosts came, saying, Thus is the Lord of hosts. I am zealous for Zion with great zeal, with great fervor. I am zealous for her. Thus says the Lord. I will return to Zion. Zion, of course, is the hill there in Jerusalem, where he said he would rule from. So we know he's going to come there. That's where he's going to set up the royal capital of the world.

I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth. Right now, what is Jerusalem? The city of anxiety. The center of the world of conflict. Christians, secular humanists, Muslims, Jews. Everybody fights for Jerusalem, right? Everybody has a solution for Jerusalem. He says it will be called the city of truth.

Because the Messiah, Christ himself, is going to be right there. The mountain of the Lord of hosts. The holy mountain. The holy kingdom. Thus says the Lord of hosts, Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age. The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Now, whatever is happening in Jerusalem is what is going to be taught all over the world.

You'll be able to go to Manila, New York City, London. You'll be able to go to Mogadishu, and children can play in the streets. You ever see the pictures from South America, places in Africa, places in Asia? And you see little 10-year-old boys walking around with an AK-47. They've already killed people. That's how they play. They'll be an O.B.

AK-47s for them to play with. They'll be playing in the streets. You know, you learn a lot about God. This is a personal opinion of mine. I think God likes games. I think God likes playing. You know why? I don't care what culture you go into. Wherever you go, where there's human beings, what the children do, they play games.

And if they don't have one, they make one up. I think God likes watching his kids play games. And that'll be just the little ones. I mean the big ones like us. They're gonna play in the streets. It's a different world. You don't have to worry about being mugged or beat up.

You have to buy into this dream. You have to believe it's really gonna happen. And you can't change your streets, but you can change your home. You can change who you are. Well, with God's help. I mean none of us does this without God. We let God's rule. We let God's dominion come into our lives. He says in verse 6, Thus says the Lord of Hosts, If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of the people in these days, would also be marvelous in my eyes, says the Lord of Hosts. He says, I will save them. Verse 7, he's speaking specifically here of the Jewish people as he brings them back in the Israelites, but he means this in the context of the whole world.

This is what whatever happens there happens all over, as his kingdom spreads out over the world. He says he'll bring them back, verse 8, into the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness. He goes on, verse 10 is very interesting. For before these days there were no wages for man, or hire for beast. There was no peace from the enemy, for whoever went out or came in.

For I said, all men, everyone against his name. He says, remember back before these days when you couldn't get jobs? Remember back before these days when the world was nothing but violence and competition and anger and hatred? He says, remember that. He's going to create an economic system. He's going to take care of poverty. He's going to give people land. He has solutions. He's going to fix the agricultural system that we messed up so badly that most of the time when you and I eat food, we're eating things that actually poison us more than help us.

Had a Twinkie lately? I never liked Twinkies, so I could make fun of those. Now if you said pecan pie, I'd say, wait a minute, wait a minute, that's almost righteous. That's close. But I can make fun of Twinkies because I don't like them.

Yes, we got some cookies back there, and it's okay to have a cookie. But you understand what I mean? So much of our lifestyle is self-destructive, and sometimes we can't even get out of it. He's going to fix that. And then one of the things he's going to do is Isaiah 11, and I find this one fascinating. Because you think if he's going to do this, he has to change nature itself.

He has to heal what we've done to the land. He's had to heal what, at the end, nuclear weapons and biological weapons. I don't know what humanity is going to do to itself at the end, but we're at the brink of destruction, so we have just about destroyed this earth. God's going to have to change weather patterns so there aren't tsunamis anymore.

God's going to have to change weather patterns so that entire populations don't get wiped out by hurricanes. God's going to have to change the earth. He's going to have to heal the earth so that there aren't earthquakes that can swallow up entire cities. He's going to actually heal the earth itself. Now, in doing that, there's some other things he has to do. Isaiah 11, verse 1, Once again, Jesus Christ isn't coming back as the baby back in the house there in the manger.

He's coming back as king of kings. That is the baby in the barn. And what you see in the book of Revelation, you read in Zechariah, one of the things that happens is humanity tries to fight against him. What is Jesus' response as the king of kings to those who try to resist him? It says he wipes out the armies. He literally kills them. He's coming back as king.

He's king now for those who wish to be part of the kingdom now, who wish to submit to his rule while living in the occupied territory of the God of the age. He says, verse 6, The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together, And a little child shall lead them. I had an opportunity to go to South Africa a while back.

I really wanted to go, I really wanted to take my wife. She said, no. Now, my wife doesn't say no to... I mean, my wife's a very easy-going person. So when she says no, it's like, wow, why? I don't want to go someplace where I can be eaten. I said, well, come on. We'll go to Kruger National Park. You know, we'll be with a guide. Well, then she read a story where at Kruger National Park a group of people were in a bus, and the guide parked the bus, and they were watching some...

on a bridge, they were watching some crocodiles down below. He decided he wanted to smoke, walked off the bridge, and by which they were smoking, the whole group watched the leopard come down and they came off and eat him. Needless to say, I've never gone to South Africa, because my wife won't let me. Now, I'm the man of my house, and I'm a charge. I just want you to know that. But I'm not going to South Africa.

God changes the nature of animals. I've been out in the wild and come across bears a couple times in my life, because I like to hike, and I've been in a couple situations where I'm face-to-face with a black bear. And there's a moment where you're not sure what that bear's going to do. At this point, you can be hiking and come face-to-face with a bear, and your greatest worry is going to knock you down in Likia, because the nature of the animals changed.

Understand the greatness of the change that's coming. Understand why it won't work today. We can't change the nature of animals. We tame them. But look, every couple years you hear about some man that works in a circus, gets mauled by a lion or a tiger that he's worked with for 20 years. We can't change their nature.

God will change their nature. We don't have to worry about it right now, because of the drought, as if you don't have enough anxiety in your life. I'll just let you know all the snakes are active, because they're looking for fluids. So there are snakes very active. And every time I go out in the garage, I'm thinking, you know, you're going to have to worry about snakes or scorpions or something. So I'm vascularly very careful when I move around. You won't have to worry about that, then.

Because they won't hurt human beings. This is the greatness of our God. This is what He wants. This is what He originally intended. Do you know how I know that? Look at the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eden get eaten by a lion. The nature of the animals was different. The God of this world, well, they got changed.

I don't know what God did to change them, but they were changed. That's going to change again. This is the kingdom He's going to bring. The saints are the ones who are with Him helping change it under His rule and His guidance. Jesus said to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. This nation needs that message just as much as the people did in the first century. I do not believe this nation is going to repent. I do believe individuals will repent. Individuals will repent, and they will return to God, they will come to God, and God will change them, and they will say, I want to be your child, and I want to be a citizen of that kingdom. I want to be an ambassador of that kingdom. I have a book at home, The Word in Life Study Bible. I have hundreds and hundreds of books. My garage is filled with boxes of books. Every room has books in it. It's one of those books I bought years ago and really haven't used much. I didn't find that helpful. At times I almost just gave it away or sold it or something, but I kept it. One of the reasons I kept it is because one little section, which is rather profound, is in a section where the Sermon on the Mount is, because it's a Bible with commentary. The commentary on that is incredibly write-on, because the authors and the editors asked the question, what if everybody actually lived by the Sermon on the Mount, and what if everybody really, really accepted that the kingdom was going to come and they were going to live by that kingdom now? What if we got the vision? What happens if we catch that vision? What changes now? They listed five things. It's just profound what they captured. They said the first thing that would change is our allegiance would change. Our allegiance. We have an allegiance to a king. We are monarchists. Now, whatever the king says is good enough for us. We have an allegiance to God as our Father, and whatever our Father says, it's what we do. Whatever our Father says, we believe. Whatever our Father says, we trust. And that is our allegiance. And when I read that, the first thing I thought of was Jesus saying, if you don't love less your mother and your father and your sister and your brother and your own life also, you cannot be my disciple. He said you can't.

Our allegiance must be to God, to Father, and to His Son, Jesus Christ, and that comes first. Seek you first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Because when we do that, God will fix everything else. You know, that's like you see people say, well, if I could just fix my marriage, I could follow God. Follow God and He'll fix your marriage. We've got the priorities all wrong. I'll ask God to heal me after the operation. Ask God to heal you before the operation, and you may not need it. We've got our priorities all wrong. We've got them all wrong. There's a change in our allegiance. There's a change in our expectations. You know, if you expect life to always work out perfect for you, everything will always be good for you. How much of us go through our lives? How many of us? Disappointed all the time. Disappointed all the time because we never met our expectations. You live in a world that's all messed up, and most of your expectations aren't going to be met.

That's a hard reality. But there is one great expectation in the future that will be met. If that's your expectations, you'll go through the bad times. You'll weather the troubles. Why? Because you know what the outcome is. You are just like the woman swimming that channel at Catalina, and you can't see that shore. And there are sharks around you, and you have a muscle cramp, and you think you're going to drown. But why do you keep going? Because you expect the shore to be there. Our expectations change. We expect a totally different future, and because of that, we have a positiveness even in a world filled with anxiety. In the age of anxiety, we can still be positive. In the time of trouble, we can still have a purpose. Because we know through the fog, it's there. We expect it.

The third is there's a great change in a person's values. You want to understand the values of the Kingdom of God? I've mentioned this a couple of times today. Go back to the Sermon on the Mount. Take Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and I mean study it, verse by verse. Get a notebook, and write each verse down. Put a line in the middle of the page. On one side, write down each verse. On the other side, write down what does this mean to me? What does this teach me about the Kingdom of God? He outlines what He expects us to be now in preparation for that Kingdom. He ends the Sermon on the Mount with a declaration about His return, and about Christians who will not be accepted by Him at His return. The Sermon on the Mount is this wonderful, positive message from Jesus Christ. At the very end, He says that some Christians when I come back, I will accept Him. Because they didn't get this. It changed their values. We don't accept our culture's values. We accept the values of the Kingdom of God. If we accepted the values of the Kingdom of God, if two people accepted the values of the Kingdom of God, they would never divorce. The fact that so many of the Evangelical churches, the divorce rate is as high or higher than among secularists, means that we have a problem, Evangelicals have a problem with understanding the Kingdom of God. You and I have our problems with understanding the Kingdom of God, and we wouldn't do what we do. We accept a whole different value system. A whole different value system. Love your enemy. Boy, that's a tough one. I personally wish when that one wasn't there. But I don't get to make up the rules my King makes up the rules. It's His dominion. There's a change in your priorities.

We've already talked about that. If we accept the Kingdom of God, there's a change in our priorities today. And then the fifth, there's a change in your lifelong mission. You have a mission. You get up every day and have a reason for living. The Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, has come into your life, and the Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, says, I want you to be my child. And I want you to learn what it is to be part of my family, because you've been a rebellious child. And I want you to understand who your brother is and the price that we pay for you to become a child. And I want you to become and live under the family's rules, the family's regulations. And I want you to live under the umbrella and the protection of love of this family. But you know, there's rules in this family. You can't punch your brother in the nose. I don't know how many times I heard when I was a kid, no, no, no, we don't do that in this family. And then I found myself telling my own children, uh-uh, we don't do that in this family. You know how many times God says to each one of us, uh-uh, uh, we don't do that in this family? That's not my kingdom.

That's not how this works. That's not how this works. We have a different lifetime mission. We have a different lifetime mission. You want to know if you've accepted that mission, then I'll give you a challenge. When you get up every morning, get on your knees, and the first thing you ask God is, today, fulfill in my life your desires. Today, fulfill in my life your goals. Today in my life, fulfill the mission of the kingdom of God, your kingdom.

Ask Him that. Get on your knees and ask Him that every morning. But that means I have to give up, yeah. But that means I have to change, yeah. But that means I have to, yeah.

Have we accepted His dominion or not? Or do we want one foot in the age of the world, or the age of Satan, and one foot in the kingdom of God? You see, the time, the time is soon approaching when this age is going to end. This world is going to collapse into chaos.

There's going to be a time that Jesus said is the great tribulation. I don't know what it's going to be. My personal belief is getting close. There's a time when it collapses.

There's a time when there's wars. There's a time when the whole earth is taken to the place through the natural catastrophes, through the greed and hatred of human beings, through the design of Satan, and then through the wrath of God. Because when Jesus Christ comes back and says He pours out the wrath of God because He says, you know what? You people have messed this up so terrible. I'm coming back to fix it and you're going to resist me and therefore I will resist you. We don't want to resist Jesus Christ. We don't want to resist Jesus Christ. We want to be there to help change it. We want to be there to serve Him. We want to be there to worship our Father and say, I am here as your servant. Do with me as you wish. Do with me as you wish. But the only way you can do that is you have to do it now. You have to say to God, now do with me as you wish. And it won't be a road that you think. God will take you a road different than the one you plan every time. Funny thing about when you give your life to God, it's like, but God, that's not what I had planned. And He says, well, did you give your life to me or not? It's a different road. It's a different plan. But it's a great, it's a better outcome. I can guarantee you that. It's a better outcome than anything you and I can make up. We have to believe it. God, your Father, wants to give you the kingdom. Jesus Christ, your brother, wants you to come into His dominion now. I've prepared for His dominion when He comes. And then you can serve Him in changing the world. I want to thank all of you for attending and watch for, if you get the good news, watch Beyond Today program. We will soon be announcing the date for the next Kingdom of God seminars. We take this next step. It will be sometime in January. And also, for those of you that are interested, this is sponsored by the United Church of God. We do meet here every Saturday morning at 10.30. We are a Sabbath-keeping group and we believe in the seven-day Sabbath, the fourth of the ten commandments. And we do meet here. So if you wish to come back and be with us and worship with us, you're welcome to do so here at 10.30 every Saturday morning. And so the message is the same message that Jesus gave almost 2,000 years ago. Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.