Why the World Needs the Kingdom of God, Part 1

For Lord of the Old Congregation presents the Kingdom of God Seminar. Ladies and gentlemen, your presenter for today, Mr. Chuck Smith.

Good morning! Good morning! Oh, you can do better than that. Good morning! All right, we have a lively bunch here. Good. I'd like to hear that. Well, I'll bring you greetings and want to say welcome. I will start out by asking the question, how did you get here? I'm not asking about your car, about your Ram truck, or if you drove a Harley motorcycle. But how did you arrive at this place and time in your life? Just by theoc, happenstance, you just happen to be where you are, what you're doing, and your station and place in life. By theoc, all of us were reared, directed and affected by parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. I think all of us can relate to that. And who you are was primarily influenced by family. A family that might have been close, a family that might have been distant, but a family. Your family genes and or your environment helped define you as a person. But knowing what you were yesterday is not who you have to be today. Knowing who you are today is not who you have to be tomorrow. In other words, the past does not have to equal the future. As the motivational speaker from the 60s and 70s, Zig Ziglar once said, it's attitude, not aptitude, that determines altitude. What you're saying, there's a mindset. You control that mindset. It can either be negative or it can be positive. It is what you choose. It is your outlook on life. I'd like you to turn to a scripture if you have a Bible. If you don't, we have some in the back. If you do not have one, we offer them free. You can raise your hand and Bill will come and Bill will bring you one. And it's yours.

But in Philippians, it's an interesting thing that backs this point up. Interesting scripture in Philippians 4 and verse 8. Paul says here, finally, brethren, that everthings are true, that everthings are noble, that everthings are just, whateverthings are pure, whateverthings are lovely, whateverthings are good, are of good report. If there is any virtue and if there is anything praise will be good, meditate on these things. It's telling us, if we want to have a more fulfilling life, we need to think on the positive. Because the world generally dwells on the negative. Most people in this world yearn for a life of success, purpose, and today, most of all, peace. We all want that in our lives. Sadly, most people will look to a man. They will look to a leader. They will look to something to show them the future, show them what they want to tell them, what they want to hear. Picture a life they might want. They look down here instead of looking up there. Why, I think so much about the story of the bronze rat. The story that a young man goes into an antique shop out of Miami. And he looks in there and he sees this 18-inch tall statue of bronze of a rat. And he looks at it and he's got $75 on the tag. And he says, whoa, I can probably sell that for $150. This is a bargain. So he goes up, grabs the rat, goes up to the owner, the proprietor, hands the $75. He said, but wait a minute, don't you want to hear the story about the rat? He said, no. He says, I want my rat. So he heads out the store, starts walking down the street as he's three or four blocks from his car. And he's kind of looking down at the rat and all of a sudden he realizes there's another, there's a rat that came out of a building over there. There's another rat coming out. So he looks behind him and there's like a dozen rats following him. So all of a sudden he kind of walks a little faster. There's more rats come out. They're following him. Finally, he's running down the street. There are hundreds and thousands of rats following him. He's running and running till he finally gets to the ocean. To where he looks and there's tens of thousands of rats and he takes the rat and throws it into the ocean. At which all the rats follow and they drown in the ocean. And he goes, so he heads back to the store. The proprietor says, I bet you won't know the story. He said, no, I want to know if you have a bronze statue of a politician.

I think we in Florida can relate to that this weekend and this next week, can't we? Our messages today are to help you see that there is a plan being worked out in your life. And not just today, but in even greater destiny and a future as part of what the Bible calls the kingdom of God. As readers of the Good News magazine, we know you think. We know you think. You think deeper than most people. Most people have a choice. Most people choose what? I want entertainment. Right? I want entertainment. We give ours free. They charge and they do more than us. What do people want? Right? They want to know that Jen wants Brad back. That's important. That's important stuff in this world, isn't it? Are you the Kardashians? What would the world have been without the Kardashians? I want entertainment. Now, people want to know, J.Lo is clipping her toenails tonight. Beyoncé and Jay-Z may eat out tonight with regular people. That's what so many people are enthralled with today. Our magazine looks honestly at the problems and tries to relay hope in these days and show a brighter future as part of God's master plan. For all mankind. Today, I have good news and I have bad news. The good news. God knows who you are. God knows who you are and He desires a deeper, more meaningful relationship with you. When I came across that understanding, I thought quite a few years ago, why does He want a deeper relationship with me? Who am I? And then I read the Scripture where it says He calls the weak and the base things and I figured it out. Because there's no Bill Gates or Warren Buffett sitting out here today. If you are, raise your hand. We might change things and take up an offering if Warren Buffett's there. Never done it before, but hey, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

Jeremiah 1, verse 5 says, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. That's a big statement. Powerful. Ephesians 1, verse 4 says, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. No fiat here. No fiat here. No fiat in your life. The bad news for God. And for, sad to say, this world. Most people in this world do not want God in their lives. They don't want Him in their lives. It's amazing that the Bible is the only bestseller that nobody reads. Right?

Yeah, it's kind of like that gift that you, that graduation, somebody's really caring and is close to God. So this kid is 18, he graduates high school, so you go out and you buy a $40 or $50 nice Bible, and you hand it to him, he goes, It's not what most people want. And it's kind of like, my wife always describes me, whenever I would have something, a gas grill. We got a gas grill, new gas grill, a few years ago. Open up the box. What is it? There's an instruction manual. There's an assembly manual. This is our instruction manual. Man's instruction manual is the Bible. God gives it to us to know who we are, where we are, what we're doing, and where we are going.

But too many people like me and the grill, my wife said, don't you want the instruction manual? You decide, no! Maybe I can figure everything out. Right? That's how the world is with the Bible today. They don't need God telling them what's right and what's wrong. The Bible says, God is a plan for the last 6,000 years.

God has had a plan. A plan to bring the family of God, sons and daughters, to a place together called the kingdom of God. I'd like you to turn there because a lot of people do not realize that God is talking about a family. If you will, turn to Ephesians. Ephesians 3. Verse 14. For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family, the whole family, sons and daughters, Father, brother, the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width, the length, the depth, and the height of God's love.

Wow. Powerful. Powerful. Powerful. To know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. From the very beginning, mankind has always needed help. Physically, mentally, and spiritually, can we really ever separate the three who are so affected? A man by the name of Mike Fusche a few years ago taught me something I'll never forget. As he talked about, there's a hole in each of us. There's a hole in each of us that needs to be filled. And it can only be filled because we are made, if you remember from the very first of the book, we were made in God's image.

But there is a hole in each of us that can only be filled by the Spirit. But most people, when they feel that void, they feel that hole, they try to fill it with physical stuff. Don't we? Don't we? Don't we? Haven't we? Yes. And it's the only way to fill that hole is with the things of God.

That's why God said, set your mind on the things above, not the things of the earth. Because then we can have that filling that we are looking for. D.L. Moody, the famous theologian in the 1800s, said, the Bible was not given to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives. Do we need to change our lives? I do. I want to get better every day. I want to be a better person. I want to be a better husband.

I want to be a better uncle. I want to be a better son every day. I have to look at this instruction manual. You know, in Genesis 3, where it started, where Adam and Eve chose the things of the flesh, didn't they? They chose the things of the flesh instead of the things of the Spirit because they were trying to fill the hole.

Like so many of us do. And they followed the serpent, Satan, rather than God. Because Satan makes everything in the world look so good, doesn't he? Ah, this is what you want. Sad. So many people, so many people, follow after the things of the flesh. But thankfully, God had a plan to redeem, to reunite, to bring together man and God again. He had a promise of a Messiah. Eve mentioned that all the way back in Genesis 3 and verse 15. He tells Eve that her seed, her descendant, would come and would crush the head of the serpent. Hmm. Moses, all the way back in Deuteronomy. For it's hold of a prophet, a deliverer, a seed of hope, who would bring that possibility to unite us with God again, or draw us closer. For four thousand years, this promise was seen by various people in the Bible. It was revealed to them. Isaiah went so far as saying he was looking for, there would be a time when Emmanuel, God with us, would be here on this earth.

But it's a twofold prophecy. There was a first coming of Jesus Christ and a second coming of a Messiah. We've had the first coming. We are waiting on the second. Amazing. I love the bumper sticker. Said, Jesus is coming. Everybody looks busy.

I don't know that motivates very many people. Jesus Christ came as a Savior. Yours if you choose, but he won't force himself on you. Your choice.

He came to destroy, as the Scriptures say, the God of this world. He came to destroy him. And he came to establish his church. He came to establish his church. And matter of fact, in the New Testament, church is actually from the whole New Testament. It was translated from the Greek. The actual word is ekklesia for church. Ekklesia is a Greek word. That's interesting because most people are church. They think of a building. It doesn't mean a building. There's no in the Greek. It means a building. But what it does mean, it means called out ones. Called out ones. Called out of what? Called out of this world. Called to start looking somewhere else instead of this earth for the answers.

Called out ones. I like you turn to John 6, if you will. So.

This Christ talks about this calling out.

Time to get there. John 6. John 6 and verse 44. He says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Draws him. Can't come to Christ to understand the true meaning of a sacrifice and what he did for all of us. Without God drawing you. I wanted to make sure that we got it. Because also in this chapter, that's verse 44. And then he goes down in verse 65. And he said, Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my father.

So here you have the Father and the Son working together. That's why if you'll turn over to John 14. You'll turn over to John 14. And verse 6. Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Then we have the Father and the Son working this plan together.

And they're working that together with us. With us. Amazing. But you know, contrary to popular belief, God is not calling the whole world at this time. That shouldn't be so hard to understand. Look around. If you realize, he's done a solid job.

Right? Calling the whole world, the world would be different. You walk down the street with a billfold anywhere in the worst part of Miami. That dollar bill is hanging out your... Nobody bother you. Anybody want to try that? Not me. I'm new to town, but I'm still. I'm not going to try that.

Part of this twofold plan, according to Scripture, God is calling some now. And they've actually been referred to in the Bible as first fruits. And some will be called later. Most will be called later. But it's important about Him calling us and giving us this understanding. I'd like you to turn to another Scripture, before we end this first half here. You'll turn to Galatians.

Galatians 4, verse 4 through 7. Talk it out here. I hope you'll even comprehend that this is about us. Because it says, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, human, and born under the law. To redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption, the adoption as sons. Here we're going back to family again. God's family. God's called out ones.

That's nice to hear. Some of us came from very good families. Very close family. Some of us did not. God wants to show you what a father really should be like. When you understand the love of God, you'll be thrilled to be a part of the family of God.

To receive the adoption as son. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, father! Abba, father! What's in the air means? Papa. Papa are what we might use today. Daddy. It's the term of endearment. So He's saying, just as Jesus Christ said, father, and had that term of endearment that He loved him. He says, you'll love me from the very beginning. He says that because of this calling and this adoption, we can now come to God as His children and cry out, not only father, but daddy. Daddy. See, my wife's father is 88 years old. Back in World War. Worked hard all of his life. Still at 88, he has a garden. Works it every year. Incredible man. Greatest generation. And I'm... I've been married for 20... I better not remember... If you're going to take this, I don't know whether I want her to remember. 26 years, I think. So I've known him for 26, 27 years. And I call him Dalton.

I haven't called him father. But my wife, she calls him Daddy. Daddy. She's so close. She's so close. She calls my father. Dad. Term of endearment. We have been given the opportunity, as it says here, to cry out to God when we need something. Daddy. Daddy. Because therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son. If a son, then an heir... heir of God. Through Christ. Without Christ's life, death, and resurrection, we could not be redeemed. That's why John the Baptist, in Mark 1 chapter, saw Jesus Christ coming and he said, here is the Lamb of God! The time is fulfilled! Because he could look through the Old Testament. Scriptures at the time. And he knew that this Messiah would be coming. He knew that this reconciliation between man and God was on its way. And the time is fulfilled, or the time is right. Now that could take place. The first phase, the first part of the plan, was being fulfilled in John's time. You know, with that came promises. Jesus Christ in the Bible, the Scriptures, and that's why I give Bibles away so you can read. You can be connected. That's how you learn more about God. When you learn more about God, you learn more about yourself.

But Christ came in two of the promises I'd like you to maybe remember, because he gave many. Two I want to mention. Christ came with the promises. He said, I came that you might have life and live it more abundantly. I came that you might have life and live it more abundantly. Isn't that what we want? Don't we want the whole field? Don't we want to enjoy this life? And be able to smile instead of walk around all the time, looking down? If someone hands you a donut, you gotta want to eat that. It's got a hole in it. We've met people that way, haven't you? Maybe you're married to one. And that's tough. That's tough, keeping that smile, that positive attitude. Christ said he would make it possible. And he also gave a promise of the Holy Spirit. And he said, and it, in John 14, verse 26, it will teach you all things. It will teach you all things.

Now, it's not going to teach you where Jimmy Hoff is buried. Not going to teach you, is there a man in Mars? But it will teach you the things that you need to know. The things that will give you life and let you live it more abundantly. It will direct you and fill that hole. You are not here on this earth at this place and this time by theod. You cannot come to Christ unless God is drawing you. So is God drawing you. Do you feel it? I live back on my life at different times and even when I was growing up and I'm going, why did that happen? Well, how did I get here when I wanted to go there? I think most of us have experienced that. Where do you go from here? Is the kingdom of God at hand for you?

A moment of silence. Because that's a big statement. That's a big question. Do we want God in our lives? Are we just fine the way we are, as some people are? And that's fine. It's your life. God will not force himself on you. Now he's liable to be working with you. Sometimes he likes a few no's before he says, okay, go your own way. I gave him a few no's. I thought I gave him enough. But thankfully, he kept working and he'll work with each and every one of you. He chews him. We'll break right here. We'll have some snacks. We'll let you stretch your legs. Know the restroom. Grab a Bible if you want. Any literature? We'll have a 15, 10, 15 minute break, 20 minutes. Then we'll come back and we'll finish with part two of God's plan for you and all mankind as we look now to the second phase, the second part of the plan that God has for the kingdom of God.