Is anyone here good at losing things? If you ever got the point where you can't find something like you know, it's somewhere, but you can't find it I was in college. I had an old Ford Explorer like the first the first edition of the old SUVs like that and I worked on the road and so quick question What do you call the very back of an SUV like not like the third row those didn't exist back then but what do you call like that cargo area? The trunk, okay, I call it the back back Just the back of the back also I call this thing like I call this my doot doot because when you hit it goes doot doot I realize there's a pattern there.
That's the back back. So in my explorer Back then I worked in the road. I toured I did I played a lot of music places I went to places and also provided production for a lot of places And so like the back back of my explorer always had like like a road case like a computer monitor I could be going not the flat screens, but that back there I mean just all sorts of stuff mayor than I were dating when I had this vehicle and she can attest to you that It got out of hand a little bit and it got to the point to where the back back There was so much junk in the back in the back back that it was even with like the back of the back seat and in the glass Edge where you opened up to get things out of the back back and one time I went to my parents house to pick up some things and my mom gave me a pork coin You see what this is going on don't you? There's frozen it was wrapped in newspaper like inside a bag and I left Alexandria late probably 9 9 30 drove back got to Resting it was a winner and The explore by this point time did not have heat or air conditioning so I was probably cold ready out of the house I got the stuff I need to get out and I couldn't find the pork coin But and my thought was you know I probably forgot it my parents I said also forget everything many of y'all have been the recipients of that And so the next morning I was gonna go check to see if I had the pork when and call my mom and but I forgot to do that too And so it was it was a decently cold winter that year in reston.
I remember it snowed that February and in March one weekend I went away to go work work out and the church that we were working with we would leave all our vehicles in the parking lot And get in the van pull the trailer go to the job come back and it was an abnormally hot weekend for that time of the year Too and so when I left it was probably nice like mid mid high 30s and we got back and it was in the 70s Like you know losing a spring it turns overnight and I open up the door of this explore and I can just smell it And all of a sudden I had forgotten about that pork coin for two months But I remembered that pork coin all of a sudden I drive home like all the windows down like my head out of the Going to the house like I tear every I pull everything out of the explore everything out of the backpack and somehow this Pork coin had managed to get that explore had a compartment that was underneath like a mat And then the door and there was a spare tire and somehow this pork coin had made it into the spare tire compartment I did worked its way down over the course of months It took me months to get that smell out of there But you know I knew that pork coin was there I just couldn't find it in all my junk and today we're talking about finding the kingdom You know we talked about the kingdom of God for this last month the first week We talked about was just what is the kingdom and the idea that this is not so much about us getting into the kingdom But about the kingdom getting into us and second week We talked about who's in and who's out of the kingdom everybody was talking about who's in and who's out and we realized What's we look at every single passage or Jesus talks about in and out the overwhelming characteristic of the conversation is a conversation on humility It's about humility and really it's about how do you see yourself with others? But also how do you see yourself is better than others? It's just the tenor of that conversation last week Jack Lock could be preached and he talked about following and the passage of putting our hand to the plow But he really shared with us just the benefit of saying focused on Jesus in the long run and what that life is like and this week We're gonna talk about finding the kingdom But we're gonna think we're gonna talk about finding the kingdom the story of Jesus and the Pharisees But what we're gonna think about really is is how our expectations can sometimes be inadequate So open up your Bibles Luke chapter 17 verse 23 21 just couple verses today I will tell you that we're going to jump around the Bible a lot today And if you want to go on my foundry dot life if you go over to the message notes all those passages will be there right in front of you But this is our main one Luke 17 20 through 21 And this is what it says one day the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked when will the kingdom of God come and Jesus replied The kingdom of God can't be detected by visible signs You won't be able to say here it is or it's over there for the kingdom of God is already among you The kingdom of God is already among you the lesson that Jesus is really teaching the Pharisees wants to share with him is that it's here You just don't know it You know the first week we got in this conversation We ask ourselves as the kingdom of God now or as the kingdom of God in the future and we realize the answer to that question is yes It's in the present, but it's also in the future the Pharisees had a really hard time understanding that it was in the present They didn't see it and they didn't expect it at that point in time the Pharisees had expectation anxiety Jesus it's here among you. This is like first century Bible talk for saying it's right under your nose You know their issue was they were expecting something dramatic they were expecting something that Caused a big huge scene that would be changing it would be very public and overthrowing and all of these sorts of things and the irony of the situation is That God became human was born of a woman Was walking on this earth fully God and fully man right in front of them and that simply was not dramatic enough them to understand The God in the fullest sense of who he was and is was standing there face to face Normal real life remember John 1 14 the word became flesh and makes it home among us We've seen his glory the glory fathers one and only son Jesus was standing right there in front of them and their everyday normal life The Pharisees were blinded by their expectation They had an idea of how this was supposed to happen and not only did it not fit their idea of what was supposed to happen So far off they could not even see that it was going on around them If we look in verse 20 and says the kingdom of God can't be detected by visible signs There's some interesting is going on right there.
So that word detected In Latin we would call that word a hotpox Lagrama That's what I was talking about in similar they referred this as a hotbox the first time I heard that I raised my hand I said why I'm talking about hot pockets But this is a Latin word for a term that shows up less than 10 times in the New Testament What's really interesting about this space right here because it can't be detected This is the only use an all-of scripture of this word one time In me of us room here with looking up a word in the dictionary There's like the number one definition the number two definition that sort of thing Number one definition means it's observed like observation detection which the translation says what's so interesting is though the second definition of this word means to follow the rules If you think back to our conversations, we've had over these last few months about the Pharisees if anyone is like the chief rule follower It's the Pharisees like that's what they are known by we follow the rules That's what you do you follow the rules and God comes like their entire life is based after following the rules It's so ironic they're following the rules so hard. They cannot see what they've been waiting for standing right in front of them Their expectation anxiety had gotten in the way So think about this what happens when you're waiting for something on the good side and also kind of the scary side You know the good side might be you've ordered something on the internet You're really excited about it And you can do that cool thing now where you plug the tracking number in your phone It sends you text messages like when it leaves the factory and when it leaves when it shows up in Monroe It's on the tr- you know we've done that before you've been excited about that like you're really waiting on your checking stuff out There's also that you have sometimes it's like you heard like something might be happening it might not be good So you're something at work Something inside your social system of friends Like and you start looking for signs of that like whenever we're waiting on something whether it's good or it's bad The difficult thing is like we're looking for signs we're seeing things like we're checking out on the periphery of our vision of what's going on Because we realize but then we have to live real life and normal life right in front of it Like we have fun anxiousness or nervous anxiousness, but we still have to live life the Pharisees were busy living their life And they thought they had this expectation on the front side of things They had set up their entire life to wait for this to happen But it was right under their nose and they didn't see it because what they were looking for was not anywhere close to what it actually looked like You know our expectations can be inadequate Pharisees want something literal and explainable when our expectations aren't simply big enough That's what's going on here Think of the ways they can be clouded for us the second thing that Jesus really shows and teaches is this is that you need a different understanding of space If it's right underneath your eyes right underneath your nose and in scripture We read about having ears to hear and eyes to see we've talked about that a lot this year's what's one of our core values is foundry That means that you know what you're looking for and you're looking for what you know And the Pharisees were having problems with that as well because this is the thing and What Jesus was doing was so different from what they were expecting but we can do the same thing No, it's a fashionable phrase now to talk about not putting Jesus in a box who's our disbefore Okay, so here's the problem So we start saying hey, we're not gonna put Jesus in a box And then we place ourselves in a measure of facefulness and ask for God to expand our vision for us to see different things Then all of a sudden we realize that Jesus is not in a box and that scares the life out of us Like we see Jesus moving in ways that we don't understand we see Jesus moving in ways that we're uncomfortable with We see Jesus moving in ways that's asking us to do things we might not have ever done before He's asking us to love and we never love before we ask for us to accept and we have it he asks us to do things that we're not doing That freaks us out and we go try to find the box and putting back in it The only problem with that is When something expands sometimes we can't get back in that package can we in the Brooks house sold every year when we take down the Artificial Christmas tree. There's no way that things gonna fit back in the box Or if anybody got in anybody where ever when the mattress is off the internet that comes and like you cut the package open In the Brooks house to get the Christmas tree back in the box It takes three ratchet straps and they just stay on their year round try to contain this The situation is that's the thing is when we ask see more of Jesus and we experience more of him that changes our baseline for things And if we're not asking to see more of Jesus in a way that does not make us nervous and make us worried Then we're not asking to see him big enough What the Pharisees had seen for three years in front of them was an expansion of who God was and it frightened them because it did not fit into their system They kept trying to put him back in there But if we think about that and ask yourself this question, you know, what if the things of the kingdom? You know the truthfulness of the now of God is here with us and God is doing those things and God is asking us to do these things with them And that we know our greatest fulfillment in life We found by doing these things with Jesus What if is impossible for us to see this without an intentional and deliberate denial of our self our box of how we think things should be?
But also us laying down our personal expectations because we see them as inadequate Because we know that we do not have the ability to contain who Jesus is and what he's asking us to do What if we will not see them the now of the kingdom once we realize that those are the two steps Jesus tell the Pharisees, I'm right here. I'm with you I'm right in front of you the very first week when we talk about this the first time that the kingdom of God is mentioned We find it in mark chapter 1. We have it right here He's the words of Jesus himself. Just went to Galway where he preached God's good news the time promised by God has come at last It's the present and he's announced the kingdom of God is near Repent of your sins and believe the good news this theme of nearness is all throughout scripture the story of God and his people in their Relationship with the presence of God now it does mean close it means that this is something that I am close to but also near has this Idea of this is just the first stop to an expected finish like near is a temporal state near is not permanent Like we get close to God we get near to God for a reason that will continue to unfold Isaiah 34 verse 1 The prophecy from the Old Testament So we read drawn near o' nations to hear oh people give he but the earth here and all that fills at the world and all that comes from We draw near to God because we know that's what it takes to hear from him That's why we put ourselves close to God and it also indicates that we have this relationship with God We have the ability to hear from him.
He's not distant. He's personal No, we're aware of what happens when we come into his presence James 4 8 says this I love this verse so much draw near to God and he will draw near to you clean your hand you sinners purify your heart You double-minded that's almost kind of like a quick version of repent and believe so this is James This is the half brother of Jesus. This is the brother who was not a disciple and those passages we find in the gospels where Jesus Family are coming and say hey come home you're acting crazy right now. Just chill out So the other James so James end up leading the Jerusalem church was martyr But James says draw near to God and he will draw near to you That's that's on us We we intentionally focus ourselves on Jesus and on his kingdom because we know that he will focus on us and then show us these Things as well that draw near to God and he will draw near to you We respond and our action of intentionality places us close to him Paul and first Corinthians talks about the power of God in the kingdom It says this but the king of God is not just a lot of talk It's living by God's power.
That's a very convicting verse right there, isn't it? Like we can talk a big game about Jesus, but are we willing to do a big game for Jesus? Do we want to just see the power of God worked in places or we want to see the power of God worked out through us? It's not just a lot of talk It's about seeing experiencing believing and we don't see experience and believe without making that happen in outward ways And this is the question I've been asking myself and I'm gonna ask you this Wouldn't you be disappointed to find out that the kingdom of God is only as big as you are currently experiencing right now?
Do you believe that what you've experienced in your life in this day encompasses the fullness of who God is? We're never to stop pursuing this presence pursuing this kingdom being part of this kingdom happening around us The Pharisees had built their fence around who God was and they were satisfied with that Our expectations can be inadequate. It's not necessarily a bad thing But us just saying that we can never adequately express our experience with God So three ways that we can deal and overcome our expectation and anxiety. You know if this is right underneath our nose It's a word to become flesh move into neighborhood.
We know it's here It's just lost underneath all of our junk. We've forgotten about it sometimes We know it's in there. We just got to find it I love this Romans 14 17 more of Paul's words about the kingdom says this for the kingdom of God is not just a matter of what we eat Or drink would have living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit the kingdom of God is not about what we eat Or drink of following the rules Pharisees right there But living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit that what we focus on in our life is what expands our life So three ways we can overcome our expectation anxiety the first one is this the first one is scripture and prayer I realize so many times in the last six six seven eight months when we do application kind of stuff My first thing is read the Bible make sure you pray and it's kind of wrote But it's the point that really is the most important thing And especially as part of this conversation is this wise that you know That our periphery vision of the kingdom of God Can change that our periphery vision of the kingdom is brought into clear focus by the way that we are intentionally engaging in Scripture engaging in prayer James for a draw near to God and he will draw near to you And as we put ourselves in those rhythms and those places of scripture and of prayer and making that a routine regular rhythmic part of our life That we we build rhythms that change our field of vision Because here's the thing This is sad is if we do not draw near to God intentionally that the kingdom will just be there on the edges right there And only time that we will see God's kingdom is is when it bursts out of other people's lives We won't have those stories of personal experience and friends. This life is really really hard if we never personally experienced this I would say it's almost impossible to live this life.
We're not personally experiencing The second thing is more of a vertical thing is it first is to expect to experience as fixes are waiting anxiety One of the things that I've been doing in the last six months is and now it's thankfully starting to become so regular I'm to think about it is to make sure the first thing I do in the morning I'm still laying in bed as I just lay things out to God and say hey I'll do whatever you need to do today. It's not about me But I'm expect for you to put things in my path for me to respond to that grows who you are Doesn't necessarily grow me might not do what's best for me But it's what's best for what you were doing and what you were asking me to be part of and at night when I go to bed When I go to sleep trying for the last thing it's all my mind is thanking God for the ways I have seen him today There's something about us just expecting to us living with that assumption We all know enough about what life is like and the things that we assume are gonna happen We always think things are gonna be miserable sadly things kind of end up miserable you notice that before We should be putting ourselves in a posture of expecting to experience and see God around it That's a vertical reason next we have a horizontal reason is this is for us to grow together To grow together Jack talk about this some last week No, and the last 150 years one of the places of the church has won where we've gained a lot of ground is our conversation of the importance of having a Personal relationship with Jesus and that's extremely important. I'm very thankful for the way that has changed things I do not doubt that a personal relationship with Jesus one of those important things for us to have what I'm scared is that we Gained that ground is the church by not talking about the necessity of us together No, our corporate sense of faith and as our society has grown more individualistic How odd it is the church also begins to mirror this in some ways? You know God always calls a people Inside of that called people he calls specific individuals to specific calls Jesus doesn't say hey There's a bunch of tiny kingdoms out there.
I want you to find one of your own Says the kingdom of God is near to you Who we are is God's people not just us here at this church, but us as the church universal you grew up and In a moral liturgical tradition, you said the apostles create I believe in the holy spirit the holy catholic church the union of saints Forgetting some sins of resurrection the body like we believe in the church That God does things through us And then we have that response that's why we are better when we are together Now jack talked about groups last week about how groups are important and that groups are important because they remind us that our faith is done In a corporate manner if you've been thinking about groups and and wanting to either be part of a group or to start a group Same thing jack told you last week we are foundry.com slash groups We grow better together the second thing that also is that makes sunday morning important? We don't just come here because it's fun I hope it's fun. I hope it's enjoyable To be completely honest with you when we first started the church One of the things that we say that we have to promise is that sunday morning won't be uh unenjoyable There's another word we use for that But what we do and who we are and how we are formed together today matters It's my worship matters. It's my group's matters.
It's my your spiritual friendships matter We want to be able to say God. I have an inadequate view of you And us saying that it's us saying we want to experience more of you today than I did yesterday And I want to be closer to you today than I was yesterday And we as the church want to be capable of more today than we were capable of yesterday and we hope tomorrow is even better than it is right now The kingdom of God is here right now under our nose We just got to find underneath all of our junk sometimes And for us to say hey, I'm fine with what I've got right now because I know where you're leading me tomorrow is even better than where I am today Let's pray. Holy Father We thank you for giving us something that's bigger than ourselves God we thank you for giving us people that we can lean on People that we can depend on Or we also thank you for the ways that you're patient with us Got the stories that we have in our hearts of where we have seen you before And the strength of those bring us God let us be a people that are kingdom minded That know that the more you're asking of us Means more for us to experience more for us to grow more for us to trust and more for us to begin to affect God thank you for letting us experience you in this way It's gonna be pray. Amen.
Let's stand together and sing