I promise that we were done with the Kingdom of Heaven series. And I told you that the last week that we did the 10 virgins parable for Matthew 25, that was going to be the last parable. And I'm keeping my word. It was the last parable that we were talking about from the Kingdom of Heaven series that we started in January.
So it's been 10 months. But what we are going to do is not go into a specific parable, but I decided we went after 15 parables over the last 10 months. And there was a lot of random weeks sprinkled out there where we had guest speakers and moments where we had family meetings. So that's why we didn't cover more parables.
Anyways, in the last 10 months, there's about 15 parables that we tackled. And I'm going to preach every single one of those parables again tonight through midnight. It's going to be a five to six hour message. Get ready.
I hope you went to Happy Monday before it close. Okay. Know what we want to do tonight is review. What is the Kingdom of Heaven?
What is it like? And we've been going after this for 10 months. And you could actually look back and go, man, there's some good messages. But I don't even know if I could articulate.
What is the Kingdom of Heaven like? And that's what we've been during and after for so long. And it would be a shame if we just ended it with one final parable and then we just never actually were able to articulate what it is. And so we tonight are going to be going after the who, the what, the where, the why, the expectations, the responsibilities that Jesus has given us as Kingdom people.
And so we are really wanting to simplify what we've learned so that we can actually know, right? So what I'm going to do is I'm going to, in one little phrase, say the takeaway for every single one of the parables. Okay? So I'm just going to breeze through it.
And then we're going to talk about the who, what, when, where, why, all that stuff. Is that good? All right. You guys ready?
Yeah. Yeah. You're probably not going to be able to write down. So just listen and receive.
Okay. The parable of the soils. The message from the parable of the soils is hearts that listen and obey will be fruitful. The parable of the mustard seed and leaven is the Kingdom is pervasive.
The parable of the wheat and the tears is all about the righteous, intermingled with the wicked and God intentionally delaying justice for the sake of mercy. The parable of the net is that the Kingdom includes the Gentiles. The parable of the talents is that God has given us stewardship and we are called the steward money and what he's given us. The parable of the treasure and the parable of the pearl is that we have infinite value to God.
The parable of the lamp is that the hungry humble hearts shine bright. The parable of the persistent widow. Don't give up. Keep praying.
The parable of the fig tree. Only God can clothe us with righteousness. The parable of the workers in the vineyard. God is generously merciful.
The parable of the seed growing the Kingdom of heaven. It's going to come suddenly. The parable of the 10 virgins in the delay don't minimize him but be attentive and sober spiritually. The parable of the unforgiving servant.
Forgiveness is mandatory in the Kingdom. All right. So that was the 15 parables. You guys are like, okay, great.
That's awesome. But what does that mean? Right? It's like, oh, that was a great review.
But it doesn't have teeth to it. So what I want to talk about is the what. What is the Kingdom? Let me tell you what it is.
The Kingdom of heaven is wherever God reigns. The Kingdom of heaven is where God rules in reigns. So if you want to know what the Kingdom of heaven is, that's what it is. Wherever God reigns or rules.
And so as we look at the what, so that's what the Kingdom is, then the second question you probably have to ask is when. So when is the Kingdom? Well, the Kingdom is it's always been. So it's it's always been around because in eternity pass.
And then it will always be. So it's going to go on forever. And then the Kingdom, if you're asking when, it's now, but it's also not yet. And it's also very soon, but it's delayed.
But when it comes, it's going to be suddenly. Yeah. So that's when the Kingdom is. And you're going, well, what do you mean?
It can't be all of those things. Yeah, it's all of those things. The Kingdom of heaven, Jesus says it's at hand. It's now.
But then he talks about the Kingdom and he points to the future that there's a coming Kingdom. And that can be a little confusing because what he's talking about for the Kingdom now is that it's a spiritual Kingdom, right? And so if we're talking about the Kingdom of heaven is where God rules and reigns, we need to acknowledge God. Yeah, according to Hebrews one, he upholds everything by the word of his power, which that means that every single Adam and molecule in all of creation is sustained by his word.
So that means that that God is sustaining every single microsecond of human history. And he's sustaining things that are not his kingdoms. That what that does not mean is that all of creation and all of the universe is his Kingdom. That's not what that means because there's the kingdoms of this world, right?
That are not of the Kingdom of God. So he's there's a difference between his Kingdom and him sustaining all creation. So we look at right now and we go, you are sustaining all of creation, but the only place where you are ruling and reigning is within. It's in your people.
And so I want to name this. When is it? It's now in his people. He's ruling and reigning in us by the Holy Spirit.
So that is where the spiritual Kingdom is realized right now, the Kingdom of heaven, it's actually on display in you and in me if we surrender to Jesus. So that's when now, remember I said that it's not yet though and that not yet part is the physical reality of heaven coming down to earth and heaven becoming one. Like the dwelling place of God says in the Revelation, the dwelling place of God will become the dwelling place of man. So they're going to like come together, right?
But we're not there yet. Everybody say not home yet. I'm an alien to this world. This is not my home.
There's a different land that I'm called to. It's called heaven. Yeah? And heaven is going to come to earth and that's what's so exciting because don't you know that you kind of have this like knowing as a human that you're not destined for some ethereal existence in eternity future.
There's something about you as a human that you like that it's physical. If you think that you're like, oh, maybe it's like the angel thing on the cloud with the harp doesn't if we like think about it, it's like, I don't want that. Yeah? It's because God has made you to physically dwell with him someday.
And so when is that going to be really soon? But then there's going to be a delay. But when he comes, this is going to be inaugurated through Jesus returning when he comes. Oh my goodness.
He's going to ride on the clouds with his cloud of witnesses and they're going to come and he's going to ride on the white horse and he is going to set up a kingdom. And the question is where is his kingdom going to be? He's going to be in the earth on the earth. He's going to create a new heavens and a new earth.
So where is this kingdom? Yeah, it's in us right now. But there's a time where he's going to set up his headquarters and his headquarters are not going to be in Washington, DC. They're not going to be at the White House.
He's actually going to set up his headquarters in Jerusalem of all places. And he's actually going to set up righteous leadership in Jerusalem. And he is going to rule in rain from Jerusalem for eternity. So we've got the what?
His rule in rain. We've got the when now, but not yet, but soon, but it's going to wait. We're going to be delayed and then it's going to be suddenly it's going to happen and where in us right now in the spiritual rain, but in the future, the where is going to be the new heavens and the new earth and Jerusalem. So that's where the kingdom is.
Are we good? All right. So the question is who? Who?
Who's leading this thing? We already covered that. But Jesus wanted us to not just know that on the surface. Like I'm going to be the leader.
He wanted to reveal in all of these parables elements of what he's like. So the parables, one of the common things in parables is that he is the main character. We kind of think we've always put ourselves as the main characters in stories. And I want you to know you're not the main character.
The king is the main character of the kingdom. And so it's very Western for us to put ourselves at the middle of the parables. The rabbi is the one that's the main character. So what he does is he reveals himself in all these parables.
I'm just going to breeze through it. You guys ready? All right. Jesus reveals himself as the sower.
He's the sower that sos generously. He's the gardener that suddenly reaches. He's the farmer that mercifully delays judgment because he's going, I don't want the story's not over yet. They're tears right now.
But I want him to be weak. So I'm going to wait a little bit longer because I've mercy in my heart. And I'm going to let them grow up. And mercy is going to triumph over judgment because he's going, yeah, they deserve judgment.
But I'm going to wait and hope all things and believe that those tears are going to turn. I'm going to believe that those tears are going to bow like the wheat do before me. If you remember the wheat and tears parable. He's the fisherman in the parable of the net.
He's going, I don't want just the sturgeon. I don't want just the Marlins, whatever. I want the tuna. I want the salmon.
I want the trout. I want the sunnies. I want all the fish. In other words, you know what he's saying?
He's saying, I want every tribe, every tongue, every language, every people. I'm the fisherman. I'm the original fisherman. I said to my disciples, hey, you're going to be fisher of men, but everybody knows he's the greatest fisher of men.
Yeah. And he's going, I'm telling you this parable because I want you to know I'm a fisherman. And I want all peoples. And then he says, I want you to know the parable of the wedding banquet.
And he's like, I'm a bridegroom. And I'm going to tell you the parable of the 10 virgins because I want you to know that I'm a groom and my people are the bride. He says, I'm the good shepherd and I go after the one sheep. I'm the righteous judge and I want you to keep on praying.
You be like that widow that's persistent. I'm the righteous judge. I'm not like the earthly judges. I'm a righteous one.
He says, I'm the light giver. You hold that lamp. I'm the one that's going to breathe light into it. He's the Redeemer.
He's the finder of the treasure in the pearl, in the parable of the treasure, in the parable of the pearl. So as review, as he's the master, he's the king in the parable of the talents and the workers in the vineyard and the parable of unforgiving servant, he's this forgiving king. I just want to name. He's a good king.
There's so many bad kings. Have you ever read the Old Testament? Like, oh my, he stands alone. He's holy.
Totally other than no king like him, no chancellor like him, no emperor like him, no president like him. He is his monarchy is the most fantastic. He's the king of all kings. He's the Lord of all lords.
And so he has some values. So you can, if you're taking notes, you can write my king's values. These are some of the values that he revealed about his ruling and his reigning over his kingdom in these parables. The lost sheep and the lost coin and the treasure in the pearl, those parables highlight that our king actually thinks that you have infinite value, that every single human has intrinsic infinite value to him.
I think this is the most incredible, like I can wrap my mind around it, that this is the Psalm 139 king, the one that actually knows you. He doesn't just know your name. He doesn't just know a couple facts about you. Can you imagine all of that we were talking about the cloud of witnesses, all of the billions of people that have surrendered to Jesus.
He actually knows how many hairs they had on their head when they were younger. And he knows how many hairs you lost. And some of you don't even have any more hairs. And he's like, I know it's easy.
I know. But I'm telling you, he knows everything about you. What would it be like to have a leader that knows everyone intimately in his kingdom? I mean, he knows your whole story.
He knew you before you were born. He knew every little detail of your life, every memory. He knows it inside and out. He knows you better than you know you.
And you get to be a part of his kingdom. This is the most, this breaks the brain. See we're so, can I just name that it's so otherworldly, that it's hard to even relate with. It's like if the president of the United States knew every intricate detail of your life.
And he said, even though all of your mess, you're more of a mess than me. You know, can you imagine Donald saying that? I know every detail about you. You're even more messed up than I am.
I don't know. Can you imagine him saying that? This is how weird this is. And can you imagine him saying, I know every intricate detail about you.
And you have infinite worth. I know every mistake you've ever made. And I've cleansed you from all unrighteousness. And you're a favored son or daughter.
You have infinite value in worth. Can you imagine? But we're talking about the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. He has a kingdom that has no end from eternity past, we journey future.
He's going to rule and reign. And I get to have him know me like that. And then say, even though you screwed it up again and again and again and again, you're still my chosen one that I love and I have affection for. You're still worth God blood.
Oh, it's crazy. What a leader. Other value that he has is he values mercy over fairness. This is from the workers of the vineyard parable that Ben preached on.
The other value is that he values mercy over swift justice. This is the wheat and the terrorist patience before judgment. We have a merciful king. I'm going to breeze through these a little bit more.
Other values that we see is that God wants heaven full. Seems like one of his values that he's driven by is he wants a big, big party at the end. He's going, I'm not content with a wedding hall, a wedding reception that's just kind of halfway full. He's going, no, my son's wedding banquet is going to be filled to the brim.
There's going to be so many people that it's going to be wall to wall standing room only. And it's going to be the most amazing party ever. Maybe that's another value. He's a good party planner.
I don't even know if that's a good value to talk about. But he loves celebration. He's going, we're not going to just have a lame party. This is the most epic moment of human history.
We are going to have the most fantastic wedding celebration ever. Bring them all. Come on. And he goes, I want every tribe, every nation, every tongue.
I want every language spoken in my wedding hall. It's going to be a feast. It's going to be a banquet. I want it to be full in here.
And he's got expensive taste. That might be another value. I don't know. He's like, this is what my kingdom's going to be like the most choice.
Precious stones and precious metals are going to be literally, it's not going to be asphalt streets. He's going to literally have them be streets of gold. He's going to have the gates be pearls, massive giant pearls. Remember when Allen talked about that?
He is such a generous king. All right. What else we got? I want to understand the question of who.
So we know who's leading it. But who gets to be a part of it? Yeah. We already talked about every tribe nation tongue.
I don't think it's landed fully yet for us American Western Christians. If you weren't listening to the parable of the net in that message, I've got to just like give you the Cliff Notes version. As a Western Christian, we are egocentric and we are entitled thinking that, of course, God would let us be a part of the kingdom. But I want you to know, it's the most amazing mystery in the Bible that you as a Gentile get to be included in this story line.
Have you ever read in the epistles in the letters that Jesus disciples, they wrote to all the first century churches? That's called the epistles. They're writing these letters and Peter and Paul, they say this phrase, it's the mystery of the gospel. And you're kind of like, ooh, mystery.
I'm intrigued. I just want to keep the intrigue, but I want to tell you what the mystery is. The mystery is that you, the non-Jews, maybe there's some Jews in the house, but you, non-Jewish people get to be invited into a Jewish storyline where you serve a Jewish king and you follow and surrender to a Jewish king if you want to be a part of the kingdom. He's going, this is the most amazing mystery that was hidden for the ages and now has been revealed through Jesus that now the Gentiles, us, us Americans from every tribe, nation and tongue, right?
We've converged into America, but we're mostly Gentiles. And he says, I want all of them to be a part of the story. And I want you to know, it was offensive to the Jews that the Gentiles would be brought in and have equal status to us or to them. That is, so the who is Jews and Gentiles.
And I just, for most of you, I know that just seems so simple and boring. And I want you to like pause and go, okay, that was boring. There's something wrong. And I know, I, listen, I'm not saying I preached it good, okay?
But I just want you to know, if you're bored by that revelation, you need to read your Bible around that topic and go, Lord, you have to blow my mind because I don't feel it. I need the humility on me as a Western Christian for that to land because it doesn't land, okay? All right. So that's the who.
The question that I probably the asking is then, how do I get in? So if it's for Jews and Gentiles, then how do I be a part of the kingdom? So I get to, like, he loved me. Okay, what do I do?
How do I get in? This is the way you enter into the kingdom. You believe in the king and you surrender to the king, okay? You believe in what he did and who he is, and then you surrender to who he is and his leadership.
Oh, no, here he goes again. He's going to talk about the gospel. I've heard the gospel a lot. It's so simple.
Yeah, it's simple. I'm so glad it's simple. So glad it's not complicated. Well, wait a second.
Don't demons even, they know the facts that Jesus is king and they know that he died and was buried and then rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven and they know that he's coming back and they actually know it and they believe it. They know it's fact. So what's the difference between us and them? Let me tell you the difference between you and a demon.
There's a lot. Okay. You want to know how to offend a couple hundred people at the same time? The difference is that demons don't surrender to Jesus.
They don't surrender to his kingship. They can believe all the facts, but I'm telling you, there's a difference between you and them because as a follower of Jesus, you turn from being the king of your own life. You turn from all wickedness. You turn from the way of the world.
You turn from the kingdoms of this world being the thing that you're a part of and you turn from that and you go, Lord, I surrender to your kingship. I dethrown myself off of the throne of my life and I surrender this throne to you and I say, have the throne, have kingship over me. You call the shots now. Now you're the leader.
I'm the follower. That's what it means to follow Jesus. We've got a lot of American Western Christians that are going, I go to church. I'm a Christian.
I grew up in a Christian home. I'm a Christian. I am a part of a political party. I'm a Christian.
And I want you to know that you can be around Christians. You can know Christians. You can even be raised by Christians and not actually be a Christian and not actually be a Christ follower. A Christ follower believes and surrenders and makes God Lord of their life.
And Lord of their life looks like you surrender the things. You surrender every part of you, your sexuality, your sexuality, your desires, your sexual desires, your sexual preferences. I don't know why I'm leaning in there. Whatever they are, you surrender your control of money.
You surrender your future. You surrender your plans. You surrender what you prefer, what you feel like. And you actually go, I surrender all of that.
I lay that on the altar. I give you my whole life. Everything is yours. Here I am.
In all of my, wait a second. Do you have to clean yourself up first? No. You just give yourself fully, even when you're a mess.
Even when you've got, some of you showed up to church and you're like, I'm trying to get back to God to make myself right with God. And I just got to tell you, you're never going to be right with God trying to clean yourself up. It doesn't work that way. You're not going to like try to be good enough and then God will be happy with you.
That's not the gospel. That's not the good news of Jesus. The good news of Jesus is while you are still sinners Christ died for you. While you are still a mess, He died for you.
While you just had nothing to offer Him, He's going, I love you. I'm after you. Come on. Bring your mess to me.
Bring your mess to me. All of the dicks and the junk and the thing that you know is not allowed in church. He said, bring it all. Bring yourself fully.
All you have to do is surrender. Make me king. All bring you into transformation. See, it's this deception.
We got to get transformed before we say yes to Jesus. And the problem is that it's impossible. The only way transformation happens is if you surrender to Him and He transforms you. It's the goodness of the gospel.
So how do you get in? You believe and you surrender to the king. All right, so that's good. Gotta become like a little child.
Gotta wear the robe that He gives. Not the one that I cover myself with, which is like a fig tree. Fig leaves are itchy like Adam and Eve. They had rashes and they needed God to give them clothing.
And we need God's robe of righteousness that He gives us as a gift. Because we can't clean ourselves up. It turns into itchy and it's not fun. And He's going, I'm going to clothe you.
I'm going to purchase clothing for you. It's a robe of righteousness. I'm going to purchase it with my very own blood. And that's what you're going to wear to the wedding feast at the end of the story.
All right, so where is this kingdom? That's what we're going to talk about now. Where? Where?
We kind of covered it a little bit. But it's here. It's here in us. So right now the kingdom of heaven is here inside of us.
And it's growing and expanding, expanding like the parable of the leaven, right? So you know how leaven gets in the dough and then it just starts expanding, but it's kind of invisible. That's what the kingdom of heaven is like in us. So where is it?
It's everywhere the people of God are. It's not everywhere where there's churches. The kingdom of heaven is where churches are. We have a big problem because they're in one place and then they're separate from everyday life for the most part.
And the Lord is going, no, no, no, no. The kingdom is on the loose. The kingdom is going back and forth everywhere. It's going through drive-throughs.
It's going home. The grocery store and work and working from home and walking the dog. It's going everywhere. It's at the practice.
It's at the college. It's at the class. It's everywhere. The kingdom is on the move.
And the kingdom gets bled into everything. It's not just the sacred spaces. Man, I got you guys. That's why we're called every day.
It's not just on Sundays. The kingdom isn't primarily Sundays. I love Sundays. Sundays are amazing.
Sundays are not better than any other day of the week. Sundays are not more spiritual than any other day of the week. That's not biblical. God is actually going every day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
I did it all of those days. They're to be infused with the leaven of the kingdom. So where is it everywhere? Wherever the people of God go.
All right. I want to talk about expectations. You guys ready for expectations that the king has for us? These are all, remember, these are all expressed in the parables.
So there's going to be things that we're talking about. And we're probably not getting the full picture of the kingdom of heaven, because we're going off these 15 parables. But these are the expectations that are revealed in these parables that God has for his citizens. Number one, God expects us to obey him.
Obedience, the parable of the soils. This is God's love language is obedience. And this is actually the key to every single person's call in this room. So you're going, I don't know what my calling is.
I don't know what I'm really like supposed to do. Now let me tell you. You're like, I don't know what my life is about. Oh, I've got it.
You're curious. We all have a similar call. And that is to make disciples. So it's the great mission.
What's your mission to make disciples? Oh, no. Better go to Bible school, sign up for the ministry school. I don't know how to make disciples.
Let me make it simple. Okay. Are you guys ready? Making disciples is not so complicated.
This is what you get to do. Jesus says, go make disciples of every tribe, nation, tongue. He's like, oh, you're from Judea, this marriage, the ends of the earth, right? And then he says, teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you.
So you want to know how to make disciples. You teach people how to obey everything that Jesus says. It was so complicated. And then Jesus made it so simple.
So how are you going to make disciples? If you've never lived a life of obedience, it's going to be really difficult. So the way that you actually be a disciple maker is you live a lifestyle of surrender and obedience. And then all you have to do is turn around and you see someone and you go, I'm going to teach them to do what I do.
Because what I do is I listen to Jesus and I obey Him. And now I'm going to help them listen to Jesus and obey Him. That's discipleship. That's the great commission.
That's the big mission that we get to all be a part of. Okay. So what's his expectation that we have make disciples? How do we make disciples obey?
What's another expectation? Pray persistently. Pray persistently. This is the persistent widow, parable from Luke 18.
He says, I don't want you to give up. You keep on praying. You keep on praying like that little old woman that just wouldn't show up. Shut up.
I want you to keep on praying. Don't shut your mouth. You keep on going to the place of prayer and intercession. You don't see a breakthrough.
You don't see justice happen. You be like a battering ram that just keeps on coming before the Lord. Lord, what do you want to do? I'm going to agree with you.
I'm going to pray. All right. Another expectation of his citizens is that they forgive because they've been forgiven. Forgiveness is mandatory in the kingdom of heaven.
And then lastly, God's expectations of his citizens is that they would steward what he has given them. You can turn in your Bible. And Matthew 24 says where I want to finish, okay? Last week we talked about the parable of the 10 virgins.
And I want to highlight something that I didn't highlight a couple weeks ago when I talked about the parable of the 10 virgins. I think this is, you're kind of going, okay, these are all this information about the kingdom. Great. How does this apply to my life?
I want to highlight three things that I feel like the Lord has made actually four things. We're throwing in a bonus one that he's given us to steward, okay? And it's from Matthew 24 through 25. I want you to notice that Jesus shares a parable in Matthew 24 45 through 51.
Then he shares the 10 virgins parable from Matthew 25 through verse 13, 1 through 13. And then he shares another parable from Matthew 25 14 through 30. And we're not going to read the whole thing, but I just want to help you conceptualize what Jesus is getting at in these three parables. In the first parable, he's talking to a servant.
He's sharing this parable about a servant. The topic of stewardship that Jesus gives in, maybe I'll say this way. There's three resources that Jesus talks about that his citizens are called the steward in Matthew 24 through 25. In the first parable, he calls us to steward people, steward human resources.
In the second parable, he calls us to steward spiritual resources. And in the third parable, he calls us to steward financial resources. And then kind of lace throughout him is the resource of time. And he says, I want you to be faithful servants that steward all of these that I'm giving you.
Okay? So first parable, it's about a servant who in the delay of Jesus, he's not coming back. And in the delay starts being driven by self rather than love and loving the people around them. Second parable, 10 virgins minimize they're not attentive spiritually and don't build history spiritually in God and they're not prepared.
And then the third parable, there's two servants that financially they kill it and they multiply the finances that are given to them. And there's one servant that's driven by fear and they bury the money in the ground and just give it back to the king. We are called to steward people that we lead and have influence over. We are called to steward spiritual resources that Jesus has given to us generously.
And we are called to steward money. Everybody say money. People. People.
Spirit. We're called to steward all those things and everybody say time. Make the best use of your time because the days are evil, right? So those are the things that God has called us to steward.
I want you to notice with stewarding people, it's not just our employees if you're like a manager and you're an owner of a business. He's talking about all of those that you're connected to. He's talking about your family. He's talking about your spouse.
He's talking about your kids. He's talking about those that are your coworkers, your neighbor, the poor. Even later in the context, he starts talking about the poor. He starts talking about the orphan, the widow, those in prison.
He's talking about people. And as his children, we are called, it's a sober thing. He's entrusting people to us. You're going, I'm not a leader.
No, you are. God has put you in people's lives and you are called to steward their hearts. And guess what? They are going to live forever.
These are eternal beings that the Lord is entrusting to you. And the Lord is going, I want you to be a good steward that is driven by love. Now catch this. Guess what happens?
This thing gets flipped upside down. And instead of stewarding and loving the people that God puts in our lives, they become masters over us. And we're driven by the fear of man rather than loving man. And so what happens is we are called to steward those people and love those people well.
But then when we come under the fear of man, they become our master rather than those that we love. Okay? What happens spiritually? We start having, we are to steward what God has given us.
But then the things that he's given us actually become gods to us. Or like we get distracted by the very thing that he's given us and entrusted to us. And we get distracted with those things rather than him. We get distracted with all of the spiritual things.
And he's the one that we are to actually develop surrender to in fascination with. Okay? People, money. Everybody say money.
Do you know what God loves? When you take $20 million and you turn it into $40 million. He loves that. He loves when the $20 turns into $40.
He loves when the $10. Man, I could, when I said $20 million, I could hear a pin drop in here. He loves when you, you'll be able to receive this. He loves when you take the $10 and you turn it into $20.
Everybody goes, oh, now he's preaching. Now he's preaching because we've been villainizing the rich for a very long time as the people of God, but it seems like Jesus likes when they turn the $20 million into the $40 million because this parable is all about five talents, which is actually 20 years of income. And so they take 20 years of income and they double it. And Jesus, the master goes, good and faithful servant.
You double the money. I just want to name money as neutral until it's not. The love of money is a ditch. Greed is a ditch, but money is neutral.
And money actually becomes a kingdom thing when it gets put into kingdom hands and it is stewarded by kingdom people. You go, well, as long as they give it all away. No, no, no, no, stop it. Well if they give it to the church, then it's kingdom.
No, no, the Lord goes, this is kingdom. Turn the $20 million into $40 million. Period. That's a kingdom thing.
Like, but, but, but, no, no, no, 20 to $40 million. Jesus says that's good. Oh, that's offensive. For some of us that don't have $20 million.
Yeah? But I want to, I want to just name God wants us to not be driven by man and greed and the love of money. And he also doesn't want us to be driven by the fear of money, which is what this servant did in that parable. And the Lord's going, I don't want money to become the master because that we are to steward money.
We are to take money like little dollars and like little soldiers and put them to work for the kingdom. Yeah? But when we start being afraid of money, driven by greed, what happens is money becomes the master and it's completely out of line. And so do we fear money?
No. Do we love money? No. But we steward money.
And, and this is what's so beautiful about stewardship. It can be so complicated. But if you just have good soil, you're going to be okay. If you just have a heart that says, I'm going to listen and obey, you're not going to have money as your master.
If you just have a heart that says, I'm going to listen to my master, I'm going to listen to Jesus, my rabbi, my king, and I'm going to obey, then man will not be your master. And momentum will not be your master, but you will be led by the spirit and you, because it's not yours anyways. Right? And so as people, I just want to call us into stewardship of the kingdom of heaven.
God's calling us into the second commandment. God's calling us into the first commandment. Love God. Love people.
And we get to do that with all of the resources that he's given to us. Let's all stand. What is the kingdom of heaven? The kingdom of heaven is wherever the Lord rules and reigns.
Its future government is going to be in the new Jerusalem, but its headquarters are above the circle of the earth right now. And he's going to come and his inauguration of the kingdom is going to be the most fantastic moment in human history when he rides on the clouds and he throws a wedding feast and he brings justice and he wipes tears from our eyes and he says the dwelling place of God is going to become the dwelling place of man. Jesus, the king is going to bring every ethnic group and language and generation together and they're going to be unified together and they're going to be one just as he prayed in John 17. Jesus is going to bring his kingdom and this kingdom has the most incredible culture.
It's a fruitful culture that the Holy Spirit has built and it's going to be a culture of love, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. It's going to be the most incredible culture and it is right now, but it's going to be every citizen in this kingdom is going to be redeemed and given eternal life. Therefore, every citizen is going to be a humble worshiver. The infrastructure of this kingdom will have the most incredible streets, the incredible, it's going to be the most incredible building materials imaginable and his kingdom is going to be eternal.
Citizens are going to live forever in his kingdom. It's going to be an ever-increasing kingdom. He's going to empower others to steward his kingdom and it will be a kingdom that has no end. The kingdom of heaven is like mustard seed and leaven and soils and wheat and tares and nets and talents and treasure and parables and pearls and lamps and persistent widows and victories and workers in the vineyard.
The kingdom of heaven is like seeds growing and 10 virgins and unforgiving serfants. This is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus, we're so grateful that you're the king of this kingdom. We're so glad that you're the king, that you're the leader.
But you just put out your hands if you're willing. Lord, I thank you for what you've given me to steward. The spiritual resources of your spirit, for were the gifts that you've given me. Lord, I thank you for the people that you've given to me in my life that I get to steward those relationships and love them, even loving my enemies.
Lord, I thank you for the money, the assets, the liabilities that you've entrusted to me. I just say, these are all yours. I take it seriously that you want me to steward these. You want me to steward my time.
So for all of these things that you've given to me to steward, is there anything that you want to say about these things that I'm stewarding right now? I just want all throughout the room to say, Lord, is there anything that you want to say to me about what I'm stewarding? You can just do it in your own words. Maybe it's money.
Maybe it's a relationship. Maybe it's how I'm spending my time. Lord, I'm just an open book. Anything that's out of alignment, that you want to bring alignment to and how I'm stewarding these things.
Lord's probably going to just choose one of them. So don't start going after all four. If you're not getting anything, just say Lord, just choose one of them. Say Lord, what do you want me to know?
What do you want me to do? Maybe he's going, hey, I want you to work on clearing your debt. I want you to take financial peace universally. Maybe he's saying, I want you to be vulnerable in your marriage.
He's saying, hey, I want you to apologize to your kid. I want you to do something kindness and love in your heart for that coworker that keeps on backstabbing you. I want you to undound those social media. Whenever it is Lord, wear an open book.
I just want to give him about 30 more seconds. Holy Spirit, would you just speak to your people right now? These stewards of the kingdom. You repeat this after me.
I'm going to just provide a declaration for us as well. We say that every morning with our kids on the way to school. You can say, I'm not what I do. I'm not what I have.
I'm not what people say about me. I'm the beloved of God. It's who I am. No one can take it from me.
I don't have to hurry. And I don't have to worry. I can trust the Holy Spirit and share Jesus' love with the world. Amen.