 What are you guys doing this morning, good? It's so good to be in the presence of the Lord, amen? Yeah, that was weak. Gonna pray for second service. You know, first service is on it today. I'm just kidding. Oh man, but it's always a joy to be with this. We consider this like our family over here. You guys are, we're a sister church in San Clemente of you guys, and so we're just always blessed to come and be with you, especially next March 9th through the 20th. Rox and I will be joining Pastor David and Marie and going to Israel. And so just wanna encourage you guys to come and join us as well. Brennan Beeler's gonna be there, David Maestes from Albuquerque. And so, and we're gonna sing Let It Rise as much as we can at every site, you know, because I know it's Pastor David's favorite song. So, well, today I wanna call your attention to First Chronicles, Chapter 17. First Chronicles 17. And I wanna talk to you about the kingdom of God, about the kingdom of God. For some of us, it's gonna be a reminder of what the kingdom of God is. For others, it's gonna be a challenge. And for others, it's going to be a call to step into the kingdom, to be a part of what God is doing. And to give us some background of where we are in First Chronicles 17, at this time in Israel's history, David, King David, has had a great deal of success. He's conquered the city of Jebus, which in the Hebrew is Yebus, and he's renamed it Jerusalem. He's conquered the stronghold of Zion and renamed it the city of David, the place where he's going to build his palace. He's united the northern and the southern tribes of Israel as one nation. And now he's living in a beautiful cedar home, a palace built for him by the king of Tyre. And so as David's kind of hanging out in his newly built palace, he's kind of settled in, he invites Nathan, the prophet, to come over for burritos and coffee. That happens every Tuesday, guys, burritos and coffee, just a reminder. And he says to him, Nate, I live in this beautiful palace. Just look at that, how wonderful, this cedar wood, it's all beautifully designed. And over there on Mount Moriah is the Ark of the Covenant, and it's under a tent. I want to build a house for God. And Nathan, the prophet, looks at it and says, oh, David, that's just amazing. You're just such a cool bro. This is in the Hebrew, by the way. Doesn't come out in the English, but says God's with you, you could do whatever you wanted, just go for it. And that night as Nathan is sleeping, God speaks to him in a dream and says, Nathan, not so fast, go tell David he's not going to build the house for me. And God reminds David through the prophet, Nathan, that David, you have nothing to offer me. That I'm the one that took you as a shepherd boy and I raised you up and I made you the king over my people Israel. That I'm the one who has made you one of the great men on the earth. And so David, you have nothing to offer me and you have nothing to offer my people Israel. I'm the one who will appoint a place for my people to dwell. I'm the one who will make sure that the wicked will oppress them no more. I'm the one who will subdue all your enemies, it's not you, David. In fact, David, I'm going to build you a house. You're not going to build me a house. And God gives David a right view of himself and a right view of God. A right view of himself and a right view of God. You know, it's essential that we have a right view of God. That we understand who he is and who we are. Because if you have a wrong view of God, it will result in a restless activism inside of you. You'll feel like you need to do something. Like the kingdom of God somehow depends on you. That we must stop the tide of evil, that we have to do something. And maybe you've heard preaching like that. And one can convince themselves that they're doing God's work, but in reality, it's restless activism. It's me trying to build God's house, expand God's kingdom in my own power, my own strength, using the strategies and the tactics of the world. And so God reminds David, I don't need your restless activism. I'm the one who is working to establish a place for my people and a place for you. You have nothing to offer me. You see, as the people of God, we are not to be driven by restless activism. We're not to be driven even by discontent in the culture. We are to be led by the spirit. We are to be directed, empowered by the spirit to simply obey what God commands us to do. And so God makes a covenant with David in 1 Chronicles 17, verse 11. This is our text for this morning. It says, And it shall be when your days are fulfilled, when you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who will be one of your sons, and I will establish his kingdom, and he shall build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son, and I will not take my mercy away from him as I took it from him who was before you, and I will establish him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever. Now, in this covenant that God makes with David, God says, I'm going to do four things. I'm going to set up your seed after you, and then he, I will establish his kingdom, then he shall build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever, four things. The first thing God says is I will set up your seed. Now, this is an interesting choice of words, because God doesn't say I'm going to set up your son who's going to come after you. God doesn't say I'm going to set up your descendants who comes after you. He says specifically I'm going to set up your seed. Very interesting, very specific word. The first time that the word seed is mentioned in reference to man is found in Genesis chapter three, verse 15. And it's talking between the woman Eve and Satan. And we read this, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Now, this passage, this verse in scripture Genesis 3.15 is known as the Proto Evangelium. It's the first appearance of the gospel. And God announces his plan to save mankind from the curse of sin and death. And God promises two things. First, he says the seed that is coming is going to be the seed of a woman, the seed of a woman. Now, I don't know about you, but when I was little growing up and when they used to teach biology in school, like real biology, I mean, the real basic of biology is I learned that women don't have seeds. Women have eggs, right? Men have seed, women have eggs, very basic. I know they're trying to change it, but it's a fundamental biological principle. And so what is being promised here? What is being promised is a supernatural birth, a virgin birth, a birth that is going to come through a woman supernaturally. And Luke 2 confirms that Jesus was born of a virgin. Luke chapter two. The second promise that God makes is that the seed will destroy Satan. God tells Satan, he will bruise your head, you will bruise his heel. Now, in the Hebrew, it's not the same word. In the Hebrew, what it says is that he, speaking of the seed, will crush your head and you, Satan, will strike his heel. In other words, Jesus is going to destroy Satan. And 1 John 3.8 confirms that Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan. And thus the seed that is being referred to in the covenant made with David in 1 Chronicles 17 is speaking of Jesus. And that's the first principle of the kingdom of God, is that it is all about Jesus. It is about Jesus. God said to David, I'm going to set up your seed. Now, what's interesting, that word in the Hebrew when it's translated can mean set up, it also can mean raise up. So he's saying, I'm going to raise up your seed. Speaking of Jesus, Paul said to the Philippians, in Philippians 2.8 that Jesus humbled himself was obedient to death, even death on the cross. But Jesus didn't stay dead. He died, he was buried and three days later, he what, was raised up. He raised up and when he was raised up, God crowned him as king. And so the fundamental reality of the kingdom of God is that our king is not dead, our king is alive, that he is active, he is reigning, he is with us today and he is here. Yes, it's all about Jesus. Second, God says, I will establish his kingdom. How is God going to establish his kingdom? Well, Matthew actually gives us some insight in Matthew chapter four, verse 23. We read this, and Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. So God establishes his kingdom through three things, through the teaching of God's word in church. Synagogue is the equivalent of church, is where they would gather together for worship. Jesus taught in church. Now I know there's a movement amongst certain parts of the church that says, you know, we don't really need to go to church. You know, wherever two or more are gathered in my name, you know, that's church. It's like, no, it's not. Nowhere in the scriptures is that church. Whenever you see the word congregation in the Old Testament, it refers to the gathering of the whole nation. Everyone gathered together for worship. In the New Testament, when you see the word synagogue, which is Greek for the congregation, it's speaking of all the saints gathered together. It's never one or two. You see, in the mind of the Hebrew, they would never consider that the worship of one or two would be enough for God. God is the king of the universe. He created all things. He's huge, massive, powerful. He's worthy to receive so much more worship than one or two people can bring. We gotta invite our friends. And so they go invite their friends. Let's worship the Lord. They gather together. Well, you know what? Our friends aren't enough. We need to invite the whole block. In fact, the block's not enough. We need to invite the whole city. The city's not enough. We need to invite the whole county. The county's not enough. We need to invite the whole state. That would be awesome, wouldn't it? All gathered together worshiping the Lord. But that wouldn't be enough. We gotta invite the whole nation. And one nation worshiping the Lord would not be enough to give glory to the God who created the heavens and the earth. We gotta get the whole world involved. You see, a Hebrew would never think so individualistically that I'm enough to worship God. It has to be everybody together. And so it's gathering together in church to hear God's word taught. That's why we give attention to the public reading of God's word. God builds His kingdom through preaching. The preaching of the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of the king. That's why we preach the gospel. The kingdom is built through healing, all kinds of sickness and all kinds of diseases. Which is why we pray for people. We pray for their lives to be healed, for their marriages to be healed, for their bodies to be healed. For God to do incredible things. Because we serve a God who does incredible things. A few months ago, a family called our church wanting one of our pastors to come out and pray. And because their son was basically, they were getting ready to pull the plug. He was brain dead. And so one of our pastors went out to pray and the nurse was basically mocking him like, what are you here for? You know, it's hopeless. And so they said, well, we just want an opportunity to pray. Just one opportunity to pray. They said, whatever, knock yourself out. They went in and laid hands on this young man. The next day he walked out of the hospital, healed. You see, we believe in God and the power of prayer. Now I want to highlight something that is often overlooked in this passage. Because it would be easy to focus on teaching and say that the kingdom has come. It's great teaching. But you can have teaching without Jesus. You know, not every church that uses a Bible is a Bible teaching church. And not every Christian wants to hear what the Bible has to say. In fact, Paul said in 2 Timothy 4 that the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but will flock to teachers who will tickle their ears, telling them what they want to hear. And the truth is is that people want to be deceived. That's why they watch CNN. And so when somebody tells me about some big church down, you know, in another place, I don't automatically think, oh, there must be something of God happening there. It could be just that that person is good at tickling people's ears. Not really teaching the word of God. Thank God you have a pastor that is committed to teaching you God's word without compromise. You're a blessed church. Very few pastors allow God to speak through his word. It would be easy to focus on the gospel and say the kingdom has come. But you can have the gospel without Jesus. Paul referred to those who preach another gospel, those who distort the gospel of Christ. I call it Gospel plus. Gospel plus politics. Gospel plus social activism. Gospel plus inclusion. Gospel plus morality. Gospel plus conservatism. It's another gospel. I heard a preacher from one of the Gospel plus churches say, if you preach that the gospel and politics do not mix, you are preaching heresy. Paul said, if we or an angel from heaven preach a gospel other than the one we preach to you, let them be accursed. In Galatians chapter one verse eight. If I was that preacher, I'd be very afraid because God has something to say about shepherds who preach another gospel. There's only one gospel and it's purely about Jesus and nothing else. It would be easy to focus on healing and say the gospel has come. But you can have miracles without Jesus. You know, right now in certain parts of the church, there's an emphasis on being activated in your spiritual gifts. You can pay money to people to get activated in your gifts. Or you can go to Jesus and get it for free. I live by the motto, if it's free, it's for me. But these churches will use worship to create an emotionally charged environment and in this emotionally charged state they'll manipulate people into an experience what they call a God encounter to get them activated in their gifts. And thus people are flocking to these places, to these conferences to have this experience. The problem is if you are seeking an experience you will get an experience. It will not be the Lord, but you'll get an experience. But if you are seeking the Lord, I guarantee you when Jesus reveals himself to you it will be an experience. When God descended upon Mount Sinai and the whole Mount shook and quaked and the cloud and there was smoke and fire, I can tell you the people that saw that had an experience. They were freaked out. When Lonnie Frisbee prayed for me to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I had an experience. I felt like a thousand volts of electricity went through my body. I thought I was gonna die. I encountered God, but I wasn't seeking an experience. I was seeking the living God. In Matthew seven, Jesus said on that day many will say, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Cast out demons, many mighty works and Jesus will declare to them, depart from me for I never knew you. One of the scariest verses in the Bible. People thinking that they're doing something for God when they're not because Jesus is not in it. You can have miracles without Jesus. But the part I want to highlight is the opening words of Matthew chapter four, verse 23. It says, Jesus went about all Galilee. Jesus went about all Galilee. In other words, Jesus was present in the land. Jesus himself was there. What am I saying? It wasn't about the teaching. It wasn't about the preaching. It wasn't about the miracles. It was all about Jesus and him being present in the land. Jesus was there because the kingdom isn't about these things, it's about Jesus. It's about him. The focus is Jesus and everything happens because Jesus is present. That's why it was called a Jesus movement. Jesus was doing miraculous things, but it was him. It was all about him. People were proclaiming the presence and power that Jesus came to bring to set the lives free of those in captivity. And this is so important in our understanding of the kingdom of God, that it's not about the message, getting the right message or crafting the best message. It's not about the gifts, it's not about the power or the gospel, all of those things are good, they're great, they're awesome, but they all point to one person, Jesus. It's all about him. And if he is not center stage, then it's not the kingdom of God. That is the fundamental reality of God's kingdom. It's all about Jesus. Third, God says, he, the son of David, that Jesus will build me a house. Jesus will build God's house. What house is he building? What kind of house would Jesus build? Well, in the New Testament, the house of God carries two meanings. There's an individual meaning and there's a corporate meaning. The individual meaning is that you and I, we are the house of God. In 1 Corinthians 3, it says, do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. Every person here who is born again, you are the house of God. You're the dwelling place of God. God lives in you. Peter preaching on the true house of God said this in Acts chapter seven, however, the most high does not dwell in temples made with hands as the prophet says. Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me says the Lord or what is the place of my rest? Has my hand not made all these things? And for a moment, I want you to hear God speaking. I want you to hear the voice of God. What he is saying to you right now. As God says to the prophet, heaven is my throne. Earth is my footstool. There's not one building on earth created by the hands of man that can contain me. Where is my house going to be? Where is my dwelling place? Where is the place that I'm going to rest? And you can hear the voice of God thundering throughout creation. Where is my dwelling place? Where is my rest? And the voice of Paul says you are the house of God. And so we respond by saying here am I Lord. I'll be your dwelling place. You can live here Lord. You can rest here in me. I will be your dwelling place. And that's what it means to be born again. When God sets up residence in your life. You no longer belong to yourself. You belong to another. Another lives in you. And he is holy. And he lives in you and he declares you holy. And he says be holy for I am holy. And that's why we don't want anything to defile this house. We don't want sin to defile this house. We wanna keep this house clean for the one who lives in us. We're not our own. We've been bought with the price. And when we live in this incarnational reality, Christ in us, it keeps us from sin because we don't want anything to defile the house of God. And so you and I, we are the house of God. But the corporate meaning is that together we are the house of God. Every person in this room in 1 Peter 2.5, it says you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Paul referred to the house of God as the church in 1 Timothy 3.15. And so every person here, together in this place, we together are the house of God. And we're offering up spiritual sacrifices. What is that spiritual sacrifice? Our worship, our worship as it rises up from us into the heavenlies towards God. He receives it. He loves it. Together we are the house of God. And God says in 2 Corinthians 6, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Right now, God's presence is here in this room. He's walking up every aisle, going across every seat, touching every heart right now. And it's not because you're in a building called the church. It's because you are his dwelling place, corporately together. You are the house of God. That is why Paul says there should be no schism, no division in the body. That I can't say to the hand, I don't need you. Because we're all needed. Every single one of us is essential. Every member is a minister. You're essential because together we are the house of God that Jesus is building. And every one of us is needed. Now if you don't take your place in God's house, God doesn't raise up someone else and put them in your place. Your place remains empty. Your job remains undone. And God's house is incomplete. That's how essential you are. That's how needed you are. That's why it's so important that you not only look at churches someplace that you attend, but you ask God, where am I supposed to serve? What have you made me for? What have you created me for, Lord? You're essential. And fourth God says I will establish his throne forever. Two foundational principles about the kingdom of God. God is the one who establishes his kingdom, not man. And God's throne is established forever. Now it's such a crucial issue for us as believers to understand this. Because when you look at the kingdoms of this world, when you look at the rulers of this world, it's overwhelming. It's overpowering. And it's easy to become consumed by them. It's easy to be influenced by them, to accept what they say is truth because the laws that they implement affect us. They affect the way we live. They affect our lives. They have legitimate power in this world. But there is a kingdom that is greater than the kingdoms of this world. And there is a king that is greater than the kings of this world. And it's essential that we understand that we are not of this world. That we are in this world, but we are not of this world. And so we are not governed by the powers of this world. We are under a higher law. We are governed by a higher king. In Philippians chapter two it says, therefore God has also exalted him and given him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Our king has power over all the kings and kingdoms of the world. His kingdom is eternal. It outlasts the kingdoms of the world. And it's so essential that you have this view of the kingdom because if you don't have the proper view of God's kingdom, you're gonna be easily swayed by the restless activism that is so prevalent in the church today. Your focus will be on the governments of this world instead of the kingdom of God. Your faith will rise and fall with the economies of this world instead of being secure in the unshakable kingdom of God. You'll be caught up with the fear-based message of restless activism instead of the hope-filled message of the gospel of the kingdom. You'll seek healing through political reform instead of ministering healing by the power of God. And I saw a post by a pastor basically saying how frustrated he was with the lack of leadership in our state and how he was depressed and his guys weren't winning. But then he saw, you know, Jesus is Lord. And so that gave him great comfort to know, oh, Jesus is in control. And I thought, how sad that even for a moment you put your trust in an earthly king. That even for a moment you put your trust in an earthly system, a worldly system and not in the kingdom of God. We have to remember that we are citizens of a heavenly kingdom that is greater than the kingdoms of this world. And God's kingdom remains. Where's the Roman Empire today? God. Where's the Assyrian Empire? God. Where's the Persian Empire? God. Where's the kingdom of God still here? That's the eternal perspective. God will outlast every earthly kingdom. And his power prevails. I'm gonna give you a story about that. We were in 2020, I was blessed to be able to do some outreaches in the Midwest. And we went to this small town in Ohio and I have a picture of it. We were setting up to do our outreach. On one corner was Black Lives Matter. On the other corner was All Lives Matter and on the third corner was Blue Lives Matter. And then here we are on our corner doing this setting up for this outreach. Politics had divided this city. And so as we were setting up, one of the, they had a farmer's market that was right next to us. And so one of the guys called me over and said, hey, can I talk to you, you know? And I said, sure. And he said, what are you guys doing here protesting? I said, we're not here protesting. This is why you're here. I said, we came for one reason. God sent us to tell this town that God loves you and God forgives you and God welcomes you. That's all we came to do. We came to preach the good news, the gospel to this town. And he looked at me puzzled and he said, whatever. He wasn't a believer. Whatever. And so we went and we kept setting up but as time went on, these protests grew. More people came in. They started to get more agitated. They started to yell at each other. They started to cross into the middle of the street and also just to kind of add a little bit of fuel to the fire, about every 20 minutes a truck would come through down. It was a one street town, right? One street town in middle America. This Trump rally truck would come through and honk its horns with American flag and every time it passed by the Black Lives Matter people would pull out the rainbow flags and cuss profanities at the cars that would drive by. And it was starting to get very intense. People were starting to get close. They were crossing into the street yelling each other. The cops were brought in. There was three units, one of them was a canine unit. And I mean, it was heating up. And here we are, we're getting ready to do this outreach. And I'm thinking, wow, who planned this outreach on this weekend? And I turned to the people that had invited us and they said, what do you want to do? And they said, let's go for it. So we prayed. And as soon as I walked up to the microphone and I strummed the chord and we began to declare, let the glory of the Lord rise in this place. Pastor David's favorite song. As soon as we began to declare that, a hush came on the entire city block. Everyone stopped yelling. They all went back to their corners and they began to pay attention. It was so obvious. I even asked them at one point during the outreach, did you notice the peace of God came on this entire town? And everybody's like, yeah, we noticed that. What politics couldn't do, Jesus did. The kingdom of God prevailed. The gospel went forth and it was so powerful that even one of the Black Lives Matter people put their sign away in their car and came over in the invitation and joined us. God's power was so evident that one of the unbelieving folks that were in attendance posted this post on Facebook. And I wanna read it to you. It should be on the screen also. It says, so there is something really interesting going on here. A Black Lives Matter protest, a Trump rally and a church revival. As I stand back and look around, I noticed that the gospel music of the church revival has everyone swaying back and forth to the beat of the music. People sitting in the grass here for the revival, people holding American flags and Trump flags, people holding Black Lives Matter signs, even the guy holding a sign that says, boycott the mill restaurant. They have all been brought together by one sound. And even if they fail to realize what they are doing, their subconscious movements are all alike to the sound of gospel music. Jesus prevailed. That is the power of the gospel. That's the power of the kingdom of God. And Jesus modeled for us how his kingdom is established. First, we minister the presence of Jesus. Jesus is present in the land. Jesus is present here in this church. Jesus is present here in this city. Jesus is present in the land. And second, by the teaching of his word in the church, not politics, but the pure word of God. Third, by preaching the gospel to the world. Not the gospel plus, but the good news of Jesus Christ. And fourth, through the power of healing prayer. You know, the world isn't looking for a political answer. They're not looking for a moral answer. The world is looking for a spiritual answer. They're looking for Jesus. And God has placed that message in the heart of every born again person in this church. You are a steward of that message. You are a steward of his presence who is with you everywhere you go. What are you doing with it? What are you doing with it? Don't get caught up in the restless activism. God is not restless. God is not desperate. God is not worried. He's Lord. And what the world wants is they wanna know is this message that we preach, we teach, we live, is it really true? And when they find a people who live this message, who are willing to go up to them and say, hey, God is looking for a dwelling place, a resting place, are you that resting place? Don't be surprised if they say, yes, I wanna be that resting place. I want Jesus to be in my heart, in my life. Some of you have been living outside the presence of Jesus. You've been caught up in sin, living in fear. Some even caught up in restless activism. And God is calling you to repent, to come back to him, to come back to the simplicity of Jesus. Jesus and nothing else. And when you heard the voice of God saying, where is the house you will build for me, where will my resting place be? There was something in your heart that said, that's me, that's me. Lord, you're speaking to me right now. I wanna be your dwelling place. I wanna be your resting place. I want you to live in me. And maybe for you, it's a new profession of faith. Maybe for you, it's a rededication coming back. But if that's you right now, I wanna invite you to stand right where you're at and I wanna pray for you.