The Kingdom We Long For

Well, good morning to everybody. So glad to see you this morning. If I don't sound great, I feel way better than I sound so you can take courage in that, I sounded awful last week. It's 'cause I was getting sick, I sound awful this week. It's because I am trying to finish up being sick. So, but I'm here, preaching is not for sissies. You just have to get up here and get the job done, you know what I mean? Thank you, it gave me a chance to take a sip while you were clapping. It's kind of a little move we do. Whenever a new presidential administration is elected, there are some guidelines that must be adhered to. Maybe you know about this, maybe you don't. Or you're gonna sit there and act like you do and you're lying. The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 established some legal requirements about milestones that have to be met when there's a new incoming administration. So for instance, there's a one year milestone. So November before the election, they have to put in place the General Services Administration, which develops a transition directory. It's got all the, the numbers and names of agency heads and all the agencies that you have to, I imagine that thing is probably like that thick, I have no idea, but it's probably enormous. Then there's a six month milestone that legally has to be put in place where senior officials of the current administration have to then kind of work with incoming officials and they have to be appointed so that there is a transition team there. And then after the election, there's some post-election plans that have to be put in place from November to January as well. Now all of this has to do with basically a transition team and orienting people to their responsibilities and preparing the new administration for its duties. Now I imagine that it would be a really significant honor if you were asked to be a part of that, part of a cabinet position in an incoming administration. That would be a significant honor, I'm sure. I mean, you get to serve your country. It's a pretty unique thing to be able to do and that's why there are governors of states and state senators who will leave their present posts and will take a role in a new administration because they have a chance now not to just work for a state maybe or a locality, but they've got a chance to work on behalf of an entire nation. Now I'll come back to that in just a second, but I was thinking about it because as we've been reading through the book of Revelation and kind of seeing this vision, this revelation that Jesus gave to John that he now has been able to see, what we're reminded of is that there is a government that is on its way. Now there's a government that's already among us, an earthly government so to speak. There's also a kingdom government that is in and through all that we do, but it hasn't come to its completion yet. But I can promise you as we read the book of Revelation, we find out that there is a kingdom that is coming in full in its consummation and it is on its way. Now last week we looked at the coming of King Jesus and now as we conclude the book of Revelation, we're gonna get to see at least a glimpse maybe in part of the kingdom that we've all longed for. Now, maybe it's possible that you didn't realize that you longed for this kind of kingdom that the Bible is describing, but I assure you that you do. Maybe you've been too turned upside down in the election cycle and you've just gotten all sideways and upside down and scattered, in a mess, and all that kind of stuff, so you haven't thought about it. Or maybe you're that person who it happens to you every four years, like four years, you get all sideways and messed up and turned around and upside down and then you recover and then four years later you do it all over again. Maybe if you're in those places, you haven't realized just how much you long for the kingdom that's actually coming. So what I wanna do in our time together is I wanna take a few minutes to experience the blessing of what John's vision shows us about the kingdom that we long for. Now this is articulated for us in Revelation chapter 21 and chapter 22. If you don't have a copy of God's word with you, or maybe you do but you're not super familiar with it or you're grabbing one out of a seat back or something like that and you're like, "I don't really know where to turn," just go to the end of the book, like the very end, not the maps at the end, but just go to the very end. This is the last book in the Bible. This is the conclusion of the story and these are the last two chapters of the very last book that is in our Bible in Revelation 21 and 22. Now here's what I want you to understand. The depth and the richness of these texts in chapter 21 and chapter 22 are far too weighty and far too deep for us to be able to cover in one teaching moment that we have in these next few moments together. So cut me some slack if I don't catch every single thing that you want me to catch in this, right, you're just gonna have to take a couple baby aspirin and go home. All right? That's just how it's gonna have to be. So, what we can do is we can pick up some characteristics of what this kingdom is actually like, this kingdom that we actually long for, whether we know we long for it or not. Lemme start with the very first. Now the first characteristic about the kingdom we long for is that it will be new. Some of you're going, "Well thank you Sherlock for that," like pause. Some of you may be thinking, "Oh good, this is gonna be new. That's fantastic because I'm a little tired of all the same old, same old with our government." The red tape, the bureaucracy, the changing out of people that are in the same jobs, doing the same stuff that are saying, "Boy, we're bringing change and we're gonna really flip the system and all that kind of stuff." And it feels like over the course of tons and tons of years, I figured out, I think this is the sixth election cycle that I have been pastoring you. And that's a lot of timeframe. That covers a lot of time every four years. This is the sixth one and sometimes, it's over and over. It's like the same old, same old. It's just we change out people for the same jobs in the same departments and then we say, "No, everything's gonna be new," and then we do it again four years later and we're like, "Nope, it's not new, it's still the same." That's just kind of how we feel. Well I can tell you this, the newness of the kingdom that we're talking about, not like that. This is a newness that's not like that. Listen to how Revelation 21 begins, beginning in verse one. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, '****, God's dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.' He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything or all things new.' Then he said, 'Write this down for these words are trustworthy and true.'" Now, when we get to this passage of scripture and we read these kinds of verses, what we need to recognize is that this newness that's being talked about here, a new heaven and a new earth, this newness is a restoration or a renovation of sorts. Now notice that God says, listen to this. Notice that God says, "I will make all things new." Notice that he doesn't say, "I'm just going to make all new things." I'm gonna make all things new, not just make all new things. Because for some of us, what we have a tendency to think is that everything is just gonna be detonated. The whole experiment is gonna be tossed in the garbage can and that now he's going to do something brand new when in fact that's not exactly what's being said here or in the fullness of the New Testament. You see, it's kind of an interesting thing to say that the old order of things has passed away because many of you were probably reading this and you saw two different times it says, "The old order of things has," watch this, "Passed away." And you're thinking, "Doesn't that mean that everything gets destroyed, everything gets burned up?" Remember when Peter's using that language of burned up, he's talking about purified, refined. This idea of being tossed out, it's passed away, but you know, you know that there can be passed away and newness at the same time where it is a reclaiming, a reformation, a renovation, a renewal of something. I would just point you to the life of Jesus. Jesus is like, when we see Jesus, we're seeing God's demonstration to us of the purity of his revelation. He's the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. He's the divine alphabet of God's revelation to humanity. And when we see Jesus, listen, you don't have to answer out loud, it's not a trick question by the way. Did Jesus pass away? The answer, yes he did. He died a real death on a real cross and was really dead, not just swooning, dead, like super dead, all the way dead. Did Jesus stay dead? No he did not. He got up from the grave and now had a resurrected body that could walk through walls and eat fish. So listen, passed away but made new. He was still Jesus. He could still be recognized as Jesus in this new body that he now experienced. So it's not about throwing it all out, it's about a reclamation of what was so that it can be remade. You know that to be true. Listen, if you have been regenerated by Jesus Christ, you know it's true in your own life right this second. You know it right now. I mean, I was talking to Gordon before he got baptized and we were talking about this idea of newness and Doug actually brought it up in the baptistry, this very verse that Paul writes, watch what he says in 2 Corinthians 5. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation." Watch this, "The old has," what? "Passed away, but the new has come." So you know what? At 19 years old, the old Jerry passed away, but I'm still Jerry, I'm just the new one and I'm gonna be newer still at a time in the future. So what we see in this passage is that when we are made new and when Jesus makes everything new, things are still as they are, yet fundamentally different in ways that we really can't articulate or put into conceptual thinking. Likewise, when Jesus is bringing the new heavens and new earth, it isn't that he just blows up the earth as we know it. He remakes it, the old order of things, death, mourning, crying, pain, sickness, all gone. Don't you Thank God for that by the way, all gone. And now all things made new. So the first characteristic of this kingdom that we all long for is that it's gonna be new. Lemme show you a second. This kingdom we long for is actually gonna come to earth. Some of you're thinking, "Wait just a second, my goal is to go to heaven." Heaven's goal is to come to you. You're like, "Wait, what?" Yeah, watch what is told us in verse number two of Revelation 21. "I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem," say this with me, "Coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband." See, this is really important for us to see how the revelator is giving us this language because later on you hear the same language in verse number 10 of Revelation 21. Here's what it says there. "And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God." You see, the idea here is what Richard Middleton described as kind of an eschatological pattern in the New Testament. And here's what I mean. This pattern in the New Testament is this, is that there's preparation that leads to revelation. There's a preparing that leads to an unveiling. That's the picture in the New Testament. I could illustrate this in a bunch of different passages of scripture. I'll give you two quick ones, there's way more. Listen to what Peter wrote, Peter said, "Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade." Watch this, "This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." So it's kept for us until it's revealed. You know how this goes, it's almost Christmas time. Moms, dads friends, husbands, wives, whatever. We buy gifts and we hide 'em. We put 'em in the attic until when? Until it's time for them to be revealed. Does the receiver of the gift have to go to the attic to get the gift? Nope, we're holding it there because we're gonna reveal this gift to them at some point. We're bringing it to them, this is the pattern. Paul writes this in Philippians chapter number three. He says, "But our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly," what? "We eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." He's coming to us in order to transform us, to make us fit for the kingdom that he's bringing with him. Everybody following this? This is the pattern in the New Testament. Too often we've got a, in heaven, by and by, by and by, pie in the sky kind of idea of what all of this looks like. But when this is all pulled together, Jesus is gonna be bringing this in our direction. In reality, here's what this means. It means that Jesus is going to once and finally answer the prayer that he taught us to pray. Your kingdom come, your will be done. Where? On earth as it is in heaven. You see this kingdom that we long for, it's new but it's coming our way and there's going to be a marriage of heaven and earth. Lemme give you a third characteristic. The kingdom we long for will be God's dwelling place. It will be God's dwelling place. Listen to what verse number three says. "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God.'" Now this is a beautiful picture of intimacy with God that becomes even clearer by the way, if we are students of the word and read a little bit farther because not only does this describe God being with us and we being with him, what a brilliant, beautiful, hopeful picture that is for us. That it's not just about somebody who's existing in a government scenario that is in a place that we can't access. Like I just can't knock on the White House door and go, "What's up Joe?" Like I can't do it, I mean I could and then I'd be in jail and it'd be a weird thing for us just as a pastor and people. So I just can't do it. Here, we're gonna be with God, God's gonna be with us. But real students of the scripture read a little bit further and they see the description of the vision of what's being talked about. In chapter 21 verses 15 and 16, watch this. "The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length and as wide and high as it is long." What does this tell you? It's describing a cube, as wide as it is high, as it is long. It's describing a cube, listen, for the perceptive reader, particularly all the Jews, they knew exactly what was being described right here. They knew exactly what was being described. 'cause all you have to do is go back in your mind to the description of the building of the temple. Go back to Solomon's temple 1 Kings 6. He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the arc of the covenant of the Lord there. The inner sanctuary was 20 cubits long, 20 wide, 20 high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold and he's also overlaid it with the altar of cedar. Here's what's being described to us in this vision. God is inviting us to dwell with him forever, intimately in the Holy of Holies. That's what we're gonna have the opportunity to do. This isn't going to be, he's a God that we can't access, that we won't ever have. No, no, no, no, no, what he's bringing now is the fullness of his presence that we will dwell with him in. And now we've been invited into the most holy place. John's vision shows us a level of intimacy with God that is beyond description. Lemme give you a fourth characteristic. The kingdom we long for will be as sure as God's character. This kingdom will be as sure as God's character. What are you saying when you say that? Well, sometimes people read this and they say, "Well this is kind of a fanciful vision of things to come and it's kind of beyond description," and all that and true. It is beyond description. It's beyond what our mental faculties can actually process. We have to do it in word pictures as best we can. So we can't fully understand what is to come because everything is so new that the categories are new. We don't even have words to describe the newness because we don't have language for it because the language hasn't been renewed yet. The mind hasn't been renewed in such a way that we would understand all of the various categories we're even talking about. But we can know that this is coming and it's as sure as God's character. Why do I say that? Look what he says in verse six. "He said to me, 'It is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty, I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all liars, they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.'" See, friends, not only will this new kingdom come because God says it will, but nobody will be in it that shouldn't be in it. Justice is still plainly seen in this new kingdom. When God says it will come, it will come. When God says no evil doers will be there, no evil doers will be there. Only the victorious, the overcomers, what does that mean? Well, that's a reference back to chapter two and chapter three, all the letters to the churches of Revelation. You remember those? All those letters, to him who overcomes, I will do X, Y, and Z. This is every single letter, every single letter it says, "To the overcomer, to the victorious." Where does our victory come? Is it because we're so good and we've done so many good things that we twisted God's arm and he has to let us into his kingdom? No, our victory comes because when we read after those letters in chapter four and chapter five, the controlling narrative of the book of Revelation is the lamb who is on the throne, the only one who is holy and is worthy to be able to open the scroll and carry out all that God designed. The only one that can save us, who came born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on a cross for our sin to satisfy the justice of God and got up from the grave conquering sin, hell, death judgment on our behalf that now by faith in him we can be reconciled to God. Our only victory comes because of the victory of the Son of God. That's the only reason that we'll be there. And it's God's own testimony of his own character that assures us that we have this kingdom that is on its way. Lemme give you a fifth. Kingdom we long for will be elaborative Probably going, "What? What are you talking about?" I'm gonna show you. Revelation 22, beginning of verse number one says this, "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the lamb will be in the city and his servants will serve him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun for the Lord God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever." What do I mean by collaborative? Jerry, what are you saying when I read that and you say that the kingdom we long for is going to be collaborative? Well, I know that part of us really wishes at times, and I'm sure that maybe even John's readers might have thought this as well because they lived under the tyranny of the Roman Empire. They didn't have a voice, they didn't have a say. And then some of us that live in democracies or constitutional republics, more specifically, like in our nation, sometimes we feel like our voice isn't loud enough. So we want to engage and we want to do whatever we can and be active. And that's wonderful, it's great, we've got the freedom to be able to do that in the system of governance that we have. But this is even better. And I don't know, you probably picked up on it when I was just reading a moment ago, or you were looking at your copy of scripture, you probably were picking up on all the images of Eden that are everywhere. You're studious, you were paying attention. See here in this renewed place, in this vision that now we see that John is given, in this renewed place, we see a renewal of what we saw in Eden in Genesis 2. We see a garden, we see a high mountain, we see a tree of life. We see a river, and why all this Eden imagery? What was the commission of Eden? I mean, it's an interesting thing because in my Bible, you know how your Bible sometimes has headers? It'll kind of like say a header and then you're kinda reading after that? Those aren't inspired, okay? Those are dudes that put 'em in there. That's not inspired by God. The Holy Spirit didn't put those in there. Mine says "Eden Restored," right before all of this. Eh. Okay, to some extent, I see. But the goal, the goal, friends, is not to just go all the way back to Eden. It is, but not all by itself. What was the commission of Eden to Adam and Eve? To have dominion, to rule. This was the commission that they were given. And what does the commission look like for us? The same. You see what we failed to remember because the beautiful narrative here shows us so many images of Eden that we forget about something that also exists in that context. A city, it actually says that this river that flows from the throne will run down the great street of the city. Now remember, this is imagery that's being given to us. But what's unique is this, follow me here. What's unique is this, is that we don't just have a garden. We're not just going back to Eden. This picture is of a garden city, not just a garden. Why is that important? 'Cause a garden and creation is what God made, and cities are what we made. And God in the newness of everything that's going to occur, helps us to see and understand, I haven't missed the fact that I created you as image bearers to do things. The work that you do, I see it. I'm for it. And even listen to this, even if you didn't get it exactly right, it's not a waste. Because whatever you do to the glory of God in your work, whatever it is you may do, you do it to the glory of God, there is something about that that will endure.

You see what we fail to remember because the beautiful narrative here shows us so many images of Eden that we forget about something that also exists in that context. A city. It actually says that this river that flows from the throne will run down the great street of the city. Now remember, this is imagery that's being given to us. But what's unique is this, follow me here. What's unique is this, is that we don't just have a garden. We're not just going back to Eden. This picture is of a garden city, not just a garden. Why is that important? 'Cause a garden and creation is what God made and cities are what we made. And God in the newness of everything that's going to occur, helps us to see and understand, I haven't missed the fact that I created you as image bearers to do things. The work that you do, I see it. I'm for it. And even, listen to this, even if you didn't get it exactly right, it's not a waste because whatever you do to the glory of God in your work, whatever it is you may do, you do it to the glory of God, there is something about that that will endure because God is making for us a garden city where he is fusing together what he's made and what we made, even though what we made is sometimes off a little bit. I don't know if you have heard of Miles Davis. If you haven't, get an education. Miles Davis, probably the greatest jazz trumpetist in the world that the world has ever known. Maybe you've heard this name, Herbie Hancock. Herbie Hancock, remember "Rockit" back in the day? All right, you don't. Because that was perfect. What I just gave you, that soundbite, perfect. If you didn't get it from that, you just don't know. Herbie Hancock as a young man, got to play with Miles Davis. And in fact, he was playing with Miles Davis in a concert in Stuttgart, Germany. And I think Miles was actually gonna be soloing on one of his most famous songs, "So What". If you've never heard that, then just go take seven and a half minutes of your life and go listen to it. You're welcome, it's just jazz at its finest. And so Herbie was the keyboard guy, he was playing. And Miles Davis was the soloist. And Herbie made a mistake, but better him to tell you than me, so take a quick look.

- Right in the middle of Miles' solo when he was playing one of his amazing solos. And I'm trying, I'm in there and I'm playing, right in the middle of his solo, I played the wrong chord. A chord that was, it just sounded completely wrong. It sounded like a big mistake. And I did this and I went, "Oh," like this. And then I put my hands around my ears and Miles paused for a second. And then he played some notes that made my chord right. He made it correct, which astounded me. I couldn't believe what I heard. Miles was able to make something that was wrong into something that was right with the power of his, of the choice of notes that he made and that feeling that he had.

- See this is what I'm talking about when I talk about the nature of what God is going to do collaboratively in this new kingdom. He's going to take things that we've done with right heart that haven't been completely as they ought to be. And the master is going to step in and he's going to correct and he's going to make them what they're supposed to be because that's who he is and that's what he does. In some unique way, God collaborates with us in this new kingdom. We will simultaneously serve him while also simultaneously being able to reign with the Lord Jesus. I do not fully understand what this is going to be because I can't comprehend what it looks like. But I can tell you what it does, it gives me great hope. Great hope, and that's really the point of this whole vision, great hope. See John and his audience faced great trial and the true disciples of Jesus needed to be resilient. They needed to be motivated by this great hope of the king and the kingdom. Here's why, listen carefully. If you are sure of a certain outcome, it changes the way you face life. Did you hear that? If you're sure of a certain outcome, it changes the way you face life. You guys have heard me tell you that my younger son is a professional ballplayer now. Plays in the Brewer's organization, but his story is a unique one because what you may not know is that two times in high school, Tanner got cut, didn't make the team. Freshman year he tried out, didn't make it, got cut. Made it his sophomore year, did really well, hit .365, second leading hitter on the team, started at third base, did great, but then his junior year was the only age-eligible guy that didn't make the varsity team that year, only one. He was crushed, cried like a baby at 16 years old in the kitchen. His mom's just kinda holding him, it's hard when you love something and it doesn't work out. And so his brother at that time, was playing junior college ball and was getting recruited by some other teams, His older brother Trace. And Tanner and Edie and I started going with Trace on some of the visits to the colleges that were recruiting him. And so as we were at one, they made Trace an incredible offer. I mean it was probably in the fall. And Tanner was in his senior year of high school, hadn't even tried out for the varsity team yet, has never been on the varsity high school team yet. And we're at this visit at this college and Trace gets this wonderful scholarship offer. I mean just a great scholarship offer from this school. And while we're there sitting in that room, after the coach gives trace the scholarship offer, he then gives Tanner a piece of paper, which is also a scholarship offer. Not the same as Trace's but it was still a scholarship offer. He was offering him a spot in college at a university to play. This coach had never seen Tanner play. Sight unseen he just asked him, "Can you play?" Tanner said, "Yes sir." He said, "Okay." At the time, Tanner was 5'10", 155 pounds. His brother was a stud, 6'3", built, all that stuff. And the coach is probably thinking, "Maybe he'll turn into that guy at some point." So he offers him a spot on the team, watch this. Tanner gets home, has not even tried out for the varsity baseball team in high school yet, that he got cut from the year before. Doesn't tell anybody that he already has a roster spot on a division two college team. Doesn't tell anybody. And he goes and he tries out, performs exceptionally well. They use him as a pitcher that year, plays absolutely outstanding. All ECIC that year after making the team, what was the difference? Watch this, he wasn't performing for acceptance anymore, he was performing from it. He'd already been, watch this, he'd already been accepted. That was a done deal, the outcome was certain. And so he just operated from that. You see, friends, listen carefully to me, this great vision of the coming of the king and his kingdom should be something that we live from. We already know the outcome. So we can be resilient, we can persevere as disciples. We don't have to get spun up about the things that are going on in the world. In John's day, they may have had to face lions on account of their faith. We don't have to face lions. We just face elephants and donkeys every four years and they try to pressure us to compromise or to conform for the sake of earthly power. But if we live from the truth of what is coming of the final outcome, we do not have to compromise, friends. We do not have to conform for the sake of temporary earthly power that will not usher in the kingdom.

- [Audience] Amen. The church of John's day had to deal with enemies of persecution. But what we have to deal with are enemies of perspective. We're lied to over and over and over that this election is the most consequential election in the history of the world. They said it four years ago, they said it four years before they said it, four years before that. And you can just keep going back. Oh no, we didn't mean last time, we mean this time. It is the most consequential election in the history of the world. It isn't and it will never be, here's why. Because the election of the people of God for salvation in Jesus is the greatest and most consequential election that has ever happened in the cosmos. And because of that work of grace, Jesus dying and rising for our sin so that by faith in him we might be forgiven and restored to right relationship with God. We've got the promise of this kind of kingdom led by this kind of king one who would bleed for us, who would leave heaven for us, who would come and die for us, who would rise for us. And we get to have an intimacy with that king. We are not locked out of the White House. We are brought into the Holy of Holies. And if we live from that, we don't lose perspective in the now. See, the church of John's day could be killed for saying that Jesus is Lord. Because to say Jesus is Lord is a political statement, friends. It's a political statement. It was a political statement then. I love it when people say, "I don't want you to ever talk about politics," then I can't talk about the Bible. Because to say Jesus' Lord is a political statement. Here's what it says when you say Jesus is Lord, back in John's day, you are saying Caesar is not. That's what you were saying 'cause Caesar was looked at as divine. To say Jesus is Lord is to ultimately say Caesar is not. But in our day to say Jesus is Lord might just be part of a chorus that we're singing on a Sunday morning that doesn't really catch our souls because in reality we put too much of our hopes in an earthly political ruler or administration or political party. Sometimes. though not always, these leaders can lack character and moral conviction. Sometimes, though not always, these leaders can embrace policy that stands in opposition to God's divine design. And sometimes though not always, these parties or leaders will try to convince us that only they can save us. But when we know the true king, when we see a vision of a coming kingdom of justice and righteousness and holiness, where we never have to question the character of the king, whether or not he can make good on his word, but we can know his word is always true, when we have that, we can live from that. And why should we be living from this truth of a coming kingdom? Because listen to me, we are God's transition team. That's who we are as the people of God. We're preparing ourselves and orienting ourselves and preparing the world for his incoming administration. It's such an honor that we would be called upon to do this, that we should be willing to leave any other post in our life that competes for that. Because now we are ambassadors for the kingdom of God, which is the greatest honor that we could possibly have. I mean, the whole book of Revelation teaches us this, that to be ambassadors of the kingdom and his kingdom, this is what we're made for. To follow the lamb wherever he goes, even if it costs us dearly, to know that the lamb will return as a lion and deal with injustice and evil and it'll establish his unshakeable never ending kingdom and will live intimately with him and reign alongside Christ forever and ever. Ask the spirit of God to help you live as ambassadors of the coming king and the coming kingdom. 'cause you've been selected for a cabinet position in the kingdom of God. Start living from that 'cause the kingdom that's coming, it's better than we can imagine. And I can promise you it's the kingdom we all long for. Let's bow our heads together. In a moment we're gonna respond in worship. But I just wanna take a moment and pray that God would seal this in our own hearts. Father, how we thank you for the truth of your word. Father, I pray for each of us to be recipients of the word by the power of your spirit, that you would quite literally change in us our perspective, that we would learn to live from the truth that the king is coming and bringing a new kingdom with him. And that when we live from that, we realize that we're living for and living from a sure outcome. It's already been promised based on your very character, God. And because your character said it is done, this is as good as done. We can know that no matter what happens, no matter the disappointments that happen, no matter the the temporary wins or the temporary losses that we face in this life, there's a kingdom that's coming and it's the one we've all longed for. And in it, you are going to collaborate with us and help us to be people who are exercising dominion in this kingdom, in a renewed and holy and glorious way. So I pray that you would help write that on our hearts because Jesus, we know that we only have entrance into the kingdom because of you. You are the one who is worthy, you are the one that is holy. And I pray that that would be written on our hearts and that in humility, we would be ambassadors for the one and true, holy and worthy king. We trust you to do this among us. In Jesus' name, amen.