Currency of the Kingdom

Kingdoms have come and gone since the beginning of time. Daniel speaks of Kingdoms that will rule and reign for certain time periods and he explains it in a vision.

All Kingdoms have something in common. A Kingdom must have a King and they must have subjects.

And all Kings have authority over their Kingdom.

We could spend weeks, going through the scriptures as well as history books looking at Kings and Kingdoms to see how they worked.

Ultimately, we would see a King, his authority over his people, and if it were a good king, the people were happy, but if the king was evil, the people struggled. similar is Proverbs

Proverbs 29:2 ESV

When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

A King having authority is having power. Power over their kingdom. over their people.

In a sense, there are kingdoms everywhere. there is power in operation in many realms. what am I talking about......

Lets do this

Everyone stand up

you used power to stand.

was there any forces or powers trying to stop you from standing?

Gravity

gravity is a force pulling your physical body down towards the earth, and when we stand, we overpower gravity.

Question: Could someone say, I don’t believe in gravity! We can show them how gravity affects items but we cannot put gravity in our hands and show it to them. It is the same with Gods Kingdom.

So, you are standing because you were stronger than gravity, right???

Lets not feel to powerful by that thought, because there were other forces at work for us to stand.

what are we standing on?

the foundation under us being as strong as it is, allows us to defeat gravity.

think about standing on an old rotted out wooden board. or jump out of a plane!

Does gravity win then?

So, our power can depend on our foundation. cool principle. how strong is your foundation?

Jesus talks about this in a parable about building a house on rock or sand.

today, I am going to open up the Kingdom of God in a way that maybe you haven’t heard. this may be challenging, well it should challenge us, and when I read scripture and see words like overcomer and endure till the end, it makes me ask the question how? This talk can lead to a path to a victorious, overcoming life that the bible declares for us to have,

SO, anyone want a victorious, overcoming life?

Jesus makes clear that He is a King, and a King from another place.

John 18:36 ESV

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

So Jesus is showing us there is His Kingdom, and creates a divide between His Kingdom and the world.

is there a king of this world?

Ephesians 2:1–2 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

See how scripture recognizes that there are powers and authorities on earth, even a prince. we see it here too later in Eph.

Ephesians 6:12 ESV

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

So, there is a battle with these forces we see here in this verse. I would also want you to recognize that our actions are affected by who we follow. back in chapter 2 Paul goes on to say,

Ephesians 2:3 ESV

among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

We can then make a connection with who we follow and what we do.

And Paul is so kind to not leave anyone out of this truth, that we all lived in the passions of our flesh....

From here, I want to give you a picture to contemplate about kingdoms.

If we boiled it right down, we could see 2 kingdoms shining though scripture. Satans kingdom and Gods Kingdom. And when we were born, we were born not into Gods Kingdom, that is why we need to be born again, a spiritual birth so we can see and enter the Kingdom of God.

I will use these two doors behind me.

one door will represent before we believed in Christ and His Kingdom, so this is our kingdom.

the other door will represent after we believed in Jesus and realized there was another door! Another Kingdom!

Before we knew Jesus, how did we act/react? How did we live?

What did we do towards others.

How did we transact with others.

think about how we treated others as a transaction..... like how currency works between people.

Money

if we think of currency and transactions, we usually would think of money.

$50

but lets look at anything we give or take from others as currency/ transactions.

Someone gives you love..... there has been a transaction. a good one.

Someone gives you hate.... there has been a transaction. not a good one.

What transacts between us is similar to currency

years ago there was a book that discussed filling a persons love bank.

Question: What did your account look like before you met God?

our natural account. Some love? Some forgiveness? some peace? mercy? grace?

Did it change when you received Jesus?

How are our accounts created?

natural account = how did our family deal with us? what did we receive from them?

Spiritual account = Jesus loved us unconditionally, forgave all our sin, gave us grace beyond sin and peace with God.

When we realize that Jesus in the King of the Kingdom of God, and what is inside His Kingdom, and He says He is the Door to His Kingdom and we can enter through Him and access it..... it changes everything.

Picture treasure

All that God gives you. Imagine?

What does He give?

(Let people share)

Love, forgiveness, mercy, grace, patience, kindness, goodness, and so on.

Does He give only so much?

It is more than enough.

He gives us enough for the rest of our lives.

think about this..... His Kingdom filled with what we need to live.

this is where faith must be.

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

our faith, trusting that He is giving us enough for every situation in the future to live in His Kingdom.

those moments when someone is being unlovable, and we give love from the Kingdom.

the moment someone sins against us and we give them from the Kingdom, grace, mercy and forgiveness.

this verse can become a life verse. It becomes alive to us!

2 Peter 1:3 ESV

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,

He has given us all we need for this life.....spiritually speaking.... more than enough!!!

now, here is the warning. thinking about God giving to people and they are expected to use what He gives, not to hide it, we have this parable. Jesus is speaking about the Kingdom of Heaven here .....

Matthew 25:14–30 ESV

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Access to the Kingdom is about using what we are given, transacting with it.

What have you been given? the warning in this parable is to not hide what you have been given but to use it. it is the currency of the Kingdom.

the Love that is given to you, when you use it in the situations in your life, what is it accomplishing?

It is displaying the Kingdom.

Similar to dropping the mic would display gravity, when we use what we are given from God, we show the Kingdom of God.

Jesus did this always, Jesus is the King of the Kingdom.

but we also see believers using the Kingdom currency too!

Do you remember Steven, when they were throwing stones at him to end his life, what did he transact towards them?

Kingdom forgiveness!

this is our work on earth. this is our purpose here. to show the Kingdom of God through our situations in life so others can see it, and get to know it, and enter into it.

Who are we? We are people of Gods Kingdom, given heavenly treasures to share with a lost and dying world that desperately needs Gods love, forgiveness, mercy and grace shown to them so they meet Jesus in you.