Three Ingredients for Kingdom Growth
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
When you die, what do you think people will say at your funeral?
When you stand before God, how do you think He’ll address your life?
Depending on the content of your heart, the answer could be very different. Everyone dies and goes to heaven according to the funeral home, but God is only going to receive those that believed in His Son Jesus Christ.
Beyond that, God is going to test the works that you did here on this earth. Everything that we do, God writes down. And anything that we do in our strength, in our time, and in our power is going to go up in flames and the Bible says that we’re going to suffer great loss!
But, when we have a mind for Jesus, and when we do things to build His Spiritual house and not our churches, the Bible says that we will be crowned with victory.
It is eternally important that we put all of our efforts into building the house of God and not the house of our ego. That we fulfill the will of God, and not the will of our own ambitions.
To do that, I want us to look at the three ingredients for Kingdom growth.
I. Have Confidence in Jesus
I. Have Confidence in Jesus
The meaning of confidence is to “rest upon”. We rest on many things in life. Every time we get on an airplane. Every morning we go and crank the car. Every time we get a paycheck.
But confidence in Jesus is far above any of these other things, because it is the confidence of life over death. Resurrection and heaven over judgement and Hell.
When all other confidences fail, when all other avenues of rest fail, Jesus will never fail us.
We tend to believe and make plans with the idea that life will never change, but circumstances and life have a 100% chance of changing. Jesus never changes, therefore our confidence is found in Him alone.
I want to offer you come confidence in your walk with Jesus Christ this evening:
A. We Are Going to His Dwelling
A. We Are Going to His Dwelling
For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Paul was a tent maker. This is his illustration that he uses.
Tents were not designed to be permanent dwellings. They are temporary structures. Therefore, our bodies are temporary dwelling places for us.
Paul says, “if this tent is destroyed, we have a building from God.” This body is wasting away, but the Bible says that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us that will be eternal. Look again in v. 1, “we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Jesus has already told us about this truth, this is just Paul’s reminder to the people of Corinth.
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
The Bible tells us that our rest comes from knowing that we have a permanent home in Heaven, away from this old temporary dwelling we call our body.
Old Testament Picture
Old Testament Picture
It is interesting to consider how personal God is with us, that for a time, He also dwelt with us in a tent.
Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp.
This tent, this tabernacle of meeting is where the people of Israel went to meet with God and to get direction from Him. This was God’s earthly dwelling. It is not a permanent place where God would dwell, but it served it’s purpose for a time.
And our mortal bodies also serve a purpose for a time. And unless we have confidence in our future dwelling, we run the risk of becoming discontent with this tent God has placed us in.
Even David grew discontent with the tent that God dwelt in.
Now it came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around,
that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains.”
David recognized that there was a problem with the presence of God being reduced to a temporary dwelling, and David desired a more permanent dwelling for God. David prepared for the temple to be built.
But God knew what David didn’t understand, that God was preparing to establish an eternal dwelling, not just a temporary dwelling.
“Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Would you build a house for Me to dwell in?
For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle.
And God made David a promise that floored David, God promised David an eternal dwelling and eternal kingdom.
“When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
In the Old Testament, it seems like Solomon is the promised dynasty…but the promised dynasty is Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus is the seed of David, He is the one Who has established the everlasting kingdom, and it is this Kingdom of Jesus that will also be our eternal dwelling.
So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”
But He was speaking of the temple of His body.
Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
Jesus knew what we ought to know, that when our earthly tent (temple) goes into the grave , He will raise it up!
Have confidence in Jesus that we are going to His dwelling, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
B. We Are Dressed in His Righteousness
B. We Are Dressed in His Righteousness
When we go, we aren’t going to be dressed in the filthy rags of sin and shame, but are going to go clothed in the robe of His righteousness.
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,
if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.
For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
in v. 2 Paul relates to us well, that we fully recognize the toil of the body, and we have given up trying to find meaningful life and satisfaction here on earth, so it is that we have a real and sincere desire to vacate this life and then to take up our heavenly dwelling.
This is where many Christians are still stuck in their life and why they are empty of seeking Kingdom growth. Because they haven’t yet developed the conviction that our life’s desire is not to be dressed in the finest clothes of to dwell in the best houses, but that our earnest desire and the focus of our life is to be on the righteousness that God has given us.
Therefore, confidence in Jesus comes from being dressed in His righteousness and power and not in the pleasurable things that cover our tent.
v. 3, says that because we will be clothed in His righteousness, that we won’t be found naked.
That is to say that we won’t show up to the royal banquet underdressed, because the robe that we are wearing was sent to us by the King.
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.
And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”
Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.
Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”
Satan may stand to accuse the Christian, and satan may work in your life even now to make you feel unworthy of the presence of God, but Yeshua, your high priest stands before you in the heavenly places and He rebukes satan. And then He sends His Holy Spirit to you and clothes you in His righteouness.
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Confidence that we are going to His dwelling, confidence that we will arrive in His royal robes...
C. We Are Walking in His Power
C. We Are Walking in His Power
v. 5 tells us that His Holy Spirit is our guarantee, and that means that when we walk through life in this temporary dwelling, that He has filled us with His confidence so that we can know we are walking toward our final dwelling place.
So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
What then, is the power of God?
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
The power of God is the gospel of Jesus, that He died on the cross, and that He rose from the grave, and that He dwells with us through His Holy Spirit.
How do we access the power of God?
By faith!
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—
to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
This power is the power of the Holy Spirit, alive in us, which we receive every single day when we bow our knees to the Father to thank Him for what He has done.
It is given to us when we have confidence in Jesus Christ, that we are going to His dwelling, that we are dressed in His righteousness, and that we are walking in His power.
Faith is for this world, and sight is for the other world. It is our duty, and it will be our interest, to walk by faith, till we live by sight
Paul says in v. 8, “We are confident, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
That unlike the unbeliever, it is our pleasure to die and to be in His dwelling, clothed in His righteousness, and in His presence.
You will never have the heart and perspective for kingdom growth unless you find your rest in Jesus, forsaking all this world has to offer, and allowing Him to develop in you a sincere longing to live in His presence.
II. Find Reward in Jesus
II. Find Reward in Jesus
We look for all kinds of ways to reward ourselves. We’re kind of obsessed with trophies and honors. The rise of participation trophies. No one is allowed to lose!
Now, it is true that everyone who is in Christ Jesus has that confidence. That they are going to heaven, that they are dressed in His royal robes, and that they can walk in His power.
But how we use that confidence and that calling determines what we experience in heaven.
A. Motivation for Reward
A. Motivation for Reward
Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
To be well pleasing to the Lord is the outpouring of the confidence that we have in Him and not in ourselves. Because, when we work for ourselves and to promote ourselves, we are not pleasing to Him.
When our focus is not on kingdom growth, when its not found in His power and in His righteousness, we are no longer pleasing to Him.
These first seven chapters in 2 Corinthians are all about Paul’s ministry and his heart for missions. That is, to go and to see people saved. He is, in this verse, declaring that his one and only ambition in life is to be pleasing to God and not to man.
That is his aim, that is his sole motivation. and it is evident in his life. That he has abandoned all for the cause of Jesus so that He can present himself as pleasing and acceptable before God. He already has the robes of righteousness, he already has the place in heaven, but he is here on earth laboring for the pleasure of his savior.
We may not be saved by works, but we are certainly saved to work.
That is our aim in life and ministry and why Jesus gives us the confidence of His Holy Spirit.
B. Test of our Works
B. Test of our Works
That is, that God is going to grade our works so that we can see what we did for Him versus ourself.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
1. Two Seats of Judgement
1. Two Seats of Judgement
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
This throne is the throne where Jesus will judge those who are not written down in the Lamb’s book of life. The Greek word is the word thronos.
In 2 Cor 5:10, the phrase “judgement seat” is the Greek work bema.
In the life of the people in Corinth, they were familiar with the bema. It was an elevated platform where the courts would weigh the evidences and make judgements.
They were also familiar with this in athletics. And whoever competed well and won an award would go that raised platform to get their medal and their crown. If they didn’t win, they weren’t judged, but they didn’t get any kind of reward — that’s why Paul uses the illustration of the bema to describe what happens for believers. We aren’t condemned, we’re measured.
2. Two Categories of Works
2. Two Categories of Works
We’re not saved by works, but are saved to work.
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
We are talking about building the kingdom. And when we work for Jesus we are working to build that kingdom, and the Bible tells us to pay attention to how we build on it.
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
The day that we are judged by God for how we built His spiritual house will be a day that our works will be revealed based on their quality.
That is to say that the only quality works that we produce will be works that are done in the name of Jesus, carried out in the power of the Holy Spirit, and where all glory is given to God. If anything that we do falls short in those areas then they don’t count.
When we get finished running the race of life, and when we approach the platform to get our crown and our medal, we will see exactly how God judges what we do.
If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Some are content with just making it to heaven, but it will be such a disappointment when some of the things that we did burst into flames because we did it for ourselves.
We have to be exceedingly careful what we do as a church. When we build and we appropriate our funds, we must have pure motives. When we give, we must give with pure hearts. God is taking an account of everything that you do.
Some of you just serve and love the lord without expecting anything in return, and He is taking an account of that. From the nursery worker, to the greeter, to the light bulb changers, God is writing all down and He is going to present your reward at the Bema and it’s going to be so much sweeter than any recognition you get here on earth!
a. Wood, Hay, & Straw
a. Wood, Hay, & Straw
If we built the biggest buildings, had the best ministries, and contributed the most money, but we did it to be well pleasing to ourselves, it’s not going to count in Heaven. It’s going to get burned up at the Bema.
We must take an account of our hearts and make sure that everything that we do in the church and in our personal life as the aim to be well pleasing to God. That is the motivation and the qualification of our reward.
b. Gold, Silver, and Precious Stones
b. Gold, Silver, and Precious Stones
Getting these types of things take time, and they require a lot of work. Anybody can go and grab sticks, hay, and straw off the ground, but only someone who is willing search down into the depths of the earth will come with these precious metals and stones.
If we ever fail to make everything that we do here about building the house of God, then we will suffer great loss at the bema and we will wish that we had it to do all over again.
This is why it’s important for us to see our budgets, our buildings, and our lives as tools in the hand of God to expand His kingdom, not to build bigger storehouses and bigger barns.
Having confidence in the finished work of Jesus allows us to find our reward in Jesus…
III. Obey the Commission of Jesus
III. Obey the Commission of Jesus
In Matthew 28, Jesus gives us the great commission. Here, Paul uses his ministry to expound on that commission.
A. Commissioned to Persuade
A. Commissioned to Persuade
Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.
Knowing the terror of the Lord ought to compel us to persuade those around us to repent and believe on the name of Jesus.
How did Paul exemplify this in his life? Time and time again the Bible said that he reasoned with people in order that they might know the blessings of heaven. That they might go on into God’s dwelling, with His robes of righteousness, and walk in His power.
We don’t typically think of ourselves as persuasive. We kind of sneer at the idea that we are to persuade other people. But, I’ll tell you this, that it is in your best interest that when I stand here and preach to you, that I persuade you to follow Jesus more closely. If all I did was get up here and give you facts about the Bible and I didn’t work to see the truth and apply it to your life, you’d walk straight into spiritual anemia. It’s my job to persuade you. It’s our job to persuade those that are lost to come to Christ.
B. Commissioned to Die
B. Commissioned to Die
For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Everything we do is to be done in the confidence that Jesus gives us and not from our own strength. For the Bible says that we have died to ourselves. We don’t live to make our name great but to bring honor and glory to Jesus. That we are to have ambition, but it is to be Godly ambition.
And we don’t regard people based on what we can see, but on the things of the heart.
Because a church or a man can have all the right criteria and qualities according to the world, but the only thing that matters is what God’s record says.
When we die to ourselves and allow God’s power to work in us, then He brings life and we walk in that newness everyday.
C. Commissioned to Reconcile
C. Commissioned to Reconcile
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
God has called us and commissioned us to bring His word out into the world, to plant the seeds of the gospel, and attempt to reconcile all men to Him by the power of Jesus.
That is the commission and burden of the local church and every individual Christian.
D. Commissioned to Righteousness
D. Commissioned to Righteousness
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
God has called us to be righteous so that we can represent Him here on this earth.
You can never be filled with the power and the presence of God if there is a lack of righteousness in your life. Righteousness has to do with the heart. If we want to be effective for the Lord, we have to have righteousness in our hearts.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The three ingredients for Kingdom Growth:
Have confidence in Jesus
That we are going to His dwelling
That we are dressed in His righteousness
That we are walking in His power
Find Reward in Jesus
Make it your aim to be pleasing to Him and to no one else
Know that when you serve the Lord, He is keeping record of it and He will reward you accordingly.
Obey the commission of Jeuss
Persuade all men to come to know Jesus Christ
Die to yourself and keep Jesus as the focus of your life
Seek to reconcile the world just as Jesus reconciled you to His Father
Live righteously so that God can perform His work in you.
