Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good morning!

Welcome the visitors

Thank everybody who came

This month our theme is KINGDOM MINDSET.

Have you ever heard about that phrase?

Or came across about it in one of your readings?

And we’ll tie it up with our topic for this morning, which is, - Ask and you shall receive.

Let’s go straight to our study this morning.

Let me pray first....

Kingdom

The Persians

The Achaemenid Persian Empire was founded by Cyrus the Great around 550 B.C.E., who went by the title of King of Kings (Shahanshah).

Although the Persian Empire came to an inglorious end at the hands of Alexander the Great in 330 B.C.E., it had a lasting legacy on the subsequent development of world civilizations and future empires.

The Caliphate

The Arab Empire, also known as the Caliphate, was a political entity founded by the Muslim Prophet Muhammad that encompassed most of Arabia by the time of his death in 632 C.E.

It is more reasonable to call this the Arab Empire rather than the Muslim Empire because while Islam originated and spread because of this empire, there were many subsequent empires that were legally Muslim or ruled by Muslims but were not Arab

The Mongolians - Founded by the Mongol warlord Temujin, who assumed the title of Genghis Khan in 1206 C.E.

And there are more succeeding empires, kingdoms....who have risen and at the end collapsed and have met their downfall.

The very distinct characteristic of a given kingdom is, we can see that there is a governing influence of a king over his territory, impacting it with his personal will, purpose, and intent, producing a culture, values, morals, and lifestyle that reflect the king’s desires and nature for his citizens.

In a Kingdom we can see that there is a governing influence of a king over his territory, impacting it with his personal will, purpose, and intent, producing a culture, values, morals, and lifestyle that reflect the king’s desires and nature for his citizens.

Logically, you can’t have a kingdom without a king and a domain, a territory.

King’s send their citizens out to colonize the kingdom.

Like the Mongol Empire, they first grew by picking off parts of China, as many previous steppe tribes had done.

How were the Mongols able to accomplish these feats?

Despite their small population, the Mongols were able to field large and mobile armies against their enemies because they carried their herds with them and could sustain themselves off of horse blood.

In an era before refrigeration, it was logistically difficult for a Chinese rules to field a comparable army.

Now let’s shift gears and take this into perspective,

the term translated “kingdom” is the Greek word basileia, which means

“the realm in which a sovereign king rules.”

Throughout the New Testament, the word kingdom consistently refers to the rule of Christ in the hearts of believers, since, for the time being, Christ’s kingdom is not of this world ().

We are citizens of the kingdom of God and are called to establish:

1. God’s kingdom here on earth,

establish God’s kingdom here on earth,

2. God’s morals,

3. God’s purpose and intent,

4. God’s values

5 .and

establish His kingdom culture here on earth.

What is His kingdom culture?

Heaven!

We are called to establish heaven here on earth.

(Greek) basilei’a is power, rule, reign, government: ba’sis, meaning to walk (live).

It is a foundation of “power” that dwells within us that enables us to do what God has assigned us to do:

: "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth".

: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature".

(Vs 17-18) "These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover".

We have that power because the Kingdom is in us, in our hearts..

So, the Kingdom then is, we as a child of God

If we say we are God’s children...

1.

He should be the ruler of our heart...

2. Our morals should be that of what Christ desires us to have

3.

We should have a clear understanding of God’s purpose and intent for our lives.

In order for us to effectively partner with God in carrying out His Kingdom agenda we need to have a Kingdom mindset; we need to constantly live out the truth that He is the sole ruler of our heart, that our behavior, is governed by His perspective, our character is consistently in line with what He desires.

desires.

Just think for a moment, how will we ever be effective in carrying out His Kingdom Agenda if our minds are not aligned with His, or sad part is we don’t actually have His mind.

Paul says In..

1 Corinthians 2:16

Having the mind of Christ means:

1.

We understand God’s plan in the world—to bring glory to Himself, restore creation to its original splendor, and provide salvation for sinners.

2. It means we identify with Christ’s purpose “to seek and to save what was lost” ().

It means we share Jesus’ perspective of humility and obedience (), compassion (), and prayerful dependence on God ().

We have to dig deeper into the word of God daily, so that we really understand what’s in His mind.

We have to dig deeper into the word of God daily, so that we really understand what’s in His mind.

Case in point - when we talk about sin:

Repent – stop, turn around, go in opposite direction.

This was His first statement to the world telling us we need to repent and in Greek it means metanoe’o [change our minds or our thinking; think differently].

By the way, why do we always quote the Greek words here in church, the original language they used to write the New Testament:

Because the definition in English is limited, sometimes lacks the true essence of what the Bible is telling us.

Example

For example : Repent in the english dictionary says - feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or sin:

But go back in how the Greek word is used -

If you are travelling down the road and realize you’re headed the wrong way, you make a 180 degree turn to head in the right direction.

That’s an action!

Before the action of turning, you had to make the decision to turn around.

This is not an easy change for many of us.

Most of us as believers will have a problem making this change.

This is not a “natural” mind set.

I Corinthians

We’re used to looking at daily struggles with an attitude of despair believing our situation will never change or improve.

We are too focused on our bills; looking at our empty wallets; wondering "how am I going to pay this?"; walking around worried; stressed on a daily basis trying to make ends meet.

That is not “kingdom mentality”!

Kingdom is a belief system, an attitude we should hold on to.

: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me".

Here comes in the second half of that phrase - MINDSET

WEBSTER DEFINITION OF MINDSET: A particular way of thinking; a mental attitude or inclination; a fixed state of mind

Mindset - The “WAY” that we think shapes “WHAT” we think.

It becomes the “LENS” you see your world through.

Anything other than a Kingdom Mindset will always be inferior and lead to less than God’s best.

While walking through the forest one day, a man found a young eagle who had fallen out of his nest.

He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat and behave like the chickens.

One day a naturalist passed by the farm and asked why it was that the king of all birds should be confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens.

The farmer replied that since he had given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it had never learned to fly.

Since it now behaved as the chickens, it was no longer an eagle.

"Still it has the heart of an eagle," replied the naturalist, "and can surely be taught to fly."

He lifted the eagle toward the sky and said, "You belong to the sky and not to the earth.

Stretch forth your wings and fly."

The eagle, however, was confused.

He did not know who he was, and seeing the chickens eating their food, he jumped down to be with them again.

The naturalist took the bird to the roof of the house and urged him again, saying, "You are an eagle.