Being In the Kingdom of God

Introduction:

Opening Text: Matthew 7:21-23

Good morning First Prosper, my name is Zach Reynolds and I am the student pastor here and I have the privilege to bring a word from the Word today so if you will turn with me to as we start to conclude our series on the Sermon on the Mount. Personally, the Sermon on the Mount is one of my favorite passages and has had a great impact on my life so I pray that likewise your life will be greatly impacted today.

As you are turning there I wanted to ask if any of you are big sports fans? Sports is one of the few things that all sorts of people can get consumed and passionate about. People love sports from the high school and college they went to. They love them from watching the teams as a kid. But we also love them when they win. I never knew there were so many basketball fans in Dallas until the Mavericks won the final in 2012. The level of interest in the Cowboys varies upon the year, so you know its maybe not the highest its been in years. I didn’t really care about basketball until I turned on a game with the Golden State Warriors and watched my man Steph Curry do things I had never seen before. Since then I totally bandwagon on the Warriors and have been a fan sense.

If we are being completely honest, most of us are fans of a team because it is in cultural or convenient. It’s cultural because we just so happen to live in the Dallas area so why not support Dallas teams. Or its convenient because the Patriots, Warriors, and Yankees are always going to be dominant forces in their respective sports. We are fans because of our culture or because of convenience.

Fans not followers. But there is a difference between fans and followers. Fans are around when times are good. Followers are committed through every hard trial that comes and will do everything they can for the success of the team.

I look at the Church today, and what I see is fans.

I look at the church today, and the question has to be asked. Are we fans of Christ because of our culture or because of convenience?

Even Jesus asks this question. Are we fans?

says,

says,

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

Opening prayer.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

So the question really that we are presented with in Matthew is what determines if one is a follower, not a fan, of Christ.

Knowledge? - Obviously the knowledge of Christ isn’t what grants one a saving relationship with him. These people knew Christ as Lord. In the rich young ruler knew that Christ was a great teacher and held the way to eternal life but yet that knowledge was not enough for him to experience the kingdom of heaven.

Not works.

Not

Opening prayer.

Words?- How many of you have heard if you ask Jesus to be your Savior it happens? I think we often forget the second part of which says, “For if one confesses with his mouth the Lord Jesus, AND BELIEVES IN HIS HEART.” Words do not save you. You can speak “Christian” all you like but it doesn’t save you.

Action? - Here’s a big question. How did they prophesy? How did they cast out demons? They did mighty works. Would that not make them saved? No. Your faith is not based off of your works. It is based off the work that Christ did on the cross.

tells us that “we are saved through faith it is not of ourselves, but a gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast.

So Zach, how do we know if we are a true follower of Christ?

It tells us in vs. 21, “the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven?”. See knowledge, words, or actions is not what determines if you are a follower of Christ. They are all a result of desiring the will of God in our lives. Desiring the will of God in our lives means desiring the kingdom of God in our lives.

Jesus then gives us three stories to further emphasis this point.

What does it look like to live out the kingdom of God in your life. Well Jesus has just so happen to spell it out for us through the previous two chapters. But before we get into what does living the kingdom in our lives look like lets address what the kingdom of God is.

1)Some passages of Scripture refer to the Kingdom of God as God’s reign.

2)Some passages refer to God’s Kingdom as the realm into which we may now enter to experience his blessing of His reign.

the kingdom of God is the rule of an eternal, sovereign God over all the universe.

3)Some passages refer to a future realm which will come only with the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Fundamentally, the Kingdom of God is God’s sovereign reign, but God’s reign expresses itself in different stages throughout redemptive history.

Opening Illustration: