Seeing the Kingdom
We have been talking about the kingdom of God! Matt 6:33 Seek first the Kingdom of God....
1. The Kingdom of God is like no other kingdom. It is not of this world. ie. Different King, rules, realm, operation, unseen to natural eyes yet more real than the seen.
2. We have talked about hearing the Kingdom of God. How important it is to be a hearer. We know that by hearing the word of God we receive faith. How hearing affects our lives. The different ways we hear.
3. Last week we talked about the Love of the Kingdom and the King. How God has always loved us and has done all that he has done because of his great love. We saw how having that Love is like having good soil for growing his word in. We saw how the pure light of his unconditional love is the only thing that will garantee having a good relationship with God and Man.
· Our purpose of learning the about the Kingdom is not to gather information, but to learn how to seek with the purpose of living there. Zb.. driving around looking for an apartment but never intending to move!?
Eph 3:16-20
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know(experience in reality) the love of Christ, which (sur)passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, (KJV)
· Inner man strength. God is a spirit. His kingdom is in the spirit. The natural world has natural laws, that if we follow they will work. (Gravity keeps everything in it’s place)If we want to learn how to live and receive from his kingdom then we have to work the principles of the Kingdom.
1 Cor 13:11-13
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (NKJ)
· Faith comes by ________ and hearing the _____________. Ro.10:17
Rom 5:1-5
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh(not produceth)patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (KJV)
· These are parables of the kingdom. We have to understand this one to understand the rest!
Mark 4:14-20
14 "The sower sows the word.
15 "And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.
16 "These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness;
17 "and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.
18 "Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word,
19 "and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
20 "But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it(because of the faith in God’s love they CAN accept it), and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."(NKJ)
· I have been following a course so that we could understand how the Kingdom is like a seed that is sown!