The Divided Kingdom

Introduction

Great to be back at home this morning. I enjoyed my time preaching for a friend but there is nothing like being behind your own table and preaching to the flock God has given you. Love you all.

Today we are going to start a new series titled “Social Faith.” We are going to explore our Christianity as it relates to society. I’m going to make a lot of application for online presence that can and should be transferred over to how we live our lives.

This series has been on our schedule for months and I’m excited to get to it because with this pandemic we have seen an increase in social media usage and an increase in social media abuses. During this election year we have seen support for one candidate or disdain for another trump, no pun intended, our testimony for Jesus Christ.

I shared a post recently on my social media account that read this way “If you have spoken to more people about who they should vote for than who they should worship, it may reveal that it’s not Jesus’ kingdom your most concerned about.”

Throughout this election year we have seen the worst from both sides of the politcal aisle and from Christians. It’s my prayer that this series will help us leading up to the election maintain our testimony for christ over our testimony for a political party or candidate while also exercising our God given American right to vote for the candidate stands where the Bible stands on very important issues.

Todays message is from Matthew 12 and is titled “A divided Kingdom”

Follow along with me as I read

Matthew 12:22-25

Matthew 12:22–25 KJV 1900

22 Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. 23 And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? 24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. 25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:

PRAY

I. The Wrong Perception

Ever heard the statement “Perception is Reality?”

There is a lot of truth to that. It’s why I believe Paul wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit

1 Thess 5:22

1 Thessalonians 5:22 KJV 1900

22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.

Why should we abstain not just from Evil, but from the appearance of it? because preception is reality in people’s minds. What they percieve you are doing is what they believe you are doing and whether you intended it or not, you will find that what they percieve is what they will tell others and how they will choose to respond.

In this passage we see that the pharisee’s had the wrong perception.

Jesus had just performed a benevolent act

A. A Benevolent Act

There as a man possessed by a demon. This is one of the miracles that we have accounted for in all three of the synoptic gospels. The synoptic gospels are Matt, Mark, and Luke. They are called synoptic because they have many similiar accounts in them of the life of Christ.

Jesus had come upon a man that was possessed by a demon that had taken his sight and his speech. Jesus then proceeded to heal him and the people began questioning his deity.

That’s what “Son of David” means. They believed he was the promised Messiah

2 Sam 7:16-17

2 Samuel 7:16–17 KJV 1900

16 And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever. 17 According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.

The crowd was percieing his acts as they were meant to be. Those that had soft hearts and would believe on Jesus were able to recognize who He was because of what He was doing.

Then then here come the pharisee’s. In this moment they come into the picture and make a comment like crazy uncle Eddie.

Many families have one. If you think you don’t then maybe your that one. The crazy eddie of the family is the one that comes in and says off the wall things that embarrases everyone but him because the thinks hes funny or right.

Here come the crazy uncle eddie pharisees and reveal that they have a bad heart

B. A Bad Heart

The Pharisees look on and see what’s happening and say a statement so ludicrous only someone with a heart problem could believe it.

“This guy, this guy right here” There from Jersey...

“This guy cast out those demons int he name of the demons master” That’s what verse 24 means.

They had just seen a miracle take place. They had just seen Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cast out a demon that now allowed a man to see and speak.

And instead of rejoicing over what was being done. Instead of worshipping Jesus as they should have, they criticized Him.

When you begin to live your life for Jesus. When you are making decisions that are contrary to the flesh and yielding to the Holy Spirit, people who’s hearts in the wrong place or may just not understand, will begin to assume the worst.

When the world looks at you and sees you giving a tithe, ten percent to the Lord, they will think your crazy. When they see you spending time loving on people who most don’t love, they will think your crazy. When they see your words and your attitude change toward sinful acts that you used to do, they will think your crazy.

These pharisees thought Jesus was the crazy one. The one who was worshipping the devil, Beelzebul.

Did that stop Jesus? No. Did he say, well because you think bad of me I’m going to quit doing what God has called me to do? No

God had given Jesus a purpose. God has given you a purpose. That purpose is found in Christ. When you find your purpose in Jesus and his Word, you will find naysayers. You will find people who are against you. The question will you let them stop you?

We serve a kingdom greater than that of this world. We serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We serve the one who will have every knee bow to Him and every tongue confess this truth.

How does this apply to us and our social faith? have you ever been misunderstood or had something you’ve said taken out of context?

Most of the time the things we have taken out of context are not miracles we are performing. They are statements or actions we are taking. Which goes back to abstaining from the appearance of evil and being wise with our words that we speak and type.

James 1:19

James 1:19 KJV 1900

19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

The pharisees had the wrong perception and then Jesus reveals they were focused on the wrong kingdom.

II. The Wrong Kingdom

Matt 12:25-32

Matthew 12:25–32 KJV 1900

25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: 26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? 27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. 28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. 29 Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house. 30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. 31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. 32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

Many important truths can be extracted from these statements.

The ones I’d like for you to see today is that we have a focused enemy.

A. A Focused Enemy

As Jesus responds to the pharisees he did something he rarely did. He answered an attack on Himself by presenting an argument.

Usually if someone challenged him He left them to themselves or answered in a brief, authoritative, unanswerable word stamp with the genius of omniscience.

If Satan is casting our demons then the kingdom is divided. In this statement I beleive Jesus points out that we have a focused enemey. We have an enemy that is not divided in the purpose. They are not squabbling over indiffernces, they are lazer focused on one goal and that is dethroning Jesus in your heart or if you haven’t trusted in Christ as your Savior, keeping you so distracted with the unfulfilling things of this world that you never choose to believe.

Let me get 12 kids up here. Real quick. 12 kids.

RED ROVER GAME…together

See how strong these guys are?

That’s our enemy. We face a focused and united enemy.

Now notice what happens when we have faultering Christians.

B. Faltering Christians

Now watch what happens…Separate, focused on other things.

How easy was it to get in there?

Thank you all. Round of applause.

Jesus said anyone who is not with me is against me. Now any of us that are beleivers would never outright say that we are against Jesus.

however, I believe there are times when we act as though we are. How do we do that?

Unyielding to the Holy Spirit.

How are we unyielding? The Holy Spirit works out His fruit in our lives.

Gal 5:22-23

Galatians 5:22–23 KJV 1900

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Those are worked out in our lives as we decide to yield to him and respond to our situations and circumstances based upon those principles and truths.

When we are unyielding, there is a reason. The most common one? Pride. A desire to prove something to others about ourself.

The Christian life isn’t about how strong or authoritative you can be. It’s about how much we will allow the truths of the gospel transform our hearts.

When we are online or in ocnversation with others and believe that we have the right to speak anyway we want we have forgotten the example of Christ.

God in the flesh. Not only the Lamb slain prior to the foundation of the world but God in the Flesh accroding to John 1.

The one who could have spoke and removed all tribulation from his life and ended the suffering that he was going trhough. Humbled himself to the death of the Cross.

When we look to Him as our example we realize that just because they support another politcal party, doesn’t mean we can treat or say whatever we want. Here this, just because they don’t believe in Jesus doesn’t mean we can treat them however we want. It means we treat them as jesus did and we love on them.

Romans 12:19

Romans 12:19 KJV 1900

19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

That’s not our role.

It truly shows our hearts if we spend more time praising and promoting our politcal party, candidate, and views more than Jesus.

I love America…but I love Jesus more.

We can’t have it both ways. We can’t be a people that say we love Jesus and be less focused on him than our enemy is on destroying Him.

This will lead us to having a divided kingdom. And as Jesus said earlier in our text…A house divded canot stand.

That house can and will be divdedd when we have the wrong percpective. When we are focused on the wrong Kingdom. How do we recognize that we are heading towardds a divided kingdom? We have the wrong Fruit

I. The Wrong Fruit

Matthew 12:33-37

Matthew 12:33–37 KJV 1900

33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. 34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

PROP-Tree and fruit.

Here I have a beautiful, luscious…fake tree. but we are going to use our imaginations this morning and we are going to say this is an apple tree.

now, If i tell you this is an apple tree…what type of seed do you beleive I planted? An apple seed right?

See, when it comes to our fruit, the evidence of Christ in our lives…we have to start with the seed.

A. Start with the seed

Before we can ever have this beautiful, luscioius apple tree produce a single apple. We must have an apple seed.

The first way to determine if your fruit is bad is to look at the seeds your planting in your heart.

If you are planting seeds of division, strong politcal rhetoric, and worldly lusts and desires in your heart, that is what will come out.

If I put an orange seed in the dirt…will it grow an apple tree?

So what are we supposed to fill ourselves with?

Phil 4:8

Philippians 4:8 KJV 1900

8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

We think on those things, we focus on those things, so that what comes out of our mouths will be a blessing to others and glorifying to the Lord Jesus.

Because How cna we speak good things when we are evil? The mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.

When our hearts are full of these things, we can speak the truth.

B. Speak the Truth

Whlie there could be a number of things I put here as to why this is important, I’d like to first speak to your own self preservance.

Matt 12:36

Matthew 12:36 KJV 1900

36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

One day we will give an account. If we have trusted in Jesus as our Savior we are going to heaven. however there will be a time of accounting for every idle word spoke or typed.

If for no other reason, let the fact that you don’t want to look Jesus in the eye and say what you said to Him keep you from doing what you are doing.

We started our groups up this last week and I got to teach on the topic of Dealing with injustice.

When we respond to injustice or anything we have to make a decision as to why we are responding.

We are either responding to prove something about ourselves to the other person, to prove something to ourselves, or we are responding to please our Savior.

Our ineractions with others must be from a heart and a desire to glorify Christ or it will result in glorifying us.

As we enter a controversial season of life during the next month or so leading up to the election, I hope you will take these truths into consideration and decide that while we may live in a divided nation politically, we can live, exist, and serve in a Kingdom that is united because we are living to give the right perception about our life, we are united more than the wrong kingdom, and we will produce the right fruit because we are starting with the right seed.

Time of Response

Heads bowed eyes clsoed

If you are here this morning and your testimony is questionable based upon your actions online or in real life, would you take this time to seek forgiveness from God for those words or actions.

Maybe your here today and you aren’t living a life that reflects Christ because you don’t know Christ.

You don’t know for sure that if you died today you would go to Heaven.

I want to help you with that decision.

First know that God loves you.

John 3:16

John 3:16 KJV 1900

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Then admit your a sinner

Romans 3:23 KJV 1900

23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Believe Jesus lived a perfect sinless life, died on the cross, and rose again. All to pay for your sins.

Rom 10:9, 13

Romans 10:9 KJV 1900

9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Then Confess. Confess Jesus as your Savior.

Romans 10:13 KJV 1900

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

It’s that simple ladies and gentlemen.

Admit, believe, and forever recieve Jesus.

Eph 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8–9 KJV 1900

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

If you made that decision this morning would you raise your hand?

Christians…you know your acceptance before God isn’t predicated upon your life…It’s found in Jesus. However we are called for our lifestyles to reflect the gospel of Jesus.

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal how you could better portray the truths of the gospel in your life and online conduct.

PRAY

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