Sermon Central
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Our Earthly Dominion Mandate Series
Contributed by Sebastien Richard on Feb 15, 2020 (message contributor)
Summary: Have you ever wondered what was the most central teaching of Jesus during His earthly ministry? So, what was it? What was Jesus’ main teaching? The most central, repetitive, insistent, and prevalent teaching of Jesus in the Gospels, by far, was about… THE KINGDOM OF GOD!
By Sebastien Richard, Author and Bible teacher,
Thriving on Purpose Ministries: https://www.thrivingonpurpose.com/
Our earthly dominion mandate
Today, we are beginning an important journey together.
We believe this journey will:
Open your mind
Open your eyes
Strengthen your faith
Boost your confidence
Sharpen your mindset
Bring blessing to your life
Enable you to let go of false religious thinking
Bring you to expect miracles in your life
Fifteen years ago, when Liz and I began this journey into biblical understanding, it changed our lives.
We believe it will change your lives as well.
There is a text on my wall that I have read many times in my own life. The text contains a powerful prayer. I have prayed this prayer many times. The text is the following:
“My journey out of deception began with a prayer,
an innocuous prayer that hardly seemed life-changing in its scope.
In fact, at the time, it hardly seemed much of anything at all.
“Dear Lord,” I prayed, “If I am believing any lies in my life,
or am deceived in any areas of my Christian life and what I believe,
can You show me? I want Your truth at all costs,
even if knowing it destroys my entire world.
Oh, and I mean it Lord, even if part of me doesn’t and is scarred.”
That was the prayer; the prayer that changed my world and set me free.
In retrospect, it was a silly child-like prayer, but God honored it.”
It takes guts to pray this prayer. I believe, however, that it is a necessary one for believers today. Many of us have been ensnared by religious teachings and bound by dogma. And these teachings are keeping us not only in the dark… but enslaved and fruitless as a result.
It’s nothing new. Remember what Jesus told the Pharisees in Mark 7:6-9:
“Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!” (ESV)
The Bible also says in Job 36:12: “But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.” (ESV)
And in Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
God doesn’t want any of us to be in ignorance. Just like Paul told the Athenians in Acts 17:30:
“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”
Much of the plight of believers today comes from a misunderstanding not only of His Word, but also of how His Kingdom operates, of who they are in it, and how they should operate in it.
This misunderstanding of God’s truth, God’s plan, and how they fit in it has led many in bondage:
Emotional bondage
Doctrinal or dogmatic bondage
Falsehood bondage
Religious bondage
Financial bondage
Yahushua, Jesus, came to set the captives free. And the truth, His truth, will set you free.
And the main message He came to teach was about a gospel, which means ‘Good News’. But not just any good news or gospel… the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
The word ‘Kingdom’, or term ‘Kingdom of God’ or ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ is mentioned well over 100 times in the New Testament - especially in the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Go re-read the gospels and you will realize that the ‘Kingdom of God’ was the main message of Jesus during His ministry, and after His Resurrection. You could even says it was what He was most passionate about.
One Bible teacher put it this way:
“The mission of Jesus was to establish God’s Kingdom on earth in the hearts of men.” ~ Myles Munroe
In Luke 4:43, Jesus said to his disciples:
“I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”
And after His resurrection, he appeared for forty days to the disciples, and the Bible says:
In Acts 1:3, we read…
“After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.”
Since it was evidently so important to Jesus to teach about the Kingdom, one question remains…
Why are we seldom taught about the Kingdom in Church?
