We want to see your Kingdom coming…
Mat 6:10 & 25-34
Audio and slides at
http://jubilee-church.org/sermons/2003/08/kingdom-of-god.htm
Adrian Warnock
We want to see your kingdom coming….
* Who is really in charge
* What about when it seems He isn’t
* What are we going to do about it
Who is really in charge
* Me
* A Kingdom is ‘a domain in which I can fully impose my will’
* My wants, desires and likes
* Where can I really fully impose my will
* ‘Free will’
Do we really have ‘free will’
* God sometimes gives us over to sin (Ro 1:24ff)
* God sometimes says ‘It was I who kept you from sinning’ (Gen 20:6)
* We are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness (Ro 6:20ff)
* We inherit a sinful tendency and guilt (Ps 51)
* We are influenced by others – ‘Bad company ruins good morals’ (1 Co 15:33)
* But we remain responsible for our own sin (Ro 3:5-8)
Do we really have ‘free will’
* The Lord has made everything for its purpose even the wicked for the day of trouble (Prov 16:4)
* The heart of a man plans his ways, but the LORD establishes his steps’ (Prov 16:9)
Creation and Fall
* We were given dominion by God, offered a lie by the devil, and gave up our dominion to another…..
Is Satan really in charge
* And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” (Lk 4:5-8)
* The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe to keep them from seeing the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Co 4:4)
* BUT, see Job 1
Is God really in charge of Heaven
"Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”" (Psalm 2:1-6, ESV)
Is God really in charge of Earth
* To Belteshazzar- ‘The Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will.’ (Dan 4:25)
* There is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God (Ro 13:1-2)
Is God really in charge of the future
* The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”(Re 11:15).
* The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever (Da 2:44).
Is God really in charge of the future
Behold, with the clouds of heaventhere came one like a son of man,and he came to the Ancient of Daysand was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,that all peoples, nations, and languagesshould serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion,which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. (Da 7:13-14).
Is God really in charge of now
* Ludovic Kennedy ‘Every week in their churches Christians belt out in hymn after hymn that "God" is just and merciful and wise, yet also, they claim, invisible, inaccessible and silent as night. These attributes are contradictory, for if the latter are true, the former cannot be. And just where in our daily lives do we find examples of God’s mercy, wisdom and justice
.....Do the brothers and sisters really believe they are being listened to, and have they ever paused to consider how silly to outsiders they sound and look’
Is God really in charge of now
* My response was ‘I have to say that if I believed that God was that inactive then I would give up going to church and find something else to do on a Sunday morning. Fortunately as Kennedy stated such a state of affairs is contradictory, and in this much I agree with him. If God isn’t vibrant, alive, breaking in constantly in my life I want nothing to do with him.’ (www.Adrian.Warnock.info)
Is God really in charge of now
God “upholds all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3).
“In Him all things consist or hold together” (Col. 1:17)
“For I know that the Lord is great,and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth” (Ps 135:5-6)
Surely this is a scandalous statement!
What about when it seems He isn’t
* God’s Kingdom is were his rule is recognised and revealed
* This is not apparently the case in sinful rebellious man…..
* & appears not to be the case when bad things happen ‘by chance’
What about when someone sins against me
* God is never the author of sin - "God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one" (James 1:13)
* Unlike Adam, the bible never blames God for sin!
* God stands behind good and evil in different ways
* An event can be originated outside of God and what he desires and he can decide not to stop it.
* An evil event does not become good simply because God allowed it and intends to turn it around for good eg to show his grace
What about when someone sins against me
* He restrains man at times and at others gives him over to sin
* Life was never meant to be fair, but God is always just- God saved Peter from prison but allowed James to be killed.
* Joseph could see two things were true- ‘you meant evil against me’ and ‘God meant it for good’ (Gen 50:20)
The cross- the ultimate example of multiple causality
* Judas sinned
* The Jewish authorities arrested him
* The crowd’s cried ‘Crucify’ & Pilate abdicated
* The devil killed him (2 Cor 2:8)
* Jesus offered himself to die (Phil 2:8)
* ‘He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.’
* BUT God decided in advance that he should die
* This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. (Ac 2:23-24)
What about when it seems like God isn’t in charge
* What about chance events and catastrophes- floods, earthquakes, redundancies, sickness
* None of these things surprise God or frustrate his purposes
* God is even in control of the weather- after all he made it! (Job 38)
* If we accept God is in charge of the big things, isn’t it time to believe he can manage the small ones
Who’s in control and why
* And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good (Rom. 8:28)
* God ‘created all things so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places’ (Eph 3:9-10)
What are we going to do about it
* Realise you are not the victim of random chance or the misdeeds of others- God has been guiding your life, so quit feeling sorry for yourself!
* Stop worrying about things like food and drink!
* Realise that being on the winning side is motivation to do things not sit back and wait. So grab hold of the significance God intended for your life. Accomplish some glory for God with your life in church, home and work
* When you’re not in the mood to do something, don’t let that stop you! JUST DO IT!
