We're a long way from home. The world is filled with snakes. We experience their bite in also many ways. Sometimes it's a root canal. Sometimes it's a dog that's precious and never comes home. Sometimes it's a knee that gets blown out on a basketball court. Sometimes it's a marriage that ends a grandmother that dies, a friend that flumps at their desk with a hemorrhage. Lately, it's been also close. Wasn't but a couple weeks ago I held a sobbing woman who said, I'm too young to be a widow. I read the emails from my sister who's just discovered that of her four natural born children, the third was just diagnosed last week to be autistic. Three of her four children now have autism. Trade with a couple this week that live in a world where millions of children are thrown away every year and they can't conceive. And they ask, how could it be so hard to have a baby? The world is filled with snakes. A friend of mine told me that in his church a few months ago an assistant pastor tried to commit suicide. He's a senior pastor to tell me this. One of his staff members tried to commit suicide. It was prompted by his wife leaving him for another woman. Another staff member led an insurrection against him. The world's a broken play. Stat with a friend on a train a couple weeks ago and he told me that his little brother just confessed a 20-year cocaine addiction and it explained so many things in his life. But that wasn't the end of it when he got into into a residential program. He confessed even more that his whole life had taken a turn from the worst. When at age 10 he was raped by his neighbor. My friend told me I now understood the last 20 years in my little brother's life. I understood everything. I understood why he cried when mom went to work for three straight weeks and nobody in the family understood. He'd never ever told anyone before. His life was destroyed. The world's a horribly broken play. He ever watched the evening news and there's 30 minutes of what? Just like what I just told you in there. 30 minutes of war and murder and mayhem and when it's all over the anchor kind of shuffles his tapers together and he folds them up and he looks out of the TV and he says, good night, good night. Do you ever want to say, is that all you have to say? After everything you've told us, is that all? Is that all you've got? Good night. Couldn't you for one? Look out at us. Take a deep breath and say, we're a long way from home. We're a long way from what we were created to be. Maybe we should have listened. Who will come to this world and take the snakes away? Who will set us free? Who will bear the curse for us in our play? Is the way the world is, the way the world always shall be? Is there any hope? Is there anybody who can fix it? There's only one and he has come. Now I want you to take your sermon outline and I want to talk to you tonight about the kingdom. The kingdom has come. Brothers and sisters, some in this room hold eschatological conception that rob from you the power of God's Word on this. Christians all across North America are living for a future kingdom for someday when God is going to intervene and fix the world, missing what God's Word speaks like a clarion sound, a trumpet sound that tells us what? That day has already happened. The kingdom has come. It's the coming of the kingdom of God. That's what I want to see. I want to see together in Jesus the restore of all creation, the broken world, the one who has the power to make us whole and healthy again. It's not someone who is just going to come. He's someone who has come. And with him he has ushered in the kingdom. Now in the Old Testament, at numerous points we have prophets, paint for us the picture of what a restored world would look like, don't we? I've included some of those scriptures in your sermon outline. See them there? From Psalm 96. Let the heavens rejoice. Let the earth be glad. Let the sea resound. And all that is in it, let the fields be jubilant. Everything in them, let the trees, those trees of the forest will sing for joy. They will sing before the Lord, for he come. The trees of the field will what? The clap their hands. All creation will rejoice, because the restore of all the created order has come. This is the great prophetic picture. Look at Isaiah. The wolf will live with the lamb. The leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together. A little child leading them. Jesus has come, the kingdom bringer. And this is what the gospel say. When Jesus emerges on the scene, he's baptized. He begins his public ministry. The gospel tells us he went everywhere proclaiming the message of the, I didn't hear it. He went everywhere proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. The kingdoms come. The king is calm. He's come back into the world. He's invaded the world. He's reclaiming what is his. This is what the Bible says Matthew 4. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the good news of the, you still have very responses. It's the kingdom. Are you, is your heart not broken living in this world? Don't you understand the radical nature? That's the power of, you know, he's the big deal that we just turned to the year 2000. What is the millennium really matter? It's just a man's arbitrary dating system. I'll tell you one way of matter. The whole world looks on and sees what? That all of history is dated from what? The intervention of Jesus Christ into the world. It utterly changes everything. And here we have in God's word. It says Jesus went everywhere, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the kingdom, healing every disease, and sickness amongst the people. You see, when Christ comes, he's coming to restore everything. The kingdom has come. The Bible says that in his coming Christ did what? That we bound Satan. Satan is bound. There is a new share up in town, allowing the gospel to spread to the entire world. Satan's power and his grip is broken. It says in John chapter 12, our theme verse for our campaign. Now is the time for judgment on this world. Now the Prince of this world will be driven out, Jesus said. But I, when I am listed up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. I understand that before Christ, there aren't any God lovers in virtually the whole world. You could possibly take all the people who are going to heaven, who are in God's family, in God's favor, and put them in this room. In this room. The world is an incredibly dark place. And Christ comes into the world, and I want to tell you today, the gospel is spread throughout the whole earth because Satan is bound. Now some people say, how can you say Satan is bound? How can you say Satan is bound today, when the world is so corrupt and so evil? Look at all the rotten things you already said. How can I say Satan is bound? The word of God says Satan is bound. Again and again, Jesus tells us, if I drive out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon us. Now the Prince of this world will be driven out. Christ tells us that Satan, the strong man, is bound. Now what happens is, Christ comes the old regime, the old way, the old order, Satan's way, is still here. It's not utterly destroyed. It's not done away with. The new kingdom comes, and they're both laying on top of each other. They're overlap, so in this period, between Christ first coming and a second coming, we have constant conflict, don't we? Because we have two kingdoms clashing. But they're not two equal kingdoms. There's one mighty Christ. And there's a creature named Satan. Who would have sailed a church. And he roars about seeking whom he made a vow. But he is bound in such a way that the gospel is unrestricted to go to all the world. We're interviewing in our church recently for a staff position of black man from Jamaica. And his wife, who is Indian of Indian descent from Guyana. And we would only hire them, of course, on their qualifications, which were many. But I want to tell you, if in God's providence he had brought this all to work out, this couple would come to work here. We were deeply desirous of it. Do you know why? Because it's such a beautiful picture of the what? Of the kingdom. The kingdom is made up of people of every tribe and tongue and nation. There are people all over the world, wherever you go who bend the knee to Jesus Christ. Because the kingdom is moving throughout the earth and people are naming Jesus Christ as Lord. And Christ healing and saving power is being experienced all across the face of the earth. The king has come. Now what's the power of Jesus hanging? If I be listed up, what do we read in the wilderness? The people bicker against God, and God unleashes what in their midst? Snake, serpent. And so God instructs Moses to take, he intervenes, prayers made. God's saving power is unleashed. And they make a bronze serpent, and they hang it up. And if the people will look to the serpent, then they're saved, right? From the poison of the earth. Christ said that's a picture of me. I will be listed up. The serpent represents what? Think back to the garden of Eden. The serpent represents the curse of God. The curse of God that's fallen on our world for our rebellion against God. And Christ says, I will be listed up as the, as the cursed one, all the curses, all the AIDS, all the child's rape, all the cocaine addiction, all the broken homes and broken bodies will be laid on me. The cursed one becomes Christ by his affirmities, by his affliction, we will be healed. If I be listed up, he says, I will draw all men to myself. Christ is not coming to fix what's broken. He's already come. He's coming to finish the job. That he's already started. And the people of God ought to say, Hallelujah. Once having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, the kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, here it is, or there it is, because the kingdom of God is in your, is in your way. No, no, no, no, no. It's in your myth. I'm standing here, he said, the kingdom of God is in your midst. The kingdom of God is right here, right now. The kingdom has come. Jesus said, behold, I am making all things new. Friends, there are so many Christians who have a bunker mentality. There are so many Christians who think someday the kingdom is coming. Then they know the kingdom has come. The kingdom has come. The kingdom is now. It has come in all its fullness that will come in Christ's second coming, but the kingdom is advancing. I sat with a lady on a plane tripped from Atlanta a couple weeks ago, wonderful African-American lady, and we began to talk, and she began to tell me about her family, and she began to share with me her concern that her daughter was dating a white guy. And I thought, well, this is so, this is fascinating to hear from the other perspective. And she began to just talk, and I began to ask her questions, and she just began to tell me, this is an extremely intelligent, extremely well-spoken, thoughtful woman. She began to tell me about racial profiling. She began to tell me about how affirmative action had helped her life, and that she would not have got an education or her job without affirmative action. She began to tell me about what it was like to be black in a white world. She began to tell me how she felt about the police shooting in New York City. And as I sat there listening to her, I thought, only Jesus can fix this world. Only Jesus can deal with racism. Only Jesus can make it right. How we need to list up Jesus. How we need to look to Jesus. It's the only hope we've got. The kingdom, the coming of the kingdom. The kingdom has come. You know, one of the reasons we chose for this campaign, the theme, if you build it, comes from what movie? Feel the dream. An Iowa farmer, here's a voice, if you build it, somebody will come. Who is it that will come? When the movie ends, you build the baseball field who would come. You remember when the movie ends? There's a long line of cars and it stretches from miles down the road. Is that who will come? People will come? If you build it, who is it that will come? The old ball player, shoeless Joe, and the old ancient legends, is that who will come? If he builds this ball field, what's the answer? No. His dad. It's all about reconciliation with the father, isn't it? If we build it, it's all about reconciliation with the father. It's all about a father who loves sinners, and he wants them to come home and be reconciled to him. Now, Jesus Christ has come to do that. Jesus Christ has come to heal our broken world. Second, the kingdom. The common kingdom. Second, what's the community of the kingdom? What's the place that's supposed to herald this healing, whole kingdom that's advancing through the world? You know the answer to that, don't you? It's the church. When we become reconciled to the father, then we enter the kingdom and the power of the old regime is broken. And we become God's agents for kingdom blessedness, peace, healing, and wholeness to our community. We live the kingdom in the midst of brokenness, bringing heaven to earth, and pushing the hell out of our world. It's God's people bringing kingdom wholeness to Florida power and pushing the hell out of there, bringing wholeness to your neighborhood, bringing wholeness to citrus memorial hospital into Lakanto high school, and pushing that which is dark and evil and destructive out because the wholeness of the gospel and the kingdom and the healing is brought to bear in that place by God's church. The church has been placed here to tell a broken world, we are so far from home, but I know the way back to the father, and he loves sinners and he'll have you. Has the church always done a good job with that message? What would a lot of people perceive the message of the church to be? You're not good enough, don't bother, right? You're not good enough, don't even bother coming home. Why does the world hate the religious right? It's not because they're right. It's because all too often they're, or shall I say all too often we're arrogant, because all too often we are proud and self-righteous, and not broken and humble. There is a man who is a film director, he grew up in the Christian Reform Church, and he produces the darkest films on the market. Many years ago he produced a film called Hardcore, about a little teenage girl who runs away from home and becomes involved in the pornographic film industry. And in a film there's a scene where the father decides to go get his daughter, to hire a prostitute to help him find her. They're sitting in an airport waiting for a flight to Los Angeles where they'll commence their search. When she turns to him, he's reading the newspaper, this very religious paragon of the church, and she says, what church do you go to? What kind of church? And he says, I'm a Calvinist. And she said, what's that? And he said, we believe in the canons of dork, and her face crinkled up, and he said, you know, the doctrines of grace, tool up. And she said, what? He said, you know, tool up. That's an acronym, you know, T stands for Total Depravity. He said, what's that? He said, I'll total depravity. That means that all are sinners, and that nobody's ever done anything good or right. And then writes it there in the movie. The loud speaker comes on, the flight is announced, and they get up, and they get on the plane. And you can just see the script writer screaming throughout the movie. This is why I left the church. I left the church because it's an empty shell, because it's filled with people who are experts on grace. They can talk about it, but they can explain it. They have formulas for it, but they're not gracious. They don't even know what it is. They can explain it with high-falutin theological words, but they're not gracious themselves. They've never tasted it, and they don't dispense it. The church is to be a place of the kingdom, a place of healing, and wholeness, and welcome. What's a kingdom advancing church look like? It will be a community that reflects the healing and wholeness of Christ. There will be life and joy. There will be public confession of sin. A friend of mine said to me recently, he said, you realize that most people who have gone to church their whole life have never ever seen anybody publicly confess their sin.
They've never ever seen it. I mean, the whole thing, right? Is it supposed to be a sin and forgiveness? And there are people who have gone to church 50, 60, 70 years and never seen anybody publicly confess their sin. Do you understand that so much of the church has not life? That's the church's to be. A place where sin is acknowledged openly and freely, it's confessed and sinners are restored and welcome. The church, the kingdom advancing church is a place where there's dancing and there's worship and there's laughter and there's tears and where the poor and the handicapped and the grieving are loved and helped the downtrodden, the prisoner are looked after. If it's anything, if the kingdom advancing church looks like anything that looks like home, they'll be healing, they'll be changed lives, they'll be God's presence, and people will look at each other with wonder all the time and say, wow, God is here. Did you hear what he did? You know, they'll say, 100 families made commitments and committed $2 million to the if we build it. How did that happen? That's a God thing. Cindy Allen has engaged the gene Campbell to be married.
They'll say, that's a God thing. I've seen some God things here. Praise the Lord. I'll never forget, and I've told this story in every pastor's glass. Many years ago, a man in our church stood up and publicly confessed his sin, and he needed to. When he did, the whole church gathered and one by one, they hugged and embraced him and his wife. And that was all neat, but that wasn't the best part of the story to me. Because I remember as I stood by that man's side, and he was weeping, as he confessed his sin to the church. I looked over at the front row, and there was a man's daughter. Here a daughter, watching her father, publicly bear his husband, and sitting by that young middle school girl was a row of 10 or 12 other middle school girls all huddled around her, all holding hands. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life. And when I saw it, you know what I said to myself? The church is supposed to look like. Broken, needy people hanging on to each other. It's a God thing when that happened. It's because the king has come, and he's bringing healing and wholeness and reconciliation and restoration where it's so desperately needed. A couple weeks ago, I was up here speaking when I was done. Somebody came up to me and they said, this is somebody who's been going here for 10 or 12 years. A dear friend. Do you know what they said to me? I've never seen you speak like that. I've never seen you speak with such freedom and calm, and yet they just said there was something different about you. There's something they didn't know. In my pocket, there was a note from my wife. When she ironed my shirt that night before I preached, she slipped it in there without telling me. When I got here and I read it, it was a note pledging her unconditional support to me. It was a reconsincration of her to our marriage, and I read that note, and I wasn't the same. Brothers and sisters, we're a bunch of losers. How do we affect the world, right? We're not really that hot, right? How do we bring the kingdom of healing and wholeness out into our community in such a way that anybody's affected and made better? We have the love of Jesus, written on our heart, and it changes us. It gives us the power and authority that has nothing to do with us, but it has everything to do with Jesus. Friends, the kingdom, the coming of the kingdom, the community of the kingdom, and last of all, what's the call of the kingdom? Well, the Bible has a beautiful word in Matthew chapter 33. It says, the kingdom of heaven is like a what? A treasure hidden in a field. And when a man found it, he hid it again, and then his joy went, and his joy sold everything he had to buy that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had to buy it. What does the Bible say? The kingdom of heaven is so precious and so valuable that it's worth everything to possess it, and those who are wise understand its value and they'll sacrifice all to have it. Three weeks ago, I told you that Jesus would pass by this place this month, and he would say to you, are you going? Will you follow me? And I would challenge you to make a decision. You have to say, yes, I'll drop my nest and I will follow, because I value the kingdom above all else. I have a friend. He's a businessman. He professes Christ, but all he does is work. He works, he makes money, and he spends most of it on himself. He tells me he's a Christian, but he works all the time, and he makes lots of money, and he either spends it on himself, or he saves it. He told me one time he said, I'm going to make so much money that I can retire after I work 20 years. And then I'm going to spend the rest of my time with my family, and I said, they'll be gone. The day you retire, you'll walk home and ring the doorbell, and your kids will be gone, and if your wife's still there, she'll hate your gut. What is the profit of man to gain the whole world, but forfeit your own soul. It's so sad. Jesus said, there are people who find the pearl of great price and they'll give anything to have it. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord to thee, do you understand that this is the day of the kingdom? The king has come to bring healing and wholeness to our world. It's not the day to build our kingdom. It's the day to vote all our resources to build his. This campaign is just a chance for you to say all to Jesus I surrender. I've decided to follow Jesus. There's no turning back. No turning back. Will anybody who makes a commitment to the kingdom regret it? Brothers and sisters, I think there are just times in our lives where we have to make a decision. Am I in or am I not? What was Friday? We called it. What was yesterday? We called that St. Patrick's Day. That's a day that all people go out and get plastered. The world doesn't even know that St. Patrick's was a slave who escaped slavery in Ireland, returned to England, but because of his devotion to Jesus Christ went right back to Ireland to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to those people. This is a St. Patrick's Day challenge to us. Will we follow in his footsteps? Will we follow in his footsteps of Jesus Christ and say it's about the kingdom? It's about advancing the kingdom. That's what my resources are for. That's what my life is for. That's where life and joy are. That's where it's at. It's about the kingdom. I heard a pastor say that when they went to get their church off the ground and buy the property they needed. They didn't have the money to accomplish it. They thought they had it and the price went up and other things entered in. So he actually had to turn to the people in his church and ask them to go take out personal loans to buy the property or they'd lose all the money they put down on. He said he was telling the story at the 25th anniversary of the church. The church had now thousands of members. He said, I looked out the day the morning came where we were all supposed to go to the bank and take out personal loans, sign, you know, against our houses to finance our dream. And he said, I'll never forget that day. I showed up at the bank and there were 300 families lined up to take out $1,000 loans a piece so that we could accomplish it. And he stood there before that crowd on their 25th anniversary and he said, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I felt so guilty for 25 years that I asked you to risk that. You know, I asked you to do something that personal and that scary and that risk you. That was over the line. I can't believe you guys went with me, you know. And he said when the service was over one by one, it was those people who rushed forward. Tears rolling down their face. You know what they said, don't you ever apologize? That was the sweetest day of our life. It was the day we took a stand. It was the day in our hearts we said, as for me and my house, we're in the kingdom. We're selling everything to have the pearl of great pride. Don't you ever apologize for that day? Gosh, we thank you that you called us to step out for the king. So for many of you perhaps in this room, a campaign like this is just another event in your life. I'm just praying for some, that's not so. I'm praying for some, this has been a time of real reckoning and real decisions where you've been willing to say, let good and kindred go, like Martin Luther wrote. This mortal life also, I will give up something of me for the king, for Jesus, for his glory, because it's about him. I'm going to ask in just a minute to elders to come forward and stand in front of you. I don't want to just collect these cards that we talked about, these commitment cards in an offering play, because that won't do. I want you to have the physical experience of walking forward. Presbyterians, don't get to do that. Right? The physical experience of saying, I'm not just right in checks. I'm giving myself, because the king is walking by and he said, drop your nets and come follow me, and you're saying, I'll go. Now, if you've got your cards tonight, I want you to bring them. When we sing this song, I want you to come up and bring them and give them to one. These elders are Christ's representatives. You're bringing it to Christ himself. If you already turned in a card in an advanced commitment, I want you to come too. Just come up and shake their hand. Come up and bring an empty card and give it to them. Those of you who have already turned your cards in, because I want it to be an active worship for you too. You understand what we're doing? You got this? They're coming here to receive your act of consecration before the Lord that says, the kingdom is on the move, and I want to be a part of it, and I believe with all my heart that if you will commit yourself to the kingdom of Jesus Christ, you will never, ever be the same again.