Bringing the Kingdom,

If you have your Bibles with you, open up to Matthew, chapter 6, verse 9 through 13. We have been going through the last four weeks talking about different aspects of our church. The first week we talked about, and we're in a series called Kingdoms and Conflict. The first week we talked about the Kingdom of God and how it interrupts us, but it interrupts us in a rescuing type way. We also talked about how in the first week that we are to be living worship, all that makes us alive that God intended us to be worshiping Him, for Him to be at the center part of that. That's our first pillar as a church of our infaces. Our second pillar, which we talked about last week, was experiencing community, and we talked about last week how God has called us to have deep intimate relationships not only with Him, but with one another, and how that is only possible through the gospel. It is only possible through Jesus Christ, even though we might get the inoculation going on by giving us a little pinch of it here and there here in this life so that we kind of takes away our cutting edge craving for it, but we still long for it. And our third and last pillar of the vision of our church to be about bringing the Kingdom, and this will wrap up our Kingdoms and Conflict series, starting ending that tonight here, looking at what that means. Which, by the way, I'll let you know, too, we're going to be starting a study in the book of Genesis, which, chapter 1, beginning next week, we'll go through Genesis for much of the rest of the year, but we're brand new. We're beginning, and Genesis is where it all begins, so it seems appropriate to start. So hope you can be back to share that with us as well. But we're now at Matthew 6. Here God's Word is a read that for us. This then is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven, how would be your name? Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Give us our debts as we also forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. That is God's Holy and inspired Word. In a very familiar passage, maybe for many of us, this is one of the accounts in the Gospels of the Lord's Prayer. Here we have it here. But I wanted us to draw out to that because our motto as a church is on earth as it is in heaven. It comes from the Lord's Prayer, but that's so much as what this third pillar of our mission is about. Bringing the Kingdom of God, and as it said in verse 10, your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that is our prayer. So tonight our outline is going to talk about three different aspects. One, that we were designed to be Kingdom bringers. Number two, that we are frustrated Kingdom bringers. And thirdly or lastly, that we are restored Kingdom bringers through Jesus Christ. Next we are designed Kingdom bringers. From the very beginning, we were designed for this. Genesis 1, 26 through 29, says this, the very first chapter. Then God said, let us make man in our image and our likeness and let him rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image and the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them. God blessed them and said be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground. That is God's word. So one of the primary characteristics of being made in the image of God because we are told that right here is our sub-doing, is our ruling over all of God's creation. We were called for that. In fact, we were designed specifically for that purpose. So I ask you tonight, how are you doing in the area of sub-doing and ruling God's creation, whether that be the creation of yourself, physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, whether that be taking sub-doing and ruling what God has placed around us, relationships with other people, other parts of God's creation, those made in God's image, other people, your spouse, your children, your friends, your coworkers, your classmates, what about the broader sense of God's creation, all that he's made, the animals, the air, how are you taking care of sub-doing and ruling that, bringing everything that's around that you have influence over and bringing it under the reign and the rule of Jesus Christ. That's what it means to be sub-duers, to be those that are ruling. We were designed to be kingdom bringers and we bring the kingdom of God. We honor and we glorify God in His kingdom when we are doing those things, when we are in His hands, when we are in His feet, Her and Earth. And I ask you to ponder that tonight, how are you doing in that particular area? God designed us to manage and He also designed us to maximize the glory of His creation here on Earth, you know, there's something special about even when we get together with each other. I mean why is it that we like to watch movies together? You can watch a hilarious movie by yourself, but I guarantee you it's more fun if you watch it with some other people that enjoy that particular kind of movie and you watch it together. I mean, you can laugh out loud by yourself, but you feel a little silly, don't you? But you put a few friends together and you can laugh, you can roll on the ground, you don't feel silly at all. You can glorify things in community in a stronger and a greater way. You can maximize it better than you can by yourself. Why would we be surprised that God and His creation, His design, His created us to work together to do the same, that we, as His creation, can maximize His glory as we connect with one another? Adam and Eve took care of the garden. They named animals. They had companionship with one another and they had worshipful, most importantly, worshipful companionship with God Himself, because you remember in chapter 3 when God comes looking for them after they've sinned, He comes walking through the garden in the cool of the day, perhaps on His afternoon stroll with Adam and Eve and they're not there. Things have changed and things do change. Number one, we were designed to be kingdom bringers, but two, we become frustrated kingdom bringers. And that really is to put it mildly, but it's a nice way to put it. We are desperate kingdom bringers, but we are frustrated. You see, after sin entered the world, a curse came that separated us between our design and the power to fulfill it and it led us to frustration. We were no longer, we had this design being made in God's image, but we no longer had the power to let us perform that way, to live that way. And that is why we live a frustrated existence. That is what the biggest impact that sin has had on us as God's created beings made in His image, is that, even though our design has been distorted because of sin, the power to fulfill our original design has been taken away. So you've got this broken, shaped object that was designed for one purpose and if it's something like an electrical lamp, it's unplugged from the wall and it's crooked in its bent and the bulb's cracking. So it hardly looks like it's original design and it has no power to do what it was designed to do in the first place. That gives you a picture of our condition. If you were that lamp, you would be frustrated too, but you know what, you are that lamp. I'm that lamp. We live frustrating days. And if you're honestly thinking about it more and more, I bet you have moments that are less frustrating, which you never have moments that are completely without any frustration. Think about your most wonderful experience. Think about your most joyous day or moment during the week. Isn't it not just a second before you think, this is going to go away in a second. I don't want it to. I'm enjoying seeing this friend from out of town, but they fly back in two days. I'm enjoying this promotion I got at work. And then the next day you get in and you see, ooh, it had added responsibilities. What is it? It's only a sheer glimpse that we ever have less frustrating moments, but we live in frustration because we are kingdom bringers by design. Kingdom bringers that were once empowered to do that, and now our design has been distorted and now the power has been taken away and we are frustrated, but we are still kingdom bringers. This is what you, as what myself, that's why we were created. Adam and Eve abandoned their design and their role because of doubt, because of unbelief. Let me read Genesis chapter three, you know the story, perhaps let me refresh you. God says, now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animals the Lord had made. He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from the tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it or you will die. You will surely not die. The serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. Adam and Eve go from being objects of God's blessing to becoming objects of God's curse now through sin. Genesis 3, 16 to 21 goes on and it talks about that curse because God had told them they would surely die and sure enough God comes looking and God holds them accountable and he comes and finds them. He says to the woman, he said, I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing. With pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. To add him he said, because you listen to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat of it. Curse it as the ground because of you. Through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken. Your dust you are and to dust you will return. So where God had blessed them or they experienced every blessing, now there is a radical shift. There is a radical change. In fact they are asked to leave the garden. They are not allowed to come back in to eat of the tree of life. They now are experiencing living under the curse or you could call it under the frustration as kingdom bringers. Friends, church, that is where we are here today. And even for those of us who are trusting in Jesus Christ for eternal life, we still live frustrated lives. Don't we? We read about sanctification. How we more and more are being empowered to obey God more and more daily. More. We are not done. We are not there. We are not fixed. Well, we will be one day and that is called glorification. The day when we are united with God and heaven. The day we are given new bodies but now we still live in frustration. Amen. Specifically, how is it for you? Well, from being blessed with the design and the power to be fruitful, multiply, the woman is now cursed with the pain, a childbirth and resistance to her husband's authority and the absence of God's power for his design. Amen. From being blessed with design and power to subdue and rule over the earth, man is now cursed with difficulty and labor with work and the absence of God's power for his design. And it goes even further. Even the ground, the rest of creation is cursed because of Adam. You wonder why there are hurricanes, you wonder why there are tornadoes, you wonder why species die off and sometimes we are killing them, but sometimes you wonder why things are collapsing in many ways. Things go from order to disorder. You know what is going on is that the impact of sin and of the frustration has been passed on from God's image bearers, man and woman has been passed on to all of creation. All of creation is frustrated. In fact, the New Testament talks about it, it is longing, it is crying out. It is looking forward to Jesus' return. As much as any Christian is, creation itself is because it knows things are out of whack. But it is our sinfulness that has brought that. That helps theologically sometimes to wonder why does God allow bad things to happen? We know it, that is a hard question. But do you want to know what is even a harder question? Why does God allow good things to happen? If we understand what the Scriptures are teaching us, if we understand what we lost in the garden and what we no longer have, what is going to be restored through Jesus Christ and it is in the process for Christians, if we understand that we would spend a lot more time asking the questions why do good things happen? Because God continues to be loving and merciful. He continues to restrain evil. You want to know what hell is? Hell is where God quits restraining evil. It is when God allows His wrath for sin which is justly deserved to be extended. The God in His mercy and grace continues to restrain. So ponder, lose sleep sometimes when you think of why is God blessing me the way He has? Why are things going well in my life? Why am I not ill? Why is my family doing well? Why does my child not have a disease? Ponder that. Understand, the God continues to restrain, continues to be merciful and gracious, continues to work through even our sin, and he continues to work through even a sinful world. And no doubt from Katrina and others you have seen how God has even brought in the midst of the most desperate situation and how He has brought in some cases the wonderful spirit of His Holy Spirit to see people serving one another, to see people sacrificing, to see people inviting people into their homes. People who a few months ago had nobody living with them now have a family they don't even have even met ever before living in their home. God is working and bringing good things through that. Well, we are still experiencing the effects of the curse of sin today. I've reminded you of some, but let me ask you to ponder some questions. One, do you have a constant dull egg in your soul that you are made for something more, something more significant than what this life seems to offer? Here's another question. Do you long for infinite love and security and do you scavenger through the square pegs of this world to find one that will actually fit the round hole in your heart? Do you desire to live for something more glorious than yourself and your personal goals? If you were to be honest, are you really bored with yourself? But I'm afraid to be honest because of the facade of contentment is much better than the acknowledgement of no contentment at all. In fact, I wonder sometimes that we're so bored that that's why we have created a world of entertainment, a TV, a sports, movies, books, etc., whatever to stimulate, things to stimulate our imagination. I mean, why do we spend hundreds of dollars? People traveling from out of Orlando thousands of dollars to come to Disney World to wish upon a star. What is it that captivates us about that? We know our kids like it, it's fun, but why do we still want to come? Why do we as adults still consume with an imagination that there is something better out there? Well, it's because you've been made in the image of God. You've been made for a purpose and for a reason. Because you were designed for so much more, so our third and final point tonight, God is restored kingdom bringers. We were designed to be kingdom bringers. We are frustrated kingdom bringers, but for those of us who are in Christ Jesus, we are restored kingdom bringers. Jesus' life, death, resurrection, ascension, bring a reversal to the effect of sin in the curse. Matthew 111-5 says this, after Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples, he went on from there to teach and to preach in the towns of Galilee. When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else? Jesus replied, go back and report to John what you hear and see. The blind received sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured. The death here, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor. Do you see the reversal that what is beginning to happen here is Jesus comes? Just a few verses farther down that same chapter says, this is the one, Jesus is speaking. He says, this is the one about whom it was written, talking about John. I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way before you. I tell you the truth among those born of women, there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Yet he who is leased in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, listen, from the days of the John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it. Jesus brings the restoration of the kingdom by restoring the blessing to mankind and he talks about this kingdom coming. He demonstrates his power over illness. He demonstrates his power over death and he demonstrates his power in bringing the gospel, the good news that there is hope, that there is a restoration that is possible that he offers. Jesus brings that. And how does he do that? By restoring this blessing to mankind, John 3, 35 through 36 says this, God's wrath is removed. And I quote it out in verse, it says, the father loves the son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the son will not see life for God's wrath remains on him. So you see, God's wrath is on all of us until we come to a point that we embrace Jesus Christ. His wrath is sustained for a moment. His wrath is restrained in this life, but for those that die without Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, according to God in his word, they are restrained of that evil, their strain of that sin there is no longer there, the strain of the curse, the strain of the wrath of God. But we live this life under that curse, but as John says here, when Jesus comes, when our faith is in the sun, the wrath has been removed and the blessing returns. We read about that in Romans 4, 7, 3, 8, blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins have been covered, blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. You see, we were all born under the wrath of God, living in a restrained society where God restrains evil and restrained sin so that we don't wipe that ourselves out instantly, but when we come and we embrace Jesus Christ, the curse is taken off and the curse is not just by the way thrown away, the curse is taken off of us and it is placed on, here's across, placed on Jesus. God is a just God and he doesn't turn his head away and doesn't say, well, we'll just pretend it never happened. We'll just pretend that you never live rebelliously in moment in your life, even though you were born that way. I've got a 10 month old and I can tell you, they're born rebelliously, and for those of you that have been around and you know it's true, we're born in rebelliousness, as cute as we might be, we're born with hearts that want to do it our own way, we're born with hearts that are frustrated kingdom bringers, and we want to try to live like we're something else that we're not. Well, Jesus not only says that, but we are now not only blessed in Christ, but we continue to experience God's blessings as we walk in obedience. John 13, 12 through 17 says this, when he had finished washing their feet by when this is Jesus right before he died with the disciples, when he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place, do you understand what I've done for you? He asked them, you call me teacher in Lord and rightly so for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. Not only has God placed his blessing upon us through forgiveness and mercy, but he's given us grace so that we can walk in obedience to him, and that process of obeying and walking in God is a way that we experience his blessings is what he tells us that. We have to design as a matter of fact to be blessed. We've already talked about that initially, but Genesis 12, 1 through 2, remember when he called Abraham, when he kind of started this whole gathering my people thing, it really kind of started with Abraham and what did he say to Abraham? The Lord has said to Abraham, leave your country, your people and your father's house out and go to the land, I will show you, I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. When God starts gathering his people and he starts working through history, he starts with Abraham, and he talks about you will be a blessing to those around you. He's called his church to be a blessing, not just to experience the blessings of Jesus Christ, but to be a blessing, to be kingdom bringers. Once experience a blessed life, well then let me tell you, here's the key, this is the part where you want to jot this down, if you're into note-taking, you must first be a receiver. You must receive God's blessing in Christ Jesus. Others tell us for as many as received in that then he gave the right to become children of God, it is something that must be received, it's not something you work up, I know that goes against everything in American pop culture that says you must work for getting something good in life, and even though there is some truth of that on one level, it is completely opposite in the economy and the kingdom of heaven and of the spiritual things, there is nothing you do to work yourself up to gain God's pleasure, you must receive by grace, by God's mercy, who Jesus Christ is and that he lived a life that you could not live, he has satisfied the Father perfectly, he is the one that's worthy of worship, he is the one that every knee will bound, every tongue will confess, but he is the Lord, King of kings and Lord of Lords, and what do we do? We receive, we turn from ourselves and say, God, receive your offer, I'll take it, you offer me eternal life, I'll take it, and some of you maybe need to take that tonight, maybe you really haven't, maybe you're still trusting in your own good effort to get you to heaven, the second key, see if you can fill in the blank here, one, if you must first be a receiver, next, you must live as a, say, louder, give her, that's what everybody is thinking, that's wrong, sorry Jerry, Jerry was wrong about, right about when the kids need to go to children's church, but he was wrong here, and this should blow your mind and it should, you must first be a receiver, but secondly, you must live as a receiver, this makes all the difference in the world, if you think, all right, I'll pray to nasties in my life, in fact, I did that years ago, now it's my time to give, okay, I'm just gonna give, give, give, give, give, no wonder you're not happy, no wonder you're not experiencing the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, what is that stuff? You don't have it anymore than your non-Christian neighbor does, if you're not living as a receiver, listen to what God's word says, Ephesians 1, 3, 2, 4 says this, praise be to God, the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, not just a spiritual blessing of coming into eternal life and being saved from hell and damnation to eternal life when I die, but every spiritual blessing, even the spiritual blessing that you, you are to live and experience now, that you're supposed to walk in, Colossians 2, 6 through 7 says this, so then just as you receive Christ, as we just talked about, continue to live in Him, just as you receive Christ, continue to, don't put on the giveer hat, continue to receive Him, continue to walk in a manner where you are receiving daily mercy and grace, that you're looking daily to go to Him, that you're trusting in His power, quit stopping receiving, and that goes against everything in our grain because we think as soon as we get it, we got to just give it out, and there's something radically different, I know what the gospel is telling us about that, it tells us first we must be a receiver, but then it also tells us, and next you must live as a receiver, but finally, 3, it says you must view your life, you must quit viewing your life as a cup, and this is a real popular Christian image, it's this image, and I wish I had some water or some important here of that, okay, the idea here is, I'm poured up, I receive, and I do something good here, and I get juiced up, energized at church, and I give a little bit of good here, and of course the problem is, if this kind of analogy 1 is that we're constantly having to empty, and we're constantly trying to get filled up, and you kind of do this thing, this is kind of tiring, bad picture, all right, now here, it's piece of PVC pipe, but we're going to call it a conduit, okay, this is the image, and this is day brohards, and it's nasty, so you should not touch this, or wash your hands after you do, but day thanks for bringing it, I'll do appreciate it, and I can't look at all of you here, but I can see some of you, there's bread, all right, this is more the picture that God gives us, okay, and I can see all of you here as it goes through, but God says, you, he's designed us to be a conduit, he's designed for his power, his mercy, his grace to be poured into our lives, his kingdom to come in our hearts, and he's designed it for it to flow through us, but this is important, because we're going to, this is real important to church, okay, this is one picture of ministry, okay, come to church, all right, try to be good during the week, try to do something nice for somebody, come do this, of course you miss one week, and you know you're kind of getting dry there, and you've got to get back in, and it's this whole kind of picture thing, all right, we don't like that picture, all right, this is the picture we're looking for, this is what God's talking about, he wants to be your ambassador, second Corinthians tells us, he wants to be able to flow through our lives, he wants simply for us to be his vehicle that he brings us kingdom, he wants you to stay in daily fellowship with him, Sunday is great, come worship, come be energized, come be, come be encouraged, but don't leave on there other six days of the week, being his word, be spending time with him, be spending time with other Christians just so you can encourage one another, continue to keep yourself connected with him and let his life flow through you as a conduit, that's a very different kind of analogy, because you can fill up and you can dump out on Tuesday and think you're done, not with this analogy, you must stay plugged in to heaven, plugged in your relationship with God, and it will flow, you stay connected, and that's why it's on the back of your bolt and you see one of our values, I mean I want to, yeah, specific values on there, it's a conduit, it's not a real word, I just made it up, because I couldn't find the word I wanted, but that's the word, we understand that we are the way God is bringing this kingdom, and every day the things you touch in your life, you either leave the people around you, the things around you, a little bit more like heaven, are a little bit less like heaven, for you that are married, you have an opportunity, just like I do with my wife, you have an opportunity to come and bring the kingdom of God in that relationship on a daily basis, but if you got this kind of cup analogy, all right, well, I'm going to pour out a little bit here, sure it'd be nice if you kind of pour back into me a little bit, I'm waiting, you can see why that analogy gets screwed up, if you have children, and by the way, that's one of our values, we've said that's a value, because you know what, we prone not to make them a value, that children are important, you will have more impact either bring the kingdom of God or to not bring it on your children than anybody else in their life if you're their parents, but we are called to be investing in them, we are called to be touching their lives, that should make decisions for us, your kids need a parent who's bringing the kingdom of God in their life much more than they need a friend who's just trying to be a buddy with them, kids want parents and they want parents that are in touch with God bringing the kingdom in their hearts, last part of our value on that, we talk about glory, we want to get caught up in something that's glorious, and what God is all about is glorious,

yet you ever wonder why, you know, you keep looking, you got to go, you can't just go to like, say, I'll have football, you can't just go to like a super bowl, I'm like, oh I went, I'm done, I went to a super bowl, I don't need to go anymore, if I don't need to watch TV anymore, how can I get any better? Well next year comes around and you want to go again, don't you, at least I do, you're constantly wanting to get back into thinking, gosh, that was so glorious, especially your team one, to get back there to do it again, I just want to bask in the glory, you know, why is it that less to such a temptation? Why can you, why is it that you could have a attractive husband or why, but you could, you still keep looking, what is it about in us innate that continues to be attracted to what is beautiful, to be attracted to what we think is going to fill us up. Ultimately, yes, there's sin there, but we realize you don't understand this, that our desires, lust is the sinful meeting of those desires, the desires in themselves are not sinful, the desire to feel significant, the desire to be around beauty, there's nothing sinful about that, what can be sinful is where you're going, in the vehicle in which you go there, God wants, there's nothing more beautiful than God, there's nothing more satisfying than God. You see, God is all about glory, it is not about us trying to crave and suppress our desires, no, it's about let your desires drive you to where they're supposed to, they're supposed to drive you towards not a super bowl game, not a fantasy in a relationship, they're supposed to drive you to the one that is the most beautiful, the one that's the most glorious, the one that is the ruler and the king of all, they're supposed to lead you to God and don't let them be siphoned off into the things of this world, that's why the entertainment industry is booming, that's why imagination is such a big deal because it is a glimpse of heaven, package in the wrapping paper of the flesh or the world, but it's a glimpse of heaven and we know it, we know it, something is there is captivating, but it doesn't deliver, quit going there and go to him, by what that's part of the conduit, it's us coming to him, it's him flowing through us, it's this relationship, this will radically change us as a church if we understand this, if we live this way, if we understand that we are his vehicles to bring the kingdom here on earth, and I hope that it will, and in the weeks of hey we're going to be talking about ministry opportunities and things that opportunities that we'll have as a church to help bring the kingdom of God, but everything that you touch in your life, you are conduit, that's either tapped into him or conduit that's tapped into something else, something's flowing through your life, to every place you have influence, the question is what, the question is why,

and we can get our conduit in Christ, if we can get our focus on him, if we can be truly living each day as we received him, simply beggars coming to him from mercy and grace, that will transform your marriage, that will transform your depression, that will transform your growing dissatisfactions, but it takes that kind of life, let me just ask you, are you a receiver tonight? Have you received Jesus Christ? And if you haven't, I encourage you to do that, you can invite him to come and to be the Lord of your life, there's not a magic thing to say, but it is turning from your sin, placing your trust in Jesus Christ, and you're asking him to come and reign and be the Lord of your life, and trusting in his righteousness to get you to heaven, not your own, if they golem yours, take me, do whatever you want, something you need to receive Christ tonight. Secondly, some of you, let me ask you, are you living as a receiver? Are you doing the, all right, I'll get, and I'll get, I'll get, I'll give, instead of saying worship, my life is going to be worship to him, and let him flow through me, a very different picture. Are you a receiver tonight? Are you more of the cup, are you more of the conduit? Come on, let's speak conduits, that's what God's calling us to do. The conduit doesn't, the conduit doesn't get, actually this is a good day to give me a nasty one, the conduit doesn't get much attention, and why should it? What's so great about it? But if this carries what? A fiber optic wire that allows you to talk to a loved one, other side of the country, God, this can be a treasure, can it? There's nothing beautiful about us, no wonder reward with ourselves, but there's everything beautiful about Jesus. There's everything beautiful about His kingdom, so follow your pursuit of beauty, follow your desire for glory, follow it to Jesus Christ, follow it to His kingdom, and ask yourself those questions tonight, let's pray. Father, we're in need of your glory to be revealed to us, we're in need of understanding in a greater way who you are. God, we're, and it's great for us to be able to come to your table, to come in partake of the bread, to come partake of the wine and the juice in just a second, because we are coming, God, acknowledging our need for you, and acknowledging our desperate situation. God, we're coming, asking you to come and bring your kingdom into our hearts, bring it to this community through this church, and God, for those that are seeking you tonight, will you give them a grace to reply, to respond to you, to invite you into their lives, to call out to you, the one who left heaven that came to earth, who's the ultimate conduit, and live the life perfectly, the life we couldn't live.