Yesterday TGC was at the movies. While the Learners Class watched Veggie Tales on the big screen, we looked at the way Jesus described the Kingdom of God.
It can be so encouraging to remember that when our efforts for the Lord seem useless, He is ultimately doing things that might be hidden. It shouldn’t shake us. The Lord often works in secret.
CLICK HERE if you would like to listen to the message again.
Below are Pastor Walt’s sermon notes from yesterday.
MAIN POINT:: Don’t give up; nothing will be able to stop the full salvation of God in Jesus.
The kingdom has come.
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. Psalm 103:19
His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation, all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven. Daniel 4:34-35
“The kingdom, which has already begun with Jesus, does not come with a glorious bang and the defeat of Rome; rather, it comes unexpectedly, almost unnoticed.” Klyne Snodgrass
“One needs a special faith to risk trusting one’s whole life to something that lies hidden.” David Garland
2. The kingdom is growing.
“In his beginning the end is already implicit. No doubts with regard to his mission, no scorn, no lack of faith, no impatience, can make Jesus waver in his certainty that out of nothing, ignoring all failure, God is carrying on his beginnings to completion. All that is necessary is to take God seriously, to take him into account in spite of all outward appearance.” Joachim Jeremias
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. Acts 17:24-25
3. The kingdom will come in full.
Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. . . . The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel. Joel 3:13-14,16
"Why has this life had such a remarkable influence? . . . The answer is that Brainerd’s life is a vivid, powerful testimony to the truth that God can and does use weak, sick, discouraged, beat-down, lonely, struggling saints who cry to him day and night to accomplish amazing things for his glory.” John Piper
“When I really enjoy God, I feel my desires of him the more insatiable, and my thirstings after holiness the more unquenchable. . . . Oh, for holiness! Oh, for more of God in my soul! Oh, this pleasing pain! It makes my soul press after God. . . . Oh, that I may feel this continual hunger . . . to reach forward in the narrow way, for the full enjoyment and possession of the heavenly inheritance. Oh, that I might never loiter on my heavenly journey!” David Brainerd