A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken—Even When You Want to Quit

Why don't you get out your Bibles? Hold it in the air if you brought it today. On the count of three, I want us all to shout word. Ready? 1 2 3. Word. We're going to get into the word that the word would get into us. We're in a life-changing series called Kingdom. Someone shout kingdom. Kingdom here and now. Not someday, not one day. We are believing God's best. It was the writer of Hebrews that says in chapter 12 starting with verse 28 and 29 he says therefore let us that's all of us right here. Let us be grateful. Someone shout grateful. Grateful. This is what God wants for his people. Not a bunch of Debbie Downers. We don't need any more creins in the church. We just need some grateful people. Come on someone. Let us be grateful. Here's why

we should be grateful. for receiving a kingdom. For receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. This kingdom cannot be shaken. No matter what evil comes its way, no matter what the world looks like, the world will shift like the tides of the ocean. But this kingdom cannot be shaken. So we are grateful that no matter what we face, we have a God that's greater. And thus, therefore, since we're grateful for a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. This is the renewal of what we need in the heart of the church is to see God accurately and be in awe that when we

come before God, we are in awe of worship. That no matter what's happening in the world, this is a kingdom that's going to endure forever. For our God, verse 29 says, for our God is a consuming fire. Come on. Do you want that fire to burn in your hearts? You've got to invite the Holy Spirit, the all-consuming fire, so that you can understand what is of God's kingdom and what is not. God has created a kingdom, yet it has been wrecked by sin. You want to know what the kingdom looks like without sin? Go read Genesis chapter 1 and 2 and then fast forward to the end of the Bible and read Revelation 21 and 22. God designed and destined us to experience kingdom perfection goodness that there would be no problems, there'd

be no pain. But by Genesis chapter 3, that's in the first book of the Bible. By the third chapter, it was mankind that rebelled against God and wrecked God's perfect plan. But God did not give up on us. This is a kingdom that cannot be shaken. So Jesus, God himself, stepped into our story to write that which is wrong. To show us what the kingdom would look like here on earth as it is in heaven. We're looking at the core message of Jesus. We see in Matthew chapter 3, it was started by a man to prepare the way. His name was John. And he preached a simple message. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew chapter 3, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now, John didn't just preach this message. He

baptized people in into a new ushering of an era of the kingdom that is now here. Now, John the Baptist was arrested. That didn't stop the message. We read in Matthew chapter 4, from that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." What does that mean, the kingdom of heaven is at hand? Well, in the NLT it says the kingdom of heaven is near. In the Philips translation to better understand the the the English from the original Greek, it literally means the kingdom of heaven has arrived. The kingdom of heaven has arrived and his name is Jesus. The kingdom is the reality of God's perfect way. The kingdom means the king has a way. And Jesus declared himself in John 14:6. I am the way. So the kingdom is simply

surrendering your life to the king and his way. Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:10, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." How many of you memorize the Lord's Prayer as a child? Maybe Catholic school, Sunday school, somewhere in your life. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be. That's a lot of hands. Keep your hands up for a second. You You learn to You memorize that. That's amazing. What's amazing about that is we learn these words, but we don't learn the meaning. We learn how to recite this, but we don't learn how to live this. What does it actually mean God's kingdom to come? Jesus didn't want us just to memorize these words. He didn't want you just to to say them at some school or to say them to some teacher. He wants you to

understand this. 1 Corinthians 4:20 says, "For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power." So, here's what we know. God did not want us just to memorize these words. That's not the kingdom. The kingdom is not saying the right words at just the right time. The kingdom is experiencing the power of God in every moment of our lives. That's the kingdom. The kingdom is not hoping I hope I get this right and if I say these right words then God's going to answer this prayer in the right way. No, the kingdom is all about the king and his way. Today I want to talk about what that means for the kingdom to come in your life. Because there is a time and maybe some of you are in this time right now in this moment that you will want to quit.

That you will want to give up. That you will want to throw up your hands in some place in some area of your life and just say enough is enough. I'm done. You might want to give up right now. It doesn't take much to throw up your hands and say I don't think I have the strength. I don't think I have the the the knowledge. I don't think I have the grit. I'm not sure I can keep going. And I'm talking about in any area of your life, emotionally, relationally, spiritually. There's going to come a point where you just say enough is enough. I'm at war with whatever's going on in my mind with other people. We have wars all over the world right now. You got the war of cancer, the war of debt, the war of of bitterness, or whatever

that is. And if you don't know how to fight the fight, you will be overwhelmed. And you cannot win a war that you don't understand. And I want you to know this. Jesus absolutely loves quitters. The moment you throw up your hands and surrender and say, "I can't do it." Jesus made a promise in John 16:33. He said, "I have said these things to you." Point to your neighbor and say, "This is for you." Jesus said, "I have said these things to you that in me," Jesus says, you may have peace. Can we just start with the goodness of God today? He wants you to have peace.

Our God does not want you to live in chaos. Our God does not want you to live in uncertainty. Jesus, God in the flesh says, "I want you to have peace." That the place you find peace, according to the book of Isaiah, God would send forth someone where the government would be on his shoulders and he would be called the prince of peace. That you would not find your hope in a politician. You would not find your hope in a in a governmental system, but you would find your hope in someone that he would say something and you would hold fast to who he is. And Jesus says, "I am he that if you would just receive it in me, you may have peace." Now, is this a peace that everything will be comfortable and totally cool?

Well, Jesus said, "Let me just clarify. In the world, just check your heartbeat. You still breathing? You still alive?" In the world, you will have tribulation. Jesus didn't say you might. Jesus didn't say the bad people will. He says, "As long as you're breathing, you will have tribulation." But that's not the gospel. Here's the good news. Jesus says, "But take heart." That phrase, "Take heart," literally means, "Have courage." I know you should have fear. I know there's something to be afraid of. But Jesus says, "If you have me, you have peace." So take heart. You're not going to freak out. You're not going to quit. You're not going to give in. Not because of who you are, but he says, "I have overcome the world."

He's proven it to us. God stepped into our story. God is completely man, completely God. And he shows us what he's able to do. He died on the cross for every single one of your sins. So you would not be defined by sin. He died on the cross. He was he was buried in a tomb. And on the third day, he rose from the grave by the power of God himself, the Holy Spirit. That by believing in Jesus, you receive that same power, the Holy Spirit. He overcame the devil. He overcame death. He overcame sin. He proved to us that no matter what you're facing, he's even greater. So therefore, whatever tribulation you find yourself in, and you can call it what you will, trial, trouble, I don't

know what that tribulation is for you, it's some turmoil in your life. It might be a divorce. It might be bankruptcy. It might be some health crisis. It might be some something stirring in your soul. It might be depression. It might be uncertainty of the future. Whatever that turmoil, that tribulation is, our God turns it into triumph. That by trusting in him, he takes your worst and it becomes your worship. You surrender it to him. The Lord will use what you thought defined you and he gives you a whole new destiny. He shows you that when it looks like it's over and you're brought low, you're buried in that tomb, he lifts you up for he is the resurrection and the life.

You see, the kingdom is all about God taking quitters and turning them into more than conquerors. The kingdom is all about if you're breathing, God's not finished with you. The kingdom is all about you surrendering your story to the one that rewrites your story. Now to clarify God's kingdom come in your life. The kingdom is not the absence of suffering. Rather you will see suffering as the passageway to the kingdom. Let me share with you a really practical story. It's a true story. It's in the book of Acts. The very guy that was against the church would end up starting so many churches they would change the world. The guy that tried to stop Christians became a Christian. The guy that tried to hold back the way ends up giving his life for the way. His name is Paul and he's preaching about

Jesus. He just loved to preach about the gospel and he was going from place to place preaching about Jesus. But don't you know the devil hates it when you share that I used to be a quitter but now I'm more than a conqueror. As you get to point people to who Jesus is. I used to be a sinner but now I'm a saint. So here's what happens. The enemy tries to divide. He tries to use gossip and slander. He tries to bring division. And Acts chapter 14, starting with verse 19, we read, "But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium." You know that God's doing a good work when people travel from other cities only to do this. Having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. So these Jews were so upset at Paul pointing people to Jesus, they traveled and they they went around the crowds and and they perverted the truth.

They twisted the truth. They they didn't tell the whole truth. And people began to pick up rocks and they all came to Paul and they they threw these rocks at him and tell it looked like he was dead. It looked like his his chest was no longer going up and down and they left him for dead. Now take a time out in this story if you're new to the scriptures. The Bible's filled with different books. This book is the book of Acts. If you go to the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, Paul tells this epic story of someone who had a near-death experience. You ever heard of a near-death experience? It's when you die, you experience heaven, but you come back. And studies have shown that near-death experiences are similar. There's a light that cannot be explained. There's a love than any love that you've ever experienced here on earth. And you just want to stay where you were, but somehow you got back here in this place.

And Paul says, "I know a guy that experienced that." And he's many, many people say that that was Paul speaking of himself. And he's left for dead for preaching about Jesus. Now, I want to warn you, if you preach about Jesus, your life's not always going to be comfortable. Some people are want going to want to throw rocks at you. Some people are going to want to leave you for dead. But when the disciples, it says in Acts 14:20, when the disciples gathered about Paul, he rose up, entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derby. So he left this city and he went with his buddy Barnabas, which is a nickname, which means son of encouragement. And they decided to go hang out in Derby. We don't know how many days, how many weeks or months this was, but when they had preached the

gospel, verse 21, this is what I love about Paul. He's not a quitter. Now he's got the kingdom in his heart. The very message that almost got him killed is the very message that now is fueling his life. It's fanning the flame of his faith. You thought you killed me. Let me tell you, as long as I'm breathing, I'm going to point you to the person Jesus. So the very thing that stopped you might actually be the very thing that is your fuel to get you going. So you thought that was going to hold you back, but now you get to use that as a testimony to what your God is doing in your life. So he preached the gospel. Gospel means what? Shout it out. So he preached the good news of Jesus to that city. And here's what happens when the Holy Spirit grips heart.

There had been many disciples made and had many disciples made. That's what it means to follow Jesus. You become a student of Jesus. You follow Jesus and they return. Get this. To the very place he was stoned and and left for dead and the place where those who came to turn on Paul, they returned to Lystra and Iconium and to Antioch to the very place where the people lived that threw rocks to kill him. What did he do in this place? Did he preach hate? That did he preach justice and vengeance? that he comes to this place and verse 22 tells us strengthening the souls of the disciples. I can only imagine his shoulders back and his chin up saying hey your neighbors are the ones that tried to kill me.

Those are the people that Jesus loves. Those are the people he died for. Those are the people we're praying for. Those those are the people that that define to us why we do what we do. They need the good news. encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying this that through many tribulations. Another translation says through many sufferings we must enter the kingdom of God. Ain't nobody shouting amen to that one. Through many tribulations, through your sufferings, so many of us, here's the natural state of the soul. This would be the flesh. This is without God's help. When you suffer and go through tribulations, do you know what the human soul says? We turn our attention towards heaven and we throw up

our hands, metaphorically speaking, and we ask one question. Why? Why would you let me suffer? Why would you let me go through the tribulation? Why would you let me do this? And God's word says actually, it's to strip down this world so that you would see you're actually made for another world. So that you would actually trust God. that you would actually have the opportunity not to give up on God in your tribulations, but that God would be God in your tribulations. If times are comfortable, you usually become your own king. But when you need a new way and you're desperate and you're lonely and you're in the the muck of the miry clay, that's when God lifts you up. That's when he becomes a great God. That's when he becomes, as the psalmist says, a refuge in a time of need. That's when you start to see the metaphoric picture of a God who's eternal where he puts his wing

over you at just the right time. You You have two choices in adversity. Your way or God's way. And your choice looks something like this. I'm going to try to determine the outcome in this adversity. The way I think the outcome should be. How many of y'all know the best outcome in adversity? It's usually comfort and winning the lottery. Something like that. Okay. Hey Lord, let me tell you my plan. You just go ahead and bless this. That's it's my choice. Or the second choice is you surrender it to God. And I want to warn you with the second choice. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It's a conviction of that which you can't see. And the problem with God is God's ways are usually different than your ways. So the outcome will be far different than

your fantasy of what you thought it would be because God will actually take you through suffering and show you that he's still God in the midst of suffering. Are you still there? So it's important to you to ask in your heart, [snorts] who am I trusting in myself, other people, or in Jesus? So who who am I listening to? Am I listening to my friends? Am I listening to myself? Am I listening to the media? Who who am I listening to? We often want to pray away suffering. But maybe we can actually find the kingdom, his kingdom to come in our lives through the suffering. Let's go a little further. This guy Paul that I was just telling you about where he gets hit with rocks. They think he's dead. He comes back. God just loves the underdog

story. Come on, somebody. So, if you've ever been left for dead or you felt like it was over to look like it was over, that's usually the place that God's just getting started. In Romans chapter 5, the this guy Paul, he explains this a little further theologically speaking. And he says this regarding Jesus working in our lives. Romans 5:2, through him, that's Jesus. Through him, we've also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So in Jesus, not only do you get the forgiveness of your sins, now you get to stand in grace. Come on, grace is so good. And not only that, you have the hope of glory. Meaning, you don't live for this world. It's not your home. It's not your final destination. You're living for something greater. He continues in verse three, and it sounds a little silly unless you

have the Holy Ghost. Not only that, not only do we have faith, grace, and hope. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. Now, if you just stop right there, that's not exactly a tattoo everyone gets. We rejoice in our sufferings. right here on your chest. We rejoice in our suffering. That's what we do. We celebrate when we suffer. That sounds so morbid. What kind of faith is this that we rejoice in our sufferings? Well, the only reason you rejoice in your sufferings is because you put your faith in a God that's greater than what you're going through. He doesn't stop in sufferings. Nothing you've been through is wasted. Nothing. Nothing. I'm talking about the abuse that was done to you. I'm talking about that major mistake that you should have never made. That's also called sin.

Nothing in your life is wasted with God. So if you've suffered because someone did something you or you did something really dumb, we can rejoice in this knowing this that suffering actually if we trust God through this produces endurance. I'm just getting stronger. If I'm not dead, I'm not done. So we rejoice in our suffering because suffering produces endurance. God doesn't stop with just getting stronger. Endurance produces character. Now I know it's not even about me. God is shaping my character. I'm being mature now in my faith. And it doesn't just stop with rejoicing and suffering. Suffering produces endurance. And endurance produces character. But character produces hope. Now I really know what life is worth living for. Do you know that when you die, you're taking nothing with you?

No vacation with you, no truck with you, no house with you, no bank account, not even your stock market portfolio. If you don't have hope, you don't have anything. But in Jesus, you get everything. Because even if you lose everything, having Jesus is more than enough because hope, verse 5 says, does not put us to shame because no matter what, God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Here's what happens as you mature in your faith. you see that God was actually with you the whole time. When you thought he was absent, he was actually holding your hand. When you wondered where he was, when you wondered why God did it, when you mature in your faith, you actually start to see you're not defined by other people. Your identity is in who God is and who you are in him. So, it changes every God's

love starts getting poured into your life. Do you know what I'm saying? This is when you really love Jesus and you suffer. His love becomes even greater, not less. His love is poured into your life. Now, this is the kingdom is not having life figured out. Can we just eradicate those lies today? That kingdom sounds so spiritual. I don't understand that language. I don't know the Bible that well. The kingdom is not having it figured out. God does not look at anybody and say, "Finally, someone had it figured out. I'm so grateful that someone memorized this prayer. They got all the words correct. Okay, I'll bless you for that. No, God doesn't love you because you have the right credentials or because you have a degree. He wants the kingdom to be real in your heart, in your life. So, if he's real in your life, you let him be the king.

You don't have it figured out, but you're going to trust him no matter what. He He's not looking for you to live a life that looks cleaned up, that looks comfortable, that looks cute. I have found as a pastor that those are the lives that are most messed up. You just go ahead and put your judgment glasses on, go through Instagram, they look cute and figured out, comfortable. They're miserable. They haven't yet figured out to rejoice in their sufferings at some place deep in your heart. And I'm I'm being facitious and hyperbole here. Someone's going to take this out of context and then write me an email and then tell somebody else. That pastor judges everybody. So, here we go. That was just hyperbole. It was exaggeration to simply say this. We're all messed up. We all need King Jesus. And God's measurement of success is not how good you are. The Bible says that your best deeds, your righteousness are like

filthy rags compared to God. So, he's not looking for you just to be a better person. He's looking for you to be a new person, a new creation. So, kingdom is simply saying, I'm not going to keep trying harder. I'm going to keep trusting harder. I'm not going to keep living by the natural eyes. I want kingdom eyes. I want to align my heart with God's life. Paul put it this way and I just this is the best way we could put it. Paul says this, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives, but it is Christ who lives in me." So the life I now live in the flesh, as long as I'm here on earth, you're going to hear about Jesus. I live by the faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. This is kingdom. kingdom died on the cross. So when I believe in Jesus, I have that kingdom in me. Do you get this? The king is in me.

Christ in me. And if I have the king in me, I know whose I am because I'm a child of the king. So I'm born again. And I just want the world to know it's not about me. It's all about Jesus. The kingdom is about Christ. It's not about me. I release authority of my life. I give him authority. So now I want to walk in it. I allow the king to define me. Now this is where it gets real. Well, here's where kingdoms come in our life. You've had trauma in your life. That trauma can become a prison because you have real issues in your mind that you need healing. Jesus says, "I've come to bind up the brokenhearted." Some of you, your prison is not trauma.

It's your failures because you have messed up. You did drop out. You did quit. You did get divorced. You did fill in the blank. This is your failure and now it defined you and you're stuck in this prison that you just want to get out of. Maybe it's an addiction. You don't want to do it, but you keep coming back to this prison. Or the wisdom of Proverbs says this. It's like a a dog returning to his vomit. You know it's bad, but you just keep coming back to this. I don't know what your prison is, but I do know this. Jesus sets us free from our prisons. When Jesus went to the synagogue, which is like a Jewish church, in Luke 4, he he asked for the scriptures and he he took out the book of Isaiah out of the scroll and he opened it up and he came to a spot. And in Luke 4:18, he read from Isaiah, which is this scripture.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. When he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, he simply said to everyone, "This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing," meaning the kingdom has come. You don't have to stay in that prison any longer. The anointing of God is here and his name is Jesus. The kingdom has come and is the king's name is Jesus. This is a kingdom that sets you free. This is the year of the Lord's favor, my friend. You can be set free from whatever is holding you back.

You no longer have to be captive by whatever curse has been brought against you, whatever place you feel stuck in your life. This is a kingdom of power. This is a kingdom of love. This is a kingdom of liberty. This is a kingdom of good news. Not for the rich, not for the religious, but for the poor. You've got to receive this. Now, when Jesus talked about the church, he's the one that introduced the idea of the church. And he says, "I will build my church." He says, "I will build the church." In Matthew chapter 16, verse 18, and he says, "And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Meaning the gates that seem locked up, the the prison walls that seem to lock you up, they will not prevail against Jesus and his church. Matthew 16:1 19 says, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom, and

whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Do you hear this? He unlocks you from your past. He unlocks you from your trauma. He unlocks you from your sin. He unlocks you from those strongholds. He sets you free. But the devil is a liar. The book of Revelation tells us he accuses day and night. He wants you go you to go back to prison. He wants you to listen to those lies of who you used to be. He wants you to go back to the family you were born into. But the Bible says you're a royal priesthood. You are a chosen nation. You are not royal because of the earthly family you were born into. You are not a priesthood because of your good, righteous deeds. You are not a chosen nation because we live as citizens of this country we live in. Oh no. He chose you. He adopted you. He did what needed to be done to restore you,

to redeem you, so that you would be resurrected. I will tell you, you're a royal priesthood because of who he is. So when the devil tells you a lie and says, "This is who you are," and you get trapped back in that prison. Remember, he's given you the keys. He's given you the keys. That is no longer who you are. The kingdom is not the old you. It's Jesus in you. It's not who I was. It's who I am because of Jesus. Anytime the devil comes back with some lie saying, "Go back to where you belong." You declare, "I'm not heading back to that prison." Jesus has set the captives free. In the book of Romans 12, Paul

begs the church this in Romans 12:1. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, because God's forgiven you, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Sacrifice is complete surrender. You can't give some of who you are. Your greatest worship is saying, "God, you get everything. My mind, my heart, everything. My finances, my dreams, my failures, my past, my present, my future, it's all yours." That's worship. Now, how do you live that worship? Look at verse two. Do not be conformed to this world. There's the secret sauce to the kingdom. You want God's kingdom to come, quit living like the world. Quit talking like the world. Quit getting counsel from the world. Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world,

but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect. Come on, someone. You can test what God's will is. So many are wondering, "What does God want for my life?" God's will is not, "Am I going to marry the right person or go to the right school or live in the right house." God's will is for you to worship. He wants to heal you. He wants to bless you. He wants to provide for you, but it's going to start by you surrendering your all and Jesus handing you the keys. That's a pretty big deal. I've got three teenagers. Y'all could pray for Pastor Keith and Carol. When you hand the keys over to a car, you're simply trusting them.

I can't come with you everywhere. I can't follow with you in the car everywhere. At some point, I'm going to trust you. Now, if they make a mistake, everybody makes a mistake at some point. Anybody ever backed into somebody after someone yelled, "Don't back into them." There's no judgment, wife. All right. I'm [laughter] just saying. No, I'm just saying everybody's done it. Who's crashed a car before? Come on. Everybody's crashed a car. She was only 16. Okay. I was just At some point, when a parent surrenders the keys, they simply say, "I'm still going to love you no matter what." A bad parent's going to beat you down for making a mistake. A good parent's going to say, "I've done it, too. I've went there for you." Jesus did what needed to be done so that you would not be defined by the prison

that you're in right now. He's given you the keys. I want to leave you with this and the the the worship team can come up as we close with this. Jesus when he preached probably the most famous sermons ever been preached. So many call it the sermon on the mount. I think it needs a better title than that. But he preached this great sermon. Matthew chapter 5 6 and 7. Matthew 56 and 7. He starts off the whole sermon. This is his opening line. He says, "Blessed are." Now, everybody deep down inside wants to be blessed. It means a rich, deep happiness. Jesus said, "Blessed are." Everybody's on the the the edge of their seat. What is the blessing, Jesus? Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. But Jesus gives a promise and a reward to the poor in spirit. He says, "For theirs," this is emphatic, present tense, "is the kingdom of heaven." Now, if you don't understand what pouring spirit means, here's what it means. You empty your heart so you could be filled by the Holy Spirit. So, less of you, more of Jesus. Less of your kingdom where you're the king, a surrender to the king. That's why yours is the kingdom. Now, if you really want the blessings of God, it starts by emptying yourself, being bankrupt in your heart. It's a poverty of spirit. Blessing comes with that. Not loneliness, depression, frustration. This is this is the liberty of religion off of you. It's all about Jesus. It's relationship. So when you're empty in your spirit, God says, "Okay,

now we're at a good starting point. I'm going to become the king of your life." Now, there's eight biatitudes. Biatitudes means the blessings. There are eight blessings Jesus mentions. The eighth one is this. It's not like he builds up and it gets easier. The more you mature in your faith, faith and you see what blessing is. Jesus says this, blessed are Matthew 5:10, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus says, when you suffer for even doing the right things, God doesn't take away the kingdom. It becomes more real. When you suffer and you're seeking Jesus, you're going to experience the kingdom and a fresh new anointing. Jesus goes on to say, "Blessed are you when others revile you, persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account?"

So, what should you do? Behave like them? Try to get back at them? Well, this is what he says in verse 12. Nope. You're a worshipper. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. My friends, here's the application to your life. It's a surrender no matter what. God's kingdom can come in your life no matter what you're going through. Now, why do we talk so much about suffering? Because at some point, you're going to go through some tribulation and you're going to be tried and in some sense it will be a test and it's an opportunity for you to trust the king. Now, if you've ever messed up miserably, maybe you've been angry at God, or you blamed God, or you've ever made the mistake of trying to do your own thing over and over and

over and over again, we've got such a good God of grace. He's a God of forgiveness. He just keeps giving it. I mean, he forgave his closest friends. Peter denied him not once, not twice, but three times. Jesus loved him, liberates him, sends him off to be a great preacher. You know, he could preach with conviction because he knows what it's like to be a failure. He was set free from that prison. Today, I want to give you an opportunity right now if you want to trust in Jesus. Today is your day of [music] salvation. You don't have to wait for another day or a better day. Jesus doesn't say, "Go get your life right first, then you follow me." Doesn't work like that with the gospel. The good news is wherever you are, no matter how young you are, no matter how old you are. Does not matter what your relationship status is or where you've

been, God's not looking at your bank account. He's looking at your heart right now. I want to know, do you want to surrender your life to Jesus? You close your eyes right where you are. And I'm just going to ask you, this is personal between you and God, but I want to know who's making that decision today. Do you want to make that decision to follow Jesus? Would you just raise your hand nice and high? Say, "Yeah, that's me. [music] I want to I want to follow Jesus. Praise God. If you got your hand up, you keep it up and I want you to look up at me. Just those with their hands raised. I want to say, "Praise [music] God. So proud of you." Yes. Praise God. Praise God. There's going to be a shift in your life. Joy like you've never had before. And you're going to bring joy to others. I can see it. Anyone else? Praise God. Over here. Yes, I see you.

Praise God. Anyone else today? You're saying, "I trust Jesus." Yes. Praise God. It's the best decision you could ever make. It's not going to be easy, but you'll be stronger. You'll be better. And you'll change other people's lives as well. This is real hope. This is worth living for. Anyone else here today? Just want to make sure not to rush this or miss this moment. All over the place, destiny has been changed. What the enemy intended for evil, God is going to use for good in your life. What you questioned, why God allowed, God's actually going to use it in your life tremendously. You're going to help other people. You're going to point other people to Jesus. But it's got to be real from your heart. A preacher can't save

you. A prayer can't even save you. Only Jesus can. So, we're going to talk to Jesus right now. I'm going to say some phrases out loud. And this is prayer. It's listening to God. It's talking to God. It doesn't start and stop. Prayer is now your life with God's. It's communion with God. So, if you raised your hand today, would you pray this [music] with me? And anyone who's ever believed in Jesus before, can we do it with those doing it for the first time today? Say, "Lord Jesus, Jesus, I believe in you. I trust you. Forgive me of my sins. Be my savior. Be my Lord. Be my King. Thank you for salvation. Thank you for the Holy Spirit.

I receive the power today in Jesus name. Amen. And amen.