Kingdom under God's reign. You'll see that on the posters as you walk in the room. Sister Fatima Terry, she is an artist. I told her what Brother Tim and I wanted to do with this class, Kingdoms of the Bible, and she designed this. She designed that for us.
So you'll see that when you come into the class. This notion that God is trying to talk to us through kingdom language about who he is. But the challenge that we have as American citizens is that we don't live in a kingdom.
So when you talk to us about a king, what do we do with that? Do you really know how to bow to a king when you've never bowed to a king? We've never bowed to a king, and we're proud of it.
But we read the Bible and it's laden with kingdom language. But we don't know how to bow down because that's not our daily experience. It's about freedom here. But that's not what the Bible, as his children tell us, is where we ought to be. So we first got to get a better understanding.
And I want to help you really grasp These concepts of kingdom. I will ask, we're going to look at a lot of scripture in this class. So, and read with me, turn to the scriptures that Brother McCleskey and I share with you. You might be a little later. Brother McCleskey is out of town with his family.
We will be teaching this class together. There will be times when I'm out of town and he'll lead the class. For example, next weekend, my wife's mother's birthday is next weekend, so all the family is going there to celebrate her birthday.
Brother Tim will be teaching the class. Today's class and next Sunday's class is Brother Tim and I sharing with you our expectations for the class. I'm sharing with you my expectations for the class, my expectations from you as participants in the class. And Brother McCleskey will share that with you next Sunday as well.
And then, as I also shared with those who were here earlier, we have candidates who will be coming through over the last couple months. We have had our search committee go through over 30 applicants. and they've done a phenomenal job.
Sister Jones is a part of that committee and they, Sister Cherry, Part of the committee as well. They've done a phenomenal job narrowed it down to four candidates and we're going to have those candidates come and preach to us over the next couple of months when they do that all of our Sunday school classes will meet in the main auditorium because we've asked these brothers to teach a Sunday school class for us. Okay, with everyone in the Sunday school class and then I preached a lesson that Sunday morning and Sunday evening. So when we do that, our Sunday school classes will go to the auditorium. So there'll be at least four occasions where this class won't meet and everybody will be in the auditorium.
Psalm chapter 19, verse 1 through 4. The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech.
Night after night, they reveal knowledge. without speech or language, without a sound to be heard, their voice has gone out into all the earth, the words to the ends of the world. This picture that you see here comes from the James Webb telescope.
When David wrote these words, and men of old, all they could see was what they saw when they tilted their heads and looked up in the sky, and they saw the stars. That's all they could see. And just with seeing that, he said, the heavens declare the glory of God and the stars proclaim the work of his hands. And now we've got telescopes that are out there that are showing us images that man has never seen before.
And I challenge you to Google the James Webb telescope and look at some of the images that are coming back that we can see now. And this is just one image from that telescope. And they said that this nebula is where stars...
And when we think about kingdom in terms that we understand, what I don't want you to do is limit that when we say the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, limit it to our kingdom term. When we say kingdom, we are talking about God's realm. And God's realm is way... God's kingdom is way out there. We live in the Milky Way galaxy, and they say that there are two trillion galaxies.
For what we know. For what we know. For the... Our ability to get this kind of image is like David looking up in the sky and seeing the stars.
We think there's two trillion galaxies out there. What if it's five trillion galaxies out there? What if it's a hundred trillion galaxies out there? We don't know how vast and wide and broad God is. We cannot get our minds around it.
And in this class, Brother McClaskey and I will not be able to answer all of your questions about the kingdom. There are just some things we will not know until we get to the other side. And y'all will have to be okay with that. You're just going to have to be okay with that.
Because my mind, it's hard for me to teach that. I'm limited. Brother Thomas, teach us about the kingdom of God.
Okay. First of all, expand your definition of kingdom. Kingdom is two trillion galaxies out there. Let's not limit our definition of God based on what we know and understand. Are you okay with that?
God is out there. God is out there. We're like a province.
I said we're like a province. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And I'm going to piggyback on that down the road because what God did is that's his realm, that's his realm.
But when he created earth and man, he extended his realm. He extended his territory because he wanted to. And he gave man dominion over this part of his realm, his province, his territory. Why?
Because he wanted to. Because he wanted to. He wanted to expand his territory.
The man right there, in the garden, in the garden, because he wanted to. It got disrupted. It got disrupted.
And so now the plan is to use kings and kingdoms and show you how he's going to fix that disruption that happened in the garden. Psalm 24, verses 7 through 10. Lift your heads, you gates, be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Now, when this was written and you say that the King of glory may come in, you say king to us.
How do you interpret that? I got a president. I got a president. I don't have a king.
I deal with a president. But this is kingdom language. God's trying to help us understand kingdom. that realm out there that he has created.
So he's got to use language that maybe humanity understands. David said, "Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, you gates, lift them up, you ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in. Who is he? This king of glory, the Lord Almighty, he is the king of glory. So we begin to see kingdom language in the Bible that we can read to help us understand who God is. But if we don't have a kingdom experience on a daily basis, I think it may be a challenge for us. At least it's a challenge. It had been a challenge for me. it had been a challenge for me and when i lived abroad and experienced some expat situations where i'm not a citizen of brazil okay i'm a citizen of the united states i got a passport to prove that i'm a citizen of the united states so if the brazilians pull me over and say, "Do you live here? " Pull out my passport and say, "No, I'm a citizen of the United States of America. Here's my passport.
I'm a foreigner here. This is not my homeland." Right? But if I got to the embassy, I had all the rights and privileges of, and that was like U.S. soil. So it got me thinking in a different way. I said, "Wow, my In-Well and Holy Spirit is like my passport." And we sing this song. This world is not my home. I'm what? I'm just passing through. My treasures are laid up where? Somewhere behind the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door. And what? I didn't feel at home in this world anymore. Because I ain't from here. I'm a citizen of heaven. What does it say in Philippians 3? Chapter 3, verse 20. Our citizenship is where? In heaven. And we await for a savior from there, our Lord Jesus Christ. So what do you do with your citizenship? Well, you got two feet down here on the ground dealing with the politics that we have to deal with here on the earth. So we're going to talk about all of that, but you got to have the right kingdom mindset. Going in. Okay? So, you know the Genesis story. Okay? God, because he wanted to, created the earth and everything in it. Raised man and woman here. And he was satisfied with that. And that extension of his realm from those two trillion galaxies out there was disrupted. By Satan. Okay? And in some way, like I said to you before, here in this country, we declared our independence from King George III. We put a stake in the ground. We established our constitution and everything we live by based on our freedom and independence. Satan declared his independence. He came into the garden and disrupted God's realm. And God said, okay, you did that. And I'm going to put enmity between you and the woman. There's going to be conflict between the forces of evil. It's going to be a problem. And I'm going to put enmity between the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. This is the first prophecy that foretells Jesus' coming. Through a woman, okay, Mary. Jesus referred to himself as both the son of God and what? The son of man. So God's got to come to the earth through the woman as the son of man because God cannot violate his own word. God gave man dominion. Mm-hmm. over this earth. I gave y'all dominion, okay? I created you, but I gave you dominion. So if I'm going to change this situation, I got to come to earth through man in the vessel of a human body to fix this disruption that Satan did. And Satan, you use the woman to do that. I'm going to come through the room and use the woman. And yes, yes, you may strike his heel. He's going to be crucified. Okay. He's going to be crucified, but he's also going to be victorious over death and he's going to crush your head. So this is the prophecy, first prophecy about Jesus. But how is he going to do it? What's God's plan to fulfill this prophecy? And what you'll see over the next couple of quarters is that he uses kings and kingdoms to fulfill this prophecy. The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, "I swear by myself," declares the Lord, "that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. And as the sand on the seashore, your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me second Samuel chapter 7 verse 12 to 16 about David and his throne Solomon and then Jesus eternal kingdom when your days are over and you rest with your ancestors I will raise up your offspring to succeed you in Your own flesh and blood, I will establish his kingdom. It's his kingdom language. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne and his kingdom forever.
I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever. Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6 and 7. And I love this scripture. Because it foretells of Jesus and his kingdom and his authority. And we live here in the United States.
We don't have a daily kingdom experience, but we've got to wrap our minds around what God is telling us. And we've got to see a kingdom is a government. That's what a kingdom is.
Okay? The kingdom is a form of government. So when God's word says, for us, a child is born.
To us, a son is given. And the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne. and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
You've got to have a clear understanding of the kingdom concept. to grasp what God is trying to say to us and his plan of salvation for humanity using kings and kingdoms and fulfilling that prophecy of Jesus Christ. There's a reason he came during the time that he did because people would understand the kingdom language that he was using.
Brother Johnson, I'm going to be challenged. I'm going to be challenged too to keep my mouth quiet. I'm going to be challenged in this class because I'm going to run out of time every class period. And we've got so much to cover. Okay.
But this is just a little taste of where we're going. And let me share something with you. When I was sitting on the plane with Brother McCleskey in 2019 on our way to Guadalupe, and we were having, I call it kingdom conversations. So if you're around me for any period of time and we get together, Brother Barry and I, we play golf together. We're riding on a golf cart.
We have kingdom conversation. There we hit the little white ball. Amen.
Try to put it in the hole. But we also have kingdom conversation. And Brother McCleskey and I were having kingdom conversation.
We were talking about the characteristics of a kingdom just to try to better understand it because we don't have that kingdom daily experience. So what are the characteristics of the kingdom? There are four characteristics of the kingdom.
And we look at the kingdoms of the world and what they're doing right now. You have some teams and some queens. But a kingdom has a king, right?
A kingdom has citizens. And we already referenced Philippians chapter 3 verse 20, right? So a kingdom has citizens.
A kingdom also has a territory. And a kingdom has laws. You might say there's a fifth characteristic. Most kingdoms mobilize those citizens into a force, an army or whatever, to expand their territory.
But those are the characteristics of the kingdom. So I'm reading, I'm talking to Brother McCleskey, and I'm reading the Great Commission. And I said, Brother McCleskey, the characteristics of the kingdom are right here in the Great Commission, but unless you have a kingdom mindset, you're missing anything.
So most of the time when we're talking about the Great Commission, everybody's turning to Matthew chapter 28, verses 19 and 20. And I know you know it because you Bible students. Thank you, Sister Thomas. She's my clock.
I want you to think about this until our next class. Brother Plessy will be here next week. if anybody asks you what's the great commission most of the time we start with verse 19 therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo I will be with you always to the end of the earth that's where we normally start we need to start with verse 18 We need to start with verse 18. Okay? And now I want you to look at the Great Commission with a kingdom mindset. Okay?
Verse 18. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. King's statement. The king has spoken. King's statement. And since the king has spoken, he says, therefore, since I'm the king, And I have spoken and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore, go. Who? The citizens. The citizens of the kingdom.
Mobilize yourself into a force, an army, hard and fighting soldiers like we sing, and go and make disciples of all nations. Expand my territory. The king has spoken, telling the citizens to form yourself into an army and go expand my territory.
Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then what? Teaching them to obey all things whatsoever I've commanded you. The law. There's the law.
So we got the kingdom. We got the citizens expanding the territory and governed by the law. Mm-hmm.
and lo i will be with you always right right even until the end sure that's good teaching but again if you don't have the kingdom perspective and mindset you miss the kingdom characteristics in the great commission do you agree with that or disagree with that because this is a bible study class brother johnson Am I okay with that? Yes, sir. You're hitting that nail on the head. Yes, sir. That's a preacher.
Another preacher. I'm okay with that, Brother Abraham. This is fantastic.
Those that are in here, you need to go tell somebody. You ever been to a restaurant and you ate something and you go, man, that is good. And you've returned, right?
You got to come back to this. Well done. Thank you, Brother Thomas, for doing this. This is fantastic. The work that you put in.
You told me this has been years in the making. And I'm just excited. This was great for my soul, man. So I'm tremendously blessed. And I hope you're going to fill this room up, man.
We're going to have to move you up out of here. So. So well, it's again, it's it's it's not all three. I mean, you bring both of them. Plesky will be here next Sunday.
I will not be. He's going to give you his expectations. and his perspective of this class then we'll be with you together yes ma'am yes Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Well, it's it's we'll talk about that deeper.
OK. In the next time that I teach very quickly because I pray that prayer. Almost on a daily basis. And it begins by saying, our Father, our.
Right. So you're asking the person, but he said this is how you say it. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. I changed it. It says, thy kingdom has come.
Okay. Because the kingdom hadn't come. Before Jesus. Yeah, the kingdom hadn't come when he was telling them this is how you pray. Pray that thy kingdom come.
but I say that kingdom has come that will be done on earth as it is in heaven because the Church of Christ the kingdom of God is an extension of the kingdom in heaven it's like sister Joseph is God's territory okay it was disrupted disrupted in the garden but now they pray that kingdom come It has come. Just like in Matthew 6, 33, he says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these things will be added.
Seek ye first the kingdom. So there's a lot of kingdom language. Jesus said in Matthew, repent for the kingdom of heaven is what?
It's coming. That kingdom come. But it has come.
And we are part of that. We're part of that. So excellent question. We're going to go deeper in that.
I will see you next time.