Monday, May 17, 2010

The Key to the Kingdom: Your not gonna like this one.

Jesus sent out the 12 with all power. They did the "stuff". Then he set out the 72, they did the "stuff", Kingdom stuff. Luke 10. And they came back to report, to touch base, to reconnect to the source?

Luke 10- 18He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

We have been given all power to overcome the enemy.
The 72 were given all power to overcome the enemy, but questions where asked. What must we do? What is the work? John 6:25  He said that you had to eat his flesh, the 72 dance around that, kinda weird. Then he said, Ya got to drink my blood; he played the religious card. This was a "hard teaching" because eat flesh is ok, but drinking blood, any type of blood is not Kosher! The 72 could not do it, even though they had "heard" the word, seen the miracles from Jesus and even performed them or participated in Jesus's ministry themselves. They could not break with religion...  "I can't swallow that. I want to be "good" I want a better Life,  I want to turn from my wicked ways, I want to follow truth, but I just can't get this down, It's a hard teaching.

To drink the blood is a big deal. The blood is the life force. All cultures view blood the same way, our tradition (Jew/Christian) call for a "blood" sacrifice. Other cultures.....____________

Since we have started the series on the Kingdom Pastor, Jeffrey, Meko, Niran and myself have all danced around one major element, one very important issue, the key to the Kingdom: Repentance, "Repent, for the Kingdom of is Near", the Kingdom is conditional. It is the key to having the Kingdom in you! Repent means to turn and go the other way. Some of you are in this place because you have messed  up your life, and you're only hope is to turn around. John the Baptist whole ministry, His message was one of repentance (thats why he didn't want to baptize Jesus, because Jesus didn't need to repent of anything. John message was repentance to to make a way for a miracle. Jesus's ministry, His message was the Kingdom. You can turn from your wicked ways, the opposite of which is morality; Morality is not Jesus. You can turn from your your life of abuse; the opposite of which is righteousness (or justice), righteousness in not Jesus. You have been serving the devil, you need to head in the other direction so you head towards god (notice a small "g"). God is not God with out Jesus. Coming to terms with Jesus means we come to terms with his blood and drink it. His life force is in us, he is lord over our kingdom! You can repent towards morality, righteousness, justice, legalism, but you can't get that confuse with repenting towards Jesus and His blood. The Gate is narrow folks. Even his closest followers could not get through it because religion got  in the way, so don't feel bad.


Now here is the Kingdom side of things, the Kingdom is the reign and rule of Jesus here and now, it is God's supernatural power and presence lived out in everyday life. It's the Holy Spirit  breaking into your mundane humdrum life, it's Gods living active WORD being sown into your heart, it's God expressing himself. The Kingdom of this world, Satan and his forces are out to stop this and undo YOU. The enemy of God wants to kill steal and destroy, we give him power to do so...............We sin and say, "oops... sorry God" my bad. We fall into sexual morality and say, sorry God, but  you know how I am. "Oops I just crapped by pants again, you know me"  "We are a children of God who has fell asleep on this and has compromised; We've let our kids have their boyfriends and girlfriend spend the night and we've been "ok" with it, we have let the enemy into our own house through the portal of our TV's and computers, we let or rent satanic horror movies and watch porn ourselves. Blaa blaa blaa. And we wonder why we are not functioning in our gifts and that the Kingdom of God is not being fleshed out, why God is not there, why he is not expressing himself.

Jesus, in the Gospel of Mathew rebukes Bathesdia, because he gave his message and performed miracles, yet they did not believe and would not repent (Mathew 11:20). In the Gospel of Mark (8:22) he is begin led through Bathesdia and people want him to heal a blind man. Jesus leads the man out of the city and heals him on the other side of the city limits... Jesus can (is able), but will not do miracles in your life if you do not repent. But if you repent, you have to repent in the right direction, can you get it down?

The first word out of Jesus's mouth in his ministry is "REPENT, for the Kingdom of God is near"Are you repenting because you've screwed  your life up and you want it to get better, or are you repenting because you have offended a Holy God. Sackcloth and ashes verses, "ooops , my bad". Repentance is only the key to the Kingdom. If you can get  yourself to the point where you can swallow that blood then "you can do all things, because it is Christ in you".



Luke 23Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. 24For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

2 Chronicles 7:14 (New International Version)
 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray
and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from
heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.





John 6:25  Jesus the Bread of Life

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Kingdom and You: Sermon. May 1 & 2, 2010

One tangible political manifestation of the Kingdom of God in conflict with the Kingdom of the God's Enemy was the fall of Communism in Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union all aspects of life were controlled, most freedoms concerning free speech were prohibited; from religion to pornography. My father raised as a baby boomer was taught to fear the Soviets, yet when Communism fell, he was one of the first U.S. pastors in the country to freely preach the Gospel of Jesus (a Gospel of hope and freedom). He decided to "love his neighbor" Mathew 22:38-40 buys a plane ticket and does the uncomfortable. Going to the USSR was an impression in his heart that he could have chosen to ignore, but he didn't. The Fall of Communism was more that a political shift of power, it was a shift in the powers that we don't see. As soon as the soviet oppression was lifted and there was relative freedom, a small window that people could see hope through. The Gospel pored into the USSR through evangelical/charismatic pastors, missionaries and aid workers (the Russian orphans were starving at that time). But the children of God weren't the only ones busy; drugs, pornography, the occult, and organized crime also pored into the void. It was a classic example of what Pastor has been talking about, a "kingdom clash".
Pastor is in Russia right now, invited to witness a special ceremony.

One of the young Russian pastors he discipled and that we financially supported was honored with the position of Head Bishop of all the Charismatic/Pentecostal churches in Russia.
Eduard Grabovenko wanted to make sure that our Pastor was there!


The first miracle in the book of Mark was casting out of a evil spirit. Jesus begins to teach in the synagogue. His first sermon was interrupted by a demon possessed man.

"Have you come to destroy US? We didn’t expect you so soon, it’s not fair."

Exorcism was not new. The Rabbis did it too. Took forever, cost money, and they had to know the secret  word.  Jesus was quit and to the point. He was the secret word!!! Come on!!! This is why Mathew used Kingdom of Heaven for his Jewish audience


-Jesus choking the devil is the active word, word and deed. Or actually the word is the deed!


The Word: Rhema and Logos.  And your Heart


The Lord's utterance/saying remains forever” (1 Peter 1:25). Rhema "saying" in this context bears a different meaning than Logos "word".

Rhema: Some Pentecostal Christians view Rhema as the voice of the Holy Spirit as he speaks to the believer at the present moment. In this sense, the Christian should be guided by the Holy Spirit as he/she is guided through inner feelings, impressions, dreams, visions, and signs. God's Rhema, the direct words of God to the individual, can also be imparted through the words of others, such as a preacher in a worship service, or a friend who counsels them. In this sense, God's direct guidance can be determined by a variety of means. The test of the authenticity of a Rhema from God is simple... How does it compare to the whole of Scripture? Orthodoxy says that God will not speak a word that contradicts His written word, the Scriptures, so there is a built-in safeguard to prevent misinterpretation. Wikipedia


Parable of the sower. If you don't understand the seed it gets eaten. Keep as a concept and not put into practice. It's not removed from your mind, but from your heart. We live at a high level of theory but a low level of experience.
If I have "heard" gonna change the way I live.
Birds are Demons.

The Parable of the Sower is not just a salvation parable, it is a primary Kingdom parable, meaning that God's word or his seeds are still being sown in us believers. How is our soil? How is our heart. If God's word is sown in fertile soil the bird can't get to it and their are no weeds.

Heart has to be humble.
Take of what you have and serve, it will sink your your seed deeper and the birds can't get it.