June 6, 2021
Sunday AM
Jeremiah 3:15 Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.
God has an agenda. He’s got something on His mind and heart. Humans also have an agenda. God does not set aside His agenda for your agenda. God will send a leader with His heart and mind. He never designed the church to be “cookie-cutter.” Different churches have different functions and purposes. God’s plan is basically three things for every human on earth.
1- Born Again
2- Filled with the Spirit
3- Matured
When you’re born again, you are set completely free. You never have to go to Hell, but that is not all of it! You are to use your freedom, to set other people free around you! Many people agree that number one is the will of God. But you lose a lot of people on number two. Don’t let incorrect teaching hold you back from what God has for you! Why? You’re going to need help. There were things you were set free from when you were born again, but there’s residue of what’s left over in the soul and flesh that will have to be dealt with! The process of sanctification is something you will be going through the rest of your life. It does not happen in an instant because you are in a flesh body. It has the motions of sin in it. Number 1 & 2 can be accomplished in 10 minutes. Number 3 is a lifetime of learning and growing. You don’t just learn and grow on the passage of time. It takes work and attention. If you look back on the verse, it mentions being led with knowledge and understanding. If you’re going to grow you have to be fed properly. Just like your physical body has to be fed with natural food, your spirit must be fed the right things also. Your spirit came from God, it has to be fed spiritual food! Your natural body will die if you don’t feed it. Your spirit won’t ever die, but it cannot and will not grow without a steady diet of the word of God. It’s what you do in these basic areas that produce maturity so that you can receive from God, and then give out of what you receive. You’ll only be fulfilled in this life if you are receiving from God, and then giving out from that. We’re here to be a vessel.
Knowledge – the revelation of truth and facts
Understanding – how to apply it
The knowledge of a thing is not the possession of a thing. You have to have revelation of it for yourself! Then application.
Matthew 3:1-3 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’
The wilderness speaks of the barren fruitless place. Preaching will get you out of the world, teaching will get the world out of you.
Kingdom of Heaven – Originates – where the kingdom is from
Kingdom of God – Who runs it
They are one in the same. So, God has an agenda and so do we as humans. What has following your agenda produced in life? God’s agenda will only produce good things in your life. It’s very important that you make that distinction. What was John’s message? To repent. They were living in a fruitless place.
Luke 1:13-17 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
These are God’s people, but their hearts have turned from God. John is going to turn them back to God. Before Jesus came the first time, the people were not ready. In fact, He was walking among them, and they didn’t even know who He was. Many religious people even accused Him of being a devil. Prior to His second coming, the church will be so far removed from what He originally intended, that there will have to be a move that will bring God’s people back to His heart. Deception is rampant in today’s church. When you speak of the Kingdom of God, it is a foreign concept to most. Where truth is absent, deception will be prevalent. A man with experience will never be at the mercy of a man with a theory. We believe that Jesus is coming again. Are you ready? Are you where you need to be? We see the birth of the church in Acts. If you compare today’s church with that one, we are not ready. The first step to revival is, we have to refuse to accept things the way they are.
Matthew 1:23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
When John was saying the kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and Jesus was born, God with us, means the Kingdom of Heaven is with us, because it was in Jesus. The Kingdom of God does not come from observation, it is within you when you are born again. It’s present right now!
Matthew 2:23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
Here’s revival walking on earth but it’s locked up in Nazareth. Nazareth represents unbelief. He had to come out of Nazareth before He could begin His ministry to the world. He wasn’t locked up in His unbelief, He was locked up in their unbelief! God sent an anointing with a message to these people to prepare them for this new thing that He had birthed in the earth. Revival is not coming, it is already here, living on the inside of God’s people! The Kingdom of God is within us, locked up in our unbelief and religious systems. It’s locked up in man’s agenda! We have to come out of our deception so that Jesus can come forth! Prepare ye the way of the Lord! This means to return to God’s agenda! God will not lay aside His agenda to come and join with yours!
Matthew 3:16-17 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
This is my beloved Son. This is what He really looks like. A clear-cut distinction between our beliefs and agenda, and what God is really like. This is the true image of God’s son from Heaven. This is what we are to look at to know what we are to be like!
Matthew 4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
If our Gospel is not demonstrated like this, it is not the Gospel of the Kingdom. If what we’re preaching, is not producing this, it is not the true Gospel of the Kingdom. That is the true Kingdom. That is what God’s agenda looks like. He does not like people to suffer. He does not like people going to hell, and He is not okay with people being sick either. Jesus paid the price so that people can be free from BOTH. Until the church refuses to accept things the way they are, it will not change. We have to open our Bibles and develop a prayer life for yourself! The church is here to point you in the right direction! It is for ALL of us. God wants to use you to do great things! There has to be a return to God’s agenda, or you will live in fruitless religion.
Luke 2:51-52 Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
Jesus was born and took on a human body just like we have. The revival and Kingdom of God was in Him. He had the very life of God inside of Him. God was among us. But Jesus laid aside His divinity and took on humanity. He had to grow and develop and mature just like we do. He had to increase in knowledge and spiritual things just like we do. Nazareth is God’s training and processing ground. It is where you grow and mature! It’s also where you learn to be subject to those over you. Jesus had to learn all of these things. God is endeavoring to raise up a people to accomplish His agenda! You’re carrying the Kingdom of God in you, and you have things in you that can help people! But they will never come out when you’re living by your own agenda.