A Thousand Years of Peace - Revelation 20 | Skip Heitzig

welcome to Calvary Church with skip high tech did you know that about 90 of the Book of Revelation either quotes or references the Old Testament from the beginning the Lord communicated a great deal about the future to his people in this teaching series Pastor skip explains the Theology of the end times and the differing conclusions biblical Scholars have reached the end May nearer than you think we're finding that God is doing exactly what he says [Music] [Music] [Applause] now for the last look we're going to be talking today and next week about the Thousand-Year reign of Christ on the earth something that is going to come and um it excites us as Bible Believers to be able to study it I hope you've enjoyed this series as much as I have we're now in week 20 of this series on the end times it's been very very encouraging for me to go through these texts and I get more and more excited about what is coming very very soon so turn it in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 20 we're going to get started there in a minute I want to begin with a familiar story with a Twist Once Upon a Time in a far away country lived Little Red Riding Hood one day her mother asked her to take a basket of fruit to grandmother who had been ill and lived alone in a cottage in the forest it happened that a wolf was lurking in the bushes and overheard the conversation he decided to take a shortcut to Grandmother's house and get the goodies for himself the wolf killed the grandmother then dressed in her nightgown and jumped into bed to await the little girl when she arrived he made several nasty suggestions and then tried to grab her but by this time the child was very frightened and ran screaming from the cottage a woodworker working nearby heard her cries and rushed to the rescue he killed the wolf with his ax thereby saving Red Riding Hood's life all the towns people hurried to the scene and proclaimed The Woodcutter a hero but at the inquest several facts emerged the wolf had never been advised of his rights The Woodcutter made no warning swings before striking the Fatal blow the civil liberties Union stressed the point that although the act of eating Grandma may have been in bad taste the wolf was only doing his thing and thus didn't deserve the death penalty the SDS students for a Democratic Society contended that the killing of Grandmother should be considered self-defense since she was over 30 and therefore couldn't be taken seriously on the basis of these considerations it was decided that there was no valid basis for charges against the wolf moreover The Woodcutter was indicted for unaggravated assault with a deadly weapon several nights later the woodcutter's Cottage was burned to the ground one year from the date of the incident at Grandma's her Cottage was made a shrine for the wolf who bled and died there all the village officials spoke at the dedication but it was Red Riding Hood who gave the most touching tribute she said that while she had been selfishly grateful for the woodcutters intervention she realized in retrospect that he had overreacted as she knelt and placed a wreath in honor of the Brave wolf there wasn't a dry eye in the whole Forest now the reason a hush has come over the congregation is because this sounds eerily like what is going on in our culture and it was Isaiah the prophet who in examining his own culture and the degradation going on he said woe unto those who call good evil and evil good and when you have a culture that punishes evil or punishes good and rewards evil you have a very very similar circumstance but Isaiah the prophet also looked forward to a time he called a time of righteousness when he said the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as Waters cover the sea it is that Kingdom that we are studying today and next week a millennial Kingdom now you may remember so this is week 20 of this study on end times in week number four so that's a long time ago our fourth study we talked about millennialism we're not talking about Millennials as an age group we talked about the concept the theological construct of the Millennium how there are three major positions you remember those who are all millennialists they don't believe in a literal thousand years post-millennialist that we're going to bring in the kingdom and then pre-millennialists and so we gave you that we're not going to rehash that today but we are going back to chapter 20 where we began on that study because it is about that subject the Thousand-Year Millennial Reign years of Peace the reign of Jesus Christ now this week we're going to look at it morally spiritually you might say next week we're going to look at it politically so verses 1 through 3 primarily but we want to talk about today it begins with an incarceration verses four through six it continues with an Administration the political framework we'll look at next time what I want to do today with you is give you three notable characteristics about the millennial Kingdom and first it is a real Kingdom we're talking about the kingdom of Jesus Christ on the Earth literally on the earth literally from Jerusalem and literally for a time span of one thousand years we're not spiritualizing it we're not allegorizing it we're treating it as though it's a real Kingdom and I draw your attention to verse one then I saw an angel coming down from heaven having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand he laid hold of the dragon that old that Serpent of old who was the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him so that he should deceive the Nations no more till the thousand years were finished but after these things he must be released for a little while and I saw Thrones and they sat on them and judgment was committed to them then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God who had not worshiped the Beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years but the rest of the Dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished this is the first resurrection blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection over such the second death has no power but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with them A Thousand Years now verse 7 when the thousand years have expired let's stop there you have noticed that in six verses you have a seven or in seven verses you have a six-fold repetition of the phrase Thousand Years Thousand Years Thousand Years thousand years so it's unmistakable that we're dealing with a period of A Thousand Years it is a very precise rendering there's no reason to spiritualize it there's no reason to allegorize it there's no reason to say that a thousand doesn't mean a thousand that is just an indiscriminate long period of time it's a thousand years because every other time in scripture when numbers are used including the number one thousand it always refers to something literal something real so for example in Genesis 20 abimelech gives to Abram a thousand pieces of silver is that literal or figurative literal in numbers 31 there was a battle and Moses sent people from the 12 tribes of Israel he said it says a thousand from each tribe to battle figurative or literal literal first Samuel 25 nabal had a thousand goats were those figurative goats is that a figurative number it was a thousand literal First Chronicles 29 Solomon offers a thousand Bulls a thousand Rams a thousand Lambs literal figurative literal so when you come to Revelation 20 and it says the Thousand Years to say nah doesn't really mean that that's a spiritual number you have a problem when you do that whenever you spiritualize numbers you are opening Pandora's Box to it meaning anything at all because if a thousand doesn't mean a thousand what does it mean and if you notice that in the Book of Revelation there's lots of numbers so you have seven churches 12 tribes 12 Apostles one-third of mankind five months two witnesses 42 months 1260 days five Fallen Kings 12 000 furlongs if none of that means anything it just said then what are we doing even reading the book I mean what what does it mean if all those things are figurative if you say well we interpret the Bible literally but not prophecy we we take other genres of scripture and apply it literally and interpret it that way but we don't interpret prophecy literally well then maybe if that's the case 12 tribes of Israel don't mean 12 tribes maybe Jesus being in the tomb three days and three nights really doesn't mean three days and three nights maybe the six days of creation really don't mean six days of creation I agree with Vance havner who said it's always easier to understand what the Bible says than to understand what someone thinks it meant to say and that's what happens you get these people go well it says a thousand but it doesn't mean that what does it mean I don't know but it didn't mean that now if you just read the Bible in a straightforward matter of fact interpreting it normally kind of fashion you're going to come up with a real Kingdom by the way that was the dominant view in the early church for the first three centuries you need to remember that the first three centuries the church fathers believed in a literal physical Thousand-Year reign of Christ on the earth it wasn't until the third and fourth Century in Alexandria Egypt when a guy named origen and a few others passed that on down to Augustine where everything got spiritualized all of a sudden and that group said the Bible in this case shouldn't be taken literally it's just an allegory they allegorized lots of scripture and there are allegories in the Bible but these guys took it to extremes and when they did they were denounced in that time as Heretics so the early church fathers including papias pseudobarnabus Justin Martyr irenaeus tertullian hippolytus all believed in a physical literal one thousand coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ on the Earth in fact papias who we believe was taught by the Apostle John said and I quote there will be a millennium when the kingdom of Christ is to be established on the Earth end quote Justin Martyr said Jerusalem will be rebuilt just as Ezekiel and Isaiah declared and these writings of the early church said all Church authorities believe in that except the gnostics you remember the gnostics that was that aberrant cultic theologically aberrant group in the early church something else we're reading the book of Revelation and we've noticed a chronology in this book so let me put this chart up again we threw this up at the beginning of our series um there's a current if you read the book of Revelation as a matter like you read any other book of the Bible you're going to come up with a chronology and the chronology is the Tribulation begins in chapter 6 of Revelation goes all the way to chapter 18 actually chapter the beginning part of chapter 19. then in chapter 19 Jesus comes to the Earth to end the battle of Armageddon if you skip all the way to chapter 21 and 22 you have the Eternal State new Heaven and new earth John said I saw a new Heaven and new earth for the first heaven and first Earth were dissolved and between the end of the tribulation that is the second coming of Christ and the Eternal State you have a thousand years a thousand years a thousand it's a thousand year period of something going on so if you just read it at a normal chronological way you're going to come up with tribulation periods Second Coming Thousand-Year Millennial Kingdom followed by the Eternal state of a new Heaven and new earth now I want you to make a note of something in chapter 20 the details of this coming Earthly kingdom are only given in summary fashion there's not a lot of detail put here just summery fashion so the big main points the framework goes like this Satan is Bound for a thousand years nations are not deceived for a thousand years God's people are ruling and reigning with Christ for a thousand years it's a very limited presentation it does not exhaust all the details of the coming Kingdom and you might ask why I hope you do ask why you should ask why why is it that you have the Book of Revelation that gives so many details about the tribulation period and you get to chapter 20 supposedly talking about the kingdom and there's not much detail at all here's the answer I believe simply because the kingdom the millennial kingdom is written about with such incredible profuse detail in so many other places that every single Jewish believer understood that that time is coming that is tied to the coming of Messiah A Renewed Heaven renew a renewed Earth a rejuvenated Earth of Kingdom blessings they all knew it because so much of their scripture was filled with it so we have a framework here but there are many other supplemental texts or descriptive texts so here's an example second Samuel chapter 7. is a promise about the kingdom of Messiah Psalm 2 Isaiah 2 Isaiah 11 Isaiah chapter 30. Isaiah chapter 35 Isaiah chapter 65 Jeremiah chapter 23 Jeremiah chapter 31 Jeremiah chapter 33 Ezekiel 34 Ezekiel 40-48 Daniel 2 Daniel 7 Hosea 3 Joel 3 Zephaniah 3 and Zechariah Chapter 14 and that's just a sampling if I were to with you study in depth all of the texts of scripture about the coming Millennial Kingdom we would be at it four months and months and months and I would lose you if I did it in that kind of debt in fact you could even argue that the coming Kingdom of Messiah is the overarching grand theme of the Bible remember last week I said the Bible could be boiled down to this it's about one person two events remember that one person Jesus Christ two events first coming Second Coming well there's far more material written about the second event than the first event and that is about his coming Kingdom Dwight Pentecost I've been reading a lot of books on this as you can imagine lately and one of the books I have is several hundred Pages by Dwight Pentecost called things to come and he writes this we'll put it up a larger body of prophetic scripture is devoted to the subject of the Millennium developing its character and conditions than any other subject this Millennial age in which the purposes of God are fully realized on Earth demands considerable attention and yet what mystifies me is that no such attention is given to it in most churches many pulpits are absolutely silent when it comes to this you could ask the average person person and appeal when was the last time you heard a sermon on the millennial Kingdom they might scratch their head and even say never so we have the main framework here now I heard of a story about two Christians they were talking together and one of them said well I have a one-way ticket to heaven and I don't intend to come back and his friend said well you're gonna sure miss a lot I have a return ticket I'm not only going to meet Jesus Christ in glory but I'm coming back with him in power and glory to rule the Earth now that is the proper view eschatologically of the coming Kingdom you have a return ticket so we have just the basic framework here upon which we can then hang all of those promises found in all of those texts throughout the Bible we're just going to look at it a little bit today and a little bit next time let me give you a second notable characteristic and that is a restrained con man it's not just a real Kingdom it's going to be a real Kingdom because somebody's going to be locked up now in chapter 19 do you remember at the end of chapter 19 the Beast the Antichrist and the false prophet are cast into the Lake of Fire but the real problem remains and the real problem is taken care of in verse one through three I saw an angel coming down from heaven having the key to the bottomless pit the word bottomless pit the Greek word is ABBA sauce not applesauce Abba sauce it just means the bottomless the bottomless the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand he laid hold of the dragon that Serpent of old who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years that's a good place for Hallelujah Hallelujah right there and he cast him into the bottomless pad and shut him up set a seal on him that he should deceive the Nations no more till the thousand years were finished but after these things he must be released for a little while hold that thought we'll get to it next week for there to be a kingdom like this a thousand years of peace on Earth for that to happen Satan has to be dealt with because the main problem all along throughout history has been the fact that there is a devil roaming around running around with his demon Force wreaking havoc on the earth so for there to be a kingdom this has to happen so an angel coming down from heaven has a key to the bottomless pit and a great chain now we don't know which Angel this is I have a guess my guess I think it's a pretty good guess is that this is Michael because as I read the Bible about Michael Michael is sort of like the bouncer angel he's kind of like the guy who's going to get in your grill and mess you up if you come after God's people so in Jude 9 he is called Michael V archangel and I think it's Michael for a couple of reasons in Revelation 12 verse 7 John said and war broke out in heaven Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought so now it's the end of the tribulation now Jesus comes back to stop Armageddon and to set up his kingdom and this is a perfect time for Michael to step in as predicted Daniel chapter 12 says at this time at that time Michael shall stand up the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people now I'm guessing Michael would love the job if Jesus said Michael this is your cue I think he'd been waiting for it for a long time let me push the pause button for a moment one of the biggest lies that even many Christians believe is that Satan is the opposite of God there you have this Cosmic Battle of Good and Evil and here's God promoting good and righteousness but here's the devil and maybe he's winning out are you kidding me Satan couldn't go one round with God Satan is a created being he's more like Michael the Archangel he's at that level if you want an opposite of Satan it's more like Michael certainly not God Satan is not omnipresent he's not omniscient he's not omnipotent he is a created being something else when Satan fell demons fell with him or Angels fell with them became demons of the total amount of the angels that existed in heaven we don't exactly know how many that is but when that happened how many angels fell with Satan one-third which means how many are left two-thirds so Satan and his demons are outnumbered right now two to one so there's really no need to go I'm so afraid the devil and the demons wait they're outnumbered two to one and the angels that outnumber them are there for your benefit did you know that in Hebrews chapter 1 it says are they not all ministering Spirits set forth to minister to those who inherit salvation that's all good news so anyway back to the text this Angel whomever it is comes down from heaven having a very specific itinerary and that is to pursue seize and incarcerate Satan notice he has the key to the bottomless pit a key designates Authority if you have the key you control the door this has got to be a great moment for the angel if it's Michael again I'm thinking he's just like chomping at the bit just just say the word I want to get that Rascal and I want to lock them up you know it's like it's like when a police officer gets to arrest a notorious criminal it's like he gets to be or she gets to be the one to put the cuffs on the on the guy so back in the 1920s Al Capone had a group of thugs called The Untouchables because they were Untouchable nobody could catch them but in 1929 they were caught and a police officer named Elliot Ness had the privilege of taking handcuffs and cuffing Al Capone those handcuffs have become famous they're on display somewhere like in a museum so this has got to be a really great moment this is the day of Satan's humbling because Satan always wanted to be on the top of the Heap in Isaiah 14 Satan said I will Ascend into heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of God I will be like the most high well God had a word for him God's reply is you shall be brought down to sheol to the lowest sides of the pit this is that day this is that day he is being incarcerated in the bottomless pit so this is one one of those Ding Dong The Witch's dead moments this is an this is a Hallelujah moment so Satan is bound now just a note to my all millennialist friends who say well the kingdom is right now there is no literal Kingdom it's a spiritual Kingdom he is ruling and reigning right now in the church and over his people over the hearts of his people well if this is the kingdom that means Satan is bound hmm have you read the newspaper lately have you looked around at the world does it seem to you like Satan is bound because if this is bound it's not a very good binding it's sort of a useless binding if Satan is is bound then we have big problems well they'll say to that well what we mean by that is Satan was bound at the cross no he wasn't Satan wasn't bound at the cross he was sentenced at the cross but he doesn't serve time till now the Thousand-Year Millennial kingdom is when he serves time for a thousand years if Satan is bound now then why in Acts chapter 5 does Peter say to ananias Satan has filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit if Satan is bound why in second Corinthians chapter four are we told Satan has blinded the minds of those who do not believe if Satan is bound why does Peter in First Peter chapter 5 say Satan is like a roaring lion roaming around seeking whom he may devour if Satan is bound why does Paul in first Thessalonians 2 say to the Thessalonians I wanted to come to you but I was hindered by Satan if Satan is bound why in second Corinthians 11 does Satan transform himself into an angel of Light and if Satan is bound why does John in first John chapter 5 say we are of God little children and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one that's bound that's a very useless binding he is not bound and he won't be bound till Revelation chapter 20 becomes a reality so can you imagine with the devil gone what a world it will be that just solves a lot of problems not all the problems but a lot of problems we'll talk more about the potential problems next time but we have a real Kingdom we have a restrained devil Satan con man number three I want to talk about a restored creation restored creation now we're talking about a literal Kingdom on the Earth that part of the Eternal future includes the Earth so it means if you die when you die if you die if the Lord comes back and you get raptured you won't die but other than that you're all going to kick the bucket along with me when you die you're going to go to heaven but you have a return ticket at some point you're going to come back to this earth the earth but a very very different kind of birth look at verse 3 for a moment Satan was Cash in the bottomless pit and shut him up set a seal on him that he should deceive the notice the word Nations these are literal peoples of geographical places on the Earth we read about them throughout the Book of Revelation and then go down to verse 7. when the Thousand Years expired Satan will be released from his prison will go out to deceive the Nations which are in the four corners of the Earth so we're this is all taking place on the Earth now once Satan is bound the scriptures predict that there's going to be this renovated restored rejuvenated renewed Earth and the renovation process has already begun well into and through the tribulation period if you know that and you remember that during the tribulation all sorts of cataclysmic changes take place the skies collapse the Earth is an upheaval the fresh water the seas are all Disturbed things are falling out of Heaven the Earth is in convulsions it's morphing then Jesus returns and he returns to what mountain of Olives when he hits the Mount of Olives what happens to the Mount of Olives splits in two from east to west and the Bible says a very large Valley is created in Ezekiel 47 it says that flowing into that Valley is a river from the Throne of God in Jerusalem part of it goes down to the Mediterranean Sea part of it goes down to the Dead Sea and what goes down to the Dead Sea it doesn't stay dead it comes alive so that there's it's teeming with sea life in the Dead Sea Dead Sea today is toxic it has 25 percent uh saline along with other minerals so there's nothing really living in it but it will be healed so that happens when Jesus returns so let me list to you several things that will take place that speak of a restored creation again I'm just giving you a sampling number one the Holy Land will be holy we love you to come to Israel we already have 307 people signed up to go next year love to take you along but if you're looking for the Holy Land you're going to have to wait for the millennium you'll see the nation of Israel you'll see it in its historic and modern context but the millennial Kingdom will have a holy land that is Holy what do I mean Jesus is there he's ruling and reigning in Jerusalem Israel will have enlarged borders Genesis 15 Promises of those borders to them Ezekiel 47 gives those boundaries it will include Lebanon Syria parts of Jordan Iraq and Sinai will all be the nation of Israel the Holy Land will be holy number one number two the animal kingdom Will Be Tamed the curse will be removed a creation will be freed Isaiah chapter 11 verses 6 through 8 in that day the wolf and the lamb will live together the leopard and the Goat will be at peace calves and yearlings will be safe among lions and a little child will lead them all the cattle will graze among the Bears Cubs and calves will lie down together and lions will eat grass as the livestock do babies will crawl safely among poisonous snakes yes a little child will put its hand into a nest of deadly snakes and pull it out unharmed that's a removed curse parents will be able to say to their little kids go outside and play with the snakes it's perfectly safe it wouldn't be a mean thing to say you know today you have to go to the zoo to enjoy wild animals they have to be in enclosures and we all read stories about what happens when some child or some person gets on the wrong side of that fence I was in Kenya in Africa years ago and we were in a in a vehicle and we came up to a group of lions and as we got up pretty close to it I rolled my window down to take my camera out and take pictures I was sort of Leaning out and the guide in the front heard the window go down and just said very calmly I wouldn't roll your window down if I were you that lion will tear your face off before you can count to five so I quietly rolled my window back off because I realized okay I'm not in the Millennium I got to remember that but one day that'll be fine third the biosphere on Earth will be Lush there's going to be changes globally in the ecological system the hydrological system the conditions will be like Eden before the fall Isaiah 35 says now this is good news especially For Us in Albuquerque even the Wilderness will rejoice in those days the desert will Blossom with flowers the deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon as lovely as Mount carmel's pastures in the plain of Sharon Springs will gush forth in the wilderness and streams will water the desert the parched ground will become a pool and springs of water will satisfy the Thirsty land Marsh Grass and Reeds and rushes will flourish where desert jackals once lived can you imagine what Albuquerque looked like it's going to look like Ireland the west side will look like Oregon just lush green number four people will live long there'll be longevity now I'm going to throw something out at you and it'll just sort of linger there till next week where I'll explain this but there's going to be two types of people in the Millennium there's going to be living people who get into the Millennium uh through the tribulation they're going to be saved Jews and Gentiles in normal bodies and they'll be able to reproduce but they'll also be People Like Us who when we get raptured or when we die get glorified bodies and when that at the Rapture of the church and come back to the Earth with glorified bodies intermingling with those who have normal bodies so just that's a thought that's really easy to explain but I'm not going to do it till next time I gotta got to give you something to look forward to but people are going to live long Isaiah 65 says never again will there be an infant who lives a few days or an old man who does not live out his years he who dies at a hundred will be thought to be a mere youth you may recall reading the book of Genesis that before the flood there's these crazy numbers the Bible ascribes to people living at that time like Jared lived 952 years Methuselah lived 969 years and some who study this uh believe scientists who are believers talk about a pre-flood antediluvian Vapor canopy that probably enshrouded the Earth at that time and may be instilled in the millennial Kingdom that would keep out the deadly rays of the Sun that promote aging that's for another study number five disabilities will be absent disabilities will be absent Isaiah 35 verse 5 says he will open the eyes of the Blind and unstop the ears of the death the lame will leap like a deer those who cannot speak Will shout and sing now that's one of many promises like it in the Old Testament that speak of this coming age of Messiah so it'll be a time of Perpetual Health no aches no pains no need for doctors or nurses no hmos no ppos no Advil thank you these are people with chronic pain I'm among them I can I can say that as well and number six the world will be at peace there will be no war during the Millennium War has always been the scourge of History if you're to look back at recorded history it's figured that only eight percent eight percent has been years has been a time of peace in our entire world history that of the 3400 years of recorded history only 268 have been peaceful without active conflict remember what it says in Revelation 19 he Christ will rule them with a rod of iron it's going to be an enforced piece in force because of some reasons we'll talk about next time but Isaiah chapter 2 verse 4 one of the famous passages he will judge between the Nations and rebuke many people they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their Spears into pruning hooks Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation neither shall they learn War any more that is one of the famous passages in the Bible in fact that passage is inscribed on the United Nations building in New York City as if the United Nations saying this is our task if that's their task they have failed miserably in the history that they have been together in fact it's an impossible task it'll never happen until Jesus comes Messiah Reigns and brings in the millennial Kingdom then there will be a time of peace so we have six things that speak of a restored creation but because we're talking about the Millennium I didn't want to leave it at six you know I wanted to have a seventh so here's the last one you'll be there you'll be there this is probably the best most personal part if you're a redeemed person a child of God a True Believer you'll be there because in Revelation 19 the armies of Heaven come with him and we discerned last week you're part of those armies that will come with Christ so so you don't just have a one-way ticket to heaven you have a return ticket you die today you'll go to heaven I hope you don't die today but if you do you'll go to heaven if you're a Believer well to your funeral you'll be in heaven you'll be happy but then you're coming back and for a thousand years yes on this Earth though it's going to look very different there'll be a Thousand-Year Kingdom of Christ on a literal Earth that's the Golden Age It's what we've been waiting for it's what God's people have been speaking about and praying for and yearning for it's what all the Jewish people throughout their history have been longing for it's what Jesus said to pray for now think of the words of the Our Father thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven that has never been answered yet like it will be when the millennial Kingdom is actually here then it will and when it comes you won't be crying for the Big Bad Wolf nobody will be crying for the big bad wolf because there'll be no more demonic Pagan values or moral weirdness there'll be clear-cut this is righteous this is not and Jesus and his people will enforce it now I'll leave you with one thought it's what Jesus told his disciples and therefore us he said seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you the coming Kingdom of Christ isn't just a reality it should be a motivation should be a place where we fix our eyes on the horizon lift up our head above the muck and the mire of this age and realize that's where the world is heading and it's something I'm going to seek I'm going to seek the kingdom in my life I'm going to seek his Rule and kingship over my family in my neighborhood in my city I'm not going to disengage and say this city is corrupt I'm going to stay and implant God's righteous values while I can while I have breath and I'm not going to seek my kingdom but his kingdom see the problem I think happens when we get all squirrely about which kingdom we're a part of you know we say well I want to make sure that I'm comfortable and it's about me and my status and my education and look at my selfies and my social media and how many followers I have seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and God says I'll give you I'll add to you everything else you need in life that's the free all the fringe benefits will be added to you you just make sure you keep single Focus that is the kingdom thank you so much for joining us for this message from Calvary Church with skip heitzig we would love to know how this message impacted you share your story with us email my story at calvarynm.church and if you'd like to support this Bible Teaching Ministry with a financial gift visit calvarynm.church slash give [Music]

Channel: Connect with Skip Heitzig

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Keywords: Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Sermons, Calvary Church, Jesus, How to Study the Bible, Gospel, angels, 000, kingdom, literal, millennium, peace, real, restored, restrained, thousand, tribulation

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Length: 47min 14sec (2834 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 15 2023