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[0:00] Psalm 89. I'll begin reading the first five verses, and then we'll jump toward the end of the chapter.

[0:16] I will sing of the Lord's great love forever. With my mouth, I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.

[0:26] I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself.

[0:38] You said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one. I have sworn to David my servant. I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.

[0:56] Selah. That means pause and consider. The heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness too in the assembly of the holy ones.

[1:14] Now let's drop down to verse 28, and I'll read to the end of the chapter. If you look up in verse 20, you'll notice that he's speaking about David his servant.

[1:31] Down in verse 28. I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail.

[1:42] I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure. If his sons forsake my law and do not follow my statutes, if they violate my decrees and fail to keep my commands, I will punish their sin with the rod, their iniquity with flogging.

[2:08] But I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered.

[2:22] Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness, and I will not lie to David, that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun.

[2:37] It will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky. Selah.

[2:48] Pause and ponder. But you have rejected. You have spurned. You have been very angry with your anointed one.

[3:00] You have renounced the covenant with your servant and have defiled his crown in the dust. You have broken through all his walls and reduced his strongholds to ruins.

[3:16] All who pass by have plundered him. He has become the scorn of his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his foes.

[3:28] You have made all his enemies rejoice. You have turned back the edge of his sword and have not supported him in battle.

[3:39] You have put an end to his splendor and cast his throne to the ground. You have cut short the days of his youth.

[3:50] You have covered him with a mantle of shame. Selah. How long, O Lord, will you hide yourself forever?

[4:03] How long will your wrath burn like fire? Remember how fleeting is my life. For what futility you have created all men.

[4:18] What man can live and not see death, or save himself from the power of the grave. Selah. O Lord, where is your former great love, which in your faithfulness you swore to David?

[4:37] Remember, Lord, how your servant has been mocked, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the nations, the taunts with which your enemies have mocked, O Lord, with which they have mocked every step of your anointed one.

[4:56] Praise be to the Lord forever. Amen and amen. Turn. Twists and turns, interruptions.

[5:08] Psalm 89 shows that the passage read, shows what a trial of faith it was to the people of God. One of the hardest things for the whole last half of the Bible was that problem that God had sworn to David that he would always have a king on the throne, a kingdom that would last forever.

[5:29] And so this psalm starts out praising God for his faithfulness and for that sworn covenant promise to David to establish his line forever and make his throne firm through all generations.

[5:43] And then it's like he says, but Lord, where is your faithfulness? Your king is no longer on the throne and we're being mocked and where is your former great love which you in faithfulness swore to David?

[6:02] So that, as you read the prophets, that's one of the biggest problems that Israel had. They had a promise and they had circumstances that didn't match the promise and they come to God and cry to him, God, what's going on here?

[6:20] And yet there's this conviction, my God is faithful. And so I'll hold on to that even as I cry, what's happening? So a thousand years before Christ's birth, God made a promise to David of this dynasty of Davidic kings ruling on David's throne and over his kingdom forever.

[6:40] And that promise, what we saw last week, that that promise was repeated and echoed for centuries by the prophets that followed. And so the string of Davidic kings lasted for 400 years until Judah was taken away into Babylon along with their king.

[7:01] 600 years followed in captivity to other empires and 600 years of being without a king or a throne or a kingdom.

[7:13] And for the last 400 of those 600 years, the heavens were silent. There was no more information, no more prophecies coming from heaven, no further word.

[7:25] All they had to keep their hope alive was the old promises of 2 Samuel 7 and the echoing of that promise in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Hosea, and so on.

[7:43] And then heaven's silence was broken when the angel Gabriel was sent to a virgin Mary with good news from heaven. You see it there in verse 31 of Luke 1.

[7:53] The message of the angel. You will be with child and give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high.

[8:05] The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end.

[8:16] Do you hear the echoes of 2 Samuel 7 in those words? There's no explanation given and there's no explanation needed. That had been the promise.

[8:29] That had been the focus of Israel. Hanging on where's that promise's fulfillment? Mary knew it. Mary needed no further explanation. So Luke begins his gospel then with the announcement, at last the long promise, Davidic king is here.

[8:49] Now when his forerunner, John the Baptist was born, his father Zechariah prophesied by the Holy Spirit. Verses 68 through 70. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel.

[9:01] You see it in Luke 1, 68. Because he has come and has redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he said through his holy prophets of long ago.

[9:16] So, again, this is the fulfillment of that promise. And where will this king of David be born? Well, Micah 5 had told us in Bethlehem.

[9:29] But Mary and Joseph don't live in Bethlehem. They live in Nazareth in Galilee, some 900 miles away, like going from South Bend to Kokomo.

[9:40] That's a long hike. Luke 2, verse 1. But the heart of Caesar Augustus is in the hand of the Lord, and he turns it wherever he wishes. And so Caesar Augustus' heart is moved to issue a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world, and everyone went to his own town to register.

[10:00] So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.

[10:11] And he goes there with Mary. And while they were there, she gave birth to this long-promised son. The angel announces it to the shepherds in chapter 2 and verse 10.

[10:26] And today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is Messiah. He is the Anointed One. He is Christos, Christ, the Lord. So Luke's Gospel begins by identifying Jesus as this forever king promised to David, clear back in 2 Samuel 7.

[10:46] This king who was to reign on David's throne and over his kingdom forever. So we need to keep that in our minds as we think now about who Jesus is, why he came, what his kingdom is all about.

[10:58] It's about what was promised to David. And I trust you're beginning to see why I have this chapter in this series of great chapters of the Bible.

[11:08] Just how great this chapter is. Close to 30 years passed in silence, as far as any further word from heaven.

[11:18] And then a rough prophet of God named John appeared in the desert, dressed in clothing made from camel's hair and eating locusts and wild honey and announcing the word of the Lord.

[11:31] And the summary of his prophecy and preaching is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

[11:41] What kingdom? Well, the forever kingdom promised to David in 2 Samuel 7, the kingdom that all of Israel was wondering where is it?

[11:59] Where is this coming of the king and the kingdom? Well, now the kingdom of God is at hand. Why? Because the king has come. The kingdom's here because the king's come.

[12:10] It's his reign. Now turn to Matthew. And notice how the very beginning of the New Testament underscores the same thing.

[12:22] It's written chiefly to a Jewish audience, the book of Matthew. How does it begin? Well, it begins with a genealogy of Jesus, perhaps boring to many other peoples, but not to the Jewish nation.

[12:34] This is critical information to them. And verse 1 of chapter 1 says, a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

[12:49] So the first thing readers of the New Testament are to know is that this Jesus Christ that will fill 28 chapters of the book of Matthew and indeed all the rest of the books of the New Testament is none other than the king of David promised in 2 Samuel 7.

[13:05] And at last this long promise, Davidic king has come. And you can't understand the New Testament without understanding the Old Testament. Who is Jesus? Well, he's the son of David.

[13:16] Who's David? What's the big deal about David? Well, that's all wrapped up, isn't it, in 2 Samuel 7. And so the genealogy is given through Joseph's line.

[13:31] This is his legal descent from his adoptive father. And you see David mentioned in verse 6 and Jesus mentioned in verse 16. Luke will give a genealogy tracing Jesus' lineage through Mary and that she too was born of the line of David.

[13:49] So what we learn from these genealogies is that though there was a period of an interruption of the kings and there was no king for 600 years before Jesus came, we see that the kingly line of David was still carefully recorded.

[14:05] Why? Because there were promises of a Messiah king, of an eternal kingdom coming from David's line. So there was meticulous care to keep record of the line of David even though there was no king.

[14:23] And that is why we start the New Testament with the lineage, the genealogy of Jesus. Having told us in chapter 1 of Matthew of Jesus' birth, after the genealogy, we have the birth of Christ.

[14:39] What happens in chapter 2? Well, some wise men from the east show up in Jerusalem with a burning question that creates quite a stir in King Herod and the whole city. Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?

[14:52] We saw his star and have come to worship him. When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. He called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, asked them where the Christ was to be born.

[15:06] In Bethlehem of Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written. And they quote Micah's prophecy, but you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.

[15:25] That's code language for king, synonymous, the shepherd of Israel, the king of Israel. Now there's a question, how did these wise men know about a birth of a king?

[15:37] A bit of speculation, but most point to the fact that they came from the east and Daniel served in the Persian kingdom and his writings were probably there in Persia.

[15:53] And he spoke in Daniel 7, 14 about this forever kingdom that would not be replaced by another. And they probably had that and that put together with the timing that is laid out in Daniel's 69 weeks and all of that with the appearing of the star they must have connected and they saw the star and this must be that king.

[16:18] And they came and they said, where is he to be born? Well, chapter 4, verse 17. We saw what John the Baptist's message was here in chapter 4 of Matthew, verse 17.

[16:36] We have a summary of what Jesus' message was. What did he go around preaching? Well, it was the same as John the Baptist's message. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.

[16:47] And again, we ask, well, what kingdom? Well, there's no further explanation needed for these Jews. There's only that one kingdom that had been promised.

[16:58] The kingdom that took up the prophecies of the last half of the Old Testament that they had been waiting for. Now, the kingdom is, this word kingdom is referred to 52 times in Matthew's Gospel.

[17:11] And usually by the Lord Jesus himself. This is important. Jesus has come to set up the kingdom of God on earth.

[17:23] And it's the kingdom that was promised to David. Again, we're told that this is the good news that Jesus preached in verse 23. Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, literally the gospel of the kingdom.

[17:41] Later in Matthew, we'll hear again of this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations.

[17:51] And then the end will come. Have you heard and believe the gospel? You have heard the gospel of the kingdom. It's not two different gospels. It's the one gospel.

[18:02] The gospel of Jesus reign that was promised to David a thousand years earlier. So over and over, the New Testament is telling us that Jesus is this long promised king of David and his kingdom, his reign on earth in the lives of his disciples is the forever kingdom promised to David.

[18:26] chapter 25 and verse 34 says, then the king will say to those on his right, come, you are blessed by my father.

[18:38] Take your inheritance. The kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. That is the kingdom that Jesus came and promised to give to his disciples.

[18:53] So we come then to chapter 5 to 7. Matthew. I jump to the back there just for a couple verses just to reference the fact that this kingdom that Jesus came is the one kingdom that you and I belong to.

[19:06] Chapters 5 to 7 or the Sermon on the Mount is an example of Jesus preaching and indeed it's his most famous sermon on the kingdom of God.

[19:16] Eight times in this sermon the kingdom of God. Some have called it the manifesto of his kingdom setting forth what his kingdom is and what it's all about. How does it begin?

[19:27] Well it begins with the character of the citizens of his kingdom. There's eight beatitudes that describe those who belong to his kingdom. Verse 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[19:44] And then the last of the beatitudes verse 10 blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So the beatitudes are identifying the character the kind of people that belong to Jesus' kingdom and indeed all the others in between are doing the same and the promises that are given to these beatitudes are showing the rewards that come to those who belong to the kingdom of God.

[20:15] And then we see their calling in this world as salt and light in a dark and decaying world their impact of God's kingdom upon the kingdoms of this world.

[20:27] And then in chapter 5 verses 17 through 47 we see the righteousness of his kingdom. What's the righteousness of the kingdom of this Jesus?

[20:38] Well the standard is God's own moral law. Christ says I didn't come to annul it I didn't come to set it aside I came to fulfill it he fulfilled it with his own obedience to it and he also expounded it fully and explained it gave us the true meaning of his commands which was far more demanding than the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

[21:03] You remember they had such an external view of God's commands that as long as they hadn't murdered a man then they hadn't broken the sixth commandment as long as they hadn't slept with their neighbor's wife they hadn't broken the seventh commandment Jesus says no that's not the end to which those commandments reach they reach into your thoughts they reach into your attitudes and then he tells them in verse 20 I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the scribes you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven that was the shock of all shockers because if anybody was keeping the law it was thought to be the the Pharisees and Jesus is saying but they missed the true application of my law it's far more searching than they have ever known and then follows examples of the way that their teachings had been gutted of God's true meaning and I just gave you a couple examples of that that they make demands not only on our outward life but on our inward life the law reaches to the heart and then chapter 6 talks about the righteous acts that are to be done in his kingdom they're to be done with an eye to God not showing off to men in their giving and in their praying and in their fasting and it's in that chapter 6 that we're taught of how to pray in his kingdom we pray your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven we're taught the priority of his kingdom that which is to be number one in our lives you see it in verse 33 of chapter 6 seek first his kingdom and righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well so instead of worrying about what you shall eat or drink or wear and all the things that pagans run after and what they're concerned about no you be concerned about my kingdom and my righteousness and all these other things will be added to you as well that's the way to handle worry seek God's kingdom first and he'll see to it that your needs are met but if you seek the things of this earth then you will have no time for God you'll have no energy to serve him so seek it first and then there's this urgent summons to enter the kingdom chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 enter by the narrow gate through the narrow road that leads to life which is Jesus he is that gate and way to heaven and then the judge of the kingdom is Jesus Christ himself we see we meet him in verses 21 to 23 he's actually telling us how it will go in the end as the king of the kingdom comes to judge not everyone who says to me

[24:06] Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of my father who is in heaven and then he will say to me on that day oh Jesus the king is the one sitting on the throne in that day and they will say to him Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles then I I will tell them plainly I never knew you away from me you evil doers so not all who profess to be Christians to be followers of the Lord to be in the kingdom of God will be saved will enter the kingdom but only those that show that they really did know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and they showed it by doing the will of my father in heaven Jesus says and then he ends with that parable of the rich man or the wise man and the foolish man and the wise man are those who hear God's who hear my words and put them into practice so see there's no difference between doing the will of the father and doing my words because Jesus came to reveal the will of the father so that's the sermon that's the sermon on the kingdom the kingdom that Jesus has come to establish and uphold in justice and righteousness it's the kingdom we belong to there isn't a Jewish kingdom in a Gentile kingdom it isn't oh this is just something for the Jews no no this is the kingdom that we belong to if we're indeed saved

[25:50] Matthew verses chapters 8 and 9 show us the authority of King Jesus his authority over the diseases with a spoken word heals them wind and waves obey him demons and death obey him and then we begin to hear people calling him the son of David a name that was reserved for Messiah again pointing us back to the promise of 2 Samuel 7 two blind men are lying along the road they cry Jesus son of David have mercy on us they believe he is that promised king of David and they know that he is a king of mercy and grace and they call on him for that mercy and even when Jesus is way up north and comes to that Canaanite woman a Gentile she's crying out Lord son of David have mercy have mercy on me she who sat in darkness had seen a great light and she too identifies him as this long promised king son of David and cries for mercy chapter 11 verse 12 discussion

[27:11] Jesus brings up the topic of John the Baptist says that among those born of women there's not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it for all the prophets and law prophesied until John the kingdom of God was here with Jesus it's not all future there's some future we'll talk about that next week Lord willing but it had come with Jesus and people were entering it they were forcing their way into it which is to say there's obstacles in the way but forceful men advanced and laid hold of the kingdom of God and they entered the kingdom as they repented and trusted in Jesus Christ the same way you and I entered the kingdom when we too repented and believed

[28:18] Matthew 12 22 to 28 Jesus healed a demon possessed man who was blind and mute so that he could both talk and see and all the people were astonished and in verse 23 they said could this be the son of David in other words they knew the prophecy Pharisees hated Jesus and wanted to kill him so they quickly discredited him as casting out demons by Beelzebub the prince of demons oh don't get so excited he's doing it by the power of Satan himself and Jesus said every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined but verse 28 if I drive out demons by the spirit of God then the kingdom of God has come upon you so the mark of the arrival of the kingdom of God that had been promised for a thousand years was that Jesus was overthrowing the kingdom of darkness the kingdom of Satan spoiling his kingdom setting people free and building up the kingdom of God

[29:24] Matthew 13 what's it about it's all parables of the kingdom it's teaching about his kingdom the kingdom of heaven is like and in many of these parables we see he speaks of the final judgment as a separation a separation of wheat and tares good fish and bad fish at the end of the age at the end of the age the son of man will send out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil they will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father he who has ears let him hear you see the kingdom is growing but it's growing up with weeds as well but right here and right now we have the righteous and the unrighteous in the same world and one day it will be separated in the fulfillment the consummation of that forever kingdom that is yet to come so in Matthew 18 1 the disciples came and asked

[30:41] Jesus who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven you see it's all about the kingdom who's the greatest and he calls a little child has him stand among them and said I tell you the truth unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven therefore whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven much like Jeremy was saying this morning children are teachable and we must become teachable to the Lord Jesus they are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and unless you become like children you'll never enter the kingdom does that ring a bell unless you are you will never enter John 3 Jesus talking to Nicodemus unless you're born again you will never enter the kingdom that's what he's here to do is to set up the kingdom and only those who are born again enter the kingdom only those who are born again actually discern it even see it to understand it John 3 3 and John 3 5 this is the kingdom

[31:45] David was promised in chapter 19 there's a parable of the 10 minus while they were listening Jesus went on to tell them a parable because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once that is to appear in all of its glory and he said a man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return he entrusted three different amounts of money to three different servants but his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say we don't want this man to be our king he was made king however and returned home and called the servants to give account remember how he dealt with each of them the lazy one that buried it but then at the end in verse 27 he says those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them bring them here and kill them in front of me this is the king this is the kingdom and those who don't want him to be king will be judged at his return and then we come to his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday two of his disciples go and fetch a donkey in her colt chapter 21 verses 4 and 5 we're told this took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet say to the daughter of Zion see your king comes to you this is when there was no king and here's the promise your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey on a colt the foal of a donkey now here he is the fulfillment that promised king verse 9 the crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted

[33:39] Hosanna to the son of David blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest and the children shouted Hosanna to the son of David Mark's gospel says they shouted blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David blessed is the king and blessed is his coming kingdom happier those who belong to this kingdom you remember when Jesus was constantly being tested and tried by the people the Jews trying to trick him the leaders he finally turns the table Matthew 22 the end of the chapter 42 to 45 he has a question for them what do you think about the Messiah the Christ whose son is he the son of David they replied you see they even knew that they knew the promise well he said to them well how is it then that David speaking by the Holy

[34:46] Spirit calls him Lord Lord for he says and he quotes Psalm 110 the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet if David calls him Lord how can he be his son well they didn't know well of course it's because he has two natures and as to his divine nature he is the Lord of David that's why David calls him Lord Lord but as to his human nature he is the son of David a descendant of David so we see all these references to the Davidic king and kingdom and it goes right on through with the trial of Jesus what was the issue is he a king or isn't he is he a threat to Caesar or isn't he that's what the Jews tried to make him out to be that anybody who has is a friend of Caesar can't be a follower of Jesus because he's a troublemaker and he's going to make trouble for Caesar well Jesus wasn't that kind of a king was he

[35:49] Pilate asked him are you the king of the Jews Jesus says yes it's as you say you're right in saying I'm a king in fact for this reason I was born and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth everyone on the side of truth listens to me Pilate says I haven't found any fault in him and he brings him forth to set him free and tries to encourage the people to choose Barabbas instead of him and to let him go and presents him here's your king Pilate said to the Jews take him away take him away crucify him what shall I crucify your king we have no king but Caesar the chief priest answered and Pilate ends up caving into the crowd that was shouting and chanting and he prepared a sign Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews to put on his cross remember the

[36:50] Pharisees didn't like that just say that he claimed to be king of the Jews but Pilate would have the last word and indeed it was the truth wasn't it he was the king of the Jews and they mocked his claim to be king hail king of the Jews the soldier said blindfolded him prophesy to us tell us who hit you if you're the king of the Jews save yourselves no he is king of the Jews but the reason he came was to save his people not himself and so he dies on the cross even as they mock his kingship now we've got to answer the question if the promise of 2 Samuel 7 was drummed into these people for a thousand years and even the scribes and the

[37:51] Pharisees who searched the scriptures knew that he would be a son of the king would be a son of David well how and why did they miss their long promised king when he finally came and instead crucified him well Lord willing we'll look at that next week I just want to come to this tonight I trust we're seeing how large 2 Samuel 7 looms not only in the Old Testament the last half of the Old Testament but also in the fulfillment of it in the New Testament how the New Testament writers explain Jesus in terms of David and the promise and what I need what we need to see is that this is our history then this isn't something different this is something for the Jews no this is our history this is our king and our kingdom that had been promised lost and now has been fulfilled you know

[38:55] Paul says in Colossians 1 13 and 14 that God the father has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of the son he loves in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins this kingdom that had been promised to David is a kingdom of love and of light a kingdom of redemption of forgiveness of sins Isaac Watts puts it this way blessings abound where he reigns the prisoner leaps to lose his chains the weary finds eternal rest and all the sons of want are blessed that's the blessing that attends this king and our king tells us that his kingdom is now to be the number one priority of our lives that if we've been born again and brought into this kingdom by repentance and faith this is to be number one unchallenged priority in our lives seek first the kingdom of God this is the king giving the manifesto of his kingdom seek first my kingdom and righteousness it's the thing that's to be kept first from all other intruders that would want to worm their way into first place to push out the kingdom from its priority position in our lives guard your hearts guard your calendars guard your schedules don't let anything rob this number one priority seek first his kingdom not only seek first his kingdom but seek it what does that mean that's an active word isn't it pursue it run after it track it down lay hold of it get after it what am I getting after what am I seeking his kingdom his righteousness so seek to have your character conform to the kingdom beatitudes poor in spirit contrite meek merciful pure in heart peacemakers not avoiding persecution that comes for Jesus sake living by the laws of Jesus the king they're not suggestions they're righteous laws that make demands of our minds our desires our hearts our actions our words that's seeking his righteousness seek the kingdom of

[41:37] Christ first his rule that's what the kingdom is it's his reign his rule seek it in your own heart your family your church your world how do we do that remember what the king the sermon on the mount talked by by giving your money to kingdom concerns Matthew 6 by praying for his kingdom to come to come in power to our hearts to our homes to other nations to our community and then by working and serving to advance his kingdom being bright lights in the world and salty Christians what's a salty Christian don't lose your saltiness don't lose your your Christ likeness the beatitudes that's a salty Christian and that's the kind of Christian that will have an impact upon those around him that's seeking to advance the kingdom and so none such a kingdom deserves nothing less than the number one priority with us what a kingdom what a king the king of love the king of righteousness the king of mercy and of grace the king of perfect gentleness said of this king that a bruised reedy would not break and a smoldering wick he would not snuff out this is our king and this is the privilege as well as the responsibility of citizens may the Lord help us the more we love this king the more we will seek his kingdom first let's take our hymnals and sing number 135 135 I greet thee who my sure redeemer art we sing in verse 2 thou art the king of mercy and of grace we sing of his gentleness this is our king let's become more and more like him let's let's seek his kingdom let's pray the Lord is our judge the Lord is our lawgiver the Lord is our king it is he who will save us such promises were the hope of your people for hundreds of years in the old covenant and we're so thankful that we live not in the age of promise like they did but that we live in the age of fulfillment that this king has come his kingdom is being advanced it is here people are entering it we are in it we have been brought in by a gracious new birth and by a wonderful work in our hearts to bring us to repentance and faith to give us a teachable heart to our king oh we pray that you would forgive us for the ways that we let you and your kingdom slip down in our priority list day by day would you help us

[44:57]  Lord we are weak and we're easily influenced by the world and the things it runs after would you become that treasure above all else that we would seek first your kingdom's advance and we pray that the word of the gospel that is this gospel of the kingdom that is run today all over the world that you would cause it to bring forth fruit that you would gather more people into your kingdom and that you would establish that kingdom more centrally in our hearts where it would captivate us and your church would be uniquely different from the world in which we live give us help Lord we thank you that you are our king and you rule over us and defend us because we are weak and helpless we look to you our hope is in you and we thank you that though you're the almighty one you're also the god of such gentleness a king who is gentle toward his citizens and you bless us and we've tasted your blessings another day so we give you thanks we praise you Lord Jesus amen you