Amen. It’s a glorious morning. Actually, every morning is a glorious morning. We just have to see the glory.
One thing about having a pet: I ended up adopting my granddaughter’s dog when my grandson came along. So now I faithfully get up early in the morning, because if I don’t, he lets me know it’s time to arise.
But I do get up fairly early now. Amazingly, after you retire, you think you’ll sleep late, but I actually get up an hour or so earlier. What is so great is to get out there in the morning when the sun’s just coming up and the birds are starting to sing. It really is a glorious time the Lord gives us. I thank the Lord for those little times that are refreshing, when we can just be alone with Him.
Well, this morning I’ve got a message. I wouldn’t wear this shirt, because this is the shirt I paint in, mow the grass in—anything I want to do outside and get dirty in, I wear this. Or one of the shirts I wear. But it’s pretty grungy, even though it’s been washed and is clean. So don’t go tell my wife I don’t wear clean clothes.
Can you read that? Just the big letters: “Everyone Counts.” That’s my shirt: everyone counts.
Actually, I got that when they had the 2000 census. They were trying to get everybody to be sure they got on the census, and the theme was, “Everyone counts.”
Well, you know, brothers and sisters, what is obviously on my heart is that we, as Christians, when you come into the Lord’s family, every one counts.
Now, there’s something that we have to realize. We know that there is no good thing in the flesh, and that, in fact, in the crucifixion at Calvary’s cross, our Lord Jesus not only bore our sins, but it says He took us with Him, and we have been crucified with Him.
In other words, as far as the Adamic man goes, the Lord said, “He’s finished. It’s over. We’ve had enough.” He did not fulfill God’s purpose. He never can fulfill God’s purpose, because he is too deeply flawed with sin and the sin nature. So, in that sense, we don’t count.
But, brothers and sisters, as Kenny put it so well last week, I think most of us in this room have been born again. It says that we are new creations in Christ. And in the sense that we are new creations in Christ, sometimes I think we as Christians don’t realize that we really count.
And so that is what is on my heart this morning as we come before the Lord. Now, I have a lot of Scriptures to read, and then we’ll get into it. Actually, I won’t say much more about everyone counting until I’m about two-thirds of the way through, because I have to do the prep for it. So bear with me, would you?
Lord, we do come to Thee today, for You are a God of mercy and love. And, Lord, we thank You for that this morning. We thank You that this table that we’ve taken demonstrates Your great love.
And, Lord, the fact that You spoke to this leper—and he doesn’t even have a name. Now, Lord, we come to Thee as those that have no names, but, Lord, You know that leper’s name. You know exactly who he was. You knew him before the creation of this world.
And so, Lord, in that sense, You know everything about us. We come to Thee, Lord. I pray that You will enlighten us today, that Your Holy Spirit will anoint us to be able to hear what Your Spirit is saying to us. I ask for the anointing to be able to share Your word, Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Okay, I hope you have your Bibles. We have quite a few Scriptures I’d like to read. The first one is out of Job. Job—J-O-B. Job is right after Esther, I think. Yeah, right before Psalms.
Let’s read Job 17:11.
My days are past,
My purposes are broken off,
Even the thoughts of my heart.
This was Job’s assessment of himself: that his days were past—the days of his glory, the days of his going on with the Lord, serving God’s purpose. They were all past and broken.
Now let’s turn to Jeremiah 29:11, a Scripture many of you, I’m sure, know by heart.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord,
Thoughts of peace, and not of evil,
To give you an expected end.
I know My thoughts for you. They’re not for evil, but for good, and they’re to give you an expected end.
Let’s go to 2 Peter 1:3-4.
Seeing that His divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
Through the knowledge of Him that called us by His own glory and virtue;
Whereby He hath granted unto us His precious and exceeding great promises;
That through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature.
Let’s go to Revelation 20:6. Always have to have one out of Revelation.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection:
Over these the second death hath no power;
But they shall be priests of God and of Christ,
And shall reign with Him a thousand years.
Now let’s go to Matthew 25, starting with verse 14.
For it is as when a man, going into another country,
Called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one;
To each according to his several ability;
And he went on his journey.
Straightway he that received the five talents went and traded with them,
And made other five talents.
In like manner he also that received the two gained other two.
But he that received the one talent went away and digged in the earth,
And hid his lord’s money.
Now after a long time the lord of those servants cometh,
And maketh a reckoning with them.
And he that received the five talents came and brought other five talents, saying,
Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents:
Lo, I have gained other five talents.
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant:
Thou hast been faithful over a few things,
I will set thee over many things:
Enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
And he also that received the two talents came and said,
Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents:
Lo, I have gained other two talents.
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant:
Thou hast been faithful over a few things,
I will set thee over many things:
Enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
And he also that had received the one talent came and said,
Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man,
Reaping where thou didst not sow,
And gathering where thou didst not scatter;
And I was afraid, and went away and hid thy talent in the earth:
Lo, thou hast thine own.
But his lord answered and said unto him,
Thou wicked and slothful servant,
Thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not,
And gather where I did not scatter;
Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the bankers,
And at my coming I should have received back mine own with interest.
Take ye away therefore the talent from him,
And give it unto him that hath the ten talents.
For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance:
But from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away.
And cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness:
There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
All right. That’s not it. First Chronicles 11. Eventually, all of these different Scriptures will come together.
First Chronicles 11:17.
And David longed, and said,
Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem,
Which is by the gate!
David was held up in the cave of Adullam. Saul was seeking to kill him with his army, and they were outside of Bethlehem. The enemy, of course, was there holding Bethlehem. David said, “Oh, how I long that I might have a drink of water from the well that is in Bethlehem.”
And the three brake through the host of the Philistines,
And drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate,
And took it, and brought it to David:
But David would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord,
And said, My God forbid it me, that I should do this thing:
Shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy?
For with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it.
Therefore he would not drink it.
These things did the three mightiest men.
Now, Matthew 6:9-10.
After this manner therefore pray ye:
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
Well, brothers and sisters, the thing that’s on my heart is everyone counts. I think it’s so important that we realize this because the time is at hand: the time for the Lord’s return, the time in which the Lord will come and set up His earthly kingdom on this earth for a thousand years, known as the millennium in the Bible, and also the marriage feast of the Lamb.
A thousand years of the Lord coming and reigning on this earth—the utopia that man has so longed for.
When John the Baptist was raised up, his message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The message of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 4:17 is, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
He is saying in these messages that the people of that hour and that day needed to have a fundamental change in their mind, a fundamental change in their heart. Something had to be altered because the kingdom of heaven was at hand.
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus was there in their midst. The kingdom of heaven was at hand, and they didn’t recognize it. They needed to repent.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord is at hand. He is coming soon, and we need to change our mind. We need to think differently.
We have to confess before the Lord that today, often, our mind is upon the things of this world—the things of our jobs, the things that we can obtain. Our minds are on the pleasures of this world, our own success, our own having a house and a car and a lawnmower to mow the lawn with—all of these things that we accumulate on this earth.
Now, fortunately, there’s one thing that’s good about getting older. The older we get, the more we realize that these are not the things that make up the real guts of life. These are not the things that really count. What we are able to accumulate is not what counts.
What really counts, brothers and sisters, is who is Lord of your life. That’s what really counts.
Because if there’s a kingdom in view, that means there is a king. And so, who is king of your life? Is it you, or is it our Lord Jesus Christ?
Well, brothers and sisters, if it is our Lord Jesus Christ, He says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.” But often we reverse it. We seek these things first, and we ask the Lord to bless us with these things. We have little thought, frankly, concerning the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord says it’s an hour in which we have to repent not only of our love for the world, but of religious things as well. You know, last week Kenny shared on Nicodemus. “You must be born again,” was the Lord’s word to Nicodemus.
Nicodemus was a very good Pharisee. He was one who really was interested in who the Lord was and interested in God’s kingdom. He thought, in his heart, that what he may need was a little adjustment in his life—something that he had missed.
He’d been a good man all of his life. He’d searched the Scriptures all of his life. He was faithful all of his life, and he realized that this One was different from all the rest that he knew. He came to Him, wanting to know how to enter the kingdom of God.
The Lord said to him, “You must be born again.” And he didn’t understand. He had a religious mind. His mind was toward the things of God, but he really needed to repent even of his own knowledge and goodness, because it was keeping him from seeing who the Lord Jesus really was.
Now, that doesn’t mean that we should throw our Bibles away. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t think and consider the things of the Lord Jesus, because we should. But these things should always lead us to Him.
And we know that the Lord spoke to the Pharisees and generally said, “Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of Me.” And, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
So they needed to repent—even the good ones—for the kingdom of heaven was at hand.
Who are we submitting to today? Who is king of our lives? Brothers and sisters, I think Jerry Amon needs to repent. Who is king of my life? Who am I submitting to?
If the kingdom of God is at hand, should not I be submitting and obeying the King? That is what is important in this hour. So we need to repent. Our minds and hearts need to change in view of the hour in which we live. We need to be prepared and ready for the King.
We need to repent of what we are in ourselves. Repent that we have not really followed the Lord Jesus.
Last week, our brother Kenny said, I think when he was speaking of Nicodemus, that the Lord spoke to Nicodemus and said, “Except ye be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Except ye be born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
Not only can’t you enter it, you can’t even see it. You can’t understand it unless you’re born again. In other words, you need the life of Christ in you. You must be born anew. You must have Christ’s life in you.
And that only comes when you are willing to submit yourself to Him as Lord and King of your life and accept Him as your Savior.
We must accept Him as our Savior, brothers and sisters, but that is not, frankly, what God is after. He wants to be King of your life. He’s establishing a kingdom. That is what is on His heart.
What is the purpose of being born again?
Our brother spoke on being born again last week. I think he made it very clear that the things of God are spirit and not flesh, and that that which is born of the flesh will always be flesh. In other words, the life that you receive from your mother and father will always be that Adamic life that the Lord Jesus has rejected.
So we must be born by a spiritual birth, born from above, it says, born by the Holy Spirit. But, brothers and sisters, is being born again God’s purpose for your life? Is just being born again His purpose?
In other words, when He gets everybody saved that He wants to save, then it’s over? He’s done His will? His purpose has been fulfilled?
No, brothers and sisters. Being born again is a necessary part of God’s redemptive plan, but it is not His purpose. His purpose is to have a kingdom—a kingdom on this earth.
His purpose—listen carefully—is not to fill up heaven. Often, when we share with others and we want them to accept Jesus as their Savior, we say, “Yes, if you’re saved, you will not perish. You will live eternally and in heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Well, you know, heaven will come, but there’s a thousand years that precedes that, called the kingdom age.
Brothers and sisters, if we indeed are just satisfied with being saved, if we think that’s what the Christian life is all about, if that is the end of our Christian life, then we’ve fallen far short of the glory that God intended.
His purpose is to have a kingdom. We need to be born again that we can enter that kingdom. And once we’re born again, then we can be a part of His kingdom. We can enter into God’s purpose.
In the Word of God, it says—one that I didn’t happen to read—that it is His heart to bring many sons to glory. Now, what does that mean? What is His glory?
Well, T. Austin-Sparks said, “Glory is when God is satisfied”—not when man is satisfied, but when God is satisfied.
By being saved, by accepting the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we are satisfied in the sense that we know we will have eternal life and that we’ll live forever with Him. That satisfies us. But this is not God’s glory, because we haven’t yet satisfied Him.
Brothers and sisters, He desires to have a kingdom. That is His desire. It will be glorious on that day when He is able to bring many sons to glory.
Now notice, He doesn’t say He will bring all of His sons, all of His children, to glory, but many sons to glory.
We are not ready. My concern is Jerry Amon. I’ll put it in the very present tense: Jerry Amon doesn’t sense that he’s ready for the kingdom. And yet this is God’s purpose.
God died on Calvary’s cross for my sins, but He wanted more than that. He wants me to follow Him. He wants me to become a son—one who is responsible and can take up and administer with Him in His kingdom during the thousand years.
Brothers and sisters, this is glory, because that’s what is going to satisfy God’s heart.
Yes, all of heaven sings when one comes to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. But let me give you an analogy. Very frankly, it’s very much like a baby when it’s born—like my grandson when he was born two and a half years ago. I mean, he was just a little baby. We all rejoiced. We were so thrilled.
But there’s more to life than being born. God has created man that man might become a part of His kingdom and be a participant in that kingdom.
So, what must we do to be ready? Well, I kind of got it down to a couple of very simple thoughts.
First, you must be born again. If there’s anyone in this room that isn’t born again, you might even not know what I’m saying. But basically, what it means is that you haven’t been born by the Spirit of God.
Yes, you’ve been born by your parents, and God has overseen you and watched you all your life. He’s been drawing you to Himself all your life. But there comes a point in your life when you must realize you need a Savior. You must realize your sins have to be paid for.
And He has died for you to pay for your sin. It’s very fundamental. But not only that: He has died for you that you might become His child, His spiritual child, a part of His family, and a part of His kingdom—not a passive child in His kingdom, but one who is active in His kingdom.
So we must be born again.
Secondly, I think it really boils down to this: He must be King of your life. He must be Lord of your life—Lord and King.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord is not satisfied with just saving someone. You have a purpose, and for your purpose to be fulfilled, He’s got to be Lord of your life. You’ve got to be willing to obey and take direction from Him as King. Otherwise, there’s no kingdom.
The Word says in 2 Peter 1:10, “Make your calling and election sure.” And in Matthew 20:16, the Lord said, “Many are called, but few are chosen.”
Make your calling and election sure. Many are called, and few are chosen.
Most of the Christian world thinks these two verses apply to that initial salvation, apply to being born again. There are two schools of thought.
One, I think, is more Methodist in nature. They look at those Scriptures and say, “Make your calling and election sure. Many are called, but few are chosen.” Now, if this applies to Christians, then this means you can lose your salvation.
In other words, they are looking at these Scriptures in view of our initial salvation in Christ, and so they have come to the conclusion that the only way they can reconcile this Scripture is that you can lose your salvation. If you don’t remain faithful, you’ll lose your salvation.
But there are others—and I was a Baptist, and my background was Baptist—and they know from Romans 11:29, it says, “The calling of God is irrevocable.” The calling of God is irrevocable.
In other words, brothers and sisters, when you do come to the Lord Jesus, when He gives you that spiritual life and you’re born again, He can’t unbirth you. I mean, what He brings to birth is born.
And they saw that, and they stand on that. So they look at it, and the only way they can reconcile these two Scriptures is to say that it applies to unbelievers.
They say that the many who need to make their calling and election sure are unbelievers who need to accept Christ. And the many who are called but few are chosen are also unbelievers because, frankly, God does seek every man. He died for every man, but only a few choose Him.
So they say, “Well, it applies to unbelievers.” Brothers and sisters, they’re both partially right. This does apply to Christians, and our calling in God, our birth in Christ, is irrevocable. So in that sense, they are both right. But the application is wrong.
The application has to do with the kingdom—coming into the kingdom of God—not being saved or not.
In other words, as far as the kingdom goes, He says, “Make your calling and election sure.” Even not all Christians will be able to reign and rule with Christ during that thousand-year millennium period.
That’s why the Lord says—or Peter says—“Make your calling and election sure.” And in Matthew 20:16 it says, “Many are called, but few are chosen.”
So how do we make our election sure? Once again, I think the answer is pretty simple. He has to be King of your life now. Then He can be King of your life during the millennium.
If He’s not King of your life now, are you suddenly going to change in an instant and make Him your King? No, because at the judgment seat of Christ, brothers and sisters, all Christians will be judged on our life before the Lord Jesus once we become a Christian.
At the judgment seat of Christ, He will reward those who need to be rewarded, and He will rebuke those who need to be rebuked. It says those whom He rewards will enter into His joy, and they will rule over many things. They will reign and rule with Him for a thousand years.
So this matter of calling and election—your calling and election, your appointment, the choosing of God of you—is related to the kingdom of God. He has chosen you. He has elected you to be a part of His kingdom.
In the Lord’s Prayer, think about it. When the Lord was asked, “What should I pray? How should I pray?” what was the Lord’s response?
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
Yes, in John 3:16 it says:
For God so loved the world,
That He gave His only begotten Son,
That whosoever believeth on Him should not perish,
But have eternal life.
It is God’s heart that none should perish. But, brothers and sisters, God’s heart is to establish His kingdom on this earth. And that is why He is saying, “Make your calling and election sure.”
Well, we need to know what the kingdom is. There are two fundamental definitions of the kingdom of God, and they both apply at the same time.
The umbrella definition, the overall definition, as I would say, is this: the kingdom of God is the realm in which God rules and has authority—the realm in which He rules and has authority.
In other words, His authority rules over all things. He rules, we know, over all of His creation.
Daniel, in the book of Daniel—what was the point of the book of Daniel? I’ll tell you, because I think most of you know anyway. It says that men might know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men. It says He raises up kings and He puts down kings.
In other words, His authority is over all of His creation. So, in that sense, that is the kingdom of God: wherever His authority is.
But there is another definition that is more restrictive in scope. Actually, it deals more with the scope of the kingdom—the limits, the boundaries of the kingdom.
And what is that? It is where the character and nature of God is expressed. There is the kingdom. Where the character and nature of God is expressed, there is the kingdom of God.
Now, that’s why when the Lord Jesus Christ said, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand,” He was saying those words as a full expression of the character and nature of God. So the kingdom of God was in their midst. The kingdom of God was right there.
And He says, “You need to repent, for the kingdom of God is here.”
So these are those two definitions: the broad umbrella definition, wherever He rules; but then there is this narrow scope into which us Christians are called—the kingdom of God.
Now, we know that He rules over all things, but not all things are subject to Him. There is rebellion upon this earth. Not all people come under His authority. Even Christians don’t always come under His rule and authority, do we?
And in that sense, the part of your life that is not submissive to God is not a part of His kingdom. The scope of His kingdom is where His character and nature is expressed.
In fact, some are opposed to His kingdom. We see that in Lucifer.
Now, brothers and sisters, you need to know that our Lord Jesus did not create Satan. I’ve heard that argument, that He created Satan. Actually, He created Lucifer, and there’s a big difference.
Lucifer was the one who changed himself into Satan. He changed himself in character and nature because he became self-centered.
Self-desire ruled his life. He wanted to become—he wanted to take the place of Christ. Not in suffering, of course, but he wanted to take the place that He had on the throne in eternity past.
He was self-centered. He began to think of himself, who he was, how great he was, all the skills and attributes that he had. They think he was probably the highest of the created beings that God had created.
And he fell through his self-consciousness and self-desire.
According to the Word, he was cast out of heaven. We think his realm was apparently around this earth, because all of God’s creation was good. It had to all be in harmony until this point in history, and disharmony entered God’s kingdom.
Satan was cast out. It says a third of the angels followed him. A third followed him.
Now, you need to know this also, brothers and sisters: hell was not created for man. Hell was created for the fallen angels.
It’s who we follow that determines where we end up. If we follow Satan, we will follow him into hell. If we follow our Lord Jesus, we will follow Him into heaven and, hopefully, into His kingdom.
Well, that’s a little sidetrack. Let me get back on track.
Lucifer fell. The earth became dark and void. That was the enemy’s work. It was in chaos, it says. But the Holy Spirit was hovering over the earth, and the Lord moved.
What did He do? He created man. He created Adam. And what did He tell Adam? He told Adam to subdue the earth—to bring it, basically, back under God’s authority, to bring the kingdom of God, of heaven, to this earth.
That was Adam’s responsibility. And how would he do this? He would do this by obeying God and by taking of the tree of life.
If he had taken of the tree of life, he would have begun partaking of the nature and character of God. Through obedience, that character and nature would have come forth through the eating of the tree of life, which is Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, His kingdom would begin to fill this earth as more and more children were born. Eventually Satan would be put out. His kingdom was to fill this earth.
But we know that Adam failed in obedience, right? He disobeyed God. He ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He disobeyed God, and in disobeying God he became subject to the enemy.
He was now in the kingdom of darkness rather than God’s kingdom, the kingdom of life.
Well, that’s what being born again is all about, brothers and sisters. It’s to bring us out of that kingdom of darkness that we’re in back into the kingdom of life. But basically, Adam failed in his calling to bring the kingdom upon this earth.
Then God sent His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He, brothers and sisters, represented the scope of the kingdom of heaven. He represented God’s character and nature.
Through His death on the cross, He destroyed the Adamic nature. In other words, man as He knew it was ended, and He was starting a new creation. Out of Christ, brothers and sisters, the kingdom of God would come to this earth.
When we accept Jesus Christ—I hope this isn’t too complicated—we have the potential to expand the scope of His kingdom on this earth.
When we accept Jesus Christ, we have the potential to expand the scope of the kingdom. Now, I use the word potential because, brothers and sisters, we can become a Christian, but if we begin to live our life our own way, if we follow our own counsel, if we really don’t love the Lord and look to the Lord in obedience to Him, we’re not expanding His kingdom.
We don’t represent His kingdom, because that is not His nature and character.
Brothers and sisters, when we are born again, it’s like a newborn babe, and that life has to grow. Unless we’re willing to take up the cross, follow our Lord Jesus, obey Him, and make Him King of our lives, then the kingdom in your life will not be expanded.
But you see, this is the way the kingdom is intended to come upon this earth.
Now, we also know—let me tie this in—the church: Christ is Head of the church, and the church is the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. So it’s not just the kingdom life in you. It’s also the kingdom life in me, all joined in one.
It brings in the fullness of the nature and character of Jesus Christ.
One day, the word will go out: “The bride hath made herself ready.” The church is ready, and Christ will return.
There will be the judgment seat of Christ, and there it will be decided who will follow Him into the kingdom and who will have to have some remedial work done. I’ll put it that way. I’ll be gentle.
He will set up His earthly kingdom, and the faithful will reign and rule with Him on this earth for a thousand years.
During this kingdom age, Israel will be restored as the primary nation, and they will actually be the ones who will carry out the good news to the rest of the earth.
There will also—I didn’t mention it—the judgment of the nations: sheep nations and goat nations. Some of the nations, some of the unsaved, will remain. God will make that choice.
Israel will carry out—the people of Israel, the Jews will carry out—the message of God.
Also, brothers and sisters, during that time, the lion will lie down with the lamb. It will be an age, a thousand years of peace.
It also says that our Lord Jesus will rule with a rod of righteousness. In other words, righteousness will prevail. There will be no more ifs, ands, and buts—no more gray area.
There’s a big argument going on today that we have to realize we live in a gray world. Nothing is really black nor white. Well, in that day, brothers and sisters, there are not going to be any questions. It’ll be righteous or it’s not. If it’s not righteous, it’ll immediately be dealt with.
It will reflect Him during that age. It’s a glorious age because everything will be restored to its original purpose.
That will be a glorious calling. Brothers and sisters, that is our calling in Christ. That’s the glorious calling—not just to be saved, not just to get your ticket to heaven, not just to have your fire insurance so you know you won’t burn in hell.
All of those things are all true. The Lord’s heart is the kingdom, and He wants us to be a part of it. That’s why we’re called, or encouraged, to make our calling and election sure.
Now, I share all that as a preview to what is on my heart—the background. Brothers and sisters, every one counts.
Brothers and sisters, we need to see our great calling in Jesus Christ. We need to see, frankly, how far short we’ve fallen of this glory, of what God is really after.
He wants us to represent and reflect Christ on this earth.
Now, my concern is that often we fall into this trap of thinking that we don’t matter.
“It doesn’t matter about worship or prayer. Other brothers and sisters who are more spiritual than I can take up that ministry before the Lord. I’m really not that spiritual. I’m really just a brother—no name.”
Brothers and sisters, we all are no names except for Christ, but He knows your name.
He knows every hair. I don’t know why He chooses to number the hairs on our head. I can only say mine are fewer than they used to be, and they also are much grayer than they used to be. But He seems to be concerned about us.
It says a sparrow does not fall to the ground that He does not know about. Now, you know, a sparrow is a relatively insignificant bird or animal, and yet the Lord cares about the sparrow enough that He says, “Any sparrow on this earth, if it falls to the ground, I know about it.”
That’s how much He cares about His creation. How much more He must care about you and me, brothers and sisters, because we are the only part of His creation that was created in His image.
We are the only part of His creation that can contain His life, that can express His character and nature. Now, it’s true that the heavens and everything else express His glory, but His actual character and nature—brothers and sisters—only man can do that. Only a redeemed man can do that.
Job said, “My days are past, and my purposes are broken.” In other words, Job started out great, but then all this tragedy happened in his life, and it was like, “It’s all over.”
Job had taken the position that his life with God was really over. If you read the story of Job, you can understand why he felt that way.
But, brothers and sisters, that is not the Lord’s heart. The Lord’s heart says, “I have an expected end for you. I have chosen you.”
Brothers and sisters, He chose you before the foundation of the world. You need to know that, in that sense, you’re very special to the Lord.
Let me say this: the Lord doesn’t make a mistake. Sometimes we think the Lord made a mistake in choosing us, that He even accepted us when we came to Him, because we frankly know what we are, and we know how bad we’ve become and what we aren’t.
What we do is kind of go on in that way of thinking, thinking that the Lord will no longer really care for us. That is absolutely not true. The Lord loves you dearly. He cares for us all—every one.
Brothers and sisters, we do need to repent. We do need to come back to the Lord, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He has great glory in view for you, and we don’t want to miss that.
Recently, I was talking to a brother, and he said, “Jerry, I don’t want to do anything that I’m going to have to repent of. I don’t want to do anything that will be wasting my time now. I need to be ready for the Lord’s return.”
You know, that’s true. That’s true. We’re in that hour. Well, the Lord doesn’t make mistakes, brothers and sisters. He chose you.
In the parable of the talents, it is very critical. He gave out His talents, His gifts, according to the measure of each.
Now, often we look at brothers and sisters, those who speak, and we say, “Well, there are the spiritual ones.” Our brothers that serve in ministry, or share the gospel, or are evangelists—we say, “Well, they are the spiritual ones.”
Brothers and sisters, what you’re looking at is the talent.
Let me say it this way: the five-talent brother is no more spiritual than the one-talent brother.
It says the Lord gave out His talents, His gifts, according to the measure of each. Now, what does that mean? That means the Lord designed each one of us, and He already determined how many talents He wants you and me to have.
We don’t know why, but sovereignly He’s chosen some to have one talent, some to have two talents, some to have three talents, four talents, five talents.
But He’s designed you that way because He wants you that way. He loves you that way. He doesn’t want you to be a five-talent person. If He did, He would have given you five talents.
See, we disregard, brothers and sisters, what the Lord is doing. We think, “Well, I only have one talent.” Some of us would say, “Well, I don’t even know what that is.”
But we all have a gift of the Lord, and He says, “You need to use it.” He told them all—all three of them had to double what they had. The requirement, frankly, was the same for all. They had to double what they had.
So His expectation was that all would double what they had.
But the one guy said—you know, the same thing—“This one talent doesn’t really mean that much,” or, “I must not be very spiritual, or the Lord would have given me some other gifts.”
Boy, if we miss what the Lord is saying. The Lord has uniquely designed you with one talent that is absolutely necessary for His kingdom. He has designed you in a special way.
It’s a beautiful thing for Him to see that one-talent person functioning, doubling it to two.
Now, He had some very harsh words for this brother who decided not to use his talent, who just said, “Well, I’m kind of useless. I’m too little. I’m not spiritual enough.” He said, “You’re a wicked servant.”
I thought about it: why would He call him a wicked servant? And you know why I think he’s a wicked servant?
It’s because he was so uniquely designed and blessed by the Lord, and he disregarded it. He disregarded it.
The Lord said, “That’s wickedness. Never disregard what I’ve given to you.”
So, brothers and sisters, it’s extremely important that we see this. I don’t know what you think of me or what you think of other brothers and sisters. We look at brothers and sisters and we tend to say, “Well, we think this one’s more spiritual.”
Brothers and sisters, all in the body of Christ are intended to reign and rule with Christ in His kingdom. I don’t care if you’re one talent or five talents. You’re to reign and rule with Him in His kingdom, and He’s developing you for that.
So, brothers and sisters, never count yourself out. If you’ve counted yourself out, you are a wicked servant.
You know, often we need the Lord to open our eyes because we tend to evaluate ourselves wrongly. We go to extremes.
We say, “Oh, I’m totally no good. I’m totally unspiritual. I can never pray in a meeting. I can never worship openly.” Or we go to the other extreme and think too much of ourselves and think that everybody thinks we’re spiritual.
That seems to be the extremes that man goes to.
Brothers and sisters, in the Lord, you’re most precious. Everyone in this room—everyone in this room.
I wish I could get this across by the power of God: that you could see how much the Lord cares for you and the glory He has designed for each one of us.
He’s got a special place in the administration of His kingdom for you. I don’t know what that place is. I don’t know what mine would be. But He’s already got a place for you.
The problem is some are not going to function, and they’re not going to get an opportunity to serve in what God has designed for them.
So how are those empty spots going to be filled? The Lord said it in the talents. He says, “Take away this one from this one and give it to those that have already done it.”
So basically, those that do end up serving in the kingdom will have all the talents necessary that the kingdom can run as the Lord would have it, and each can serve in fullness.
So don’t count yourselves out.
Let me try to get to these last couple of points quickly. In 2 Peter 1:3, it says that we’re called according to God’s glory and virtue.
In Romans 9, it says we’re not called according to our works, but we’re called according to the Lord who calls us. “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy.”
In other words, we’ve been called according to His glory, according to His virtue, and according to His mercy. It is mercy, brothers and sisters, that the Lord has chosen you and me. It is mercy.
Before the foundation of the world, He made that choice. He made that choice, and He chose you. That is mercy.
He chose according to His glory. And, brothers and sisters, that means that He chose you that you would one day come into the fullness of what He has for you, and that will bring glory.
He chose you according to His glory. And His glory, brothers and sisters, is not that you might just get saved, get your fire insurance, and one day be in heaven with Him.
No, it’s that you might be a subject in His kingdom and a part of that glorious day and His kingdom.
He calls us according to glory. Brothers and sisters, I hope we see: I’m not trying to demean being saved. It’s just the beginning. We can’t fall short of His glory.
He calls us according to His virtue. What is this virtue? Righteousness and holiness.
It says that He will reign during that thousand years in righteousness. We know that the cherubim cried out:
Holy, holy, holy,
Is the Lord God, the Almighty.
Holiness and righteousness. He calls you.
There are two interpretations. One is that He calls you by His glory and by His virtue, or by His righteousness and holiness. The other is that He calls you into His glory and His righteousness.
Brothers and sisters, we know that we have the robe of righteousness, right? That golden robe. When we accept Christ, God puts a robe on us. That is the righteousness of Christ, and when God looks at you, He sees the robe. Therefore, you can enter into His presence.
But He also wants us to have that woven garment. Remember the woven garment, which is the righteousness of the saints. In other words, that righteousness of God needs to be worked into your life. The holiness of God needs to be worked into your life.
So we’ve been called into that. So it’s by His power. What a calling, brothers and sisters. Every one counts.
Not only has He called you, brothers and sisters, with a glorious calling, but He’s made all the provision for you to be successful.
All of His grace is available to us that we might not fail in our calling. He supplied us with grace.
The life that you received when you accepted Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, is not a wimpy life. It doesn’t just keel over with opposition. We do, but that life of the Lord doesn’t.
That life of the Lord is victorious. That life of the Lord overcame death. That life of the Lord can raise you up out of the pit. It can raise you up from anything in your life. It can raise you into victory. That’s the life that you have.
And it’s by this life that we grow in the character and nature of Christ. It grows and it expands the kingdom of God on this earth.
In Ephesians 1:3, it says He’s blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. He didn’t say a few—one or two blessings. Every spiritual blessing that you need, He’s blessed you with.
In Romans 8:31, He says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” These are the precious promises. We take them up. If we stand on these promises, brothers and sisters, we won’t be defeated.
If God is for you, who can be against you?
The Lord Jesus is now not only your Apostle, but your High Priest. He’s in heaven praying for you. We have the anointing of the Holy Spirit within to lead us and guide us.
We don’t have to have the law to tell us what to do and what not to do. We have the anointing within, the voice within, that tells us for guidance.
Brothers and sisters, don’t let the enemy deceive you into thinking you don’t matter and that you don’t count.
We need to deny ourselves, even that self that wants to withdraw because it thinks it’s not worthy. That self-life, whether it’s good or bad, or seems to be good or bad, brothers and sisters, we need to take it to the cross of Calvary.
That life in Christ—we need to obey Him.
Brothers and sisters, actually, we can bring the kingdom of God to earth today. We are doing that as the life of Christ grows and develops and is manifest in you and in the church. The kingdom of God is expanding.
One day it will culminate when the Lord says, “Okay, the bride is ready.” Then we will enter into the kingdom age.
Now, this last thought. Bear with me a few more minutes.
I read out of 1 Chronicles about David’s three mighty men. When David said, “You know, my heart desires some water from the well in Bethlehem,” it says these three men broke through the ranks of the Philistines, went and got that water, and brought it back to David.
I thought it was interesting that the Bible said these were the three mightiest. These were the three.
There are others that he names who stood in the fields, slew three hundred Philistines with the sword; one who fought, I think, with a lion in a snowy pit, it says, and overcame; others who stood their ground and saved the wheat field from the Philistines.
I mean, it names a number of things of mighty men, but it says these three were the three mightiest.
They didn’t win any great battle, did they? What did they do? They simply went and got a cup of water for David.
Now, here’s the point.
To David, that cup of water meant everything. He knew that the kingdom was to be his, and there was that cup of water.
He wasn’t able to drink of the well of Bethlehem because he wasn’t king yet. He knew the Lord had appointed him to be king.
He said, “I thirst.” Our Lord Jesus said, “I thirst.” He said, “I thirst for this water from the well of Bethlehem.”
These men were considered the three mightiest, brothers and sisters, because they heard God’s heart—I mean, they heard David’s heart.
Do you hear God’s heart? Are you going to respond like these three mighty men?
What was on David’s heart was that simple cup of water in the well of Bethlehem. It was a simple desire. He didn’t ask them to conquer thousands of troops.
They went, and in jeopardy of their lives, they went and got that cup of water.
I’m not able to say it very well, apparently. Brothers and sisters, the kingdom is on the Lord’s heart, and your place in the kingdom is on the Lord’s heart.
That’s what His desire is. Now, are we going to serve His desire, or are we just going to be doing great and good things for Him?
There’s a tremendous difference. It’s a tremendous difference between fulfilling God’s heart and God’s desire and doing grand and glorious and great things for Him.
Because ultimately, what matters is what the desire of His heart is.
These men were not interested in their own safety, taking care of themselves, getting the water for themselves—only meeting the desire of David’s heart.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord’s Prayer. He told them to pray. He says, “Pray, ‘Our Father who art in heaven.’”
This reveals God’s heart. “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Is God your Father? Do you really see that He is a Father who loves you and desires that you be a part of the kingdom where His Son reigns as King?
That’s the Father’s heart. He’s a good Father. He gives you all the spiritual blessings in Christ. He looks after you. He’s given you the Holy Spirit. He’s a good Father.
And He’s got something on His heart.
“Hallowed be Thy name.” In other words, we hallow the Lord’s name, frankly, by obeying Him. We hallow the Lord’s name by being submissive to Him. We hallow the Lord’s name in righteousness and holiness.
And then the Lord said, “Pray this way: ‘Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’”
“Thy kingdom come, and Thy will be done on earth and in heaven.” That’s God’s heart. The kingdom of heaven will come to this earth. His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Brothers and sisters, I pray that our heart is to please the Lord. Those are the ones He considers the mighty—not the ones that are doing a lot of things, but the ones that really are pleasing the Lord.
He says, “I want My kingdom to come on this earth.” He’s speaking both of the kingdom that will come as the nature and life of Christ in you is expressed, and in the church is expressed.
But one day it will culminate in the kingdom age itself, when He’ll reign and rule.
Brothers and sisters, this is glory. It’s God’s glory. We have the privilege. May we not lose that privilege.
Brothers and sisters, more than anything, don’t feel like you don’t count. If you do feel that way, it’s a lie of the enemy. Reject it.
Accept the Lord’s love for you. Accept His desire for you. Accept His life for you. Brothers and sisters, let us go back to the Lord. Let us repent of the way we think.
Lord, we come to Thee today. We worship Thee. We honor Thee. We count Thee as King and Lord.
Lord, we say, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Amen.