This sermon emphasizes the need for humility and radical obedience to God, contrasting the world's definition of triumph with God's definition. It challenges listeners to allow the King, Jesus, to establish His kingdom in their hearts, leading to a life of meekness, suffering, and devotion to God's will. The speaker highlights the importance of forsaking worldly possessions and comforts to fully embrace the kingdom of God, even if it means facing rejection and persecution.

Sermon Index Classics, featuring the vintage audio sermons from the past century. Welcome again to Sermon Index and today's program featuring some of the best sermons preached in the last century. This program is provided by the Ministry of Sermon Index. For more messages, log on to our website, www.SermonIndex.com. Now here's today's program. Into His Kingdom. The first account of it is given in the Gospel of Matthew in the 21st chapter. And while you're turning, can I just say something to you about the nature of words? Have you recognized the kind of ill usage to which they're being put in this day? Are you jealous over the integrity of language and that words should have meaning? Do you wince when the world adopts such slogans as have faith in a Buick or even a precious word like all? And great grace was upon them all and it's become the name of a detergent. We need to brew jealously over sacred things as language that God gives. And in that, we need to dote a little bit when God refers to this episode as a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. I'll tell you then it's not the triumph that the world knows in triumph because the world's definition of triumph has everything to do with braggadocio, inflatedness, brazen human pomp, ceremony, all the kinds of carnal things that in which men love to wallow. If this is triumphal as the world knows it, I'll eat the book. But then what do we say about the word passion? When the sufferings of Jesus are described as the passion of the Lord and that word has come now into modern times to mean some kind of heavy breathing and palpitation over the most filthy, carnal, sensual kinds of things. May I ask you a question tonight? In whose mindset are you living? What vocabulary do you dwell? The world's or God's? I'll tell you, dear children, that if you'll take the word of God seriously and have your reality established in the world, in the word, it'll change everything. The word is a radical premise, and somehow the spirit of things hokey has had such sway with us that we have been partially numbed, that we spit it out as if it were some kind of, I don't know what, cheapie. It's become the subject of Bible studies and sermonizings. You know what I'm talking about? I'm not knocking Bible studies, except Bible studies as some kind of religious affication, a sideshow, instead of living by the word. I've never understood from the earliest believing why it is that saints don't find themselves more frequently on their faces before God because of the word. I've never understood why there are not more of us with spittle running from the corners of our mouths and our eyes glazed and rolled back into our skulls, confronted by the power and the radicality of these words. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all things else will be added unto you. That ye shall live by faith, have unfeigned love one toward another, confess your faults one to another. I'll tell you that if we ever did what God says, if we ever apprehend what God means, we'll be devastated. The word of God is a radical premise. It's a radical author who's given it because the invitation is to a radical lifestyle altogether different from that which is known in the world, for which our conventional Sunday Christianity is some kind of farcical caricature. How do you say that, cats? How do you dare presume to say that? Because I'm not only speaking as the mouth of God, but I'm seeing as God sees. I have utter and perfect confidence that what I'm saying is God's perception. He looks down on earth and he winces at that shallow Jacob-type religion of convenience which men practice of a Sunday. While their effectual and real lives are lived in the world and according to the premises and the values of the world, the Sunday thing is an afterthought, an adornment, not the foundation of their being, and our God is grieving. There will only be a kingdom on the earth when men shall have their reality established in his word and throw all caution to the winds and live as abandoned children of the kingdom trusting God, yea, though he slay us. Well, isn't it interesting that the last time that I spoke from this text, it was on Palm Sunday in Jerusalem, whereby the arrangement of God, I was the speaker at the leading charismatic work in that city, on the very day when the Israeli troops were going up into Lebanon, we arrived in Israel at the very night when that violence broke out with the terrorists that come aboard in their dinghies and we couldn't even get to our hotel, it was cordoned off, they thought that some of the terrorists had escaped and it was quite a hectic night and there was a fever in the air already, the spirit of retaliation. Men who were thunderstruck and angered and bitter that again, they were victims of violence, of terrorism, and indeed as we went up to Galilee, that next day we saw the tank carriers, the military equipment, the heavy equipment, troop convoys going up the same roads, and that very night of our first meeting in Galilee, our meeting was punctuated by the sound of shells and the whines of jets as they began that first softening up for what was that retaliatory attack in Lebanon. And then we came into Jerusalem on Sunday, Palm Sunday, as the major Israeli forces going up into Lebanon, God gave me this text, of a Jesus who came down from the Mount of Olives on the back of an ass, upon which never man sat. And I said something like that that day, that angered some of the Jewish believers that were there, and perhaps has lost me some esteem with them, and perhaps even the prospect of ever again speaking in such a place, but I said that God will increase the vexations of Israel, he will multiply their crises, until they learn that their salvation is not to be found in the arm of flesh, that troop carriers are not going to save them, that armaments and jets and retaliatory strikes are not the answer for terrorism, because the ironic thing is, it multiplies terrorism, it creates new waves of anger and bitterness and reprisal, to which you again respond, to which they again respond, in an ever deepening spiral of suffering and death. There's only one answer for Israel, and it's God's answer for all mankind, it's not to go up in the strength of flesh, it's to go down in the humility of Jesus, on the back of an ass. That alone is triumphal. So when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, were come to, I don't know how you pronounce that, Beth Phage, or Phage, or unto the Mount of Olives, and they sent, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying, Unto them, go ye into the village over against you, and straight away you shall find an ass tied and a colt with her, loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say, Ought unto you, you shall say, The Lord hath needed them, and straight away he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, a colt, the foal of an ass. And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set them thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way, others cut down branches from the trees, and strode them in the way. And the multitudes that went before and that followed cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the heaps of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, which ye have made it at the end of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. When the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David, they were sore displeased. As we read these accounts tonight, will you extend yourself to see this as more than just an historical description? Although it is that, and perfectly accurate, it is yet something more. You know what the something more is? It is the definitive pattern of God, which ye accept that it be fulfilled in exactly the spirit of what we are reading. We shall not hear again in the earth, Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. I think one of the sickliest symptoms of our present feeble Christianity is the phrase, In the name of the Lord. It has almost become like a kind of abracadabra, a formula, that if you rub the genie lamp in the name of Jesus, that we are going to see some kind of a miraculous result. And you notice how people think that if they raise the volume of their voices, that the result will be the greater. In the name of Jesus! There is one whole denomination, I understand, that has made such a cultic thing out of the name, that your baptism is invalidated, except that you have been baptized in the formula that they prescribe. Carnal men, in every generation. But may I say to you tonight, that this is sacred stuff. That there is a God who is watching over his work to perform it. That there was a reason why the king had to come in the fulfillment of the scriptures spoken in Zachariah. Behold thy king cometh unto thee lowly and meek, riding on the back of an ass, the foal, the colt of an ass. It was one of the most profound prophetic requirements that the Messiah had to fulfill. Because God had to establish for all generations what is the definitive character of the kingdom, which was demonstrated by the king himself in the manner by which he came into his own holy city. The kingdom shall never come in any other way, except this way, on the back of an ass. And if we've made a hokey formula out of the name of the Lord, and thought by increasing the volume to make it impressive, we've also become equally flamboyant in our Christianity. Great attention to personalities, and we see what's happened by the mail that we receive, the Christian mailings, and all of the other kinds of attention to method, to technique, to soliciting funds, to establishing works or forwarding works that has become normative in this hour, which is a contradiction to the character of the king exhibited in these verses. It more employs and reflects the spirit of the world than the spirit of the kingdom. Mass mailings, employing computers and mail outs, on the principle that the world has long recognized that if you send out enough pieces, there's going to be a percentage of response that will compensate for the expense and then some. And we can go on multiplying and giving illustration of the things with which we're all familiar that contradict the spirit of the kingdom. Meanwhile the stones are not crying out, nor do we hear the voice of men in joy shouting Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, for we've not yet come in that name which is to say in the quintessential spirit of the kingdom which is shown forth by the king in his own triumphal entry. Ever been to Mount of Olives? I'll tell you, in a certain sense, Israel is a gross disappointment if you're a romantic. It's not at all a mount, it's a scrubby hill. And the Jordan is not at all an impressive flood, it's a little muddy stream. If you look at these things with the natural eye, but if you see them as God intends by the spirit, he'll always choose the scrubby and the inauspicious and the uncomely and the unappetizing to reveal and to show forth his greater glory. If you're looking for pomp and flamboyance, you'll miss it. But however unimpressive the Mount of Olives is as a mount, this much is true, it is precipitous. It is steep and we walked on it on a recent journey there and it takes every kind of effort to hold your balance as you lurch your way down. Can you picture then the sight that Jesus must have presented in that day? It was a picture of absurdity and utter foolishness and weakness. Who for God's sake would subscribe to such a king as this? This man astride that little beast, which says in the Gospel of Mark, and I'd have you to turn to that now, the 11th chapter, that you shall find a colt tied whereon never man sat. I don't know that God will use anything upon which man has sat for his kingdom purposes. I don't know that he'll use anything that is painted with the stink of man. I don't think that he'll use anything that has had any opportunity to have the subtle interfusing of the ambitions of men with his kingdom purpose. He wants an ass upon which never man sat. No man has taken advantage of it. No one is coming down the hillside with him to share in the glory of that kingdom, it says. A colt, the foal of an ass, some weak-limbed little thing that has not yet come to full stature and strength, supporting the weight of a fully grown man, lurching down the precipitous slopes of the Mount of Olives to come in to the holy city. I'll tell you, if we were there that day, would we have clasped our hands over our mouths and tittered and laughed or cried? Would we have been disgusted and contempt at so lowly a picture of this, that altogether contradicts every fleshly, human, natural desire of what a king ought to be? Or would we have shouted Hosanna in the highest? You want to know something, children? It's the same issue now as then. I don't know of any single factor that keeps my Jewish people from the recognition of who this Jesus is, though Pontius Pilate said, are you the king of Israel? And his answer was, thou sayest. And over his head in three languages for all time and eternity, Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews. When are we going to wake up and say Hosanna in the highest? I'll tell you what's keeping us from it. We're too much part of the spirit of this world. We're a bumptious and arrogant people. We're hot shots. We love the things that are swollen and ambitious. We love the demonstration of power and human strength and expertise. We like to work our way out of it with our own minds. We're great hustlers, son of a gun, are the kinds of things that Jewish fathers will say for their sons who are aggressive and are making way for themselves, kick off the old block. Applauding all of the values that contradict the kingdom of heaven until they'll have a disposition of heart and spirit to receive a king who is lowly and meek, they'll be without one. For this is the nature and character of Israel's king. And that's simply the long and the short of it. And I have to wonder not only about my Jewish people, but those who call themselves Christian also. Do you really desire such a king as this? Pathetic, lowly, figure, absurd, lurching down the side of that hill. It's not at all kingly by any human's definition. Not at all what we would call triumphal. It's a picture of absurdity and foolishness and weakness. Utter obedience to God. That is humility. Not some kind of affected, self-effacing, oh not me, really, I'm just, you know, I, really, that is as sick in its egotism as brazen self-advertisement. I want to tell you God's definition of humility because it's the key to the kingdom. It's not this self-effacing thing for me. Because the same Jesus, no sooner had he gotten into Jerusalem, he turned over the money changers' tables and he drove out not only them that sold, but them that bought. Call that humble? They were staggered at the audacity of this man who dared to turn over the tables. Now you're listening, children? The same humility that brought him down the mount is the same humility that inspired him to overthrow the money changers' tables. You mustn't look at the outward aspect of the act. You must see the inner essence, which is obedience to God. That's humiliation. The same crowds that shouted Hosanna were only to say a few days later, crucify him. So you're not to go by the responses of men or the way that they'll perceive you in a moment, but only utter obedience and dependency upon God. If he calls you to sit on an ass or he calls you to turn over the money changers' tables. And I'll tell you what, until the day that we can come into the kingdom in this spirit, those tables are going to remain yet standing. And I think that they need desperately to be overturned. He drove out not only those that sold, but those that bought. And the spirit of that is pervasive in the temple of God today. The spirit of merchandising, systems of discipleship, and who you submitted to. The sale of tapes and literature that has become big business. Their charismatic book market alone is multi-million dollar business. And some of the publishers are not too careful about what it is that's being published if it has a potential for sale. There's a lot of buying and selling going on, and the spirit of it. And there needs to be someone coming in the authority of the king who will have the audacity to turn it over and to drive them out of the temple of God. In the perfect moment of God, the same obedience that will bring you down on the back of an ass is the same obedience that will occasion you to overthrow those tables. And because you come in the kingly way, you'll have a kingly authority to do it. You want to know something? I have never before ever publicly spoken such words. I have never before till this day seen this or understood it. It's today's revelation from the throne. And I don't think that it could have been spoken before today because we lack the maturity to understand it and to receive it. Can you imagine inviting carnal charismatics and goodful gospelers to overthrow the tables? It's got to come in God's moment, through God's men and God's authority, to those who are living in the spirit of the kingdom, which is the spirit of humility. What God shall require at any given moment. I don't say that we are perfectly schooled in this, but we're learning and we have had a measure. Obedience to God, children, will always bring you into humiliation, into disappointment of men, in things which cannot be understood or explained. But only that eventuates in triumph. Will you believe that? Then will you do that? Will you come down on the back of an ass, down that precipitous slope, lurching ungainly and threatening to be unseated and looking like a figure of utter absurdity? That's the formula for kingdom things. There'll be no kingdom except men can again say, Hosanna in the highest. Blessed be the kingdom of our father David that cometh in the name of the Lord. On an ass upon which never man sat. In the gospel edition in Luke, in the 19th chapter, I'll just shorten it now because I'm taking too much time. In the 38th verse, men shouted and cried out, Blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. In the gospel of Mark, it was blessed be the kingdom that cometh in the name of the Lord. In the gospel of Luke, blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord. That leads me to ask a fundamental question. If the kingdom had to come in the name of the Lord, and the king himself had to come in the name of the Lord, by what means and manner shall we ourselves come? Does that need repeating? If the kingdom itself had to come in the name of the Lord, which is to say, in the decisive character of God himself, who is the spirit of humility. If the king himself had to come in the name of the Lord, which is in that same spirit, how then shall we come? The Pharisees were very indignant and said, tell your disciples to quit that shouting about Hosanna. He said, if I tell them to keep quiet, the very stones will sing out. You know what dear children, I'm waiting to hear. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, by stones that will sing out. My Jewish people, stones. And the modern world, stones. And indifferent men, stones. Whole modern world, wallowing in luxury and self-indulgence, stones. Unmoved by anything that is called evangelical in modern times. But there's something that they'll not be able to resist. They'll be required to cry out, stones that they are. When there shall come a kingdom in the name of the Lord, the stones will cry out. I'll tell you, we've got our work cut out for us. Are you willing to give up your Patsy Sunday religion? The things that are easy. To open yourself. To forsake your privacy. And your means and your substance and your own hopes for the future. And to welcome the intrusion of the saints of God. And the use of your car. And the crunching of metal when it's misused. That will curdle your soul. And the borrowing of pots and pans that are not returned. And all of the sloppiness and debris and clutter that comes when God's saints really live together. It's not that we become sloppy, we always were. But we had a private closet in which to hide it. We shoved our little dribbling kids under the carpets for the streak. And listened to their incessant racket because we became tone deaf and it didn't bother us. But when you move into the kingdom, into the community of God, that koinonia. That church of the first born, that new Jerusalem, that sign of God. Your kids become someone else's irritation. Your dog becomes somebody else's menace. You're laughing. But I didn't laugh on the day that we went out, the fellows and myself together with our dogs. And the 22 rifles and the pickaxe and the shovels out into the woods to finish them off for the kingdom's sake. This kingdom cometh not by observation, but the violent shall take it by force. Oh, I love my dog. And when the three of us were together the other day, we came to a house where that Pentecostal conference was going on for some refreshments in the evening. And the guy had a beautiful German shepherd, almost as beautiful as what my dog had been. I tell you that that dog was more aristocratic than I. He had a blue blood line of pedigree that would make us look like someone off the street. Handsome. Lovely with me, but dangerous to the community. I remember when we went out that day, mine was the only dog that didn't have to be dragged by a rope. He followed so obediently by my side. Doesn't God know how to break a man's heart? Take thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest. I tell you, sometimes it's easier to give a son than a dog. You would rather give yourself. And it is giving yourself. Digging the pit for the dog that is standing by your side, watching you with its tongue hanging out in the kind of a smile that German shepherds will affect while they're watching their masters. While their tears fell right into the pit with every spade full. And then watching another brother take a .22 and shoot my dog. I tell you, something happened between me and that brother in a kingdom way that was not there before that shot was fired. Any man who shoots my dog is not just someone with whom I occupy a pew in casual Sunday attendance. Something has happened in the heavenlies and in the depths of heart and being that changes that relationship. Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Willing? I tell you, children, God is not winking longer. He's not going to give us a word for Bible studies and for inspirational messages and sermons. He's a God who is calling us to establish something that the stones might cry out. Hosanna in the highest. There needs to be a casting out of them that sell and them that buy. That his house might be a house of prayer and not a den of thieves. And interesting, right after that, just following this beautiful pattern, in the temple, having cast out those that bought and sold, he then healed the lame and the blind. You know what the end is? And he taught daily in the temple, but the chief priest and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him. I think it's scandalous that we American believers have not experienced persecution. There's something grievously amiss that we are so well accepted in the world, which is ever and always at enmity with God. All that is in the world. Do you believe the radical premise of God's word? How then does the world make light of us? And where did we ever develop this little patsy-footsy relationship? Where is the reproach? Why haven't we been suffering derision? How is it that we're so easily accepted and acceptable? Why don't we constitute a greater challenge to the status quo of a world that is ruled over by the prince of darkness, for the whole world lieth in the wicked one? How is it that we have affected him so little and constitute so little threat? Because we have only mouthed a much narrower gospel of personal salvation and individual fulfillment, and have forsaken and never known the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. You start living out this gospel in the spirit of humility and come down on the back of that ass, coming into the holy city, and you'll find yourself with a new authority to cast out those things that need to be cast out, and to heal the lame, and to give sight to the blind. But you know what else you'll find? That there'll be men who will seek to destroy you. It all goes together, children. It was the beginning of the end for Jesus when he demonstrated his kingdom in that act of obedience, and it'll be the beginning of the end for us. That's not morbid, that's glorious. It was a German theologian who said that any man who will walk as Jesus walked, and speak the things that Jesus spoke, and do as he did, will suffer also what he suffered. Thy kingdom come. You'll have a crown, all right, but it'll be a bit thorny before it becomes a bit glorious. Oh, hallelujah, suffering, for Christ's sake, is not a morbid category. It's the name of the game, and it's about time we proclaim this gospel. But the gospel of prosperity has had much greater sway. It's a gospel, all right, but I don't know that it's the gospel of this kingdom and this king. May I sum up and conclude? It says that men took off their garments, and put on the back of their ass, and strew them in the way. That's part of what it's going to take to establish the kingdom of men who will suffer nakedness, and taking off their outward thing, that he might have the possession, and wear them, and come into Jerusalem in them. In one of the prophetic expressions we had tonight, it said, Is the king walking the earth in you? Showing forth his kingdom in you? Have you taken off the outer garments, that he might be clothed with you? Or do you really prefer the cheaper and less demanding thing of just cutting down some branches and strewing them in the way? God's wanting to put something on for those who will see that it's time for the king to come into his kingdom, that he might wear us, that we should be willing to make ourselves naked, that he might be clothed and have something to sit upon, that he might come in triumphantly. Even the ass had to be borrowed. It's amazing when you give up your little two volvos, those sixty-nine hundred thousand mile beauties that you panted over, and you polished, and you love the silky feel of the transmission. Those Swedes really know how to make it. None of this cheap nuts and bolts American stuff. And then listen to men crunch your gears in community. There's been a stripping away. You give up your seventeen room house, you give up your volvos, you come into a new kind of relationship, and do you know what? Do you know what you find? You no longer possess anything, but he gives you all things to enjoy freely. There'll always be an ass available. You may not own it, but you can borrow it, and it'll get you where you need to go triumphantly. Hallelujah. That's what we're learning. We don't have a cotton-picking thing. We're so poor and pathetic. We're a mystery to the charismatic whiz kids of our generation, whose million dollar plans we sit by some freaky invitation on how we got there, and they tell us about their resplendent buildings, and their programs, and their schools, and their institutes, and all that stuff, and how God is really pouring it in there, rolling in dough, hearing with my tongue hanging out, wondering how we're going to pay the bills, and we don't have sugar. We don't have milk. We don't have meat. We have pregnant women without adequate housing, and uninsulated cabins, and here they are with million dollar buildings used only on a Sunday, and I begin to just share with them the kind of affliction and trial that we're suffering. How come you're suffering that, and we're enjoying all this? And I rubbed my chin, and looked up without thinking to say, I guess we're more favored of God than you. Thy kingdom come, in earth as it is in heaven. They don't have extensive wardrobes there, just one garment. It's a precious garment. And I'll tell you, this trip coming back to the States after six weeks overseas, and three weeks in England, with fellowships whose ministers are not paid nor salaried, was an experience. Men who have one suit, one suit, and glad to have it. They don't have a fawn job, and a mottled blue job, and a gray job for the different mood, and the different days, and the different circumstances. They have one suit. They live always on that razor's edge, but I have never seen such maturity among God's people as I have found in these English fellowships. I have never seen such worship of God that makes us look sickly. I have never seen such purity of spirit. I have never seen such fervent love of God as I have seen in these English saints. Their little houses, just large enough to put the water on for tea. And then to come into Georgia, and the resplendent South, and the gracious American lifestyle, and the lawns that you want to run and roll on it like a dog. It's like a park, and the square footage, and all the space we need to really deport ourselves in the manner to which we've grown accustomed. And when I come to hang up my scrubby one or two garments, I've got to stretch that closet in the house where I'm staying to find room to put my one or two things, and I'm in the guest room. Thy kingdom come, in earth as it is in heaven. There's a precious man. I've never met him. I want to. He's written a book called Agenda for a Biblical People. I think it's the Magna Carta, the Communist Manifesto, if you will, of the body of Christ. It's a cry for the kingdom come. You know what he says? That in an affluent island, in a sea of overwhelming poverty, the church of Jesus Christ needs to be made poor. We're going to preach this gospel with our fingers reeking with rings and wallowing in every kind of affluence and luxury of the gospel of a king who had to borrow an ass that was not his own? If anybody stops you, he said, tell them that the Lord hath need of thee. I want to tell you something tonight, children. The Lord hath need of thee. Not a bumptious saint, and not a flamboyant saint, not hotshot ministers, but the Lord hath need of thee. He hath need of something that is lowly and meek, upon which never man sat, that his kingdom might come, that the king might come into his heavenly city, that the rocks might cry out, Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Do you want such a king? Would you give yourself as a garment for such a king? Would you store yourself in the way and not use branches that are convenient? If the king himself had to come in the name of the Lord, how shall we come? Has this kingdom been established in you? I'll tell you this about humility. You'll never be able to affect it in a million years. You can try. You can try and be humble and determine and bite your lips. It'll never work. It's a contradiction in terms. Man cannot be humble. It is a divine quality. It cometh down from above. It is the nature of the king in heaven. And the only way to have his humility is not some self-effacing phoniness that is a cover-up for another kind of vanity and egotism, but it's to allow this lowly king to come riding into the Jerusalem of your heart and life on the back of his ass. Have you ever really let him in? Has his kingdom been established in you? It'll change everything. You'll hear your ears being crunched and you won't even flinch. You'll be subject to all kinds of ordeals and you won't even notice. You'll cry for a season for your dog, but as you walk back to the farmhouse, you'll sense a new release in your spirit and life because God has broken his soulish earthly cord. You'll palpitate for one thing only, his kingdom come. You'll have no other consideration. You'll be fanatical, intoxicated for the kingdom. You'll live and breathe for it. You'll suffer for it. You'll seek it and pursue it first. Have you really let him come in to the Jerusalem of your heart on the back of his ass? Do you want this kind of a king? Are you willing to share his absurdity, his foolishness, his humiliation? Let him ride in, that you might be blessed and become a blessing. One of the dear Pentecostal saints said to me at the end of those days, I think it was the beginning of the days, from the first message, a woman who was broken and weeping, the first time she heard me open my mouth, she just came and she said one thing, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. You think we've come to establish a conference or be cute or show forth in Israel ministries or any such thing? We're here by the same obedience that brought him down the mount and overthrew the money changers' tables and drove out those that bought and sold because he has need of thee in this city. He has need of thee. If you're meek and lowly and willing to walk in the way of the kingdom. B'ruch habor b'shem Adonai. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. You'll find that cult in one of these gospel accounts at the place where two roads meet. I want to tell you tonight, children, my last word. We're at the place where two roads meet. The forces are consolidating and we're going to be required to make radical choice and there's no room for neutrality. We're going to choose religious flamboyance and hot shot methodologies and pomp and splendor and the advertising of men, the superficiality of charismatic calisthenics and vacuous praises and amens and hallelujahs. But we're going to lose an ass upon which never man sat and choose the path that leads to humiliation, to rejection, to suffering and if need be, to death. From that day forth they conspired to destroy him. I can't think of any greater privilege or honor or distinction that though I was not seeking him, he was seeking me. In the midst of my distress, 34-year-old man seeking for resolution, for meaning, for significance, for something that would engage the totality of my mind, my heart, my spirit, my body, my life and not finding it in the academic world and not finding it in the world of culture, not finding it in the world of ideologies and mass movements and politics, I found it in the kingdom. I learned that I was made for a kingdom, to serve a king and I love him because he's the kind of king that he is, who rides in on the back of a horse and calls that a triumphal entry. Let's bow our heads before him tonight. This way is the way of humiliation and it's public and it's done with your face sticking out and you look absurd and foolish and men can laugh at you and reject you. There's no other way to be identified with this king except to be willing to suffer that. And so as a minister of this everlasting gospel, the gospel of the kingdom, I want to ask if there's someone in this room tonight who will allow the king to come into their hearts, to stand publicly before all these people and before very God and by self-standing say, Lord King of Israel, I ask you to ride in and to establish your kingdom in my heart and life. Anybody here who will do it? This isn't one of those little cheapy invitations. This changes everything. You're going to leave one kingdom and begin another. This is it. It's humiliation. It's the misunderstanding of men. It's borrowing rather than owning and possessing. It's poverty of spirit and perhaps of body. It's obedience that leads you to be so audacious that men will accuse you and yet your act is an act of humility because it's his act through you. Anybody else in whom this kingdom has not been established and wants to settle something with God to make and make it clear once and for all, thy kingdom come first in me. From this night on, unto the kingdom. Establish your kingdom in my heart, the kingdom of meekness and lowliness. I'll not have another. Will you stand before the Lord? There go your Volvo's, your spacious lawns, your square footage, summer homes, vacations, boats, I don't know what else. Your old ship, your fools for the kingdom. You live for only one thing, that his kingdom come. Precious holy God, Lord. Great King. See these children, Lord, who have stood for you this night, publicly, as it's only the beginning of humiliations. I ask you, Lord, fully to be established in each heart and life that have opened the doors of their city to your entry. Come and establish your kingdom there. Our prayer is that you have been blessed and encouraged by this sermon. To download full sermons, go to our website, www.SermonIndex.com You can contact us through the website and please share a testimony of how this sermon has ministered to you. Sermon Index.