Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of understanding our roles in the millennial kingdom, which he describes as a vital yet often neglected topic in the church. He argues that the prophecies regarding individuals like David and the apostles reveal that our assignments in the age to come are of great importance and should motivate us to live righteously in this life. Bickle encourages believers to prepare for their future roles by deepening their spiritual lives and understanding the eternal implications of their actions today. He highlights that the millennial kingdom is not just a distant hope but a reality that shapes our current identity and purpose. Ultimately, he calls for a shift in perspective to recognize the profound impact of our faithfulness in this life on our eternal assignments.

Father, I ask you in the name of Jesus, even now as we open our heart before you, that you would release the spirit of grace and you would really strengthen our inner man as we approach this significant subject of heaven on earth. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, tonight we're continuing on our eighth session on this subject of the millennial kingdom, which is really the subject of heaven on earth. Most of you heard that several times. And it's a subject that's emphasized in the scripture, but neglected in the body of Christ. And whenever what the scripture emphasizes, the church neglects, it inevitably leads to a deficiency in our spirit. And the deficiency is a deficiency of resolve and motivation and sacrificial discipline and righteousness. Because the thing that God determined in his mind by revealing the kingdom of God on earth in the age to come was to supply nutrients to our motivation. And when this doctrine, this truth is absent, there is a great deficiency in the diet of the church and the church automatically falls to its normal default position, which is living for this age and finding our identity in what we do in this age. Now our importance, our value, our definition of success. But when we strengthen our spirit with the revelation of the age to come, the revelation of heaven on earth, which in the scripture is most found in context to the doctrine of the millennial kingdom. There's a great amount of information in the scripture about heaven on earth, the age to come, but it's really the introduction of heaven on earth because the millennium is only a thousand years. And there's not that much in the scripture about the age, the eternal kingdom after that. The eternal age is what I meant to say. But we get our door into the age to come by studying the millennial kingdom. And it gives us significant nutrients in our spiritual diet and strengthen our spirit to live with resolve for righteousness and motivation. And one of the reasons that the it can be traced to this great neglect of this very vital and prominent theme in the word of God. And you don't know it's prominent until you begin to study it. It's like, you know, the people who don't believe in healing, they don't believe in the supernatural dimension of the kingdom of God in the church right now. They think that, you know, it passed away. And when they begin to get touched by the Holy spirit, they get a new paradigm and they go, well, healing and signs and wonders. They're everywhere. It's on every page of the Bible. I, until you put the lens on, you don't see it. It's the same thing with the millennial kingdom until you see it, you don't see it. But once you put those glasses on, it's on every other page in the whole Bible. It is one of the primary subjects of which the Genesis to revelation is about. And it supplies a crucial nutrient to our spirit, which results in resolve and motivation for righteousness. So if it's, if you're a, have a normal experience in the church in the Western world, this is a, almost a totally foreign subject to you. But my point is to stir you up to make a determination in your heart. I am not going to be biblically illiterate on this vast subject. I'm going to get all the nutrients and I'm going to get myself trained on this subject. Well, we're in the eighth session. It's a 12 part series. Again, those of you that are just visiting for the weekend, you can, you can watch it live on the internet. Many are watching us around the world right now, live on the internet. It's free. You can tap right into it. And with the notes, we put them up week by week and you can follow along with us as well as getting previous sessions. Well, this eighth session, we're going to look at roles in the millennial kingdom in the thousand year reign on the earth, which again is a window into the eternal age, because it's the, it's the combining of the natural and the supernatural, uh, uh, in a unique way for a thousand years. It's a thousand year window. Of course, the natural room continues on even into the eternal age as well, but there's no sin dimension involved, uh, after the millennium is over. Okay. Uh, in this session, what we're going to look at is the role of individuals that's in the Bible, personal prophecies in the Bible. David, for instance, received a surprising number of prophecies, not just about his life for 40 as King for 40 years in Israel, but his life for a thousand years as King in Israel. And one of my premises I'll get to in a moment is that David, David had more information, more prophecy about his assignment in the age to come than he had prophecies about, at least recorded in the Bible, uh, uh, prophecies about his first assignment on the earth. And so what I want to do is to stir up our holy imagination through looking at these prophetic insights, these prophecies given to many individuals about their role in the age to come. And of course it leads us to the conclusion. If they have a role in the age to come, that's prominent enough to be prophesied and recorded in the Bible, then this is not an insignificant subject. And I must have a role in the age to come. Now, some guys say, Hey, let's take it up. Let's go all the way. Lord, give me a prophecy about my role in the age to come. I don't know what to do about that. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us to pursue that, but Hey, if the Lord wants to tell me anything about my role in the age to come, I mean, here we are. But the real point I'm making is it was an important enough subject that these prophecies were recorded and these major leaders laid hold of them and it formed their paradigm paragraph. For an example, Jesus gave prophecies, several of them to the apostles. They're in their twenties. He's prophesying about what they will do in the age to come. I mean, saying, you know, you may have a 40 year apostleship in this age, but you have a thousand year assignment coming after the 40 year assignment of the 50 year assignment. David had far more prophecies about his thousand year assignment as King in Israel. Then he had his 40 year assignment as King of Israel because he was King from age 30 to 70, but it says it several times. He will actually function as King in Israel. He's under the King of Kings. Jesus, Jesus is King of every King of every nation. Paragraph B it's not only the apostles and David. Jesus has more in the Bible about his second time on the earth than his first time on the earth. There's more prophecies about his second reign than his first reign. Israel, Israel has more prophecy about their second. I mean about their time in the age to come. Then they have a positive prophecies during this age, they have more positive prophecies concerning what they will experience as a nation. And God has prophecies for all kinds of nations. I mean, I've got a pretty, uh, it's a pretty lengthy study of the, of the, uh, prophecies given to nations in the millennium. There's a number of nations that have their national destinies and identities already announced in part through prophetic words, like the nation that has the most besides Israel would be Egypt. There's more in the Bible about Egypt and Syria, which would be modern day, uh, Iraq. There's more about those two nations than probably all the other Gentile nations. Maybe not all of them added up, but certainly those two lead the list. Secondly, the Israel significant information on national identities, even in the age to come. So there's information on personal mandates and national mandates in the age to come. How important is this subject? Very, very important. And you're supposed to take it personal. You're supposed to see that information and say, Hey, this is a vital subject. Paragraph C premise. Number one, some of the leaders in the scripture, some of the lives of the leaders that are depicted in scripture were consciously preparing for their next assignment in the age to come. It was consciously on their mind. It wasn't just a distant thought. This was a major reality to King David. It was a major reality to Peter, James, and John and Paul, their assignment in the age to come. They spoke about it often. You just have to catch you have to have the right paradigm to catch the language of what they're saying. They knew that their next assignment on the earth far surpassed their first assignment on the earth. You know, you have another assignment on the earth besides the one you have now for 70 years or whatever the timeframe you have, you have a 70 year assignment, but you have a thousand year assignment coming right after this one. Are you getting ready? Are you thinking about it? Premise number two, our primary ministry assignment actually is our second one. Our first one in the general census for 70 years on the earth, but our primary ministry assignment is actually the next one in the age to come. Premise number three. Now this is, will kind of be a stretch for some of you, maybe a new thought. Some of the prophecies that you receive from people that are true, you know, lots of folks prophesy and you know, that's not always true, but I'm locking into the true spirit of prophecy. Some of those truths, some of those prophecies will have their major fulfillment in the age to come, just like the apostles. And just like a number of the key leaders of the scripture, the Lord will say something and it's true. And if you don't have any grid for it whatsoever, that everything that God says must be about our first assignment, our assignment right now, that that is not a biblical lens for prophecy. Some of the prophecies that the Lord has given you, I don't know which ones obviously, they will have their primary fulfillment in the age to come. And that this is true of the apostles. It's true of King David and many others as well. And this is what this teaching is, is a shifting your paradigm. Some of you, if this is a new idea, paragraph F, just quick review for those that are new with us. The millennial kingdom is the time when the saints reign on the earth for a thousand years with Jesus affecting every sphere of society. Paragraph G, Jesus will rule the whole earth as he establishes a worldwide kingdom and he will be in partnership with two sets of kings. There will be kings with resurrected bodies, the saints through history, but there will also be kings on the earth that have natural bodies. So there'll be kings with natural bodies and kings with resurrected bodies and together they will form a godly social infrastructure affecting every sphere of life. Paragraph I, Jesus will rule at this time, now this is very important, with the natural processes not suspended but significantly enhanced by the supernatural dimension of the Holy Spirit. The reason I say that, when many people think of heaven, they think of heaven far away. Heaven's coming to the earth at the time of the second coming. We're only far away in heaven with a disembodied spirit for a moment of time, from the cross to the second coming. For 2,000 years the saints are in a temporary holding pattern in heaven, in paradise, but the new Jerusalem's coming to the earth and we're getting resurrected bodies and the natural realm and the supernatural realm are coming together and Jesus is establishing his kingdom on the earth and it will be forever on the earth, never to leave the earth again. And so we think of heaven, many just in kind of a floating on a white cloud somewhere forever playing a harp and heaven's kind of, you know, we feel bad about it but it's kind of a boring concept because you don't want a cloud floating. No, no you're going to be on the earth with a physical material body ruling and reigning with a ministry, training and teaching and working. You won't have any sin in your experience but there will be people on the earth, those that were not raptured or killed at the time of the second coming and all the crisis and all that's involved, what I call the unsaved survivors of the tribulation period. They didn't take the mark of the beast and they didn't believe in Jesus and there might be some millions of them. They get saved in all the transitional events that take place and they continue on and they have children and they continue on and that continues for a thousand years and people with resurrected bodies, the saints now, that after the rapture everyone comes back with resurrected bodies and will interact with those with natural bodies. Now we've gone over this over and over and over for the seven sessions so I won't spend any more time on it than that. Top of page two. That was just a moment of review for those that maybe this is a brand new idea. You just came to Kansas City, did a little prayer room, you thought well now what? What is this about? This is such a prominent biblical subject again and much of the body of Christ is almost completely illiterate of this very important subject. One preacher said, said it right, if you don't think rightly about heaven you won't think about heaven at all. It's true. If you don't think rightly about heaven, if you only think about heaven as far away on some fleecy white cloud and you know it's kind of an ethereal experience, you won't think of heaven much. But when you think of heaven accurately, coming down to the earth with the joining of the natural and the supernatural together and you're literally on the earth with a physical material body resurrected with the full properties of the Holy Spirit resurrected body but eating physical food, touching each other, interacting with each other, training discipling nations, when you think of it that way it has a whole new dimension of motivation and an urgency to get prepared for that assignment. Because depending on what we do in this age depends on even our experience, the measure of the closeness and the glory we will experience in our relationship with Jesus even in the age to come is dependent on the way we respond to him in this age. Every believer will have access to God's heart, we'll all have the Holy Spirit, all have resurrected bodies, all be in the eternal city, but we'll all have different degrees and different measures of experience with the Lord. They won't all be the same at all in different assignments and different roles and many different things and I want to be ready for my next assignment. I want to do well in this one but if you do well in this one, the real key to this one isn't that it gets big, it's that it's humble, it's established in purity and humility and love and revelation, revelation of the scripture. You do that, just let the Lord take care of how big it is. A lot of folks are fixed just so fixated on how big their sphere is right now. No, fix your attention on how deep your life is in God and then your sphere will be big in your next assignment. Don't worry about how big your sphere is right now, worry about how deep your heart is right now and yes we want to touch people, I want to touch people right now, but my primary teaching ministry is not IHOP in this age, it's my teaching ministry in the age to come that will go on for a thousand years and I am getting ready for it. I'm in my internship right now, you're in one of my internship classes right now, I'm an intern, you're an intern and I'm practicing my teaching ministry and I don't mean just practicing it like it doesn't matter but I'm working my spirit on the word of God and you're getting touched and I'm getting touched and the Lord's training me for my teaching ministry and for my intercessory ministry in the age to come. He goes Mike, IHOP would be a good place to train you as an intercessor for when I return because my intercessory ministry will be far more significant in the age to come than it is right now and I want to get ready for it and I want to be effective now as well but I'm not going to throw away my inheritance in the age to come by being fixated with how big my influence is right now. I want to be focused on how deep my heart is. You'll always have, you'll always reach the effectiveness of your ministry if you if you get a depth in your spiritual life with God. You get closer to God you won't become more detached from ministry. The closer you get to God the more in line you will be with His will in ministry because some people say well if you get real deep you'll just forget everybody else. I go now if you're getting deep you're running into a man. He's a resurrected Jewish man. His name's Jesus. He really loves the people. You get close to Him guess what you'll be far more effective with the people. Roman numeral two. Life on earth is a 70-year internship. You know Moses said 70 years in Psalm 90. 80 due to strength. Some get more some get less. Number one it's the uh a preparatory assignment. It's important. It counts. It's real. This is not a practice game. This age is for real. It is preparation for another assignment. Our primary assignment on the earth in an in a physical body on the earth is in the age to come. Paragraph B. In the 70-year internship there's two major issues to determine. Number one issue do you want to be in God's family? Number two issue do you want to be in God's government? Right now we're deciding we want to be in God's family. We say yes we're born again. We commit ourselves to Jesus. The Lord says now there's a second subject that we want to talk about. Do you want to be in the government in the age to come? Not just to be over people but to be close to Jesus in the thing that's near and dear to his heart. The bringing of his glory to all nations. I want to be close to you. I want to work as close to you as possible. He says well then grow in humility, grow in love, and grow in revelation in this age because our assignment in the age to come has nothing to do with how big our influence was down here. It has to do with how deep our heart is in humility and in love and in revelation. Paragraph C. Being faithful to Jesus right now in difficulty prepares us for our greater calling. Paul said it for our light affliction which is but for a moment and he and he met our 70 years on the earth. The moment is working for us a far more exceeding weight of glory that as we are faithful in a in affliction for 70 years on the earth and the affliction he's talking about persecution right here but affliction is self-denial. I'm just talking about saying no to pride and yes to humility. That is afflicting to the human spirit to say no to pride. Our spirit craves pride and lust. When we humble ourself in secret we get no attention from anyone. We're doing it by faith and under God's eyes. There's something violent that happens in us like ah I didn't get credit for the Lord says yes you did it's just a timely answer. There's an element of affliction even in righteousness and that and I'm not talking about the old medieval afflicting yourself beating yourself with whips. I'm just talking about plain oh good old-fashioned discipline and humility in secret giving money in secret bearing with our enemies in secret by blessing them and not even whispering to our friends how much we're blessing them doing it purely in secret. Paul said this momentary light affliction is working in us a far more exceeding weight of glory and that's in our experience in the age to come as well as which includes our function our role our relationship to the Lord they're all affected by our decisions in this age. He said it again in Romans 8 I consider the sufferings of this present time again in both passages he's talking primarily about persecution but beloved the difficulty isn't only about persecution it is about humility and righteousness as well and discipline because I consider the sufferings of this present age not worthy to be paired to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. There will be a measure of glory that will increase that is proportionate to the way that we handle the difficulty in our faithfulness to the Lord. Roman number three we're gonna look at David because he's the premier example the man after God's own heart paragraph a David had more personal prophecies in the Bible about his thousand-year assignment as king over Israel than he had his 40-year assignment now there's three prophecies he had about his 40-year assignment we have them written there in the notes you get the notes on the internet those that are I mean those that are watching by internet the notes are there but he had far more he had you know two or three times depending on how you add it up exactly he had three prophecies about his 40-year kingship and he had somewhere between five and ten depending on which ones you count about his kingship his sphere of authority in the age to come it starts off in paragraph B just a hint now this is only a hint about his future role but I'm I'm starting with this verse because it gives us insight into God's heart and the way that God gives us rules in the age to come it's Samuel's prophecy to David and he says this Samuel said to he's actually prophesying about David David gets the prophecy later Samuel gets it I mean Saul the jealous king gets it first but it is a prophecy about David as well and undoubtedly David was very familiar with this prophecy as he became friends with the prophet Samuel Samuel said to the jealous king Saul you've done foolishly you've not kept the commandment of the Lord now here's what I want you to see the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever what an incredible statement Saul it was in God's heart to give you a role not just you personally but even your offspring but not just your offspring you personally when a king when Saul and then later David is said that their kingship would endure it involves their offspring but it also involves their personal life it's both it's not either or he said God would establish your kingdom forever forever over Israel can you imagine but the Lord's now going to revoke that did you know that people can lose that which would have been theirs in the age to come that's a main theme that I mean you run into it many times in the scriptures but now your kingdom shall not continue now the now the prophet Samuel's talking about more than the kingdom of Israel because the kingdom of Israel is going to go on forever but Saul's personal sphere of influence and authority is what's cut off when he says Saul your kingdom would have endured but now it won't he didn't mean the kingdom of Israel something he meant something far more personal it was in context to the nation of Israel he said Saul your personal role and the and your offspring would have had an impact of blessing forever the kingdom of Israel is going to do fine but now you're not going to have a role in it so Saul's kingdom meant his own personal sphere in the age to come I mean in in this age as well as the age to come his offspring and it also interface with God's blessing on the nation of Israel but he says it's over now and I'm going to give that uh calling to another man he says for now on your kingdom shall not continue then the Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over the people now when the Lord commanded David to be commander we find out through other prophecies that command went beyond David's first assignment on the earth that went beyond his 40 years as king of Israel it reached on into the age to come paragraph d God commanded David's kingdom would last forever now Nathan the prophet in 2nd Samuel 7 is giving the prophecy it's not Samuel now it's Nathan the prophet he says your house now notice three words your house and your kingdom and your throne there's three three distinct words your house and your kingdom will be established forever your throne will be established forever there's several things going on here because David's house was his own personal inheritance personally as a man I'm talking about in the resurrection he'll live for billions and billions and billions and billions of years in a resurrected body his inheritance is not over when he died his inheritance inheritance has barely begun so he's talking about the man David talking about the offspring his family line and it's talking about the corporate blessing on the nation of Israel and those three ideas are brought together all of them are brought together he says your house your kingdom your throne all of them will have blessing on it forever I mean can you fathom a true prophet of God talking about your role forever not even the thousand years it would go on beyond the thousand years into the eternal realm to the into the eternal age beyond the millennial kingdom David is like yes I'm in beloved what's not to be what's not to be uh encouraged by you know I mean this is so dynamic but I believe that through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God God would anchor our soul in a more substantial way in these truths if we would feed our spirit on it because we'll find out in a little while David fed his spirit on this reality David is what I call the first millennial theologian in the Bible he was the first prophet and teacher who really developed the doctrine and the reality of the millennium Moses touched it but David developed it as a prophet he saw visions of it and as a teacher he broke it down line by line and I don't think it's an accident that this prophet about the millennial kingdom and this teacher also had personal insight about his own role in it I think it's I think this man lived in that picture in his mind that vision of his mind you know when his son Absalom came and troubled him at the end of his life and you know they said they brought the ark of the covenant to David they said David will bring the ark of the covenant David was running I mean he was in flight and they brought the ark of the covenant and they said here let's go to war against your son Absalom and David says bring the ark back David no with the ark we can beat your son Absalom he goes bring the ark back God will do what he does he goes my big thing isn't even to be king trust me I'm living in another space right now I'm happy to be king of God once I already know where I'm going I'm not going to trouble everything to make sure I get my money and my honor right now that I'm not going there his soul was anchored in this it's not an accident that he was uh the pre I mean well he was the first one Isaiah took it up a few notches beyond David but David was the first prophet Moses touched it a little bit but David saw it clearly prophetically and as a teacher he broke it down and there's not it's not an accident that David had his own personal sense of identity in the age to come okay let's look at top of page three look at this this is one of the most just I mean it's just I'm going to say outrageous in a good way in the sense of if a guy got up and said this we would just we would know how to respond to him that's all I gotta say this what David's about to say here in this public assembly he's at the end of his life it doesn't say exactly how much time he dies at age 70 he's basically setting his son Solomon in to take his place so David's probably I haven't done the fine math on this 69 years old he's at the very final months and what he does is he gathers all the leaders of Israel together says in verse 1 1st chronicles 28 David assembled all at Jerusalem all the leaders of Israel all the mighty men of valor in other words all the war generals so all the political and economic leaders but then also the military leaders they're all there I mean there's thousands of them he stands up they're all there his son Solomon is gonna get a you know he's gonna be featured and highlighted and David's gonna announce the plans to build the temple and how much money he's giving to it I mean he's really saying hey I'm gonna put a lot of money and time and energy in the temple my son is the is the new leader I want to make it clear and then David says a little bit about himself this is his farewell speech so to speak it's his final time he speaks to the nation it's he says the most surprising thing verse 2 then David said hear me my people I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark which means the temple he's gonna give he ends up he gives a hundred million dollars it tells us from 1st chronicles 22 you added up the gold and the silver it's a hundred million dollars of his own personal money because you know he had a lot of uh wars and made a lot of money in those wars and the spoils and but he said I I've planned for this so he talks about that verse 4 I'm gonna get to my point here here he here he says it he says the lord has chosen me above all the house of my father to be king over israel forever now they're thinking you're 69 they don't know he's gonna die within a year but he's setting his son in place he's you would think david would say god has called me to be king of israel it's been a great 40 years i'm laying hands on my son david says god has called me to be king of israel forever and they're going did he say forever yeah I think he said forever well isn't he putting his son in place I think he is and in the next couple verses he does they're scratching their head going well how could he be king over israel forever then if he's setting his son in place now undoubtedly those that were closest to him that were familiar with his values they knew exactly what he was saying he makes it clear in the psalms what he thinks about the eternal kingdom can you imagine a king of a nation and a final year of his life standing up god has chosen me to be king over this nation forever i mean i just can't imagine this announcement i wonder if he made it earlier than this you know it's the first time it's recorded in the bible i think his inner core i think his team knew exactly what he meant but it just moves right on i mean when i first saw that i went what you know i got out the concordance in the hebrew forever means forever you know it's like what forever what because i'm thinking of a leader if i got up and said i am going to lead ihop kansas city forever thus says the lord they would say he stepped over the line he's confused no he stepped into revelation is what happened he says among all my uh the lord has chosen me to be king forever among all the sons of my father he was pleased with me to make me king over all israel and he said to me verse 6 this is your son solomon who shall build my house look at verse 7 i will establish his kingdom forever too in other words he but he says there's a condition he has to obey steadfastly which solomon did not he did not obey steadfastly this is a negative thing in the big picture i mean in that day solomon was just wowed and just like my goodness i can't fathom god was offering to solomon what he offered his father david it's not just that dick solomon the king of the nation of israel would would continue forever this is something personal it's something that had conditions if solomon did not obey this would not happen and solomon did not obey he he fell away from the lord but god's purpose to israel stayed steady but god's promise to solomon is what was cut off what was nullified now this is the very thing that god gave king saul he said i'll make your your kingdom last forever but you got to obey me and king saul did not obey him and the same tragedy happened with eli the priest back in first samuel 2 we'll look at it in a few minutes eli the priest god said i would have made you priest forever i mean you personally would have functioned as a priest even in the resurrection you and your sons and daughters would have been in the downline of this forever your family line but because of your disobedience you are now not going to have that didn't say that eli wasn't saved but he wouldn't have that role it was taken from him that is tragic and so it was said to eli it's taken from you was said to saw it's taken from you an eternal promise and into solomon the promise is offered and we just know by deduction that solomon lost his relationship with god for many years we don't know exactly how it landed and and maybe he repented in the final years we don't really know we we trust that he did there's no clear record of scripture paragraph f now i'm just going to kind of uh be on a little parentheses here about solomon just for a moment the lord appeared to solomon first kings nine and says the lord said to me the lord said to solomon now the lord's gonna back up what david prophesied to him this is a six or seven years later maybe seven years later the lord appears to solomon and says to solomon in essence what your dad prophesied to you of that big national assembly i'm backing it up right now if you will walk before me as your father did in integrity if several ifs here you keep my commandments my statues then then i will give you a throne forever your father said it right back in first chronicles 8 verse 6 again that was about six to seven years previous so the lord appears says i'm backing up the prophecy i gave your father in that national assembly to give you so i promise you now solomon's going to have a personal application to this promise a promise and a family line application and a national application meaning israel would get the good of this as well as a nation uh solomon the man solomon the family line and israel the nation would all have an application to this promise israel's going to be fine anyway but solomon is the big loser and some of his downline and his family are losers in this as well israel still wins because we find out later that uh solomon doesn't walk with the lord i mean it's it's like i look at these truths i go lord this is real stuff because god never changes if he talks to men and women that way in the in the word of god we know he never changes this is still how he thinks towards his people he's never changed to one degree of his personality he's exactly the same if he talked like that then he thinks and talks like that now so i go here i am lord i i want to whatever you've said to me it can be nullified if i don't follow through in terms of uh different personal promises even in the age to come paragraph g now i have four words here we're not going to go into detail i'm just noting them to you where david is now these are 500 years later three of them are about 500 years later and one of them's about 300 years later the one of jose jose is about 300 years after david the other ones are about 500 jeremiah and ezekiel about four to five hundred and so what's going on here is that they are three to four three to five hundred years later giving prophecies about david's role now some commentators will make david just be symbolic of jesus but i don't believe if you're careful with these passages meaning you you are uh are paying attention to all the details of the prophecies the the servant david is in contrast to the lord himself so there's the lord and then there's the king david who's called king and he's called prince and i don't believe that david and the lord are the same and you put all the details together to me it's crystal clear it's talking about the man david not jesus jesus is the son of david he's called that 15 times in scripture there's a number of titles jesus has the throne of david the continuity of david's throne that's true but jesus is never in the bible one time called david jesus is david's always called david jesus has other titles but he's never ever given the title of another man even though you know moses was a picture of him david was a clear picture of him but never is jesus called david in the scripture this is actually talking about a fallen man a thousand years bc three thousand years ago in there that gets forgiven and god says i have a plan for you in the age to come and by the way body of christ i have a plan for you too because i don't change if i had one for david i have one for you okay let's go to the top of page four david's the first millennial theologian in scripture he's a prophet he sees the millennium as a prophet and he sees the millennium as a teacher i mean i mean not i mean he uh breaks it down and again i believe he has this dynamic connectedness to it because he sees his own destiny related to this was not a small subject to him psalm 37 i want to encourage you to go deep on psalm 37 this is one of his most comprehensive statements on the millennial kingdom but he brings it up many times in the book of psalms let's just read a little bit this he says verse 9 those who wait on the lord psalm 37 9 they shall inherit the earth the meek shall inherit the earth now that's the very verse jesus quotes jesus takes it right from david of course jesus gave it to david on the front end but jesus is quoting psalm 37 when he says the meek will inherit the earth verse 18 the inheritance is forever the meek inheriting the earth doesn't mean they have more influence in this age i mean it means that a little bit but uh i'm sure you've noticed the meek are not ruling the earth right now they never have right now though a few guys might be born again in big positions mostly they're not operating in meekness the meek the leaders in the economic political military media whatever all the different sciences most of them are not meek men and women some of them are born again that's not the same thing as being meek meek people are normally pushed out of the way by selfish people though there is a little element of which the meek are inheriting we have a little bit of influence right now and that's going to increase more between now and the second coming but what what david meant was literally the whole earth will be inherited will be under the leadership of people who have authority from god because of their meekness in this age there are people in this room undoubtedly because if you're meekness in this age you will have authority over the earth in the age to come he's talking verse 18 about an internal inheritance of inheriting the earth verse 22 those that are blessed by god will inherit the earth verse 29 the righteous shall inherit the land they'll inherit it and they'll dwell in it forever to inherit it means they'll have authority over it again that's happening a little bit right now matthew 5 5 jesus said the meek would inherit the earth but mostly selfish ungodly people inherit the earth meaning they're in the positions of influence of the earth maybe one or two percent of the earth is under the leadership of meek and righteous people probably 98 or 99 percent of the earth isn't so is did david miss it did jesus miss it no it has a application in part in this age but it has a full application of the age to come meekness in this age will result in inheriting the earth in the full complete sense of the earth of the word paragraph i mean roman number five now the apostles are going to receive prophecies for the age to come these are 20 year old young men you know a lot of uh scholars estimate they were late teens to early 20s here's these young guys these 20 something guys and here's jesus he says i want you to know you're going to sit on thrones in the age to come i mean what intense information for any human being these young guys in their 20s are going like wow but it doesn't puff them up in pride it has the exact opposite impact it makes them resolved to be pure and humble it had the impact jesus wanted it to have in them now that it was one it did not impact right judas but the others it it motivated them into deep resolve for righteousness and meekness they thought if we have a guaranteed victory you know what we can lose everything in the court of man right now because they can't go wrong it's not just that they have the lord that is enough but in the in the uh sense of having an assignment their assignment is also secure not just the relationship with god you know in theory the lord's enough but in practicality people really care about their assignment too and so our assignment in the age to come is secure and it just so happens our assignment in the age to come actually brings us in greater experience with the lord so it's not like we have to choose one or the other so peter says in verse 27 of matthew 19 we've left everything what shall we have what a bold question we've left everything well peter you want to be soft when you're talking to one who was who's fully god who left the courts of heaven you don't want to like in his presence say we left everything jesus could have winked at him and said peter sort of sort of i could tell you about leaving everything but we'll do that a couple hundred years we'll have a really serious talk about who left everything you don't get it right now but that's okay jesus was very kind i mean you're just when you're talking to jesus with zeal about what you left you just just kind of get you hesitate when you get a little bit of understanding what shall we get in return instead of jesus rebuking him he says good that's good matter of fact i get a good answer for you and beloved it's the same answer he gives to us and he's not puffing up peter he's anchoring peter in a resolve and a focus he's anchoring peter in truth that will keep him steady the rest of his life this isn't the only truth that kept peter steady but it certainly was not wasted words on jesus's part this was strategic and it was meaningful was like an arrow shot into peter's heart he says in verse 28 you'll sit on thrones you'll sit on thrones in the age to come and the regeneration means when the earth is reborn that's in the millennial kingdom and then after that into the eternal age luke 22 now this is a different context it's not the same one these are two different prophecies he says verse 28 jesus says it on his own you who have continued with me in my trials those of you that are bearing the difficulty of standing with me it's unpopular even believers don't appreciate your stand for the lord sometimes he says you're standing with me in difficulty he wasn't asked a question he just brings it right up to him here i bestow upon you a kingdom as my father bestowed upon me you will eat and drink at my table there's a there will be real food it won't be like you know uh like airy food it'll be real physical food that you'll eat and drink because some people think well that it'll be like you know figurative no no it will be real food and you will judge you'll be in my government he says it twice to them because the he wanted to confirm this to them and afterwards he knew that this was established in their spirit then of course most of the apostles are martyred but john finds out later his name is on one of the foundation stones he looks at the new jerusalem he goes lord lord the ouch i mean ouch like i love you so much it hurt ouch like lord my name is on yes john i mean talk about motivation john goes lord what did i do to receive this kind of honor in your sight you gave yourself to me and the lord reveals this to john i don't know how many others knew this we know that john received this at the end of his life but they might have known some of this beforehand i don't know and i don't have an opinion on that okay let's look at just real brief just to highlight them and you can look at them on your own time roman numeral six others that had personal prophecies abraham his greatest fulfillment of the prophecies is in the age to come abraham was promised the land and world influence that has its fullness in the age to come abraham never got the land never israel still doesn't have the land they have one little portion of it but they're gonna have all the land and abraham's gonna be it's gonna be related to abraham too and in a personal way not just a figurative way zerubbabel zerubbabel was the guy who built the ihop back in 536 bc when they came out of babylonian captivity and they built uh uh the the temple after they came out of babylonian captivity zerubbabel and the prophet haggai speaks he says zerubbabel here's what the lord says to you at the end of the age when god shakes the heavens and the earth at the end of the age when god overthrows the kingdoms of the i mean the throne of kingdoms when god destroys the strength of gentile kingdoms in that day zerubbabel you i will make you my signet ring in other words i'll make you a man of authority and a man of government zerubbabel is this is 500 years bc he goes in that day what do you mean you know we now know through hindsight that's 2500 years later what do you mean in that day you will make me a signet ring yeah wait will i be alive then he goes yeah yeah you'll be alive forever i don't have following you'll have a resurrected body zerubbabel you'll be on the earth and you'll be a man of government in my eternal kingdom this is in the time when the nations are all overthrown and my son comes to the earth thus says the lord haggai says what an amazing prophecy daniel gets the same sort of thing the angels talking to daniel for you show rest he's talking about dying he says you're at the end of your life he's in his late 80s you're gonna die but at the end of it at the end of the age you will arise and enter your inheritance he's talking about in the millennial kingdom he has an inheritance that he was waiting for we don't know if he knew what the details were he might have i don't know elijah it was prophesied that he would come back i mean elijah was never prophesied to come the first time but he's prophesied several times to come the second time elijah has more in the bible about his second time he comes to the earth than his first time melchizedek will be a priest forever now this is a gentile guy the gentile king who's honoring the lord he's a picture of the lord but he's not the lord the gentile king in salem which was the the jerusalem of that day he receives abraham and the lord prophesies over him i don't know when you know what you'll be a priest forever melchizedek thank you lord that moves me melchizedek you have a role forever in the priesthood what an amazing uh truth take one sentence from god's heart like that could set the course of your whole life aaron the lord told aaron he would be a priest forever phineas this is really something phineas now he's in the days of moses he's a priest in moses day he's a young man in at the end of moses's life and uh the nation of israel in numbers 25 was fell into sin immorality and idolatry with the midianites the lord spoke to moses because phineas was real disturbed and he went in and he and he got he dealt with the sin he confronted it and the lord spoke to moses verse 11 go tell phineas because he was zealous with my zeal verse 12 say this to him i'm gonna give him a covenant of peace it will be to him and to his descendants an everlasting priesthood because he was stirred up to obey me at an unusual level tell go tell phineas moses i've just told you face to face moses go give him the news that act of obedience will have an eternal effect on his offspring and up on his role as well paragraph h zadok was one of phineas's great great great grandsons zadok had the same spirit that his great great great grandfather phineas had and zadok and his offspring they have a promise there i'll skip paragraph i now this is the guy eli like saul eli was a priest and everything was going well and the favor of god was on him but eli wouldn't obey the lord the lord said in first samuel 2 the lord of god of israel says i said indeed to your house eli and the house of your father you would walk before me forever this is like what he told king sauls what he told solomon you have a forever assignment if you will persevere with me not just salvation they don't talk about salvation right now they're talking about the role their function before the throne of god but now far be it from me that i will give you this role for those who honor me i will honor if you despise me like he did i will despise you i will i will lightly esteem you here's what i'm gonna do i'm taking the promise back because you didn't fulfill the conditions verse 35 i will raise up another priest to take your spot and we find out it's zadok the guy we just talked about a minute ago and i'm gonna give it to him forever instead of you this is a forever assignment this isn't talking about salvation this is talking about a function a role in their life ezekiel as well top of page six let's let's let's go to the end of it this is one verse we'll just end with this verse at the very end oh paul the apostle was so focused on this paul said in first corinthians nine let's just read this and pray it over you he says do you not know that those who run in a race all run but only one receives the prize he says but run in a way that you obtain the prize he's not talking about the prize of being born again he's talking to born-again believers that they would obtain the fullness of what god's ordained for them not not not to be born again but in the full measure of the reward and the glory that's what the prize is everyone who competes for the prize is temperate or disciplined in all things now they do it he's talking about a natural athlete to win a perishable crown and a stefano's crown was like a uh like the gold medal at the olympics it was not like the diadem it wasn't the crown of a ruler it was the crown it was the champion athlete who won the gold medal stefano's crown it's different than the diadem crown he's talking about winning the crown in the race and when i'm not racing against you when you're not racing against me i'm racing against encroaching sin and darkness that's trying to take me out i'm racing faithfulness and god's eyes to withstand the attack of the enemy to to nullify my assignment that's the race we're running i'm not running against you you're not running against me i don't want to be better than you i don't want to get more rewarded than you i'm racing against and the race is my dedication versus my lack of dedication that's the race that's that's a marathon race it's not a sprint it's decades and i've got a prize and you have a prize the lord's offered every one of us a prize the fullness of the reward he has promised us we don't know exactly what that is but he's saying mike i'm giving you x amount of years on the earth as a born-again believer i have a prize i have something for you now you're on a long race you're you're not competing with with another man or a person you're competing with darkness that's encroaching upon you and the spirit striving against it and you're in a war in your own soul peter said 1st peter 2 13 to 11 talk about the war waged within us he says we want to obtain a he says the athlete will will be disciplined in everything to win a gold medal but we do it to win an imperishable trophy or crown of stefanos he says therefore i run temperate in every way he says my time my money my appetites my words what i do with my free time it's all under the lens of running a race for many years verse 26 i run not with uncertainty many believers they have so little focus they have so much uncertainty well what are you going for and what you know i ask people what is what's your vision and almost always they tell me what their vision is to accomplish in this age mostly in money or influence and and that's not really what i mean when i say what's your vision i do mean that but i mean what's your vision why are you on the earth and the answer isn't mostly about having more money or more influence in this age our vision has to be to have our heart to be uh as as expansive in the grace of god and to fulfill the fullness of god's call for us to be prepared for the age to come that must be our vision must be in there can't be about getting bigger and getting more money now if that's your vision you're already lost at sea even if you name the name of the lord you're confused and the bigger in and i mean you've got the biggest you settled but you're confused about what your life's about many believers are running with uncertainty they don't have any focus even after they're born again they just kind of ambivalent going around just networking anyway get a little more money a little more on or just any opportunity that comes along go deep in god get a vision to go somewhere in god fast and pray and humble yourself and serve in secret and fill yourself with the word of god and get ready for your next assignment and i tell you you'll have a you'll have a plenty important assignment at this age it may not be important to men but it will be to god and he'll record it paul says i don't run with uncertainty i have total focus where i'm going i discipline my body verse 29 7 i bring it into subjection there's fasting there's purity lest when i preach to others i'm disqualified he doesn't mean lose the salvation he means i would be disqualified for the full reward that i'm going after beloved there's a prize and the prize is the lord but it's not only the lord it's our interaction and our assignment in working with the lord to it and the glory of god will experience that will cause us to experience the lord i'm going for a prize i've got my by the grace of god my soul focused to go after something and it's not about making i hop bigger if i hop gets bigger i have gets smaller i'm i appreciate doing well with i hop that's not my life vision is not i hop my high my life vision is to get this prize to enter into my full reward before the lord and i got a few more years on the earth maybe it's a year maybe it's a hundred years i don't know it's a moment either way it is and so do you you'll get a moment whether it's a hundred years in a moment let's get focused let's go after this amen let's stand before the lord