Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of the seven parables of the kingdom found in Matthew 13, which reveal the true nature and expectations of God's kingdom. He explains that these parables were given to correct the misconceptions held by Israel about the kingdom's immediate glory and power, highlighting instead the importance of small, unseen works of God. Bickle warns against the dangers of having wrong expectations that can lead to offense and discouragement, urging believers to recognize the value of faithfulness in small things. He reassures that God's plan is intentional and that the kingdom will ultimately grow and flourish, even if it starts small and hidden. The sermon calls for a realignment of hearts to trust in God's leadership and to embrace the hidden treasures of the kingdom.

In Matthew chapter 13 Jesus gave seven parables of the kingdom Now that's a significant designation parables of the kingdom Because in total he gave 40 or 50 parables Depending different people identify and define a parable differently, but about 40 or 50 but here He gave what he calls the parables of the kingdom So that his people would have the right expectation About how the kingdom operates in their generation This is an area where the enemy Really attacked israel with confusion on this issue And israel ended up Confused and offended at the lord because they had very wrong ideas About what god's ideas were about how the kingdom would unfold And over 2 000 years of church history This is still an issue that causes trouble for believers They have wrong ideas about what god said he would do in their generation Because we're all wanting big and glorious and powerful and they're That dimension is part of god's plan But what he says in these parables is there's another dimension that he emphasizes even more That is the small the Work that's invisible. That's not perceived by others And he went on to tell the nation of israel here He goes you got to understand how i'm going to lead in the kingdom between now and the second coming He didn't say just that way But I think today even in the body of christ We need to be clear about what he said. He's going to do So that we're not aiming at something other than And then we end up offended or confused or perplexed about his leadership I taught on this subject the matthew 13 the parables of the kingdom many years ago About 30 years ago. I was just I was just reviewing my notes From a long time ago, and i've really been touched by this chapter But in this last week, it really plumb lined my heart Just to go. Yeah. Yeah, I remember that some things i'd actually let slip away in terms of Having a biblical kingdom perspective a realistic perspective The idea isn't to be real positive or real negative, but it's to be accurate and biblical in our perspective Paragraph a jesus taught What uh is called the seven parables of the kingdom And it there's it's found in three different chapters And matthew 13 is the primary place. We got luke 4. I mean, uh mark 4 and luke 8 supplements But matthew 13 is the primary passage you want to really uh anchor into now the context in paragraph b Is that religious leaders of israel had just publicly in the last few months declared Their animosity to him now, they've been troubled by him for a while But now they're making it public. We are against him. There is no question. It's public. It's official. It's throughout the whole land and because of this new Uh determination to reject the messiah Jesus began to teach in parables because of that He said now what? I'll I have this several times in the notes, but it's worth repeating several times is that Jesus taught in parables for two reasons He taught in parables to reveal the truth And he taught in parables to conceal the truth He taught in parables to make the truth easy To the people that had a heart of obedience That were receptive, but he taught in parables to make the truth confusing to the people that said no and specifically the parables of the kingdom Because if you don't have the right perspective of where things are going you're going to be completely Out of sync with what the spirit's doing and how he's doing it in any given generation so the new norm That jesus when he talked to the leaders about what was really happening. He gave them parables. They couldn't understand Because their hearts were hardened against them And I got a few uh, uh reasons for that in the notes that we probably won't develop But i'll leave that to you to read on your own Now having a right perspective is key to having right motivation The enemy wants to destroy your motivation. He gets you into wrong expectation Because with wrong expectation It doesn't happen Your heart gets offended at the lord Or you get discouraged or you get into despair Or you just want to quit And the enemy knows one of the best ways to get you to quit Is to get you Aiming at something that's not real proverbs 13 verse 12 Says hope deferred makes the heart sick And the enemy wants your heart to be sick He wants you not to get what's happening right in front of you So that you get angry at the lord or you get into despair or you get into offense Paragraph, uh, i'm in roman numeral 2 now key to understanding why jesus I mean the message of these seven parables Is you have to go back to daniel chapter 2 If you don't go back to daniel chapter 2 You're not going to understand the confusion and the offense That jesus was answering When he gave these parables Because even the obedient the receptive those really hungry for him. They had real wrong ideas. He goes i'm really gonna pastor you right now I'm gonna adjust your expectations So that You're not discouraged in despair offended, uh offended at me so we can work together throughout your lifetime in any given generation So you got to go back to daniel chapter, uh, two paragraph a In chapter two, it's a long chapter. I'll just give the snapshot the prophet daniel he interprets king nebuchadnezzar's prophetic dream The babylonian king the pagan king he has a dream of a statue or an image and this image Represented I won't go through the dream in any kind of detail. It's quite fascinating chapter because it's a prophecy of the You know of many many years of the future of what's going to happen in the earth from nebuchadnezzar's time Which is about 500 years bc approximately And nebuchadnezzar saw the statue and he saw four gentile kingdoms That would oppose israel that would be hostile towards israel and daniel God gave daniel the dream That god gave nebuchadnezzar so daniel says hey king i'll tell you your dream and i'll tell you the interpretation as well Nebuchadnezzar the king said okay. Tell me my dream. What was it? here in chapter 2 verse 31 He goes you were watching And behold, you saw a great statue a great image And there were you saw the next four gentile empires world empires But right in the middle of this dream verse 34 a stone That was cut without hands Very mysterious this stone appeared that had no human origin And that stone we find out later is a symbolic of the kingdom of god of Jesus's kingdom It's a stone that comes it's a little stone And it hits the big statue Nebuchadnezzar goes, okay It says that when it struck the statue the image verse 35 All of these gentile kingdoms were crushed As a matter of fact there was no trace of them they were so totally annihilated There was no trace of them anywhere and it goes on to say the wind came and blew them away Just like chaff blew away every residue of those empires The stone that struck the statue the little stone it became a great mountain And it filled the whole earth now again, it's talking about the kingdom of god under jesus's leadership now Daniel or nebuchadnezzar, they don't really have that kind of detail Verse 44 He goes here's the bottom line The god of heaven Is going to set up a kingdom. That's the little stone It's going to destroy all the other kingdoms. It's going to fill the earth And this kingdom will never be destroyed It will break into pieces all the evil kingdoms and institutions And shatter them there won't be any evil to contend with And this Little stone that becomes a mountain that fills the earth that kingdom will go on forever and forever and forever now really this is The main part of this is a prophecy of jesus at the second coming But israel doesn't have any idea That jesus is coming first as a humble servant to die And then 2 000 plus years later. He comes as a conquering king. They only have one idea. He's coming to crush all the The resisting powers to remove sin this cataclysmic Intervention in history. It's what we understand is the second coming I mean, what do we believe? What does the scripture say jesus is going to come in the sky and fire With angels and the antichrist empire is going to be destroyed in a moment driven off the earth satan thrown Into prison for a thousand years. I mean it's exciting I mean, we look forward to it. This is what israel was looking forward to at the first coming and the seven Parables of the kingdom he's telling those that love him that are receptive he goes it's going to be very different from that And if you don't know that You're going to be very susceptible to offensive god To discouragement despair you're going to not understand What god's doing if you don't grasp this? paragraph two daniel two pictured a Cataclysmic single event. It's the second coming of christ. It was that event So all of israel Was looking for a messiah Who would come to the earth? And he would destroy all the gentile, uh empires. Rome was the fourth empire and rome was right there in power During jesus's generation and they said oh my goodness This is fantastic the king the anointed one is going to destroy rome the devil's going to be cast off the planet Everyone's going to be healed and happy and the kingdom's going to explode the power of the holy spirit hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah paragraph b well to add to some of the confusion That was in the Mindset of the mainstream of the day. They didn't understand god's word in detail They had just only broad strokes and they had wrong ideas john the baptist He spoke about this kingdom And they're all thinking daniel chapter 2 and john means daniel 2 But john understands more he knows the messiah is a lamb that's going to die To take away the sins he gets that nobody else gets it so john the baptist comes And he says in matthew 3 repent The kingdom is at hand now when he said the kingdom is hand all of israel's thinking the daniel 2 Kingdom, it's what we're thinking about the second coming. That was the image they had in their mind when john said The kingdom is here Moments away. They thought oh my goodness I mean it's going to be cataclysmic Rome is going to be destroyed satan is going to be completely driven off the planet Everything wrong is going to be made right the hour is here Verse 11 john said the messiah He's going to baptize people with the spirit There's going to be this universal anointing of the holy spirit See that's in joel chapter 2 and the prophets talked about this. So israel is getting more excited Then the end of verse 12 He's going to burn up all the chaff And in the daniel 2 dream that meant all the gentile kingdoms are going to be blown away like chaff They're all going to be destroyed and removed Rome was the fourth And the final empire in that prophetic dream And so israel said this is so exciting The time is now Jesus is here The messiah he's going to overthrow rome There's going to be a universal outpouring of the holy spirit There's going to be overwhelming power. The kingdom's going to fill the earth through israel But the problem is this didn't happen in jesus's ministry And they're saying how can you be the messiah but not do daniel 2? In other words, how could you be the messiah but not do the second coming millennial kingdom stuff? And in matthew chapter 7, I mean matthew chapter 13 Jesus says i'm going to tell the people that really love me how it's really going to be Until I return And if they know this he's he's really functioning as a pastor. He's realigning their expectation So they will be faithful In the time between now and the second coming and they would see the value of what was happening in their life They wouldn't dismiss What god had entrusted to them as small and irrelevant. They would see it as god's purpose As important to do with all of their heart That god was watching though. It would be small That it was his leadership that was ordaining this Now jesus doesn't tell us why Things are going to be different and why he has this Phase one of the kingdom and phase two is at the second coming and the thousand-year millennial kingdom He doesn't tell us why but what he's really telling them in matthew 13 He's really telling them he goes this is something thought through from ages past This is not a concession That the devil just kind of rose up in power and now I have to adapt my plans He goes no. No, it was always the plan from ages past to do it this way He doesn't tell us why he planned it that way, but he wants us to know it was planned which means We can trust his leadership It's thought through It's good It wins And no matter what his leadership says In these seven parables That give a very different picture of the kingdom than israel was imagining And it's the picture of the kingdom that we are still walking in And in valuing it we trust his leadership And we're not going to buy the devil's lies and cast off Everything that isn't big and exciting and dynamic. We're going to see the value Of jesus and the father Determining that the kingdom of god would operate in the ways that these seven parables talk about Okay, let's look at top of page two Why did jesus talk in parables? He tells us right here in the chapter. He goes i'm gonna tell you what verse 10 The disciples said why why are you suddenly? I mean he had told a few parables up before that But this says why is it's like everything's a parable now. Well, like what are you doing? Jesus said well, here's what i'm really doing verse 11 He goes i'm gonna it's been given It's been ordained by god To know the mysteries of the kingdom. That's the phrase. I want you to take a hold of the mystery of the kingdom these seven parables Because the 40 or 50 parables aren't the mystery of the kingdom. These seven are specifically in a very specific way The other ones are not so much about the how the kingdom operates It's it's uh in the way that these seven are these these are unique verse 12 Gives us a very important. Uh, uh principle that you could miss if you just kind of went by it fast Jesus says let me tell you that's whoever has Whatever the the man or woman that has a little bit of understanding and a little bit of receptivity If they've got it instead of hardened instead of resistant A little understanding because of a little bit of receptivity god's gonna give them more He's gonna help them to be more zealous. It's gonna give them more understanding he's gonna tweak and fashion and form their Expectations so they're aiming at the right target and they're not aiming at the wrong target Then they get into despair and offense and just quit He says but to the people Who don't have a receptive heart and they don't really know what i'm about to do He says even the understanding they have is going to diminish Even the little they have it's going to go down because i'm doing a brand new thing and they will be clueless about it Now he was talking about the hardening the hardened heart of the pharisees He goes therefore i'm speaking in parables Because seeing physically with their eyes the pharisees they saw his miracles, but they don't see he's the king Seeing physically they don't see spiritually Hearing his great messages. They don't hear Really from the heart and gain understanding about what god's doing in their generation Paragraph c The point is this the end of paragraph c very important point Jesus is emphasizing Truth is not neutral When you hear truth Like tonight you'll hear truth you'll hear truth I mean many many times this week and next week and the week after When you go home when you come back, you'll hear truth from many different angles Truth will either harden you or it will soften you but truth is not neutral If you hear it Yet let me just say it in a strange way you'll make a slight movement Towards him or you'll take a slight movement of becoming more familiar and unresponsive And hardened by it Jesus is saying truth is not neutral If you hear it And you don't respond actually becomes more difficult to respond later because a little bit of hardness sits in Paragraph d Now he's telling them the kingdom has come But it came Jesus said john was right. The kingdom is here The daniel 2 kingdom is here But it's unexpected It's come in an unexpected way. It's come in a hidden way You were expecting stage one Only one stage, but there's two stages You are expecting to be overwhelmed with power You are expecting this present order to be shaken dramatically in a way everybody can see because that's coming That's my second coming But i'm coming it's going to be subtle Imperceivable to perceptible to many many people they won't get it when it's right in front of them But it will be here and he didn't tell us back then but it would go on that way 2000 plus years But here's the here's the issue that jesus emphasizes The kingdom will only grow As people have faith and obedience to the small and little things that are before them if they lose that They will drift into dullness And unresponsiveness if they don't see the value of the small and the little that's right in front of them That i'm doing in their life and around them And that's a great the great offense of of the kingdom of god God values the small and the hidden that's right before us And we think well, come on when it gets big and exciting i'm in he goes no My leadership says different i'm not going to tell you why i'm doing it that way But it's not a concession. It's not a plan of desperation. I've planned it this way from eternity past He says the kingdom's coming small But it is the kingdom promised by daniel 2 it's here it's here right now it's here in me in my person jesus would say paragraph e just to Kind of really get it just one two three. This is a little simplistic But there's four aspects that were new to israel number one These were new ideas to them Now the the pharisees didn't even catch what he was saying. They just said ah, he's crazy and they became more and more hardened and The judgment on them is they were unable to engage with his leadership because they were offended And they just got more and more offended because they didn't receive the understanding But to the receptive they went oh We got to readjust The way we're thinking because we want to be participating with you. We want to be doing what you're doing We want to be involved with what you're involved with And so this understanding shifted their expectation Number one He taught that the kingdom of god obedience would be voluntary and not enforced because in daniel 2 Like at the second coming when jesus comes You have the nations have to obey their every knee will bow. There will be a a tremendous mandate it won't be just kind of do what you want to do there will be a a a Obedience in the nations will have a whole nother standard of responsibility in that hour also What he's saying Is that obedience won't be overwhelming? Meaning you won't just wake up one day just overwhelmed with consuming desires and no temptations Obedience will be step by step by faith You won't always see it or feel it, but you're going to choose to obey And they're thinking ah, we don't want to do that. We've already done that. That's that's kind of boring Jesus said no, that's number one It's not going to be daniel 2 like second coming and fire Overwhelming power it's going to be voluntary And the obedience is going to be by faith in small things day by day And it's important. Jesus said that's how me and my father have chosen to lead the kingdom until the second coming Number two, it's going to come small. It's going to start very small matter of fact it started with A group of 12 disciples in an upper room of 120 people But he said hang in there because over time it's going to fill the whole earth And there will be a cataclysmic moment, but not for a while It's going to grow slowly little by little number three The kingdom has great value, but the value will not be obvious to most people It will be obvious. It will be clear to the people hungry to see it You say well lord, why don't you make it more compelling he goes I got reasons why i'm doing it this way That would be a whole nother message at another time some of my ideas as to why he has chosen to lead The 2 000 years between his first and second coming in this manner, but I believe it's brilliant. It is his wisdom It's not a mistake. It's not a concession. It's not a last minute desperation The kingdom will be very valuable, but it won't be obvious to most people it will seem boring and not that Not worth it But it goes the people who see it They will really it will touch them deeply on the inside The number four this is what israel cared about the most The wicked will be removed i.e. rome Rome was oppressing them They will be removed completely like daniel 2 says But not till the end of the age there will be false religions There will be evil institutions I will let them go on for 2 000 years. I have a reason why i'm allowing them to go on But don't worry In my timing they will be gone forever and forever and never appear again Billions of years you will experience many forever and forever without any of this present without any of this Uh hassling you or tempting you but for now I'm, not going to take it away And it's the question. Why does god allow these? evil men to get in power and evil institutions to get influence and money and And impact and false religions to grow so big he goes I told you Back when I came the first time the lord could say I was going to allow that I have a purpose for it But trust me the daniel 2 cataclysmic world filled with glory Devil in prison no sin on the earth. It's coming and he'll be here in a minute But it's really important that you do it my way between now and then Now as humans We like big and exciting. I mean I do you do I don't want small by faith little by little and try to see the value and and really search it out But he says I want you to do that It's it's it's got to do with love and the way we interact. It's got a way. It's got something to do with my Superior beauty being magnified in the midst of the devil giving his best temptations to the planet And my superiority triumphing over all of it It has to do with you choosing when you had real choices for evil. You chose me When it was small And even hard to see but you chose me. I will remember it forever and forever I'm giving this theater this this time of life a theater to choose love That I will remember forever and forever your few years on the earth and the way that you chose me paragraph f Now the earthly reign Of jesus on the throne of david the millennial kingdom It's clearly revealed in the old testament. So it's not a mystery that a mystery is something that hasn't been revealed yet The new information Was jesus was introducing a spiritual reign Like, okay, we like the spiritual reign, but we want the physical earthly Demonstrative overwhelming power. That's what we're into. He goes. Yeah, i'm gonna do a little of that here and there I'm gonna do a whole lot of it when I return a little bit here and there. Yes through history But i'm gonna defeat the devil in your life And I will defeat rome later the outward political Evil institutions i'll remove them. But for now i'm gonna Really focus on you getting victory over sin and satan in your life There's a spiritual emphasis. There's a physical dimension even now, but it's not the primary dimension He's emphasizing paragraph g spiritual victory Not just dominion over the nations outwardly again a little bit that happens There's been great breakthroughs in history here and there And when he returns it's going to be ultimate But his primary issue is spiritual victory That he would have people that enjoy him that choose him in the presence of real choices in difficulty And they walk with they choose love they choose humility They choose purity when everything in the culture is opposite of those things They do it because they love me Paragraph, uh page three So the first parable which will be ever so brief on each one of them He starts off he said there's four types of soil there's four types Of heart responses when the word of god goes forward He's re-illustrating the four responses the categories four different categories that people have when they hear the proclamation of jesus's leadership in the reign of god verse three He says here. Let me tell you a story The farmer went out to sow to plant seed the sower is the farmer Verse four most of you are very familiar with this parable Some of the seed fell by the wayside verse five Some of the seed fell on stony On the pathway that was real hard. The surface was hard and had a lot of rock It was the pathway where people walk He goes those kind of people The word of god sprang up in them for a moment But they had no root system And in a short amount of time though they were engaged with god for a short period of time They had no root system. So when pressure came they said, oh, you know what? I'm not really into the jesus thing anymore And israel's going wait. I thought you were coming with overwhelming power. This is like we don't want to do this We want glory to god shunned. I'm a hundai the power of god in the earth. Here it is We don't want this he goes. Yeah, it's gonna be this way But I have my reasons Number seven verse seven the third type of response The seed of the word the preaching of lee of the reign of god the leadership of jesus He'll fall among thorns not on a pathway with rocks on it But on thorns the thorn bushes will choke it out the seed There will be those That will respond and among those who respond Some will respond 30-fold. I mean they'll go Pretty much with all their heart, but they'll hold back some but the lord says I count it as going with all your heart But it's a 30-fold response Others will say no. No, he's worthy. I want to give it all and some will give 60 and others Under the same message in the same environment and the same hour of history. They'll give a hundred fold Responsiveness of their heart They'll bear fruit and the fruit he's talking about here is an outward impact It's the gifts. It's the fruit of the spirit. Love joy. Peace patience It's the sermon on the mount growing in their heart and in their character in life. They'll have a hundred fold Responsiveness to god's leadership Now when we hear this we go. I want to be that one But jesus says no the 30 I honor the 30. I understand There's a lot going on down there. I honor the 60 greatly and I honor the hundred but The desire in his heart is that we wouldn't be content with 30 or 60. We'd want a hundred top of page four well the interpretation Jesus let me tell you it's pretty Pretty uh clear because we've read this parable many times. I'm sure that you have He goes let me tell you what that parable means and this is the one i'm spending More time on than the other ones. I'll put three or four minutes on this one He said when somebody verse 19, here's the word But uh, the birds come and steal it, you know, like in the parable He said the birds the the guy throws the seed but the bird comes and picks the seed up before it ever germinates before the roots even begin He goes let me tell you what that really is There's a spiritual force behind it there's a real devil He's really involved. It doesn't have any roots at all. It just it's stolen right away for a minute. They go, huh? And within the hour it's gone and they're on to something else. He goes the devil stole it. There's a spiritual force behind that It's not just neutral verse 20 he goes the second type of response the stony He goes the stony places there was two pressures Verse 21 There was tribulations and there were persecutions These two pressures Came against them and they didn't have a root system Meaning they didn't really have any uh, any history of giving themselves to god You're worthy. I trust your leadership. The trouble is trouble, but you're bigger than the trouble They don't have any dialogue with me in that way, there's no root system. So when the tribulation that's pressures life got hard Or people came against them They had no root in themselves So after a period of time they said, you know what? It's not worth it. I'm not pressing in he said they fell away They had no root system They had two types of pressure the tribulations and the persecutions He goes the third type of heart response Is the word of god the seed it fell among thorns This wasn't about pressure coming. This was about temptation Anxieties cares one translation says anxieties Over-concerned about their place and who likes them and who doesn't and how it's going and how things are just consumed preoccupied with cares or They're seduced by money and jesus said And those that over-preoccupation with care and that seduction with money whether they ever get it or not Many people that are covetous don't have money People think well the rich people are covetous poor people are just as covetous as rich They just don't have the opportunity, but they have the heart engagement jesus said They're unfruitful They're captured by those two temptations cares They want stuff and they want money and they're preoccupied with themselves they can't get into a steady dialogue with me So their life is unfruitful, but they did say yes to me for a season verse 23 But he goes the fourth Type of ground they did bear fruit But again, there's different measures of responsiveness But jesus honors 30 percent the 30 fold the 60 and 100 he goes I honor all of responsiveness to me That stays the long term He doesn't only honor the hundred fold. He honors the 60 and the 30 but what he's What he's emphasizing they stayed long term is the point It wasn't for a few months or a few years. They stayed with it, even though they had various responses Let's look at top of page five, let's go to the second parable Now the second parable it seems similar to the first but it's really not In the first parable we looked at it's the same seed in four groups of people The seed is good. The ground is what is different the heart response but in this parable There's the lord with good seed But there's the devil with bad seed The devil Is raising up his own people in society They're called the tares or the weeds But they're sons of the enemy They're not backslidden believers But they're actually energized in a very specific way their ideas their delusion Is energized by by darkness in a very direct way. They don't know that They think they just have new ideas that are better than christianity But they're under spirit of delusion and they're energized by these strong ideas that are contrary This is is the seeds of the uh of the of the tares. So let's read the parable again. I'm assuming Most of you are familiar with the parable So I can be really brief when it with it verse 24 He goes there's a man and it this man is jesus Of the farmer. He's the same man of the first parable. He sows the good seed He just talked about how there's four types of responses to the good seed But he goes there's another dimension to my kingdom. I want you to know There's a real devil The devil doesn't just steal the good word out of the heart the devil plants evil ideas in people's hearts He doesn't just steal the good seed he plants the bad seed He energizes people with really wrong ideas That stand against the leadership of jesus Though they think their ideas are superior To jesus's ideas that they've they've got ideas perspectives. It's bigger And better than jesus's way He says the enemy is the one that plants those seeds He's talking about people that the enemy captures in a way of thinking that's delusional, but they don't think it's delusional They think it's grand and glorious and superior verse 29 The master his servant said The servants of the farmer went to him who's the master of the house and said hey Should we pull up these seeds these bad seeds of the the weeds or the tears you could use those words interchangeably Jesus says no No, actually, I don't want you to pull them up. I don't want those people banished out of society Though the the devil has energized them God is actually going to use their Delusion and their zeal. He's going to use it to perfect the saints and increase his own kingdom and If you go banish All the evils of institutions out of society all the false religions all that's bad because that's what israel wanted to do You're going to end up Uprooting the good people the wheat you're gonna you're gonna make accidents. I mean you're gonna make mistakes. You're gonna accidentally Overdo it or miss the will of god. He says now let the devil's seeds Don't banish them out of society. Don't put him in jail. We're not talking about people who do crimes. We're talking about people with Delusional ideas that are contrary to jesus's values and jesus's leadership Again, a lot of false the world religions evil institutions Powerful personalities that are influencing people contrary to the ways of god jesus said no no actually What the devil means for good i'm actually going to use it i'm going to overrule it I'm going to cause my kingdom to be stronger in the resistance of that negative presence in society paragraph c He goes on and describes And i'm not going to read this but he interprets that parable And he says i'm gonna let The false religions go i'm not going to banish them. You're not going to throw them in jail they've got demonically energized delusional ideas of superior ideas to mine jesus could say but If you go after them And you make them criminals you're going to end up disrupting my kingdom And by the way besides that I could I can overpower it and use even what the devil means for bad evil. I can use it for good Then he goes on in verse 43 And he said and the net result of all of this Is that the righteous will shine in the glory of god forever? Yes, they'll have more obstacles. There'll be more resistance There'll be more opposition against them, but as they choose me I will see it And when they stand before me on the last day I will release my glory in them At a at various levels they will shine forever and forever like the sun and the stars So though it will be difficult It will actually work together for good. So no Don't outlaw all the evil institutions All the the the false religions allow what the devil sows Let it emerge meaning don't put them to death. Don't execute them You think that's a little extreme but throughout church history The church leaders have actually killed these people and banished them Trying to do god's will in zeal, but it's totally contrary to what he taught in this parable Now israel is listening to this going what? You're gonna let rome Continue to oppress us for now You mean you're gonna not address this? Jesus said me and my father are operating on a plan It's called a mystery. We've had this plan from ages past It's working And you're going to see the end result of it when it's all done. So no do it my way It's not a last-minute plan. We know what we're doing It's going to bring the glory of god at the highest level in this environment up at page six So it goes to the next parables The mustard seed and the woman with the leaven in the loaf so does or or or in her meal Now jesus takes these two parables And he says the kingdom of god is like this Like a mustard seed like oh, wow Israel's going really mustard seed was the smallest seed that was common to israel It's going to start off like a mustard seed. What's no we want fireworks we want big and powerful and overwhelming and Everything made new in one moment. He goes. No. No, it's going to start off with a seed but The mustard seed though, it's so small It's famous for how small it is. It grows to be like a 12-foot bush Jesus called it a tree But it would it could it goes from real small to real big And my kingdom will be that way And they're going well, how long is it going to take it to get big? Jesus says well i'm not going to tell you right now You need to know that it's going to be small at first stay with it It's going to seem to have an insignificant beginning But it ultimately when I return it will fill the earth And he says he goes on let's read it paragraph b the kingdom of god is like a mustard seed The man sowed it in the field again, it's the same man sowing in the field. It's the farmer It's the jesus is that man And inspiring people under his leadership to sow that seed in the field Though it's the least of all the seeds. It's small. It's very very small It will grow real big. That's the point It will grow so big But the birds of the air will come and find their nest it will get so big before it's over even before I return as the The christian institutions Have exploded around the earth in the last 2 000 years. I mean, can you imagine from this little band? 12 men That jesus with no bible school. No anything no education Uh degrees all this he's the most famous man in 2 000 years There's nobody like him. It's a revolution of love that he did it all voluntarily And he called people to love him. There's no one like him and there's no religion like it And he did it invisible up in heaven. We can't even see him, but it's exploding and growing little by little century by century for 2 000 years paragraph c He's saying the same thing But he says, uh this time he says instead of a little mustard seed that gets real big It's like a little bit of yeast or a little bit of leaven You put it in the bread dough The smallest amount it takes time. Nobody can see it working. It's invisible. It's hidden It's small it's unimpressive It's invisible it's imperceptive But this little bit of leaven this little bit of yeast it will fill a touch all the dough It will affect the entire meal. I mean all that's being cooked and baked there it will the whole lump of dough will be influenced by it And what jesus is really saying is Don't write off the smallness and the littleness of what i'm doing It's going to end up daniel 2, but it won't be daniel 2 grandeur for a while But it's my leadership. I want you engaging with me at this level Then paragraph roman numeral 9 the next two parables The parables of the hidden treasure the great pearl verse 44 He said the kingdom of god is like a hidden treasure in a field Which a man found and hid and for joy he sells everything and buys the field Then he makes the same point with the with the next parable He's saying that the very same thing Little bit of nuance to it. That's different, but mostly the same thing He goes. Let me say it again the kingdom of god Is like a merchant He's looking to buy and sell beautiful pearls When he found one pearl that's so beautiful so glorious He sold everything to go buy that pearl so what he's saying is this He goes the treasure is hidden And most people walk by the field and couldn't see anything in the field, but just a field Many people Even though they say yes to jesus even in a casual way They don't see anything worthy of giving everything to they go, you know, i'm yeah, he's amazing, I guess but You know, I got a lot going on and And jesus said most people won't see the value Of my kingdom and my leadership. They won't But some will And they'll have to search it out because it won't be obvious But when they see it though, it's hidden with joy It will only make sense to give everything to me in my kingdom that they could participate in it with all their heart No matter what the persecutions no matter what the tribulations the life pressures no matter what the cares are No matter what the riches are they say this is worth everything You are infinitely superior. He says most won't conclude that But i'm going to lead my kingdom for the next 2 000 years Allowing some to emerge with that insight and when they see it They will be very different than all the others They will sell everything for me though. Many won't grasp why but they will because they connect with who I am Yes, the daniel 2 Kingdom and overwhelming power when I return then everybody will see my glory But I will have my people through history that will see my value When others can't see it because they've searched it out and they were not content to live without seeing it So the great pearl And the great the hidden treasure is the kingdom or it's jesus's leadership and the kingdom that he's leading. It's commentators take it one way or the other And finally the final parable parable So the so the last one is though the kingdom of god in this age It's valuable, but it's not obvious that it's valuable to most people to even people that casually respond to the word They don't get how valuable how absolutely Unique and glorious the kingdom is and the great king is roman numeral 10 the parable of the dragnet verse 47 Jesus said again the kingdom It's like a big dragnet that was cast into the sea now the way a dragnet worked Like one boat would take the net And the other boat would be like a couple hundred yards away. I mean a couple football fields long I mean really long this big net and then they would drop the net and the net would have weights at the bottom So it might go down 10 20 30 feet and these boats would just carry it And all the fish in between they would drag it and bring it to the shore He said that's how the kingdom's going to be it's going to gather every kind of fish The good fish that they can sell in the market and the bad fish that nobody wants they go Yeah that you can't sell that they're gonna throw that back into the sea He says verse 49 So it will be at the end of the age There will be the time where the good are gathered through history, but god will cast the bad away He won't let evil remain in society He won't allow evil institutions to continue indefinitely He won't allow false religions to grow and prosper indefinitely He says he's going to allow the kingdom net many people with many different motives All kinds of motives from really good to really bad. They will associate with the kingdom There are more religious institutions That proclaim some kind of Allegiance or association to christianity that at the core at the heart are not christian Jesus said don't worry about it The net's going to bring in all kinds not bring them to salvation. They're going to want to associate and and uh They're going to want to proclaim some kind of involvement with christianity He goes now you'll know that a lot of it's not real but i've got a purpose in it Don't worry. It's short term I will intervene Rome will be taken care of The evil institutions will be exposed. I will judge them and remove them from the planet forever And my people will be gathered He goes this is how the kingdom is going to be Now we know from history for the next couple thousand years, this is how it's going to be and israel was like This isn't exactly what we were signing up for We were signing up for something far more dynamic far easier Far more obvious Than what you're calling us to and jesus said these are the mysteries That israel does not know Of my father's kingdom his leadership is good. He is going to turn every he's going to use all of these opposing Resisting issues in society He's going to cause the saints To be perfected in love to grow in humility to choose purity over and over again And my father's will will be done and it will be worth it amen and amen Amen, let's have our worship team. Come on up. Let's stand before the lord So here we are lord Lord, we want to take our wrong ideas and disillusionment About how things ought to be easier and bigger and better and faster More dynamic and lord. We still want those things, but we trust your leadership. That's what this is about Lord, we adjust to what you want We love humility, we love what you love and we say yes in our life To your leadership I would invite anybody that would like prayer To come forward and maybe some of you I mean Not that you had the daniel 2 image like the jewish people had of everything glorious in one moment But still we've had parts of this wrong mindset And we've hesitated we drew back and we didn't want to go all the way But this is an hour to be a hundredfold This is an hour to see the value of the treasure that others can't see to see the beauty of the pearl that others cannot see obviously If you would like prayer and anything related to this I would like to invite you to come forward and say yeah, I want to I want a realignment I want to I found my heart getting plumblined in a new way just Studying through this just just this last week. Anyway, I want to invite you to come on up if you'd like prayer Lord here we are Us to come into your presence lord here we are in your presence Lord we want to say yes to the hundredfold Response lord i'm not content with 30 and 60 You're the beautiful girl You you're the hidden treasure worth everything Lord we value the small We want the big but we value the small We value the invisible the spiritual victories You We plant our lives in the soil of your love and we watch And bloom With the Lord we value the small in the hidden Obedience But we ask you for the manifest presence of the spirit tonight in a greater measure Oh So spread your blanket of love For the spirit and the bright city come come for your love-seeking ones Cover your lovesick Come Because we are making ourselves ready for the consummation we agree with your leadership With the sound of intercession filling up the golden bowls We are bursting in your beauty And you might Make ourselves ready We are making ourselves ready For the consummation With the sound of intercession Filling up the golden bowls we are bursting in your beauty Tonight right now we ask all over this world has come together as the Together It's the joy See Of loving you jesus It's Your leadership is perfect. We love your leadership jesus Leadership is good We submit To your perfect Leading We bow our knees we humble ourselves We surrender We surrender Oh perfect one. You're perfect in all of your ways Because you are the most wise leader And wisdom is yours and we trust in your wisdom We trust your ways We trust you I love your ways You beautiful beautiful way beautiful god Your we love your leadership jesus I love your ways You beautiful beautiful ways I love your ways And i'll stand amazed I love your ways You beautiful beautiful ways I love And i stand amazed I love your You're beautiful, beautiful ways I love your ways And I stand amazed I love your ways You're beautiful, beautiful ways I love your ways And I stand amazed I love your ways You're beautiful, beautiful ways I love your ways Oh God, you're the king we want You're the kingdom that we love So come and be the king of my heart in every way For my eyes are on you, says the Lord You will conquer my heart I see every choice you make for me And I will open every door to you in my heart Will you open every door in your heart to me? Come search me Search me and know me, know my ways You know all my wonders and you hold my every tear So how much more can I trust you? Are we not children of the light? Oh well, you've brought many, many sons to glory We are children of light No longer orphans, you've been brought into your family Brought into your family And I love your ways You're beautiful, beautiful ways I love your ways And I stand amazed I love your ways You're beautiful, beautiful ways And I stand amazed I love your ways Oh you're hungry, you're hungry for more Come and visit us tonight When we go to bed, I ask you For the stirring of your spirit, that we would see your beauty The pearl of great value So break through the darkness With the revelation of your beauty, oh God Come and let us stir to meet God Let us stir to our hearts We live just a little bit longer As we want a little bit more Come and do what you gotta do to get in my heart What I wouldn't do for just another glimpse of you Take us deeper Let your glory come As we wait on you Let your glory come As we wait on you As we wait on you Let your glory come So let your glory come As we wait on you Let your glory come Let your glory come As we wait on you Let your glory come So let your glory come As we wait on you