In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of seeking a deeper revelation of God and finding one's purpose in life. They highlight the idea that if we are faithful with the small things God gives us, He will entrust us with more. The speaker also emphasizes the need to surrender to God and follow His instructions, using the example of Joshua in the Bible. They remind the audience that as believers, we are enlisted in a spiritual battle and should not be entangled with worldly affairs. The sermon concludes with the message of repentance and the invitation to enter God's kingdom by humbling ourselves and admitting our weaknesses.

An adult, you say, hey, why don't you wait just a minute, I can make my own decisions. When somebody says, I don't know if I like what you're wearing, you go, excuse me, I do like what I'm wearing, amen? You know, now nobody, I'm sure, wrestles with this at all. Is that right in the room? Nobody's had those little thoughts go spiraling through your mind, is that right? Come on, we've all had them, isn't that right? You know, where you just kind of bristle against any suggestion, any other external authority to tell you what to do or how to do it. Guys, youth, like no other class in society, bucks up against authority, isn't that right? And so recognize that at the age you're at, you've got some things going against you when you hear a message like we're giving this weekend to submit to the king, amen? If that thing starts to rise up, say, oh, I don't know if that's so, I don't know if I want to do it that way, or I don't know, I like kind of having my hands on the steering wheel of my life, get in the trunk and let God drive, amen? He's not your co-pilot. But it's funny, even when we get older and we cross that threshold to being an adult, to being a grown-up, do you still use that word? I do. Maybe one day I'll be a grown-up, I don't know, it's still coming. To be a grown-up, and you conform a little bit to society, you find your place. Then there comes another temptation, where you're still in control, but it's kind of turned around. Well, now that I'm kind of sophisticated and I got it all together, I don't know if I want to do that, because that looks kind of silly, you know what I mean? That looks kind of foolish. You know, I might lose or sacrifice a little bit of my dignity if I go there. You know what? Being a subject of the king means that you radically relinquish all control of your life, that you're ready to conform to all the guidelines and mandates and commands of this book. When God says, do it, you do it. Amen? But it also means that when God says, you let it all hang out, you abandon yourself to me, you just become a fool for my sake, you do that too. Amen? Regardless if other people think you look silly, you look weird, you look dumb, they don't understand how you're living your life or what you're doing, if you're in submission to the king, not just finding another way to kind of buck the system, but if you're really in submission to the king, you let them say what they will, you're being obedient to the king. Amen? Being a subject of the king means that you sacrifice your self-expression, which a lot of times is just a facade for selfish expression, and you are willing to sacrifice your so-called dignity. Amen? Does that make sense, you guys? There's no greater joy than when you're a subject to the king. So Jesus, you know, I tried living my life myself, doing it my own way, playing all the games the world plays, going to all the parties and trying to impress friends and do all that stuff, and after several years of making my life such shambles, coming apart at the seams, almost destroying myself, I realized I wasn't very good at running my life. Have some of you guys found that out yet? I hope you don't have to find that truth out the way I did. But then you get up, you look up from laying on the ground, and your life is a shambles all around you, and you say, Jesus, I'm ready for you to be king. Except, you know, myself, I don't feel like I had anything going for me. I've been rebelling so long that I never conformed long enough to do anything right or have anything going for me, so I gave Jesus permission to wipe the slate clean. You know, you got your life all figured out, you got the five-year plan all out there on the drawing board, right? On the chalkboard. When you bow the knee to Jesus, you give him the eraser, and you give him permission to go, okay, we're doing a different lesson today. This is what it's going to look like right here. Let's say, no, no, no, no, Jesus, I want you to erase the ugly parts, but can you please leave this good stuff, this cool stuff that makes me look pretty popular and cool in front of other people? When you're really subject to the king, you let him wipe the slate clean. Have you ever, ever done that? Are you looking for direction, information, a sense of calling for your life? I'll tell you what, when the pupil isn't present, when we haven't taken the role of a subject, a student, then the message of the teacher isn't heard very clearly. God is trying, He is trying, for years now, I believe, trying to give you clear communication, a clear lesson about how you're supposed to live your life and invest your life, but so often, because we're not truly subject to Him, the messages aren't coming through. Amen? You ever try to tell somebody, give something, a bit of information, a piece of advice, but you could tell just by their body posture and the way they looked that they weren't going to listen to you? It doesn't encourage you to be a teacher, does it? It doesn't encourage you to share the life lessons that you've learned. And I'll tell you what, our God, when He can tell that you're just dialed down when the station is on some other channel, you know what I mean? And you're not listening, you don't get the best information of God from the Lord when your heart's not really willing to receive and apply that information. In fact, you can pray the right words all day, all night, all year long, God, teach me, teach me, teach me, but if God discerns that in your heart of hearts you are not truly submitted, ready to both hear it and apply it, the information will not come. This is why we approach these altars of sacrifice sometimes, these fresh areas and arenas of consecration and relinquishing our rights to the Lord where we say, God, I mean it, I will let you do whatever you want to do in my life. And when we come to that place of brokenness and humility, then the information just starts to flow into our life. Does that make sense to you guys? You guys, some of you guys in this room, I know you are praying the right prayers. God, show me what to do the next three years, show me about this relationship, show me how to invest my life where I'm supposed to be, what part of the world, what part of the country, but in your heart of hearts you're not really made a quality decision to do what God will say. You know what's neat about times like this when we come together to worship the Lord, we lift our eyes away from ourself long enough to be focused on the King, and we look at Jesus, we worship Jesus, we pray to Jesus, we get our eyes off ourself long enough that some of the messages that He's been saying to us for a long time start to trickle down. Even I know you guys, over the last day and a half you started to hear some things. I've seen the pins been going, you know what I mean? The journal page is flipping. God's been speaking. It just comes from being in God's presence and looking unto the King. Amen? When we get in the presence of the King, His voice starts to penetrate our heart. The necessity of seeing Christ as King. Can we read one of those verses that went out of Revelations that we read yesterday? That was a good one, wasn't it? And there were loud voices in heaven. Some of you guys might have been sitting there this morning with your arms crossed going, I don't know if I like these loud voices. You know what? There were loud voices in heaven. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth right here just like it is in heaven. Amen? That's all we're doing by trying to give our heart in a radical way to worship. We want the activity of heaven to invade this place. We want the throne of God to invade this place. We want there to be no other lights, no other focal points in this place but the light of Jesus, the person of Christ. Amen? And there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, of Jesus and His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever and ever and ever. And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshipped God. I love Daniel 7.14 Then to Him who was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages shall serve Him, His dominion is an everlasting dominion. Amen? You will either submit to His dominion. You know what it is for there to be a dominion? That means somebody else is in control but you. Okay? You will either submit to His dominion or be crushed by it. Amen? I don't know about you but I'd rather get in on good terms right now. How about you? The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever. And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshipped God. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. It's going to last and last and last. Might as well get used to it. He will reign over us. Which shall not pass away. And His kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed. Amen? Sing Christ as King. Sing Jesus Christ as the King of Kings. When we see Christ high and lifted up, we naturally, we spontaneously become the subjects of the King. Subjects are people who are surrendered and submitted to the full authority of King Jesus. The appearance of the King necessitates a radical surrender. Amen? The appearance of the King demands repentance. We're living on a funny day in the church right now. Where the message of repentance is actually taking quite a beating. In fact, some people believe that the message of repentance is not applicable to the believer's life at all. That we can preach the gospel of the kingdom without preaching the message of repentance. This is not the gospel that Jesus preached. This is not the gospel that the Apostle Paul preached. When you preach that the kingdom is at hand, when the King is here, it demands that we surrender. Amen? It demands that we come up under His authority. And that's called repentance. Repentance is a 180 degree turn from trusting in ourselves, from serving ourself, for living for ourselves and our pleasures, turning 180 degrees towards the King. Amen? And trusting in Him and living for Him and desiring to live for His pleasure and glory. Amen? That's what repentance is. You can't preach the kingdom and you can't introduce people to the King apart from repentance. I don't know what we've done to the gospel but we've messed it up and consequently as a result of extracting the message of repentance from our gospel, we've got a gospel that doesn't work very well. We've got a gospel that doesn't change the people of lives. That's why you've got abortion running rampant, not in the world only, but in the church. That's why you have teenage pregnancies at the same rate in the church as you do in the world. That's why the epidemic of pornography and even issues of sexual perversion are running rampant in the church at the same extent that they are out in the world. You know what? It looks like Jesus, the King, isn't in charge of His house in a lot of places. And what we need is a significant revival of the appearance of the King. Amen? We need to arrange our churches in such a way that they revolve around His glory and His pleasure and we say, God, we bend the knee to You and we defer to You. We allow You to set up house however You see fit. And we understand that You don't exist for our pleasure, but rather we exist for Your glory and for Your pleasure. Amen? We've talked about this radical transformation that can take place in your life when you recognize Jesus as King. What revival merely is, is a whole corporate, the body of Christ, recognizing that Jesus is King in a fresh way. Amen? And it brings subjection. It brings repentance. 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways. Amen? Repentance is definitely a church word. It's definitely part of what God wants to do in the church today and is doing in the church today. As I read yesterday, I referred to it, Matthew 3, verses 1-3, in those days John the Baptist came preaching. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's right here on your doorstep. It's right here before you. God is breaking into the earth. He is setting up His kingdom in the earth, just like it is in heaven. And if it's going to work for you, if you're going to get involved, and you're going to be blessed in His kingdom, you've got to surrender. You've got to repent. Turn from trusting in yourself to trusting in His authority and His power. Amen? Does that make sense, you guys? That isn't rocket science, is it? But we have made this thing so complicated in the church. Matthew 4, verse 17, If you didn't believe John the Baptist, how about Christ Himself? From that time, Jesus began to preach and say, Jesus began to preach and say, do you preach like Jesus? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's upon you. It's close. God wants you in His kingdom. God wants all peoples in His kingdom. Amen? But it requires to get in His kingdom that we humble ourselves and become like a little child. Amen? And we admit that I can't do any of this stuff right. I'm not strong enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not bright enough. I'm not cute enough or clever enough to do this in my own strength. I must humble myself before King Jesus and let Him rule and reign over my life. It is no coincidence that the same gospel that we call the gospel of the kingdom, the book of Matthew, is also the same gospel that preaches repentance more than any other gospel. Because they go together. Psalms 110, verse 3, is a favorite psalm of mine in regards to a need for this radical surrender and the appearance of the King and God mobilizing His church to go to the ends of the earth. Psalms 110, verse 3 says, Your people... It's on your little name tag there. Your people shall be volunteers. They will willingly sacrifice themselves in obedience to God in the day of your power. What are we talking about in the day of your power? In the day that God's people see Him accurately in His strength, in His might, they will become willing volunteers. Amen? It's during a demonstration of God in all of His strength and might and character that the church starts to realize, Oh my goodness, I've got to be submitted to this One, this Lord Jesus, and I've got to be a part of what He's doing in the earth. Amen? We've got to pray for ourselves that we would see God accurately, not merely as kind of just a divine Santa Claus who, you know, gives us our every whim, who caters and follows after us. We must be careful not to embrace a message that says, God exists for our pleasure and comfort. But when we recognize that He's the King, we'll be ready to volunteer and do whatever the Lord says. But out of this radical relinquishment, this radical surrender, when we lay open our hearts and say, God, You come in, You rule and reign, then suddenly God has permission, He can get into our lives to start rearranging things. And this is the scary part. This is where we start trembling sometimes. Because God starts putting us together in a different way than we imagined ourselves, that we should appear before other people. A lot of times we say, Oh God, yeah, I want to repent, I want You to take all the ugly, bad, black, ugly sins that I don't want anybody else to know about, take those out of my life. But repentance also, becoming a saint, also involves being arranged or put back together in the image of Christ. We have been predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. Amen? That's God's eternal plan. Jesus died on the cross to redeem you, to purchase you back for your original plan. And that was to be a follower of God, in fellowship with God, and demonstrate the character of God. God loves to keep company with people like Himself. Amen? And there has been provision made through the blood of Jesus. Seeing the King makes us saints or bearers of the image of the King. Those who resemble the Lord Jesus Christ. Am I talking about people who are perfect, that don't have any problems, that never make a mistake? No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about people though that are radically surrendered to the Lord, that they've allowed God's hand to get into their life, to take some ugly stuff out and put them back together in such a way that they resemble more Christ than they resemble this whole world. Does that make sense? I'm telling you what, our testimony, our appearance before a lost and dying world is one of the greatest parts of our ability to share the Gospel with other people. You guys, your testimony, your witness before a lost and dying world will not have any power if you live the same way they live. If you're bound by the same things that bind them, why are they going to ask you for help? Amen? How is your message of eternal life going to be convincing when you're bound up and messed up as bad as they are? Amen? Jesus Christ died on the cross and we are subject to the King. One of the sure signs of that is that our life starts to be transformed. We start to bear the image of the King. And the things that used to hold us sway are suddenly broke off of us and people go, oh my goodness, what is going on with them? I remember about a month after I came to Christ, I used to drink with all the guys I'd work with. We'd party every day after work was over at 5 o'clock. They'd break out the beer and we'd hang around and have a good old time. And after I committed my life to the Lord Jesus Christ and He broke all that off me, I quit living that way. I quit talking the way I used to talk. And those guys started to wonder, what is going on with you? They started to ask me. You know, I wasn't trying to cram anything down their throats. I wasn't getting on their case and telling them they shouldn't be doing this or whatever. They recognized that there was a change in me that created some real godly curiosity within them. And they started to ask me the questions that made it easy for me to share my witness. Is there something going on in you? Is there the mark of the Kingdom in your life that stirs up curiosity in other people? Or is the only way that you get an opportunity to preach is to beat them over the head with your Bible and go out of your way to start some provocation with them? Do people naturally ask you, what is going on with you? How is it that you don't live your life the way these people live their life? It's because I'm subject to the King. Amen? I couldn't control my life before, but now God has my life in His hands. Amen? Does that make sense, you guys? Abraham caught a fresh glimpse of the King in Genesis 17, 1 and 3. Then the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, I am Almighty God. I am Almighty God. What does He say then? Walk before me and be blameless. You know, sometimes we have a hard time hearing that message. For you and me to walk in a blameless way, to walk in an upright way, to walk in an old-fashioned thing that we call holiness, a holy way. We have a problem with that message until we bump into the King. Amen? Somebody who is obviously other than we are different, holy, exalted, magnified. Amen? When Abraham bumped into the King, when he saw Almighty God, he didn't argue about His invitation to come. Be blameless. What is Abraham's response in Genesis 17? Then Abraham fell on his face. Then Abraham fell on his face. There is only one thing to do when you get in the presence of the King and He tells you to do anything. Isn't that right? Yes, sir. Amen. I am your subject. Let's keep on moving right along. Well, let me read this for you here. Many have a desire to advance God's Kingdom and are trying to do so without being completely surrendered to the control of King Jesus. And so you repeatedly find your unsubjected areas of your life interfering with your ability to advance the Kingdom of God. Have you ever found that to be true? A lot of people want to be a bold witness for Christ, but then there is that unsubjected, that uncontrollable area of your life that keeps on messing up your testimony for Christ. You want to tell people about Jesus. Maybe you are even working in this program or this campus ministry, trying to share your faith, but then you have this nasty little secret that you are trying to keep under wraps that keeps on coming out before other people and ruins your testimony. Anybody ever had that problem? You guys, it is the soiled testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ in many places that hinders them from being effective in their gospel witness. Our testimony opens a lot of doors. Amen? You may be able to establish a testimony for Christ, but through just a handful of poor decisions, you can forfeit your testimony on campus in just a moment. Amen? All somebody has to do is see you there at a certain party. Isn't that right? In a way that you would like them not to see you. And suddenly you don't have any more influence with them for Jesus Christ. The way you live your life does matter. Amen? That is a good place to say amen. The way you live your life matters. The way you live your life, the way you walk, the way you talk, how you conduct yourself on campus has everything to do with being able to advance the kingdom. You cannot advance the kingdom if you are not subject to the king. Are your lifestyles and God's kingdom's character in conflict with each other? Number three, when we see the king, it makes us servants. It makes us soldiers for the kingdom. When you surrender to the rule and reign of King Jesus, he will show you how and where to serve. He will show you how to fight. Amen? When you really, really make a quality decision to surrender to the king, suddenly there is no captain in an army that wants to play hide and go seek with his soldiers on the front lines. Amen? There is no such thing as a commanding officer that is tight-lipped about giving commands in the midst of battle and when the bullets start flying. He is very quick and he will give them right as they are supposed to be given in a proper time to help you get in the right place to advance the cause of the kingdom but also to stay safe. Amen? To not sacrifice yourself unnecessarily. Not to go ruin your life in a foolish way. Amen? And if you are really submitted to King Jesus today and you want to be out there on the front lines, I guarantee you the Lord will show you how to fight this thing. Amen? Let's look at an example of Joshua in Joshua 5 verse 13. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and looked and behold a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. This is our King Jesus. And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or are you our adversaries? So he said, No, but as the commander of the army of the Lord I have now come. And Joshua, he did what everybody does when they see the King in a fresh way, and Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said, What does my Lord say to his servant? What does my Lord say to his servant? Have you ever been there you guys? Jesus is showing up big time in your life and you recognize it's Jesus and you get on your belly, you worship the Lord and you say, God, whatever you say, whatever you say, tell me what to do. I am ready and willing by your grace to do it. Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take your sandals off your foot for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. Amen? Before the commander in chief, before King Jesus, the captain of the Lord of hosts can give you instruction how to get out on the front lines and how to fight on the front lines for the kingdom, you've got to be subject. Amen? The first bit of instruction that the captain of the Lord gives is, Come on, finish this. You're humbling yourself, you're taking a posture of worship, now get the sandals off and totally humble yourself before me. Be subject to me. Amen? This is, I believe, where some of you guys are being faced with this weekend. Then on the rest here we find in Joshua 6, 1-3, the rest of the response, the interchange between the captain of the Lord and Joshua. Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given Jericho into your hands. It's king and the mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all you men of war. You shall go around the city once, thus shall you do six days. So what do we find? The captain of the Lord is giving specific, detailed instruction how Joshua is to invest his life in this battle. But that information comes on the heels of this radical relinquishment and this surrender to the Lord of hosts. Amen? Amen? You guys, we won't really get the details, the information, a strategy, how to live our life in a way that really makes an impact for the kingdom till we first come to this place of taking off our sandals and really subjecting ourselves to the king. Have you done it? 2 Timothy 2-4 Paul exhorts Timothy, No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. I don't know if you guys noticed it or not, but if you're a believer, you've been enlisted in a fight. Amen? The fight's raging today, it will rage tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day. And it's raging in the ends of the earth. And you need to get involved, figure out where your post is in this great fight. Amen? And we don't do this for ourselves. If we did it for ourselves, we'd go back home. Isn't that right? We're doing it for the pleasure of the king, for the one who has enlisted us. We're subject to his authority. The appearance of the king always incites action of one sort or another. Amen? There's no such thing as encountering the king and not responding. You either run away in rebellion, fleeing from his authority, or you get up underneath his authority. What are you going to do today, you guys? Let me give you an example with Moses in Exodus 3, 1-11. John's referred to this passage a few times now. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, being a good son-in-law, his father-in-law the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said within himself, I will now turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush does not burn. Check this out in verse 4. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses! Moses! And he said, here I am. I love this about our Jesus. I love this about our king. He's so great. He will sometimes put a burning bush in our midst, some strange occurrence, some event that will catch our notice. Something that has an element of divine character of God upon it. And it will catch our notice. And depending on how we respond, if we investigate further, may determine if we get more information, more insight and direction from the king. Amen? Some of you guys this weekend are encountering a strange thing that perhaps you've never seen before. Some of you may turn your back on it, say I'm not interested, while others may go, what's going on with this? What's going on here? Why is this bush burned but yet it's not consumed? I'll go and investigate a little further. And when the Lord sees that you turn aside to look a little closer, that's when the information that you've been crying out for, that's when the direction you've been looking for starts to stream into your life to give you and to facilitate a deeper revelation of who the king is. Amen? And show you where you're supposed to be involved. How you use what you're perhaps even getting today may determine what you receive from the Lord tomorrow. Did you know that? I've found this to be true over and over in my life. If I'm a good steward of those little things that God gives me, God will give me more. But if I don't use the small things that God has given me, the little pieces of truth, the Scripture promises even what you have will be taken from you. This is why some people fall asleep, as John talked about earlier. Well, let's continue to move on. Moses, Moses. And Moses said, and he said, Here I am, verse 5. Then he said, Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Moses, I want you to know who you're talking to. You're talking to the king. You're talking to a holy God. You're talking to someone who is totally different than you. Moreover, he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abram, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Amen? He's being humbled in the presence of God. Verse 7, And the Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of the taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the land of the Egyptians and bring them up from the land to a good and a large land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, and to the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Don't you love the fact that our God hears? Our God notices, not only what's going on in our life, but God is noticing today what's going on around the planet. Amen? Nothing escapes His notice. Nothing escapes the notice of this passionate Lord Jesus Christ. And He wants to do something about this cry that is coming up before His throne, about this injustice, this inequity, this imbalance that is going on around the world. And so what does He do? He looks for a man. Amen? He calls out to a man. And He calls out to Moses. Amen? God hears the cry even today, and I'll tell you what, He's still looking for men and women as the answer to meeting that need. I don't know why God does this, but this is how He's chosen to do it in His sovereignty, to use us with all of our problems, all of our hang-ups, all of our weird little personalities, our quirks, and the way we do things, and the way we don't do things. It's not our great ability, as I've said many times before, that God is seeking out. He's looking for our availability. If we will but subject ourselves to the King and surrender in a radical way to His authority, He can use us to silence the cries around the world. Amen? To be an answer, as John said earlier today, an answer to their prayers. Will somebody help me? Doesn't anybody notice what's going on with me here? Has nobody taken the time to see the plight that I'm in? Where is God? Where is hope? Where is mercy? Where is a better life in the midst of this pit that I'm stuck in? And God looks for men and women. He says, Will you come aside? Will you be subjected to Me? And I'll send you out throughout the world to change things by My grace, by My power, by My might, by this wonderful message that we call the Good News. Of Jesus Christ. Amen? This is an incredible adventure that we're on. Isn't that right? God has chosen us to be co-laborers with Him. It doesn't make any sense just the appearance of us on a foreign show where we're going to make people scratch their head and go, What's up with this? There must be a God in heaven to send out these guys. Right? But yet when His character is revealed through our life, His love, His faithfulness, His compassion, His mercy, when the tenderness of the Lamb flows out of our heart, when passion flows out of our lives, like Jesus had passion. Amen? When we notice things that other people never noticed about Him, suddenly people take note of the King we serve. But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Moses had a hard time embracing the call because he had his eyes too much on himself. Amen? Who am I? The question wasn't, Who am I? But rather, Who are you? Amen? Because if his eyes would have been on the King and the One who had called him and commanded him to go forth to the ends of the earth to make a difference, he wouldn't have had any doubts, he wouldn't have had any fears. Some of you guys haven't been able to seriously entertain the call to make a difference in the world today because you still have your eyes too much on yourself, your failures, your fears, the unsubjected areas of your life. But you guys, if you will become subject to the King, I'm not talking to you about reforming yourself, doing anything in your own strength, I'm talking about just simply surrendering and open up the doors of your heart and say, Come on in Jesus, you rearrange the furniture. When you come to that place, the King can show Himself strong through your lives to make a difference. Amen? This thing is accomplished by faith, not faith in ourselves but faith in Christ and what He did on the cross. Amen? We do not preach ourselves, we do not preach our own strength or our own sacrifice or our own ability to do anything. We only preach our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. We only preach His sacrifice, His sufficiency, His grace. Amen? Amen? Man, I'm excited about the King and the King has to stay our message. Amen? We don't introduce people to anything about us, it's all about Him. This is why we love to sing those songs that say His name over and over and over again. Amen? This is why we love to pray and just get stuck. It's like a recording, it just gets hung up, you know, a deep groove, worn there by God's grace. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! Amen? I'll stay stuck in that groove forever as far as I'm concerned. Because it's about the King. When I start preaching anything else but Jesus, it quits working. Amen? You can't give away what you don't have, you can't lead others to somebody who you're not rightly subjected to. Amen? And if you're not preoccupied with the King, your message will become something else. Become a list of duties. A list of disciplines. A list of tasks. A do's and don'ts. And that doesn't save anybody. Amen? It is only by the preaching of the Lamb, oh, that God would raise up a new generation of John the Baptist who, as they see Jesus, they say, Behold the Lamb of God! Amen? I don't know about you. You can't get excited about that message. I don't care. Because I am. Jesus is a faithful Lamb. Jesus is enough. Jesus is our sufficiency. It is by the cross and sacrifice of Christ. Nothing else. Nothing else will satisfy. Nothing else would do. Don't get your eyes on strategies. Don't get your eyes on methods. They may have their place in the proper time. You better keep your eyes on the King. When we see the King, it makes us secure as children of faith. As children of faith. The most insecure people that I have never met in the church of Jesus Christ are those who are not rightly subjected to the King. When you're not under the King's authority, you're afraid all the time. You're afraid all the time. You're afraid somebody's going to catch you doing something you shouldn't be doing. You're afraid about your relationship with God. You're afraid about all kinds of stuff. You're always in fear and trepidation. You're always in a place of insecurity, up and down. But I'll tell you what, when you really turn the reins of your life over to the King, and you know who He is, and how strong and mighty and sovereign He is, the fears melt away. Amen? The only time there is a time to be fearful is when we've got the reins of our life in our own hands. Amen? Because guess what? We don't do a very good job being King. We're not almighty. We're not very strong. We're not as smart as we think. And we don't have much endurance. We don't have much mercy. We don't have much compassion. We don't have a good track record when it really comes down to it. Amen? As long as you have control of your own life, you're in trouble. You've got good reason to fear. You better keep on looking over your shoulder. Because sure enough, something bad can happen to you. Amen? But when we're subject to Him, when we've really surrendered everything to Him, we walk in a peace that surpasses understanding, that transcends what would make sense to everybody else, that moves beyond the realm of circumstances and external conditions. It's anchored in the heavenlies where He occupies the throne. Amen? We have peace that is not determined by how things are going for us or how things aren't going for us. Our peace is anchored in Jesus and in His eternal rule and reign, in His dominion that shall last forever and ever and ever and ever and shall never pass away. Amen? Does this make sense to you guys? Some of you guys I know in this room have struggled constantly, weekly, hour by hour with some kind of fear. And this is a sure sign that the Prince, the King of Peace, is not truly occupying the throne of your heart. Is this making sense? I think it adds up quite nicely. It makes a lot of sense, you guys. Don't buck it. Don't fight it. To behold the King upon His throne demands us to look up. It demands an upward gaze. I've been meditating a lot on these truths, these Scriptures, for seven months now, and I just can't hardly get past them. When we look down at our feet, at our failures, there's all kinds of boundaries, there's all kinds of limits to what we can do and what we can't do. But when we lift our head up to where Jesus is enthroned, there are no limits. Amen? To be a subject of the King is to be a person of hope and confidence and faith and security. To follow the King, to keep your eyes on the King, the King demands that you look up. The King is not enthroned at your feet in the midst of all your failures. He longs to make this whole planet His dominion, the place of His worship, but I'll tell you what, He's enthroned on high. Isaiah 40, verse 25 and 31, To whom then will you liken Me? Or to whom shall I be equal, says the Holy One? Lift up your eyes on high. Get your eyes off yourself, or you'll never, never fulfill the call of God in your life. That's what was threatening Moses' call. God had to refocus His eyes on Him. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things, who brings out the hosts by number. He calls them all by name. By the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God. Verse 28, Have you not known, have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might. He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But those who wait, who are entrusted to the Lord, shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Amen? Lift up your eyes to the King. Hope. Be confident in your faith. Jesus is faithful. He's a good King. He's more than able to take care of you and me. He's more than able to take care of your children. He's more than able to take care of your finances. He's more than able to take care of the next ten years of your life and the decades after that. Amen? Isaiah 17, 7, In that day a man will look to his Maker and his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 45, 22 says, Look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. You see, that's our message as we go to the ends of the earth. It isn't to look at us as the answer. That we are the vehicle of this good news. God tells us that we are to be those who actually say, Look unto Jesus, behold the Lamb of God. And we will not be able to effectively do that if we ourselves are not keeping our eyes, our focus, our gaze upon the Lamb of God, the King of all things. Amen? Amen? Is this making sense? Psalms 121, verses 1 and 2, I will lift up my eyes to the hills. I will. How about you? I will lift up my eyes to the hills. I will lift up my eyes to the hills, to the high places. That's where God dwells. Not in the midst of that low place of your failure and your defeat. He pulls you out of those places, but He wants you to lift your eyes up where He's enthroned. He seats us with Him. Amen? We're seated with Him in the heavenlies, the way we walk on this earth. I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Why can we take confidence? Why can we look up? Because we recall, we remember that, oh my goodness, He is the King. He made heaven and earth. He made you and me. He formed all things with the words of His mouth. He is trustworthy. Amen? Just a couple more verses and we'll wrap this up. When God was trying to encourage Abram about his place, about his destiny, about where he fit into his great commission, his plan for all the ends of the earth, God called Abram to look up. Because there was too many boundaries, too many limits to looking down, God said you've got to look up to really grasp what I want to do in the earth. So in Genesis 15, 3 and 6, then Abram said, Look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying... What is Abraham saying here? Behold, you have given me no offspring. Your promises don't seem to be being fulfilled for my life. It doesn't seem to be working out for me, God, like you promised. What is going on? And behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, This one shall not be the heir, but one whom will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then he brought him outside. He brought him outside and said, Look now towards heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And he believed in the Lord and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Amen? God takes him by the hand and says, Hey, quit looking down. Quit looking at yourself. Quit looking at your attempts to try to make this all come together. Come on, let's go outside. I want you to look up. Count them. Hey, can you see the top of the sky? Can you reach it? This is how high, how awesome, how mighty, how powerful I am. There is no limit to what I can do, even through you, if you will but trust me. And when we mix the promise of God with faith, it is reckoned to us as righteousness. Amen? Right standing, being in the center of God's will. Will you do it, you guys? To fulfill the call of God that's on your life, you've got to look up. You've got to look up. Are you subject to the King? Are you submitted to Him? Have you given permission to redefine who you are, how you look, how you talk, how you dress, how you behave? I struggled with this for years because I was all weird and introspective and socially inept, unable to talk to people. I can't be a preacher or share anything with anybody because I'm all self-conscious all the time. And God says, yeah, that's the way you are naturally, but I'm going to change that at least a little bit. I still struggle with those issues, by the way, as those who know me well are quite aware of. But God says, it's not about what you want to do or how you want to do it, how you want to be seen or perceived in public, how you want to talk or not talk. It's about me because I'm the King. Amen? So He started putting these words in my mouth at the most inopportune times. Started making my heart burn. Started making my heart beat out of my chest. I started breaking out in a cold sweat. Started getting fidgety. You know, what am I supposed to do with this? You're supposed to open your mouth and say, how good I've been to you. Amen? So I found, you know, awkward kid. Can't put two, three words together to start a conversation. You know, just bursting out with whatever God's dropping in my heart. But once it got going, you know, I kind of muddled through it and figured it out. It's been a constant habit, you know, of God putting me in those situations over and over again. You know, I mean, I hate doing this sometimes. I don't know if any other word could put it, but I hate doing this. You know, sometimes interacting just drives me crazy. I'm not gifted to do that. But there's many things that you're not gifted to do that God requires you to learn how to do. Amen? And some of us, boy, we're the life of the party. You can't keep us quiet. And God says, I'm going to put a sock in your mouth. You need to be quiet and just demonstrate the love and kindness of God. Amen? But because He's the King, we allow Him to redefine our life. We allow ourselves to find balance in His presence so He can use us in an effective way. Amen? You guys, Jesus is faithful. Jesus is good. The Lamb of God is faithful. The God loves you passionately. And when He calls you, you know what that ministers to your heart and soul? Oh, my goodness. Somebody noticed. My life is supposed to count for something. Somebody remembered what my name was. Somebody's looking at me. Somebody thinks that there's something of me that is of value that can contribute. I don't care how many people have told you that you're worthless. I don't care how many people have told you that you never amount to anything. If you will subject yourself to the King, His focus, His attention, His undivided attention will be upon you to love you and transform you into an incredible saint, servant, soldier, and subject to the King Jesus. Amen? God is good. Any volunteers to submit to the King? Any volunteers to allow Jesus to radically transform your life? Stand up right now if that's you.