The very core of a Kingdom of God revolution is making men and women into fishers of men,
to transform them through the person of Christ into new people who have been transformed by the gospel.
I've had the privilege and honor of building a church here in Colorado Springs
for, well, since 1994, two different churches that I planted, and recently the road at Chapel Hill
is the last nine years, and our vision is a Kingdom of God revolution in the Rockies.
And what precipitated that vision was the reality that we can't do a lot about what's happening nationally
in our country except pray, obviously vote, but we have an area, we have a sphere of influence that God's given us.
And as a pastor, I'm responsible, I believe, for my county and for my city.
And I've loved living in Colorado Springs all these years because I get to know people,
and I get to know key leaders over the years that has enabled me to have influence
and to be blessed by God with that influence to bring the Kingdom of God.
And I thought that I would do a set of messages here on how to bring a Kingdom of God revolution to your city.
Some of the things that I've learned after, you know, almost 30 years of living here,
that has made an impact in the city. I think our city is a better place because of the church.
And it's interesting that today we're doing this because I was just this morning with our El Paso County sheriff,
our new sheriff, Sheriff Joseph Roybal. And Joseph Roybal is, in this case, is who I voted for for our sheriff,
but he gave me his coin. This is his challenge coin that he gives out, and it's unique to every sheriff.
And when I've met with generals in the military, they give you a coin also.
But this is his El Paso County sheriff's coin. It looks pretty cool.
I told him that I would put that on the dashboard of my car so that every time I get pulled over by a sheriff's deputy,
I could say, oh, look what I have on the dashboard of my car. It's your sheriff's challenge coin.
And we'll see if that affects the ticket that I'm going to get.
I have a relationship with Sheriff Roybal because I've reached out to him.
I have a relationship with him, and that's so important as a pastor and leader,
that we have a relationship with the leaders in our community.
And then yesterday, I had the privilege of being with Thomas Thompson, who is the assistant to our new mayor,
Yemi Mobilade, who became our mayor just a couple of months ago.
And I was meeting with Thomas to talk about issues related to the mayor's office that we wanted to talk about.
It was a great time. So, again, the Kingdom of God revolution in my mind, let me give you a definition.
Here's what I think a Kingdom of God revolution is.
The Kingdom of God revolution is the ongoing move of God administered through local churches
who are equipping the saints, the citizens of the kingdom to influence different cultural spheres in a local city,
county and state that brings kingdom transformation and a new way of life that lasts for hundreds of years.
Now, that's a mouthful. That was actually one sentence. Can you believe that?
But I think it's a it's a pretty good definition because Jesus came and spoke over a hundred times in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus taught all of us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
He taught us to pray thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So obviously the Kingdom of God message, the whole idea of the Kingdom of God was the core of the ministry of Jesus.
You might ask, well, what is the Kingdom of God?
Well, the Kingdom of God is the reign and the rule of Christ in an area actually in the Greek.
It comes from the word Basilea and Basilea is where we get the word Basilica, which is where we get the word castle.
And it's where there's sovereign rule and reign where a monarch or a king is ruling.
And so this is bringing the king and the kingdom into a city.
That's what I'm going to talk about, because I think there's these different cultural spheres.
People have the seven spheres or mountains of influence.
I would never dispute over how many there are, but I I personally have 13.
I see 13 spheres of influence that we're supposed to impact in our culture.
Let me give you those. I think the first is marriage and family or the.
home, second is a church, third is community relationships,
fourth is government, fifth is food and agriculture,
six is business and entrepreneurship, seven is media, eight is education,
nine is health care, ten is finance and banking,
11 is first responders, 12 is military, and 13
is the arts and entertainment. I'm a pastor, so in one sense I have a
unique privilege because I'm with thousands of people
every week. I'm teaching to a thousand or more people every week
and I'm also in Bible studies, I'm also in different groupings
with pastors and leaders, so I feel like that's an honored position from the Lord.
So I feel that it's my responsibility to bring the kingdom there in a mighty way
and so that means to me what Romans 14 17 says,
that the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking,
in other words the kingdom of God is not outward things,
but it's righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, so that's inward
transformation. So my job is not a political perspective per se,
my job is not to be republican or democrat or independent,
my job when I go into an environment is to bring
the kingdom and to bring the kingdom is to bring
righteousness, peace, and joy into that arena.
So if you have your Bibles turn to Matthew 4,
and in Matthew 4 17 Jesus begins his public ministry,
he's been baptized, he's been in the wilderness
tempted by Satan, but now he begins his public
ministry and this is the first line of the public ministry of Jesus, he
says repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
So this is the theme of Jesus ministry, this is the theme of the church
is to say to everyone repent for the kingdom of heaven is here, the kingdom of
God has come. Then he says this, and Jesus walking by
the sea of Galilee saw two brothers Simon called Peter, Andrew his brother
casting a net into the sea for their fishermen,
then he said to them follow me and I'll make you fishers of men.
The very core of a kingdom of God revolution
is making men and women into fishers of men to transform them
through the person of Christ into new people who have been transformed
by the gospel. Abraham Kuyper former prime minister
of Netherlands once said this, there is not one square inch
in the whole domain of our human existence
over which Christ who is sovereign over all
doesn't cry mine. In other words Christ he controls it all
and he's looking for men and women who want to become
fishers of men and women, he's looking for people who are available to become
his disciples. E. Stanley Jones writes the kingdom of
God is God's total order expressed as a rim and a reign
in the individual and in society and which is to replace the present
unworkable world order with God's order in the individual and
society and while the nature of the kingdom is
social the entrance into it is by a personal
new birth now the character of that kingdom is
seen in the character of Jesus the kingdom is
Christ likeness universalized what a great definition
so Christ came he says repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand
he's saying that my sovereign rule has come I'm the king over
everything I'm king over the arts I'm king over entertainment
I'm king of politics I'm king over the church I'm king over
economics I'm just looking for people that want to be kingdom carriers of the
virus of the kingdom into those realms of society so he says
first thing he does he says come and follow me I'll make you
fishers of men so it wasn't this is really important
when I think of a kingdom revolution I don't think of an ideology
everybody thinks ideologies this day there's there's an ideology in the
republican party there's an ideology in the democratic party there's
different types of ideologies on wall street
that's not what Jesus came he came bringing
the universal answer to all of life, and that's through Jesus Christ being Lord and King over all.
So he comes and he announces that, and so, men and women, when we think about the Kingdom Revolution, where do you live?
Like, what's happening in your city? What's happening in your neighborhood? What's happening in your family?
Are you bringing righteousness, peace, and joy to your kids?
Are you bringing righteousness, peace, and joy to your family? Are you bringing righteousness, peace, and joy at your work?
Are you an embodiment of the righteousness, peace, and joy when you go out and talk to your neighbors in your neighborhood?
Or when you go to a civic meeting, or you go to a school board meeting, are you bringing righteousness, peace, and joy?
You see, the problem I see in the church today is we're angry about everything.
We're always fighting things. We're always saying negative things about other people.
We label them. We name call. And the church is as guilty as anybody else at doing that.
And I don't think we need that. I think God wants us to be bridge builders, not wall builders.
And we do that by bringing the, when I say righteousness, peace, and joy, here's what I think it means.
I think it means right relationships, peace in our heart, and a joyful life.
Right relationships, peace in our heart, and joy in our life.
So we bring joy, we bring peace, and we bring righteousness.
And when we do that, it has an impact. Satan hates that.
Satan and demons hate men and women who bring righteousness, peace, and joy into the relationships that they develop.
So I'm going to share in the next messages some of the ways that we've been involved here in Colorado Springs
with a Kingdom of God revolution. Ways in which we have attempted to, and I think very successfully so,
to really make an impact in revolutionizing our county and in our city.
That's not without a whole lot of work. It takes a ton of work.
It takes a lot of organization. And you as an individual, the way I'm going to share this is to help you as an individual
know how to use the gifts and the talents, the skills God's given you to make a subsequent impact
in a particular sphere that's unique to you. See, I have a unique sphere as a spiritual leader,
but you have a unique sphere. It might be in media. It might be in law enforcement.
It might be in health care. Whatever it is that God has sovereignly placed you there for that arena to be your mission field.
You don't have to get a passport to be a missionary. You don't have to get your passport stamped to be a missionary.
You're missionary right here with what you're doing right now. And so it's a paradigm shift.
You need a paradigm shift from just going to church or just being a Christian to being a kingdom of God revolutionary.
To see yourself when you get up in the morning, I want to make an impact.
I want to change people's lives. I want to love people into the kingdom.
I want to use my job. I want to use my finances.
I want to use my time and energy to change the lives of others from bad to good,
from being lonely to being loved, from being suicidal to being abundant in their life.
Well, that's why we're here. That's why we've been placed on this earth.
That's why we're supposed to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And all these things will be added unto us. So when we seek the primary,
God takes care of the secondary. More on that in my next message.
So God bless you. Hope this has been helpful to you.
Listen to the next message as we go into part two of a kingdom of God revolution in your city.