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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

John Diel

Kingdom of Gentleness

Good morning everyone Happy Sabbath Are you all having a happy Sabbath?

Are you happy that the person right next to you is alive?

Amen, amen, that's good You know Sabbath is not meant to be spent in seclusion, in isolation and by ourselves.

And God uses other people as a blessing to us.

We were not, you know, it was not good that Adam was alone.

And so I'm glad that you're happy that the person right next to you is alive.

I actually have a lot of things to cover this morning.

The title of our message is The Kingdom of Gentleness.

I'm the worst speaker to actually come up with titles.

My wife always tells me all my titles are like the lamest things she's ever heard.

And I've come across different titles to this.

Power of gentleness, power of harmlessness, someone said I like it.

But hopefully, you know, the message behind it is better than the title.

And so, with that said, without further ado, let's bow our heads 1 more time, and we'll dive right into the topic.

I'm Rose Graces, kind and loving Father in Heaven.

We just want to be careful when we open up your word.

I know there's been so many prayers already for this moment and for myself, and we just ask that you do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Help us, help me not to waste your people's time, oh Lord, and just speak through me now.

I invite you to turn your Bibles with me to Isaiah 55 verse 1 through 6.

It is such an interesting chapter This is actually specifically talking about the coming Messiah or the coming of Jesus Christ.

But in verse 1, this is God speaking through Isaiah.

And there are certain things that he begins the chapter with and kind of like sets us up for 1 of the verses that you are very, most of you are very familiar with.

So in verse 1 he says here, ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that has no money, come ye buy and eat.

Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price." So right off the bat, right at the beginning, the chapter begins with this premise that seems to be odd.

It doesn't follow the same principles that the way earthly things usually happen.

Now I get the fart that, hey, you know what, if you're thirsty, come to the water, but then he says, come.

For those of you who don't have money, come and buy.

I mean, if there's a store who says, if let's say Best Buy or, I don't even shop anymore, so whatever, Amazon, right?

Comes up with an ad and it says, hey, come buy, for those of you who don't have money, come buy and we'll sell, Everything is for sale for you guys.

I mean, it probably is 1 of, it's going to be 1 of those places that will, that people will flock and go to.

And so, right off the bat, the premise of the chapter is, hey, you know what?

There is something that is out of the norm.

There is something that is not what we're used to and not what things that we regularly hear.

And so the Bible continues on and says in verse 2, Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not.

Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Verse 3, incline your ear and come unto me, here and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." Verse 4, behold I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.

And then he says another weird predicament here.

In verse 5 he says, Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not you shall run unto you because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy 1 of Israel, for he hath glorified thee.

So we begin with a premise that, hey, in verse 1, God is kind of challenging our mindset here, wherein, hey, I want you to think outside the box.

It's possible for us to buy without money.

The currency that I work in is not the type that the earthly system work in.

And then he goes in verse 5, there's a type of evangelism that I want you guys to do and be familiar with, and that is, you go to other nations that you do not know, and these nations that you do not know, they will come running to you.

Now, most of us, when we think about evangelism, right, it doesn't work that way.

Most of the time, they run away from us rather than them running to us.

I mean, unless we found the key to the proper evangelism.

He's trying to set us up for what he is about to say in verse 8 and 9.

And in verse 8 and 9 is a very familiar passage and he says here, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." And so God, upon sending his Messiah, he was actually trying to explain without much explanation to people that, hey, the Messiah that I'm about to send isn't the Messiah that you are hoping for, isn't the type of Messiah that works under a type of earthly kingdom and system because I work in a different type of system.

My thoughts are different than your thoughts.

I live in heaven and I live in a higher place, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.

And so right off the bat, we see here that the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom that God operates in, is a totally different system, a totally different governmental system that you and I are very familiar of.

And if we are having a hard time detaching ourselves from earthly forms of systems, it would be hard for us, just like God's people at that time when Jesus came to accept him and the system that he's bringing to us.

Let's continue on with the study and in John chapter 18 verse 36 actually when Jesus came this is about him this is This is Him in front of Pilate and He is about to die.

And He has these words here in John 18, verse 36.

And basically, we're gonna try to dissect this a little bit and show you the thoughts that I see and things that caught my eye regarding this verse.

And the Bible says here in verse 36, Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world.

If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight.

The word fight there can also be translated in the Greek word contend.

Then would my servants contend that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from hence, or not from here.

And so, Right from the beginning, there was a prophecy about Christ, right, and there was a prophecy that God gave telling his people that, hey, I'm about to blow your mind with a system that you're not familiar with.

Right, A system where you can buy when you don't have money.

And says, hey, it's a system where no 1 strives or contend for supremacy.

And so we're gonna break down John chapter 18 verse 36 for a little bit.

But before that, let me just look at my notes and make sure I don't miss anything.

Christ's kingdoms operates and functions differently than this world's kingdom.

Christ did not desire to overthrow earthly kingdom through means of outpowering and outsmarting the other kingdom.

So in other words, God does not function in a certain way and His kingdom does not function in that way as well.

Now, it's very interesting that in this verse, the way Jesus explained what his kingdom was like was to expound on what his subjects do or do not do.

So just to explain for a little bit, Christ's kingdom is not in this world.

Point number 1 that caught my attention is His subjects do not contend for superiority or supremacy.

God's people in his kingdom does not contend to become the best.

Let me actually say that in a different way, all right?

Because you might think, hey, you know what?

Doesn't the Bible talk about excellence, right?

That we should do our best for the Lord, do all to the glory of God.

God's people, his subjects in his kingdom does not contend to be better than others, to outsmart others, to out-religion others, to out-zeal others.

They do not contend so that they would know everything in the Bible so that they can be smarter than others.

God's kingdom operates in a totally different paradigm than what we know of.

They don't, I actually have an example, they don't contend to be the most biblical church to get the honor of being the most pious and most biblical church in the world.

They don't contend to be the best seller as a canvasser.

They don't contend to be the best Bible worker by bringing so many people getting baptized into the church.

They don't contend for, what's the word I'm looking for, to be recognized.

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Kingdom of Gentleness

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