Sunday Message – Today Jesus 108 19/11/06

<Luke 17:20-21>
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU
• Jesus Christ told us that “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for
nothing”
• <3 John 2> also tells us that our “souls are getting along well”. When our
souls are well, everything we do will be well.
• God looks at us in the heart. He doesn’t look at our atmosphere. God wants to
know if we are at peace with Him.
• We should meet God with our hearts. We will receive comfort and joy no
matter what situations we are in as long as we meet Him
• Our problems are not merely children problems, relationships problems, or
workplace problems, etc. Our real problem is not having God in our hearts
• Therefore, we must not keep thinking about our problems. We should only
seek to have peace with God. It is because, our problems will be gone as soon
as the Holy Spirit works
• Satan will build his fortress in us and makes us dried-up if we keep holding on
to our problems
• We cannot let Satan build his fortress in us, or else we will only face worse
consequences
• When we know how to get connected to God, the Holy Spirit will convict us to
know God’s perfect will. Only then, we will not see our problems as problems
anymore
• The Kingdom of God is already in us. Therefore, we should know how to rely
on it.

Read <Luke 17:20-21>

• A lot of Believers like to ask “When will the kingdom of God come?”
• Those who ask this question fail to see that the kingdom of God is already in
them. Thus, they are not able to enjoy the Immanuel God
• Our hearts are a display of the spiritual realm

1. Wrong perspective on the Kingdom of God

1) Sadducees
• They do not believe in the existence of God’s kingdom and its coming
• They are just like the Atheists and Materialists in the churches today
• The Materialists are only concern over the materialistic things
• No matter how the Atheist and the Materialist deny the existence of
God’s Kingdom, the Kingdom of God is still there
• A person’s heart is already in hell when he doesn’t believe

2) Pharisees
 • The Pharisees always like to ask “when is the kingdom of God
coming?” It shows that they don’t see how God’s kingdom is with
them today
• In fact, what’s really important is the kingdom now and not the
kingdom that will come
• How much we enjoy the kingdom now will have an impact on how we
enjoy the kingdom that will come
• We really ought to enjoy the kingdom now in our 70-80 years on earth

3) Mystic followers
• The Lord said to those who see with their physical eyes, “The kingdom
of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people
say, ‘Here it is’, or ‘There it is’”
• They always try to see the kingdom of God with their physical eyes.
Thus, some of them will say that ‘the kingdom is here, or the kingdom
is there’. There are also people who will say that they’d seen Jesus
Christ and the Lord had given them new revelations
• Needless to say, the kingdom of God does exist because God’s word
has already told us so
• It is impossible for man to describe the kingdom of God fully, with his
limited wisdom and language since the kingdom of God is beyond the
third dimension. That was why Paul had only briefly mentioned that he
had been brought to the Third Heaven once.
• Those who always wanted to know how the kingdom of God is like will
behave strangely. They do no have power to live probably on Earth.

4) Idealists
• They have misunderstood what the Lord meant by “the kingdom of
God is within you”
• Some people associate this verse with the Buddhists’ teaching of “the
Buddha is in you”, thinking the two statements has the same meaning
• A lot of religions preach things like ‘it is there, when you believe’. This
is similar to the teachings of positive thinking and motivational talks
• These thoughts might bring along some truths, but are actually quite
dangerous because these are all evolved from religious or Confucius’
teachings.
• What God tells us is the kingdom of God exists whether we believe or
not
• Only when our hearts are right, will we really have the correct
perspective of God’s kingdom

5) The correct perspective of God’s Kingdom (3 types of Heaven)

① The New Heaven and New Earth <Rev 21:1-5; 1Th 4:13-5:11>
• The New Heaven and Earth will definitely be here because this is
the reason why God had created man in the current world
 • God has been choosing people who really belong to that New
Heaven and Earth. Believers should also be walking towards it. That
being true, God still want us to focus on the kingdom of Heaven now
• Jesus Christ also told the Apostles that they need not know when
the kingdom of God will come in <Acts 1>. He told them that it
was important for them to receive the power from the Holy Spirit in
their lives on earth.
• Walking towards the New Heaven and Earth should be our goal

② The kingdom of God that is with us now

• <Matt 18:20> God wants us to get together to ponder over His
Covenant and the words spoken by Jesus Christ
• <Matt 12:28> means we should not always touch our problems or
think of ways to change others. We should only rely on the Holy
Spirit
• <Luke 16:19-20> Jesus Christ, who is seated in Heaven is with us
now
• <Col 3:1-4> we should always be thinking about the things above
for the things above will affect the things below
• <James 1:17> When we pray to God, we must believe that all
things come from above. Otherwise, we will be the same as other
religious people, when we pray.
• God will listen when we pray to Him
• The more important a prayer topic is, the slower God’s answer will
come. When God wants us to wait for His answer, He is not letting
us go uncontrolled. He wants to see how we can still rely and place
our hope on Him
• God has an important lesson for us when He wants us to wait. He
wants to teach us about the mystery of Heaven

③ The kingdom of Heaven which is expanding everyday

• <Matt 11:12> a lot of people is hoping to enter Heaven
• <Acts 1:8> the kingdom of Heaven will expand only when the Holy
Spirit dwells in us
• <Matt 24:14>
• When a person really understand the kingdom of God that we
preached to him, he has received the same convictions as us, from
the Holy Spirit

2. Who can see the Kingdom of Heaven?

• The kingdom of Heaven cannot be seen with our physical eyes. It can only
be seen by:
1) People who are born again <John 3:1-21>
• Jesus Christ said, unless a person is born again with water and the
Spirit, he will never see the kingdom of God
 • Nobody can see the kingdom of Heaven ever since Adam and Eve had
sinned. Therefore, nobody will know how the kingdom of Heaven is like
other than the Son of Man who came from there
• What does it mean by to be born again with water and Spirit?
• Water: a person, after having the words of Jesus Christ, knows that he
had totally fallen
• Spirit: thus, he need the Spirit of Jesus Christ so as to be born again
• What is the difference between someone who is born again from one
who is not?
• A person who is born again will have his thoughts fixed towards God’s
kingdom. Therefore, no matter how weak he is, he knows that
everything that happens on him, happens for the kingdom of God

2) The Beatitudes <Matthew 5:1-12>

• Jesus Christ already told us who the most blessed people are
• Do we have a share of the blessings from Heaven?
• The kingdom of Heaven belongs to God’s people. Who, then, are God’s
people?
• God’s people are: though living on Earth but possess the hearts of the
Beatitudes
• We, who are able to go for Sunday Service and listen to God’s message
are the Beatitudes. Therefore, we only need to guard/sustain our hearts

3) People who build the altar in their hearts <Exodus 25:22; Hebrews 10:19-
20>
• People who do not have the altar in them will not be able to see the
kingdom of Heaven
• Some people speak and behave very differently from the others. This is
because, they will first seek God’s will no matter what situations or
people they meet
• They are different because God’s Word has become the basis of their
thinking. They have formatted the word of God.
• We cannot know the Word of God partially and subjectively. It is just
like how we will not randomly read the text books when preparing for
our examinations. We will definitely study the text books systematically
and understand the principles or theories.
• We will not be able to understand God’s will fully if we have not
formatted our lives with His Word

4) Those who had acquired the mystery of prayers and love to pray
<Matt 6:5-15, 7:7; Phil 4:4-7; James 4:2-3>
• “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock
and the door will be opened to you.”
• “You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask,
you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that
you may spend what you get on your pleasures”
 • Those who have formatted their lives will pray differently. They will not
be accused after their repentance
• Those who have not formatted their lives know God’s word on the
surface. Their prayers are just like giving commands. Therefore, Satan
will not be afraid of their prayers
• Jesus Christ really understands God’s desires. Thus, the Lord’s Prayer
that He taught us is done systematically
• God does not want us to only beg Him for money or food or only when
we are in poverty or hunger
• A lot of Believers are willing to serve the Lord. However, when we serve
the Lord, we must not do it with our own strength or method. We teach
others with our lives, not with our charisma
• We need to serve the Lord with the Spirit

5) Those who love to obey God’s will <John 14:21>

• “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one
who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and
I too will love him and show myself to him.”
• God’s command to us is: Pray to Him and know His will after we’d
formatted our lives. Thereafter, submit to His will
• The summary of God’s will is to “Love God, Love Man”
• Those who love God already receive God’s protection. Otherwise, they
will live in fear daily

3. Enjoy and expand the kingdom of Heaven

• Everything that a person who is born again faces is all related to the
kingdom of Heaven
1) Make ‘the vision that comes from Heaven” our lifetime goals → will see
God’s presence and leading
• The purpose of our lives must match the purpose of God’s kingdom. In
other words, we must have a purpose driven life
• No matter how successful or wealthy we are, our success and wealth
have nothing to do with God’s kingdom, if we do not have a purpose
driven life
• The purpose of our lives on Earth is not just to have a blissful living
• The purpose of our lives is all recorded in the Four Gospel Books and
Acts, which is what Christ had commanded us just before He ascent to
Heaven <Mat 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-20; Luke 16:15-20; John
21:15-19; Acts 1:8>
• In summary, we must raise disciples and baptise them in the name of
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
• Everything we do will seem wrong if we lose this purpose of life

2) Know God’s perfect will in all things → when we’ve confirmed and
submitted to God’s will, we will see His power and fulfillment
 • <Rom 12:1-2> To be a Living Sacrifice means: knowing God’s good,
pleasing and perfect will
• We can know God’s perfect will no matter what situation or people we
meet
• <Eph 5:15-21>
• <James 1:5-8>
• All the conditions we have are sufficient when we are willing to submit
to God’s perfect will
• God is ever seeking for people who really know His perfect will
• We must rely on God’s perfect will to walk each and every step when
we are living on Earth
• We often say that we do not know God’s perfect will for us because we
are not sure of the purpose of our lives and we still have lots of
personal motives
• Therefore, we can only know God’s perfect will when we let go of
ourselves

3) Understand the Spiritual things <1Cor2:1-16>, knowing the mystery of

Spiritual battles <Eph 6:10-20; Phil 4:4-7> → my spiritual state is a
reflection of the spiritual realm surrounding me
• We always need to go into spiritual battles, as long as we are living on
Earth
• It is easy for us to be joyful when we are rich. However, can we still be
joyful when we’ve lost our wealth? We can still be joyful when we lose
our money only if we are always enjoying the kingdom of Heaven and
we know God’s perfect will for us to lose our money
• A person who knows about the existence of spiritual battle will rely on
God even more, when he loses man’s love

4) Having a congregation-centered life → able to see the presence of the

Lord and receive His protection. Able to see doors of evangelism being
opened <Mat 18:20; Eph 4:1-16; Acts 1:13-14, 13:1-3>
• We need to live among the congregation since we need to go into
battle
• The Bible tells us that Jesus is the head of the Church and we are the
body. This forms a complete man and enables us to have a purpose
driven life.
• We are only chasing the wealth and success of this world if we have a
purpose driven life but not living among the congregation

5) Our success in the first moment of each day will bring us success for
the rest of the day <Ps 119:147-148> → live with our eyes opened
<Mat 6:22-23> and able to enjoy the grace and gifts from above the
whole day
• We need to put in efforts to communicate with God each day. However,
our direction must be correct before we do that
 SHARING AND PRAYER TOPICS
1. The Lord says “The kingdom of God is within you”, “nobody can see
God’s kingdom unless he is born again”. Have I possessed the mystery
that enables me to see God’s kingdom anytime and anywhere? Discover:
which problem is stopping me from seeing God’s kingdom?
2. The kingdom of God is always with me and Jesus Christ is seated on
the glorious throne in Heaven ruling all things on Earth. However,
many a times, my heart is not the kingdom of God anymore. This is
because I am living in the spiritual battlefield, where my enemy Satan is
deceiving me, cheating me and accusing me all day and night, in the areas
where I am most vulnerable. Do I know the ‘areas where I am most
vulnerable’ and ‘how he is working in my life’? Where are the areas I need
renewal or be strengthened?
3. The kingdom of God is expanded through the interpersonal
relationships of the Believers. Have I acquired the mystery to extend the
kingdom of God, which is in me, to the life of others? Diagnose: Is my current
system of living revolving to ‘prosper the Gospel, save souls and expand
God’s kingdom’? What must be changed in order to grow faster and bear
more fruits?