Waching daily Sep 1 2018

male announcer: The following program

is paid for by the ministry partners

of the Hour of Power and viewers like you.

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♪ Joyful, joyful, we adore You ♪

♪ God of glory, Lord of love ♪

♪ Hearts unfold like flow'rs before You ♪

♪ Op'ning to the sun above

♪ Melt the clouds of sin and sadness ♪

♪ Drive the dark of doubt away

♪ Giver of immortal gladness

♪ Fill us with the light of day! ♪

♪ Amen Amen ♪

♪ Amen! ♪

Bobby Schuller: This is the day the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Good morning.

Hannah Schuller: I just wanna say

that God loves you so deeply.

And Isaiah 43 says: "Do not fear for I have redeemed you.

I have summoned you by name.

You are mine."

Turn around and shake the hand of the person next to you

and say, "God loves you and so do I."

Bobby: Hannah and I want you to know

how much you are loved and valued by God.

He will never leave you or abandon you.

You are his child, and he loves you.

Hannah: That's right.

I want to encourage you today that if you've been praying

for something, maybe for years,

and you haven't seen a breakthrough,

don't give up.

Your prayers are powerful, and they will move mountains

in your life.

Bobby: Yeah, that's right.

My grandpa Schuller used to say God's delays

are not God's denials.

So don't give up.

In fact, we want to support you in your prayer life,

whether you're praying for healing, relationships,

or financial challenges.

We want to pray with you.

Matthew 18:20 says, "Where two or three gather in my name,

I am there."

Hannah: Take a moment today and write down

your prayer request and send it to us.

We want to pray for you.

It doesn't matter what kind of impossibilities you're facing

or how huge that mountain is in front of you,

you can put your hope in our powerful God.

Bobby: Yeah, Hannah and I consider you a part

of our church family.

We're here for you, and we would be honored

to keep you in our prayers.

Remember always, God loves you and so do we.

Bobby: Well, good morning, everyone.

Today, I'm taking a break from preaching.

We have the joy of having John Ortberg in the house

preaching this morning.

Ah, so what a thrill that will be.

And we just believe you're gonna leave here full of joy.

Let's pray together.

Father, we love you and we thank you that you love us

and that you care for us and that you love us just as we are

and not as we should be.

And we pray, God, in Jesus's name that your kingdom

would envelop everything we do.

We take the crowns off our head and we lay them

before your throne.

And we pray, God, that your effective will would be

at work in our lives.

We're at peace today.

We're trusting you, and we're living by faith.

In Jesus's name we pray, amen.

Hannah: Amen.

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Hannah: You may be seated.

In preparation for John's message,

the words of our Lord found in Mark 1:14:

"After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee,

proclaiming the good news.

'The time has come,' he said.

'The kingdom of God has come near.

Repent and believe the good news!'"

Church family, we get to live together

in the presence of God, amen.

♪ Oh, the king cried, Oh, Daniel, Daniel, oh! ♪

♪ Daniel, Daniel, oh!

♪ A-that-a Hebrew Daniel, servant of the Lord ♪

♪ Oh, Daniel, Daniel, oh!

♪ Daniel, Daniel, oh!

♪ A-that-a Hebrew Daniel, servant of the Lord ♪

♪ Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, Daniel ♪

♪ Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, oh!

♪ Among the Hebrew nation

♪ one Hebrew Daniel was found ♪

♪ They put him in the lion's den ♪

♪ He stayed there all night long ♪

♪ Oh, the king cried, Oh, Daniel, Daniel, oh! ♪

♪ Daniel, Daniel, oh!

♪ A-that-a Hebrew Daniel, servant of the Lord ♪

♪ Now the King in his sleep was troubled ♪

♪ and early in the morning he rose ♪

♪ to find God had sent his angel down ♪

♪ to lock the lion's jaws

♪ Oh, the king cried, Oh, Daniel, Daniel, oh! ♪

♪ Daniel, Daniel, oh!

♪ A-that-a Hebrew Daniel, servant of the Lord ♪

♪ Oh, the king cried, Daniel, Daniel, Daniel ♪

♪ Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, oh!

♪ That Hebrew Daniel, servant of the Lord ♪

♪ That servant of the Lord

♪ That servant of the Lord ♪

[congregation applauding]

Bobby: Thank you, choir.

Just wanna take a time this morning to send

our hearts in prayer.

And today I wanna pray over fear and worry.

It's something that we all struggle with as human beings.

It's almost always under the surface,

driving a lot of our decisions.

I'm gonna ask that God would cast out the fear

and replace it with faith.

Lord, we thank you in Jesus's name that your kingdom is here,

that your Holy Spirit fills the air around us.

And Lord, we are asking that all these fears that we're holding

before you, things on the outside like fires and all these

challenges that our country is facing, our churches, our

schools, things that bother us and keep us up at night.

And then we think about personal things, our marriages, our kids,

our grandkids, our parents, stack of bills on our desk,

money problems, health problems.

We thank you, God, that you care about these things

but we don't have to worry about them.

Yes, we have to be responsible but we thank you, God,

that you're the ultimate provision.

And so we just pray in Jesus's name that your Holy Spirit

would come.

And I pray, Father, for those who need a miracle today, that

your kingdom would be made evident in their lives

through miraculous power.

I pray, Jesus, that you would transform our hearts to seek

your kingdom first, so that we can let go of worries and fears.

We're not gonna worry about tomorrow for example.

We're not gonna dwell on the past around yesterday.

We're gonna forgive our neighbor.

And we're gonna ask, Father, that you help us live every day

in a spirit of peace, faith, and love.

We wanna receive this and we just ask for faith.

We don't have enough faith on our own,

so we ask that you give it to us, Lord.

In Jesus's name we pray this,

and then we pray as the Lord taught us, saying:

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[congregation applauding]

Bobby: Thank you for joining us for "Hour of Power" today.

We hope that you found incredible hope and inspiration

from this program.

You know, oftentimes we think we need to have enormous faith

to do big things, but in reality,

we serve a God who only requires a faith

the size of a mustard seed

to do amazing things in your life

and in the lives of people around you.

Hannah: That's right.

Matthew 17:20 tells us: "If you have faith as small

as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain,

'Move from here to there,' and it will move.

Nothing will be impossible for you."

The Scriptures say that you only need a mustard seed-sized faith

to move mountains in your life.

That's only 1% of you.

Even if just 1% of you is faith,

your prayers will move mountains.

Bobby: That's right.

If 99% of you doubts everything but just 1% of you says,

"I trust God," he can use that percent to move mountains.

Friends, you don't need to have

a mountain-sized faith to move mountains.

You just need a tiny little bit,

because God's the one doing the moving, not you.

So you can relax.

If you have the faith, God has the power.

Let him move your mountains today.

announcer: Call, write, or go online today

and request your accent pillow imprinted with the words,

"Your prayers will move mountains."

Use this pillow at home, take it on your vacation,

or gift it to a loved one as they go back to school

to be reminded daily that God will move mountains

in their lives.

We're asking for a generous gift of any size,

so call, write, or go online today.

Thank you and remember always God loves you and so do we.

♪♪♪

♪ I've seen darkness shattered by light ♪

♪ I've seen joy break after the night ♪

♪ I want to see it again

♪ I've seen tragic and hopeless days ♪

♪ turn to stories of amazing grace ♪

♪ I want to see it again

♪ Oh, come, Lord, like a rushing wind ♪

♪ We are desperate for your presence ♪

♪ Revive us by your spirit within ♪

♪ We want to see you again

♪ See you again

♪ Ooh

♪ I've seen laughter conquer the tears ♪

♪ I've seen strength rise to persevere ♪

♪ I want to see it again

♪ I've seen bodies, ruined and frail ♪

♪ rise in power, completely healed ♪

♪ I want to see it again

♪ Oh-oh-oh

♪ Come, Lord, like a rushing wind ♪

♪ We are desperate for your presence ♪

♪ Revive us by your spirit within ♪

♪ We want to see you again

♪ See you again

♪ Oh, come, Lord, like a rushing wind ♪

♪ We are desperate for your-- ♪

♪ for your presence

♪ Revive us by your spirit within ♪

♪ We want to see you again

♪ Oh, see you again

♪ Oh, we wanna see you, Jesus ♪

♪ We wanna see you again

♪ We remember all the great things ♪

♪ you have done

♪ We believe that greater things are still to come ♪

♪ We remember all the great things ♪

♪ you have done

♪ We believe that greater things are still to come ♪

♪ Anthony Evans: If you believe it, sing it with me ♪

♪ We remember all the great things ♪

♪ you have done

♪ We believe that greater things are still to come ♪

♪ Anthony: Come on, sing

♪ We remember all the great things ♪

♪ you have done

♪ We believe that greater things are still to come ♪

♪ We remember all the great things ♪

♪ you have done

♪ You've done great things, yeah ♪

♪ We believe that greater things are still to come ♪

♪ We believe it

♪ We remember all the great things ♪

♪ you have done

♪ We believe that greater things are still to come ♪

♪ We remember all the great things ♪

♪ you have done

♪ We believe that greater things are still to come ♪

♪ We remember all the great things ♪

♪ you have done

♪ We believe that greater things are still to come ♪

♪ Oh, come, Lord, like a rushing wind ♪

♪ We are desperate for your presence ♪

♪ Revive us by your spirit within ♪

♪ We want to see you again

♪ See you again

♪ We want to see you again

♪ See you again ♪

[congregation applauding]

Bobby: Well, today, we have such a joy to have John Ortberg

in the house.

You know, it's-- I think every preacher

has their favorite preacher.

John is my favorite preacher. And I mean that sincerely.

I've been listening to your podcasts for years,

and it's amazing what John has been able to accomplish

at Menlo Park Presbyterian.

You know, right down the street from Stanford University,

he's been able to have a major influence in that whole,

you know, area of technology, what people are doing.

And John is so accessible, too, with the influence

that he has to pastors like me.

I still remember the first time I met John.

He agreed to meet me over a cup of coffee,

and I asked him for preaching advice.

And I still remember what you said, John.

Two things.

I forget which philosopher it was but I still remember what

the point was: always think about what do you want them

to feel, what do you want them to understand,

and what do you want them to do.

So I always do that in every sermon.

And the second was: read a lot but don't read for your sermons.

Just read and then it'll work its way into your sermons.

So these--this man has had a great influence on our ministry

and we share a joint love for Dallas Willard too which you'll

hear so much of what he's saying is what I'm saying,

so would you please welcome with me Pastor John Ortberg?

John, hi. It's so great to have you.

John Ortberg: Aren't you gracious?

Thanks very much, thank you.

Bobby: Well, one of the-- one of the reasons we're here

is this church is so excited about your new book.

John: Thank you.

If you wanna just keep talking about me, go ahead.

It feels really good.

Bobby: Well, we're gonna talk--before you preach this

morning we're gonna talk a little bit about your book,

"Eternity is Now in Session."

And of course, this is really important

to your message, isn't it?

Tell me a little bit about why you wrote this book.

John: Well, that phrase, "Eternity is now in session,"

comes from somebody who was very influential

on both of us, Dallas Willard.

And Dallas taught philosophy for many years

at the University of Southern California.

Brilliant philosopher, brilliant mind.

Smartest guy I've ever known.

I used to joke I would never get in an argument with Dallas

because I was afraid he would prove I don't exist.

And he used to talk about things like eternity.

Dallas had just thought through words that all of us throw

around but often don't think about.

And often we think eternity is something that is going on

that you have to die before you can get in on it.

And he would say, "No, eternity is going on right now."

Eternal life, another one of those religious phrases

that gets used a lot, is defined in the Bible only one time

and that's in the Gospel of John chapter 17 where Jesus

is praying to his Father and says,

"This is eternal life that they," the people, you and I,

"might know the Father."

And so the idea is that eternity is going on right now

and we can enter into an interactive,

participative relationship with God.

In our real lives on this planet right now we can

be part of eternity today.

Bobby: I remember he used to use the phrase I really

liked that helped communicate that idea.

He used to say, "Eternal living."

John: Yes.

Bobby: And tell me about eternal living, like,

I think there's a lot of people here that, you know,

it feels like--the other thing he used to say is,

"A lot of Christians think the fruit of Christianity

is more Christians."

And I think there's a lot of people especially that grew up

in church that maybe had that mountaintop experience with the

Lord but feel like, no matter what they do, no matter how many

times they go to church, they don't feel that eternal life.

What can I do, I mean, I've-- I experience this as a pastor

and many people here, believers who love the Lord,

feel that dry place in their lives

and they want eternal living.

What can we do today?

What's the easiest thing we can do?

John: Yeah, Dallas was the kind of guy who had a thousand

different phrases for those of us who knew him and loved him.

One of them is he would say, "I'm quite sure that God will

allow everyone into heaven who can possibly stand it."

Because a lot of us have kind of cartoon pictures of heaven

but the idea is heaven is about being with God.

And now, I have to become the kind of person

who actually wants to be with God.

And I would say, for anybody who wants that, begin right here.

Surrender your life to God as sincerely as you can.

Bobby: That's good.

John: That one simple prayer, your will be done in my life.

That was Jesus's core prayer.

People who are trapped in addictions,

surrender is always the first step.

And that's a wonderful prayer to pray at any moment.

Whatever's going on, whether you are happy, sad, successful,

failing at something, any moment, every time you think

of it, that prayer, "God, your will be done.

I surrender to you," and God, I believe,

always honors that prayer.

Bobby: If you want that great experience in your life,

get this book, "Eternity is Now in Session."

You guys wanna hear more?

Ladies and gentlemen, John Ortberg.

John, thank you. I love you.

[congregation applauding]

John: For a whole bunch of reasons,

I'm just incredibly honored to be here.

I heard Robert Schuller preach when I was a student

at Wheaton College for the first time, long time ago.

Came out to California to go to Fuller Theological Seminary,

and went to this amazing place called the Crystal Cathedral,

and that was remarkable.

And then the chance to get to know Bobby.

Aren't you glad that God thought up Bobby Schuller?

And his heart and ministry and love for people?

And the opportunity to spread the good news about Jesus

all around the world.

And then just one of the things, speaking quite personally,

I love music.

Is the music this good every week here?

Oh my goodness.

I hope you never take for granted--

I can't think of many churches where a choir will sing

and people stand up and applaud afterwards.

And then the strings play and people stand up

and applaud afterwards.

I finished speaking after the last service

and nobody did anything.

So don't get your hopes up.

But you know, it's--

I'm thrilled to be here, and I can't even tell you

how excited I am to get to talk about what we're gonna talk

about over these next moments 'cause I believe this is

the most important subject in the entire world.

It's what Jesus came to teach and to bring

and it's the greatest offer ever given to humankind.

And I wanna start with a question because it involves

a word, "gospel," that gets thrown around a lot.

I talk about this in that little book,

"Eternity is Now in Session."

But a lot of people haven't thought deeply

about what is the gospel.

So I wanna start with this question.

If somebody were to ask you,

"What's the gospel that Jesus came to preach?"

what would you say?

Not just what do you think of by the word "gospel,"

but if somebody were to ask you--now, Jesus had a gospel.

Somebody were to ask you,

"What gospel did Jesus come to proclaim?"

If you don't mind, for a moment, turn to the person next to you

and just take a shot at it.

If you're at home, you might just think about this

for a moment but for everybody who's here,

just turn to the person--

If somebody were to ask you,

"What's the gospel Jesus came to preach?"

what would you say?

Now this sounds like a terribly simple question but I can tell

you from quite a lot of experience, the vast majority

of people, not only outside but very often in churches,

do not give the same answer to this question

that Jesus himself gave.

And it matters immensely.

So Jesus had one message at the start of his ministry

and it's at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark,

the beginning of Luke, and beginning of Matthew

summarized his message almost in precisely the same way.

This is the summary of his message at the beginning

of his ministry: "After John," that's John the Baptist,

"was put into prison, Jesus went out into Galilee

proclaiming the good news of God.

'The time has come,' he said,

'the kingdom of God has come near.

Repent and believe the good news.'"

Now, the good news is where we get our word "gospel"

and what Jesus says constitutes it is that this thing

called the kingdom of God has come near.

Once he chose his disciples, Jesus adopted a strategy to

communicate his one message to everybody that he could.

We read about this in Luke chapter 8: "After this,"

after he chose his disciples, "Jesus traveled about

from one town to another, proclaiming the good news,"

the gospel, "of the kingdom of God."

That it's come near.

And then he sends his disciples out

'cause he's very passionate about this message.

And he instructs them to proclaim one message.

"When Jesus had called the 12 together, he gave them power

and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases,

and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God."

Then he's crucified and when he rose from the dead he gathered

his little group of now 11 disciples together

and he talked to them about one topic.

This is from the book of Acts: "Jesus appeared to them over

a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God."

And in the very last glimpse of the church that we get

in the book of Acts, the last verse in the last chapter,

it's Paul who's in chains now for the gospel and we're told,

Acts chapter 28: "Boldly and without hindrance

he preached the kingdom of God."

So if you were gonna say what Jesus's gospel is about

in one phrase what would that phrase be?

The kingdom of God.

The good news, the gospel, is simply this: the kingdom of God

has become available on earth for ordinary human beings

like you and me to live in.

It is here right now.

Eternity is now in session, and you can live in it

if you want to.

That's what Jesus came to proclaim.

And then he taught a lot about how to do that

but that was the news, see?

And here's what I believe to be terribly tragic.

In our day, for a variety of reasons, in thousands of

churches, millions of Christians have substituted another gospel

for Jesus's gospel and this is what I think is often

the substitute gospel.

People think of the gospel as here are the minimal entrance

requirements for getting into heaven when you die.

And we don't put it in exactly that language

but that's what people often think.

I'll give you a picture I sometimes use

for this not-the-real gospel.

There's a scene towards the end of a movie that all of you

are way too spiritual to ever have seen called

"Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Oh, some of--this is my kind of crowd, is it?

So towards the end of that movie, Arthur and three

of his knights are trying to get into a castle

where the grail is but there's an abyss between them

and the castle and you gotta cross a bridge to get over

and there's this wizened old weird bridge keeper

and he only lets you cross the bridge

if you can answer three questions correctly.

If you get one wrong, you get cast down into the abyss.

That's the end of you.

So the first knight comes up and he's asked, "What's your name?

What's your quest?

And what's your favorite color?"

He answers that, he gets to cross the bridge.

Second knight's quite cocky and he's asked,

"State your name, state your quest," which he does.

And then he's asked some real obscure question like

who won the World Cup in 1948?

"I don't know. Aghhh!"

And he's cast down into the abyss.

So the third knight now is quite nervous.

"State your name, state your quest."

He does.

And then he's asked, "State your favorite color."

He says, "Red." "No, blue."

"Aghhh!"

And he's thrown down into the abyss.

So now there's just Arthur left.

Comes up and the bridge keeper asks him, "State your name."

"Arthur, King of the Britons."

"Quest?" "Search the Holy Grail."

And then he's asked a question that's kind of a running gag

through the whole movie: "What's the wing speed velocity

of a coconut laden swallow?"

And his answer's also part of that running gag: "That depends.

Is it an African swallow or a European swallow?"

And the bridge keeper says, "I don't know. Agh."

And the bridge keeper is cast down the abyss.

Now, for a variety of reasons we don't have time to get into many

people have reduced the gospel to this idea, that when you die

there will be the castle, there'll be the good place,

and then there's this abyss and then there's bridge

and the gospel is the correct answer to the secret questions

such that if you give it they have to let you cross.

The gospel is understood by many people outside the church

and in to be this quite exclusive, quite cognitive,

minimal entrance requirements for getting

allowed into heaven when you die.

A lot of people think of saving faith.

That's a phrase you might have heard of if you've been around

church very much.

They think of saving faith as what do you have to affirm

at minimum so they cannot keep you out of heaven.

Here's the problem.

Where in the New Testament if you've read it much, where does

Jesus ever say, "Now, I'm going to give you the minimal entrance

requirements for getting into heaven when you die?"

He never says anything like that.

And yet, tragically for millions of people, that's what they

think they've got--and then they have arguments over exactly

what are those requirements and so.

Jesus never says anything like that.

What he says is, "Now, all the preliminaries

have been taken care of.

And the kingdom of God is now accessible to every human being,

no matter what you have done, how irreligious you think

that you are, so review your plans for living

and base your strategy of life on this remarkable opportunity."

That's the gospel of Jesus. That's his call.

Now, of course, of course, of course,

it includes the promise of the forgiveness of our sins

purchased at the cost of his life on the cross

as a free gift of grace.

Of course it does.

Of course it includes the promise that death will not

interrupt eternal life but it will go on, of course,

as it would with our heavenly Father forever.

But it includes more than that.

Jesus came as the kingdom bringer.

Many people think the only real reason why Jesus came to earth

was to die on the cross to get us over to the other side.

The cross was fundamental, his death was fundamental.

But they were simply one part of his overall mission.

His great mission was to be the kingdom bringer.

It is now here.

He was speaking in the Sermon on the Mount, the most famous talk

ever given at one time to a group of people

and they believe in God but, like us, they tend to fritter

their lives away on concerns that don't really matter.

What am I gonna eat? What am I gonna wear?

How am I gonna look? How much money will I have?

Will I have a big enough house? Will my career look good?

Will I get in the right office?

And he says, "Don't waste your life running after those things

for the pagans run after all those things,

people who don't know God."

And your heavenly Father knows you need them.

"But seek first his kingdom.

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness."

Now, righteousness is another one of those words

that's become badly misunderstood.

It's often thought to be kind of self-righteous

or holier than thou.

It is simply what it is that makes somebody good

from the inside.

We can never get away from that driving need to know,

"Am I a good person?"

And righteousness has a wonderful history behind it,

and Jesus uses it in deeply thoughtful ways.

To be a truly authentically good person, seek that and all these

things will be given to you.

His one gospel was the gospel of the availability of the kingdom.

His one purpose was to manifest, to actually model with his life,

his body, his words, the presence

of the kingdom on earth.

His one command was to pursue life in the kingdom

above all else.

His one plan was for his followers to extend the kingdom.

And yet millions of people who name his name

could not tell you what the kingdom is.

So let's spend a few moments on that,

'cause this is his message, the one we follow.

One of the difficulties for us is we don't use

the word "kingdom" often.

We have a different form of government.

We don't have a king. So think about it like this.

Every human being has a kingdom in a biblical sense.

Your kingdom is that little sphere in which

what you say goes, okay?

Your kingdom is where you are in charge.

The technical language for this is your kingdom is the range

of your effective will where your will can rule.

And people very early on learn they were made

to have a kingdom, to reign.

That's why we do not like to have someone else tell us

what we have to do.

What is a two year old's favorite word?

"No."

What's their second favorite word?

"Mine," okay?

Those are kingdom words, see?

Now, that can be irritating for parents, but it's a real good

thing that a two year old has learned 'cause they're learning

they have a will, and what a precious thing that is.

What an amazing and marvelous gift it is.

Two and a half months ago, my wife and I

had our first grandchild.

His name is Chance and there's a long story behind him

that I won't tell you but I cannot describe to you the joy.

If I knew having grandchildren was this good,

I would have skipped having children, gone right to it.

And anybody knows when a little child is born and then they

begin to develop and they learn how to walk and they learn how

to talk and how to move their hands, that that's a miracle.

What's happening?

A little piece of matter, a little piece of atoms,

is being reigned by a will, see, by a personal will.

Our universe is subject to will, to personhood.

That's a remarkable thing.

That's a supernatural-- and we see it all the time.

We're just getting used to it.

And little kids grow up and they start being concerned

for their kingdom.

They get in the back seat of a car with each other

and they draw a line.

"You'd better not cross over this line,

'cause this is my kingdom."

And they start defending their kingdoms.

They have little kingdom wars in the back seat of the van.

And then dad starts turning around 'cause whose kingdom

does Dad think the car is?

He thinks it's his kingdom.

And he sends his hand back there like a snake, you know,

"You kids want me to come around?"

And the kids retreat to the corner of the van.

A friend of mine has advice on how to get kids

out of the unreachable safety zone.

A tap on the brakes brings them right into play.

Thy kingdom comes.

My kingdom is the range of my effective will.

It is where things go the way I want them to go, beginning

with my body, and this is why our bodies are so important.

This is why they matter so deeply, why they matter so

deeply to God and why we treasure the little bodies of

our children and of other people and having bodies treated

with dignity makes so much difference.

They're where our kingdoms begin.

And that's a fabulous thing.

Having a kingdom is a real good thing.

It is what God made you for.

And then you're able to extend your kingdom through your words,

through your influence, through money.

That's one of the reasons why money is such a terribly

important and terribly spiritual subject 'cause it's one of the

primary ways that kingdoms' reign of the will gets extended.

And this is all part of God's plan for you.

Genesis chapter 1, verse 26, we're told: "Then God said,

'Let us make human beings in our own image,

according to our likeness, and let them have dominion,"

see, that's kingdom language.

God has dominion. God has a kingdom.

God speaks and it is so.

And then he makes these odd little human creatures and--

but we're in his image and we get to exercise dominion

in our own limited ways.

That's a real good thing.

It's part of being in the image of God.

But our kingdoms get all junked up by sins.

No! Mine!

No, on earth, all those little kingdoms intersect and merge

and they form larger kingdoms.

You think about it like this.

A kingdom is a system of personal power.

A kingdom in the biblical sense is a system of personal power.

And they come together and they form marriages

and then families and then neighborhoods and then schools

and companies and nations and cultures and civilizations,

and those are all kingdoms.

And all those together form what we might call the kingdom

of earth, if we were gonna use biblical language.

So let's do a little study in contrast for a moment.

Jesus says that there is an entity.

It is a reality that is called the kingdom of God.

Now, of course, that language had been used

for a long time in Israel, so Jesus is using language

that's very familiar to people.

But the idea, much of what Jesus did, was to try to correct

people's vision of what is life like in that kingdom.

And he says, "It is unspeakably good.

To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?

It's like a man who finds a treasure buried in the field

and in his great joy he sells everything he's got

'cause he says, 'I've got to have that treasure.'

To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?"

I met my wife many years ago now in Southern California.

We met on a blind date when I was working at a church

in La Crescenta, California.

And after the end of the date, the people who'd introduced us

lived 2,000 miles away.

This was before cell phones.

Didn't seem like a real suave thing to ask for her number so

the only thing that I knew about her, the only way I knew to get

in touch with her again was to call her church.

She attended a church at the time called

Whittier Area Baptist Fellowship.

And so I called that church and I said, "I'm a pastor.

I work at First Baptist Church at La Crescenta.

I need the phone number of one of your parishioners.

It's kind of a ministry thing.

Her name is Nancy Berg," and the receptionist put me on hold

for a long time.

Finally, came back on and gave me Nancy's phone number.

What I did not know then and didn't find out for another six

months, was the receptionist at that church

was Nancy's mother, Verna Berg.

And she actually put me on hold and called Nancy up and said,

"There's some guy and he wants your phone number.

Shall I give it to him?"

And--to what shall I compare the kingdom of God?

It is like a man who meets a woman and he wants her phone

number so desperately that he calls up a church

and semi-deceives them just to get it.

That's the kingdom of God.

Paul says to the church at Rome, "For the kingdom of God

is not a legalistic matter of eating or drinking rules, but

righteousness that is true inner goodness, joy, and peace," see?

The kingdom of God is where all is as God wants it to be.

Jesus says, "It's like a banquet where the lame and the blind

and the poor, people that normally get left out,

all get invited, all become guests of honor.

That's life in the kingdom of God."

The kingdom of God is like a little child who's just humble,

no big shots, no egos, no--

that's life in the kingdom of God.

It's going on right now.

The gospel of Jesus, the good news, is not that the kingdom

has come into existence.

It has always existed.

The good news is, through Jesus, it's now become available now.

And not just to Israel, but to anybody.

It's breaking its boundaries, okay?

That's the kingdom of God.

And then there is this other entity and if we were gonna

use biblical language for it, we would say it

is the kingdom of earth.

Every human life and all of our systems of power

and governments and politics.

How are things going on the kingdom of earth?

Not so good.

Tragedies, tens of thousands of little children die every day

of malnutrition when it's preventable and lots of us

have a lot of resources that could change that.

Abuse, corruption, misuse of power, #MeToo,

families breaking apart, people being neglected,

people not being loved because of the way they look

or the color of their skin,

politics in office places, just--it's a mess.

So Jesus has this plan, see?

Now, when I was growing up in church I always thought that the

idea was that we were gonna go up to heaven someday

and so we ought to just pray, it's such a mess down here,

"God, get me out of here and get me up to--"

There's a old TV show called "Star Trek"

and if somebody was in trouble, they would always pray

to the same guy named Scotty.

Anybody remember that? Remember what the prayer was?

"Beam me up." Get me outta here and let me go.

And I kind of thought that was the idea.

"God, it's a mess down here.

You're gonna come and torch this place."

Jesus has a real different idea and I don't know

why I didn't understand this.

The Lord's Prayer.

We said this a little while ago, these words that

are so familiar to so many people.

And yet, so often, we've never actually thought about them.

Guy named Ken Davis wrote about, back in the 1980s,

a chapel service for the Chicago Bears.

They had a Super Bowl team.

Mike Ditka was the coach and the guy leading the service wanted

them to pray the Lord's Prayer, and so he asked

Refrigerator Perry to pray the Lord's Prayer.

Some of you guys might remember the Fridge?

Jim McMahon was the quarterback

and he thought this was hilarious.

He said to the chaplain, "I will bet you 50 bucks

there's no way the Fridge knows the Lord's Prayer."

And the chaplain thought, "It's kind of odd to bet

on the Lord's Prayer but, you know,

it's a football team, okay."

Everybody bows their heads, close their eyes.

The Fridge begins to pray, "Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep."

Jim McMahon takes out 50 bucks, hands it over and says,

"I was sure he didn't know the Lord's Prayer."

You all know the words.

"Our Father who is in heaven."

Now, heaven is not some place way out there far away, see?

The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God,

is the range of God's effective will.

Our Father who is closer than the air we breathe,

"hallowed be your name."

May people come to cherish and revere what a good God you are.

May you become famous and beloved.

"Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name,"

and then the next words that for some reason,

for so many years, I never really thought of.

"Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come, your will be done on earth

as it is in heaven."

Here's Jesus's message.

Not, "I wanna tell you how to get from down there to up here,"

"I wanna tell you up here's coming down there."

Up here, O God, O God, O God,

O God, your kingdom come.

Your will be done.

In my body, in my mind, in my thoughts.

I surrender to you.

God, just take this body.

It's not worth much and it's getting older every day.

Take this body and make it radiant with your presence.

And then in my home.

God, where so often your will doesn't reign.

Where anger reigns or coldness reigns or apathy reigns

or selfishness reigns or deceits reign.

God, in my home may your kingdom come.

And then in this church.

You all look like such wonderful people.

Do you all pretty much have virtue nailed down in character?

But you know, in our hearts, we all carry scars and wounds

like you can't believe.

We all do. It's our story.

What might happen if God's will were done in this church

and wherever you are when you're watching in your life,

see, this is God's plan.

In your office, in your neighborhood, in our country,

would anybody like for God's will to be done in our country?

I know this is not like a church where you talk back

but could I get a amen for, like,

would it be a wonderful thing if God's kingdom

were to come for our country?

See, up there is coming down here.

This is the divine conspiracy and it's happening through Jesus

and very often it happens most in people who are least visible,

who look quite humble or unimportant but every time

somebody has some resources and they get generous with it

or every time somebody gets hurt and they end up forgiving

somebody or every time a workaholic parent says,

"No, I'm gonna not do that.

I'm gonna love my children."

Or every time somebody crosses racial lines to express

reconciliation or every time somebody cares--

serves in areas like homelessness

or somebody who is suffering.

Every time that happens, up there is coming down here.

And now, you are called to be not just somebody

who has satisfied the minimal entrance requirements

for getting into heaven when you die.

You are to be an agent of the kingdom.

So follow him. Follow him fully.

Love him. Learn what he taught.

Do what he said. Lean on his power.

Live in his love.

Be a part of the greatest movement in human history,

up there coming down here.

Would you pray together with me?

Now, heavenly Father, I pray for everybody listening to my voice

that they would come to know you,

not just believe certain things about you,

not just try to engage in a transaction

that will take care of them after they die.

To know you, to enter into eternity right now, right here.

We pray it again, our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth

as it is in heaven.

Starting with us in Jesus's name, amen.

[congregation applauding]

announcer: Please stay tuned for the closing benediction.

Bobby: Thank you for joining us for "Hour of Power" today.

We hope that you found incredible hope and inspiration

from this program.

You know, oftentimes we think we need to have enormous faith

to do big things, but in reality,

we serve a God who only requires a faith

the size of a mustard seed

to do amazing things in your life

and in the lives of people around you.

Hannah: That's right.

Matthew 17:20 tells us: "If you have faith as small

as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain,

'Move from here to there,' and it will move.

Nothing will be impossible for you."

The Scriptures say that you only need a mustard seed-sized faith

to move mountains in your life.

That's only 1% of you.

Even if just 1% of you is faith,

your prayers will move mountains.

Bobby: That's right.

If 99% of you doubts everything but just 1% of you says,

"I trust God," he can use that percent to move mountains.

Friends, you don't need to have

a mountain-sized faith to move mountains.

You just need a tiny little bit,

because God's the one doing the moving, not you.

So you can relax.

If you have the faith, God has the power.

Let him move your mountains today.

announcer: Call, write, or go online today

and request your accent pillow imprinted with the words,

"Your prayers will move mountains."

Use this pillow at home, take it on your vacation,

or gift it to a loved one as they go back to school

to be reminded daily that God will move mountains

in their lives.

We're asking for a generous gift of any size,

so call, write, or go online today.

Thank you and remember always God loves you and so do we.

Bobby: Hannah and I want you to know

how much you are loved and valued by God.

He will never leave you or abandon you.

You are his child, and he loves you.

Hannah: That's right.

I want to encourage you today that if you've been praying

for something, maybe for years,

and you haven't seen a breakthrough,

don't give up.

Your prayers are powerful, and they will move mountains

in your life.

Bobby: Yeah, that's right.

My grandpa Schuller used to say God's delays

are not God's denials.

So don't give up.

In fact, we want to support you in your prayer life,

whether you're praying for healing, relationships,

or financial challenges.

We want to pray with you.

Matthew 18:20 says, "Where two or three gather in my name,

I am there."

Hannah: Take a moment today and write down

your prayer request and send it to us.

We want to pray for you.

It doesn't matter what kind of impossibilities you're facing

or how huge that mountain is in front of you,

you can put your hope in our powerful God.

Bobby: Yeah, Hannah and I consider you a part

of our church family.

We're here for you, and we would be honored

to keep you in our prayers.

Remember always, God loves you and so do we.

Bobby: Wasn't John great? Did you enjoy his sermon?

Look, he traveled a long way to preach

and bless us this morning, and he has this book coming out.

It just came out, like, this week so I know, as an author,

one of the best things people can do to show you that they

appreciate you is to simply buy your book.

And it's not because of money, truly, it's when you're

an author you put so much of your blood, sweat,

and tears into a manuscript, you really want people to read it,

to think about it, to get it.

And I know that's true for John and if you wanna say thank you

to him, make sure to go back there and spend the 20 bucks

or whatever it is to get a book.

He'll sign it for you. It'll mean the world to him.

And it would be just so great every time we have an author

come to just buy all their books as a church, you know,

and just send 'em home empty-handed so they leave

with that great feeling.

So consider that.

And more than anything, I just hope you know that you are so

loved, that despite what you've gone through, your challenges,

your pain, that God loves you, and your best days

are ahead of you.

We want you to leave here so full of joy and hope

and that this week would be just a week full of energy.

And so I just pray that over you this morning.

And now the Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you

and be gracious unto you.

The Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you his peace,

in the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

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and viewers like you, and is accredited

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