Way too many people set out to follow Jesus and then they discover – hang on a minute, this being a disciple thing, this kingdom building thing is a lot harder than I thought. Those people are the ones who forgot to count the cost. Those people are almost always the ones who fall by the wayside.   Are You Building God's Kingdom Or Your Empire?  As you can imagine, I get a lot of emails from people who listen to this program and many, many times, they’re struggling with something in their lives. One man the other day emailed me and he was struggling about a lie that he’d told a few years back, and in his heart of hearts he didn’t know whether God would ever forgive him. Another woman recently wrote to me about one of her children who’d gone seriously off the rails. People going through a marriage breakdown, people going through a divorce. People struggling to be accepted in their church. People who have lost their jobs. There are so many issues that we face in life, and I guess sitting where I sit, I get to see a pretty comprehensive cross-section of those. And it doesn’t seem to matter where people live, in a wealthy country, in a poor country; east or west; north or south – the issues are pretty much the same. I even had an email from a woman living on the streets who’d sold her body into prostitution just to be able to afford to buy food. Despite all the growing affluence and all the things that you and I can buy with our hard-earned money. She’s a tough old world out there. Real people struggling with real things. And into all of that, walks Jesus. How relevant is He really? How much of a difference is He really making? Believe it or not, that’s something I often ask of myself, because by sharing the Word of God with you and many others who listen, if it ain’t making a real difference, if it’s not giving real answers, if it’s not touching people’s hearts with the powerful love of God, then frankly, I’m wasting my time. So how relevant is Jesus to you? How much of a difference is He making in your life? Because Jesus went to extraordinary lengths to bring the Kingdom of God near to you. And that’s what I want to spend a few minutes focussing on today. The extraordinary lengths that Jesus went to, to purchase for you entry into the Kingdom of Heaven, which begins by the way, down here on earth. Because it’s once we understand the passion in the Lord’s heart to do all that’s required for us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, that it starts to make a real difference in our lives. Of course, neither you or I can ever enter the Kingdom of God of our own right. We’ve all sinned; we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God and the outcome, or the wages of our sin, is certain death. That’s the whole point of Jesus dying for you and me on the cross. There He hung, beaten, nailed to that wood, gasping for air, in agony, dying … because God is a just God. Justice had to be done. But the dilemma for God is that He is also a loving God. So how does He reconcile justice and love? His justice and His love? Well, He does it by allowing Jesus to take my punishment and your punishment in this brutal way. The other day, I read a tweet from a great guy called Peter Pelt (he’s a pastor) and he asked this question, quite simply: "Would you die for someone else?’" Tough question to answer isn’t it? And I suspect that had I been facing such a brutal Roman execution, you’d have had to drag me there to the cross kicking and screaming. Why would you possibly die for a bunch of people you didn’t even know? And yet for Jesus, it was the obvious thing to do. John chapter 10, verses 17 and 18: For this reason my Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father. Jesus gave His life for you and for me willingly. He always knew He’d have to, and He died for you and me so that we could enter the Kingdom of heaven here on earth, and for all eternity. And the only way to enter into His kingdom is through faith in Jesus and for what He did for us on that cross and through that empty tomb. God loved the world so much that He gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believes in him won’t perish, but will have eternal life. (John 3:16) And for this reason, in order to save you and me, Jesus went willingly to the Cross. He gave up His life so that the Kingdom of Heaven would break out in my heart, in your heart, in our hearts, and take us through to spend eternity with Him. That’s the powerful Gospel. That’s the powerful good news of Jesus Christ. It’s available to you, it’s available to me, and it’s available to anybody who would put their trust in what Jesus did for them on that cross. That He paid the full price of our sin, so that we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven by faith, through God’s grace in Jesus Christ. The question is, does that make a difference to your life today? Does the power of God’s love break through the difficult circumstances that you’re facing today, and bring joy and peace and confidence to your heart today? I remember a time when I was completely alone on this earth. The people who should have stood by me had deserted me. I think there’s nothing worse than being completely alone. Nobody to call. Nobody who cares. Nobody who understands. Nobody to deeply connect with, soul to soul. It’s a dark place, I have to tell you. I’d never seen such darkness before, and I’ve never seen such darkness since. Inky, black darkness. Alone. And it’s in that darkness my friend that the light of the love of Jesus Christ shines so brightly. It’s when fear and loneliness and anxiety and pain are washing through you and over you. And you feel like you’re drowning in a tsunami, that Jesus reaches down into that pit. For God so loved you, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that if you should believe in Him, you won’t perish, but you’ll have eternal life. My friend, that is the good news! And that good news is for you. The old rugged cross is for you. God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ is for you. His love, His presence, His comfort is for you. The kingdom of God … is for you. The Kingdom of God is many things … it’s multi–faceted. And one of the things that God’s Kingdom is, is a place of shelter and safety and comfort and love that can never be overrun by the cares of this world. It can never be overrun by the hatred and the sin of others and it can certainly never be overrun by the devil and his legions. Why is that important? Because when we’re travelling through those dark places in life that we all travel through when we’re feeling alone or unappreciated or under attack, we need to know that the Kingdom of God is like a fortress that we can run into. Romans chapter 8, verses 31 to 39: What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through ...

Released on 21 Nov 2021