in verse seven it's not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father is
put in its own authority but in other words you don't need to know the day in
the hour that I'm gonna come back when I'm gonna wrap everything up but here's
how I'm gonna advance My kingdom He says in verse eight but you shall receive
power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witness to me
and Jerusalem and all Judea Samaria to the ends of the earth that this is very
monumental and significant the way God is now going to advance the kingdom is
through you and me once Jesus by Himself was a carrier of glory but now that glory
is within you and me it's Colossians 1:27 Christ in you the hope of glory
you are carriers of the glory and the way the kingdoms gonna advance first of
all He says I'm not just interested in coming to the nation of Israel
I want nations you can receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and
you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth as Psalm 2 ask Me of and I'll
give you the nation's as your inheritance the ends of the earth as
your possession he didn't just come to save Israel which he did the Gospels for
the Jew first thank God for the Jewish heritage we have thank God that Joseph
Mary and Jesus were all Jewish thank God for Moses for giving us the law right
but God's heart was for nations from the very beginning he wants to restore what
was lost in the very beginning that's why the Bible says in Acts 3:19 that
that Jesus must remain in heaven until the restoration of all things that were
prophesied by ancients of old going back to the very beginning that God from the
very beginning wanted to have heaven on earth and his way now of doing that is
for you you are to be like Jesus wherever you go you now by your own
power there's no way we're doing our own strength Zachariah 4:6 I love this it's
not by might it's not by power but by My Spirit says the Lord and so you shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you you all have that power
and you'll be my martyrs martyr that's a great word martyr in other
words just like Jesus died to eradicate evil he says I want you to eradicate
evil wherever you go we are to make right see this is what the kingdom is
all about where we are to make right everything that's wrong in our society
Romans 14:17 says the kingdom of God is not meat or drink but it's righteousness
peace and joy in the holy spirit now when we look at the word righteous we
immediately think of spiritual righteousness imputed righteousness and
we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus how many believe that
you're the righteousness of God Christ of course you are
but in this passage what he's talking about it's making right things are wrong
we're talking about another synonym will be justice it's just as bringing justice
and when there's justice there's peace and joy when you do what's right though
it brings peace and joy and a little incident on my way over here you know I
tell you I'm so excited because if for the first time there's a nonstop flight
from Los Angeles to too Redding I know real transformation is taking place
because of that you know no there's also an in-n-out burger up here which I'm
grateful for and and a Sheraton I mean just all this transformation that goes
on in Redding whenever I come here and so so we were on our flight we got in on
Saturday night and and so it's all economy class is just one class there's no
so but we're sitting up front and and so the airline attendant gets on the
intercom that says we're too top-heavy in the front we need just one person to
sit in the last row in the back no one's moving
Sue and I are in the second row we look at the people and no one wants to move because if you
know anything about flying its bumpy in the back
alright so smoother up front and it's bump in the back but without any
hesitation i said i'll do it and when i raised my hand i said i'll do it you
should see the joy on the flight attendants face
she was happy that someone volunteered that she didn't have to be a mean person and
just pick someone to go send them back and of course the others were at peace because
someone else had volunteer was it wasn't them and I was just thinking just
doing one little thing that's right brings peace and joy to those
around you it's a small illustration but to me is the small things that we do
that reform society is not the major things it's really having a reformers
mind as is having this kind of Kingdom thinking where your Kingdom minded and
Kingdom heartedr talking about flights I don't know about you when I go on the
airplane you know the bathrooms are absolutely trashed coming to any special
on an intercontinental long distance flight but you know what I do I'd like to clean
up the bathroom for the flight attendant so I cleaned up because I want the
person's gonna get in behind me to have a good bathroom experience come on and
so what I'm doing is I am trying to change my world as the small things that
I do I was in South Africa um two three months ago longer than that it was in
November and you know we're staying at the Intercontinental Hotel and someone
threw a coke bottle right in the landscape beautiful garden in front of
the hotel and so the pastor dropped me off and as we're walking to the lobby to
go in I see this coke bottle and it's just a sore for the eyesight so I walk in
over the boundary and pick up the coke bottle and ah threw it away and he marked
at that I said why would you do that would they have people were gonna walk
and clean up the garden you know later on and to me I feel this is God's
creation and we're to care for God's creation better than anyone else and if
there's a if I could make a difference I don't do it all the time but if I could
make the difference I have some time and it's standing out for me I want to
change my world it's a little things up in life that brings transformation