Well, it's already been said, the title I'm speaking on this afternoon is, Seek First the Kingdom of God. And it's vital to realize what an important place the understanding, the instruction of the mind has in the way we live our Christian lives. Many times the battles we face and the things we need to go through or do go through The only way that that's possible, which is how God's grace works, is because our minds have been instructed and thus we can understand the circumstances we are facing. When I was a little child, maybe around five years old, my parents once said to us one night, guys, we are going to Four Lakes tonight. I had no idea what four legs was. My brother didn't. They said, well, you got to get ready for it. So we rushed through the bathing process. We got dressed in our best clothes that we could put on and we presented ourselves. My parents said, no, four legs is bad. I don't recommend you play that trick on your children. But this is the thing that I want to point out. Our perception of what Four Legs was, was very different to my parents. But we had this image, we had this idea and we were going to do this. We were going there and we were excited to go to Four Legs, whatever that was. And many people are seeking the kingdom. But they're seeking a kingdom that has been created in their own imagination, just like we had created what Four Legs would be like. The fundamental question is, how do you know? And obviously, as we've heard time and time again this weekend, the only source to show you what is the truth, and it's not tradition, is the Word of God. It's not what our Traditions have told us, it's not what we've pictured in our mind for a long time. It's not how most people think about it. It is what is God's word revealed to us about this kingdom that we are supposed to be seeking. Seek ye first the kingdom. If you don't know where to begin seeking this thing, how do you even start on this process, on this journey? The kingdom of God or heaven, as Matthew often uses the term, which is just the same as saying the kingdom of God. has to do with the reign or the rule of God being manifested in the affairs of life. And this manifestation is primarily through the words and the deeds of His people. They manifest the Kingdom by doing God's will. So, when you think Kingdom, you must think about a way of life lived in submission to God's rule, in submission to the King. It's His will being manifested. A life of faith and practice. To oppose God's rule is to oppose His kingdom. To abide to His rule by faith is to advance His kingdom. It is to be in His kingdom. It is to manifest His kingdom. In other words, that is the kingdom. When you think about the kingdom, think about it as a way of life, as a manifestation of the rule of God through my life and through anything else around me. That is the kingdom. It's God's rule. The kingdom doesn't come with great outward show, but is within. It's a changed life, a life that's living in submission to the authority of God. And thus, we also enter into the blessing of God. Kingdom life speaks of eternal life, which is both present and future. We enter into the kingdom and we start living this life both now and it will continue on into all eternity. To be in the kingdom is to experience in time something of eternity. The kingdom has to do with God's divine order and rule being proclaimed, manifested and experienced. So kingdom living is extremely dusty as we've been talking about. Though often people turn it into a mystical thing, an otherworldly kind of experience. To seek first the kingdom is to pursue a way of living in this life that is conformed to the whole of God's counsel, which includes submitting to God's revelation about what living in the kingdom entails. The kingdom has to do with the way of life lived in submission to His rule. It touches time and it touches eternity, as well as all the physical aspects and the spiritual aspects of our being and existence. It touches it all. It's all-encompassing. The kingdom is extremely practical and relevant to what God has called us to do on this earth. Too many times, as we look into the mystical distance to see the kingdom, when I picture the kingdom like this, I'm waiting for God's kingdom to materialize. I'm waiting for these things. Yes, there's a full culmination and thing that we are looking to. But we need to realize we are dwelling in the midst of the kingdom today. And so how do we go about seeking that and living in terms of it? What does it look like and what am I to expect when I'm living in terms of God's rule? Because to have the wrong view about these things, to have the wrong expectation undermines our ability to persevere. If you're not sure what you're persevering in, it's very difficult to persevere. If your perception of the Kingdom is mystical, if it's undefined feelings or experiences, then how do you set about attaining the Kingdom or experiencing what it means to live in it? It will be very different to the person who believes that the Kingdom entails very practical down-to-earth activities and manifestations. When Christ commands us, seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven, He's talking to us and calling our attention to become very dusty, very practical in the now. not for something that's way off in the future, although we look for that city that is our great hope and heritage. The Pharisees in Jesus' day were looking for a grand manifestation of the Messianic Kingdom. They wanted to see something great. Jesus pointed to something much closer and far from the wow experience that they were looking for. In Luke 17, verses 20 and 21, We read, now when he was asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, he answered and said, the Kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, see here or see there, for indeed the Kingdom of God is within you. A changed life, a life that is brought into subjection to the King, a manifestation of obedience to his every word, that's the Kingdom. Kingdom being manifested, God's rule being demonstrated to all those around, as they see the fragrance of Christ revealed through your life. Doing the whole will of God for His glory, self-sacrificially bowing to the law word of the King. We are exhorted in Matthew 6.33 to seek first the Kingdom of God, because our tendency is to first seek what is best for ourselves. What we ought to seek first is that which would best glorify our King. and what would be best for others. That's the responsibility we have. When Solomon was made king, he was overwhelmed with the responsibility of exalting God's kingdom. How do I rule such a mighty people? That's what filled his heart. How can I be the man of God that I should be? And thus he cried out to the Lord for particular things that would advance the kingdom. And God said to him, ask what you shall, and I will give to you. You need to put yourself in Solomon's position. Imagine a blank check. Ask what you want, Solomon. I know you need things, and you're expressing this desire. Ask what you want, and I will give it. Put yourself in that position. God gives you this checkbook, just with his signature on the bottom line. Whatever you want, fill in the blank. It's yours. That's what Solomon had in his hands. He's been given the position. He's not striving to become king now. He's king. And God says, ask what you want. It's yours. Solomon asks for the ability to judge the people with justice. These people need justice. They need righteousness. And I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to communicate it. We can feel like that as fathers. I don't know how. I don't know how to do this job. In the speech we read in 1 Kings 3 10-14, the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. Then God said to him, because you have asked this thing and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to the words See, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before, nor shall any like you arise after you. And I also have given you what you have not asked, both riches and honour, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. So if you walk in my ways to keep my statutes and my commandments as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days. You see, is God's kingdom concerned about justice? You better believe it. Extremely concerned in every sphere of life. From God, who alone can reveal what justice looks like, Solomon turns to Him. Solomon desperately sought God's revelation about justice and regarded his own wisdom as nothing. He says, I am like a little child, Lord. I do not know how to apply these principles, these truths to these people. What was best for the children of Israel? What was best for them was true justice. True justice. That's what seeking the kingdom was for Solomon at that time. Seeking true justice in his area of authority and responsibility. How can I know what that is? And God explained what that was. gave him great wisdom, great revelation. But Solomon's request was not mystical. His desire for the kingdom was not floating up above the ground and untouching of it. It was very practical and down to earth. I need to be able to rule in the midst of my circumstances. So that even prostitutes could receive justice at his hand. If you remember the story of the two mothers who, one of the babies died and the other one baby was alive and they had this squabble as to who owned this baby and they brought it to Solomon and he would rule with justice and wisdom in their case so that justice was served. The constant temptation for us is to make the kingdom of God mystical and self-serving. That is to turn its focus upon ourselves. But we see time and again that it has to do with selflessly serving the needs of others in a way that God exalts in a way that exalts God's name. That's what it's about. When somebody says to you, what's the kingdom? Well, it's serving the needs of others in a way that exalts God's name. It's manifesting God's rule and God's truth and God's justice and God's wisdom to these other people. Benefiting them, advancing their cause and their position. Not merely starting off well either, but persevering in doing this. continuing day in and day out along this path of self-sacrifice for the benefit of others. So the kingdom is not about personal gain or personal glory, but about advancing Christ's rule. Which means having the mindset of John the Baptist who said, he must increase and I must decrease in John 3 and verse 30. Or having the mindset of Job who said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. That's the kingdom. This is what it's about. This is why we exist. The advancing of the kingdom. We're embracing Paul's view, who said, I've learned to be content in whatever state I find myself. Why? Because there's kingdom work to be done. I've got to pursue that first. That's on my focus. That's the agenda. That's the only thing that I need to have my attention poured out upon. This is understanding how the kingdom advances. and then trusting God's sovereign working in the details. It's trusting that God's ways are best and it's believing that he who loses his life shall find it. It's doing God's will, not for riches or glory, but because exalting God's rule is manifesting his kingdom. To seek first the kingdom, not the outcome that we desire, but the kingdom. That is to exalt the king's rule, his way, his self-sacrifice. On January the 17th, 1912, Five men reached the South Pole believing they were the first people there. They were not. They had been beaten by something like five weeks by somebody else who had reached the South Pole before them. Captain Scott and his team then began their long and painful journey back. Captain Scott said in his diary that day he discovered that somebody else had beaten him there. He said, this is the worst place on earth. You can just read the despondency in his heart. But they started out on their return journey and one of their members fell and died, not long after setting them back on their trip home. They were all struggling with the freezing conditions. There was a Captain Oates in the group and by March the 16th he was barely able to walk. He was slowing the whole team down and so you probably know the story. He told them, I'm just going outside for a while. I might be a long time. And he walked out into the blizzard and the snow was blowing. They were housed up in their little tents and struggling with all their problems and complaints. And he just walked out and lost himself in the wilderness. I personally, you might disagree with me and you're welcome to do that. But I personally think that Captain Oates demonstrated the principle of Greater love hath no man than a man lay down his life for his friends. He knew his friends were on the brink. And he was incapable of continuing. And they would have stayed with him. They would have tried to carry him. They were incapable of carrying themselves hardly. And so he made that decision. We won't go into the details. But you're welcome to disagree if you think I've gone outside the parameters there. But anyway, let's move on. What Captain Oates did, I believe, was self-sacrificial. And we only know about what he did because Captain Scott wrote about it in his diary and when they found, because Captain Scott and his men, as they continued this journey, they in fact died a few miles short of a base camp that they had set up. And they all perished. And I think it was six months later their bodies were found and next to Captain Scott's body who he was the last one to die, was this diary that talked about Captain Oates. And so that's how we know what Captain Oates did, otherwise we would have no knowledge of it. But this is my point. My point is we are to live for the glory and the advancing of the kingdom whether people ever know about it or not. That's the challenge. It's not about being recognized, being known about. And thus, in the light of that, I want to suggest something. We have no historical evidence for it, but this is my point. I want to illustrate something. Scott made his last diary entry on March the 29th, 1912. He probably died that day or very shortly after that. 29th of March, 1912. The Titanic sunk on April the 14th, 1912. Some two weeks later. Now I suggest to you that on the Titanic, as it was going down amongst the 1,517 people who perished on that ship, that there were acts of self-sacrificial service done to other passengers that were about to die as well. And people were sacrificing themselves for others and both were going to perish in a short time and thus nobody would ever know about the self-sacrifice that one was doing to the other. And that must be the understanding in our own minds when it comes to sacrificing self. Sacrificing for the Kingdom. It's not about being known about. It's not about being seen. It's about the principle. This is Kingdom living. I'm going to manifest in this situation, at this time, the rule of Christ. Because He is King and I want to manifest His Kingdom. And doing these things, serving in this way. That must be what guides us and has our attention focused. Any deed done According to these principles is kingdom work. It is advancing the kingdom. It is seeking the kingdom. Thus I exhort you to truly seek the kingdom of God and may you do it with this mindset of wanting to manifest the rule of God even in the most hidden corner or area of life. The motivation for sacrificing self is to exalt God's rule and bless others. We are not to have one eye upon recognition or personal gain or favorable outcome for ourselves. That's not what must motivate us. And we need to die to that. We need to ask the Lord to completely remove that from our hearts as we pour ourselves into truly sacrificing for others. Our focus and motivation ought to be kingdom rule, which means our sacrifice is made because that is what the King has commanded, because that is what exalts His name. To sacrifice self for the benefit of someone else in icy waters and pitch darkness is to understand the exhortation to seek first the kingdom of God. I can do nothing else. First means first and it means whatever the hand finds to do, to do it for the kingdom. Whatever, wherever. As Colossians 3.17 says, And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. That's what seeking first the Kingdom of God looks like in dusty terms. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look not out for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you. which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." Philippians 2, verses 3-8. It's very humbling, is it not, when you see how selfish and ineffective we can be. However, to realize this is part of God's solution. It's part of bringing it to our attention. I am selfish. I must not be selfish because this is not what the King expects of me. His light is meant to show us what we are really like so that in desperation we will cast ourselves upon Him and be broken. We are to cry out to Him to supply all that we need to live our lives for His glory. He has promised in His grace and by the power of His Spirit to make us into the people we ought to be. And we must flee to Him and trust His promises. This fleeing to Him is also very dusty and practical. It's acknowledging our own inability and receiving from the Lord His ability. The dynamic of the Spirit's work is very real and needs to be understood and rested in. Unless the Lord does this work, we will fail. And this is as true for our sanctification as it is for our justification. The Lord has to do it and we need to cast our hearts upon Him and realize this moment by moment. We are a needy race. The great prophet Elijah was in need of special ministry and provision of God in order for him to continue to persevere in doing the Lord's work, to keep seeking the Kingdom. We read about that in 1 Kings 19. It was only by God's grace that he was able to continue seeking first the Kingdom of God. The Spirit ministered to him. Even Jesus on at least two different occasions manifest the same principle to us. In his humanity he manifested to us. Needing special strengthening from his Father in order to do his Father's will. After the temptations in the wilderness in Matthew 4 and verse 11, we see that he received the special ministry of angels. And then, before the crucifixion in the garden, where angels appeared and ministered to him in Luke 22 and verse 43, he had the special ministry coming to him. And we see from these the need, how desperately we are in need of God's enabling and ability. The glory of Messiah's kingdom is about weak humans sacrificing themselves by God's enabling. We will accomplish this, and He will accomplish this by His zeal. This is what it's about. This is the glory, this is the manifestation. This is, as He proclaims His name and as heaven looks on in awe and wonder, He says, you see this bunch of rabble down there? This is what the Lord is using. Do you see the glorious kingdom He is building? Do you see the gates of hell are trembling and being overcome by this glorious people? Because the zeal of the Lord of Hosts is going to accomplish this. This is what He has called us to, but at the same time we need to understand what that looks like. As we read in Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 7, of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom. To order it and establish it with judgment and justice from this time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this or perform this. God promises great blessing to us in this life when we seek to exalt Christ's rule. He tells us that in Mark chapter 10 verses 29 and 30. Verses exhort us to persevere in sacrificing for the kingdom and show that self-sacrifice has rich blessings connected to it if we have eyes to see. So Jesus answered and said, assuredly I say to you there is not one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the Gospels, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life." That's very now-centered, very present-oriented. That's what God says, I will bless you now. When we sacrifice for the Kingdom, we will reap great bounty in this life, even if we find ourselves in the midst of persecution, this verse says. Vital to persevering is realizing that our focus is not to be upon a false view of this life, but upon that which is eternal and cannot be moved, something that is eternal in the heavens. False views and expectations for this life are a great hindrance to persevering, because people become despondent when life doesn't shape up in the way that they might have anticipated. Much discouragement results from misunderstanding how the kingdom functions and looks. And we can have these wrong perceptions about the kingdom and wrong expectations of what life should deal for us, deal up to us. And when we have those, we are hindered and tripped up in our walk. How much discouragement comes about because people misunderstand the basic fact that the first shall be last and the last first. Many grow weary and fall away. When people hear that they will receive a hundredfold, as Mark says in chapter 10 here, you know, to receive a hundredfold, they usually place themselves at the center and start to make a list and see their pockets bulging and they see their houses and things expanding in a very earthy sense. That's what Jesus is talking about in that passage. A hundredfold increase is not meant to turn the focus upon ourselves, but just the opposite, to get our focus off ourselves and onto the nature of the Kingdom. Christ wants our eyes to be opened. Well, what is the Kingdom? What does He mean? That I will receive all these children and houses and mothers and fathers. What does He mean? He's saying, can you see the Kingdom? Can you see what the Kingdom looks like? Can you see what its emphasis is? Where its focus is? It's meant to lift our eyes off ourselves and onto the reality of God's kingdom that touches all things. It shows us that the kingdom makes all believers into one body. Our thinking about the kingdom work needs to be renewed if we are going to see the connection Mark makes between blood relations and spirit relations. For he says we will lose blood relations, we're going to lose these physical things, we're going to lose these kinds of things, but on this side it's going to be multiplied. Kingdom things that are of the same nature. The connection should alert us to what the issues really are and where the focus ought to be in both our blood and our spirit relations. Because usually our perception of our blood relations, our close family relationships, is governed by our emotions and a mere emphasis. Many people want children because somehow they get some satisfaction out of having children. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being satisfied, I'm very satisfied with having children and there is a satisfaction, but that's not my motivation for having children. It must not be me focused in this. That which makes us comfortable. The kind of relationships I'm prepared to sacrifice and give to is those ones that I can see the benefit in myself, I can see the comfort level or I enjoy this. I can personally experience this. But this is not to be the focus. The focus of our blood relationships is not our comfort or pleasure, but God's kingdom advancement. Every relationship we have is for the advancement of the kingdom. And if we approach those relationships like that, we immediately understand what Mark 10 is talking about. So thus our focus with respect to our children is not upon our sense of contentment and completion in having children, but rather ought to be upon equipping them to be effective warriors in God's battles. That's the focus. Kingdom. So this is all about kingdom. Thus it's toward that goal that our energy is to be spent, so that these verses truly honour the Lord. That's the biblical focus. And our blood relationships, that's what our focus is meant to be. And if that's kept in mind, we can understand what Mark is talking about. You see, it's possible for your children to be multiplied 100-fold if the goal is equipping of children to be effective warriors. If you sacrifice unto this end, for example, when you sacrifice in order to minister into the life of another father, and he in turn then ministers into his family and into his children, can you see the kingdom impact? when you're impacting into each other's lives, and you see, you have eyes to see what the kingdom looks like, you can see the connection, we are related, we are connected, we are assisting, we are encouraging, we are building up each other, and this is the kingdom that is being built up, it is being advanced, and thus we sacrifice toward that end. When the cause of Christ is central to all that people do, then anything that advances Christ's cause benefits those who are focused upon the kingdom. They reap the reward spiritually through Christ, through being in his kingdom, through being joined to his one family. And so it turns our eyes upon the kingdom. Or we can contribute, it doesn't matter who sees it. If we're contributing into the kingdom, if we're pouring our lives into it, we are reaping this benefit. And then we can sacrifice ourselves unto this end. You see, the kingdom is much bigger than us. And it's vital to have a correct perspective of the kingdom if you're going to be able to persevere in doing the Lord's will. J.B. Phillips wrote a book called, Your God is Too Small. It might be necessary in our days to write a book called, Your Kingdom is Too Small. Too narrow, too limited upon spiritual aspects or just upon a very small area of life as opposed to the whole of life is the kingdom. where God is working and building and constructing and calling us to labour in. We have looked at some ideas and perspectives that hinder us from seeking first the Kingdom, that hinder us from persevering in Kingdom work. We can have wrong ideas about what the Kingdom is or what to expect, about what our focus should be, and it's important to have those ideas corrected. But there's another area that I'd like to look at. I want to look at another issue that is very important in persevering. And this has to do with not becoming discouraged by difficulties in the kingdom and opposition to it. There is going to be opposition. We're going to face opposition time and time again, but we must not become discouraged by the opposition. It's important to realize that doing the Lord's will might not be comfortable. It might be scary and even life-threatening. To have a wrong perspective of what life in the kingdom is meant to be will derail your ability to endure hardness and set your face like a flint to the task ahead. To have a misunderstanding about what emotions are going inside you when you set your face like a flint to accomplish a task. If you don't realize this, those emotions swirling around inside you are going to derail you. if you do not understand them. You see, we've got to fight these battles in ourselves and with respect to our own fears and our own apprehensions. We've got to fight it with the understanding of the Kingdom and knowledge. We understand with the Word of God and what the Kingdom actually looks like, what the dynamics actually are. And when we're armed with that, we can face these issues and when we're in the midst of them, we can push through them. There are many dynamics that need to be confronted and dealt with, with persevering to do the Lord's will. your own emotions, your own fears, lack of support from others you might expect to give support to you. Where is their backup? Jesus experienced that. Where are these guys that were going to pray for me just one hour? In my most darkest hour, I'm asking them, just stand with me, please brethren, pray for me. Jesus wasn't just throwing out a hypothetical irrelevant thing. He knew the significance of prayer. He wanted their support. He wanted their help in this thing. They failed him. They denied him. They fled from him. He expected support from them. We need to understand these things as we persevere, as we keep our eyes focused upon the kingdom and say, no, this is where I've set my eyes and this is where I have to go and I cannot be distracted and deflected by these other things around me. It cannot be deflected by people exhorting you not to go ahead with it, Peter exhorting Jesus, do not go there. He was off to die, Jesus was, and Peter is rebuking him, saying this cannot be. Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, led by the Lord, and the disciples that met him are pleading with him, please don't go there, don't go back to Jerusalem. Weeping upon him, holding him, and he's saying, you're going to break my heart, brethren. But this is what I have to do. This is the kingdom. I've got to stay focused. I've got to persevere. So there are many distractions that can come in, the nicest guises. Threats from the enemy. All these things are very real. If we're going to fight real kingdom battles in our generation, we need to know how to confront all of these things and overcome, how to persevere through them all. Have our eyes focused on seeking first the kingdom of God. Fear is very real. And young men, you need to hear this. Old men as well. But young men, you need to realize this. Fear is something that's very real. And you must not imagine that kingdom work knows nothing of fear. There is a fear that leads to unbelief and that is sin. But there is also a fear that is natural to a lot of men. There's a great line from a movie by John Wayne. So this is authoritative. But it's a very good picture of what courage is. And he's going into battle with this young man. And this young man is overcome with fear. He's very scared. And he turns to John Wayne, the old, rugged, hardened warrior. And he asks him, are you not afraid? And John Wayne says this. He says, courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. You need to know that. You need to know that that's what it feels like. That's what it is in the midst of traumatic situations. You feel the emotions. It's very real. It's very tangible. And it must not deflect you from what you know is right, the principle that you're aiming at of seeking the kingdom and persevering. You need to know about courage and perseverance. It's not romantic. It's earthy and it's dusty. Our calling is not about comfort but about being men and sacrificing self for the sake of Christ's kingdom. The fear that is wrong is the fear that causes us to act contrary to God's command, to compromise His word, to lose faith and lose hope. That is the wrong fear. But the fear that God gives us, not gives us, but the fear that we come across in our lives doing His will, that is real, that's there, it's something that we deal with, it's something that we understand and we put it in its place according to the truth. Jesus feared the horror and the wrath of God's judgment. He feared. And He pleaded, God, if it be possible, let this cup remove from Me. but not my will, but thine be done." And God says, well, the cap's not going to be removed. And Jesus continued. That's what courage is. Fear is natural and must be brought into subjection to God's will. I've known such fear. And I want to tell you a personal testimony, and forgive me if it's inappropriate, for talking about myself in this way. It's not in any sense to exalt myself at all, but it is to show the dynamics. If anything, it's going to show you that I'm not the great hero that maybe I might want to be. But in Zimbabwe, in the context in that nation, there was in great turmoil with a tyrant of a president who was going to stop at nothing to remain in power and hold on to political control in order to prevent himself from being brought before the Hague for his genocides and crimes that he's committed against humanity for the last 20 years. This was up until the point I'm talking about. He has set about a massive campaign of terror throughout the country. Intimidation, torture and murder. killing many people, destroying them, they're disappearing, and just sending fear through every heart in that nation. I was meeting at the time with a number of church leaders in our province, and we were talking about these issues, and everybody had personal stories about the horrors in their congregation of what happened to somebody, and all were talking about it, and we were saying, well, what do we do? As a church, what is our responsibility? As a nation, it's a nation that professes 73% Christians. That's what they profess. And most of that is not Roman Catholic. Most of that is Pentecostal charismatic kind of persuasion. That's the majority. But there is true born-again people in that nation. So they decided, the church leader said, well, we need to make a statement so that people know where we stand, you know, what is the truth in this situation. And so we met, I was asked, would you draft a letter? And we were on this committee and there must have been something like 80 hours of meetings and discussions. And I drafted this letter and brought the letter. I drafted two letters because I knew the one was a bit stronger than the other. And the first letter I presented was on the table for literally a minute and it was gone. So I produced the second letter, not wanting the meetings to stall at that stage. I said, OK, well there's a second letter that we could draft together and we could all sign as the leaders of the church. There was many pastors there. We were representing the whole church in that province. So they watered down the second letter down and down, and I was still prepared to go along with it. a conclusion, I mean an agreed upon letter that we said okay we can send this letter but before we send it we're going to meet with the governor of the province and just find out what's going on. So a delegation was assigned to meet with the governor and the governor informed us that no all these atrocities was just really a figment of the imagination or it was the opposition doing these atrocities. She was just lying, blatantly lying. She said I'll give you my phone number. If you have any problems, just call me and I will sort out the issues. So we met as a group of ministers again, afterwards by ourselves, and we decided, what do we do now? Do we submit this letter? And the consensus was, no, we will not submit the letter because the governor is going to personally look into it. And they asked me what my opinion was, and I said, well, that would be like Goebbels telling us he's going to personally look into the Jews being rounded up by Hitler. It didn't carry any weight, unfortunately. So it was decided not to send the letter. So I went back to my original letter, the first letter I drafted, and I worked on that some more. In my heart was an overwhelming conviction by the Spirit that I could not remain silent in this context for the sake of Christ's name. If no voice is brought forth as to what is Christ's message in this, what do we hear from Christ in this context? I could not endure that, the pressure on me of not being speaking up in a way that would dishonor the head of the church. So I drafted my letter. I explained to the president, it was an open letter I wrote to him. I said he was unfit for office according to scripture and I listed the scriptures and told him why he was unfit for office. I sought counsel. from close people. I ministered to my wife, got her on board to stand with me on this thing, received counsel from others. From one counselor in particular who's known as a really rugged missionary, he pleaded with me not to send the letter. And how's the turmoil? He's begging me, do not send that letter. And eventually I persuaded him that there's absolutely no way they could not send that letter. Then he said, please don't write your name on it. I said, I have to write my name on the letter. Because if my name is not on the letter, it's an anonymous statement. I said, this has to be a stand that is made by a Christian person in the name of Christ for his kingdom. It was a big moment when I had these letters all together. Because it was an open letter, I was sending it further afield than to the president himself. But standing before that letterbox, this was knowing this turmoil. What was about to be unleashed in my life? As I was going to drop these, I could pull back at this point. It's one of those, you know, leaning forward towards the letterbox, ready to drop. There's no going back once I release them. Not knowing what kind of response would come. Could be the legal response, where they would arrest you and put you in jail. Could be the secret police response, where they pick you up and you disappear. It could be the accident response, where a car accident is planned and you somehow have an accident and you're killed in this car accident mysteriously. It could be a robbery response, where they get the thugs to come into your home or to your office, wherever you are, to rob you and in the process you get killed. There's all the possibilities and scenarios that were regularly used. So I dropped the letters into the letterbox with this turmoil going on inside. I was very afraid. I was unaware of what the future held. My wife, who is a godly woman, she tells a story afterwards how at that point she prepared for widowhood. and got her focus on, OK, this is what I got to do in this situation. We called our children around us and we said, we gave them the best case scenario, which was, I would go to jail. But even explaining that to them and trying to communicate it to their minds, it was a great emotional time. And then you're waiting. What's going to happen? You're looking over your shoulder. Every turn you make, When you're coming back to your house at night from working, you're looking around at the possible hiding places and you're jumpy and you're wondering, okay, there's nobody hiding there. And I would have a strategy when I pull into my driveway, because you'd have your gate locked, that was just procedure. Pull into my driveway, I'd switch the lights off and I'd be out the car quickly and then I would have my knife. This was my faithful friend and he would be out. And the engine's off and it's quiet. I'd hope to hear, if someone was charging me from some hiding place, I would hear, I'd at least have a chance. I wasn't going down cheaply. But there's fear. You're on edge, you're tense. I'm still waiting. Still waiting. Silent. I went to the next pastor's meeting and one man said something to me. Everybody else just ignored. I'd send them all letters. And the one man who spoke to me, he said, I didn't expect to see you again. I could count on my hand the amount of pastors that responded to me and said, we appreciate what you did. There was no support. There was no rallying around and encouragement. There was external support. I received this letter, took on a life of its own and went all around the world and received many emails from around the world, but as far as locally, it was very limited. I'm still watching and waiting. I remember one morning, this diesel van pulled up into our driveway. We couldn't see, there was a wall in the way and we couldn't see. All we could hear was the diesel engine and I could see a part of the number plate which was just white. which was the secret police number plate and they drove these diesel twin cab vehicles and my heart was beating and I prepared. I knew what I had to do at that stage was to put on the set of warmest clothes I had because that's what I'd end up in for who knows how long. So I started to get dressed in my outfit that I knew was the best outfit to serve me. Elise knew what she had to do and was going about her business It was a false alarm. I turned out to be a visiting missionary friend from South Africa. But once again, the emphasis is the fear, the apprehension, the doubt. Am I doing the right thing? I've done it. There's no going back. Should I have done it? And what about my family? Someone asked me to go and get some money for them up in the mountains by our house. So I took my family up there to fetch this money for him. And then coming back with this pile of money that I gathered because the inflation rate was so much, you're carrying wheelbarrows of money around. My sister-in-law came racing past us on the road and flagging me to stop. So we pulled onto the side of the road and we had picked up just a strange man on the road, giving him a ride. He needed a ride into town. And he was sitting in the back of the car, so I walked across to my sister-in-law's car and said, what's up? She said, they're coming. We got a call from a pastor friend who the police were going to arrest him because he just had a copy of this letter in his office. And they said, no, they're coming now for me. So she was coming to warn me. And there's a huge roadblock at the bottom of the road. My heart again was in huge turmoil. So I got back in the car and said, OK, well, we've just got to face what we're going to face. And we've got this strange man in the back, and I've got contraband information and tracks and letters that I've written in my glove compartment. And I'm signaling to Elise, to quietly, so this man in the back doesn't see what we're doing, to grab that stuff and crumple it up and toss it clandestinely out the car window, just so there's no evidence when we arrive at the roadblock that we were coming up to. And the roadblock, when we arrived, I thought, well, this is definitely it, because there was military, and there was police, and there was plain clothes. That's the worst picture. They thoroughly searched our car, and for some reason they waved us on. It was only some days later that I was taken in for questioning. And God's grace and mercy was such that, as I sat there in this office with these three men, The peace was overwhelming. At that stage, I knew God's incredible peace. And you go between the peace and the fear. And it waves and blows in and out of your life in ways. But at certain times, you're just overwhelmed by the incredible peace. And you say, you know, I'm in His hands. And these men questioned me about that letter. And then they said to me, they wouldn't answer, they wouldn't mention His name, the President. They said, did you send a copy of your letter to the addressee? I said, I did. And they said, and have you had a response? I said, I have. And I produced a photocopy of the letter the president's office had sent back to me. A polite letter, but basically telling me to stop saying such things. And I produced it to this man, and he was shocked. And he immediately stood up, the one of them, and went out of the office. And I was left with these other two men, and they put on this numb, dulling rock music and I sat there for the next half an hour being bombarded with that. This other man had gone away and he was gone for 30 minutes and then came back and all I can imagine is that he went to speak to the secret police, the president's office and when he came back, for the first time he addressed me as Mr. Carlson and he said, Mr. Carlson, thank you, that's all, we'll contact you if we need you. You may go. Whereas prior to that he had just said, we're about to charge you, you're going to jail. Why God did that I have no understanding. Because God in His sovereign purposes determined that this particular outcome would be that they back down for no justifiable reason other than I think their political evaluation of the situation was I was bigger than they really realized. They thought I was bigger than I truly was. God's ways are unquestionable. And the emphasis of me telling you that story is to know the turmoil and the trauma of doing things that receive opposition or don't receive support. It's not just like we get a false impression when we look at somebody doing something and we think that all inside is just calm and at peace. God's ways can be very tumultuous in a sense and we feel that fear at times, but we keep going and we keep persevering. God's ways are unquestionable and whatever He determines is best. He calls us to be faithful and persevere along the path that He has called us to walk along for His glory. We must not be looking for our efforts to be greeted with magnificent fireworks that light up the sky and dazzle people. Many people look upon you and they say, you are a fool. I had many people telling me that to my face. What has got into your head? For the most part our works will be quiet, they will be ordinary. And the majority of the father's business is of this type, faithfully doing what the king has commanded and leaving the outcome in his hands, letting him do with our works whatever his wisdom sees fit. The just must live by faith in the fact that God is working all things for his glory and for our good. The truth is we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. We are told that unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it won't bear much fruit. We have such opposite accounts, where, for example, Peter is released from prison, and James, the brother of John, is killed. The same chapter of Acts, chapter 12, that's what happens. God releases one, the other one dies. Why? It's in God's sovereign purposes. In a different scenario, we see Paul spending many years in prison. Peter, James and Paul were all doing God's will, walking in God's way, seeking to advance His kingdom and all these different outcomes for each of them. And yet each kept their focus and mind on the kingdom and persevering and doing what God had laid before them to do. We persevere by God's bountiful grace. However, one of the means God uses in our perseverance is the truth. That is, our knowing the truth and doing that truth. God's truth commands that whatsoever your hand finds to do, we do it with our might. It tells us that godliness with contentment is great gain. So may the Lord help us to humbly bow and quickly bow to His sovereign ordering of what He deems to be best to glorify Him. We are to give ourselves without reservation to this end. Doing God's kingdom work doesn't mean we will not have our fears, we will not have our doubts, we will not have our oppositions and our criticisms and our dangers. We will have those things. But what pursuing God's kingdom does have is a deep conviction and assurance and hope and joy and faith. And these are the things that sustain. The confidence that indeed God's kingdom is being exalted. At times, these negatives and positives will flow in and out and around one another. But don't let that distract you from doing what God has said. His Word is true and it's sure. And we know what His Word has said. And once again, we come back to the rope illustration. We hold on to that, no matter what's swirling around us. We stay focused and we stay committed to that Kingdom. We have the King's will revealed to us in great detail. And He has told us to seek this Kingdom first, above all, and before all other things. And He has promised to give us all that we need in order to remain faithful in doing this. Don't be distracted by having the wrong expectations about the Kingdom. Don't turn back. Don't be dismayed by the turbulence of life. Don't be intimidated by the faces of those who hate the King. But rather may you persevere in doing the King's will. Persevere in doing the King's work. Everything else is fool's gold. It's distracting. It's worthless. We have been called to serve the King. Let us pray. Our Lord and God, we do thank you for this high calling. We acknowledge our own great weakness, our own many failings, and our own inability. But Lord, we lift our eyes up to you, to the God who has promised to supply all that we need, the great King who is worthy of all our praise and all our sacrifice. And I pray that by your power you'd work in our lives so that we might lay them down in service of your kingdom. May we give ourselves to this end. May we truly seek first the kingdom of heaven and not seek that which is according to our own imagination, but that which is grounded upon your word. Lord, we know that we cannot do this without you. And thus we cry out for your grace and your enabling. And we pray that you would teach us and instruct us so that we might be effective warriors in your hand. For the glory of your name and for the advancing of your kingdom, from now and throughout all eternity. Amen.