God is offering you a bigger picture, a grander vision, and more beautiful image of what your life could be. God is giving the eyes of your heart a new way of looking at and understanding what life is all about. It’s your eyes shifted from bitterness and set on God’s merciful and forgiving cross. Your eyes moved from fear and it’s terrible picture of the future and set upon your Father’s never failing love. It’s God displacing pain by overwhelming it with hope so that your eyes are fixed on the Holy Spirit’s presence. God wants His Kingdom to be what you look at, what you live for, what you want most of all. Are you ready to see that bigger vision? Today’s passage is going to show you a glimpse.

My Father is amazing…he’s so incredibly he’s worthy of worship. My Father has a Kingdom. Which means I’m a prince. My prayer isn’t for God to give me what I want…my prayer is for God to bring His Kingdom here…which is way better than what I want…and it’s so much better than what I want that I’ll adore Him when I see how kind and generous and good He is.

Hold onto this idea that you have a Father…who is God…and he’s so amazing and so gracious and so kind that His Kingdom will bring you to grateful tears, to stunned amazement, to overwhelming joy…so much so that you’ll worship Him. That’s how good your Heavenly Father is. Hold onto Him.

My Father is amazing…he’s so incredibly he’s worthy of worship. My Father has a Kingdom. Which means I’m a prince. My prayer isn’t for God to give me what I want…my prayer is for God to bring His Kingdom here…which is way better than what I want…and it’s so much better than what I want that I’ll adore Him when I see how kind and generous and good He is.

Here’s the good news:

You were unclean. You were contaminated. You were filthy and unable to save yourself. And Jesus saved you with his mercy. Jesus found you because he was searching for you because He loves you. Jesus bound up your wounds. He cleansed you with oil. Jesus paid to have you healed.

What did it cost the King of Kings to save and cleanse me, a contaminated rebel? What did it cost the prince of peace to save and heal me, a man dedicated to my own self ambition and vain deceit?

It cost Jesus His life. Jesus was glad to give his life in exchange for me, in exchange for you. That’s how much love Jesus has for you, for me. Jesus gives You mercy...Jesus pays the price of your justice...because Jesus loves you.

Do you know what noble means? The greek word is kalos. It means beautiful and genuine. Other translations use this word: honest.

A noble heart is an honest heart. That’s the kind of heart which can receive God’s Word and God’s Kingdom. A noble heart, an honest heart, a genuine heart, that’s the kind of heart the will produce such an amazing crop in God’s Kingdom…a hundred fold.

That’s your heart. You are noble. You are genuine. You are honest. That’s who you are. You don’t have to try to be that way. The Holy Spirit has given you this gift. It’s your inheritance. Live in it this week. Cry tears of sorrow and gratefulness and love. Adore your Savior. Speak the truth over your heart and your children’s hearts. When your friend is wounded by a lie, lift them up and speak the truth over them in love.

You live in God’s Kingdom now.

Here is the question I want us to consider today: What does Jesus believe about our Heavenly Father…what does Jesus believe about the Holy Spirit….what does Jesus believe about our Heavenly Father’s kingdom…that has Jesus acting so different? I want to help us understand the stories found in Luke, but I want to dig deeper. I want us to understand what Jesus believed so that we can believe like Jesus and then act like Jesus. Because the most shocking part of the Jesus story comes when he starts inviting these rag tag group of men and women (that’s us) to start believing and start practicing the Kingdom of God…and that’s when everything changes. Again… What does Jesus believe about our Heavenly Father…what does Jesus believe about the Holy Spirit….what does Jesus believe about our Heavenly Father’s kingdom…that has Jesus acting so different?

Luke is going to talk a lot about the Kingdom of God. Luke is going to talk a lot about the Holy Spirit? Why? Because Luke wants us to see what he sees. Luke wasn’t one of the 12 disciples. Luke was best friends with Paul, traveling with Paul on several of his journeys. Luke kept on having the same peculiar experience: every time a person started to trust Jesus, the Holy Spirit would descend and God-things started to happen. After a while, Luke noticed the same God-things kept on happening…people got healed, people repented, people forgave, prayer exploded, worship was ignited…and the light bulb went off for Luke: these God-things…this is what Jesus was talking about when he talked about ‘the Kingdom of God’. The Kingdom of God is like…it’s like a God town…this Jesus city…this place which belongs to God…in which God keeps on doing the God-things and then invites us to join him in those God-things.

So Luke will teach us, if we’re willing to learn, about who Jesus is and that we can trust him. We’ll learn about God’s Kingdom and how we can live in it. We’ll learn about what our Heavenly Father is really like. And if you allow him, the Holy Spirit will change your life if you start practicing…start living…from the truth of who you actually are in Christ. Are you ready?

Jesus ministers to both Paul and Peter—two people who could have based their life either on their failures or great successes. Jesus asks them to focus on Him, not their past, as they move forward into their future.