The Israelite people believed that if they had a human king, he would teach them how they were to live for God. The idea that it takes an objective force, outside one's self, is correct, but every human leader has inevitably failed at that endeavor. Human leaders simply cannot fully legislate morality no matter how hard they try. Laws issued by failing governments will not make bad people choose to do good. We need the intervention of the One True King. Someone who can both lead by example and free us when we fail to follow that example.

--Scrub to 12min for the start--

Have you ever felt like you just weren't good enough for God? Many followers of Jesus never accomplish much for the Kingdom because they don't feel like they're good enough for God to use. Maybe it's a medical challenge, a learning struggle, you don't know the Bible cover to cover, or you're new to faith. The difference between you and those you see God doing incredible things through has nothing to do with worth and everything to do with willingness. There are 4 primary characters in Judges chapter 4, 3 were willing, none were really worthy and 1 was just wrong, but all of them will inspire you to stop waiting until you're worthy and focus on being willing.

At a critical time in Israel's history, finally taking possession of the promised-land, the people had a chance to get it right. To follow God and enjoy the benefits of the relational guidelines He'd laid out; you follow only me and I will be your God and bless you and you will be my people, my prized possession. The Hebrews had it made, if only they could have held up their end of the bargain. But instead of responding to God's blessing in faithfulness they were foolish, stubborn and stopped worshiping God alone. That started a cycle that would haunt them for thousands of years. Don't fall prey to their failure.

When you hear statements like, "if you were the only person on earth Jesus would have still gone to the cross for you," it's easy to start thinking you must be pretty special and you are. But that understanding isn't supposed to go to your head. It's supposed to help you understand the GREAT love God has FOR you not get caught up in thinking that God needs you.

Do you view God like Bette Midler or Joan Osborne? Is God too far away, too big and powerful to be intimately involved with His creation? Or is He so close that He's almost stuck in the same ruts as the rest of us? Well, sometimes we act like He's both. He so big He doesn't really care about my little problems or sins and then He's so close that He can't really help. The most prolific song writer in the Bible, David, also wrote a song about God. It's about God's bigness and His smallness and you can see not only God's desire to help but His ability to rescue and David even wrote about the Gospel he didn't even even know about.

People often come to faith in Jesus when they're in trouble and need His help. While God does help us in times of struggle and may rescue us from financial, relational, emotional or other problems, He is not a genie we can simply call on when we need His help and then expect Him to go back in His bottle until the next time we want something. Instead of giving me everything I want, God deserves every I have. It's a difference of position. We must remember who the Sovereign is and who the servant is.

One of the expectations many have about following Jesus is that He will magically begin to bless their lives and give them everything they think they need. Unfortunately most of those "blessings" are simply material things that may make life easier but certainly don't make it better. Some even promise, if you choose Jesus He'll give you that new car, job, house, spouse or lifestyle you believe you deserve. But Jesus never promised that. In fact, He doesn't guarantee the absence of pain from your life, just the promise of presence in your life. In part 1 of Great Expectations we'll look at several people through whom God accomplished incredible things, yet they never received the one thing that was actually promised. In spite of this, they all died with faith in-spite of never receiving their promise.

The Kingdom of God was inaugurated with Jesus coming but it has not yet been consummated. The King is on His throne but He continues to allow creation to govern itself. He has shown us the way So we continue in a broken world. A world of sin and shame and guilt and selfishness, not because God isn't in control, but because He is giving us the freedom to choose. One day we will enter the fulfillment phase of His rule and reign where everyone will see the truth of who God is and some will celebrate it.

No matter how tasty a chocolate, if it's in the trash, covered in banana peels and beer cans and dirty underwear I'm not interested. Sometimes, the Kingdom of God is as confusing to the world as us offering them chocolates under all the garbage of our lives. In effect, we make the Kingdom inaccessible to those around us because of the garbage they have to sift through to get to it. But God is consistently working for Kingdom opportunities in the lives of others, through His Kingdom people. We've got to let Jesus' reign over the Kingdom become our reality by making present the Kingdom of God to the world around us.

Throughout Jesus' ministry He spoke of the Kingdom of God (Heaven). Throughout His mission and ministry He proved the existence of the Kingdom of God, He lived by its rules and He shared what He knew about the Kingdom. In doing so Jesus corrected misunderstandings about the Kingdom, pointed to its reality and function in the world and He prepared His followers for Its full coming. What He began, He will also bring to fulfillment. If you're a part of that Kingdom, He's your King.