Too often as humans, we do not want to do the work - but, we want to reap the benefits.  God has called us to do a mighty work.

Are we working and preparing for the return of Jesus Christ?  Or, when the work is before us - do we turn away? 

Right now, God’s people are in class and in training for the coming Kingdom of God.

Preparing for God’s Kingdom

1.)  Become zealous.  

We cannot fake zeal. 

Zeal shows our expectation of God’s coming Kingdom.

Matt. 13:22

We need to read and meditate on the coming Kingdom of God.  It needs to be very personal to us.  

I Pet 2:5-9 → We are being built up as a spiritual house.  We are a part of that body of the coming Kingdom of God.

We are going to be a royal priesthood.  Are we proclaiming God’s works and praises in our life?  God has called us out of complete darkness.

Matt. 6:10 --.> Your Kingdom come.  This should be a focus in our prayers.

Pray for God’s righteous government to come to this Earth.  Do this on Earth as it is in heaven.  Jesus Christ prayed for this after he gave praise to God.

Are we sick of living around sin in our lives every day?  Or, have we turned a blind eye to it?

If the Kingdom is a treasure, then that is where our heart will be.  We need to be sure that we won’t be caught by surprise when the Kingdom comes.

We need to live our life as if Jesus Christ is returning tomorrow.

We need to be about serving one another.  There are so many ways that we can serve.

We need to grow in righteousness, in faith.  We need to trust in God and Jesus Christ more and more in our life.  We also can grow in love.

Matt. 6:21 → Where is treasure is, your heart will there well.

God warned us about replacing the zeal of the Kingdom for the trivial things in our life.  If the cares of the world become the number one thing, it will choke out our zeal.

2.)  Know Your Role

Role of saints in the Kingdom.

Rev. 5:10 → We shall be kings and priests in His Kingdom.  We will be part of Jesus Christ’s reign on this earth.

Rev. 20:6 → Those who be part of First Resurrection.  They will be priests and reign for 1000 years.  We will be teaching those who don’t understand God’s holy truth.

God’s Law teaches us how to live a happy life.  As teachers of the truth, we need to be studying it every day now.  

David had love for God’s truth.

Psalm 119:97 - How I love the Law.

Psalm 119:27 → Love the Commandments

Heb. 4:12 → As kings and priests, his word will be our foundation.  The word of God is living and powerful.  All of God’s word is inspired by God Himself.

God’s word is awesome, but the path is difficult.  We have to prepare for the difficult moments right now.  A lot of persecution will come upon the church - it is prophesied.  

What is our role in prophecy?

Dan. 7:13-27 → Daniel is seeing things playing out before God’s people. 

4 Kings:

Chaldean:  Nebuchadnezzar
Persian
Greco/Macedonian.
Roman Empire (10 distinct periods) --> Of the ten, nine of already happened.

This fourth world-ruling Kingdom is ferocious.  This last ‘horn’ is more powerful than all of the others.  This last branch of the Roman empire will make war against God’s people.  This will be that 3 ½ year term known as the Great Tribulation.  A remnant will be taken to the place of safety, this will be a very difficult time.

It will all come to a crescendo type battle where Christ will return.  But, until then, we have to work hard - our hand against the plow.

Luke 14:16-24 → The Parable of the Great Supper.  None of the men who have been invited will taste the supper if they haven’t prepared.