{"id":19203,"date":"2017-10-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-023\/"},"modified":"2017-10-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T05:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-023","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-023\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 023"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19203","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-daniel","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 023","sermon_date":"20171018","sermon_month":"10","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":5042,"sermon_slides":5041,"sermon_mp3":5043,"sermon_id":"1018171824533","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"2:44","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Kingdom\n\n9-27-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 13:47-52\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lesson 23\n\nLet\u2019s open our Bibles to the Book of Daniel, I tell you what, let\u2019s not go to the Book of Daniel, you guys are tired of the Book of Daniel, let\u2019s go to the Book of Acts, chapter 5 and verse 14, and then we\u2019re going to go over to Ephesians 5 after that.\u00a0\u00a0 Actually we\u2019re going to be looking at a lot of passages.\u00a0 Good to see everybody tonight.\u00a0 And in the book that I wrote we\u2019re in chapter 11, but the book that I wrote is not the most important thing; the book that God wrote is the most important thing.\u00a0 My book just sort of organizes things a little bit when we study the kingdom.\n\nBut the first major part of this study is what does the Bible say about the kingdom?\u00a0 And if you\u2019ve been tracking along with us we\u2019re already in lesson 23, can you believe that?\u00a0 That\u2019s amazing isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 Some of you are saying not really\u2026 [laughter]\u00a0 We went all the way through the Old Testament to develop the idea of the kingdom and there in number 8 and 9 we saw that the kingdom was offered to the nation of Israel on a silver platter and they rejected the offer.\u00a0 Anybody remember what chapter that took place in?\u00a0 Matthew 12. So the moment that happens is the moment the offer of the kingdom is withdrawn.\u00a0 And thus the Lord, beginning in Matthew 13 begins to describe an interim age of time.\u00a0 What would the world, what would the spiritual course of the world be like when the kingdom is not cancelled but postponed?\n\nTo understand this interim age of time we have to understand two things; number 1, something we\u2019ve already covered, the Matthew 13 parables, eight of them.\u00a0 We went through those.\u00a0 And then the second thing you need to understand is really the time period that concerns us directly and that\u2019s the age of the church.\u00a0 So a lot of people have been wondering what part of this study relates directly to us and the church age is really the age of time that governs us directly.\u00a0 Jesus made a hint of the coming church in Matthew 16:18 where he said, \u201cI will build My church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.\u201d\n\nSo what does this church thing\u2026 it must be something new because he put the building of the church in which tense?\u00a0 Future.\u00a0 So to help us understand the age of the church, which really starts in Acts 2 and goes to the rapture, which is really the program of God while the kingdom is not here, we have to understand the age of the church.\u00a0 So we\u2019re going to be looking at five things related to the church; two things past we looked at last week and three things future.\n\nSo we saw, number 1, the definition of the church.\u00a0 The church is a unique spiritual man, a spiritual organism that God started in Acts 2 and it consists of all people, both Jew and Gentile, who have trusted in the very Messiah rejected by first century national Israel.\u00a0 So the moment a person places their faith in Jesus Christ for their eternity is the moment they become born spiritually and the Holy Spirit takes them and identifies them to the new man, the body of Christ called the church.\u00a0 The church, as we talked about, is not fulfilling Israel\u2019s program.\u00a0 Israel\u2019s program is in postponement at the present time.\u00a0 God is doing something new or unique.\n\nAnd then number 2 we looked at the beginning of the church.\u00a0 When did the church start?\u00a0 Acts 2, and unfortunately when you read Acts 2 it never says thus saith the Lord, the church is starting now.\u00a0 So you have to, with any Bible doctrine you have to put together pieces like a jigsaw puzzle.\u00a0 Your doctrine of the Trinity is assembled that way; there\u2019s no single verse that says God is one but He\u2019s expressed Himself in three personages.\u00a0 You have to combine Scripture with Scripture to assemble that doctrine and any doctrine.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how it is with the beginning of the church.\u00a0\u00a0 And last time we were together I went through six arguments with\u00a0 you giving you, I think a pretty profound and powerful case that the church started in Acts 2.\u00a0 So the church didn\u2019t start in the Old Testament contrary to Reformed theology. \u00a0The church did not start with Paul contra hyper dispensationalism.\u00a0 The church did not start with Jesus.\u00a0 The church did not start with the apostles.\u00a0 The church did not start with Adam and Eve.\n\nThe church started in Acts 2, so that\u2019s when the body of Christ began and that\u2019s when the Spirit of God began to do this unique ministry of taking people who had trusted in Jesus Christ for their salvation and identifying them with this new man called the church.\u00a0 We\u2019ve looked at the definition of the church, the beginning of the church, to move here to Roman numeral III, we\u2019re not going to spend too much time here, but number III, the purpose of the church.\u00a0 Why does the church exist?\u00a0 Why do we exist?\n\nAnd probably the book of the Bible that explains the purpose of the church better than any other book is the Book of Ephesians.\u00a0 Paul, in the Book of Ephesians develops the doctrine of the church here probably more than any other book.\u00a0 So the church has three basic tasks.\u00a0 Now at Sugar Land Bible Church we have different activities, we had a women\u2019s meeting, a retreat last weekend, we have a men\u2019s retreat, we have this, we have that, we have communion, dah da dah da dah\u2026. Wednesday night Bible study, Tuesday night Bible study and on and on we could go with the different things that we do.\u00a0 But everything we do as a church needs to fit within these three purposes because these are not man\u2019s purposes for the church, these are God\u2019s purposes.\n\nSo the first purpose of the church is to glorify God so everything we do we should be asking ourselves is God glorified in this.\u00a0 If God is not glorified then we\u2019re outside of our purpose.\u00a0 So over in Ephesians 3:21 Paul, as he is unfolding the doctrine of the church, says, \u201cTo him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0So this is what is called the doxological purpose of God; doxa<\/em> means glory in Greek, so the purpose of God in human history is to glorify Himself.\u00a0 That\u2019s what God does from beginning to end.\u00a0 And a lot of people think well, I thought God\u2019s purpose was to save souls.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s a very important purpose but that\u2019s not His primary purpose.\u00a0 When a soul gets saved who gets the glory?\u00a0 God does.\u00a0 So even salvation, as wonderful as that is, relates to the doxological purpose of God.\u00a0 So since God\u2019s purpose in human history is to glorify Himself the purpose of the church is to glorify God.\n\nThe second purpose of the church is to edify the saints and we see that over in Ephesians 4:11-16, a tremendous paragraph there. It says, \u201cAnd He gave some as<\/em> apostles, and some as<\/em> prophets, and some as<\/em> evangelists, and some as<\/em> pastors and teachers,\u201d to help people win a popularity contest\u2026 oh, it doesn\u2019t say that.\u00a0 [12] \u201cfor the equipping of the saints\u201d now who are the saints?\u00a0 Believers.\u00a0 \u201cfor the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; [13] until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. [14] As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; [15] but speaking the truth in love, we are to\u201d what\u2019s the next word, \u201cgrow up in\u201d some aspects\u2026 oh, it doesn\u2019t say that, \u201cin all aspects<\/em> into Him who is the head, even<\/em> Christ, [16] from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.\u201d\n\nYou\u2019ll notice back in Ephesians 4:11 when it mentions spiritual gifts it mentions evangelist and then it goes on and it mentions a specific gift in the Greek, it\u2019s better read \u201cpastor-teacher.\u201d\u00a0 So \u201cpastor-teacher\u201d is a singular gift that God gave to the body of Christ.\u00a0 And you get that by under\u00adstanding the Greek rule called Granville Sharpe\u2019s rule which is this idea that when you have a definite article in front of two nouns and the two nouns are joined by a conjunction, like \u201cand\u201d then the two nouns are equal.\u00a0 So you have a definite article, noun, conjunction, noun, according to Granville Sharpe\u2019s rule the two nouns would be equal.\u00a0 So it really should say a pastor-teacher.\n\nSo you have evangelists and you have another gift called pastor-teacher.\u00a0 And the best way I can explain these is there\u2019s a difference between an obstetrician and a pediatrician.\u00a0 An obstetrician in the medical world or the world of doctors and hospitals and so forth helps with the birthing process.\u00a0 So that\u2019s what an evangelist does; an evangelist is somebody that leads people to Christ.\u00a0 Evangel\u00adism is something that we\u2019re all called to do but some people actually are gifted at it and they have a spiritual gift called evangelism, they have the ability to take lost people and direct them to the Savior and tell them how to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ by faith alone.\n\nAnd I\u2019ve never seen an obstetrician in the medical world who is also a pediatrician because those are two different disciplines.\u00a0 A pediatrician helps the newborn child grow correctly, develop correctly, with the right nutrition, being respected, is the child getting enough rest, are there medical problems and that art and science is really to help the child grow.\u00a0 So in the same way you have spiritual obstetricians, evangelists.\u00a0 Then\u00a0 you have the gift of pastor-teacher which is more of the pediatrician role to help the newborn child of God grow in the things of God.\u00a0 So hopefully the elders anyway think that I have that spiritual gift.\u00a0 Hopefully when you come here on Sundays and Wednesdays and other times that\u2019s what\u2019s happening.\n\nI\u2019m really not an evangelist, part of me wishes that I was, it\u2019s just God never gave me that gift.\u00a0 But we still give the gospel here every week because there could be potential people listening or coming in here that are not saved.\u00a0 But that\u2019s really not the primary emphasis of our church, winning the lost.\u00a0 We should all be doing that outside the four walls of the church but church is really not set up as an evangelistic rally because when you look at this passage very carefully\u2026 and by the way, I love evangelistic rallies, it\u2019s just knowing what lane we\u2019re in and trying to stay within our lane.\u00a0 He mentions the gift of pastor-teacher, verse 11, \u201cfor the equipping of the\u201d what? \u201cthe saints.\u201d\u00a0 So the pastor-teacher, which is the pediatrician, is primarily working with the newborn child of God.\u00a0 The evangelist, who is the obstetrician, is primarily working with the lost.\n\nSo since God gave to the church the gift of pastor-teacher and a host of other gifts, and by the way, every Christian has at least one spiritual gift.\u00a0 Ephesians 4:7 of spiritual gifts says, \u201cBut to each one grace was given according to the measure of Christ\u201d and it goes on to describe spiritual gifts.\u00a0 Spiritual gifts are Spirit empowered abilities to serve God in a special way and as the gifts are being ministered in harmony with each other, not in competition with each other, then what happens is the body of Christ becomes built up.\u00a0 For example, as I\u2019m exercising my primary gift, which is the gift of pastor-teacher, which is the ability to teach the Bible in a way people can understand it, that\u2019s accurate but relevant and understandable, according to 2 Timothy 3:17 the Scripture equips us for how many good works?\u00a0 Every good work, all good works.\u00a0 [2 Timothy 3:17, \u201cso that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.\u201d]\n\nSo what\u2019s happening at Sugar Land Bible Church is you\u2019re attending our services, classes, what have you, is you\u2019re being built up in the things of God for your ministry.\u00a0 So whatever God is doing in your life, maybe you\u2019re witnessing to somebody, maybe you\u2019re at home raising kids, maybe you\u2019re out in the professional world, whatever it is what\u2019s happening is the Word of God is equipping you for what God is doing through your life.\u00a0 And that would be a major function of the church.\u00a0 The church exists to edify the saints.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the church could not have come into existence prior to Acts 1 because we learned last week that the gifts of the Holy Spirit came into existence after Christ ascended.\u00a0 So if you have a church prior to Acts 1 you have a group of people without the ability of being edified because the gifts of the Holy Spirit hadn\u2019t been given.\u00a0 So why even go to a church like that if the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not in operation.\u00a0 It would be like going to the Rotary Club or some other secular organization.\n\nBut God specifically, after the ascension of Christ, beginning in Acts 2, gave to the church spiritual gifts and as those gifts are faithfully employed what is happening is people are being built up in the things of God and they\u2019re being equipped for their ministry.\u00a0 According to this paragraph they are being equipped for their work of service and they are discovering that the ministry does not just belong to the preacher and the piano player. The ministry belongs to all Christians and most churches (sadly) function by the A.D. 20 rule, which means 20% of the people do 80% of the work\u00a0 is basically what that means.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not the New Testament model.\u00a0 The New Testament model is we\u2019re all ministers and the purpose of church is to equip you for your ministry primarily through the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher and other spiritual gifts that God has given to the church.\n\nSo\u00a0 you run into people a lot in Christianity and they say well,\u00a0 you know, I\u2019m thinking of going into the ministry.\u00a0 And my response usually is well, are you a Christian?\u00a0 Well yes I am.\u00a0 Congratulations, you are already in the ministry, because whether you do it fulltime or not is not the issue; the issue is\u00a0 you\u2019re gifted a particular way and God wants to use you to bless other people.\n\nSo when you study the spiritual gifts and if you want to study them just remember the pneumonic device, 12, 12, 4, 4.\u00a0 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4 (where we\u2019re at here) and 1 Peter 4.\u00a0 So Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4.\u00a0 The function of gifts is to serve other people.\u00a0 Every gift has as its target somebody else.\u00a0 And we are basically selfish by nature, amen!\u00a0 That\u2019s part of our condition in original sin.\u00a0 And nothing gets us out of our self-oriented mindset better than discovering your gift, or gifts, and\u00a0 using them consistently because as you use those what you\u2019re going to see is God is using you to bless other people.\u00a0 So you\u2019re going to be discovering that your life is not just about you.\u00a0 When God gave you a gift He didn\u2019t just give it for you; certainly you can gain a lot of personal satisfaction out of using your gift but God\u2019s real purpose in giving the gift is to be a blessing to somebody else.\n\nAnd so there\u2019s really nothing more rewarding than being used by God to be a blessing to other people.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what the function of spiritual gifts are and that\u2019s one of the primary purposes of the church, is to have the gifts in operation so other people can be built up.\u00a0 And you might be saying well how do I discover what my gift is?\u00a0 If the Bible says I have a gift how do I discover what it is?\u00a0 Well, in the natural world, when I was in high school all of the kids that could pole vault well (I wasn\u2019t one of them) would naturally gravitate towards track and field.\u00a0 All of the kids that were good at football would naturally gravitate towards the football field.\u00a0 All of the kids that were good at math and science and things like that would gravitate toward those subjects.\u00a0 In other words, you\u2019re naturally drawn to the things that God has called you to do.\n\nYou\u2019re naturally drawn to the things that God has gifted you to do.\u00a0 So if\u00a0 you have a particular pull in a certain area, like, I remember when I was attending Riviera First Baptist Church and the pastor got sick, this was back in the 90\u2019s, and he asked me to preach for him I got into the pulpit shaking like a leaf, you want me to preach and teach?\u00a0\u00a0 But then I discovered that it was so enjoyable I started to pray, man, I wish he would get sick a little more [laughter] because I actually enjoyed doing it.\u00a0 Now there\u2019s a lot of people that enjoy doing things but nobody is blessed in the process.\u00a0 So if someone claims they have the gift of singing and can\u2019t carry a note with a handle on it then probably that\u2019s not their gift, because there has to be a confluence of things coming together simultaneously.\u00a0 There has to be a general drawing to doing something, an inclination, a desire, but when that comes together in concert with people saying you know, when you do such and such it really helps me.\u00a0 And you start receiving unsolicited comments like that what\u2019s happening is the Holy Spirit is showing you what your gift\/mix is, your gift or gift\/mix.\n\nAnd I use the word gift\/mix because most Christians, I believe, probably have more than one gift.\u00a0 Some have a single gift; other gifts flow in random.\u00a0 For example, it\u2019s hard to be a teacher without having the gift of knowledge which I\u2019m defining here as the ability to understand the Bible.\u00a0 How do you teach something you don\u2019t understand?\u00a0 So knowledge and teaching kind of go together.\u00a0\u00a0 And some pastors are very gifted in the sense that they have the gift of pastor teacher and the gift of evangelism.\u00a0 I know of a handful of pastors that are like that.\u00a0 I would put pastor Greg Laurie in that category, of the Harvest Crusades.\u00a0 I used to go to his church a long time ago, I feel that he has both.\u00a0 You have pastors, like the former pastor here, Mark Choate, who I felt, coming to this church for a while before he left, I felt he had the gift of mercy; mercy is sort of the ability to\u2026 you\u2019re drawn to people that need mercy and so my brief time under Mark Choate I felt that was definitely one of his gifts along with others that he had.\n\nSo you know, you can go down the list and look at this pastor and that pastor or this person or that person and you can see gifts clearly in operation with people.\u00a0 I think my primary gifts are pastor, teacher, knowledge and I also feel that I have the gift of discernment which is helpful because you\u2019ve got to keep a lot of junk out of the church and how do you do that if you can\u2019t recognize what the junk is. So we need the gift of discernment in operation because a lot of people are so open-minded their brain leaks out in the process.\u00a0 But anyway, you get the idea.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t mean to go into the whole thing on spiritual gifts, I guess God wanted you guys to have that.\n\nBut the church exists, number 1, to glorify God.\u00a0 Number 2, to edify the saints through the use of spiritual gifts.\u00a0 The third purpose of the church is to fulfill the great commission.\u00a0 Over in Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus gave what\u2019s called the Great Commission, which is not the great omission, it\u2019s the great commission.\u00a0 \u201cAnd Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, \u2018All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of\u201d people in the United States of America\u2026 oh, I\u2019m sorry, it doesn\u2019t say that, \u201cGo therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.\u201d\n\nEach Gospel writer, at least the Synoptics, Matthew, Mark and Luke, and John too for that matter, have a closing comment by Christ related to the church\u2019s calling of worldwide evangelization, or global evangelization.\u00a0 We\u2019re to go and we\u2019re to preach the gospel to every creature and we\u2019re not just to evangelize them but we\u2019re to go and make disciples. So you read these commands and you start to see that the purpose of the church is not just for the church.\u00a0 God blessed the church to be a blessing to the world, through evangelism, missionary activity and those kinds of things.\u00a0 And so a lot of churches sort of think the f unction is to sit, soak and sour, which is tempting to do because out there it can bet pretty rough, can\u2019t it.\u00a0 So sometimes, you know, God has seasons in our lives where we\u2019re just supposed to sit and soak up and that\u2019s a great season to be in but the reality of the situation is God is sowing these spiritual realities into you because He wants you to bless somebody else outside the four walls of the church.\n\nSo what happens is when the sheep become healthy\u2026 how do the sheep become healthy?\u00a0 Because of bullet point number 2, the church is of bullet point number 2, the church is succeeding in its function of edifying its saints.\u00a0 But when the sheep become healthy they\u2019re not just to become fat sheep; they\u2019re to actually go out and use these things in their job and their family, amongst unsaved people, and all of us are in contact constantly with unsaved people.\u00a0 And so God is equipping you at Sugar Land Bible Church so you can be an evangelist to somebody that doesn\u2019t know Christ.\u00a0 And what you discover is most churches do two of the three well.\u00a0 It\u2019s very difficult to find a church that\u2019s doing all three.\n\nFor example, in the prior generation in the Bible church movement Christianity became what I would call a holy huddle, where we\u2019re glorifying God and we\u2019re edifying the saints but we\u2019re forgetting the fact that God wants to use us outside the four walls.\u00a0 What\u2019s happening today (in my humble opinion) is churches are doing number 1 really well and number 3 really well but number 2 has sort of fallen on hard times.\u00a0 So what\u2019s happening is people are becoming confused as point number 2 and so they\u2019re turning their worship service into an evangelistic rally and their goal is to make things comfortable for the unsaved.\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about what unsaved people want to hear; let\u2019s not mention blood, or sin, because that would drive away unsaved people.\n\nSo what you have at the end of the day is a crowd of people, perhaps in an evangelistic rally if the gospel is given at all, but you miss number 2 because number 2 indicates that the church itself is not for unbelievers.\u00a0 The church is for believers.\u00a0 And as a pastor you have a far greater reach into the world if you equip your people through the teaching of God\u2019s Word to live the Christian life because think about this: think about all the people that you know guys that I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 If I equip you and you go out and you\u2019re used by God to bless two, three, four people think if the chain reaction, think of the dominoes that begin to fall down.\u00a0 That is a far greater reach than getting all these unsaved people into the building.\u00a0 Get a bunch of unsaved people into the building, maybe you can get a few of them saved, but you would get a lot more saved if you, as a pastor, would use\u00a0 your spiritual gift or gifts that God has given you to make your own people healthy.\u00a0 Once your own people become healthy they\u2019ll become a dynamic missions force and they\u2019re going to be touching and reaching people that you could never touch or reach.\u00a0 So a pastor multiplies his impact when he begins to use the gifts that God has given him to help his own people become healthy spiritually.\n\nSo that\u2019s really my focus here at Sugar Land Bible Church, we do give the gospel but my primary target audience is not the unsaved; my target audience is the church or the saints because of Ephesians 4.\u00a0 And the danger with our approach is we can get eternally focused and forget about the great commission.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I love the fact that we have a missions committee.\u00a0 I love the fact that we have missions moments.\u00a0 I love the fact that we have our supported missionaries come in and give us an update on what\u2019s going on because that\u2019s such a valuable thing because it helps the people sitting there understand that gosh, it\u2019s not all about us.\u00a0 God wants to use us to bless other people.\u00a0 So the goal of the church would be all of the above:\u00a0 Glorify God edify the saints, fulfill the great commission.\n\nNow you\u2019ll notice that we\u2019re not called to bring social justice to the earth.\u00a0 Well, what\u2019s wrong with social justice?\u00a0 Nothing, I mean I think we should work for justice, whatever that is, everybody defines it differently, but we ought to be involved in culture, being salt and light, restraining evil and those kinds of things, to the extent that we can.\u00a0 But the reality of the situation is you\u2019re not going to have social justice until what is established on the earth?\u00a0 The kingdom.\n\nSo you go to a lot of churches that have a kingdom now theology, they don\u2019t really understand that the kingdom has been postponed; they think they\u2019re bringing in the kingdom and so they spend a lot of their sermon time on things like the environment, let\u2019s fix the environment.\u00a0 I\u2019m an environmentalist, I think we should be good stewards of the planet.\u00a0 Or they spend a lot of their time on let\u2019s fix poverty; the reality is Jesus said the poor you\u2019re always going to have with you.\u00a0 Poverty is not going to get solved by anybody until Jesus comes back and solves it.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s a good thing to be involved in various causes, like trying to curb world hunger and things like that but we should always use it as a platform to preach the gospel.\u00a0 What good does it do to fill someone\u2019s stomach for 24 hours if their soul goes to hell;\u00a0 you haven\u2019t really accomplished much.\n\nSo we should be involved in social causes to the extent that we can use it as a platform to preach the gospel.\u00a0 But in kingdom now theology what gets lost is the gospel and they move into social causes.\u00a0 So they talk a lot about we need to fix structural racism, what they call structural racism in American and social justice and poverty and the environment.\u00a0 Even in the conservative movement, you know, sometimes in certain churches you hear more about the prolife issue than you do about the gospel.\u00a0 So understanding what the church is, understanding what its purposes are, understanding that we\u2019re not the kingdom helps us to focus in on what God wants us to do in the present.\u00a0 Does that make any sense.\n\nSo what is the purpose of the church: glorify God, edify the saints, and fulfill the great commission.\u00a0 The social justice stuff is something that Jesus will bring to the earth when He returns.\u00a0 Now the devil is a pretty sneaky guy and one of his greatest tricks is to get the church focused on doing something that God never called the church to do because once the church becomes focused on something that God never called the church to do the church loses its power.\u00a0 And as I\u2019ve been trying to articulate carefully in this study the church is not called to bring the kingdom of God to the earth.\n\nNow if the devil can get us thinking that we need to bring the kingdom of God to the earth he\u2019s won, basically, because he\u2019s got us focused in some task that God never called us to do and if God never called us to do it we don\u2019t have the power to pull it off.\u00a0 Amen.\u00a0 The only thing the church has the power to pull off is to do the things that God says the church is to do.\u00a0 If the church functions within those guidelines and stays within its lane then the church has great power because it\u2019s doing what God called it to do.\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t order something without paying for it.\u00a0 But if, on the other hand, he (the devil) gets us focused on some other task that God never called us to do then the church is immediately emptied of its power and its put on its shoulders a God-sized task that only Jesus can do directly.\u00a0 So the kingdom, as we\u2019ve been studying it, is very clear, only Christ can set it up and that rescues us from tasks that are basically a waste of time\u00a0 in the present.\n\nThat\u2019s why this subject, it might seem kind of obscure to you, but the reality is it\u2019s very important.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t anything more important in the life of the church than understanding why it exists.\u00a0 And you know this from the business world, right?\u00a0 If your business is struggling and you hire a consultant to help you with\u00a0 your struggling business, one of the first questions they\u2019re going to ask is why do you exist?\u00a0 So that\u2019s businesses have a visions statement and a missions statement and they typically have their employees memorize either the vision statement or the missions statement.\u00a0 So every employee understands why they exist in this organization and it\u2019s no different with the church.\u00a0 The church has to understand why it exists.\u00a0 If it doesn\u2019t understand why it exists then it just wanders around aimlessly and it wanders into tasks that God never called it.\n\nSo what is God doing today; if He\u2019s not bringing social justice to the earth what is He doing.\u00a0 Well, Acts 15:14 explains what God is doing.\u00a0 This is the Jerusalem Council, this is the first church meeting (one of the first church meetings I should say) in the Book of Acts.\u00a0 And I believe it\u2019s James, the Lord\u2019s brother, who makes this statement.\u00a0 James says, \u201cSimeon has related how God first concerned himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His own name. \u00a0[Acts 15:14.]\u00a0 That\u2019s what God is doing today through the church.\u00a0 Certainly Jews get saved but they\u2019re not in the majority.\u00a0 The majority of people getting saved today are non-Jews or Gentiles and God is reaching out among that great mass of humanity, regardless of nation, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of culture, this is a global movement and He is taking from among the Gentiles a people for His own name.\u00a0 That\u2019s just a tremendous statement of what is happening in the life of the church; it\u2019s been happening for 2,000 years.\u00a0 And we at Sugar Land Bible Church can fit into that purpose which is what we\u2019re called to do.\n\nSo we\u2019ve looked at the definition of the church, we\u2019ve looked at the beginning of the church, we\u2019ve looked at the purposes of the church, and I\u2019ve got a few minutes left, let\u2019s talk briefly about why the church is not the kingdom.\u00a0 A lot of churches today are trying to build the kingdom and as you listen to their ministry, brochures, their ministry advertisements, they\u2019ll say things like we\u2019re doing kingdom work, we\u2019re growing the kingdom, we\u2019re building the kingdom, we\u2019re bringing in the kingdom.\u00a0 And the word \u201ckingdom\u201d is everywhere, it\u2019s just sort of a slogan people throw out there, I guess because it sounds good for marketing purposes.\u00a0 But the reality is the Bible has a very technical definition of the word kingdom, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 The Greek word is basilea,<\/em> and we\u2019ve developed it carefully and we\u2019ve explained that we\u2019re living in an interim time when the kingdom is not here.\n\nSo why is the church not the kingdom.\u00a0 I have 13 reasons which I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll get through all of them today but you never know.\u00a0 The first reason that the church is not the kingdom is number 1, Jesus is never called the King of the church.\u00a0 Now that wrecks a lot of worship songs, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 King Jesus this, King Jesus that; the reality of the situation is you go into the New Testament and the King subject imagery is imagery that\u2019s used in God\u2019s relationship to Israel.\u00a0 That type of imagery is not used relative to God\u2019s relationship to the church.\u00a0 Ephesians 5:23 calls Jesus the head of the church, not the king of the church, the head of the church.\u00a0 [Ephesians 5:23, \u201cFor the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 So He is the head, we\u2019re the body.\u00a0 That\u2019s a completely different imagery than King-Kingdom, King subject.\u00a0 Ephesians 5:25 says we are the bride, He is the groom; that\u2019s the imagery that\u2019s used.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0[Ephesians 5:25, \u201cHusbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,\u201d]\n\nAnd I know a lot of you think I\u2019m crazy, which I am a little bit, but I have several quotes in my book where I quote people, basically saying exactly what I just said, just so you won\u2019t think I\u2019m nuts.\u00a0 George Nathaniel H Peters, famous scholar, said, \u201cJesus is called, and by right, and in the covenanted manner, is, called the \u2018King of the Jews,\u2019 \u00a0\u2018King of the Nations,\u2019 King of the World\u2019 but is never called \u2018the King of the Church.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 [The Theocratic Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus, the Christ, as Covenanted in the Old Testament, and Presented in the New Testament<\/em>. By George Nathaniel Henry Peters.]\n\nClarence Larkin says, \u201cHis Church, Ephesians 1:22, 4:15, Colossians 1:18, but He is never spoken of as its King.\u201d\u00a0 [Ephesians 1:22, \u201c\n\nAlva J. McLain quotes somebody in his book, Andrews, as follows, he says:\u00a0 \u201cArnold Fruchtenbaum, I know a lot of you have studied under Arnold Fruchtenbaum.\u00a0 Arnold Fruchtenbaum writes: \u201cThe problem amillennialism faces,\u201d amillennialism is kingdom now theology, \u201cThe problem amillennialism faces is that while the Bible portrays the relationship between Christ and the church in various metaphors, head and body, groom and bride, vine and branches, foundation stones of the building, etc. king and kingdom is not one of them.\u00a0 Christ is indeed referred to as the head of the church but never its king.\n\nA second reason why the church is not the kingdom of 13 reasons; number 2,\u00a0 Jesus Christ\u2019s relationship to His church is depicted through various metaphors but it is never depicted through the King\/kingdom metaphor.\u00a0 Now a picture paints a thousand what?\u00a0 Words; what the Lord has given us is various word pictures for what He is like in relationship to His people in the present age.\u00a0 And these are wonderful word pictures.\u00a0 Sometimes He is called the shepherd and we are the what?\u00a0 Sheep, and we don\u2019t have time to look up all those verses but they\u2019re all there for you to look up.\n\nBy the way, that\u2019s not a compliment that we are called sheep.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0\u00a0 You all know that, right.\u00a0 Sheep are so cuddly and we think oh, isn\u2019t that pretty.\u00a0 Sheep are some of the dumbest animals known to man.\u00a0 Sheep will literally, if they\u2019re all running in a herd they\u2019ll all run off a cliff together and they\u2019ll probably stampede each other in the process.\u00a0 So the fact that we are called sheep shows us that we need a shepherd.\u00a0 The imagery of head\/body is used many places, the use of the head or the body, just like the head sends out instructions to the rest of the body, that\u2019s what He does.\u00a0 He is the Head in His proper place and we\u2019re all receiving orders from the nerve center, the head, the body functions in symmetry with itself.\u00a0 So my left hand and my right hand are different functions but they\u2019re functioning in harmony with each other because they\u2019re connected to the nerve center which is the head.\u00a0 So you\u2019ll find that imagery a lot.\n\nYou\u2019ll also find the imagery that He is the groom and we are the what? Bride, so we are engaged, we are spoken for.\u00a0 And when the woman walks down that aisle there\u2019s a reason she\u2019s in what colored dress?\u00a0 White, indicating purity.\u00a0 So we\u2019re spoken for, we\u2019re engaged, our wedding day is coming up, and we want to keep ourselves undefiled by the world.\u00a0 James 4:4 tells us that the world system defiles us and when we do that we become adulteress in essence.\u00a0 And this is why Joseph was so upset, because the woman that he\u2019s betrothed to got pregnant and what does she say?\u00a0 Well, the Holy Spirit did that.\u00a0 Yeah, right, sure, I believe you\u2026.\u00a0 So an angel, Gabriel, had to go and explain to Joseph what was going on because he was totally freaked out because he felt that the woman that he was betrothed to was unfaithful to Him.\u00a0 And that was grounds to annul, in Jewish tradition annul the marriage.\u00a0 So in the same way nothing can annul our marriage because of the doctrine of eternal security but we are very much the bride and He is the groom.\n\nThe temple imagery is used where in Old Testament times the Holy Spirit indwelt in a literal Solomonic temple.\u00a0 In fact, the Shekinah Glory of God entered that temple in the days of Solomon and it left that temple just prior to the Babylonia deportation.\u00a0 Now what is the temple of the Holy Spirit?\u00a0 Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why Paul says to the Corinthians, who are going out at night and uniting themselves sexually with temple prostitutes, pagan prostitutes in a pagan temple in Corinth, he says, \u201cDo you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.\u201d\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 3:16]\n\nAnd over in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 it uses the plural.\u00a0 1 Corinthians 6:19, the verse I just indicated, uses it in the singular.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians\u00a0 6:19, \u201cOr do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?\u201d]\n\nBut here it\u2019s used in the plural that when we gather, this gathering place is the temple of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 So the Holy Spirit indwells us each individually but He also indwells us\u2026 His presence is here when we\u2019re gathered corporately.\u00a0 See that?\n\nHe is also called the high priest, and we are priests under His high priesthood.\u00a0 Did you know you\u2019re a priest, by the way?\u00a0 You say well I don\u2019t feel like a priest, I don\u2019t look like a priest but the reality of the situation is a priest is somebody who represents\u00a0 God to man and man to God.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the priests were.\u00a0 And you go back into the life of Israel and the priests all had to come from which tribe?\u00a0 Levi, and they had to be a descendant of whose lineage?\u00a0 Aaron\u2019s!\u00a0 So Israel had priests within the nation but within the New Testament church you look at various passages, for example Revelation 1:6 and we learn that we are all priests.\u00a0 Revelation 1:6, says, \u201cand He has made us to be a kingdom of\u201d what? \u201cpriests to His God [and Father-- to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s your identity in Christ.\n\nWait a minute, it says we are \u201ca kingdom of priests\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to cross reference that with Revelation 5:10 which indicates that we will function as a kingdom when we will reign upon the earth.\u00a0 [Revelation 5:10, \u201cYou have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.\u201d]\u00a0 So we\u2019re not yet functioning as kings but we will function as kings when the kingdom comes.\u00a0 Right!\u00a0 But in the interim what are we?\u00a0 We are priests.\u00a0 What does a priest do?\u00a0 A priest represents God to man and man to God.\u00a0 And this is why God was so upset with the priests in the Old Testament, remember the money-changers in the Gospels, how Jesus over\u00ad\u00adturned the tables and so forth, because they weren\u2019t represent God properly to the world.\u00a0 They were making God out to be some kind of cosmic slot machine or something, some kind of money-hungry god and that\u2019s not who God was.\u00a0 So we, all of us, every single Christian, every single member of Christ\u2019s body are priests or priestesses, so the issue is as priest and priestesses how are we doing representing God to the rest of the world?\n\nA priest represented man to God and God to man; we are also to intercede for people, aren\u2019t we, as we represent man to God.\u00a0 So that\u2019s part of who we are.\u00a0 Priests don\u2019t come from a tribe, they don\u2019t come from a line anymore, we\u2019re all spiritual priests.\n\nThe church is also called the pillar of truth, another metaphor.\u00a0 1 Timothy 3:15.\u00a0 [1 Timothy 3:15, \u201cbut in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.\u201d]\u00a0 Why should we be zealous for truth in the church?\u00a0 Because the church is the pillar of truth.\u00a0 What does a pillar do?\u00a0 It hold up everything else in the structure, just like these pillars around here; take one of these pillars out and you\u2019ve got a collapse.\u00a0 So we are literally holding up the reality of truth in a lost and dying world.\n\nSo where are people going to get the truth today?\u00a0 Are they going to get it from the politicians?\u00a0 Probably not.\u00a0 Are they going to get it from the academics?\u00a0 Maybe, maybe not.\u00a0 Are they going to get it from the media?\u00a0 Maybe sometimes, but they should be able to go into a church and receive the truth because that\u2019s the church\u2019s identity.\n\nWe are also called, John 15:1-8, branches and He is the vine.\u00a0 [John 15:1-8, \u201cI am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. [2] Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch<\/em> that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. \u00a0[3] You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. [4] \u2018Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can<\/em> you unless you abide in Me. [5] I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. [6] If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. [7] If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. [8] My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so<\/em> prove to be My disciples.\u201d]\n\nSo how does a branch bear fruit?\u00a0 It stays connected by way of fellowship to the what? To the vine.\u00a0 As Christians we are not called to produce fruit, we are called to bear fruit.\u00a0 See the difference.\u00a0 That\u2019s a game changer right there.\u00a0 I used to think my job as a Christian was to go out and get it done for Jesus, do this, do that, and I found myself very frustrated and burned out.\u00a0 And the reason I was frustrated and burned out is I was doing a bunch of stuff that God never called me to do.\u00a0 He never called me or you to produce fruit; He called you to bear fruit.\u00a0 If you stay connected to Him by way of fellowship what happens to the fruit?\u00a0 It comes spontaneously, it comes naturally, it comes automatically, it comes organically simply because you\u2019re staying connected to Jesus Christ.\n\nSo an orange branch doesn\u2019t get out there and say oranges, oranges, oranges, I\u2019ve got to produce oranges.\u00a0 All it does, it stays connected to the nurturing sap of the vine, or in the case of an orange tree the trunk, or however it works, and the oranges naturally come.\u00a0 See that.\u00a0 So it\u2019s not producing fruit, it\u2019s bearing fruit.\n\nAnd Jesus in John 15:1-8 says if you don\u2019t do this, \u201capart from Me you can do\u201d what? \u201cnothing!.\u201d\u00a0 You have no ability to go out and produce eternal things in yourself, and I don\u2019t have the ability either.\u00a0 The capacity to produce eternal things only becomes a reality when I stay connected to Him by way of fellowship.\u00a0 Now you can\u2019t lose your salvation, John 10:27-29 says you\u2019re in His hand and nothing can take you out.\n\n[John 15:1-8, \u201cI am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. [2] Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch<\/em> that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. [3] You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. [4] Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can<\/em> you unless you abide in Me. [5] I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. [6] If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.\u00a0 [7] If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.\u00a0 [8] My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so<\/em> prove to be My disciples.\u201d\u00a0 John 10:27-28, \u201cMy sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; [28] and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. \u00a0[29]My Father, who has given them<\/em> to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them<\/em> out of the Father\u2019s hand.?\u2019\u201d\n\nThe devil can\u2019t take you out of His hand, you can\u2019t even take yourself out of His hand.\u00a0 But here\u2019s what you can do\u2014you can get out of fellowship with Him.\u00a0 How do you get out of fellowship with Him?\u00a0 Unconfessed sin will destroy moment by moment fellowship.\u00a0 Lack of communication will destroy moment by moment fellowship.\n\nSo think of it in terms of a marriage; I can do something to hurt my wife\u2019s feelings (of course if you talk to her you\u2019ll learn that I\u2019ve never done that, [laughter] ever in our whole almost 19 years of marriage\u2026and my nose\u00a0 is growing as I\u2019m standing up here\u00a0 So what happens when that occurs?\u00a0 We\u2019re still married, but my moment by moment intimacy with her, my moment by moment fellow\u00adship with her, my moment by moment enjoyment of her is short-circuited even though positionally we\u2019re still married.\u00a0 So what do I have to do?\u00a0 I need to, in humility, apologize for what I have done and that is the significance of 1 John 1:9 in your life.\u00a0 1 John 1:9 says, \u201cIf we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cConfess\u201d there is homolog\u014d<\/em><\/a>, logo means speak or word and homo is same, homolog\u014d<\/em><\/a> is same word, it basically means agree.\u00a0 You sin against God in your persona life\u00a0 you just go to the Lord and say Lord, what I did was wrong and help me not to do it again.\u00a0 And you\u2019re agreeing with God about your sin;\u00a0 you\u2019re not hiding your sin as David did but you\u2019re agreeing with God that it\u2019s wrong.\u00a0 And the moment you do that you don\u2019t get saved again; you\u2019re already saved.\u00a0 What happens is broken fellowship is restored and you now are a candidate, not for heaven, you already had that the moment you trusted in Christ.\u00a0 But for fruit bearing, see that?\n\nNow you talk to marital partners or people that are having marriage problems and you go to a counselor for that and the very first question the counselor will ask is what is your communication like with your spouse, because communication is the lifeblood of any relationship.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 So how do you stay in fellowship with God?\u00a0 You have to stay in communication with Him.\u00a0 How can people grow in their marriage if they never talk to each other?\u00a0 That\u2019s not even a relationship is it?\u00a0 That\u2019s a roommate situation.\n\nSo we allow God to speak to us, primarily through what?\u00a0 This book, that\u2019s how He\u2019s going to talk to you.\u00a0 And He\u2019s going to speak to you when this book is taught, maybe he is speaking to you now about things in your life.\u00a0 So you have to avail yourself to this book; it\u2019s got to be a major discipline in your life.\u00a0 And then how do you talk to God?\u00a0 You talk to God via what?\u00a0 You guys got really quiet out there\u2026 PRAYER.\u00a0 So prayer, I talk to Him, the Word of God, He talks to me.\u00a0 See that?\n\nNow have you ever been in a one-way conversation with somebody; it\u2019s one of the most frustrating things; either they\u2019re totally quiet and you do all the talking or nine times out of ten they\u2019re doing all the talking, they\u2019re dominating the conversation and you\u2019re really not allowed to say anything because you keep getting interrupted. Well, that\u2019s not a conversation; that isn\u2019t fellowship.\u00a0 A conversation is where both parties are communicating with each other.\u00a0 So there\u2019s a lot of people, and this runs pretty deep in Bible church circles, that all they do is study the Bible, so God is talking to them all the time but their prayer life is dissipated, they don\u2019t talk to God.\u00a0 Or the opposite is true, people pray and pray and pray but their prayers are amiss because they don\u2019t understand the will of God because God answers prayers according to His will and His will is revealed in which book?\u00a0 The Bible.\u00a0 So it\u2019s I talk, talk, talk, but God never talks to me, or God talks to me, talks to me, talks to me but I never talk to Him.\n\nIn order to qualify for fruit-bearing, not salvation, fruit-bearing you have to be in a situation where there\u2019s healthy communication; you\u2019re talking to Him on a regular basis and He\u2019s talking to\u00a0 you on a regular basis.\u00a0 And if and when you fall short, which we do, we need to go to God and agree that our sin was wrong, confess it, ask Him to change us, to help us, and the moment we are in regular communication with Him, the moment we are keeping short accounts with Him in terms of personal sin is the moment you become that branch connected to the vine and the fruit that He wants you to bear will come automatically.\n\nSo instead of worrying about how many people should I witness to, how many books should I write, how many sermons should I preach, how can I get Sugar Land Bible Church to grow, (or shrink), how can I do this, how can I do that?\u00a0 Maybe just forget all that stuff and just focus on intimacy with Christ, short accounts, regular communication and the fruit is going to come spontaneously.\u00a0 The fruit is going to come automatically.\u00a0 In fact you\u2019ll be shocked at the things that begin to materialize in your life and the doors that will begin to open that you never even planned on because we\u2019re so focused on the fruit and instead the whole function of the fine and the branches is we\u2019re to be focused as a branch on the vine.\n\nI didn\u2019t mean to get off on all that but vine and branches is another imagery that\u2019s used, piece of imagery that\u2019s used.\u00a0 Now you\u2019ll notice that in none of these is He called the King and we\u2019re called the subject.\u00a0 All these other metaphors are used but the King\/subject metaphor is not used.\u00a0 One author, and I\u2019m going to close with this, says, his name is Bogmann, quote: \u201cThe church by name is a called out assembly.\u00a0 It is also described by different figures.\u00a0 Several references describe it as a building our house, a body and perhaps as a bride but never as the kingdom.\u00a0 So why isn\u2019t the church the kingdom?\u00a0 Jesus is never called the King of the church, and number 2, Jesus Christ\u2019s relationship to His church is never depicted through the king\/kingdom metaphor.\u00a0 A lot of other metaphors are used but not the king\/kingdom metaphor.\u00a0 And so that takes care of 2 of 13 so we\u2019ll give you the remaining 11 next week.\u00a0 At this point we\u2019ll stop and let folks pick up their kids and make like a leaf and get out of here\u2026 I shouldn\u2019t say that kind of stuff should I?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you need to go and those that would like to stick around for Q&A we can do that.\u00a0 I appreciate your patience.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t