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“Finding Faith in Failure”
Matthew 24-25

Many of us today are afraid to take a jump of faith because we’re afraid of failing.

Failures show us our desire for a different reality – Kingdom reality. A Kingdom we encounter when we’re ready, investing, and serving.

Why it so hard to talk about failure?
	It requires vulnerability and we don’t like to feel exposed.
	It revives in us deep, unmeet desires for something better. 

Failure requires us to awaken to our desire for a reality beyond ourselves - God’s reality: Kingdom reality.

But some of us are disillusioned with God. Maybe you just need to acknowledge it today.
	Consider the possibility that your disillusionment has taken root because you’re holding 	
	on to an illusion.
Can we embrace failure as the antidote that cures our illusions of God and brings us to Him, rather than the thing that discredits Him?
When things fail, God still wins.

What is the Kingdom of God in the Bible?
	Jesus is the King
	He has a Kingdom 
	Jesus’s Kingdom is both here and coming when He returns 

Through the mystery of Jesus as God and man, we get a kingdom that is both already and not yet. 

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” – Matthew 24:14

We spread the gospel because we get to; not because we have to. 
	If this does not move us, we don’t yet understand the Kingdom of God, or we’ve stopped 	believing in it and joined another kingdom – most likely a kingdom or our own making. 

How do we awaken to this Kingdom reality? (Matthew 24-25)
	Always be ready by seeking hard after Jesus
	Always be investing in those things that will last for eternity
	Always be serving because love defines God’s Kingdom 

Always be ready by seeking hard after Jesus (Matthew 25:1-13)
	The foolish virgins have the equipment, but they don’t have the fuel they need to stay in
	it for the long haul.  
	Oil = sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence 

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in 
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – Acts 1:8 

“Walking in the spirit” isn’t something we can borrow from others when ours runs out. 
	We have to go back to the source.
	We have to go back to God.

Always be investing in those things that will last for eternity.
	Of the 155,000 people who die today, two-thirds of them don’t know Jesus.
	Invest generously in the Kingdom so that you can enjoy splurging. When splurging becomes the norm, generosity and celebration get lost in the hustle.

Parable of the Good Servant (Matthew 24:45-51)
	The good servant is the one who invests in people whose destinies are eternal.
	The wicked servant is the one who over time invests in his own desires even at the 	expense of others.

Always be serving because God’s Kingdom is defined by love. 

Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46)
	Those pursuing Kingdom reality are defined by how they treat the “least of these.”
	In some incredible way, in God’s reality, when we love those in need we are loving Jesus.

We are all broken people walking in a broken world and that means if we reach out to others, we’re going to fail them and they are going to fail us.
	Even when we fail, God still wins. His Kingdom still breaks through. 
	Today, don’t let the fear of failure keep you from having a Kingdom impact.

Be ready, invest, serve