Part One: The Kingdom Agenda of the Family - Rev. Jesse Bilberry, Jr.

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion of the fish of the sea, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  (Genesis 1:26)

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and has crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to  have dominion over the works of thy hands; thy hast put all things under his feet. Psalm 8:3-6)

From these two passages of Scripture, we can see that the family was created for God’s Glory, and created to rule. God has appointed us as managers or stewards of His kingdom in this age. And someday we will rule with Him in the ultimate expression of His Kingdom, the millennial reign of Jesus Christ on earth.

How did this come about? According to the Bible, mankind was created and appointed a place of service in God’s Kingdom to demonstrate His glory, His power, and His ultimate triumph to all creation. Like all created beings, Satan was created to bring God glory. But Satan rebelled and abdicated his role, and God judged him. For His own reason, God has given Satan enough “leash” to go about building a rival kingdom. And even though Satan is already thoroughly defeated and his kingdom is destined for destruction, he is working furiously to thwart God’s plan.

Now, God will have His glory. And since Lucifer, His highest created being and “manager” of the heavenly kingdom, failed to glorify  Him, God has entrusted the management of His kingdom to another part of His creation, mankind.

This is in fact, the very reason God created mankind. Our creation was God’s response to the angelic rebellion. God proposed to demonstrate to the angelic realm what He can do with a creature lower than the angels (See Psalm 8:3-8) who yielded to Him, over against the higher creature that rebelled against Him (see Ephesians 3:10). This amazing plan preserved God’s glory. When Satan rebelled, God did something amazing. He created the human race to rule over His created order.

God created you and me to harness a part of His creation. Every person was created with that divine intent. The tragedy is that mankind went after Satan, stopped trying to be managers, and started trying to be the owner, thus parroting Satan’s sin. God had left clear instructions to His managers about how He wanted them to manage His creation. But Satan called into question the Owner’s right to set the rules and regulations of His creation. Satan has been doing it ever since, and managers of God’s Kingdom have been falling by the wayside ever since. We are all born with this pandemic, but thanks be to God we don’t have to live with it. He came down and provided the cure and vaccine all in one, the Blood of Jesus Christ.

As I have observed the coronavirus pandemic, I see that it is global, universal. Everyone, it seems, has an agenda today. People have plans, programs, things they want to accomplish, and specific ways they want to accomplish them.

God has an agenda, too; something He wants to accomplish in His way. The Bible calls this agenda God’s Kingdom. Throughout the Bible, the Kingdom of God is His rule, His plan, His program. God’s Kingdom is all-embracing. It covers every everything in the universe. In fact, we can define God’s Kingdom as His comprehensive rule over all creation. It is the rule of God (theocracy) and not the rule of man (homocracy) that is paramount.

Now, if God’s Kingdom is comprehensive, so is His Kingdom agenda. The Kingdom agenda may be defined as visible demonstration of the comprehensive rule of God over every area of life. This has some serious implications for us. The reason so many of us believers are struggling is that we want God to bless our plans rather than our fulfilling His agenda. WE want God to OK our plans rather than our fulfilling His plans. We want God to bring us glory rather than our bringing Him glory. But it doesn’t work that way. God has only one plan, one alternative and it’s His Kingdom agenda. We need to find out what that is so we can make sure we’re working on God’s plan not ours.

We are saying God is in control. But He is not in control as He wants to be because we are poor managers. We are waiting on God, and He is waiting on us.  This is crucial because when we were saved, the Kingdom of God was set up in our hearts so that it might reach to and direct the circumference of our lives. Having Jesus in our hearts will get us to heaven. But having Jesus in our hearts won’t get heaven down into history. The Jesus in our hearts must also be the Jesus who rules in the kingdom of which we are a part.

So, when we talk about a kingdom, we’re talking first about a king, a ruler, someone who calls the shots. Now, if there’s a ruler, there also have to be “rulees,” or kingdom subjects. And a kingdom also includes a realm; that is, a sphere over which the king rules. Finally, if you are going to have a ruler, “rulees,” and a realm, you also need kingdom regulations, guidelines that govern the relationship between the ruler and the subjects. These are necessary so the “rulees” will know what the ruler wants done.

God’s Kingdom includes all of these elements. He is the absolute Ruler of His domain which encompasses all of creation. And His authority is total. Everything  God rules, He runs—even when it doesn’t look like He is running it. Even when life looks like it is out of control God is running its “out-of-controlness.”

God’s Kingdom also has its “rulees.”  Colossians 1:13 says that everybody who has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior has been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. If we are believers in Jesus Christ, our allegiance has been changed. We no longer follow Satan but Christ.

And just in case there’s any doubt, let me assure you right now that there are no between kingdoms, no gray areas here. There are only two realms in creation: The Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. We are subjects of one or the other.

God’s Kingdom is lived from the prospective of heaven, not earth. That’s why Jesus said, “Seek His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). The pagans may run after the physical, visible stuff, but we are called to prioritize God’s Kingdom.

I also noticed we would have been more unified in this crisis if we were more knowledgeable of the kingdom agenda. God’s Kingdom not only decentralizes power; it governs through plural institutions. We need to study carefully Romans chapter 13:1. It points out one thing: “Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities.” Notice the plural here when it comes to governing authorities. There is more than one. The concept of multiple delegated authority is patterned after the Trinity in unity (one God) and diversity (three Persons). Each has specific tasks they accomplish in unified purpose. Divine government, then, establishes the pattern for human government. Thus the word “government” must be qualified, and not universalized.

We can boil all of life down into God’s four governmental entities: self-government, family government, church government, and civil government. The proper and successful functioning of these four governments depend on the government of God, who created and rules over all things. And while these distinct authorities support, enhance, undergird, protect, and interface with one another, they are nevertheless distinct in their responsibilities and in their spheres of jurisdiction.

It is also interesting to note that the success of controlling the coronavirus pandemic depends on God’s self-government which means self-control of one’s attitudes and actions apart from external coercion. Self-government is the foundation for leadership and every other form of government, since those who cannot govern themselves cannot properly govern others.

God’s ultimate goal for mankind is self-government under Him. Why? Because the Bible in Romans 14:12, “Each one of us shall give account of himself to God.” The first phase of family-government is self-government. When God created Eve then came family-government.  When I look back over my family life. I thank God for parents with a kingdom agenda. Sometimes I didn’t understand my father when he said,  “Put your brains in a bird’s head, and it will fly backwards,” or “If I have to go to jail for trying to make a man out of you, I don’t mind going to jail.” Any success that I have experienced, I owe to the family-government led by my “hero” Reverend Jesse B. Bilberry, Sr., my precious mother Mrs. Joe B. Bilberry, and my church-government, the Blooming Grove Baptist Church of Farmerville, Louisiana.

PERSONAL CHAOS

We need to correct the vision. When we are spiritually-blind we will wind up with a headache and a backache and a “life ache,” because the spiritual realm affects everything else in life. As I have previously said, God’s Kingdom operates from the realm of heaven. The only way you will be able to see life with 20/20 vision is when you look at life from a Kingdom perspective.

Dr. Tony Evans gives us the real deal. The fact is that if you’re a messed-up person and you have a family, you are going to contribute to a messed-up family, and if your family goes to church, then your messed-up family will contribute to a messed-up church.

And if you’re a messed-up person contributing to a messed-up family contributing to a messed-up church and your church is in a neighborhood, then your messed-up church will lead to a messed-up neighborhood.

And  if you’re a messed-up person contributing to a messed-up family contributing to a messed-up church, contributing to a messed-up neighborhood, and your neighborhood resides in a city, then your messed-up  neighborhood will result in a messed-up city.

Now if you’re a messed-up person contributing to a messed-up family contributing to a messed-up church leading to a messed-up neighborhood resulting in a messed-up city residing in a parish, then your messed-up city will cause a messed-up parish.

And if you’re a messed-up person contributing to a messed-up family contributing to a messed-up church leading to a messed-up neighborhood resulting in a messed-up city residing in a messed-up parish and your parish is part of a state, then your parish will help create a messed-up state.

But that’s not all. If you’re a messed-up person contributing to a messed-up family contributing to a messed-up church, leading to a messed-up neighborhood resulting in a messed-up city residing in a messed-up parish helping to create a messed-up state, and your state is a part of a country, then your messed-up state  helps produce a messed-up nation.

Now if you’re a messed-up person contributing to a messed-up family contributing to a messed-up church leading to a messed-up neighborhood resulting in a messed-up city residing in a messed-up parish helping to create a messed-up state that helps produce a messed-up nation, and your nation is part of the world, your messed-up country will leave us with a messed-up world!

So if we want a better world composed of better countries, inhabited by  better states, made up of better countries, composed of better cities, inhabited by better neighborhoods, illuminated by better churches, made up of better families, we need to become better people.

IT ALL STARTS WITH PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY!