Revelation 1:6-7 “ To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.  Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.”

Here John realizes that Jesus is King of Kings. He is the king to all the people on earth. Since he loves us so much that he washed us with his own blood. Because of this he made us king and priest to all the other. As kings how do we rule the kingdom and what is the kingdom? Because we need to glorify his name with the kingdom. Verse 7 said behold he's coming with the clouds and every eye will see him. Of course the first time when he came to the world he brought grace and truth. When he comes the second time he will bring judgment throughout the whole world. Those of us who can truly reign in our kingdom can inherit the kingdom of heaven. As for those who can not reign over our kingdom, we will spend an eternity in everlasting destruction.

So what is the kingdom that we need to reign over? We know in the book of revelation the end days there will be a great battle—the Battle of Armageddon. We sometimes think battle of Armageddon is in the East some where but actually it is in the spirit. The battle of Armageddon exists between us and the people of the world. The kingdom is our heart to reign over.  If we allow the world to reign over our heart, then that kingdom will be destroyed. That's why it's so important for each of us to be able to reign over ourselves.

There are a lot of things in this world which influence us. So far one week into the religious seminar we can see already see many young people are beaten by Satan. Their kingdoms have been destroyed. Their hearts conform to this world. So because of this they feel very hopeless. They shared how lonely they are and how many commit sin against God each day. Some are addicted to pornography. Some cannot stay off the computer. Because of this they feel so weak.

You can see if you go on their Facebook even some of them drink and get drunk. They posted these things on their Facebook. Some of them date outside of church kiss and that and post on Facebook. Some of them go dancing, drinking, shake their body and put on Facebook. The Battle of Armageddon has already started. Older generation need to pray for them. All of us are kings. When one king is weak the others must help out. When one kingdom is destroyed then others must build it up. First we must realize all this is happening. Our enemy is destroying our younger generation so we must pray to God to help us see all these things. That's why it's so important for us to build the wisdom to reign over that kingdom.

Proverbs 25:2 “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of king.” It is why for us as kings we must see what's going on around us. We must see that Satan is destroying our kingdom. It is our duty as king to notice all these things. Many youths I speak to, their parents have no idea what they are going through. If their parents have no idea what they are going through how can their parents help them?

For me when I hear these stories I can't help but to shed tears, because many of them feel so isolated and there is no one there to help them. Why? Because many of us don't know all these things are going on. When there is opportunity to work with younger generation we must search and seek out what is going on with their lives and develop relationships with them. We know the younger generations are the future to this kingdom. It's to the glory of God to conceal a matter. Of course God can reveal everything to us but we need to do our part because every miracle and sign is performed through a person.

As kings we are to reign as Lord Jesus Christ, so we should work with him closely. That's why in Proverbs 25:3 “As the heavens are high and the earth is deep, so the hearts of kings are unsearchable.”  So once we search out the matter of God, we can truly understand the things of God. “As the heavens are high and the earth is deep”  means our hearts as kings should also be unsearchable. We should have great wisdom just like the four living creature in the book of revelation. They have eyes within and without in the front and back. This means they can see things very clearly. This is the kind of wisdom we need to have in order to reign over our kingdom.

Proverbs 20:26 “A wise king winnows out the wicked.” Of course in every kingdom there are some evil people there. Just like in our hearts there are some kind of wickedness. But we should not let this kind of wickedness reign in our kingdom. Those who are wise will destroy it. That's why we need to reflect upon ourselves.

Of course it's not easy to reign over the kingdom because Satan also have his kingdom. He has many kings too and those are our enemy. That's why if we allow our hearts to contain wickedness inside and do not kill the weaknesses we have, sooner or later it will take over the kingdom. We can see it in our younger generation. Some think that sex before marriage is nothing wrong and some support abortion and homosexuality. Their hearts are filled with things in this world and their hearts are confused with what is right from what is wrong.

When they come to church, the church teach them one thing. But going to the world, the world teaches them another thing. We come to church once a week. Those of us who are strong in reigning our kingdom must truly help our brothers and sisters because we don't want their kingdom to be destroyed. We must help them to return back to God. The only way to do that is to get rid of sin in our kingdom and theirs.

Proverbs 29:4 “The king establishes the land by justice, But he who receives bribes overthrows it.”

Every kingdom must start with justice. But if any kingdom receives any bribes, the kingdom will be overthrown. So what does this mean for us? When we reign over our kingdom we cannot compromise with the things of this world. Like the book of revelation and the 7 churches. The compromising churches are corrupt. After they become corrupt they become a dead church.

For us we sometimes think we preach too strict on the pulpit. Many of the teaching we teach are very strict to the point we feel that we are so self-righteous. The reason we preach what we preach is because we don't want our kingdom to compromise with the kingdom of Satan. So nowadays why are we so weak in our faith? Because we are compromising too much with the things of this world. For example, Sabbath is from Friday night to Saturday night. But why so so few of us come to Friday night services? Because we are compromising our kingdom. We feel that it's enough to come to church on Saturdays. If you think like this, Satan is slowly taking over your heart bit by bit.

On Saturdays we should not do anything pertaining to this world. A couple I know, on Friday night and Saturday night they don't even kiss. They truly want to observe Sabbath. They feel that kissing is of this world. Sabbath is worship God under grace. At the same time we should not take his grace for granted. Sometimes we compromise with too many things of this world. For example, we have children they want to take to piano lesson, violin, and Chinese school. All these things if we allow to do on Sabbath days, we are teaching them it's ok to do worldly things on Sabbath.  Because of this the foundation of their kingdom is weak. When Satan comes upon them they cannot keep their kingdom pure. As we reign over our kingdom, we should not compromise with the things of this world. Because the minute we compromise sooner, or later our kingdom will be destroyed.

Not only should we not conform with the things in this world we should also not commit any wickedness.  Proverbs 16:12 “It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, For a throne is established by righteousness.”

Matthew 7:21-23   “‘Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

Lord Jesus Christ told his disciple not everyone calling me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On the day of judgment many people will come and say to Lord Jesus, “Have we not prophesied in your name? Have we not cast out demons in your name? Have we not performed signs in your name?”  Jesus will be clear to them, “I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers.” That's why all of us need to get rid of sin in our heart, and only then can we reign the kingdom with Jesus Christ.

The minute we sin against God, that is the time God will not reign in us. That is the time Satan will come and reign in us. Sooner or later our kingdom will belong to him and not God. It is an abomination of king to commit wickedness. We truly must clean our kingdom. We must truly be king over our hearts.

A testimony from NYTS (National Youth Theological Seminary). This youth before coming to NYTS was very sinful. The first week he prayed to God he sees that Jesus Christ want to come to his heart, but his heart is filled with things of this world. Jesus showed him the things in his heart. His friends from college partying with him. There is no room in your heart for me. The brother sees Jesus standing in the corner of the room and said I want to come closer to you. The brother continues to pray and his college friends started to disappear. At the end of the NYTS, he was sitting with Jesus Christ in his room. This is the goal you want to reach. If we have righteousness in our heart for sure Lord Jesus Christ will be in our hearts.

Proverbs 25:5 “Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness.”

So can we establish a kingdom full of righteous. If we have any wickedness in us we must get rid of it. Maybe if it is outside our kingdom we must take it away. We know this world is full of sin. It's difficult to reign a kingdom filled with purity. We must get rid of sin.

Proverbs 31:8 “Open your mouth for the speechless. In the cause of all who are appointed to die.”

When we clean all the wickedness from our heart, we can do good for other people. The bible say here to open your mouth for the speechless and open your mouth for the cause of those who will die. The people in this world will die. Only us have the authority to preach to them. If we cannot even reign over our kingdom, how can we save those who are to die?  So we truly need to reign over our kingdom. For sure God will give us the power to preach the gospel. Many people out there are reign by Satan. We must make the kingdom of Satan become a kingdom of God. Only way to do this is to be strong ourselves. We know as a king it is not easy to reign over our kingdom. That's why we always need our Lord Jesus Christ so he can reign over us and reign with us. Only when we get to the point when we can reign with Him, then we can reign our kingdom. May God bless all of you and strengthen one another. So we can truly have the wisdom to reign over our kingdom. So the name of God can truly be glorified.