Luke 12:27-32 (New International Version)
27"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
32"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

How often have you heard people say to one another, “Get real!” It’s usually an agitated suggestion from one person to another to get their head out of the clouds and come back to reality. It could also suggest that a person not be fake or false.

During this year I want to address things like relationships that surround us. I could talk about getting real in husband and wife relationships. I could teach on getting real in parent/child relationships. We could strive for motivation in relationships with people around us in the business arena and being influential in the marketplace. I want to preach on getting real in our finances some this year. I want to do a series on practical responsibilities of life from the book of Ecclesiastes, written by the wise king Solomon. I want to teach about being real in such a way that it brings great success and power to your lives. I will be saying to you often this year, “Get real” or “Keep it real!” Being “real” definitely falls into the category of not being false or fake, but a lesser-known definition for the word “real” is what I would like to focus on.

The word “real” in Webster’s Dictionary is defined “existing, actual, not imaginary; true, genuine, not artificial, immovable, consisting of land or houses.”

Consisting of land, or having to do with land, another pocket dictionary relayed is a definition that most people have registered in their minds. Take the words “real estate.” An estate can be made up of jewelry, cars, clothes, pets, etc. But real estate is an estate made up of land and the buildings on it.

So when we say “get real” this year, I want us to develop a new paradigm. “You want us to say get land?” Let’s go on with this thought.

If the word “real” can mean having to do with land, then what does the word “realm” mean?

“Realm” – a kingdom, country, domain, region, sphere.

I’d like to focus on the two words “kingdom” and “domain.”

Real ? land ? realm ? kingdom.

The obvious path I’m taking here is that Jesus Christ is the King of all kings and the NT is absolutely filled with His references to His Kingdom.

The OT prophets talked about a kingdom that would come. (Probably wondered if it ever really would.)

Then it really happened. A man named John the Baptist arrived on the scene and began to declare that this expected and hoped-for kingdom was “at hand” in the person of Jesus. Jesus repeated this message but went to the next step by declaring that the Kingdom was already present in His ministry.

Matthew 12:28 (New International Version)
28But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Jesus was saying that He was the full embodiment of the Kingdom.

Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary says:

“The entire ministry of Jesus is understood in relation to this important declaration of the presence of the kingdom. His ethical teachings cannot be understood apart from the announcement of the kingdom. They are ethics of the kingdom; the perfection to which they point makes no sense apart from the present experience of the kingdom. Participation in the new reality of the kingdom involves a follower of Jesus in a call to the highest righteousness.”

What I pray that you begin to see from this is that though we understand that relationships are important, and finances are important, and practical teaching on life responsibility and success are important, they are nothing lest they be enveloped in the Kingdom. And the Kingdom is about the King of it, Christ Jesus.

Let’s go on. At the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus read a passage from Isaiah 61 about the coming messianic age and then made the astonishing announcement, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)

Everything that Jesus did He related to the Kingdom. It would become the ultimate confrontation of evil. Every time He healed the sick, it was an attack on the kingdom of destruction. Every time he raised the dead, it was infusion of the Kingdom of Heaven into the kingdom of darkness. It was Jesus coming out of Heaven and setting Himself up in battle array against Satan and his army of imps and demons. Jesus even made reference to His disciples about seeing “Satan fall like lightening from heaven.” Satan and evil are in retreat now that the Kingdom has made its entrance into human history. This is an anticipation of the final age of perfection that will be realized at Christ’s return.

The mystery of the arrival of Christ’s Kingdom is that it did not overwhelm the world. He did not come in spectacular kingly splendor like the Jews expected He would. He did not liberate them from the oppression of the Romans politically. He did not squash Satan and obliterate his demons to powder so that they ceased to exist. He came like leaven in bread – potent and yet hardly noticed. The Kingdom came inconspicuously like a mustard seed, or like a small pearl of great value that could be hidden in one’s pocket. The Jews thought that the Kingdom’s entrance would bring an end to all evil in the present age; but it arrived mysteriously without doing so.

Again, Nelson declares, “The new reality of the Kingdom overlapped the present age, invading it rather than bringing it to an end. The demons reflect this oddity when they ask Jesus, ‘Have you come here to torment us before the time?’” (Mat. 8:29)

The devils know that Jesus is coming for them in the future and were confused at this entrance into the earth in bodily form. What the devil did not know was that Jesus would not only bring the Kingdom with Him, He would give it to His disciples and then make it available to the whole body of Christ.

Luke 22:28-30 (New International Version)
28You are those who have stood by me in my trials. 29And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, 30so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Luke 9:1-2 (New International Version)
1When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

But they would have to enter this Kingdom the proper way – supernaturally.

John 18:36
Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

John 3:3
In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. "

Luke 17:19-21 (New International Version)
20Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within[a] you."

Once you have been born again and the Kingdom of God is inside of you and you in it, then beautiful things can begin to happen in your life.

Look at the definition of the “Kingdom of God/Heaven” from the Bible Dictionary:

God’s rule of grace in the world, a future period foretold by the prophets of the OT and identified by Jesus as beginning with His public ministry. The Kingdom of God is the experience of blessedness, like that of the Garden of Eden, where evil is fully overcome and where those who live in the kingdom know only happiness, peace, and joy.

Pastor Sherry was in Galveston one day praying and a truck passed her by that said “Old Dominion”. This is what God is bringing back to us through Christ’s work – the old dominion of the Garden of Eden. What the first Adam lost for us, the last Adam, Christ, has regained and is now restoring for us.

So, in closing, when we say “get real” during 2007, or “keep it real”, we are saying to keep it about the Kingdom of God. We are in His land, His real, His realm, His kingdom. We are not our own.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (King James Version)
19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Every decision we make, every move we make, every breath we breathe, every relationship we have must be about His Kingdom. So when we say “get real”, it’s not merely an absence of fakery, but we are saying to make sure that your every fiber of existence is daily connected to your Creator and Sustainer, Jesus Christ.

Say it again with me:

Real? land? realm? kingdom.

Come on, get real!