Build Your Kingdom Here - part 3

As we close out 2025 and stand on the threshold of a new year, we're invited to reflect deeply on what it means to pray 'Build Your Kingdom Here.' This isn't about accumulating earthly success—the bigger house, the nicer car, the perfect life that culture promises will satisfy us. Instead, we're called to a radical reorientation: letting God's kingdom reign inside us. The sermon draws us into John 16:7-11, where Jesus promises the Helper, the Holy Spirit, who convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. This divine power isn't distant or abstract—it's personal and present within every believer who has been baptized. We're reminded through Romans 8:37-39 that absolutely nothing in all creation can separate us from God's love in Christ Jesus. Not death, not life, not powers, not height, not depth. Only we can walk away from that relationship. The message challenges us to examine our 2025: Did we build God's kingdom or our own? Did we miss the one-time-a-week gathering that nourishes our souls like a favorite song we can only hear at a specific moment? As we look toward 2026, we're called to learn from our mistakes, to let the Holy Spirit's conviction lead us to transformation, and to recognize that our true battle isn't against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces. The hope? We are the hope on earth, carrying the light that the world desperately searches for.