TheKingdom

of God

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Hillsong UNITED: Whole Heart (Hold Me Now)

Whole Heart (Hold Me Now)

Words and Music by Joel Houston & Aodhan King

© 2018 Hillsong Music Publishing Australia (Admin in USA & CA by Capitol CMG Publishing)

PSALM 103:1-8Whole Heart (Hold Me Now)

W e e k T H R E E

Each week, we will provide a Hillsong worship

song and a psalm that can be used for worship, prayer,

or reflection on the topic of the week.

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HILLSONG UNITED: WHOLE HEART (HOLD ME NOW) Written by: Joel Houston & Aodhan King

Hold me now In the hands that created the heavens Find me now Where the grace runs as deep as Your scars

You pulled me from the clay You set me on a rock Called me by Your Name And made my heart whole again

Lifted up And my knees know it’s all for Your glory I might stand With more reasons to sing than to fear

You pulled me from the clay Set me on a rock Called me by Your Name And made my heart whole again

So here I stand High in surrender I need You now

Hold my heart Now and forever My soul cries out

Once I was broken But You loved my whole heart through Sin has no hold on me ’Cause Your grace holds me now

And that grace Owns the ground where the grave did Where all my shame remains Left for dead in Your wake

You crashed those age-old gates You left no stone unturned You…

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PSALM 103:1–18

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.

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The Kingdom and The FallLast week, we saw how God created everything in the universe good. We saw how He put humankind in His creation to rule over it in His stead, as His representatives to the world, to bear His image and His light. This week, we’ll see how that good world was broken in the fall. How what was a perfect creation became the mess we see around us every day. Floods, droughts, tsunamis, landslides. Cancer, war, abuse, murder. The world is not as it should be. It’s not as God created it. When we look around and see just how broken the world is, it’s natural for us to ask, “Where is God in all of this mess?”

(Q) Describe a time in your life when you wondered where God was, how He could let something terrible happen to your family or friends or even strangers you saw on the news.

(Q) How do situations like that make you feel?

(Q) How can we trust in a good God when the world is so messed up?

In this week’s episode, we saw how the first humans chose autonomy over trust in God’s Word. They weren’t satisfied with being God’s image bearers. They wanted to be gods themselves. God created this amazingly beautiful, perfect world for Adam and Eve to live in. Absolute paradise. And in all of that bountiful goodness, He made only one thing off limits to them. One thing. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Stop for a second and let that sink in.

God created the entire world good. Up to this point, there was only good in the world. Adam and Eve only knew good. Why would they want to know good and evil? God didn’t tell them not to eat from that tree because He was being mean and keeping good things from them. They already knew good. He was protecting them from knowing evil. He gave them boundaries because He loved them and wanted only good for them.

If they had trusted God and His Word—what He said to be true—they would still be living in that garden paradise. They would still know only

Lesson three

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good. And the world would still be a garden paradise. There would be no drought or famine or sin or murder or wars or suffering. We would know only good. But they wanted to know for themselves. And not just know for themselves, they wanted to decide for themselves what was good and what was evil. And that set the stage for disaster.

They didn’t trust God. They listened to another voice. The serpent tempted them with this. “When you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.” What they wanted was to be like God. Not to be godly, but to be god. Ironic, since they were already like God! They had been created in His image. But that wasn’t enough. They wanted autonomy. They wanted control, independence. They didn’t want to rule the earth with God and for God, they wanted to rule it themselves and for their own purposes. Doesn’t that sound familiar? Isn’t that the root of all sin, what all of us desire? To rule our own lives?

(Q) Have you ever struggled with wanting to do something God said was off limits? Ever felt like you wanted to decide for yourself what was good and evil instead of listening to what God says?

(Q) Are you tempted to believe God is holding out on you? That He’s not really trying to keep you from danger, but trying to ruin your fun?

(Q) Which of God’s definitions of right and wrong does the world around you struggle with and why? Which do you struggle with and why?

(Q) If you have pursued your own way, despite God’s boundaries, what happened? Did you hurt yourself or others around you? Can you see now why God set up those boundaries to protect you?

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Read Genesis 3.

The fall broke everything in creation. Not just man’s relationship with God, but the whole created order. That’s why we have tsunamis, earthquakes, famine, child abuse, gossip, anger, murder, wars—all of it. When Adam and Eve chose the knowledge of good and evil, they brought evil into the entire world. The whole universe was shattered. Like a broken mirror, everything around them shattered, not just their own images. When Adam and Eve chose the knowledge of both good and evil, they didn’t just break their relationship with God. They broke all of their relationships:

1. Their relationship with God. They hid from God. For the first time, they felt shame in His presence.

2. Their relationship with themselves. They felt shame at their own nakedness. Their innocence had been stripped away, leaving them feeling vulnerable and insecure.

3. Their relationship with each other. They shifted the blame. They turned on each other. Love and intimacy had been replaced with power struggles and division.

4. Their relationship with the entire created order. Both childbirth and work would now be physically painful for them. What had been created for joy would now be filled with pain. The land that had been created as fertile would now be full of thorns and thistles.

Imagine a small child asking his mother to teach him how to cook. With his mother guiding him, he could learn how to use the stove and the knives and the food processor in ways that are useful and productive, and make beautiful and delicious food. But if he sneaks into the kitchen while she’s not around and just goes to town on his own, that same kitchen quickly becomes a danger zone. This is exactly what happened when Adam and Eve went behind God’s back. They made Eden a danger zone. What used to be a blissful paradise became the world we know today.

All because those who were supposed to rule with the King tried to usurp Him. Their relationship with the King was crucial to maintaining the equilibrium of the kingdom. And the serpent knew that. Break down their connection to the King and the whole thing falls apart.

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So, we have a broken world. A world of natural disasters and man-made ones. A place of rivalry and competition, power struggles and manipulation, domination and abuse. Not a place of mutual submission and sacrificial love. A place of masks and highlight reels, not intimacy and transparency.

(Q) Where do you see brokenness in your relationship with yourself? Do you struggle with self-doubt, shame, self-loathing, perfectionism, pride, arrogance, selfishness, or something else?

(Q) What needs to change in order for you to have a healthy view of yourself? Where do you need to ask for help? Who can you ask and how?

(Q) Are any of your relationships marked by strife, chaos, power struggles, or brokenness? If so, what measures could you take to bring about restoration and healing?

(Q) Are there any situations or relationships in which you find yourself hiding your true self? What are some practical ways you can take off your mask?

The story of the fall is dark and difficult. It is full of sin and curse, and shame and pain. But even in the midst of all of this brokenness, the story does not leave us without hope. First, when Adam and Eve hid from God, He pursued them. He called out to them. He initiated repairing the relationship they had broken. Though humankind has broken their relationship with God, God will never give up on it.

Then, even in the middle of proclaiming the curses, our gracious, loving King gives us a message of hope. Throughout the Bible, even in the worst of times, God never gives His people a message of judgment without a message of hope.

Read Genesis 3:14–15 again.

Before He even delivers the curses to Adam and Eve, God promises that one day a son of Adam and Eve will crush the serpent once and for all, though his heel will be bruised in the process. Because this so clearly refers to Jesus and His work on the cross, theologians call this prophecy the “proto-evangelion” or “the first gospel.” This is the first time the gospel was ever preached, and it was before the curses were even declared to Adam

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and Eve. As devastating as the fall was, it wasn’t beyond the Sovereign King’s redemption. Before God even told them how deeply the world was broken, He announced His rescue plan to fix it—Jesus.

Read 1 Corinthians 15:21–22 and 54–57.

Sin, evil, and death entered the world through one man. But they were also conquered through one man. Through Jesus, we are made alive! Through Jesus, the curse has been reversed! Through Jesus, we have victory over sin and death!

The full plan of the kingdom, all the way to the end, is not just that human beings will be reconciled to God, but that the whole world will be made new: new heavens and a new earth. The future kingdom in which God reigns on the throne will be a world with no crying, pain, suffering, sin, disease, or death. That means no hurricanes, no earthquakes, no tsunamis, no natural disasters. The universe will be back in balance again.

Jesus showed us a glimpse of this future kingdom when He came. Every time He healed someone, every time He cast out a demon, He gave us a preview of His future kingdom where there will be no disease and no evil. When He walked on water or multiplied bread or calmed the storm, He showed His sovereign power over the earth. He could control natural disasters. He was the King over all creation. The way He gave Himself showed us what perfect love really looked like. Though He was the King of the universe, He did not demand power or status or honor, but came in humility and servanthood. He gave His own life to fix the brokenness. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

But, remember, we are living in the in-between time. Jesus has defeated sin and death by His resurrection, but He has not yet made all of creation new. God’s kingdom has come in our hearts but not all of creation. God’s kingdom has come in the spiritual realm but not the physical. So, in our in-between kingdom, even though God is Sovereign, even though the Lord reigns, we will continue to see pain and suffering and people mistreating each other. Natural disasters and man-made disasters. Natural disasters don’t mean that God is not Sovereign. They don’t mean He isn’t good. They mean the story isn’t over yet. The kingdom hasn’t yet fully come.

Read Romans 8:18–25.

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(Q) How can we have hope in the midst of this broken world?

(Q) What does it mean that we have first fruits of the Spirit? How can that help us wait for the future kingdom with patience?

(Q) Why will our waiting be worth it?

We don’t have to sit around and wait for the future kingdom. In the in-between, the kingdom is expanding all around us through the work of the Holy Spirit in the world, and we can be a part of that. We should be part of that. The Spirit has come to heal all of our brokenness—with God, with ourselves, with others, with the world. When we choose to follow Jesus and submit to God’s Word over whatever other voices we may hear or whatever we may think, God heals the brokenness in our relationship with Him and we are made new. So we can participate with the Spirit in healing the world.

In a 2016 interview with Oprah, Hillsong NYC Lead Pastor Carl Lentz told her,

“I think you have to get to the place where you realize the grace of God is for you. That sin is real, the result of sin is real, and if you don’t have someone breaking that cycle we’re all in this same boat. But because of Jesus, you have the right to put your hand up and totally start a new cycle that to me is the essence of what we’re trying to do, which is to allow God to do what only God can do. It’s a commitment. It’s a decision. ‘I have decided to follow Jesus’ may be the best language to me. Your soul is who Jesus was always going after. It doesn’t matter how much money you do or don’t have. It doesn’t matter how much good or bad you’ve done. Your soul, that’s the mirror, that’s the reflection, and that’s what Jesus came for. I can’t promise you a better life if you’re going to follow Jesus. I can’t promise you a Bentley or that you will get a promotion. But I can promise you that your soul can transcend any situation if you’ve given control back to the One who created it.”1

1 “ Carl Lentz’s Religious Awakening” SuperSoul Sunday, OWN Network—https://www.facebook.com/oprahwinfrey/videos/supersoul-sunday-with-carl-lentz-live-stream-hope-you-all-enjoy-/10154650331387220/

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When our relationship with God is healed, we are given a whole new perspective, a whole new power, a whole new life, and a whole new love for ourselves, for others, and for the world. When we accept Jesus, we join God’s kingdom. Then, we can help build God’s kingdom when we participate in healing the brokenness in ourselves, our relationships with others, and our relationships with the created order. We can be the light of the world. Like Jesus, we can give people glimpses of that future, perfect kingdom. We can help bring that kingdom to earth.

(Q) Are there any areas of your life in which you are still trying to be your own king? Be your own god?

(Q) What would it look like if you trusted your King in this area? How can you take practical steps to trust God and what He says is right?

(Q) How can we help bring healing to a broken world?