Now I see there are a few older ones around here, apart from the young ones. There's an old one or two. Well for the young ones who wouldn't know anything about this, you don't know anything about this but I'll tell you something that we used to do. This is what we used to do - of course if you're older you'll know what we used to do. Every time there was a movie at the beginning of the movie they would show a picture of the Queen, our Queen, and everyone would stand. Everyone in the theatre would stand. It was unthinkable not to stand in the presence of royalty. If you sat down everyone - they would stare at you. We would sing a song, God Save the Queen and send her victorious, happy and glorious, born to rule over us. It's unthinkable for us to sing such a song now. Why? Because we've changed how we think.
So for us the thought that someone was born to rule over us is just inconceivable, because our culture has totally shifted and you see the whole of the western culture's shifted. Of course Britain, they used to sing Britannia, Britannia rule the waves, you know, because it says we shall never be slaves. So it's a song, the songs and words were all about kingdom and it came out of revival and it came out of reformation in the whole of Britain. So years later, now I can remember when the change came and disrespect came, and gradually the Queen's role when from being a sovereign to actually being a figurehead government, until finally now the royal family, there's a mixture of either people either like them and respect them, or they just think they're a joke. See, so that's happened in our lifetime that that shift has taken place.
So for the culture coming up today it's unthinkable to stand at the beginning of a movie singing God save our Queen, God save our gracious Queen, you know - send her victorious, happy and glorious, born to rule over us! A ruling class - it's unthinkable, see? And yet it has in it actually a reflection of the very kingdom we're born into, except we're born to be the ruling class - so we'll talk to you a little bit about the kingdom of God. Next week I'll share about the difference there between democracy and kingdom, so you can understand the way of thinking and the way of operating is totally different. So when we talk about kingdom we're talking about the realm over which a king is absolutely sovereign. It's a place or a territory over which his word, his will is done, his desire is done, his values are imparted. The kingdom of heaven, when we talk about the kingdom of heaven or any kind of kingdom, we're thinking about principles, laws and protocols, ways of doing things.
See a lot of Christians don't understand protocol. Protocol, if you're a Maori person you'd understand when you go on a marae there are certain protocols, and heaven forbid if you break protocol. You will know about it, because there are consequences for breaking protocol. It's just the way you go about doing things. Now the kingdom of heaven has protocols, so for example one of the protocols when you want to approach the King, you approach Him with an offering. You approach Him with praise, so for all those people who don't clap, don't sing, don't bring anything to the King, you are breakers of protocol. Think about that. Think about that, because the Bible's very clear. The Bible lays out the protocols of the kingdom, and it tells us very clearly in the Bible how to approach Him. It tells us to approach Him boldly and confidently. It tells us come before His presence with singing, enter His gates with thanksgiving, into His courts with praise. It tells what to do.
It tells us how to enter the courts of the King see, so when we come singing is not sort of something you just do at the beginning of a service, and if you like it you do it; if you don't like it you just wait to get the message. It's actually the protocols of how to approach a king. It's the ways of going about doing stuff. Now there are a whole lot of things which are protocols of heaven, and if you want to see the benefits of heaven in the earth you've got to understand the ways of doing things. So Undercover will touch into one aspect only of kingdom life and the dimensions of the kingdom, but what I want to do is to lay out some things prior to that so you can sort of get the perspective within which it happens. Okay, we got the idea? Alright, I want us to have a look in Genesis 1. The focus of the Bible - the Bible is not about religion. Most people think it's all about religion you see; are you religious? No, I'm not religious. I hate religion. Religion's the blight of the world! It's true, it's the blight of the world.