Living as Ambassadors in God's Spiritual Kingdom

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
1. **Revelation 1:8** - "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."
2. **Matthew 6:10** - "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
3. **Daniel 6:3** - "Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom."

#### Observation Questions
1. What does Revelation 1:8 reveal about the nature and authority of the king in the spiritual kingdom?
2. How does Matthew 6:10 relate to the idea of the kingdom of God extending from heaven to earth? ([10:49])
3. According to the sermon, what are some characteristics of the kingdom culture? ([15:52])
4. How did Daniel's "extraordinary spirit" influence his position in the kingdom, as mentioned in Daniel 6:3? ([30:35])

#### Interpretation Questions
1. What does it mean for Jesus to be both the Alpha and the Omega, and how does this impact our understanding of his authority? ([11:41])
2. How can believers adopt an ambassadorial mindset in their daily lives, especially in the workplace? ([13:27])
3. Why is the character of the king important in representing the kingdom, and how does it relate to the concept of integrity and trustworthiness? ([31:21])
4. How does the "buddy system" in prayer reflect the collective power and unity among believers? ([18:20])

#### Application Questions
1. Reflect on your current mindset. Do you see yourself more as a citizen or an ambassador of the kingdom? How can you shift your perspective to embrace an ambassadorial role more fully? ([13:27])
2. Think about your workplace. What are some practical ways you can bring the culture of the kingdom into your daily work environment? ([14:14])
3. Identify a specific area in your life where you need to demonstrate more integrity and trustworthiness. What steps can you take to improve in this area? ([31:21])
4. How can you incorporate the "buddy system" in your prayer life? Is there someone you can partner with to pray for specific needs in your community or workplace? ([18:20])
5. Consider a recent situation where you had the opportunity to act as an ambassador of the kingdom but chose not to. What held you back, and how can you prepare yourself to respond differently in the future? ([21:51])
6. How can you use your spiritual gifts to serve others in your workplace or community? Identify one specific gift and a way to use it this week. ([19:08])
7. Reflect on the story of Daniel. How can you cultivate a spirit of excellence in your own life, regardless of your job title or position? ([30:35])

Day 1: Ambassadors of Heavenly Authority
As citizens of a spiritual kingdom, we are called to embody the culture and values of this realm in every aspect of our lives. This includes the workplace, where we spend much of our time and can influence others by demonstrating the kingdom's principles. We are representatives of the king's authority and purpose, tasked with bringing a heavenly perspective to our earthly environments. [13:27]

Colossians 3:17 - "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
Reflection: How can you more actively represent the values of God's kingdom in your workplace this week?

Day 2: Living with Kingdom Responsibility
Our citizenship in the spiritual kingdom is a gift that comes with divine rights and privileges, but also with the responsibility to serve others. We are equipped with spiritual gifts, not for our own benefit, but to reflect the king's generosity and to help others experience the fullness of life. [19:08]

1 Peter 4:10 - "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms."
Reflection: What spiritual gift have you been given, and how can you use it to serve someone in your community today?

Day 3: Character Reflects the King
The true measure of our ambassadorship in the kingdom is not found in overt religious expressions but in our character. Integrity, trustworthiness, and a spirit of excellence should permeate our actions, reflecting the character of the king more than any spiritual gifts we possess. [31:21]

Daniel 6:3 - "Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom."
Reflection: In what ways can you demonstrate integrity and excellence in your daily tasks, even when no one is watching?

Day 4: Prayer as the Ambassador's Power
Prayer is the powerful tool given to us as ambassadors of the kingdom. Through prayer, we can invoke the king's presence and power in our daily lives, impacting our surroundings with the culture of the kingdom. It allows us to intercede for our environment and the people within it. [25:55]

James 5:16 - "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective."
Reflection: Who in your workplace or community can you commit to praying for this week, and what specific outcomes will you ask God for on their behalf?

Day 5: Unity in the Spirit of Agreement
The "buddy system" within the kingdom culture emphasizes the collective power of agreement in prayer and the promise of the king's presence. This principle encourages collaboration and unity among believers as they seek to manifest the kingdom's influence in their communities. [18:20]

Matthew 18:19-20 - "Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."
Reflection: Can you identify a fellow believer to partner with in prayer this week, and what will you agree to pray about together?

King, today we are going to celebrate our King, who is this King of glory with all power in His hands. Thank you, God.

Said death, where is your sting? They tried to take Him. He said, "No, you're not taking my life; I'm laying it down. If I wanted to call 10,000 angels, I could." This is our King, and I'm telling you, the devil is chirping, but we must know who this King is and what this Kingdom is to us.

We are citizens, and citizenship comes with rights and privileges. It comes with access. This Kingdom is not just a physical place; it is a domain that reaches from heaven and comes to Earth. He said, "Let this Kingdom come; His will be done on Earth, that's right, as it is in heaven."

We are citizens of a God who has a Kingdom that is unmatched, unlimited. He showed me throughout the week that there is no way 30 minutes of a sermon can capture all of what this Kingdom is. A three-week series is not sufficient to capture what this Kingdom is. It is just as robust as God Himself.

This is how Jesus described Himself in Revelation: "I am Alpha and I am Omega; I'm the beginning and I am the end." Jesus is the Lion and the Lamb. He was 100% man and 100% God when He walked this Earth. How can I capture all of that? This is our King.

But the Kingdom of God is this perspective of life too; it's a mindset. You have to have a Kingdom mindset where you see yourself as a citizen and an ambassador. You have the backing of Heaven behind you in a foreign territory. We are in the world, but we're not of this world. We are in a foreign territory, and so He wants us to have this ambassador mindset, this ambassador identity, this Kingdom way of life, this culture that He wants us to take to this foreign territory.

Now, it only makes sense that we take our Kingdom culture into the marketplace. Think about it: we work seven, eight, nine, ten hours away from home. We spend more time at work than we do at home, so why wouldn't the King send His ambassadors to where they spend the most time?

Your job as ambassadors is to be messengers of the King, representing our nation, the Kingdom of God, a spiritual Kingdom that is meant to touch Earth, to let people know His power, His glory, the culture that He wants to give them. That is our job. The Kingdom must be at work at work.

We're citizens, right? You're not being an ambassador when you're in the embassy. Come on now, this is the embassy where the King's culture is already accepted. We already get it; it goes unsaid. We're not being ambassadors in the embassy. Sunday morning is the embassy, so Monday through Saturday, that's when we're being ambassadors.

He wants us to give Him culture. What is the Kingdom culture? This is important. Here's the definition of Kingdom culture: let me give it to you like this. It is the beliefs and practices passed down in a society from generation to generation. It includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, art, etc. It's the way of life for an entire society.

Here is what happens in our Kingdom culture: daily dependence on the one true King, Jesus Christ; a lifestyle of worshiping this King and worshiping our Heavenly Father; a culture and lifestyle of honoring others.

Okay, I'm going to pause right there. Honoring others, loving your neighbor as yourself, forgiveness is in this culture. I see y'all want me to preach prosperity, and your name is coming up in rooms. Forgiveness is the culture of the Kingdom, grace and mercy from God. The culture is in this Kingdom; that is the culture of the Kingdom.

Jesus, I'm going to skip to this point: it's hard to give the culture of the Kingdom when you don't have the character of the King. Right? I sense that I need to get straight to the fact that if we don't reflect at work the character of the King, they don't want the culture of the King.

See, our King wants people to know that He comes that we might have life and life more abundantly. But if you don't reflect an abundant spirit, generosity, why would they want the culture of the King?

But here's what else is in this culture: it's a lifestyle where we can be bilingual. That's right. So whether it's language that is earthly or even a heavenly language, when we need to reach Heaven, we can reach Heaven. And when we need Heaven to reach Earth, it can be done.

In this culture, we believe in the buddy system because the King said this: "If two of you agree here on Earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in Heaven will do it for you." And the buddy system says, "Where two or three of you are gathered in my name, I'm going to show up too. I will be in the midst."

When your culture of the King is present, and in this Kingdom culture, everybody gets a gift. Pastor Soul said everyone loves gifts, right? Well, our King is handing out gifts. Every citizen gets a gift in this Kingdom culture, a spiritual gift that we are supposed to show and use while we are at work as ambassadors, teaching the culture of the King.

Now, I'm going to admit to you, one time one of the biggest mistakes that I made is that I separated church life from work life. I was a great citizen, but see, citizens can be citizens at home. You can stay to yourself, and you just focus on your own rights and your own privileges, making sure that the constitution of this Kingdom works for you, making sure that no one violates what I'm supposed to have.

And I'm just showing up here to do my 40 hours because actually, I keep my culture on Sundays. My God, I'm just here to exchange my work for this paycheck, and that's it. That's all you're getting out of me: citizenship.

But one day, my job needed an ambassador. So I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business, and a coworker walked up to me and said, "Hey, one of our coworker's mothers is sick. Can you pray for her mother?"

"Sure, Father God, we thank You in this moment. You're so good to us. You're so kind. Heal her."

She says, "No, no, no, no, no. Follow me."

"Where are we going?"

"Jason, just follow me."

And I began to walk with her, and I'm walking slow, and I get to the room, and it's about ten people standing in a circle. She said, "Jason, I've seen you preach. I know you go to church, but her mother is sick, and she's in another city. Is there something you can do about it?"

I had to make a decision: am I going to stay a citizen, come on now, or am I going to be an ambassador? Am I going to stay to myself about my rights and privileges, or am I going to bring the King's culture of healing into the room? Am I going to bring the King's language of prayer into the room?

And I began to tiptoe in. I said, "Are you sure we can pray up in here? I mean, is HR around here? 'Cause I need this job. I got a bunch of kids. I need this good job."

Come on, I had to make the decision whether to be a citizen or an ambassador. And so I started my little feeble praying: "Oh God, we thank You." And the Spirit of God came in and said, "Sir, you need to pray through. You need to intercede. They are looking for the Kingdom to come on Earth as it is."

And I began to pray, and I'm praying past the nervousness. I'm being honest with you. I'm praying past the hesitation because I want God to get glory. I was sent to this job for a reason, and even if it was that one reason, I needed to fulfill my role as an ambassador.

So I began to pray, and it's folks that I didn't even know knew Jesus' words. They just knew "Hallelujah." I mean, I'm just hearing stuff like, "When did you learn the word 'Hallelujah'?" But I began to pray, and I prayed, and I prayed. I said, "Amen."

And a couple of days later, they said her mother recovered. They didn't know that she was going to make it, but she recovered. Something that you said in that room worked. They needed the Kingdom culture to come. They needed someone who could get to Heaven.

I didn't do the work; it was the Spirit of God that met that woman wherever she was in the hospital. Right? I couldn't go there; they couldn't go there. But I was an ambassador representing my nation, yes, in a foreign territory.

And I know that's an extreme situation, and all of you maybe are saying, "Listen, I'm not in that kind of environment. Jason, that sounds good, but you know we can't do that."

Let me give you something you can do as an ambassador with the language of the Kingdom, which is prayer. Get there a little early. Prepare yourself on the way in. Play some worship music, whether you're in the car or you put them in your airpods. Begin to worship on your way and get there early.

Then begin to walk around, and maybe you act like you're going to the water cooler or whatever. You begin to pray: "Father, in the name of Jesus." You don't have to be loud; you don't have to scream, but you bring the culture through that language of prayer.

"Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for my boss. Touch his body. Touch my coworkers. Bless their family."

Can I tell you the truth? We spend so much time complaining about the job that we forget to pray for it. Come on! And you're complaining about your boss, but you're supposed to be praying for your boss. Pray for their mind; pray for their soul to be saved. Pray that they are kept in their emotions.

Begin to pray for your coworkers. Yeah, I know they get on your nerves. I know they're a problem. But see, you're the one that's supposed to bring the Kingdom in. And it's not just them getting on your nerves; it could be a spiritual problem, and you have a spirit solution to a spiritual problem.

It's good! You are the ambassador, and the King has given you rights to pray, language to pray. He's given you access to healing, but you need the Kingdom confidence to know that. You need to know that it's not about us.

See, no ambassador goes in with their own opinion about anything. An ambassador goes into that foreign territory with the mind of the King. That ambassador goes in saying, "There are things that the King wants to accomplish here. Just send me the message, King. What is it that you want to offer in this space?"

I had the privilege of being a part of a dinner with a head of state from a foreign nation, and it was so interesting because we were in this waiting room, and they were allowing us to get something to drink and some peanuts and stuff like that.

And then all of a sudden, they said, "The Prime Minister is on his way." And I was like, "Okay, tell him to come on in. Why are you telling me? We in here; he can have peanuts too. Tell him to come in."

But what I noticed was that everybody else understood what happens when the King comes in, when the Prime Minister comes in and his cabinet comes in. So I saw them stand up in a line, and I said, "Oh, we okay."

And the Prime Minister comes in, and he begins to shake hands down the line, and I see them bow to him. I see reverence to him. And then the next person comes in. I don't even know who I knew—the Prime Minister. Who is that? It's somebody in the cabinet. It doesn't matter.

The honor that goes to the King goes to everybody else who's in his delegation. Y'all got to understand what I just said. The Prime Minister was first, but everybody else in his delegation got the same honor and respect as the Prime Minister.

Here's what I found out at dinner: I was shaking one man's hand, and I'm like, "Oh, praise God." Well, I didn't say praise God, but he was the bodyguard. He was someone I was shaking hands with, and bowing was just a personal assistant.

But guess what? Regardless of the job, listen to what I'm saying: just because you're not a preacher or a teacher and you don't work in ministry, regardless of the job, as part of that delegation, they got the same lobster and steak that the Prime Minister was getting. They got the same honor as the Prime Minister was getting.

And I learned a lesson: when you're dealing with a Kingdom, power and authority are based upon who the King is. You don't even have to be a Prime anything or Secretary of anything, but when you're in the delegation, there are rights and privileges and honor that come with it.

And you still have to do what you're supposed to do. That's right. Don't get caught up on whatever your job title is. You are an ambassador with rights and privileges, and you have a job to do.

Let me finish up here. So good! You walk around and pray, but you have to have the character. Remember, you can walk around and pray; you can rebuke; you can do whatever you want to do. But after you get there and you sit down with folks, the character of the King needs to come through.

Daniel is a good example of this, and I don't have time to go through Daniel, but just know here's what the Bible says about Daniel in the sixth chapter. Now, Daniel had a good government job. He wasn't a priest; he had him a good job, probably some good benefits.

Usually, okay, that's sorry, Jesus, that was me. I'm sorry. So we can't use the excuse that if he—you know, he was a preacher and all. No, no, no, no, no. Here's the part that we can learn from Daniel.

Chapter 6 says, "Then Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners because he possessed an extraordinary spirit." And because of that extraordinary spirit, the King intended to appoint him over the entire Kingdom.

Extraordinary spirit—it translates to spirit of excellence. That's not about title; it's not about how big the company you work for is; it's about excellence. What does excellence look like? It means I work with integrity, whether someone's looking or not.

That's right, character! I am trustworthy. I do what I said I was going to do, and if I said I was going to do it, I'm going to do it. Ambassadors work with integrity. Work as though the boss is looking, even though they are not.

Ambassadors don't take reams of printer paper from work. They don't take reams of printer paper from work to use in their personal printer. The 60-minute lunch hour is actually 60 minutes. Integrity, folks! It's integrity!

It's character! It's character that stands out more than your gifts and speaking in tongues and all that when we're at work. That character of the King needs to stand out.

1) "Our King is handing out gifts; every citizen gets a gift in this Kingdom culture, a spiritual gift that we are supposed to show and use while we are at work as ambassadors teaching the culture of the king." [19:08]

2) "You're the one that's supposed to bring the kingdom in... you have a spirit solution to a spiritual problem. You are the Ambassador and the King has given you rights to pray, language to pray, he's giving you access to healing." [25:55]

3) "No Ambassador goes in with their own opinion about anything. An ambassador goes into that foreign territory with the mind of the king, saying there are things that the king wants to accomplish here." [26:33]

4) "When you're dealing with a kingdom, power and authority is based upon who the king is... when you're in the delegation, there are rights and Privileges and honor that comes with it, and you still have to do what you're supposed to do." [29:19]

5) "Our job as ambassadors are to be messengers of the king, representing our nation, the kingdom of God, a spiritual Kingdom that is meant to touch Earth to let people know his power, his glory, the culture that he wants to give them." [14:14]

6) "The kingdom must be at work at work. We're not being ambassadors in the embassy; Sunday morning is the embassy. So Monday through Saturday, that's when we're being ambassadors." [15:09]

7) "It's hard to give the culture of the kingdom when you don't have the character of the King... if we don't reflect at work the character of the king, they don't want the culture of the king." [17:35]

8) "We are citizens of a God who has a kingdom that is unmatched, unlimited... it is a domain that reaches from heaven and comes to Earth." [11:41]

9) "The kingdom of God is this perspective of life, too. It's a mindset where you see yourself as a citizen and an ambassador, with the backing of Heaven behind you in a foreign territory." [13:27]