Watch/Listen
Topic: Kingdom of God
Trusting Dad
So many of us have a messed up view of God. We don’t understand how our Father in heaven loves us beyond imagination. Because we lack a clear picture of God’s love, we cling to this world and all of its concerns. Our lives can get consumed by worry. But when we see the reality of God’s love, this world’s problems are small by comparison.
Are You in the Game?
Followers of Jesus are called to recognize the spiritual war we’re in and “get in the game” because there is no neutral zone of safety. Casual Christianity is not an option from Jesus’ perspective – he makes it clear that we cannot settle for a comfortable faith. We are called out of safe (and boring!) Christianity into the reality of a war where we stand up for truth in the midst of a world full of lies. Read More
Can God Trust You?
Every day we confront choices that reflect and form our character. Will we live for ourselves, or for the Kingdom? God wants us to be trustworthy for Kingdom service and it’s true that he tests us to refine our character, but he doesn’t tempt anyone. If that’s true, why does Jesus teach us to pray, “lead us not into temptation?” Read More
The New Way of the New Israel
Up to this point in the story of Jesus, Jesus was the one who displayed the power of the Kingdom of God. At this point, Jesus charges the 12 disciples to do what he had been doing. The program given to the disciples follows a simple pattern: Do the Kingdom > Then Proclaim the Kingdom. Read More
Extravagant Forgiveness, Extravagant Love
When we look at the fallen world around us, we often see division, separation, and seclusion. Whether it’s separation by family, country, ethnicity, religion, there is a tendency to sort ourselves into people groups by what we like or do not like. Though this may be natural in this world, it is completely opposite of what the Kingdom of God is about. Jesus came and demonstrated a radical willingness to associate with people of all walks of life with the love of God. Read More
Yes, I Reign!
In living a life of faith, it’s very important to allow Jesus to define how we see our life experiences. There are often moments in life when things do not turn out the way that we plan them to, or the way that we think things “should be.” And it’s in these moments, that we have to look at the work of Jesus in our everyday lives, and trust that God is indeed present and bringing forth his Kingdom in and through us. Read More
Doing the Teachings of Jesus
Sound, wise teaching has no real effect in our lives if the teaching is not put into active, continuous practice. As we have seen throughout the “Sermon on the Plain” in Luke 6, Jesus lays out the demands and blessings of living as a disciple in the Kingdom of God. Jesus concludes his teaching with a challenge to his followers to embody his teachings and put them into living action. Read More
Blessings to the Messy
This weekend, we started our 6 week church-wide adventure entitled “The Beautiful Mess.” The title may seem a little different, but it’s very representative of how the Kingdom of God interacts with our lives. When a new way of living begins to reveal itself, it can bring beauty into our “normal” messes of life by actually “messing up” our so-called … Read More
A Different Kind of New
To say that Jesus was a radical, “thinking-outside-of-the-box” person may well be the understatement of understatements! In living out his call as God’s Messiah, he went against a lot of the expectations and categories of his Jewish contemporaries, especially the religious leaders. It appeared that everywhere he went he was turning social convention on its head with his Holy Spirit-empowered deep wisdom and amazing love. Jesus’ incredibly loving, accepting behavior towards social outcasts and “sinners” made him the constant target of attention, scorn, and many questions from people. Read More
The Kingdom is a Really Messy Party
Messiness often bothers people. Life is messy, and many things are ambiguous or undefined. There are no clear categories into which certain events can be placed. It can be too chaotic, and unsettling for some to endure. Because of this dislike of messiness, it is pretty understandable how we would like to make things clean and unambiguous as we can…including our relationship with God and His Kingdom. We learn from Jesus’ ministry, however, that God’s Kingdom is not as clean-and-nice as we might like for it to be. Read More
