7. Kingdom Devotion
Kingdom Glimpses • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 34:30
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· 40 viewsIn today’s message, Jesus shows us that your heart can only be in one place at a time, your eyes can only focus on one thing at a time, and your life can only be devoted to one master at a time. God is a better master because God is a loving Father.
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Gospel Community Announcement
Gospel Community Announcement
What are Gospel Communities?
Medium-sized groups of 5-10 households, 20-40 people.
Gather once a month to share a meal, build relationships, share what God’s doing in their lives, and pray for one another.
Why are Gospel Communities important?
Gospel Communities will help us love and care for the church well.
Gospel Communities will be a relational context for discipleship and spiritual growth.
Our job as a church isn’t to fill the seats and increase revenue. It’s to be disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus.
Character transformation requires relationships with others who share a common identity: disciple of Jesus.
When will Gospel Communities start?
September.
We need to know how many Gospel Communities we need to start, so we need to know how many people are interested in joining a Gospel Community.
Sermon Introduction
Sermon Introduction
What is success?
Last week, we reached a turning point in the Sermon on the Mount, so I want to summarize the path we’ve hiked so far.
Jesus began in the beatitudes, showing us the mountain of God’s kingdom. This is the blessed life, the flourishing life. This is what it means to be human as God created us to be.
Then Jesus invited us to hike up the mountain with him, to be the salt and the light. “Follow me up the mountain into the kingdom life, further up, further in. To the summit!”
In order to climb the mountain and live the kingdom life, you must have a greater righteousness.
Climbing the Mountain With Jesus
Climbing the Mountain With Jesus
There’s a greater righteousness than self-righteousness. There is a holiness deeper than moral performance.
Heart transformation is greater than behavior management.
God cares more about who you are than what you do. Self-righteous superiority isn’t the way of the kingdom.
I’m glad you haven’t murdered anyone, but you are so angry. You have hatred in your heart and murder in your mouth—that’s not the kingdom life.
I’m glad that you love people who are like you, who share your views, but you utterly despise people who disagree with you—that’s not the kingdom life.
Integrity is greater than image management.
God cares more about who you are than who others think you are. He cares more about your actual life than your instagram life.
It’s great that you pray and give and fast, but why are you doing those things? Are you as devoted to God in private as you are at church? Are you as serious about faith at school on Thursday as you were at youth group on Wednesday night?
Are you the same person on the inside as you are on the outside?
Illustration: Scene in the old Spiderman movie where Uncle Ben says, “Peter, you’re becoming the man you will be for the rest of your life. What kind of man are you becoming?” You are becoming the kind of person you will be for the rest of eternity. What kind of person are you becoming?
The pinnacle of human existence is a loving relationship with “our Father in heaven.” The peak at the top of the mountain of life is to love and be loved by God.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
There’s only one path to that peak: being wholly devoted to God alone. The only path that leads to the pinnacle of human existence is the path of following Jesus together.
Illustration: This isn’t PC… But, God’s mountain is a different mountain. You can’t walk all these other paths on the world’s mountain and reach the top of God’s mountain.
Exposition
Your heart can only be in one place at a time (Matt 6:19-21).
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Your eyes can only focus on one thing at a time (Matt 6:22-23).
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Your life can only be devoted to one master at a time (Matt 6:24).
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
God is a better master because God is a loving Father (Matt 6:25-34).
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Application: When push comes to shove, our true loyalty is revealed.
6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
Conclusion: Communion Reflection
Conclusion: Communion Reflection
What do you fear?
What do you celebrate?
What is success?