Citizenship

Philippians 3:17-20

I sat Monday afternoon and listened to Pastor Colton and he did an awesome job talking about entry into the kingdom. If you appreciate Pastor Colton’s ministry could you give him a hand. I appreciate that as I am basing his upcoming review on your applause.

I don’t like the phrase “dumb it down” so we won’t say Jesus’ was ever dumbing it down for His audiences, but He sure did a good job making his illustrations practical and relatable. When He comes talking about the kingdom, His audiences understood kingdom setups. Kings and edicts, distinct social cultures, leadership styles, values and principles. In America we haven’t thought about kings much in our country since we threw some tea into the harbor a couple hundred of years ago. My imagination really makes it hard for me not to wonder how caffeinated the fish may have become.

Anyhow Colton talked about entry. I’m going to point out some parallels between Kingdom citizenship and American citizenship today but please don’t at any point hear me say they are one in the same. I’m afraid we already struggle with that kind of thinking. But sometimes the common language just makes it a much easier discussion.

If you go on vacation and enter another country, that doesn’t make you a citizen right? I can go visit another country for a couple weeks, and return back to my home country and still be considered a citizen. There are rare occasions where someone might hold dual citizenship, but today as we talk about our citizenship in the kingdom, I want us to recognize that dual citizenship is not an option. Colton talked last week about new identity and leaving things behind upon entry. Before Christ, we are citizens of this world, but in the text we are about to read this morning we can see that when we take citizenship in the kingdom of God, our citizenship in the world is to be a thing of the past.

Turn, this is Paul teaching, as Colton mentioned last week, Philippians is a book that we consider a prison letter. Written from prison by Paul as he stay incarcerated for preaching the gospel. So when he opens verse 17 join together in following my example, the benefit package of his actions up to this point don’t seem particularly attractive. Let’s took a look…

Philippians 3:17–20 “Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,”

BUT our citizenship is in heaven, we know the word “but” as a word that means that what is about to be said is an exception or in opposition to what was previously said. In this case what was previously written by Paul describes those whose citizenship in heaven isn’t a priority to them. Instead they live for today instead of being concerned with their eternal destination, food and caffeine is their god, which is something we’d all like to ignore, let’s be real, we do ignore it, and we elevate and praise sin, that’s the glory in their shame piece. As we talk about citizenship for all of those who believe that America is God’s country, if we took an honest look at America through the lens of this passage, Paul could have wrote this passage today to the rest of the world and said, Don’t look at America, do the opposite of that, and you will find your citizenship in heaven.

So if we say our citizenship is in the Kingdom of God what does our behavior look like this side of heaven? It starts with seeking.

Seeking

This isn’t a seeking as though we haven’t yet found, because we have entered the kingdom. It’s not hide and seek, although in the kingdom of God we are all perpetually “IT”.

Paul started our passage today saying, I live like a Christian, so model my behavior and others who do as well. Earlier in the chapter he said I press, I push, I strain towards the goal of being like Jesus. Paul completed a mission, then God sent Him somewhere else. Maybe it is like hide and seek, but the game isn’t over until we’ve found everyone.

Prior to this the most famous verse we all know in scripture is found in Matthew 6 when Jesus is teaching about the kingdom and says…

Matthew 6:33 “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

There’s that word “but” again right? Jesus tells us to seek the kingdom instead of food and drink and clothes. Paul says seek the kingdom instead of food and sin and the temporary. Pretty cool when we’ve heard the same story from two pretty reliable sources in Jesus and Paul.

Too many of us try to fix many of our problems with the word DON’T. Don’t eat, don’t scroll, don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t flirt… Many of us have probably heard this principle before, but the subconscious brain struggles to process negations like "don't," often focusing on the action itself rather than the restriction, making it hard to stop unwanted behaviors by simply telling yourself "don't".

SEEK FIRST! Sure there are some do not’s in the Bible, but our focus should be on the positive action more so than the avoidance of the negative. The previous encourages the latter.

Can it be said that you are seeking the kingdom? You ever read verses and say God, what does that mean? Or maybe you might ask a question like I did when I was studying this week. God, how do I know if I’m really seeking the kingdom? Well The best interpreter of scripture is scripture itself. Between our Philippians passage and Matthew chapter 6, it seems like if you evaluate how much you think about food, (and you can do this by overeating, but also by focusing too much on dieting), but how much time of your life is concerned with food, how much time you concern yourself with clothing, vanity, material pursuits, how much sin such as lust, concern for money, and earthly appearances, all of these things would be good indicators of how much you are seeking the kingdom in a inversely proportionate manner.

Was that too wordy? How about some straightforward questions.

How much time do you spend in Prayer and the Word daily compared to time you spend eating or thinking about what you are going to eat?

How much money do you tithe or give away compared to how much you spend on your own desires?

How much time do you spend committed to making the lives of others better compared to the time you spend trying to make yourself feel good or make your life better?

It’s very much a this over that, and citizens of the kingdom understand that. They understand that it isn’t always just a cut and dry process but in different seasons God leads us as we seek His kingdom and He reveals new and exciting ways we can expand His kingdom as we surrender another area of our own lives to Him.

This next attribute of Kingdom living is one I almost didn’t go with today because it could seem so obvious but I felt led to go ahead and share it with you. Citizenship in the kingdom, means staying in the kingdom.

Staying

Now sure if you move to America from another country and obtain citizenship you are still allowed to leave the country. Going on a trip or even leaving for an extended time doesn’t negate your citizenship. You don’t have to go through the process all over again when you travel back home. But if we are citizens of the kingdom and choose too go back into worldly living it might cause us to think about whether or not we are still citizens of the kingdom huh? Do we lose our citizenship in heaven if we take a weekend vacation from the things of God, or maybe decide to live in a foreign country for a while? What if we never come back. Almost wonder if the pastor is going to enter a conversation today about whether or not you can lose your salvation.

There are two schools of thought about this, and let me tell you which argument I think is healthier… Neither! 2 Timothy 2:23 “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.”

Now the verse just called you stupid if you do such a thing, I would never call you stupid.. not to your face.

No one said to get to heaven you have to have an opinion on whether or not once saved always saved or whether or not you can lose your salvation. God’s not kicking anyone out of heaven because they had a dirty thought, but He also gave us freewill so He’s not stopping you from walking away. We should be far less concerned about what happens if we end this life living in sin, and far MORE concerned about walking close to Him.

My best friend moved to Germany and he’s still a citizen of America, but His impact on anyone that lives here or ability to participate in activity here is reduced to virtually nothing. You get that right? It’s difficult to influence without presence. When you are constantly moving in and out of behaviors of the world that are not pleasing to God, you’re missing out on all the benefits of the kingdom. Jesus is blessing those who are seeking His kingdom first! Both God and the enemy can provide things in this life that bring happiness. But those things that are received through kingdom living are covered in His peace and blessing. When we receive blessing from God it can be multiplied to bless others. When we experience happiness through selfish motives and carnal means, that sense of happiness is fleeting and insatiable, because our focus is on the gift rather than the gift giver.

Staying in the kingdom today means wanting to be present with Him and His body which is the church, and letting Him use our presence to influence others so we too like Paul can serve as a model for others to discover and experience.

That leads to our third S of the day, Seeking, staying…

Spreading

Oh we spread our nationalism don’t we? I am proud to be an American. I’m thankful for veterans. I’m thankful for our freedom. But for those of use might be thankful that we were established as one nation under God, we know that we have strayed far from the essence of that creed. Unfortunately, I fear we look much more like those described by Paul that oppose the kingdom. I’m not talking about you Christian, really I’m not. I’m reminding you that the responsibility falls on us to spread the word about His kingdom. Cursing the darkness will not change it, only shining the light will. We spread our agendas and opinions with far greater passion than we do the gospel. Your bumper sticker about your favorite amendment is not changing the world, but having someone from a different race over to your house for dinner would. If we aren’t careful, without noticing it we could wake up one morning and find that we have used our Christianity as a platform to highlight our favorite aspects of conservative thinking, citing a Bible verse or two out of context, while we ignore weightier matters like loving our neighbors, or get this… even our enemies.

We will talk more about this next week but Jesus said that His kingdom was not of this world, so if you are ever elevating a worldly kingdom you are diminishing His. There have times in my life where I was concerned that if I didn’t say something that it wouldn’t get heard, but let me tell you where I landed on this. Don’t worry, someone else will tell the story. Let someone else have the bumper sticker, YOU spread the gospel. Let someone else share their opinion on facebook, YOU spread the gospel. Let someone else repeat everything they hear on the news, and spread the gossip, YOU spread the gospel. Let someone else have endless theological debates and divisive conversations, YOU spread the gospel.

RESPONSE: INVITE TEAM

Citizenship mean seeking the kingdom… and if I may today let’s add the word daily. Each day waking and saying Lord what would you have me to do? It’s a prayer He loves to answer, most days it will be something small and seem insignificant. But those small steps of obedience make big things happen. As you seek his kingdom daily, more and more of what He is doing will be revealed to you.

Citizenship means staying - Have you left? Allison and I have left central Ohio a couple of times and lived in different areas, and it’s hard to stay caught up. Sure there are phones and social media and other ways to connect, but there is something about presence that keeps us connected at a different level. God never quits loving you, but He sure would like to have you come home. Even if you aren’t sure what happen, maybe you feel like you were slowly dragged away by your flesh, or seduced away by a sin. His arms are open wide and He is waiting for you. Sometimes it can seem a little boring, but there is great power in staying. When our identity is in tact we will be more fruitful in spreading the kingdom.

Citizenship mean seeking, staying, and ultimately spreading the gospel..

We said earlier that cursing the darkness doesn’t change it but shining the light does. Yesterday through various communications I got from the electric company, they made me aware that they had 2700 workers out trying to restore the power, and that they would keep working to get the lights back on for your family. Church I would propose to you today, that the lights have went out in America and it’s time for there to be a restoration of Holy Spirit power so that people would come out of the darkness and into his marvelous light.

I asked his permission to use this today, 13 year old Luke said to me dad I wish I could be guaranteed that I was going to heaven. And I said Luke you are going to heaven. I have witnessed Luke’s conversion, baptism, and desire to live for Christ. I see the Holy Spirit living in Him. But He said dad we were told to go make disciples and I’m not sure I’m doing that. With that type of honest confession, I’m not concerned about Luke’s salvation, but I wondered how often we are concerned with what disciples we are making.

Stay to spread transition, Luke on guarantee, make disciples not sure I’m doing that.

On spreading Something like… 2700 AEP workers, 90,000 power everything we can, not going to quit working until we get the lights back on.

STAND, we all need to get better, inventory right now, which one is the prayer for you today, seeking, staying, spreading?

here’s my heart lord, speak what is true

Post response: ME AT CHAPEL, thursday at 9:15, or livestream, MAYBE room 108 mike erica spreading gospel, immediate opportunity to live out what you learned.