Kingdom Living
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· 3 viewsHow do others know I am a follower of Christ
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Proclamation of the Word
Proclamation of the Word
“But I say to you who are willing to hear: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other one as well. If someone takes your coat, don’t withhold your shirt either. Give to everyone who asks and don’t demand your things back from those who take them. Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you.
“If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, why should you be commended? Even sinners do that. If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, why should you be commended? Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to be paid back in full. Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return. If you do, you will have a great reward. You will be acting the way children of the Most High act, for he is kind to ungrateful and wicked people. Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.
“Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good portion—packed down, firmly shaken, and overflowing—will fall into your lap. The portion you give will determine the portion you receive in return.”
Luke
Introduction
Introduction
Brothers and sisters how do people know you are who you say you are? We do not think much about identification because it is something we live with all the time. Even as little children we have our birth certificates, Social Security Cards, school ID tags\badges and so on.
In May I am going on a fishing trip in Canada. In preparation I had to renew my passport, it was painless because I had an old passport. All I had to do is just fill out the paper work, and include my old passport and payment, a couple of weeks later I had my new passport book and card.
<Show Passport and Card>
Patricia Brown couldn’t prove her identity. On a Saturday morning in May last year, she rushed into the basement of Washington’s Foundry United Methodist Church, frantic that she would miss its I.D. Ministry hours. She took deep breaths as she reached the bright-yellow room crowded with narrow tables, where people sat poring over papers. Without valid identification, she couldn’t get housing or work, her food stamps or medication. She sat in a metal chair beside me, wiping away sweat from her forehead. The volunteer across from us looked concerned as Brown reviewed an intake checklist: Social Security card? No. Birth certificate? No. ID? Expired.
“So, we don’t have anything?” the volunteer asked. No. Nothing.
I’d seen situations like Brown’s many times. I volunteered at the I.D. Ministry from January 2015 to March 2016. Two Saturday mornings a month, I would help the ministry’s poor or homeless clients navigate the bureaucracy of acquiring government identification. For most people, replacing a lost driver’s license or other ID is an inconvenience but not an ordeal. For Foundry’s clients, however, the path to an ID is more like a high-stakes test of endurance and resourcefulness.
Brown, 61, a former receptionist, had taken three buses from Northeast Washington to the church at 16th and P streets NW, but it was clear she had been on a longer journey. After her mother’s death in April 2014, Brown lost the apartment they had shared. She returned from the grocery store one day to find her belongings on the sidewalk. She had been evicted.
“I tried to ... salvage what I could, but I was by myself,” she said. Her Social Security card and birth certificate were among the things lost that day. Since then, she had been floating from couch to couch among acquaintances, paying her hosts what she could and trying not to overstay her welcome. When I asked about her current housing, she said only, “It’s not a good situation.”
Identification is a big deal, you cannot vote, you cannot get housing, medication, food stamps, a job, without some form of Identification. In our focus scripture Jesus is telling us that Identification as a follower of Jesus Christ, as a son or daughter of God, as a citizen of the Kingdom of God or we can say “Kingdom Living” is a big deal. It is a matter of eternal life or death because the people of the world (sinners) need to be able to know who the true followers of Jesus are. People in the world will know a true son and daughter of God by the way we treat others and most dramatically of all, by the way we treat our enemies and those who are wicked.
Connection to the Word
Connection to the Word
Governing how we treat others is the understanding that God is a god of relationship. Before God created anything at all, God was in relationship with the Son and Holy Spirit and there is a inter-relationship betwen each member of the trinity. We can see this in the Ten Commandments. Turn in you bibles:
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You must have no other gods before me.
Do not make an idol for yourself—no form whatsoever—of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow down to them or worship them, because I, the Lord your God, am a passionate God. I punish children for their parents’ sins even to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. But I am loyal and gracious to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Do not use the Lord your God’s name as if it were of no significance; the Lord won’t forgive anyone who uses his name that way.
Remember the Sabbath day and treat it as holy. Six days you may work and do all your tasks, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Do not do any work on it—not you, your sons or daughters, your male or female servants, your animals, or the immigrant who is living with you. Because the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them in six days, but rested on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Honor your father and your mother so that your life will be long on the fertile land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Do not kill.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not testify falsely against your neighbor.
Do not desire your neighbor’s house. Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox, donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You must have no other gods before me.
Do not make an idol for yourself—no form whatsoever—of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow down to them or worship them, because I, the Lord your God, am a passionate God. I punish children for their parents’ sins even to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. But I am loyal and gracious to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Do not use the Lord your God’s name as if it were of no significance; the Lord won’t forgive anyone who uses his name that way.
Remember the Sabbath day and treat it as holy. Six days you may work and do all your tasks, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Do not do any work on it—not you, your sons or daughters, your male or female servants, your animals, or the immigrant who is living with you. Because the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them in six days, but rested on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Honor your father and your mother so that your life will be long on the fertile land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Do not kill.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not testify falsely against your neighbor.
Do not desire your neighbor’s house. Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox, donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.
The writer of Hebrews helps us understand the new life in Christ by connecting it to the promised land God had promised Israel after he delivered them from Egypt. The promise to the believer of entering rest still holds true because the fulfillment has not yet arrived. The door is still open and the writer pleads for his readers not to turn away. God is true to His Word, and His promises still stand true to this day. It is the rest that believers have, a rest that Christ has provided through the shedding of his blood so that we can have peace with God in the free and full justification of believers from all their sins. But the writer of Hebrews also wants us to remember, with the promise, comes a penalty, also, a warning not to miss God's rest
ESVTherefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
Brothers and sisters, in the Ten Commandments we see that our relationship with God is sacred and our relationship with our neighbor and parents is sacred. By sacred I mean that is is given by God and that it is set apart to honor God. So inside this idea of sacred relationships we learn that life is sacred, relationships between others are sacred, property is sacred, and truth is sacred. It is this sacredness of relationship that is driving how we love not just our families but those who are our enemies.
“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
Luke 6:27-31
The common thread through all of the Letter to the Hebrews is that Jesus Christ is Superior to everyone and everything. in this fourth chapter we are told how Jesus is superior to Moses and the promised land, yes Moses was a leader of God’s people the giver of the law and the builder of the tabernacle. But, Jesus is also the leader of all of God’s people, God and creator of everything. So if it was important to pay attention to the good news of the Law of Moses, how much more important is it to pay attention to the good news of Jesus Christ.
Orientation: Living the Word
Orientation: Living the Word
You may be asking, how can I ever hope to live up to the standard that Jesus is setting? The truth is we cannot do it on our own. On our own, in our own power, we want to hate our enemies and strike back at those who strike us. It is clear that it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can ever live up to this standard. Listen to how the Prophet Jeremiah speaks about this:
No, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my Instructions within them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. They will no longer need to teach each other to say, “Know the Lord!” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord; for I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sins.
Jeremiah
In December 1943, German ace pilot Hanz Stigler had every reason to shoot down the American B-17 bomber in front of him. Enemy forces had already killed his brother early in the war and were now bombing German cities. Not only that, If Stigler took down this particular bomber, he would round out his kill-score and secure the German equivalent of the Medal of Honor.
ESVFor good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
ESVFor good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
As Stigler prepared to squeeze the trigger, he thought that it was strange that the bomber wasn’t firing back at him. Going for a closer look, he saw the gunner dead and most of the crew wounded. The plane itself was riddled with bullets and struggling to stay aloft. In his heart, Stigler knew he would be killing men in cold blood. Instead, he opted to do the honorable thing—he signaled to the shocked American pilot and flew with the bomber to prevent it being targeted by anti-aircraft fire.
Two years after God delivered Israel from Egypt they now find themselves on the verge of entering the rest awaiting them in the Promised Land. But they missed it. They reached the threshold and drew back, because they thought the difficulties ahead were too great ()They missed enjoying God’s rest because they were not united in faith with those who listened. How do you know someone is listening because of the actions they make after hearing what you say. Only Joshua and Caleb had the faith to say to the people lets go and take possession of the land. God promised it to us and God alway keeps his promises. However, the rest of the people could only see the obstacles and their view of the obstacles was greater than their view of God.Don’t be like them! the writer says. God’s rest is still with us, to be entered and enjoyed in this life. It is the rest which comes with hearing, receiving, believing and living the gospel. It is the rest of forgiveness of sins and peace with God through Jesus Christ.David mentions God’s rest ().
ESVFor he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
Stigler escorted the plane until they reached the North Sea, where he broke off and saluted his adversaries one last time. It was not until five decades later that the American pilot, Charles Brown, successfully tracked down the man who saved him. The two men became the best of friends, and as a show of thanks, Brown made Stigler the guest of honor at a reunion he had planned with his crewmen. They showed Stigler a video of their children and grandchildren, people who would not have lived were it not for his act of compassion.
He assumes that God’s rest is still awaiting us, and we may enter it today. The only barrier is if, like the Israelites, we back away in disbelief. God’s rest is the real sabbath—the place where we relax in all that God has done for us, and accept completely his purpose for the future. Let’s be sure to enter it! God still has his arms open waiting for all his people.
“If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, why should you be commended? Even sinners do that. If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, why should you be commended? Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to be paid back in full. Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return. If you do, you will have a great reward. You will be acting the way children of the Most High act, for he is kind to ungrateful and wicked people. Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.
Be
ESVBut of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
Closing
Closing
Be compassionate just as your father is compassionate. How many chances do we have every day to be compassionate to those around us? To the beggar on the street corner, to a stranger stranded on the side of the road, or the hitch hiker freezing in the cold, to our brother and sister in Christ who need help or encouragement. Jesus helps us with this by giving us this ethical standard to live by as sons and daughters of God. You see it is God’s character and actions that are the ethical standards that govern “Kingdom Living.”
ESV“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Luke 6:
“Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good portion—packed down, firmly shaken, and overflowing—will fall into your lap. The portion you give will determine the portion you receive in return.”
ESVWhoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Brothers and sisters, our society is becoming more and more polarized. What I mean by that is the sides are more clearly defined and how that looks today is this. “If you do not agree with me or celebrate my behavior then you are my enemy” There is no patience and there is no discourse, don’t we see that in the leadership of our country, corporations, and churches. What the world needs is an extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit and God’s Children to love others as God loves us.
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
The privilege to enter into that rest belongs to believers. The finished work of redemption by Jesus Christ on the cross has to be appropriated by faith if a person is to receive its benefits. What will you do with Jesus Christ?
Psalm
But you, my Lord,
are a God of compassion and mercy;
you are very patient
and full of faithful love.
Words: Charles Wesley, 1747
Music: John Zundel, 1870
Words: Charles Wesley, 1747
Music: John Zundel, 1870
Music: John Zundel, 1870
UMH 384
1.
Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven, to earth come down;
fix in us thy humble dwelling;
all thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation;
enter every trembling heart.
ESVFor we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
1.
Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven, to earth come down;
fix in us thy humble dwelling;
all thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation;
enter every trembling heart.
ESVCome to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
2.
Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit
into every troubled breast!
Let us all in thee inherit;
let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
end of faith, as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty.
Brothers and sisters, I do not know what obstacles you are facing today. I do know that we have a Lord bigger than any obstacle. Put your trust in Him and together you can overcome anything.
Let us pray!
3.
Come, Almighty to deliver,
let us all thy life receive;
suddenly return and never,
nevermore thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray and praise thee without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.
4.
Finish, then, thy new creation;
pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee;
changed from glory into glory,
till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love, and praise.