Kingdom-Focused Church

“My worth is not in what I own” or “skill or name or wealth or might”

“My value fixed, my ransom paid

“At the cross”

Yes!

What a simple yet profound phrase

I need that reminder this morning

Intro

Welcome

My name is Mike and I have the privilege of being one of the Pastors here at One Hope Church

Today that means I’m going to open up God’s Word with you

We’re in a short but significant series called “We Are One Hope Church” where we’re reminding ourselves of what defines us as a church

We started with the core: we are Gospel-centered, meaning we have set our orbit around the good news of Jesus

Then, we continued with the idea that we are Community-driven, meaning we prefer collaboration and connectedness because we believe life and faith are better experienced together

And today we’re going to look at what it means to be a Kingdom-focused church, seeing the world through God’s eyes and shaping the way we live

Zombies

There is no greater disorder or unrulyness than a zombie apocalypse

It’s a picture of chaos

Why the obsession in our culture?

I mean, how many films or TV shows have been made about this in the last 20 years?

I think it’s because there’s something deep in us that identifies with it

That says wow that’s not really that far off

The disorder and unrulyness within us connects with that picture

We place ourselves in the story sure as a means of escape but also as a means of relating, explaining what we feel inside

Zombies are people

They can’t be reasoned with, the have appetites that drive them to destroy, and they used to be normal people

Does this sound familiar?

Isn’t this our culture?

This is why the Walking Dead took off like it did as a show

Because it was about zombies yes but

King Ezekiel

An amateur actor and zookeeper who created a persona of a King because people need someone to follow

He leads a community even called “The Kingdom”

The Tension

Longing for a King

Everyone is longing for a king

Politics

Obsession over the Royal Wedding

It’s been happening since Bible times

Reading in the Jesus Storybook Bible about how Israel told God they needed a King

1 Samuel 8

People demand a king like the other nations of the world

Samuel warns them that all earthly kings will be marked by oppression, wealth accumulation, and the overarching idea of taking

He provided Saul and thus began our seemingly never-ending disappointment with the people who lead us

How are you longing for a king?

A better government leader

A better boss

A better pastor

Worry

How many of you have worried in the last 24 hours?

How many of you just worried a little when I asked you to raise your hands?

Anxiety and worry are something we deal with every single day

Worry has 3 elements to it

Belief that you have control +

Fear for your own comfort =

Stress when you realize both are threatened

The focus of all of these things in the text is yourself

We’re focusing on all of the wrong things

Mainly we’re focusing on ourselves

Scripture

Do Not Be Anxious

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?[g] 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?

SLIDE

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.

Prayer

Context / Definition

Jesus is teaching what has come to be known as the sermon on the mount

He is setting forth principles for everyday life

This theme of the kingdom is central to many of the things Jesus teaches there on the mount and really for his whole time on earth

What is the kingdom of God?

Even if I preached a 2 hour sermon on this, we wouldn’t have scratched the surface of how far you could go

I’d encourage you to do some further reading particularly with a book called “Seek First: How the Kingdom of God Changes Everything” by Jeremy Treat

It was an excellent resource for capturing a lot of the layers of this topic and is really where a lot of what I’m about to share came from

With our limitations in mind, what is the kingdom of God?

“The kingdom is God’s reign through God’s people over God’s place.” - Jeremy Treat, Seek First

SLIDE

[Kingdom of God Graphic with Crown at the top]

Let’s break this down into those three sections

God’s Reign

God’s authority and sovereignty over everything

Became a redemptive rescue plan after sin entered the world

God is reclaiming and renewing what is His

Through God’s People

Kingdom is mistakenly seen as a synonym for the church

That’s too limited

Kingdom is connected to the people of God in that God rescues His people but then employs us to be part of the redemption of what He is restoring

Over God’s Place

The kingdom of God was meant to be a worldwide place of peace, joy, and connectedness with Him

Our sin all but destroyed that pathway

But God is restoring what He originally intended

When we think of the kingdom, we shouldn’t think of what we’ll leave behind but rather what we’ll see restored to perfection here around us

A place, a community, a culture that isn’t polluted with sin and all the darkness that it brings upon us

This also means that the kingdom is both here and coming soon

The rescue plan began when Jesus, the King, came down in humility

The rescue plan will be complete when Jesus, the King, comes again in victory / authority / triumph

Kingdom broke in when Jesus was born and then died, the King beginning His perfect rescue plan of the earthly kingdom that was never meant to be this way

Kingdom comes fully when Jesus comes back and drives out everything in the kingdom that wasn’t supposed to be here

Gospel Application

A New Perspective (Vision)

The kingdom isn’t what we expect it to be

The kingdom of God is not found in the places where we’d most expect it.

Just like in the time of the Bible, we are prone to look for it in places where it isn’t typically found.

The people of Israel and the Pharisees in particular thought that Jesus would come and engage with the most powerful, noticeable, seemingly influential people

The people that would be worth giving time to

But Jesus comes, steps out of his kingdom and his arrival itself breaks all the expectations

It begins with seeing the King

“Unfortunately, much of the contemporary talk about the kingdom paints a picture of a kingdom with a vacant throne. But if the kingdom is portrayed as a utopian world without mention of God, then the Bible’s vision of the kingdom has been lost. The kingdom of God is the vision of the world reordered around the powerful love of God in Christ.” - Jeremy Treat, Seek First

Blindness

Deer Story

Driving at night in college

Deer in the road

Roommates said deer in my ear

I swerved last minute to avoid it

Deer were not familiar to me

I’d maybe seen 2 in my life and the context was different

This animal was not where I expected it to be

Same is true with Jesus

Luke 17:20-21

Religion

Jesus said that the kingdom belonged to little children (Matthew 19:14)

Kids don’t have the same blinders we do

My son and I read The Emperors New clothes

Do you remember this book?

A king gets tricked into ordering invisible clothes

A child is the one who calls him on it

The Pharisees had been studying ancient texts and behaving in a way to try to get a head start on the kingdom

This is just like the disciples arguing over who could be first or greatest

When you think about yourself first, it’s a surefire way to be blind to the kingdom standing and working right in front of you

This is what separates religious behavior from gospel-centered behavior

Religion says I obey therefore I’m accepted

Gospel says I’m accepted SOMEHOW therefore I will give my life for this

Religion says God look what I’ve done for you

Gospel says God look what You’ve done for me

Religion says save me from being like them

Gospel says save me from myself and make me more like you

Religion says I’ll serve wherever I can make the biggest visible impact

Gospel says I was served in more ways than any person can understand, in the secret places of my heart is where God met me, so I’ll go to those places

Religion says I’ll give based on how it benefits me

Gospel says I’ll give intentionally when it won’t benefit me

How is our practice of church about us more than about the kingdom?

When you come on Sunday, do you evaluate your own needs before the needs of others?

Jesus talked about the kingdom of God the most in his time on earth

“When Jesus began his ministry, the first words out of his mouth were, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). - Treat, Jeremy R.. Seek First (p. 13). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

There were many things that Jesus told his followers to do but only one that he told us to seek first: the kingdom of God

See the King

You and I are prone to believe the lie that building our own kingdoms will be what’s best

To believe that we are the kings and everyone else exists for us

The problem with a society of all kings is that it doesn’t work

If we all work on our own individual little kingdoms, there actually won’t be a kingdom in the first place

Who are you planning to rule over in that little kingdom you’re building?

Newsflash

Jesus is the only real king

He knew this and spoke about this in his time on the earth

He never forgot who he really was

With Pilot as he’s being questioned before being sentenced to death he said that His “kingdom was not of this world”

Jesus is the only one with the intelligence required to run this kingdom

Have you thought about that?

Jesus is so often associated with lower class and marginalized people that we forget he’s a genius

He wasn’t a simple minded carpenter

He was God in human flesh and everything about him was part of His strategy

He chose to enter the world, to live the life, to engage with the people, to be the human person that he was to reverse our expectations of what a king should do and who he should be

He wanted to flip the kingdom itself on it’s head

Whatever has caused you to put Jesus in any other place than a fierce, wise, diligent, smart king needs to be jettisoned today

The kingdom of God is backwards from the kingdom of men

We are indoctrinated with concepts of a manmade kingdom from the moment we were born

Quote from Disenchantment book about how numb we are to human achievement

To get a sense of what this look likes, consider for a minute what it is like to attend church on Sunday. You are awakened by an alarm on your cell phone, an amazing piece of technology and testament to the power of human mastery over the natural world. You eat eggs for breakfast. They come, almost miraculously, clean, large, and white in a carton that has been inspected by some government agency to ensure it is safe. The carton lists the nutritional composition of the eggs along with a few words about their health benefits. Everything has been considered. You get dressed in clothes that you bought ready-made. You drive to church in a glistening, energy-efficient sedan with advanced safety features, and glance occasionally at the cars next to you, in which people are completely preoccupied and content with the technology around them. As you drive through…” Noble, Alan. Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age (p. 56). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

As society advances in technology and science, it makes it harder for us to by default think any less of ourselves

It’s like with each generous, we have more of an uphill climb with this

Because we’ve achieved so much

We’ve accomplished things that were literally beyond what people could dream

The moon landing?

A Driving Purpose (Motivation)

Lack of Purpose / Apathy

“There’s nothing worse than getting to the end of a day and feeling like you didn’t intentionally do anything.” - MacDonald, Mark. Be Known for Something: Reconnect with Community by Revitalizing Your Church's Reputation . High Bridge Books. Kindle Edition.

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter.” - DL Moody

When was the last time you thought “what’s the purpose of this?”

Maybe it was your job, some difficulty or conflict

Maybe it was in school, a challenging project or professor that just seemed to have it out for you

Maybe it was in your parenting, in the day by day struggle to guide your kids

Maybe it was in your suffering, a loss or disappointment that really hit you in your core

Maybe it was in your serving, here in the church or someone where else trying to remember why we do all of this

Maybe it’s right now

Why am I sitting here?

Why am I doing this church thing?

Meaninglessness is one of our deepest fears - the idea that we could be wasting time, effort, or energy that we’ll never get back

I think there’s something in this today for you as we look at the kingdom

We’ll see that Jesus flips everything on it’s head

He gives moments meaning that everyone else would overlook

He models endurance and corrects our expectations so we aren’t constantly living in that place of the unknown purpose questions

“You weren't put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity.” - Rick Warren, the Purpose Driven Life

Sovereignty in the secular

“Because God is with you all the time, no place is any closer to God than the place where you are right now.” - Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

Wrong Purpose: Building our own kingdoms

Our longing for kings leads us only to disappointment

After being disappointed by every other leader or person we believe what may be the more destructive path

To make ourselves the king in our own minds

Maybe you’re considering this lie right now

Maybe you’ve been drinking the Koolaid and it’s still tasting pretty sweet

Or maybe you’ve been spit out the other side

In building your own kingdom, you only found how exhausting, isolating, and frustrating it is

If every one of us is building our own kingdoms, then guess what? There actually will never be a kingdom

A country, state ruled by a king

Example: man creating kingdom on Lake Michigan

James Strang made himself King Strang

Mormon leader

Example: Sealand

Micronation sitting on two pillars that were used as anti-aircraft guns

1967 Paddy Roy Bates established

Realities of being a king

How do you finish the job? Usually by dying

“You cannot fulfill God's purposes for your life while focusing on your own plans. ” - Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life

Jesus sacrifice motivates us and becomes what we’re motivated to share

The best motivation for the kingdom now is the kingdom come

The kingdom come in Jesus

The kingdom coming again in Jesus

There are no insignificant moments

Desperation for His kingdom

“Your kingdom come, your will be done” (Matthew 6:10)

What level of passion do we read those words with?

To you say it with your head or do you lean into it with your heart?

Is there a broken longing that you’re yearning to be made right?

Bringing people to God

1 Peter 3:18

Jesus central mission

We serve people to bring them to God

That was the mission of our God so it becomes our mission

Why do we serve the marginalized?

The barrier is thinner in some ways

They are looking for help when so many around us are convinced they don’t need it

This is why the gospel response is greater in more impoverished places

Kingdom living means having the same goal and purpose as Jesus

To bring people to God

And his example? Sacrifice

Most effective method? Sacrifice

The kingdom being first doesn’t minimize the rest of life

“In other words, prioritizing the kingdom does not minimize the other aspects of life; it puts them in perspective. The kingdom of God doesn’t have to compete with our work, hobbies, relationships, and the other important aspects of life. In fact, when rightly understood, the kingdom will enhance every aspect of life, infusing them with fresh meaning and significance.” - Treat, Jeremy R.. Seek First (p. 14). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

“When first things are put first, second things are not supressed but increased.” CS Lewis, Letters of CS Lewis

“Jesus spent so much time talking about the kingdom of God because it is not just another thing his disciples needed to learn. The kingdom of God was the framework for everything they needed to learn.” - Treat, Jeremy R.. Seek First (p. 14). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

A Different People (Lifestyle)

Seek first his kingdom

Are we seeking His kingdom FIRST? Or is your own kingdom FIRST?

When you get out of bed every day, are you first thinking about what YOU can accomplish, what YOU want to do, what YOU have responsibility over, what YOU need

When you go to work, are you seeking His kingdom or yours? Is work more about your paycheck than the people you have been placed next to for a purpose?

When you go to school, are you seeking His kingdom or yours? Are you getting an education for your own good or for the good of the people you can impact not just when you’re done but on the way toward that goal?

When you are at home with your kids, no ones watching, you’re in that daily rhythm or lack of rhythm, are you seeking His kingdom

When I do something for this church, when I serve, when I give, when I sing songs, when I preach a message like this, am I seeking my kingdom first or His? Do I think more about Him than I do about myself when I do these things? Is my purpose to get more attention or to relieve some guilt or to please my parents or to earn my paycheck more than it is to bring people to God?

Being Known for Something

Book by Mark MacDonald

Most people

“Perception will often keep someone from really knowing someone.” MacDonald, Mark. Be Known for Something: Reconnect with Community by Revitalizing Your Church's Reputation . High Bridge Books. Kindle Edition.

“The people who are in the Church know the benefit of following Jesus… the fellowship, sanctification, joy, peace… and the list goes on and on. We meet regularly to bask in the benefits. But the world has no clue what we have.” -MacDonald, Mark. Be Known for Something: Reconnect with Community by Revitalizing Your Church's Reputation . High Bridge Books. Kindle Edition.

When people think of our church, what do they think?

This isn’t meant to be a discouraging thing to think about

It’s meant to motivate us to seize the opportunity that I see ahead

We can shape people’s perception of our church and much more importantly of Jesus with how they experience us

The perception might have been formed at a distance but it will be fixed by being up close

And people who perceive something about the church or Jesus that isn’t right usually won’t be the ones taking the first step

That’s up to us to move in their direction

“Interestingly, a perception study was done about people’s perceptions of Jesus. He got some great ratings from all around the world and from other religions. People ultimately love the idea of Jesus. As long as we have Him on our side, we have a solid foundation. Upon Him as the Rock, He’ll build His Church. We may see a slide in local, “small-c” church attendance, but we can rest assured that the universal, “big-C” Church will never vanish.” - MacDonald, Mark. Be Known for Something: Reconnect with Community by Revitalizing Your Church's Reputation . High Bridge Books. Kindle Edition.

Be careful: our reputation because we’re a church can easily become the real driving force of everything we do

I’m calling us to be motivated to change our reputation based on the King’s concern for and vision for His kingdom that includes the people who have walls up

I’m not calling us to make One Hope the reason we get up every day

Even though that may sustain for a short time, it will fall short because it’s not the real kingdom

We’re part of something much bigger, much greater than any one church on any one corner could accomplish

Examples of living with a kingdom focus

Ashley & Cameron + Willow’s Groomer

The effects of a kingdom focus

A Disruptive Witness

“Bearing a disruptive witness involves adopting a new movement, a shift in ends from ourselves to a transcendent God, and then letting that shift shape us in every aspect of our lives.” - Noble, Alan. Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age (p. 90). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

A changed community

Justice

Mercy

Poverty

Evangelism

Healing

In the mundane

When it happens won’t be predictable

But it will happen

God calls us and will accomplish it

We are only to be faithful

A kingdom focused church isn’t focused on the effects of the kingdom first

And kingdom work isn’t “vocational ministry”

Kingdom work again is where you’re loving and serving people for the sake of God’s deserved glory and the person’s genuine good

Kingdom work is where you’re joining with the King as he rights what has been made so wrong

Kingdom work is you actively participating in the redemption of all things from the curse of sin and shame

Recognize that kingdom work doesn’t reap the rewards of other work

There will be times when you don’t see a reward

Think of Jesus in Luke 17:20-21

He heals 10 people and 1 of them - a Samaritan foreigner comes to say thank you

What a picture of how we should set our expectations

But what amazes me about this is that Jesus doesn’t retract the healing of the other 9 when they don’t thank him

There lives are still changed forever as far as we know from the information

How often to we base our efforts and when possible even control or manipulate using rewards all because someone is grateful

Don’t get me wrong and Jesus agrees in this text that it’s easier and should be expected that we are thanked for our service

But we don’t base what we do or don’t do on that idea

Parents, how many times have you had that same conversation with your kids only to see nothing change?

Students, how many times have you given your energy to a project or poured your heart into something even here in the church and not been thanked for it?

We’re also called to be the one who comes back

That’s part of a kingdom focus too

The man who came back saw the king and understood something beyond a physical healing was happening here

He had his eyes open and didn’t allow even the excitement of this newfound healing to keep him from forgetting about the one who changed him

Elizabeth Elliot story about 15 years and no ministry

Where have you begun to manage your kingdom efforts based on the response of other people?

World

Fight for the right to privacy

Church

Fight for the right to vulnerability

Focus

Least of these

Underprivileged

Changing culture

Challenge Questions

Where are you missing the kingdom of God? What is causing your blindness?

How are you lacking motivation? What reminder do you need to stir your heart?

Where is God calling you to change your lifestyle? To shift your daily, weekly, monthly rhythms according to a kingdom perspective?