Starving For The Kingdom
Notes
Transcript
Big Idea: We are all capable of manipulating reality to create our own little universe and Jesus has been showing us how we do this through our motives. Jesus has alreay addressed our motives with other people as seen through our generosity. He has also addressed our motives towards God by realigning our vision around prayer and how to pray. This week He is going to invite us to see what kingdom we are living for and He uses our motives around fasting to make a huge statement about our propensity to create our own realities.
Target Statement: Are you starving for the Kingdom of God in the here and now?
The present kingdom reality is so pervasive and all-consuming that it can often seem more real and more permanent than the coming reality of God’s kingdom. And why wouldn’t it? This is the kingdom we live in, work in, raise our children in, manage our finances in, deal with loss in, its the reality that inflicts pain on us and nothing is more real than pain. Jesus’ use of fasting to broach the subject of this reality is no mistake. Fasting is the intentional laying aside of the things of this reality to seek clarity of the coming reality.
“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
“But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face
so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Fasting is the intentional act of creating hunger for God’s Kingdom reality, power, and presence.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.
“But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
This is about realizing which reality we are living under.
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
We were created as vice-rulers. Never more and never less.
Are you willing to create hunger and open your eyes to the greater reality of God’s Kingdom, power, and presence this week?
WandaVision show explanation - Westview - Enslaved People - Becomes Prison for Wanda Too
This is the World that Jesus stepped into…it isn’t just westview though…its the whole world
Do creation
And so when Jesus says...
Explain how the pharisees benefitted from this (it was money, power, and authority they gained…essentially this was the fuel that sustained their reality)
What Fasting truly is...
Two kingdoms bit...
Are you starving for the Kingdom of God in the here and now?
Said as a statement we can take action on:
Are you willing to create hunger to realign your vision for the true reality we are a part of in Christ?
Tell about our 40 day screen fast.
Invitation:
Maybe its food.
Maybe its sex.
Maybe its technology or social media.
It is anything that can steal our affection for God’s kingdom and lul us into a false reality that all there is is the here and now.
It is an intentional and physical step to help us discern which master we are serving.
We choose this reality because it gives us seeming autonomy.