The Community of the Kingdom

Countdown

Something fun (eg. Game, video, etc.). It is not necessary for this to have a tie in to the lesson, but it can.

Introductions

This is culture

Basic Opening Statement: We are glad that you are here with us at bcsm and we want you to know, more than anything, that you have a community of people here that love and care about you. This is a safe space to process your faith and ideas, to ask questions. You have a purpose or a place within this community which means we are better off with you than without you and you have a mission outside of this community. All of that rests on this one foundational truth that we want you to hear and want you to share: God wants to have a relationship with you.

You have community. You have purpose. You have a mission. You have truth.

I am _______________ and before we start, let me pray.”

*Pray for God to use what you have to say to move someone further along in their journey towards Jesus.*

Story Time

Tell a quick story that introduces the message

Robert Waldo Gillespie was chasing me. Granted I had asked him to. I just said, “Hey, let’s play tag. You’re it.” then I ran away. We were bored sitting around the church while our parents were in meetings or something and this was something fun we could do. So we were running through the halls of the church building and having a good time. Until… duh duh duh... Just a little advice, don’t run while looking behind you. That is a bad idea. While you are in forward motion, your eyes should be in front of you.

But here is the thing about being 7. You are not, usually, all that wise. You believe that you can not look where you are going and face no dire consequences. How many times did you hear, as a kid, look both ways before crossing the street? Because 7 year olds think they are invincible. So I looked behind me to see where Robert Waldo Gillespie was. I knew I was way ahead of him, so I am not sure why I had to look.

I started to turn my face forward again, but I was stopped by a wall. I ran face first into the corner of a brick wall. You quickly learn not to just trust that everything is going to be ok. As you grow older you become lose your fearlessness and start to build shields around yourself.

What do you miss most about being a child?

Do you feel more anxious or fearful than you did as a child?

Why do you think kids are fearless and we are not?

Catch Up

Where we have been in the series. Where we are going.

We are continuing our Kingdom of Heaven series where we will are exploring the very first book of the New Testament, Matthew, a couple chapters at a time. Matthew is one of four biographies of Jesus that we have in the Bible, we call them the gospels, or good news.

Now we can not cover everything. But if you want to dig a little deeper, you can go to thebcsm.com for our daily devotions that follow along with what we talk about on Sunday Mornings.

Now to catch you up, so far we have talked about Jesus’ origins and his preparations for ministry, His Sermon on the Mount and some of the things that happened after that.

Cool, let’s jump in.

Scripture

Read or summarize main Scripture with a little surrounding context. Ask a couple of questions to about the text.

Matthew 18:2–4 ESV

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

What do you think we could learn from children that would make us more fit for the upside down kingdom of heaven?

What does this teach us about greatness in the Kingdom?

What does it teach about humility?

Tension/ Main Point

What is the rub? Create some questions and feeling in the minds of your students around the main point of the lesson.

Today we are exploring Matthew 18-20 which is a big section of Jesus’ teachings. This is the fourth major teaching section of five found in Matthew and it is where Jesus lays out what Kingdom life looks like. And he starts with a child. This section covers a lot of ground, but I think that much of what is written here can be summarized by looking at this analogy that Jesus starts with. I think this gives us a really tangible image of what Jesus is saying through the rest of the things he teaches here. Children, like 7 year old me, have no fear. They just run straight ahead without even looking for obstacles. Over many busted faces and broken bones we become more cautious as we grow older. We try to protect ourselves more.

And I think that what Jesus is getting at is that we don’t have to protect ourselves. If we get lost on our way, he will go out and find us. If there are obstacles that we don’t see he will help us navigate them. Does that mean he moves everything out of our way. No. But it means we can trust him with what lies ahead.

We tend to want to create security for ourselves. We want to seize control of our life. So we accumulate wealth. We lie and cheat and steal just to get ahead. To become self sufficient. But children by definition are not self- sufficient.

Jesus keeps saying “the first will be last and the last will be first” over and over again. We have been studying the Kingdom of Heaven in the book of Matthew for seven weeks now. So I am assuming that some of you might have picked up on this upside down Kingdom repetition.

How many of you have been to King’s Island this year?

Whenever I go to King’s Island, this happens. You are walking to a ride that you want to get on and as you get close to the entrance to the line, you look around and you see a big group of people approaching the same ride. So I will find myself walking faster. But I am an adult, so I need to look respectable, right? I can not just like break out into an all out run. SO I need to play it cool. But I am hoping that I can sneak into that line in front of that group of people. Which is silly. I know that I will get to ride the ride whether I am in front of this group of people or whether I am behind them. But I just want to be first and so I do what I can to just beat that group of people to the line. Why does it matter to me?

The only thing I can think of is that we all just want to be first. We want to win all the games. We want to be the first in line. Remember in Kindergarten when you had to take turns being the line leader in class. You were like going to the library, but everyone wanted to be in the front of the line.

So what I think happens, is we use all the things that we feel like we have control over, to weigh ourselves over and against other people. WE rely on these things to make us first. It could be having the newest iPhone in our pocket. It could be having the most Instagram followers out of all your friends. It could be knowing the most TikTok dances. We find security in these things. We find firstness here, which is what we crave.

And what Jesus is saying here is, let go of the fight for security. I’ve got you. You don’t need to destroy relationships just because you feel insecure. You don’t have to accumulate money just to feel safe or to feel first.

Give up that pursuit and start pursuing Jesus with reckless abandon. Like a child. Don’t worry about the obstacles in your way.

Response

We respond every week with an invitation to baptism and communion.

Some of you have been pursuing security and firstness and you are tired. If that is you. Let it go.

Some of you want to follow Jesus, but you want to do it in a way that feels like you are in control.

Some of you are running head first towards Jesus.

Some of you are running in the other direction.

Wherever you are, let me just invite you into the security of knowing that there is a loving Father who is seeking a relationship with you. He is so commited to making that happen that He gave us His son. Jesus came down and died to give us a way back into a right relationship with the one who created us. You can trust him like a child unconditionally trusts their mom. Even if your relationship with your parents is not one you can trust in, maybe your home life is hard, God has proven himself to be trustworthy. And if we let ourselves become like children, weak and last, Jesus says we will become strong and first. Because the Kingdom of Heaven is upside down.

Right now, we are going to take communion together. This is something we do every week to remember what all of this cost Jesus. We eat the bread that reminds us of his broken body. We drink the juice to remember the blood poured out for our sakes. I am going to play a song and I would just ask you to feel free to move to grab communion, or if you want to talk with one of the adults, if you want to make a different decision today or you want someone to be praying for you, that is what we are here for. Just let us know. If you don’t want to move and just want to listen to the lyrics of the song, or pray, or read the Bible you can do that as well.

Song

Pick a song that centers around the main theme of the lesson.

Child of God- Capitol City

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzVpIWm0nGM

Discussion

Start with Prayer

Eric told us a story about him running into a wall as a child. Does any one have a story from when they were younger and how your fearlessness got you in trouble or hurt?

Why is our culture so competitive—obsessed with being the first in line at King’s Island?

Read Matthew 18:1-9

What quality makes for true greatness? (18:4) Why did Jesus say a person’s treatment of children was significant? (18:5)

What is it about children that Christ wants us to emulate? How does age and maturity cause us to lose our innocence and sense of humility?

What can you do today to humble yourself?