Kingdom First

Prayer

New Sermon Series, Back to the Basics. Revisit Vision Framework we laid out last year for our church (I hope that rings a bell!).

What do I mean by Vision Framework? Elements that we’ve laid out that help us frame our Vision for the church

Mission - clear, concise statement of what we’re supposed to be doing (Leading others into the abundant life that comes through Jesus)

Values - expression of why we’re doing what we’re doing, core convictions that guide our decisions and move us to action

Strategy - answers how, how will we engage in our mission (Spiritual Formation Groups, Worship rooted in practices of Acts 2)

Finally, Measures - this is our self-evaluation. How will we know that we’ve done what we set out to do? That we hit our target? That we lived out our values / core convictions?

My hope and prayer is that this Vision Framework will be so familiar to us that all of us will be able to articulate it - so that if someone asked you what PCC is about, you’d be able to tell them - Our Mission, Our Core Values, Our Strategies.

Last year, I gave an overview of each of the four sides that make up the frame of our vision. This year, I want to take one of the sides - Values, and go into depth into each one of them

First question to consider is, what is a value? Values are the basic and fundamental beliefs that guide or motivate attitudes or actions. It’s the big why’s in our lives. Those core convictions that guide how we think, react, what we do.

Everyone has values. You and I, all of us - have values that we’re operating out of on a day to day basis. There’s some belief, some narrative, some core conviction that drives us - whether we recognize it or not (often, we don’t realize it).

Let me give you some examples

What you believe constitutes personal happiness (perfect love relationship, life of leisure - don’t have to work too hard, have what I need, success - achieving some great goal, security, feeling safe, being a good person - and what being good looks like). That’s going to drive your actions.

Those are all values: security, my personal comfort, close family, education

Several months ago I shared story of Suze Orman, personal financial expert - her story of watching her dad’s business burn down, him running back in and grabbing the scalding hot cash register and scorching his hands carrying the register out. He valued money. And that incident impacted her - she valued money…and because money was such a high value, she worked hard to earn lots of it. Until she realized that wasn’t value she wanted to live by.

Shared stories of Ben Jacobs and John Wooten, men who both were born in 1910 but lived very different lives because they had very different values.

Ben Jacobs - he lived for power. He wanted to have money, to be in control, to have things his way. His motto was “take all you can from whoever you can.” That led to successful business with thousands of employees, a lot of sway in state politics, adulterous affairs, willingness to lie, cheat and do whatever it took to be on top. It also left him very alone when he got old.

John Wooten was also incredibly successful - but in a very different way, and with very different values. Wooten decided, at the age of 25, he would live by a very different set of principles based on the teachings of Jesus: he values courage and honesty and hard work, character and loyalty, virtue and honor. He was the most successful college men’s basketball coach ever. Died a dearly beloved man whose life impacted many.

Hugely important to be clear about our values - even more so, to be honest about whether or not that’s what’s really driving us (we often say things are important to us, what if we dig down, there’s a more fundamental belief that’s motivating us). That gets revealed when decisions have to be made

How you deal with money will reveal whether you most value security or generosity or personal happiness or power. Whether you value integrity more or avoiding negative consequence will reveal whether you tell plain, simple truth.

This happens in churches as well. Church that values their building more than mission will limit their ministry for sake of preserving their building. Or their own survival - they’ll become inwardly focused, because survival of the institution or what it does for me is more important than serving those outside church.

I’m finding this true in my own life. I value following Jesus. More and more I want that to be the central value in my life, that my life belongs to him. But as I pursue that, I’m finding more and more how much I value my own personal comfort and desire to live life on my own terms.

As a church, we want to state our values clearly. This is what we’re about as a church - to pursue that together. And to keep coming back to it to ask ourselves hard questions - are we really living out what we say our values are? Are these the things that guide our decisions and motivate our actions - or are we really more concerned about something else?

Here are our 4 core values that we’ll be looking at over this 4-week sermon series: Kingdom First, Lived Obedience to Jesus, Shared Life Together & Heart Transformation

This morning: Kingdom First

Main Point: That as a church we would value the Kingdom of God above everything else. That we would be guided and motivated by the fundamental belief that God’s Kingdom comes first. Our priority, personally and collectively, is to orient the fullness of our lives toward God and his Kingdom.

Which is what Jesus commands us to do: Matthew 6:33 - But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

If you look at our full Vision Framework we have this teased out a little bit, what it means for us to hold to this core belief, Kingdom First.

Demonstrated by our commitment to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness

We believe that Abundant life that comes through Jesus permeates every area of our lives. In other words, the claims of our Kingdom involve every aspect of our life

And it means that we are willing to proclaim the good news of Jesus and His Kingdom in word and deed - which is exactly what Jesus did. Jesus came proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God.

Spend some time - what does this look like to hold this core conviction? How does it play out in our lives and in the life of our church? Best way to do that is to look at how Jesus talked about Kingdom of God (which he did - a lot).

Pictures of Kingdom - Parables Jesus taught

Parable of the Sheep & Goats, Matthew 25:31-46 -

Note how it begins: When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”

Jesus, the King, is on the throne, is determining who is part of the Kingdom and who is not. Who belongs and who doesn’t - based on whether each person lived in way that reflected heart of kingdom

This is a parable that paints an image of what it looks like to live Kingdom First.

Sheep come into Kingdom because they fed the hungry, gave something to drink to thirsty, took stranger in, providing clothing for those without any, cared for the sick, and visited those in prison.

People who live with humble generosity (when did I?). People who offer attentive love - notice needs of others - the least of these - and then move to provide those needs.

Jesus is teaching here what those who hold conviction, “Kingdom First” will do. So, when you and I do these simple acts of kindness and generosity, we are displaying that this is core value for us. Seek Kingdom first. (Goats don’t - value something else more).

Also in Matthew 25, Parable of Bags of Gold (or Talents)

Master goes on a journey, leaving his servants with various amounts of gold (talents) and after a long time, returns

Each servant then comes to give account to the King with what they did with what they were given (two of them invested gold, earning more while the last one just buried his in ground).

To be in Kingdom is to be a servant, a steward, to be given gifts, placed in our care. How you and I use those gifts, those resources, reveal whether we’re Kingdom First (we honor King) or our hearts are focused on another kingdom (perhaps our own).

If Kingdom First is a core value for us, our motivation will be to use what we have for sake of God’s kingdom

Open our home up as place of hospitality or even to house someone in need.

Skills / Talents - leadership, musical or artistic or creative gifts, building / repairing, knowledge or skill we’ve developed

We have financial resources to give for sake of kingdom, time to serve and care for others, to involve ourselves in ministry.

Someone who is Kingdom First will seeking to use whatever they have in life for the sake of the King and his Kingdom. For Jesus.

Go on and on. The majority of Jesus’ parables are explicitly about the Kingdom of God

Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, where all workers - regardless of what time of day they were hired to work, are paid the same wages. Because of the abounding generosity of the master, the King! Grace abounds in Kingdom of God.

The parable of the unmerciful servant (and the merciful King). The King who forgives debt of the servant who owed him a debt he could never repay versus servant who wouldn’t forgive the much smaller debt of a fellow servant. Willingness to forgive is core value in the Kingdom of God.

Each of these parables gives us a glimpse of what our King is like, how things are under his reign - and therefore, what it looks like for us to live Kingdom First.

So, this is challenge - and the encouragement

Will we, as a church, commit to making this a core value -that guides our decisions and motivates our actions…that we will live Kingdom First? That we will seek first Kingdom of God and his righteousness?

It’s a tall, tall order, something to consider seriously (our core convictions always are).

Because there are always competing values in our lives. And if we’re going to live Kingdom First, then everything - everything - including our own little kingdoms - is second.

Coming under reign of Kingdom of God permeates every area of our lives. I hope that was clear from Jesus parables. It’s not as if we have our church life - and then rest of week to do so as we please.

Willingness to let Jesus be King, to have say-so, over every aspect of our lives. We willingly bring our kingdoms under his reign in humble submission. Jesus, you are Lord.

Our priorities, our schedule, our money, our comfort, our attention, our work, what we do with our leisure time, our relationships, how I’m going to be as a husband and a father, what kind of neighbor I’m going to be.

Let me offer you some examples

Christian Arabic Church, hosted the Presbytery meeting last weekend…shared amazing story of how God blessed them with a building. Request to share their space. We won’t charge anything. So they didn’t. Sharing space with Ukrainian Pentecostal church - who just happened to have a number of members skilled in construction.

That’s a Kingdom First mindset. And they experienced the blessings of the Kingdom!

There’s a couple in our church who’d just experience a terrible betrayal by someone they’d known and trusted for years. They chose to forgive and love that person who’d wronged them. That’s Kingdom First living.

Next weekend, we’re going to get a chance to take time on a Saturday afternoon, and love “the least of these”, by befriending youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities in our community (some of the most overlooked people in any community). We do it because we hold to this value, Kingdom First. We want to invite them into Kingdom, to know joy of knowing King, Jesus.

And, of course, our friend from the ECO church in Kentucky. Who’s been blessed by God financially, and he wants that money to be used for sake of Kingdom.

Spiritual Disciplines. One of the ways we demonstrate being Kingdom First is to listen to Jesus’ teachings and put them into practice. We live according to the wisdom and guidance of King - which is to seek first Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Personal Commitment to be Kingdom First (as all of us do this, we’ll together, as a church, be Kingdom First).

Memorize and pray daily Matthew 6:33. Get out of bed. Drop to your knees: I will seek first the Kingdom of God. Lord, you come first.

Another prayer you can offer is the Lord’s Prayer - Kingdom First prayer!

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Then, of course, how prayer ends: For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, Amen.

Another way to put this into practice is to live a day Kingdom-minded.

Prayer that I pray daily that comes from John Eldredge - “Jesus, I receive you as my authority, rule and dominion, my everlasting victory against Satan and his kingdom, and my ability to bring your Kingdom at all times and in every way.”

Prayer desire “To bring your Kingdom at all times and in every way.”

Spend a day with intention of being Kingdom First.

James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful Kingdom

On an average day I wake up and greet my wife and son, help my daughter get ready for school, order from the drive-thru at McDonald’s, encounter others in traffic, wave to other parents dropping off their kids at school, greet colleagues coming into work, teach students in the classroom, see friends at lunch, interact in meetings with colleagues and supervisors, oversee the fine work of my administrative assistant, work out next to fifty people at the gym, come home and have dinner with family or friends, help kids do homework, write, kiss my wife and family goodnight, and fall asleep. I get up and do it all over again tomorrow, with little variation.

On an average day, then, my personal kingdom will come into contact with the kingdoms and queendoms of over one hundred people, at a deeper level of engagement with some of them, at a lesser with others. My wife and children and I know each other at the deepest relational level - called family. The lady taking my money at McDonald’s does not know my name, nor I hers, but we still interact. My kingdom and her queendom (that is, what we each have say over) are briefly intertwined. The same is true with every other person on the list - colleagues, students, fellow sweaty people and fellow drivers. I may not know them well, but I live among them.

As an apprentice of Jesus the question becomes, how shall I - as a person Christ dwells in and who lives in the kingdom of God - then live among them?

That’s a Kingdom First perspective (God has say over how I will live out my life)

Inspiration - The Why to Our What

Let me draw your attention to one more parable Jesus told, Parable of Hidden Treasure (Matthew 13:44) - The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Kingdom of God is compared to a treasure, a treasure so valuable that man who finds it willingly and joyfully sells everything he has in order to buy that field and have that treasure.

Everything he had…in his joy. He’s not taking any chances. He’s going to get that treasure because it is so precious, so valuable. It has great value.

That’s point of parable - how much we should value the Kingdom of God, being a part of it. Everything, all we have.

Kingdom First is not a punishment. We’re not losing out on this deal. This is where abundant life of Jesus is found, in his Kingdom. Because there is God’s goodness abounds in Kingdom of God (no supply chain shortages here!).

The goodness of God’s grace abounds in the Kingdom of God. In the Kingdom of God forgiveness comes readily and continually. In the Kingdom of God no one - not even the least of these - is neglected and forgotten - they are remembered and cared for.

The Kingdom of God is Kingdom of joy and life and peace and righteousness. That’s why the man went sold everything he had.

And that’s why one of our core values is Kingdom First, why we should be committed to seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness - “because all these things will be given to you as well.”