Own Your Faith

Jesus knew what was in store for him as the Messiah, the sacrificial Lamb of God come to save the world from sin. He knew yet he loved the Father and the world enough to give up his life, withholding nothing. For Jesus, and a lesson for us, the agony of doing the will of God should be greater than the agony of self-preservation.

A Kingdom-minded attitude begins with being prepared for the return of the King. The parable of the ten virgins both exhorts us to living a life prepared for the return of Christ, and it also indicts many of us for living solely in the moment lacking wisdom, urgency, and preparedness.

Jesus describes the kingdom of God in terms of a wedding feast that many will be invited to, but some will reject the invitation, some will not be fit to attend, while some will be honored guests. Revelation 19:6-9 describes such a feast in the end times. However, God desires this type of intimate fellowship each and everyday of our lives. God invites us to the "table" and it's at the table where we are transformed and where we mature. We come to the table when we pray, when we worship, when we study the word of God, etc. Come to the table! Matthew 22:1-14

Message ends at 47:55. When we think about the kingdom and our participation in it we must understand that God's expects fruit. He expects us to have the evidence of kingdom citizenship seen in our lives. He expects to see faithfulness, holiness, righteousness, and oneness. Listen to this message about "God's Favorite Fruit." Matthew 21:33-46

We live well when God sets the standard and we submit to those standards. We won't always understand his ways or agree with all his ways, but we can trust that his ways are best. The kingdom is a story of generosity, capacity, and value. Matthew 20: 1-16.

There may be a rich young ruler in all of us, feeling like we do enough to receive eternal blessings and eternal life with God. But as Jesus teaches this man, we too ought to heed his counsel that there is nothing we can do on our own to get eternal life. There is one thing we must be willing to do, surrender it all in this world in order to follow Jesus. Matthew 19:16-22

God intends for the kingdom to go viral. Jesus uses analogies between the kingdom of God and a mustard that grows to the size of a great tree and leaven that spreads throughout the whole loaf. The kingdom of God will inevitably spread throughout the world as demonstrated by the Christian faith that once began with a Jewish carpenter and twelve nondescript men. The question is will we be participants in the kingdom, spectators of the kingdom, or impediments to the kingdom. Matthew 13:31-33.

Jesus explains what the kingdom of God/heaven is like to those who followed him to hear his teachings. In this parable (Matt 13:24-30) he describes what happens when weed is planted and grows up alongside wheat. This passage along with Matt 4:17 where he calls for repentance because the kingdom is near reveals that the kingdom is accessible to everyone, but not everyone is acceptable for the kingdom. Tough and encouraging message.

The kingdom is composed of people engaged in doing the will of God revealing the rulership of Jesus. The encouraging thing about the kingdom is that God uses ordinary people (Abraham, Moses, Daniel, disciples) to do extraordinary things. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are examples of ordinary people who would not compromise their worship and allegiance to Yahweh. Daniel 7:14.

Just as the kingdom is not limited to geographical or ideological boundaries, neither is it limited to time or generations. The kingdom of God is always relevant. In the book of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego model for us what it means to maintain allegiance to the kingdom of God in the midst of temptation and threat to conform to a worldly empire. Our resistance to worldliness is how we witness a life in the kingdom and show how relevant it is for our generation. Daniel 3:12; 4:3.