Series: “The Kingdom” Sermon #5 “Kingdom Rules Applied”

Series: “The Kingdom” Sermon #5 “Kingdom Rules Applied”

Jesus is not the Gospel. 

Jesus preached the gospel and he is the means to the gospel (DOOR). 

The good news (Gospel) is that He has brought the Kingdom of God to earth!!!

Every Kingdom has a Ruler, Realm, and Rules.   

A Kingdom is the governing influence of a King over his territory, impacting it with his will, his purpose and his intent. producing a citizenry of people who reflect his culture and manifest his nature and glory. 

The Rules: The Kingdom Culture

John 13:34  “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

I John 3:23  “And this is His commandment: that we should (1) believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and (2) love one another, as He gave us commandment.”

“The measure of God’s love is that He loves without measure”.  J.I. Packer (Knowing God, p. 111)

“The essence of the Christian faith is not knowledge, but love.”     Martin Luther

Notes from kids to mom.

“Let France have good mothers and she will have good sons.”    Napoleon

Mothers Are the Main Spiritual Coaches for Teens. BARNA
Practicing Christians in their teen years consistently identify mothers as the ones who provide spiritual guidance and instruction and instill the values and disciplines of their faith in the household. Moms are their foremost partners in prayer (63%) and conversations about God (70%), the Bible (71%) or other faith questions (72%). This is consistent with Barna data through the years that show mothers to be the managers of faith formation (among other household routines and structures). Mothers are also the ones encouraging church attendance (79%) or teaching kids about the Bible (66%), God’s forgiveness (66%) and religious traditions (72%). Barna  May 2019

Many people think that Christianity is a belief system, but it’s really a belong system.

John 13:35   “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

A 2020 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that 47% of adults in the United States reported experiencing feelings of loneliness, up from 27% in 2018.

Research conducted by Holt-Lunstad  and published in Perspectives on Psychological Science in 2015 found that loneliness and social isolation can be as harmful to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

John T. Cacioppo “Chronic loneliness needs to be taken seriously as a threat to our physical health. It deserves the same level of attention, resources, and public health campaigns as smoking and obesity.” (Cacioppo & Patrick, 2008)

Dr Dean Ornish – Ornish Lifestyle Medicine. “Love and intimacy — our ability to connect with ourselves and others, is at the root of what makes us sick and what makes us well, … People who feel lonely and isolated have a 300-500 percent greater risk of premature death due to physical illness.”

Ephesians 3:14- 4:3 Message “My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in.”

And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love.

Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands.

I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

3 Essentials For Kingdom Culture

1. Embrace Your Value

“… extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love…” 

A working revelation of God’s love enables you to express love.

2. Be Yourself

“…road God called you to travel…”

You are unique. There is no one like you. Don’t be a copy

3. Express Selfless Love  

“…steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love,…”

You walk into a room and everyone else is of great value to you.

John 1:12  “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”

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