Kingdom Men & Women
Strive • Sermon • Submitted
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Has anyone here ever been to a concert or a major sporting event with massive crowds of people at them? Thousands of people who are all fans of the band or on of the sports teams playing.
If you haven’t, or even if you have, let me paint a picture for you.
Who remembers the 2011 Stanley cup final between the Vancouver Canucks and the the Boston Bruins? It was really quite something.
Some friends and I decided to go into Vancouver to watch game 7 outside rogers arena. The actual game was being played in Boston so the city broadcast it into the streets for people to watch.
Imagine, driving into vancouver and there are people in hockey jerseys everywhere. Streets were completely blocked off with outdoor screens set up in intersections and people had set up their picnic blankets and tables and chairs with their BBQ’s going. People had everything set up that they would need to have all the comforts of home right in the middle of the streets of Vancouver. There was even a man I saw with a goat on a leash all painted up with canucks colours. These people were dedicated, hard core fans of the Vancouver canucks.
The game started just like any hockey game… with pump up music and excitement. As the game progressed, you could hear the entire city rise in deafening cheers, if they got scored against, boo’s at the same volume. It was an utter frenzy of both excitement and disappointment.
Fast foreward to the last few minutes of the game with the canucks losing by one point.
Not all, but most of the die hard fans were grumbling to say the least. Or they were downright yelling profanity at their favorite team to play better or at the Bruins because of a very strong dislike of them.
Imagine the same noise level as the cheering and excitement before, only now the air is filled with a negative, heavy feeling. Like a foreboding feeling of anger and frustration
30 seconds before the game buzzer you see the first home made smoke bomb being tossed by someone in the crowd. Now it’s time to leave… a few minutes later there’s the sound of windows smashing. The start of a riot, all because the most dedicated fans of a sports team took the loss very personally and wanted to take it out on something.
Even the best fans can become overzealous for the wrong reasons and end up acting poorly because of it.
In , Jesus and His disciples were on their way to Jericho. There was a huge crowd of people following them. People whom we would probably call fans of Jesus. The kind of fans we might find in the streets of Vancouver watching game 7 of the stanley cup playoffs.
These fans are willing to walk miles, just to have the chance to see Jesus and maybe a miracle… Perhaps they might even get to touch Him.
We’re going to jump around here a little bit so bear with me.
In V.38 and 39 we see the procession of crowds getting closer to Jericho. The scene is interrupted by a blind beggar who starts crying out that Jesus would have mercy on him
V. 39 says...
39 And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Think about these people who were telling him to be silent. They were not disciples. These were the hardcore, dedicated Jesus fans who were heading the procession with pride. Too much pride.
They were so proud of being a Jesus fan that they forgot what He stood for and why He was walking there in the first place.
To them it was no longer about celebrating Jesus, it was about being a fan. It became all about them.
The thing is though, they didn’t do this on purpose. They probably started out on the right path but they slipped and started listening to the voice in their head that said Me me me.
Which group of people do you fall into? Are you a Disciple? A Disciple who’s lost the heart of Jesus
I know that sounds like an antagonizing question but if you think about it, have you ever done this unintentionally?
Let’s go back to v.15 and take a look at Jesus disciples. Jesus’ disciples were like fans in that they loved Jesus and followed him around, but they weren’t fans. They’re more than that. they work with Jesus, He calls them friends and sends them out to proclaim the gospel. That’s quite a bit more than the throng of fans gathered around them.
The word disciple means student. By definition, these guys were students of Jesus, not fans.
something interesting happens in v.15 though
15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
People started to bring children to Jesus through the crowds so that Jesus would just touch them and the disciples started rebuking them. You can only imagine how disappointed Jesus was. He tells his disciples that they should let the children come to Him. I’m guessing that He did it gently but in a way that said I’m not pleased with how you acted.
15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
His disciples, the more than fans people… reverted back to a behavior that belonged to mere fans of Jesus… not disciples.
Jesus has not asked you to be a fan. He has plenty of fans already. Every Sunday morning around 10:00 Am His fan base shows up in full force. They show up in stadiums, often filled to capacity, all around the world. within these stadiums, there is great emotion, great singing, preaching, excitement, cheers of adulation, recognition, and statements of affirmation. But Jesus is not interested in just having fans. He’s interested in having people follow him that are willing to live as Kingdom men and women.
We are called to be more than fans, and just because you’re here in this room on a Sunday morning while the rest of the world is sleeping in… doesn’t make you more than that. Being here is exactly what a Jesus fan would be doing.
Remember, there was the crowd of people and the bible said those in front, those leading the procession rebuked the blind man.
The people in front are the most dedicated volunteers a church has ever seen. set up, take down, sound, media, children’s ministry volunteers, youth ministry volunteers, they host a weekly life group meeting and have people from the church over for BBQ all the time.
These people are the people everyone else in the church thinks has it all together and is living the best Christian life you can.
But what’s on the inside? Have these people checked their hearts lately? Those people leading the procession and everyone else around them in probably thought they were doing good when they rebuked the blind man. They looked good on the outside, but what was on the inside was broken and dirty and had lost track of who Christ was and what it meant to be Christ like.
Have you checked your heart lately? Which group of people do you fall into? Are you a Disciple? Are you willing and striving to better your relationship with Christ every day? Or a Disciple who’s lost track of what it means to follow Jesus, or are you just a fan?
I’ve been speaking on what it looks like to be a Kingdom man, and what it looks like to be a kingdom woman. The common theme is love and respect in submission to Christ.
We discussed that as men, some of the manliest things we can do are the things society says aren’t manly and a lot of those things lead to relationship with Christ. That yes men have been called to lead, to rule even. But only to do that in a way that honors Christ and the women in our lives.
Then we discussed that just as men were created with a purpose, to be the head of the house and lead the family, Women were created spiritually equal as a strong help from God. That although the man is called to be the head of the house for the purpose of organized leadership, the role of women is just as important or even more so.
So what happens when you stick men and women in the same room together and hand them their purposes at the same time? What comes out of a community where both men and women have taken up the mantle of Kingdom people?
There’s a passage in that the ESV titles, “Straining Toward the Goal.”
This series is entitled “Strive” because living as kingdom people is never something that just all of a sudden clicks and it’s easy. The level of difficulty always stays the same because as you grow, the things you will be able to battle in your life grow in difficulty.
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
What it says is that God will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. What that sounds like is we won’t ever come up against things that are beyond what we can handle. But what it really says is that God won’t let you come up against things that you can’t handle with a little bit of His help.
Think about how we get better at something. If all you ever did was the same thing that you knew you could already do, will you get better? If you didn’t work up the courage to step out of your comfort and ability from skiing green runs, to blue runs, to black, to double black… how would you ever progress past green?
In order to progress in something we have to push ourselves a little bit. We need to go to a level of difficulty that is maybe just slightly out of our current ability to succeed. Sometimes we may need a bit of help in the next level, but after a few tries with some help we should be able to do it on our own.
God created us this way and he’s not about to let us sit in the beginner stage just because it’s comfortable. He’s going to push us, just like we would push a baby to walk. constantly holding their hands above their head as they take some wobbly steps that is really just them moving their legs. they’re not holding any weight yet but they are learning motor control so that when they are ready they’ll be able to walk on their own.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-
Just before this in v.9-11 Paul is speaking about how he has endured suffering so that he might gain Christ. To be found in him and to have a righteousness that comes from Christ.
Paul knows that living life as a perfect Kingdom man is not a goal to be attained. It’s not possible to live a perfect life, but what he does know is that if he doesn’t strive to be better than he was yesterday every day… he won’t get even close to whom God created him to be.
What can we do?
What can we do to strive for living more fully as Kingdom people?
The answer is actually quite simple.
4 things… Read your Bible, pray without ceasing, Take every thought captive and obedient to Christ, and then worship.
If we don’t read out bibles, how would we ever
The Bible tells us we should pray without ceasing. Satan likes to muddle our thoughts so that we won’t pray without ceasing. Remember that prayer is a conversation, not a dialogue. it’s literally conversing with God. Do you think that our outlook on life and everything we do is going to be better if we’re praying without ceasing, constantly having God in our minds
Satan likes to muddle our thoughts so that we won’t pray without ceasing. They’re connected, if you don’t keep your thoughts captive for Christ, you won’t be able to pray without ceasing. Two things that can lead to a deep, deep, peace in Jesus. but if we don’t read our bible, then we won’t know how to pray effectively.
Satan also likes to put little thoughts in our heads that sound either good or stress us out. Don’t let him do that to you. He literally has no power or authority to do that. He’s like a cap gun, all the noise but no bullets… he actually doesn’t have the ability to put bullets in. The bible tells us to take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ. In practice, this is a filter for our minds. What are we going to let in and dwell on? Is it a good thought that is God honoring or is it not? If it’s not then cast it away.
If we don’t pray without ceasing, we won’t know if all our thought’s are Christ centered or not. Our prayer with God and reading of scripture is how we take those thoughts captive and determine their origin. If we don’t pray, how will we take thoughts captive for Christ?
Another thing Satan likes to do is wait until you’re trying to get into a posture of worship and then throw unhealthy thoughts at you… you’re not a good singer, stop singing. If you sing a little louder people will hear how good you sing. nobody wants to see your painting, it’s not good enough. But if you read your bible, you’ll know that none of those thoughts ring true because that’s not how God speaks. Even when He is displeased He speaks with compassion, never with put downs and he certainly doesn’t enjoy boasting in one’s abilities.
Notice the pattern? Prayer, worship, and keeping our thoughts captive to Christ are only as effective as how much we read our bible.
There’s a cycle here too. The more we read the bible, the word of God, God himself, Jesus, the bread of life… The more we will pray and talk to God. The more we pray and talk to God, the better we get at making our thoughts obedient to Christ. The more we are able to do these things, the more we will just naturally want to worship God. The more we worship God, the more we want to dive into scripture… and the cycle starts all over again.
Read the bible, no matter how hard you find it to read or listen long enough because from reading scripture, all other aspects of your Christian life will grow. Without it, you’ll be in a perpetual state of limbo with God and your life. The word of God is our source of life.
So many Christians are taught that the word of God is important to their faith and that they should read it. But what they aren’t told is that the word of God is the foundation of the Christian faith and the Christian life.
Getting into the word is of utmost importance. It determines how we pray, how we worship, how we talk to people who don’t know Christ, how we structure our families, how we perform at work… literally everything.
I asked my board members this question at the beginning of the week… When was the last time you picked up your bible and read it more than once in a week?
Take that time frame in your head, now ask yourself… if I was told by my dentist that if I didn’t brush my teeth every day the rot that was inside them would take over and my teeth would all fall out and i’d be in excruciating pain… do you think I’d be motivated to brush my teeth every day?
Probably!!
What if I told you that if you didn’t read your bible diligently and often, the rot in your soul would take over your life and you’d be spiritually dying but not even noticing it. Then because you were spiritually dying, everything else in your life that matters to you became hard to maintain and started falling apart. That you could actually damage your eternity because there are lessons in the bible to teach us how to respond to certain things… and let me tell you some of the consequences of acting poorly are pretty brutal.
Jesus is telling his disciples that temptations are going to come. But if anyone by their actions causes a child to sin, the it would be better for them if a millstone was hung around his neck and he was cast into the sea.
Millstones weigh around 3300lbs!!!
How many passages are in the bible such as this one that we haven’t read because we can’t get up 20 minutes earlier than we have to every morning to read our bibles?
Now I’m not telling you that if you don’t read your bible you’re going to go to hell. That’s not how God works. But the bible has some things in it that are pretty important for us to hear. Do you not think that reading God’s word is worth the 20 minute earlier wake up call?
17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,
17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
The bible is not only our instruction for how we can live as kingdom people, it is also our weapon of defense against satan.
Remember when Satan came and tempted Jesus in the wilderness? He didn’t come with armies and catapults and swords… he came with scripture. He took scripture out of context in order to try and tempt Jesus to abandon the mission that he had, to save all humanity.
But Jesus knew his scripture. He knew the bible well. Jesus fought satan with scripture. He had an answer that was straight out of the bible every time satan spoke.
If satan is bold enough to do this to Jesus, do you think he would do the same to us?
If we’re in a spiritual battle, which we are, every day. Why would we ever think that it is a good idea to leave our swords at home?
It’s not! you don’t go to war without your gun!
The bible, the word of God is our weapon against Satan’s schemes and it is an effective one.
Read your bibles! I can’t stress it enough! This is probably the biggest thing that satan is doing in this world that is actually working a little. He’s making us apathetic so that we won’t read the one thing that could destroy him and allow us to live fully in Christ as kingdom people.
If we can all start reading our bibles 1 or even two times more per week than we are right now, we will be that much better at living a kingdom life. Living the life that God has called us to. Living as Kingdom men and women who love without any expectation of love in return. Who are willing to sacrifice things that we value because God asked it of us in order to bless another person or family in a big way.
When God asks of us things that are hard, the outcome of saying yes to Him is always beautiful.
And we’re not doing this because it’s nice to worship and sit in God’s presence.
We’re all here because we said yes to God at some point in our lives. Don’t you want to see what else He has in store for your life? I do… Lean into God, In the beginning the word was with God and the word was God. lean into the plan He has for you even though you don’t know what that looks like and it’s scary. Take that thought of fear captive for Christ and tell God to open doors and close doors.
Take up the whole armor of God, that we would be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
Let’s not be Jesus fans and become overzealous because we think we know better. Let’s get into the word, pray and get to know God and actually act like disciples. God wants to teach us and lead us but are we consciously and subconsciously willing to let Him?
We’re going to have a short time of extended worship and prayer before we leave here today. If God has convicted you of things today, ask Him to help you to do or fix the thing He has put on your mind.
If you need prayer for something I will be up front here if you would like. There are also people siting in front or next to you that I’m sure would be more than willing to pray for you.
I’m going to pray, then let’s worship