The Kingdom: A Spreading Fire, 04/26/15

Sermon 4-26-15 kingdom – what is your passion?        Luke 18:18-30

¹⁸ A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁹ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ²⁰ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’^[a]”²¹ “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said. ²² When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” ²³ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. ²⁴ Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” ²⁶ Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” ²⁷ Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”²⁸ Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!” ²⁹ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God ³⁰ will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Series on the kingdom

Is this your favorite scripture?

It challenges us

Where would X-ity be if we had chosen to hang our salvation hats here?

The rich young ruler loved his stuff

He did all the religious things, but loved his stuff

We are uncomfortable with this story because we like our stuff too

This story asks us, what do we love, where is our passion

What we are Passionate about

Cars, music, softball, food, royals, isis, clothes, status, prestige, power

Pokemon cards.  Tamagachi.  Yo yo. Hula hoops

My pleasure - My comfort - My feelings - My health

And on and on we go…..

Using your passion for God – oil change ministry.

God invites us to love others.

It is what the Christian faith is about

1 cor 13

All the other religious things are trappings unless we are a person of love

I once overheard a person telling off the server at a restaurant

The voice sounded familiar.

It was a member of our church.

If your family, if your friends, if the servers, if the stranger will not testify to your heart of love, then it is probably time for our passion to change

For us to learn to love in a greater way

But why does god invite us to love?  Because God is love 1 jn 4

When we love we are like him and that is good.

But there is another reason….

For this we were created

Ephesians 2:8-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, though faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The big story of God is not yet finished.  The next chapter is being written by the church. We are change agents for God’s kingdom. - Unfinished

Sharing Christ’s love is what we’re made for

Just as God created birds to fly and fish to swim, he created us to live as citizens in His emerging kingdom and to invite others to join us.

When we love others we get  connected with the sheer joy of living missionally – an authentic – form of Christianity

Sending us on mission is one of the greatest gifts God could give us.

What  a great privilege he gives us to go about doing good in his name.

So How does God do it?  How does he try to reach us?

The holy spirit is tugging, wooing, pulling,

inviting us to change our assumptions about living

The rich young ruler went away sorrowfully

It doesn’t have to end that way

Bob Buford’s book [tom woodward]          Half time

Are you finally ready to do something with your life?

Story of reading this on the airplane

Holy Discontent – Bill Hybels

You become a force for good where powered by Holy discontent

Injustice of slavery in Egypt motivated Moses

Popeye – ive had all I can stand and I cant stand anymore

Maybe you cant get fired up about feeding the poor.  Or caring about people.  Sometimes gods work gets started in a person when they look in the mirror and get fired up about their  living.  Have you ever gotten disgusted with your own selfishness?

“Accepting the world as it is.

Denying our ability to see something better.

Denying our ability to be something better.

suit up and get in the game.”

What is your passion – time to seize upon it

Story- Floating in the pontoon on Lakewood lake

None of this is our of obligation. When a persons heart catches fire for the love of others, We find fulfillment

The kingdom started a fire in the soul of Ashley Allison.  As we talked about crime in the urban core of KC, Ashley realized that, if that was happening in her neighborhood, she would be doing something about it.  The urban core is only 20 minutes away, but many times, we approach it as if it is worlds away.  Ashley Allison wrote the following after week 2 of KE ‘Blessed are those who mourn’:  “This week, I decided to reach out to the families of the children killed in shooting in Kc in the last few months. I donated to goFundme for Angela hooper, a 6 year old shot while buying bubble gum at a 7eleven. I sent a note and small donation to the families of jaquail mansaw (a 7 month old killed In a driveby shooting), Machole Stewart (a 10 year old girl killed in a driveby shooting) and Khalif Hampton (16 year old boy killed in driveby shooting). This is something I have wanted to do but needed a push!”  As a result of this, Jill Parsons & Ashley felt called to do more.  They reached out to an organization called Mothers in Charge and met with the director of the organization, who lost a son to murder several years ago.  They heard about her desire to educate children at a young age about the dangers of guns and to teach them healthier life choices. Jill & Ashley wanted to help.  They are now partnering with Ingels Elementary in the Hickman Mills School District to host a safety fair.  The school administration (including Deb Meisenheimer from WCC) had been wanting to do something, but didn’t have the staff or time to pull off such a big event.  Jill & Ashley have done that.  The community festival will be held May 9 and will teach violence prevention and constructive youth activities in an area (Hickman Mills) that has been directly affected by violence against children

Coffee for soldiers story                                    I will call for the PICTURE

Once a man asked, “what did you gain by giving your life to God? ‘The man replied, ‘nothing… but let me tell you what I lost: Anger, ego, greed, depression, insecurity, and fear of death.

‘Sometimes, the answer to our prayers is not gaining but losing;  which ultimately is the gain.”

the blessings of God are too good to keep for ourselves; if you want to find your life, you have to give it away

Take the initiative

The pastor didn’t ask us to go to a different service so we come to 10:10

In the Kingdom we don’t wait for the pastor to invite us

Most people think of life in terms of how it impacts them instead of thinking of how they can impact life.

I have a friend who is interested in ministry but they told me that nothing was going on in their life right now……

Did you get up this morning?

We are going to close with the beatitudes again, from the message bible.  They are the principles of the kingdom.  Lets say them together.

·         ³ “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

·         ⁴ “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

·         ⁵ “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

·         ⁶ “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

·         ⁷ “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

·         ⁸ “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

·         ⁹ “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

·         ¹⁰ “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

I am doing the Kingdom Experiment a second time, trying to make them a little more personal.  I struggled with Blessed are those who mourn, I am not a very good mourner.  I have a hard time with my heart breaking for the things that breaks Jesus' heart.  I experience a lot of anxiety and probably some ADHD as my brain never wants to shut off.  I have learned to funnel a lot of that stuff into journaling about everything I am thinking.  I tend to learn a lot about myself when I journal and I found an area to mourn that I never thought about before and of course I wrote about it.

Thanks for preaching about these Beatitudes, I think about them all the time now and they are taking on a new meaning through this study and your preaching. 

In my crusade to bring meaning to Blessed are those who mourn ... I have realized there are so many areas of life I have no idea how to mourn for.  Take our servicemen for example, I have never experienced the front lines of war, seeing things that were so horrendous that I would never be able to speak of them again, ever.  Do they mourn the death of fellow service members, mourn those they maybe have killed or mourn how their life will never be the same?

I have come to the conclusion that the hard I choose to ignore is the hard I hope to never have to face in my own life.  Therefore, I make the mourning, with or for others, impossible for myself.  Out of sight, out of mind.  

So I delve into reading about the wars going on right now and my mind instantly strays inward.  If it were one of my own family members, my heart would be aching beyond belief.  I would be mourning and so seeking God's comfort and peace in the situation and of them being safely returned home.  For me, it's more difficult to pray intentional and daily for someone I don't personally know.  If it's not written down, how easily I forget them after that initial prayer. 

A friend told me about a website.  You purchase a cup of coffee for $2, write a note, and it is delivered to a service member by email. The freshly brewed cups of coffee are served at Green Beans Coffee cafes on the bases where they are deployed.

So below is the note I attached to the 15 cups of coffee I purchased along with some responses I received back this week.  Now I feel a little more connected to "mourn" alongside my fellow service members as they continue to make my freedom possible as I sit back home and enjoy my numerous cups of coffee each morning in my safe, comfortable surroundings.  

  Words cannot begin to express my thanks for your spirit of service to our great country.  I am embarrassed at my complacency of freedom I take for granted on most days.  What if you were my son, my daughter, my grandson or my granddaughter serving across the ocean?  I am sure my need of God and extended prayer life would be off the charts by now.  So I am going to pretend you are one of my own, my beloved child whom I worry about, cry about, pray about and want to come back home safely to me sooner than yesterday.  As you drink your Cup of Joe, I hope you feel the love of God that drives out all fear.  In Him you are:
    blessed, chosen, anointed, gifted, able, strong, courageous and of immeasurable value
We are blessed to be a blessing, so now it's your turn to bless another! 

Have a great day.

serving at Al-Dhafra AFB in United Arab Emirates: 

Ms. Bass, Thank you so much for the Cup of Joe. Thank you for thinking about me and my fellow service members and keeping us in your prayers.

Thank you for your kind words, prayers and the cup of joe. I hope you and your family are safe and well.

Cheers, Melissa

Dear blank Thank you so much for your thoughtful, kind and very much appreciated message (as well as the cup of joe!). Your support and graciousness brought a large smile to my face today. Thank you so much for the words and prayers! 

 --Maj Tatum, USAF

serving at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar:

Your words and thoughts humble me, God Bless and Thank You.

--Dave

Thanks for the joe it's appreciated greatly.

Thank you for your kind words and generosity!

Thank you so much for that very encouraging message. It means more than you know. I will in turn bless others as you have me. Thank you for the Cup of Joe!

~MSgt T. Sanders

Serving at Undisclosed Location In The Middle East in Jordan:

Thank you for your kind words and inspiration. This is why I volunteered my service to this great nation. People like you that will help another. Thank you for your support. God Bless!