Title: Seeking A Kingdom Minded Life
Text: Matt 6:33
Read Text!!!
Pray!!!
Introduction:
One night, a group of thieves broke into a jewelry store. But rather than stealing anything, they simply switched all the price tags. The next day no one could tell what was valuable and what was cheap. The expensive jewels had suddenly become cheap, and the costume jewelry, which had been virtually worthless before, was suddenly of great value. Customers who thought they were purchasing valuable gems were getting fakes. Those who couldn’t afford the higher priced items were leaving the store with treasures.
In our world someone came in and switched all the price tags. It’s hard to tell what is of value and what is not. Great value is given to the accumulation of material wealth and the power that goes with it. The world puts a high price on popularity, prestige, beauty, and fame. But Jesus taught that such things are virtually worthless in the only “jewelry store” that matters: the kingdom of God.
- Developing a Kingdom mentality is what we are going to look at this morning.
- We are going to see what matters in the Kingdom of God and how to develop it in our daily lives.
- What is the Kingdom of God? How do we seek it in our lives? What is the purpose of the Kingdom of God? How does it reside in us? Are some of the questions we are going to answer.
Explanation Of The Kingdom Of God:
- Before we start into the message let me give you a few points concerning the Kingdom of God to help understand what Jesus meant.
- It’s purpose is to do God’s will on earth as His will is done in Heaven. (The Lord’s Prayer Matt 6:10)
- As Christians we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. John 3:3 and 5 say, “Jesus said, I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless He is born again. Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”
- The Kingdom of God resides in all who have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
- The Kingdom of God is in all who have been born again.
Transition:
- Now what do we learn from these points and how do we put them together?
1. The kingdom implies a King, and our King is Jesus
- not me
2. Entrance into the Kingdom is by new birth
- there is no other way to Heaven but through Jesus.
3. The kingdom is not eating and drinking but rather righteousness, peace and joy in the Spirit.
- determine to live for God. Let the Holy Spirit rule and reign in your heart.
- the more we become Christ’s subjects in His kingdom the more, righteous we become, the more peace we experience and the more joy fills our lives.
- Only Jesus can make us righteous, peaceful and full of joy.
- All our righteousness are as filthy rages the Bible says.
- The Bible also says in Rom 3:10-12, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away. Together they have become useless; there is no one who does good, there is not even one.”
- That’s why we need to seek Jesus righteousness not our own good works.
- We have no righteousness to offer, nothing good to bring to God.
- But that’s not what God is demanding, rather God is wanting us to change day unto day so that His goodness has a place to operate.
- When we change and desire more of Him, He transforms our feet, hands, tongue into instruments that He can use. Instruments of righteousness.
James Merritt says in his book, Crown Him King, “We have not been called to perform for our King but to be transformed into conduits of His purity and holiness.”
4. It is a future kingdom as well as a present one.
- not only do we live and experience the kingdom now, but it will be fully experienced when Jesus comes and sets up His kingdom on earth.
- Scripture declares in Mark 14:25 that it’s a future kingdom. “I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
- That statement sounds like Jesus is speaking about the future Kingdom.
- But scripture also declares that it is a present reality in Luke 11:20. “If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you” Or Luke 17:20-21 says, “Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God will come, He answered them, The Kingdom of God is not coming with something observable; no one will say, Look here! Or There! For you see, the kingdom of God is among you.”
- So therefore let me say there is know easy definition for the Kingdom of God. A simple definition would be, God ruling in the hearts and lives of believers.
- It is God’s desire for His children to seek first the Kingdom of God, but what does that mean?
- It is God’s will for us as believers to live a Kingdom minded life and to passionately pursue it everyday.
- What does a Kingdom minded Christian look like? This is what we are going to explore in practical detail.
- But the first goal in life as believers is to be Christ-centered.
- We need to remain focused on Him, believing on Him, seeking to honor Him, and learning to submit and obeying Him.
- When we strive to live this way, Jesus will lead us toward becoming a people who are kingdom minded in all our ways.
- So the question this morning is, what does seeking the Kingdom look like? Or what does living a Kingdom mentality everyday look like?
Point 1: Seek The Glory Of The King
- Meaning worship Him, but not just by singing songs only, make it your whole life, in everything you do to bring glory to the Lord.
- I Cor 10:31 says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.”
- I believe we can worship God in everything that we do, like simply doing our jobs well, by taking care of our bodies, by spending more time with our families instead of devoting it to ourselves.
- We can worship God doing little things for our spouses, and kids.
- We can bring glory to God by simply committing our routine day to the Lord.
- Asking and praying that God will be given glory in all that we do.
(Give personal story about how I bring glory to the Lord with my family)
- When we look and live life by striving to bring glory to the Lord in the little things, we then are actively seeking His Kingdom.
- Seeking the Kingdom isn’t for the Billy Graham’s and John Hagee’s, it’s for all no matter what we are doing whether great or small.
- The Kingdom can be sought and found every hour of every day.
- No matter if you are sweeping the floor, waiting on tables or polishing furniture, we can bring glory to the Lord and thus seeking the Kingdom.
Point 2: Seek The Direction Of The Lord
- When we are in the act of seeking His direction in our lives, we are seeking His Kingdom.
- When we are looking past our own thinking and knowledge, for God’s direction instead, we are seeking the Kingdom for our lives.
- When we look to the Lord for wisdom in prayer, it’s a practical way to seek God’s Kingdom.
- This requires beating to a different drum then the world beats too.
- Some would look at it, as trying to escape your problems and not dealing with it.
- But I look at it as simply being smart.
- We don’t have all the answers and we need to seek God for the answers and direction in life.
- The Bible says, “Be not conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” (Roms 12:2)
- I hope I never might a Christian who doesn’t want to know the will of God for there lives
- I want to know exactly what He expects from me. And then I want the faith and strength to carry it through in my life.
- James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing.”
- Meaning God will not look at you when you ask a question and say, “Is this the right direction for my life.” God in return will not say, that’s a stupid question.
- God will give us wisdom for our lives, if we will but seek Him.
Point 3: Seek The Supervision Of The King
- Meaning, let God have control of what you do.
- Open your daily planner for the day and let Him have control of it.
- Let Him take charge of your day, give Him everything.
- Spare nothing.
- Ask God to guide your conversation at the dinner table, what does God want you to do after dinner as a family.
- When you are driving to work in your car, what does He want you to do with that free time.
- If you work with clients pause before you see the next one and say a quick prayer before talking.
- This is opening you life to a loving God, and becoming a part of His plans for your life not the other way around.
- Sometimes we want God to be apart of our lives and what we are doing.
- But God wants us to become apart of Him and what He has planned for us.
- His plans are great and wonderful, but we will never experience them by asking Him to do what we want Him to do.
- It is my desire to shake off the sin that so easily entangles us and walk in freedom.
- I want to experience the liberty of life in His Kingdom.
- We will find that His way is far more liberating then our way of doing things.
Conclusion:
- In conclusion I want to close with this story to sum up the message this morning.
“We’ll be out until 10:30,” said Chad’s parents as their friends, the Petersons, came by to pick them up for banquet. “While we’re gone, stay home and finish your history paper.”
“Can’t I use the car for just a little while?” asked Chad. He had gotten his driver’s license just last month. “Um, I need to borrow a book from Todd. I’ll only be gone a while.”
“Absolutely not,” warned Chad’s father. “You have all the books you need for tonight. You stay home and work on that paper.”
Darn. Chad really wanted to get together with his friends while his parents were gone. After all, his parents weren’t using the car, so why shouldn’t he be able to? It didn’t seem fair. He only wanted to be out for an hour or so. There would still be time to work on his history paper, he reasoned.
The phone rang. It was Todd. “Hey, come on over,” he said. “All the guys are here.”
Chad decided that he could go to Todd’s and get back early enough so that his parents would never know. He just had to be sure to put some gas in the car so nothing would look suspicious. He could work fast on his history paper when he returned.
He got in the car and took off. No one would ever be the wiser, he thought. On the way to Todd’s, however, disaster struck. He had a flat tire. Oh great, he thought. He had never changed a tire before. Now he was going to have to not only change a tire, but also get it repaired quickly so that his parents would never find out. He needed to hurry.
He got out the tire jack and the wrench and went to work. But somehow all of the lug nuts on the wheel were stuck. He couldn’t get the tire off. He turned the wrench as hard as he could, but to no avail. After what seemed like hours of trying to the nuts off, he finally gave up and walked to the nearest gas station. He was exhausted.
It was after ten o’clock when the gas station attendant finally put the hydraulic wrench on the lug nuts and removed the tire. Chad couldn’t believe it. Why couldn’t he get those nuts off? Why were they on there so tight? Life wasn’t fair! Now he was going to be put on restriction for the rest of his life!
“Which way were you turning them?” asked the gas station attendant. Chad thought it was a stupid question. Of course he knew how to unscrew a nut. You turn it counterclockwise. “Well,” said the attendant, “the threads on this side of the car are reversed. To get them off, you turn them clockwise.”
Suddenly Chad felt like a fool.
- A lot of people in the world today have a difficult time finding happiness and fulfillment in life because they are going about it in the wrong way.
- They are like Chad, turning the nut in the wrong direction—it only gets tighter. Life doesn’t get better; it gets worse.
- The life that Jesus teaches us to live is like a reverse thread—it’s just the opposite of what people think.
- The world says, “Do everything for yourself” The Bible says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.”
- The world says, “Do what feels good regardless of what God thinks” The Bible says, “Be not conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”
- The world says, “To get ahead we need to step over some people.” The Bible says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
- The Bible says, “But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will given to you as well.”
- We seek the Kingdom of God by:
1. Seeking His Glory
2. Seeking His Direction
3. Seeking His Supervision
- This will be accomplished as we grow more and more Christlike in our lives.
- Let’s develop a Kingdom Mentality everyday
(Information taken from James Merritt’s book Crown Him King)
Lets Pray!!!
