Hebrews, chapter two, verse number five.
Bible says, for unto the angels hath he not put in subjection
the world to come, whereof we speak but one in a certain place
testified, saying, what is man, that thou art mindful of him,
or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Thou madest him a little lower than the angel.
Thou crowned him with glory and honor, and did set over the works
of thy hand.
Thou has put all things in subjection under his feet, for in
that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is
not put under him.
But now we see not yet all things put under him.
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for
the suffering of death, crown with glory and honor that he, by
the grace of God, should taste death for every man.
Tonight's sermon is titled, what is the Kingdom All About?
And a simpler way of maybe trying to direct us is to ask the
question, what do we get?
What do we get?
You know, if I go and I buy present for my child and, you know,
take my.
My oldest son, Tanner, I know right now he's, like, into.
He was into Spider man, but now he's into the Lion Guard, he's
Mufasa.
And he'll call Travis Sarangi.
And then he called him the other night in nursery Bob.
And so the nursery workers didn't know who this kid was.
But if I buy Tanner a lion and I come home and I get to give that
present to him, and I get to see the joy on his face and just,
you know, his glee over receiving something.
And then over here are my three other children, and they are
asking the question, what do I get?
What's in it for me?
Don't I get something?
You know, so there's the jealousy there.
The question is, what is the kingdom of God about?
Whenever we think about serving Christ, serving God, we understand
the terms that he talks about, talks about how the kingdom to come,
the kingdom of heaven preached.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
We get some imagery in God's word about that.
We see here a small snippet in Romans, Revelation and Daniel about
us ruling and reigning with Christ.
And in Hebrews, where we're exactly at, we see, number one, the
unique position of Jesus himself.
But also we see the unique position of humanity as a whole.
Humanity as a whole was built differently from as much as what
we know than any other creation that has been made.
It says that you made man a little lower than the angels, and
you crowned him with glory and honor.
That Is what is said of humanity, of man, what is the crowning
of glory and honor?
Well, that's because God made us humans in his own image.
We were a unique creation that he desired to make.
You have put all things in subjection under man's feet.
So all of man was given dominion over the earth.
And that is exactly what God said back in Genesis.
You have dominion, you have rule.
The angels don't have that dominion.
They have maybe in some ways more powerful.
They are a different creature.
And we read of angels, one angel be able to kill hundreds of
thousands of soldiers in the Old Testament.
So there's great power there, but there's no dominion, because
that's not how God created them.
Man was created to have dominion.
Now, man messed that up in the garden.
And just as it says here, Jesus was made like man for the suffering
of death.
So that we, by the grace of God, that he, by the grace of God,
should taste death for every man.
Now, whenever we come to what it is that we get, what we are getting
is found in a couple of different passages in Romans chapter
eight.
Number one, we kind of established who it is that we are
in relationship to God.
That kind of sets us up.
In Romans chapter eight, he says, for as many are as led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear,
but you have received the spirit of adoption.
So we learn that humans, because of the grace of God, because
of the cross, if you enter into that relationship with Jesus
and have Jesus pay that penalty that we owe, justification
takes place, adoption takes place.
And that adoption whereby we cry abba, Father, we become the sons
of God.
He says, the Spirit itself bear witness to our Spirit, that
we are the children of God.
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also
be glorified together.
So we get to enter into the sonship, if you will, of God.
We get to get all of the same privileges that the Son gets.
By being a legitimate heir and a firstborn Son of God.
We get those benefits.
We also get the benefits of suffering with Christ.
And if we are suffering with Christ, we also get the benefits
of being glorified one day with Christ.
We are completely inserted, if you will, into the family of God.
That is what the adoption means.
And in terms of Roman policy, adoption was a very hard thing to
do.
You could disinherit an actual born son from your house.
You could remove him from the Inheritance, remove him from your
inheritance and ban them.
Adoption was much, much harder to actually do.
It was very hard to go about the process of adoption, but upon
adopting, you could not get out of that.
You had adopted them.
You now take full responsibility of them.
You can't disinherit them.
That's.
That's our position coming into the family of God.
Now we read more about our position, if you will, in Revelations,
chapter 20.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection,
on such the second death hath no power.
But they speaking of Christ's bride, speaking of the children of
God, of Christians.
They shall be priests of God, in Christ, of Christ, and shall reign
with him for a thousand years.
Okay, so now the picture broadens.
What do we get?
What do we do?
We were going to reign with Christ in Daniel, chapter 7.
It also speaks of the coming judgment in verse 9, says, I beheld
till the thrones were cast down and the ancient of days did
sit, whose garment was white as snow, and there with his head
like pure wool, his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels
his burning fire.
So we get this picture of God, the ancient of days, sitting on the
throne.
Verse number 22.
I just closed my document.
People not panic.
Verse number 22 gives us a different description of the ancient
of days ruling and reigning.
And he says, until the ancient days came and judgment was given
to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the
saints possessed the kingdom, saints reign with the ancient of
days.
And this is a very common theme of the saints ruling and reigning.
You know, Paul in First Corinthians talked about how, hey,
we're having these petty arguments and taking one another
to court.
And he drops this little small bit of theology, doesn't explain
hard and much of it, but he says, you one day will judge angel
and you will be sitting in thrones of judgment.
And then if you can't even judge the smallest matters here,
you're not unworthy to judge those weightier matters there.
So there is this picture of ruling with God as king, but doing
what?
What does that mean?
What do you, what are you right now thinking about ruling with
God as a king?
Well, most people imagine power, status, authority.
We imagine the person ruling and reigning and being served.
I don't know about you, but that, that comes to mind.
Being served.
If you're a king, you get to be served, right?
You get servants, one around, feed you graves, you know, the whole
nine yards, that sort of thing.
What we do get is a different picture of what it means to be great.
And that is the next slide.
The king served, the king serves.
In Luke chapter 22, the disciples, they began asking this
question which they had a habit of asking.
And In Luke chapter 22, the Bible says in verse number 27, in
verse number 24, there was also a strife among them which of
them should be accounted the greatest.
So here we have the disciples.
This is common theme of them trying to one up one another.
It's interesting in here they just get done trying to inquire among
themselves which of them it should be that would betray because
of Jesus statement that one of you will betray me.
So while we're thinking of the least person of our group, we should
probably think about who's going to be the greatest.
And Jesus makes this statement.
The king of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them.
And they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.
But ye shall not be so.
But he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and
he that is chief, as he that doth so serve.
For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat or he that serveth,
it's not he that sitteth at me, but I am among you as he that
serveth.
And so Jesus, he sets the bar for how Christians should interact.
So try to sum up some of this in your mind.
What is the kingdom of God about?
Whenever humans were first created, they were given dominion
over the entire earth.
They were set up to rule the earth, so to speak.
What comes to our mind is ruling and reigning like a king.
What comes to God's mind is taking care of the earth, taking
care of, of one another.
What comes to God's mind about what it means to be a human?
That's the question that we are really trying to ask.
What is what?
What was God's intention for humanity?
What was his design for humans to behave like?
We get that figure in Jesus.
We get that example in Jesus.
Jesus said that this is not the way of serving and lording over
one another.
That is not the way for my people.
That is not what I do.
He says, which one of you is supposed to be greater?
The person that gets served the food or the servant?
Obviously in today's society, it's the person that gets served
the food and the meat.
They said, I'm the one that served you for this.
You see me serving and you clearly know that I am the greater.
So what is your opinion of being a king?
What is your opinion of ruling and reigning?
Because Jesus is that ultimate example Number one, the kingdom reveals
what humanity was meant to be.
So going back to the garden number one, humans are created in
God's image.
There's a very special thing that began and a very special plan
begins.
Humans are to represent God and to rule under God.
And the fall was fundamentally one thing, my will instead of God's
will.
Adam was created in God's image.
He was supposed to represent, rule and rule underneath God.
But Adam chose self.
And this is kind of our position at times.
At times, maybe all the time.
I don't know.
You have to ask your own heart this.
I know my own heart.
And most of the time I would choose myself rather than other people.
Why?
We're selfish.
That is just our natural inclination.
We are selfish individual.
And ever since that point, humanity has then been carved inward
on itself.
Cain killed Abel because he didn't like that his brother.
One update, you have the Tower of Babel, the biggest structure dedicated
and built for self to show look what we can do.
And God said if we let them go, there's nothing that will stop
them.
In their imagination, they will continue upward.
For beyond the imagination.
Then we have obviously everything that happens after the
fall.
The rule and reign of kings, the constant battle of, of rulers
conquering.
It's just one after another.
Even to today, self, self exalting self.
And we see this even amongst our friends, people at work.
Self is exalted.
Now what we see is that as humans, this isn't how we were created.
Christ is the perfect human number two.
So Adam, he grasped at that greatness.
Christ emptied himself.
Adam self exalted.
Christ humbled himself, became obedient to death.
Even the death of the cross.
Adam brought death by his actions and Christ brought life.
So what we see is Christ exemplifying what it means to be,
as the Bible says, the perfect Adam.
The second Pat, turn your Bibles to Philippians chapter two.
This is where Philippians chapter two.
And the example of what Christ did in the plan for redemption becomes
kind of central.
See, Jesus is not merely an example for how we should act.
We all have had examples.
We would get an example of saying, you know, that's a example
of someone with good character.
You know, it's really neat.
Whenever you see in sports competitions, people battling it
at one another, going head to head, and then something happens,
the opponent is able to take advantage of that, but they know
that isn't fair.
And so they hold back and there's this great example of sportsmanlike
character.
And everyone's like, wow, you know, I actually Think of a lot of
different UFC fights that I've seen where different people.
Something happened in the ring and the fighter knew I had the advantage,
but it was wasn't fair.
And so they stopped and they checked on the person and everyone's
like, wow, it's a sportsmanship of this guy.
You know, we get small examples.
We say, oh, that's an example of that.
That's an example of this.
Christ is not merely an example of what it means to be a
good person.
Jesus is the perfect picture of humanity as God intended.
Paul explains In Romans chapter 5 that great compare and
contrast of Adam grasping Adam exalting self, Christ emptying self,
Christ humbling himself, Adam bringing death by his disobedience,
Christ being light, bringing life by his obedience.
And then we come here to Philippians chapter two, and in Philippians
chapter two, we've already kind of touched on that in the past
couple of sermons.
But we get this great example of who Jesus is and the lowliness
of himself there in verse number three.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglow glory, but in
lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
And Jesus, what he did is kind of unfathomable in our understanding.
He took upon himself the mind that I am a servant.
Says who?
Being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal
with God.
It wasn't a crime for Jesus to remain in his divinity, in all of
his glory, in the express and brightness image of God.
It wasn't anything for Jesus to say, yeah, that's who I am.
That's who I'm going to be.
And yet the terminology here means that Jesus did not look at
that image of being God, being almighty, being king, having every
single right for people to wait on him, having every single
right to be born in a palace as a king should.
He didn't look at that as something that he wanted to grasp.
That was not his intention.
His motive was to be the perfect son of man.
This is his 100% humanity trait coming out.
This is exactly who he was.
He was the Son of Man, his favorite title that he loved to refer
to himself by.
He did not think it robbery would be equal to God, but made himself
of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, was made
in the likeness of men.
Being found the fashion as man, he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of wrath.
Wherefore God also because of this, hath highly exalted him and
given him a name which is above every name.
You see, he is the perfect human.
If there ever was a perfect human.
That is exactly who Jesus set out to be to show man this is what
it looked like.
This is the image that I had planned for in Adam.
Biblically, perfection means complete, mature, whole.
Perfection in human terms is not part.
You know, we think about people with really good memories
or really good skills, really talent.
We say that perfect, he's better than everyone else.
You know, that's not what we're talking about here.
Christian perfection, Christian maturity expresses itself
in a humility that puts other people first.
And now this is not the only expression of mature Christian.
But this is a pervading characteristic of what it means to
be a Christian.
You love God, but you love others expressly above yourself.
And that is what Jesus was constantly doing.
He was constantly putting other people above himself.
There's an episode, I don't know how many of you watched, the
Chosen.
There's an episode of the Chosen.
And the Chosen is not really a show that centers on Jesus.
You don't really get to see Jesus in every single episode all
the time.
And I really like that because you don't see too much of him.
They can't mess him up too much, you know, And Jesus shows are
always like, Jesus really say that?
Or would really, would he really do that?
But it remains and holds his mystique.
I believe the Chosen is set on those that Jesus chose to follow
him, the disciple.
There's a whole episode where Jesus is kind of a blur in the background.
He's healing people.
And all those who are sick, paralyzed, blind, they're coming
to Jesus for healing.
Disciples have made a way for this to happen, but they don't really
have much to do.
And they're sitting there talking.
The whole episode is just of them talking and arguing with each
other.
And part of that argument is about Matthew.
Why did you have to tax this so much?
They're getting into some argument about the most pettiest
things.
And just right at the climax of their argument, when they are
at their.
That the hottest point of it, Jesus finishes for the night, it's
late, he comes into them.
You know, you ever get caught doing something that you don't want?
I'm sure arguing in front of Jesus was something you didn't want
to be caught doing.
The disciples put their foot in their mouth many times.
They, in the heat of their argument, Jesus comes and immediately
they're like, oh, there's Jesus.
And we're arguing.
And Jesus just says, I'm really tired, I gotta go.
I Gotta go to bed.
He just falls and collapses in exhaustion on his bedroll.
And they're just thinking to themselves, we just spent this entire
day arguing with ourselves about ourselves.
And Jesus has been sacrificing himself the entire time.
And that was the example of Jesus throughout everything.
Jesus took time to visit the woman at the well.
Jesus went out of his way to heal.
Jesus went out of his way to do things that the disciples at times
question.
And it was the selflessness of God that drove him to do that.
This is who God is.
And so whenever we think about perfection in Christ likeness, we
understand that the kingdom produces Christlike people.
Not an astounding, unoriginal thought.
We're all supposed to be Christlike.
We know that.
But what does that mean?
Well, a lot of that is how we're acting in our attitude as Christian.
You know, we.
We talked about in Philippians Chapter two, about how we are not
to murmur and dispute among each other because we are set up
as lights on a hill.
And that that meaning does not mean that what your light shine before
men so all can, can see.
And you're just a testimony of.
Of God's goodness.
And you're sharing that testimony.
It means that you are shining as a Christian, bright as can be,
and everyone knows it.
And whether or not you act like Christ or act like the world,
they see it and they take note of it.
The kingdom produces Christlike people.
And as a selfish generation, we can sometimes get into the act
of being so unchristlike because of our motives and how we
treat other people.
For, practically speaking, for men, how do we as men serve in our
family or for one another?
That looks that servant leadership is what Christ so often
exemplified in so many of his actions.
Trying to teach the disciples.
The act of leadership is not in ruling and reigning over our family,
but rather in serving our family.
I mean, most of us men, you know, I understand.
You know, you get home after a long day of work.
You stay in the vehicle when you get home for like 5, 10 minutes
until the wife says, why are you still in the vehicle?
Get out.
We got stuff for you to do.
I kept just trying to rest before I have to go in and meet the
house.
Then you come home and the only thing that I want to do sometimes
is just sit down.
And that serves who that serves me.
As ladies, we get into ruts of.
We ladies, you get into ruts of different types of vices.
And again, the focus is on cell.
What can I get out of this?
Practically, we as Christians, how we interact with one another.
What we do for one another, does it match up to the lung that
Christ would show us?
Men don't really have a problem with gossip and talking about
people.
No, ladies, I know that the temptation to speak about others
can always be a dragging weight.
Whenever it comes to our tongue.
We learn from James chapter three.
James chapter three makes an astounding statement.
He talks about our tongue and how what would is becoming of Christians.
And he speaks about how the tongue is a a small thing and yet
it controls the whole body.
So whether you're a lady or a guy, the tongue is a problem.
Regardless, he says that same fountain that brings forth the blessing
of God, even God our Father, wherewith we curse men with which
are made after the similitude of God.
Now why is that such a big deal to curse a person or to speak
ill of them?
Why is that such a big deal?
He says they're made after the similitude of God.
They are made in the image of God.
Therefore there is a responsibility and an aim of that
that doesn't just attack the person, but it actually attacks the
very image of God.
You will recall to your mind Joseph, whenever he met with the
temptations of Potiphar's wife.
I've always looked at Joseph and the way that he spoke about his
temptation as a little interesting.
He said, how can I do this wickedness and sin against my God?
Now whenever I think about Joseph, Potiphar's wife, It's Potiphar's
wife.
It's not God's wife.
It's just, you know, an Egyptian and it's Potiphar's wife.
Wouldn't he be more accurate in saying he would sin against another
man?
And wouldn't we say, well, you know, I spoke those things and I
said that, and that was against them.
So I sinned against that person.
But Joseph equates sinning against another human as sinning
against God himself.
That's what sin is.
It is the coming up short.
It is the attack, the disobedience against what God has
said and done.
We say, wasn't this hurting Potiphar?
But yet Joseph said that is a person, an individual made in the
image of God, a creation made in God's image.
And therefore that sin is against God himself.
And so it makes us act and ask the question, how am I acting towards
others?
This goes into so many different avenues and aspects of
our life and how we are treating others.
The last time that you are thinking ill towards a person or
thinking absolutely wrong towards that individual, that is
a person made in the image of God.
That should make us pause, that should make us stop and remind
ourselves of the greatness of sin.
Sin.
The exceeding wickedness of sin.
How do we act towards others?
To our friends, to our parents, to our teachers, to your
enemy?
What a question.
There's a girl.
She was.
Her name was Lauren Blankmore.
She was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in which tumor invades
the bones and the body.
And through all of that, a lot of times that leads to amputation,
the type of cancer that she had.
And through all the chemo, through all, all the radiation and
all the treatment through those years, up and down.
She had a neighbor, her name was Miss Mildred.
And she made her comfort blanket, a blanket of many colors,
knitted it for her.
And in that hospital, she would oftentimes cuddle that blanket,
trying to stay warm, trying to be comforted through the vomiting,
the throwing up, the sickness, the weakness, the dehydration.
At times, just every single symptom that comes with cancer.
The archdant of that life and throughout her battle, she was comforted
by that.
After Warren's dad visited a children's cancer ward in India,
he returned home to tell her about the kids.
And immediately, this girl, still on the outskirts of cancer,
she began to raise money by speaking at Rotary Club meetings
and schools, asking and requesting donations.
She wanted every child to have a Miss Mildred blanket because, as
she said, chemotherapy makes you cold all the time.
Thanks to women in Bosnia working at peacecrafts, a cottage
industry started by Southeast missionaries and whom Warren asked
to make the blankets, each child's bed in the cancer ward is
now worn by Miss Mildred blanket.
She said, when I was first diagnosed with cancer, I knew God
had a plan for my life.
Warren said, this is part of that plan.
That's a nice story.
It's a nice warm.
If it, you know, if you didn't get any kind of emotions of that,
you might be heartless.
But what does this teach?
How do we act towards others when life and circumstances are not
going away?
The selfishness in our hearts.
That's not how God made us to be as human.
God made us to have a utopian society that doesn't work because
of sin, obviously.
That doesn't work because of the fall, obviously.
But the design is still there.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
This is not a feel good message.
This is a that is extremely hard to do message.
That is something that is impossible for us to do at times.
Whenever the only thing that we want to do is just what and If
I was having and battling cancer and I was cold and sickness,
I'd be thinking, goodness, I just want to be comforted from this.
The times put me out of my misery.
There are many times in our life where we go through these battles.
We don't have necessarily a you before I attitude.
The kingdom is not try harder to be nice.
The kingdom is God has shown grace to us in Christ and therefore
we reflect that grace towards others by liberty.
Serve one another.
You have liberty, the Bible says in Galatians, you use that liberty
to love one another.
Though comfort that we are comforted by God, we then take that
comfort and comfort the world in the understanding of what a relationship
with Christ is.
Who is the greatest in the kingdom?
That's, that's the question.
And over In Matthew chapter 19, we get a small another glimpse
of this.
The disciples turn there and we'll be done.
Matthew chapter 19.
We got a guy who, desiring to inherit something, he desires to
inherit the kingdom of heaven.
That was his desire.
And he asked the question, good master, what must I do to eternal
that I may have eternal life?
How can I obtain, how can I inherit this kingdom?
And Jesus tells him frankly what to do.
You know, you know what the prophets have told you, you know
what the, the commandments are.
And he gives him that great commandment of if you're going to
be perfect, go and sell all that you have and then come back
and follow me.
Take your cross up.
If you do that, you'll have treasure in heaven.
And he goes away.
And Jesus makes that proclamation to the disciples, how
hard is it for a rich man to go into heaven?
And the disciples are astonished by this because they thought
that riches were equating to God's merit and God's grace.
And wow, this guy is wealthy.
God must love him, he must be going to heaven.
And wow, this guy's really wealthy.
That means God really loves this guy.
And Jesus just told us that this guy doesn't get to go there
because he's wealthy.
How then can we go to heaven?
Who then can go into the kingdom of God?
And Jesus says, with this, with men this is impossible, but
with God all things are possible.
And then they all look at this and they're thinking, he told him,
take up your cross, sell all that you have.
Jesus, verse number 27, behold, we have forsaken all and
followed thee.
What shall we have?
Therefore, what do I get again?
And he says, that you that have followed me shall sit upon 12
thrones, and everyone that hath forsaken Houses or brethren
or sisters or father, mother or wife, children of lands for my
name's sake shall receive a hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting.
Kind of takes us back to that initial thought.
This is what the disciples were thinking.
We get a hundredfold, what do we?
Is that what's matching up to what Christ is saying, though?
No, it's not.
And he gives them that statement, but many that are first
shall be last, and the last shall be first.
Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.
That statement leads him to give this parable In Matthew, chapter
20, about the farmer, the vineyard owner that goes and hires
out that very first helping hand to work in the vineyard in the
early morning, the wee hours of the morning, he hires them.
He says, whatever's right, I'm going to pay you.
He comes and he works.
He goes out and finds more men, tells them, whatever's right,
I'm going to pay.
Throughout the day, he does this four or five times.
The last hour of the day.
He goes out one more time, sees men standing idly by, and says,
no one's hired you.
Come work for me.
Whatever's right, I will pay.
You have to imagine and think about this, okay?
You know, it's the end of the day, we'll get something.
Maybe we'll be able to buy some sort of loaf of bread or something.
Maybe we can put it towards tomorrow.
They get there, they work for the hour, and then the good man of
the house says, pay them all, starting with the last, unto the
first.
Every single one of them receives the same thing.
It's not fair, and yet it is completely fair.
He says the people that come in first, they ask that great question,
what in the world?
This isn't right.
You've made them who have worked but an hour with.
They've made them equal to us who have borne the heat of the day.
I said good friend, in the King James.
English Good friend, Didn't you agree to work for a day's labor?
I gave you that?
Is your eye evil to me because my eye is good?
The kingdom is not a merited thing because of all the hard work
that do that.
Not how God operates.
He operates on a merit of grace.
See, God causes it to rain and shine on the just and the unjust.
God blesses the wicked no different than he blesses you and
I.
God doesn't do this on the merits of the person or individual.
God does it on the merits of.
Of his character.
All blessings come from God because he is good.
God is good to you not because you are good or evil is because he
is good.
All good things come from the Bible says in the book of James.
And so whenever it comes for this great question, if I serve,
if I pour everything I have, who takes care of me?
And the answer to that is God says, I do.
Everyone was taken care of that day.
Those that worked the littlest were those that worked the most.
They all got what was fair.
They got a day's worth working weight.
Some people got more.
You know, there's going to be.
People like D.L.
Moody, for example, is a great, maybe epitome of what it means
to be a great Christian.
Or maybe Paul.
We think of rewards and, and getting to enter into the kingdom
of God.
And they spent their entire lives and they end up dying and sacrificing
their life for the gospel sake.
He's getting the same heaven that you and I are getting.
He's getting the same heaven that the thief on the cross is getting.
He's getting the same presence of Jesus.
He's getting the same heaven glory that Jesus is going to give
every single person.
Now, I'm sure there will be differences of what happened, but
there's no way it's going to be fair because none of us deserve
any of it.
And God gives on the basis, not of merit, but rather on the basis
of his grace.
The servant is already great.
If we want to be great in the kingdom, be the servant.
Because Christ is great and Christ serves.
The servant is already great because of that.
And what God wants us to be as Christians is Romans 8:29 says is
to be conformed to the image of His Son, to be conformed to the
image of Christ.
Why?
Because he is the perfect human.
He was the perfect Adam, the second Adam, the Adam that did everything
right.
The first Adam brought death.
The second Adam brings life.
That is why we are to be conformed to the image of God, his
dear Son.
We are conformed to the image of Christ.
Christ is the image of God.
And that is what the kingdom is all about.
It is not about ruling and reigning, but rather it is about
being humble, serving one another, and following that second
great commandment which is loving one another as ourselves.
When we love one another as ourselves, that is what drives us
to focus on the things that God wants us to focus about.
Because we can get caught up on our bills, we can get caught up
on our needs.
We can get caught up on all the things that we have to do.
And we can pass someone that God wants us to minister to.
We could forget about the gospel because we are so consumed
with what we need and what we want and God doesn't want that for
us.
God wants us to live a life that is consumed with his desires,
being conformed to the image of Christ doing what God wants us
to do.
So as we live our life, as we go through the day to day grind,
ask ourselves that question, are we doing what God has created
us to do?
Have we taken upon us the form of servant and are we living to serve
one another?
Let's pray Father thank you so much Lord for the great example that
we have of Christ loving us, dying for us, exemplifying what it
means to be that servant, Lord, caring about others more than
himself.
Lord, I don't know if I would have been able to to die for the
whole world the selfishness that drives me Lord, and in all of
us or that didn't exist any you did everything Lord.
The Father loved us Lord, and I thank you for that.
And Lord, I just pray that even with this very hard commandment
to love one another as ourselves, Lord, that you would give
us the grace to grow and that you would strengthen us in the inner
man so that we would be a unified body of Christ and not quarrel
with one another, so that we would have peace with one another.
So that we would be able to accomplish the mission and fight
against the real enemy who is fighting so hard against us or this
one thing of servanthood amongst the brethren of God.
If we would get that Lord, the things that we would be able to accomplish
because not being eaten up by selfish desires but rather serving
one another in love, Lord, I know that we would be able to grow
as a church body and be able to spread the gospel and do what
you've called us to do.
So Lord, I pray and ask for your help, for your grace, Lord,
in us pray and ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.