[The following is a sermon I gave to the youth group yesterday.]
The Beginning: Where We Talk About the End
How many of you go to service with the main congregation? It’s important that you do that because it becomes too easy to think about this group as church and to forget that we’re part of a larger family.
But that’s not the point. If you’ve gone to service with the main congregation in the last few weeks you’ve probably seen a video with a clock counting up that ends with a picture of a pair of hands held under an amazingly clean stream of water. But the video’s not the point either. What the video is about is the point. And that point is that the Colonel* will be talking about living right for a while. And since we’re one family, that means that you’ll be hearing about living right here as well.
I’m about to ask you a question that will seem completely unrelated to what I’ve just been talking about. Normally in a situation like this, there’d be about a paragraph of me talking that would allow your mind to transition smoothly from the last topic to the coming topic. There are two problems with that. First, when I was writing this down I didn’t feel like writing the transition. Second, I want you to jar a bit. I’d like very much for you to think about how the question is related to the topic of living right.
Ready?
What is the Kingdom of God?
A kingdom is an area under the domain of a ruler. So you can say that the kingdom of God is where God reigns. But what does that mean?
The Bible tells us that God reigns in heaven, but is that all of the kingdom?
No! What makes us think that this loving, jealous, caring, mighty, merciful God of ours would wait until the end of time to establish his kingdom? God started establishing his kingdom on earth when he sent Jesus here to live and die among us.
But I don’t want you taking my word for it, so we’ll see what Jesus had to say on the matter.
The Kingdom: As Defined by Christ
Jesus was talking to a group of people and they brought him a demon possessed man who was also blind and mute. Jesus, being Jesus, booted the demon out of the man. He also gave him his sight and the powers of speech just for good measures. The Pharisees who saw this said to themselves that he was removing demons by the power of Beezlebul. For the purposes of this sermon, you can think of Beezlebul as just another name for Satan.
This is what Jesus said in response:
Matthew 12:25-28
25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Look at the way Jesus phrased that last sentence. “The kingdom of God has come upon you.” He asked a rhetorical question and used it to point out that he was not only the son of God, but that he was building a kingdom right in front of them.
It’s really easy to miss the full impact of what’s being said here, so allow me to translate for you.
The Pharisees said, “Jesus, you’re an agent of Satan. You’ve been doing the devil’s business, using his dark power, and we’re on to you. We see the mess you’ve been making of things, and we’re going to put an end to it. You’ll rue the day you crossed the Pharisees.”
But enough about them. Let’s talk about what Jesus said. “You and I both know that I’m not doing any of the things that I’m doing by the power of Satan. You can’t do good in Satan’s name. That’s a contradiction in terms. The work I’m doing is by the power of the Spirit of God. I’m building God’s kingdom on earth. Right here. Right in front of you. And there’s no power on earth that can stop me.”
Bam. Dominance established.
The ground was cleared for the first bricks of the kingdom by the prophets in the Old Testament. That job was finished by John the Baptist as he wandered the desert telling those who would listen to repent and make straight a path for the king. Then Jesus came on the scene and become the cornerstone of the kingdom, the part that all the rest is being built on. That last part is important.
The kingdom has not been built.
The kingdom will not be built in the future.
The kingdom is being built.
Brick by brick, soul by soul, the kingdom of God is being made ready for his return.
In another verse that we’ll see just as soon as we get to the next slide, we’ll see Jesus say the same thing.
Luke 13:18-21
18Then Jesus asked, "What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? 19It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches."
20Again he asked, "What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount[a] of flour until it worked all through the dough."
In both cases, the kingdom was compared to something that was spreading. The tree grew and the yeast spread through the dough. The kingdom of God is like that. It grows, and it changes what it touches.
Being reasonably intelligent people, I’m pretty sure that if I asked you who the citizens of the kingdom of God are, you would tell me that they’re Christians. So I’m not going to ask. Instead, I’m going to tell you what kind of kingdom we’re a part of. And if you’re not a Christian, then you get to hear what kind of kingdom you could be a part of.
There are two things that separate the kingdom of God from any other kingdom of the world. Those two things are truth and grace.
Thing the first: Truth
The truth we’re talking about here is this: that all have fallen short of the glory of God and that it is through Jesus Christ that we find forgiveness of sins. It is only through his death and resurrection that we can approach the throne of God. It is only through his death and resurrection that we can call ourselves part of the kingdom of God.
This truth is what Jesus told us to go out into the world to preach. This is the gospel of salvation that can bring light to a dark world and warmth to frozen hearts. But it can also be used like an iron rod to beat people into submission. It can be, and has been, used to crush those who do not agree. There have been times in its history where the church of Christ has offered salvation in one hand and death in the other. Convert or die. Convert or be exiled. Convert or I will smite you until your self-worth looks like a quivering pile of jelly on the ground.
I could go on about this some more, but I really want to talk about the second thing. So I’m going to on the very next slide.
Thing the second: Grace
Brothers and sisters, the grace of God is at the core of our faith. It was by his grace that God sent Jesus to live and die among us as a sacrificial lamb for our sins. It was by God’s grace that Peter was forgiven for denying Christ three times on that dark night so long ago. It was by God’s grace that Saul was forgiven for holding the coats of those men as they stoned Saint Steven to death. It was on God’s grace that the kingdom of God was founded. And it is by God’s grace that we have assurance of our own salvation.
Truth destroys without Grace.
Grace is useless without Truth.
These two aspects of our faith are inseparable. Without grace the truth of our own sinfulness would only serve to crush us with guilt. Without truth there would be no need of grace because forgiveness is not required where there is no sin.
In the two thousand plus years of the kingdom of God, we’ve done a pretty good part with the truth end of things. We’re good at remembering sin, finding it in ourselves, finding it in others, and telling people that they need to be forgiven. What we’ve been less good at is the grace side of things.
I’m reading a book that has a story in it where a man is talking to a prostitute about her drug addiction. The man asked her if she ever considered getting help from a church. This is what she said:
“Church? Why would I go there? I already feel terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”
That, my friends, is truth without grace.
If you asked your friends who aren’t Christians what they think of when they think of Christians, do you think any of them would say we are a people who love deeply? Take a minute to think about that. If your non-Christian friends had to sum up Christianity in one world, what would it be?
It wasn’t always like that, you know. There was a time when the church saw people through the grace-filled eyes of Christ. In fact, there was a time that people were so excited about the good news being preached that they were forcing their way into the kingdom of God. They were beating down the doors, people. They were beating down the doors to get just a taste of God’s grace.
Luke 16:16 talks about it. The verse is from the Today’s New International Version.
Luke 16:16
16 "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and people are forcing their way into it.
The New Living translation talks about people being “eager” to enter the kingdom. That loses some of the impact for me. This isn’t just being eager. People are eager to get at fresh baked cookies. Kids are eager to get out of school early on a sunny day. But people were forcing their way into the kingdom of God.
Now keep that in mind and think about that conversation Jesus had with the Pharisees earlier. He told them the kingdom of God was upon them, and he knew exactly what the kingdom of God looked like. When I translated Jesus’ words earlier, I left off the last bit. As he was telling them that he was, in so many words, the man, he was also offering them the biggest helping of grace they could possibly imagine. He was telling them that should they ever decide that he wasn’t the spawn of Satan bent on charring the earth with his brimstone, then he would be more than willing to forgive them of their self-righteous pride and allow them something worthwhile to be proud of.
Who can tell me what John 3:16 says?
John 3:16
16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
That’s grace. Right there. Humanity was being beat to a pulp by the law. Not because the law was attacking us, mind you. But because the law is a brick wall that we kept trying to run through. I want to be clear on this point. God didn’t have to send Jesus to die for us. We had a deal with him, and we broke it. By rights, he could have just ended us. He could have wiped us off the face of the earth as a creation too stubborn, too obstinate to learn how to love. But he looked down at us with blood on our faces, and he saw that we didn’t know how to love. So he came to teach us.
Who knows what 1 John 3:16 says?
1 John 3:16
16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.
We didn’t know how to love, so he came down to earth to show us.
There was this debate on Nightline a while back about whether or not Satan exists. During this debate, one of the people said that he didn’t need Satan or God to make him feel guilty.
I’ll say that again in case you missed it: he didn’t need Satan or God to make him feel guilty.
You see, in that man’s eyes, the church is a place for people to come and feel guilty about their failure to measure up to the impossible standards of the church. The Christianity he sees is a Christianity of regulations without grace.
The pastor he was debating responded by saying that he didn’t feel guilty because his sins were forgiven by Christ Jesus.
Grace.
The Statue of Liberty has a plaque with a poem on it that you may be familiar with. This is part of that poem.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I’m not making a parallel between the US and the kingdom of God. Our citizenship in the kingdom of God must be put before our citizenship in the US. I read that poem to you because that’s what Christian grace should sound like. Jesus spent his time with the outcasts of society: the prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers, and degenerate sinners of his time. He touched the untouchables.
The Kingdom: as it Was
Let me describe for you the kingdom of God that people were forcing their way into. It was a kingdom made of people from every imaginable background. Poor and rich, old and young, well educated and poorly educated, Jew and gentile, slave and master, rulers and peasants. It was a kingdom that did not place money, title, or heritage above the value of a soul washed clean by the blood of Christ.
The kingdom of God in those early years was populated by people much like you and me. It was a bunch of sinners, people who tried to live right but failed as often as they succeeded. But what made these people special, what made that kingdom a place so strongly desired, is the grace that flowed from those people. These were people who loved each other more than they loved themselves. They gave without thought, loved without measure, and forgave without reservation.
The Kingdom: as it Is
Sometime between then and now, we’ve lost something. We’ve lost that love, that encompassing grace that made the kingdom such a desirable place. I’m not saying that all of Christianity has become graceless, but I am saying that the majority of Christianity either needs to remember the grace that’s been given to us or we need to get better at showing it.
I tell my wife that I love her all the time. I don’t tell her that because I think she’s forgotten. I tell her because there’s so much love there I can’t help but express it. And if I stopped telling her, I wouldn’t stop loving her, but we’d be missing something.
Love, without expression, is less than it should be. The same goes for grace. The kingdom of God needs to resonate with grace. It needs to be spoken. It needs to be made alive through words and actions. In the first few generations of Christians, it did. Back then the kingdom of God was a powerful, vibrant expression of God’s love for humanity.
Show of hands, who’d like to be a part of a kingdom of God like that?
I’m about to tell you something very exciting. I need you to prepare for it. Ready yourself, because I’m about to rock the foundations of your world.
Ready?
The Kingdom of God: as it Can Be
We can live in that kingdom. We don’t have to wait until we get to heaven. We don’t have to wait until next year or next month or next week or tomorrow. We can start today. Right now. Right here.
My friends, I’m excited. We stand at the door of something very beautiful. We stand at the door of a world filled with Christ’s love and grace. We are God’s kingdom here on earth, and I want us to live like it. A year from now, when you ask your friends what they think of Christians, I want them to think of unbelievable grace and love. Now I’m not a blind optimist. I know that even if the church were perfect in the eyes of God, the world would still reject us. People blind themselves to what they don’t want to see. But when people are looking, when people’s eyes are open, I want them to see something that will change the way they look at the world.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are the kingdom of God on earth. Imagine what would happen if we lived like it? Imagine if we forgave as Christ forgives? Imagine if we thought of others before we thought of ourselves. Imagine if we woke up thinking of what we could do for others instead of what we can get for ourselves.
Can you see it? Can you see the kingdom of God among you? Look at the people around you. Did you see the love of Christ in those eyes? Do you want to?
The End: Where We talk about the Beginning
I started by saying the Colonel will be talking about living right for awhile. I’m excited about that because I don’t think that most of us know how to do it. We mean well, but we get lost on the way. We forget the things we’ve been taught. We get lost, stumble off the path in the dark.
As you listen to the Colonel talk about living right, I want you to be thinking about grace. I want you to think about how Christ forgave you so that you can have eternal life. I want you to remember that there is no need for guilt and shame once you’ve been forgiven. That doesn’t mean you can go around sinning willfully and then asking for forgiveness later. That shows a blatant misunderstanding of the whole concept of grace. But if you mess up, when you mess up, know that you can always find forgiveness in Christ.
We are citizens of the kingdom of God. Let’s remind those around us how powerful our love is.
*My senior pastor is a colonel in the Air Force reserves, but even if he wasn't, the title "Colonel" would fit him. He has a... presence about him.
The Beginning: Where We Talk About the End
How many of you go to service with the main congregation? It’s important that you do that because it becomes too easy to think about this group as church and to forget that we’re part of a larger family.
But that’s not the point. If you’ve gone to service with the main congregation in the last few weeks you’ve probably seen a video with a clock counting up that ends with a picture of a pair of hands held under an amazingly clean stream of water. But the video’s not the point either. What the video is about is the point. And that point is that the Colonel* will be talking about living right for a while. And since we’re one family, that means that you’ll be hearing about living right here as well.
I’m about to ask you a question that will seem completely unrelated to what I’ve just been talking about. Normally in a situation like this, there’d be about a paragraph of me talking that would allow your mind to transition smoothly from the last topic to the coming topic. There are two problems with that. First, when I was writing this down I didn’t feel like writing the transition. Second, I want you to jar a bit. I’d like very much for you to think about how the question is related to the topic of living right.
Ready?
What is the Kingdom of God?
A kingdom is an area under the domain of a ruler. So you can say that the kingdom of God is where God reigns. But what does that mean?
The Bible tells us that God reigns in heaven, but is that all of the kingdom?
No! What makes us think that this loving, jealous, caring, mighty, merciful God of ours would wait until the end of time to establish his kingdom? God started establishing his kingdom on earth when he sent Jesus here to live and die among us.
But I don’t want you taking my word for it, so we’ll see what Jesus had to say on the matter.
The Kingdom: As Defined by Christ
Jesus was talking to a group of people and they brought him a demon possessed man who was also blind and mute. Jesus, being Jesus, booted the demon out of the man. He also gave him his sight and the powers of speech just for good measures. The Pharisees who saw this said to themselves that he was removing demons by the power of Beezlebul. For the purposes of this sermon, you can think of Beezlebul as just another name for Satan.
This is what Jesus said in response:
Matthew 12:25-28
25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Look at the way Jesus phrased that last sentence. “The kingdom of God has come upon you.” He asked a rhetorical question and used it to point out that he was not only the son of God, but that he was building a kingdom right in front of them.
It’s really easy to miss the full impact of what’s being said here, so allow me to translate for you.
The Pharisees said, “Jesus, you’re an agent of Satan. You’ve been doing the devil’s business, using his dark power, and we’re on to you. We see the mess you’ve been making of things, and we’re going to put an end to it. You’ll rue the day you crossed the Pharisees.”
But enough about them. Let’s talk about what Jesus said. “You and I both know that I’m not doing any of the things that I’m doing by the power of Satan. You can’t do good in Satan’s name. That’s a contradiction in terms. The work I’m doing is by the power of the Spirit of God. I’m building God’s kingdom on earth. Right here. Right in front of you. And there’s no power on earth that can stop me.”
Bam. Dominance established.
The ground was cleared for the first bricks of the kingdom by the prophets in the Old Testament. That job was finished by John the Baptist as he wandered the desert telling those who would listen to repent and make straight a path for the king. Then Jesus came on the scene and become the cornerstone of the kingdom, the part that all the rest is being built on. That last part is important.
The kingdom has not been built.
The kingdom will not be built in the future.
The kingdom is being built.
Brick by brick, soul by soul, the kingdom of God is being made ready for his return.
In another verse that we’ll see just as soon as we get to the next slide, we’ll see Jesus say the same thing.
Luke 13:18-21
18Then Jesus asked, "What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? 19It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches."
20Again he asked, "What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount[a] of flour until it worked all through the dough."
In both cases, the kingdom was compared to something that was spreading. The tree grew and the yeast spread through the dough. The kingdom of God is like that. It grows, and it changes what it touches.
Being reasonably intelligent people, I’m pretty sure that if I asked you who the citizens of the kingdom of God are, you would tell me that they’re Christians. So I’m not going to ask. Instead, I’m going to tell you what kind of kingdom we’re a part of. And if you’re not a Christian, then you get to hear what kind of kingdom you could be a part of.
There are two things that separate the kingdom of God from any other kingdom of the world. Those two things are truth and grace.
Thing the first: Truth
The truth we’re talking about here is this: that all have fallen short of the glory of God and that it is through Jesus Christ that we find forgiveness of sins. It is only through his death and resurrection that we can approach the throne of God. It is only through his death and resurrection that we can call ourselves part of the kingdom of God.
This truth is what Jesus told us to go out into the world to preach. This is the gospel of salvation that can bring light to a dark world and warmth to frozen hearts. But it can also be used like an iron rod to beat people into submission. It can be, and has been, used to crush those who do not agree. There have been times in its history where the church of Christ has offered salvation in one hand and death in the other. Convert or die. Convert or be exiled. Convert or I will smite you until your self-worth looks like a quivering pile of jelly on the ground.
I could go on about this some more, but I really want to talk about the second thing. So I’m going to on the very next slide.
Thing the second: Grace
Brothers and sisters, the grace of God is at the core of our faith. It was by his grace that God sent Jesus to live and die among us as a sacrificial lamb for our sins. It was by God’s grace that Peter was forgiven for denying Christ three times on that dark night so long ago. It was by God’s grace that Saul was forgiven for holding the coats of those men as they stoned Saint Steven to death. It was on God’s grace that the kingdom of God was founded. And it is by God’s grace that we have assurance of our own salvation.
Truth destroys without Grace.
Grace is useless without Truth.
These two aspects of our faith are inseparable. Without grace the truth of our own sinfulness would only serve to crush us with guilt. Without truth there would be no need of grace because forgiveness is not required where there is no sin.
In the two thousand plus years of the kingdom of God, we’ve done a pretty good part with the truth end of things. We’re good at remembering sin, finding it in ourselves, finding it in others, and telling people that they need to be forgiven. What we’ve been less good at is the grace side of things.
I’m reading a book that has a story in it where a man is talking to a prostitute about her drug addiction. The man asked her if she ever considered getting help from a church. This is what she said:
“Church? Why would I go there? I already feel terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”
That, my friends, is truth without grace.
If you asked your friends who aren’t Christians what they think of when they think of Christians, do you think any of them would say we are a people who love deeply? Take a minute to think about that. If your non-Christian friends had to sum up Christianity in one world, what would it be?
It wasn’t always like that, you know. There was a time when the church saw people through the grace-filled eyes of Christ. In fact, there was a time that people were so excited about the good news being preached that they were forcing their way into the kingdom of God. They were beating down the doors, people. They were beating down the doors to get just a taste of God’s grace.
Luke 16:16 talks about it. The verse is from the Today’s New International Version.
Luke 16:16
16 "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and people are forcing their way into it.
The New Living translation talks about people being “eager” to enter the kingdom. That loses some of the impact for me. This isn’t just being eager. People are eager to get at fresh baked cookies. Kids are eager to get out of school early on a sunny day. But people were forcing their way into the kingdom of God.
Now keep that in mind and think about that conversation Jesus had with the Pharisees earlier. He told them the kingdom of God was upon them, and he knew exactly what the kingdom of God looked like. When I translated Jesus’ words earlier, I left off the last bit. As he was telling them that he was, in so many words, the man, he was also offering them the biggest helping of grace they could possibly imagine. He was telling them that should they ever decide that he wasn’t the spawn of Satan bent on charring the earth with his brimstone, then he would be more than willing to forgive them of their self-righteous pride and allow them something worthwhile to be proud of.
Who can tell me what John 3:16 says?
John 3:16
16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
That’s grace. Right there. Humanity was being beat to a pulp by the law. Not because the law was attacking us, mind you. But because the law is a brick wall that we kept trying to run through. I want to be clear on this point. God didn’t have to send Jesus to die for us. We had a deal with him, and we broke it. By rights, he could have just ended us. He could have wiped us off the face of the earth as a creation too stubborn, too obstinate to learn how to love. But he looked down at us with blood on our faces, and he saw that we didn’t know how to love. So he came to teach us.
Who knows what 1 John 3:16 says?
1 John 3:16
16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.
We didn’t know how to love, so he came down to earth to show us.
There was this debate on Nightline a while back about whether or not Satan exists. During this debate, one of the people said that he didn’t need Satan or God to make him feel guilty.
I’ll say that again in case you missed it: he didn’t need Satan or God to make him feel guilty.
You see, in that man’s eyes, the church is a place for people to come and feel guilty about their failure to measure up to the impossible standards of the church. The Christianity he sees is a Christianity of regulations without grace.
The pastor he was debating responded by saying that he didn’t feel guilty because his sins were forgiven by Christ Jesus.
Grace.
The Statue of Liberty has a plaque with a poem on it that you may be familiar with. This is part of that poem.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I’m not making a parallel between the US and the kingdom of God. Our citizenship in the kingdom of God must be put before our citizenship in the US. I read that poem to you because that’s what Christian grace should sound like. Jesus spent his time with the outcasts of society: the prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers, and degenerate sinners of his time. He touched the untouchables.
The Kingdom: as it Was
Let me describe for you the kingdom of God that people were forcing their way into. It was a kingdom made of people from every imaginable background. Poor and rich, old and young, well educated and poorly educated, Jew and gentile, slave and master, rulers and peasants. It was a kingdom that did not place money, title, or heritage above the value of a soul washed clean by the blood of Christ.
The kingdom of God in those early years was populated by people much like you and me. It was a bunch of sinners, people who tried to live right but failed as often as they succeeded. But what made these people special, what made that kingdom a place so strongly desired, is the grace that flowed from those people. These were people who loved each other more than they loved themselves. They gave without thought, loved without measure, and forgave without reservation.
The Kingdom: as it Is
Sometime between then and now, we’ve lost something. We’ve lost that love, that encompassing grace that made the kingdom such a desirable place. I’m not saying that all of Christianity has become graceless, but I am saying that the majority of Christianity either needs to remember the grace that’s been given to us or we need to get better at showing it.
I tell my wife that I love her all the time. I don’t tell her that because I think she’s forgotten. I tell her because there’s so much love there I can’t help but express it. And if I stopped telling her, I wouldn’t stop loving her, but we’d be missing something.
Love, without expression, is less than it should be. The same goes for grace. The kingdom of God needs to resonate with grace. It needs to be spoken. It needs to be made alive through words and actions. In the first few generations of Christians, it did. Back then the kingdom of God was a powerful, vibrant expression of God’s love for humanity.
Show of hands, who’d like to be a part of a kingdom of God like that?
I’m about to tell you something very exciting. I need you to prepare for it. Ready yourself, because I’m about to rock the foundations of your world.
Ready?
The Kingdom of God: as it Can Be
We can live in that kingdom. We don’t have to wait until we get to heaven. We don’t have to wait until next year or next month or next week or tomorrow. We can start today. Right now. Right here.
My friends, I’m excited. We stand at the door of something very beautiful. We stand at the door of a world filled with Christ’s love and grace. We are God’s kingdom here on earth, and I want us to live like it. A year from now, when you ask your friends what they think of Christians, I want them to think of unbelievable grace and love. Now I’m not a blind optimist. I know that even if the church were perfect in the eyes of God, the world would still reject us. People blind themselves to what they don’t want to see. But when people are looking, when people’s eyes are open, I want them to see something that will change the way they look at the world.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are the kingdom of God on earth. Imagine what would happen if we lived like it? Imagine if we forgave as Christ forgives? Imagine if we thought of others before we thought of ourselves. Imagine if we woke up thinking of what we could do for others instead of what we can get for ourselves.
Can you see it? Can you see the kingdom of God among you? Look at the people around you. Did you see the love of Christ in those eyes? Do you want to?
The End: Where We talk about the Beginning
I started by saying the Colonel will be talking about living right for awhile. I’m excited about that because I don’t think that most of us know how to do it. We mean well, but we get lost on the way. We forget the things we’ve been taught. We get lost, stumble off the path in the dark.
As you listen to the Colonel talk about living right, I want you to be thinking about grace. I want you to think about how Christ forgave you so that you can have eternal life. I want you to remember that there is no need for guilt and shame once you’ve been forgiven. That doesn’t mean you can go around sinning willfully and then asking for forgiveness later. That shows a blatant misunderstanding of the whole concept of grace. But if you mess up, when you mess up, know that you can always find forgiveness in Christ.
We are citizens of the kingdom of God. Let’s remind those around us how powerful our love is.
*My senior pastor is a colonel in the Air Force reserves, but even if he wasn't, the title "Colonel" would fit him. He has a... presence about him.
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