Concerning the Kingdom

My church, Ridgeview Community Church, is doing a series right now on the Kingdom of God, which is a topic I have really been studying and contemplating for a year or so now. One guy that has some awesome thoughts and discussions on the Kingdom is Dr. Russel Moore from my seminary SBTS. Here is an article he wrote a few weeks ago that rocked my world.

Although the article is concise and doesn't get into really fleshing out what the Kingdom is, Dr. Moore gives a powerful definition of the Kingdom:

"The Kingdom of God is an explosively veiled inbreaking into the present world order of the reign of Jesus himself as emperor of the cosmos. It ought then to change the way we see ourselves, and our place in this age and in the one to come."

That concept "emperor of the cosmos" may see kind of hard for some of us in and outside of the Church to accept. The idea that someone else has authority over our lives is just not something we want to admit. This is especially true for pastors and church leaders. As much as we want to serve Jesus and make Him known, we often seek to do it on our terms and through our power. But when we understand the Kingdom of God to be how Dr. Moore describes it above then we realize there is no room for our arrogance, our attitudes of superiority, or our individualism in the Kingdom.

At the heart of human nature is a desire to rule our own destiny, to be great, powerful, and respected. Just look at the New York Times best sellers and four of them are all about pursuing health, wealth, and life purpose in and of oneself. It is totally opposite of what the Kingdom of God is all about.

Jesus says "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33 ESV)

And "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39 ESV)

What does this have to do with church planting, living like a missionary...? Everything! The very reason we live and breath is for the Kingdom of God, whether you are willing to accept it or not. So much of our lives is spent striving after wealth, power, and prestige and yet we will eventually die and loose all that we gained. But when we understand what we were created for and what we are living toward it should inextricably change us: the way we spend our money, the way we organize our schedules, where we work, where we live, who we talk to on a regular basis, what we do for fun, how we love our husbands or wives, how we raise our kids, where we go to church, how we drive, how we eat, how we sleep, what we wear...

It comes down to this, we must embrace the fact that we are a part of something bigger than the tiny little world we live in, that we were created to serve a mighty, awesome, compassionate King, and that the only way for us to really get what our hearts truly long for is to accept that we are nothing apart from our King, Jesus.

I don't mean to be all preachy or super spiritual sounding, but I so desire to be so overwhelmed by Christ and His Kingdom that I give up all my selfish, pride-laden desires and endeavors, and live a Kingdom-motivated , Gospel-focused life.

I have a long way to go, we all do really, and of course we will never get there this side of eternity, but we can pray and we can take steps with the hope we are moving closer.