Goal

For Jesus to challenge us deeply as we start a new season:
What is your life about?

Having a Passion for the Kingdom

1. No more Lukewarm
2. What does “the Kingdom of God” actually mean?
3. How do we express a passion for the Kingdom?

1. No more Lukewarm

• “You were made to live with something worth dying for” (Edwards)
• We are living in an age that is screaming out for something real.
• Buried in the human heart is a desire to devote ourselves totally to something that we believe in
• Paradoxically we live in a comfort culture, dedicated to insulating us from the slightest discomfort
• The words of Jesus are a culture-shock to us:

Matthew 13

44. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.
    Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
45. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,
46. who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Matthew 10

32. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,
33. but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
34. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
36. And a person’s enemies will be those of their own household.

Matthew 10 cont’d

37. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
39. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
40. “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.

Matthew 6

31. Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32. For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Having a Passion for the Kingdom

1. No more Lukewarm
2. What does “the Kingdom of God” actually mean?
3. How do we express a passion for the Kingdom?

2. What does “the Kingdom of God” actually mean?

• not = Church
• Equivalent to “New Creation”
• It primarily means God’s rule
• What does the Kingdom look like right now?
  • a POWER and a PEOPLE

Having a Passion for the Kingdom

1. No more Lukewarm
2. What does “the Kingdom of God” actually mean?
3. How do we express a passion for the Kingdom?

3. How do we express a passion for the Kingdom?

• No compartments in our lives
• God is involved in everything and prayer pervades everything
• But most of all it has to do with what our priorities are
• Edwards says: “Write eternity on our hearts that we would live by the age to come.”

Kingdom means warfare

• Most spiritual warfare is not very glamorous
• saying no to temptation
• saying no to what Paul calls “the old man” or “the flesh”
  • actually habits, reaction, old ways of behaving
• saying no to fear and unbelief
• believing we can trust Jesus, and acting on it