How to be a King

You are a king and a priest of God's kingdom that shall reign in this life. He has raised you with Christ and seated you in Heavenly places. You are a co-heir of everything Jesus inherited in his resurrection and ascension.

That sounds wonderful, it sounds very spiritual, but what does it mean to you now? Do you actually know how to live within those realities in this present life? 

Ultimately the truest expression of your kingship and priesthood as a representative of God on this planet is expressed as you are yielded to the continual leading of God's spirit within you. He will lead you and guide you through a proper expression of your priestly duties and kingly authority.

I'd like to focus on one perspective for the remainder of this article. Under the Old Covenant, priests offered sacrifices for the people as a temporary system of atonement, that was the primary reason and function of priests. The king was to guide the nation of Israel in the precepts and ordinances of God ensuring adherence to God's law.

Under this better covenant, there are no more sacrifices to preside over since Jesus is the once and for all sacrifice. Under the New Covenant Jesus is ruling as the eternal king. So the roles have changed.

Of course, the great commission is a guide for expressing our authority and priestly duties but I believe Romans 14:17 gives us insight into the content of the impact we are to have as representatives of God.

Romans 14:17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Essentially the Apostle Paul is saying, living in God's kingdom isn't about rules and regulations, it's about righteousness, peace and joy. I believe this gives definition to how we exercise our authority as representatives of God. We preside over and rule within righteousness, peace and joy.

RIGHTEOUSNESS

We don't preside over sacrifices, we point people to the eternally sufficient sacrifice. Within this sacrifice lies forgiveness, holiness and eternal righteousness. Righteousness simply means "as a man ought to be" and "the condition acceptable to God." If there are no sacrifices to execute and Jesus is the king, we display our kingship by bringing people into a direct experience with righteousness. Essentially, we preach the Gospel. We help people understand faith righteousness.

PEACE

Peace or shalom is described as a state of wholeness. If a wall had no missing bricks and it is complete, it's in a state of shalom. If a relationship between two people has no issues and noting between them, it's at shalom. We now have peace with God, there is nothing in the way of a relationship with him. He has forgiven everyone through the sacrifice of Christ, now God is pleading to the world through us, "God is no longer holding your sin against you, be reconciled to God."

JOY

Joy means cheerful or glad. Once you've properly represented God in righteousness and peace, people will be glad. Encourage them to be cheerful. Encourage them to be thankful. Remind them of the gift of righteousness and bring them into joy. It's not your role to make people happy but you may need to remind them there's reason to be joyful.

It's pretty simple, the Gospel is good news, it's the power to bring people into an experience of God's transformative grace. Represent him well! Start in the mirror, then with your family, friends and coworkers. If the opportunity arises, be aware of your own state of righteousness and peace with God so you can give joy to those whom God's spirit would inspire you to exercise your priesthood and kingship.

Life Group Discussion

1. What did you get out of this message?
2. What does it mean to you to be a king and priest in God's kingdom in this life?
3. Do you feel you can clearly articulate faith-righteousness to people?
4. What's your favorite aspect of the Gospel message?

Put Yourself in Their Shoes

We go through our days relating to people through our biases and filters without taking the time to get to know people. Often times it's because there is not enough time to get to know everyone but that doesn't absolve us from general compassion toward all of mankind. We are to be clothed with compassion. When someone looks at you do they see compassion just a clearly as they see the shirt you're wearing? It's time for the body of Christ to lead with love and not be so easily offended.

When someone wrongs or offends you, can you put yourself in their shoes?

Seeking to understand people when we're hurting is close to impossible but incredibly freeing if successful. Finding forgiveness and even compassion for those who hurt and disappoint us leaves us in a place of unshakable peace beyond the circumstance.

Putting yourself in someone else's shoes comes with some rules. For starters, it doesn't mean you're excusing or approving of their behavior. Secondly, you don't get to judge the person. And you must establish healthy boundaries as you move forward.

FORGIVENESS

I've sat with people in counseling that refuse to forgive others because to them it feels like the person that hurt them is getting away with something. If you allow people's actions from the past to continue to cause you pain, the only thing you're allowing is the other person to still cause you pain. You have a choice. Forgiveness is simply the process of choosing to let go of the issue, no matter how painful, and make a decision to not hold on to it any longer. Essentially you send it far away from you, never to return to your emotional inner world.

JUDGMENT

This can be a tricky one. We want to empathize with people and understand them but we cannot judge them. Judgment is when we determine people's motives without communication. Putting yourself in someone else's shoes doesn't mean you say "this is what I would do if I were them" or "if that were me and I did that it would be because of this." You don't know their motives, you don't know what's driving their behavior, the only way to find out is to ask questions...communicate.

If you cannot communicate with the person for whatever reason, you can only forgive and move on, you may not get the closure you're seeking. But if you can communicate, ask questions and be honest about your feelings without assuming why they did what they did.

BOUNDARIES

Don't be a doormat, don't close yourself off and by all means don't enable codependency. Even if you find forgiveness in your heart toward someone it doesn't mean you have to stay close to them, it may be best to create distance. If you're the kind of person that wants to help everyone you must be wise to not let your compassion override wisdom.

Regarding enabling codependency...oh boy, this is a big one. Healthy boundaries are paradoxical. There is a point where helping someone too much begins to hurt them. Be careful not to do for others what the can and should do for themselves. You should be the one who knows where that line is but often times we're the last people to see that line. Our genuine compassion for someone may turn into fear if they don't change their lives. 

A TEST FOR CODEPENDENCY

Here's a good test for yourself to help you know where the healthy boundary is when helping someone. If you're continuing to help someone because you're afraid of what they may do if you stop helping them, you're probably too close to the situation. When you help them, do they continue the harmful behavior? They probably don't really want to get better, they're just using you to get their needs met and you're actually enabling the behavior. Stop paying for people to misbehave!

Our mandate as Jesus followers is to lay our lives down to show love toward people, even to the point of death. However, we lay our lives down to bring them to Jesus, once you bring them to Jesus, trust the Holy Spirit from there. If they don't walk the path with Jesus for themselves, you can't walk it for them.

CONCLUSION

Above all...love, it's how we'll reach the world. I pray that the body of Christ becomes the safest and most honest place on the planet. I pray that we are able to help people but challenge them to engage in transformation. I pray that our love inspires action within people, action toward God and a more healthy life for themselves and their loved ones. I pray that a compassion rises up in God's people to walk in kindness and mercy toward the world but can unashamedly call people up into righteousness and wisdom. I pray we, as believers, glorify God by allowing Christ live and love through us.

Life Group Discussion Questions

1. What did you get out of this message

2. What can you immediately apply

3. Does this cause fear in you for any of your relationships (regarding the people you're corrently helping). If so, how will you process that fear?

4. Are you willing to put yourself in other people's shoes that may have hurt you, to understand how they may be hurting?

Your Will Be Done, On Earth As In Heaven

Prayer... What is it? Why should believers do it? Why do you pray? How do you pray?

These are all good questions. While the answers may seem obvious, many Christians do not have an active and effective prayer life. I think the reasons most Christians only pray when something is wrong is because we don't understand our role as ambassadors. Pray has very little to do with asking God to meet a need and much more to do with applying God's provision.

Remember last week's article, you are a friend of God, equipped by God to represent God. Jesus taught us to pray a very specific way, acknowledge God, set your mind on things above, speak to the kingdom realm and "command" it to grow as if the earth is Heaven. Last week I showed you the meaning and application of the word "come" in thy kingdom come, building on that let's look at "your will be done."

Jesus is not asking God to send his kingdom, he's speaking to the realm of God's domain as if it's supposed to be evident on earth. He prays or commands God realm of rule to be established here, now. Apparently, Jesus thinks it's a perfectly legal prayer to administer the quality of life that's found in Heaven on this earth.

Keep in mind he's not just praying as the Messiah, his disciples asked him to teach them to pray. He fully expects his followers to pray the same way. What would change in your prayer life if you saw prayer more as delivering Heaven's instructions to the earthly realm rather than as asking God to show up and do something?

We are ambassadors, representing God, executing his will in the earth. We are delivering and executing his will in our personal lives as believers but also as representatives of his kingdom to all the earth. Prayer is powerful. God has your back when you pray. The more confident you are in your identity as an ambassador, the more boldly you will pray. And the more boldly you pray, the more Heaven's state of existence will be established in the earth.

Don't back down, be bold. Take Jesus at his word. Trust God. Know his will and apply it to your prayer for yourself and others!

Jesus' Model of Prayer

OUR FATHER: Remember you are a child and friend of God
WHO IS IN HEAVEN: Set your mind on things above rather than the problem
REVERENT IS YOUR NAME: Honor and respect God in his power and majesty
YOUR KINGDOM GROW: His Kingdom has come and we command it to grow
YOUR WILL BE DONE: Jesus is God’s will, pray in agreement with who Jesus is
ON EARTH AS IN HEAVEN: God wants the earth to look like Heaven now
MEET OUR DAILY PROVISIONS: He meets our needs according to his riches
FORGIVE BECAUSE YOU’RE FORGIVEN: Thank him you’re forgiven in Christ
FOR HIS IS THE KINGDOM, POWER AND GLORY...AMEN!!

Discussion Questions

1. What did you get out of the message Sunday?
2. What is prayer?
3. Why do you pray?
4. Do you think prayer is effective?
5. What would change is you saw prayer as delivering Heaven's instructions rather than asking God to show up?

Astrophysics and Faith, What Do They Have In Common?

Do you only believe what you can observe? What if you don't observe the effects of God in your life, do you still believe?

There is as much "faith" in science as there is in religion, more really if you think about it. For believers, faith is not choosing to believe in something even though you lack evidence, faith is actually an internal confident persuasion that God is who he says he is. The religion of science says, we don't know why things work they way they do but we know it's not because of God. A statement like that takes great faith.

The point I'd like to make with this article is not about science, my point is to help you as a believer realize that you have more evidence than you realize. All you have to do is answer one question, "is God who he says he is?" You may not always experience his attributes but does that change who he is?

Back to science, Physicists have a problem, their models of nature do not hold up once reaching the quantum level. Quantum Physics has revealed that matter and energy do not operate the same on a micro level as they do on a macro level. The smaller scientists are able to go in their observations, the more their understanding breaks down. Physicists are currently looking for more forces and particles to explain why space, time and matter function differently on the smaller levels. Some physicists like Brian Greene even go so far as to say they must go back to the drawing board if they cannot discover more bits of matter or forces that make what the do observe work.

Take gravity for instance. It is one of the 4 forces in the standard model of physics, along with electromagnetic (light, radio waves, etc...) and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Physicists have no idea what gravity is. They think it's made up of gravitons, like light is made of photons, but they haven't discovered gravitons yet. Gravity is defined as the attraction between all objects that have mass and energy. But beyond that, nada, no explanation of what it is, how it works, or what is it about having mass that is attractive to other things of mass. Yet all of physics is based on the standard model.

The people that say they only believe what they say they can observe have no clue why we're not flying off the planet. What's significant about this is that much of experimentation where precise measurements and calculations need to be determined is based on the consistency of gravity. They know the mass os distant stars based on how much gravity they create. Astrophysicists know where blackholes are based on the way the gravity of nearby stars are affected.

It's kind of like this, imagine an invisible person making you breakfast every morning at 8am. You never see this person, you never hear anything being cooked but every morning at 8am breakfast is sitting on your table waiting for you. That's how scientists understand gravity. No explanation where it came from but it'a something you need to survive. No capacity to observe what's acting on the food to be prepared, yet it's as consistent as an atomic clock.

For the believer, God is more consistent than gravity. We don't understand how he brings things about in our lives but we can trust that he will always behave in a way consistent with his nature. The more we know the character and integrity of God, the greater our faith and confidence in him will be. He is more trustworthy and dependable than gravity. He's always at work with our best interest in mind. He is always seeking to establish his good plans in our lives. And he is always working to reveal his own divine nature in us through his promises to us.

For those interested, here's a brief description of the 4 forces in the standard model of particle physics:

 

Small Group Questions

1. What stood out to you in this message?

2. When you think about the faithfulness of God, what do you think about?

3. How does God's faithfulness line up with the condition of your life?

4. What do you do when your life doesn't reflect what God says is possible?

Is life one step forward, two steps back for you?

Why is it that when you try to move forward it seems like you are pulled backward? Have you experienced this? Maybe you've decided to improve your health or financial situation only to face a challenge that makes it worse. Or you have decided to overcome a repetitive sin habit only to continue to give in.

Why?

It's most likely a heart belief. There is no global conspiracy to sabotage your life. There is no one waiting around the corner to cause you to fail. You can't even really blame the devil because all he can do is lie to you and present short cuts. There is only what you allow yourself to believe and the decisions you make.

Look at what happened to Jesus when he started his ministry.

“Luke 3:21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” 23 Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, ….”

When it was time for Jesus to begin his ministry, which was to be the Messiah and establish a new covenant through his death, burial and resurrection, the enemy challenged his identity.

“Luke 4:1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ “ 5 Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.” 8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ “ 9 Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,’ 11 “and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ “ 12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ “ 13 Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.”

The same thing will happen to you. The truth is it doesn't matter if it's the devil or your own heart, your identity will be challenged when you step into a new area of life.

When you are inspired and begin to move forward, you are going to stretch out of your normal routines and increase the capacity of your heart. Your heart will need to increase in capacity because you're going to need grace to accomplish something you've never done or sustain something you've tried in the past.

“Enlarge the place of your tent (heart), stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.”

— Isaiah 54:2

Your hopes and dreams to influence people with the Gospel are an invitation from God to walk in something that's bigger than yourself. Your passion and love for people is the very heart of God desiring to love people through you and bring them into a deeper relationship with him. The burdens you feel for those less fortunate or suffering around you are God's spirit crying out from your inner man to increase His kingdom and set people free from sin and death. Like Jesus, when you step out, you will be challenged.

But it's OK. God is with you, he will confirm His Word and he will strengthen you as you go. Commit to a transformative process that's rooted in establishing your heart in your identity in Christ and expect God to do amazing things through you!

LIFE GROUP DISCUSSION

In the past weeks I've been teaching on the idea of your calling being defined by your love for people. It's now time to overcome the inertia and move forward in your calling. By now you should have identified "WHO YOU LOVE." Now you get to answer the questions, how will I love them and what do I need to love them?

In fulfilling your calling, the WHO determines the WHAT and HOW

Discussion Questions

1. Do you feel like you take one step forward and two steps back when you're trying to move beyond your everyday responsibilities?

2. Do you recognize any patterns when you feel like you're going backward? (such as an old sin arises, you get sick or your car breaks down, etc...)

3. What will be your strategy to affirm your identiy in Christ when you feel like you're losing ground after making a decision to move forward?