Kingdom Weeds

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Kingdom Weeds

Matthew 13:24-30

November 25, 2018 • Jeff Lyle

One of the challenges for us to live with a primary awareness of being citizens of God’s Kingdom is the troubling reminder that there is so much of the kingdom of this world bombarding our senses every single day. We can become more convinced of the evil, pain, division, injustice and vices of the temporary earthly realm than we are the righteousness, love, power and triumph of the coming Kingdom. Both realities exist in this present age. If God’s Kingdom is eternal and supreme, why do we sometimes discern less evidence of His kingdom than we do of the lesser kingdoms of the world, the flesh and the devil? When will God rid the cosmos of evil people and their evil deeds? Even in the visible Church there exists so much that seems incompatible with the Kingdom of God - when will dead religion, hypocrisy and counterfeit believers be dealt with? Jesus spoke to all of these things 2,000 years ago as He preached on the Mount of Olives. He tells us how and when all that does not belong in God’s paradise will be forever removed. Until then, we must learn to discern the difference between the wheat and the weeds in the Kingdom.

Kingdom Supply

December 2, 2018 • Jeff Lyle

As Kingdom citizens, Christians receive far more than we could ever give. There really is no adequate way to measure the riches of grace, the gift of eternal life, the constant supply of love, mercy and compassion which come to us from the Father. We humbly acknowledge that it would be impossible for any of us to pay back a fraction of what we have received from Him. Yet the Lord clearly calls us into a lifestyle of release and sacrifice. Our motivation for living generous lives is not in order to pay back or pay off what God has given us in grace. We are called as children of a generous Father to live lives that reveal our gratitude to Him by entering into His purposes in our generation. We are to reveal His nature to a blind world by living in time in the same ways that He has existed in eternity. God releases His love, His compassion, His mercy and His provision through the open hands of His children. The Father transforms us from being takers to being givers. Kingdom living does not happen in the realm of theory. There is a heavenly call for us to be poured out intentionally into the lives of others for the glory of our King. If it has not cost us, it isn’t real yet. This message reveals how Jesus will take obedience with that which may seem small to us and turn it into a Kingdom-revealing activity which meets practical needs and makes the love of the Father visible before our eyes and the eyes of those whom we bless.

Presenting the Kingdom to the Crowd

November 25, 2018 • Jeff Lyle

Jesus was not interested in sparking a rally, initiating a movement, or marketing a product. The mission of Jesus was to establish an everlasting Kingdom. At the center of this Kingdom, Jesus presented Himself as the lone option before whose throne all must bow. Though His mission included teaching, miracles, and displays of power over the forces of hell, the core component of what He constantly proclaimed was an invitation for people to renounce all the lesser kingdoms in order to enter His everlasting Kingdom by faith. His crowds often grew due to the life-giving messages He preached and the mind-blowing miracles He performed. Interestingly, it seemed that Jesus reserved His most intense sermons for the largest crowds. He was seeking out those who would commit themselves in radical allegiance to Him in order to establish God’s Kingdom on earth. This message from the King contains the clearest demands of the Gospel upon those who are contemplating a commitment of their lives to King Jesus. He leaves no room for half-hearted followers. The Kingdom invitation clearly requires an all-or-nothing response from everyone who hears it.

What the Kingdom is NOT

November 4, 2018 • Jeff Lyle

The enemy likes to traffic in substitutes. Satan and his demon army love to extend replacements to us for what God offers us. Every substitute they offer is Hell’s counterfeit of Heaven’s currency. God is advancing the reality of an everlasting Kingdom over which His Son, Jesus, is the King. In order to resist this reality, Satan seeks to deceive the masses into settling for things which look similar to the Kingdom of God on a superficial glance but, upon deeper inspection, are nothing but damnable substitutes. This message takes an unapologetic look at four of the enemy’s most common substitutes for the Kingdom: rules, rhetoric, religion and retreat. Over the last 2,000 years, many have mistakenly settled for these things only to find out far too late that they never entered the Kingdom of God.