"Building the Kingdom Part 2"
Pastor Kim Wenzel
Man has always been building, Families, Relationships, Friends. Housing, and Churches plus lots of other things!
The two ways of building!
Kingdom of God Thinking!
Empire Building Thinking!
We have to decide if we want Kingdom of God thinking like Kingdom of Empathy, Jesus humbled Himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Or Empire building thinking like Empire of Indifference, People dealing with success/power/control. Often using people at their expense to achieve his goals.
Romans 12:1-21 (NRSV)
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of
God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual worship.
2 Do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and
acceptable and perfect.
3
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to
think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober
judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
4 For as in one body we have many
members, and not all the members have the same function,
5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and
individually we are members one of another.
6
We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us:
prophecy, in proportion to faith;
7
ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching;
8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in
generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
9 Let love be
genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;
10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one
another in showing honor.
11 Do not
lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering,
persevere in prayer.
13 Contribute to
the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
14 Bless those who
persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
15
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
16 Live in harmony with one another;
do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than
you are.
17 Do not repay anyone evil
for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.
18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you,
live peaceably with all.
19 Beloved,
never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written,
"Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."
20 No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if
they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap
burning coals on their heads."
21 Do
not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Colossians 3:1-4 (NRSV)
1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are
above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on
things that are on earth,
3 for you
have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you
also will be revealed with him in glory.
Luke 17:20-35 (NRSV)
20 Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was
coming, and he answered, "The kingdom of God is not
coming with things that can be observed;
21
nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or
'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you."
22 Then he said to the
disciples, "The days are coming when you will long to see
one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
23 They will
say to you, 'Look there!' or 'Look here!' Do not go, do not set off in
pursuit.
24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one
side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.
25 But first he must endure
much suffering and be rejected by this generation.
26 Just as it was in the days
of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man.
27 They were eating and
drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered
the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them.
28 Likewise, just as it was
in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting
and building,
29 but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur
from heaven and destroyed all of them
30
—it will be like that on the day that the
Son of Man is revealed.
31
On that day, anyone on the housetop who has
belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise
anyone in the field must not turn back.
32
Remember Lot's wife.
33 Those who try to make
their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep
it.
34 I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one
will be taken and the other left.
35
There will be two women grinding meal
together; one will be taken and the other left."
37 Then they asked him, "Where,
Lord? "He said to them, "Where the corpse is, there the
vultures will gather."
Today's Verse
Isaiah 8:11-13
This is what the Lord says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people: "Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread."
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