Jesus talked about the importance of building the house of your life on the values and truth of the Kingdom.
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)
The year 2020 has inspired a lot of jokes and quips about the changes and challenges necessary to face a year filled with tragedy. Some have featured the idea that we are all playing an apocalyptic bingo game where the squares of the board have different natural disasters and tragedies on them. Certainly, the Coronavirus would be the center of the bingo card. In Chico we can now cross off a square that might read, “choked with smoke and ash.” I was hoping after we had crossed that off in 2018, we could skip it for at least ten years!
Whatever happens in the rest of 2020, we can be sure that the storms of life will continue to blow into our lives. Whether it is natural disasters beyond our control or the consequences of mistakes that we have made, we will all face trials.
As we study the words of Jesus, and learn the values of the Kingdom of God from the Bible this fall, I’m praying that this will help us build the house of our lives on a rock. We will have some drama in November in the form of an election, and no matter who becomes the next president, Jesus will still be our King. As Christians, the world is not supposed to be our comfortable home; we are supposed to live for the Kingdom, which often makes us very uncomfortable here. However, when you see what Jesus says about taking care of us and embracing what He truly promises us, the Kingdom values settle your anxious and worrisome hearts.
Each Sunday we will dive into what Jesus says about the Kingdom of God. Last week we talked about the four elements of a Kingdom – a king, a realm, a people, and the laws that govern the Kingdom.
- We have chosen to make Jesus our King. We surrendered to Him and follow him.
- The Realm of God is all of creation. Psalm 24 declares this to be true.
- We are His people. The People of the Kingdom live experiencing its reality.
- The laws. Originally the Torah, but now we live under the two commands of the New Testament of the Bible
If we as Jesus’ followers really walked out our faith in Jesus Christ and our love for one another this fall, our world would change. In order to know what walking this out might look like, we are teaching through this series every Sunday called, “The Kingdom.”
“And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.” I John 3:23
I believe that if you listen and interact with these teachings this fall, it will help you build your life on a solid and stable rock, and not on the sand that will disappear when the next horrible thing befalls us as a culture. If we can be rooted in Kingdom values, we will be able to better love, listen and lead others to a place of faith in Jesus Christ.
Join me on this journey of discovery and application of God’s Word for the next three months!
Sunday Morning Service options:
- 9am: In-person OUTDOOR service on the Island. Please bring your own lawn chair.
- 11:00am: Livestream on our Neighborhood Church of Chico Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Last Sunday we kicked off our series "The Kingdom", click here to listen to the podcast or watch the video.
