KINGDOM
OF GOD
IF A man drinks Jack Daniels and comes to my house, Jack has to stay outside. In my kingdom, where I am king, Jack is not welcome. In fact, if you smoke, I don’t have ashtrays available for you because you can’t smoke in my kingdom. If you cuss, in my kingdom you are going to have to control your tongue ’cause I don’t allow profanity in my house.
If you don’t like my rules, well, there’s a simple solution to that. You just don’t come to my house. I pay the note, I pay the utilities, and I bought the furniture. People may think that’s cold. No, I’m just head of my own kingdom. If you’re under my rule, you’ve got to respect my guidelines.
In the same way, God is the head of His kingdom. If we want to live in, be a part of, and benefit from His kingdom, we must operate by His rules.535
[Boundaries; God’s Will; Law, Purpose of; Restrictions; Sin, Avoidance of]
Ex. 20:1–17; Matt. 5:17; Rom. 7:21–25
IN AMERICA, ultimately, the Supreme Court makes the final decision as it relates to laws for this country. When the Supreme Court speaks, all other courts must adjust. At this point, it becomes irrelevant what the district court says or what the state court says. Once the Supreme Court speaks, the final authority of law in the land, all other decisions are canceled, reversed, or reinforced because the final authority has ruled.
A Christian is truly a “kingdom person” when he is willing to adjust his decisions to God’s decisions even if God’s decision is not the one preferred.536
[God, Authority of; God’s Will; Surrender, Concept of]
Matt. 6:10; Rom. 12:1–2; James 4:7
AT A football game in Nebraska, you will see a sea of red. When their football games sell out, which is most of the time, 77,129 are in that stadium. During the 2004 Nebraska vs. Baylor game, there again was a sea of red, nothing but red, red everywhere, except this little section, up in the corner with folks from Baylor. Now, the Baylor folks didn’t have on red, because red isn’t Baylor’s color. It’s green. So there was a huge sea of red and then a little pocket of folks with green.
When the seventy-seven thousand people cheered, the folks in green weren’t cheering. When the folks in green were cheering, the folks in red weren’t. Red and green, they each were pulling for their own team. The folks in green, although a smaller number, were focused on their team and busy cheering them on to victory.
Christians are unique and different and are on earth to root and cheer on the cause of God. When Redskins fans come to Dallas, they are not ashamed. When Dallas fans go to Washington, they are not ashamed. They unashamedly claim their team and set their sights on victory.537
[Christian, Definition of; Christian Living, Identity in Christ]
Rom. 1:16; 2 Tim. 1:8
EVERY good coach has a game plan for his team. He brings a particular philosophy of the game to his particular team and the athletes then have to learn his offensive and defensive schemes. They must learn the coach’s philosophy. They must adopt it and they must acclimate to it. Sometimes it’s hard to pick up a particular coach’s scheme, particularly if it’s more technical and more detailed. The idea is that the coach brings in the scheme, and the team is to rally around and execute the scheme for maximum productivity.
Just like in games involving sports, in Christianity we have a lot of players who have been drafted into the kingdom of God and drafted out of the pit of hell, but yet they want to tell their coach how to run his team. Many Christians spend their time trying to tell God how to run His kingdom. But God’s response is that He has His own program. He has His own game plan. He has adopted us into His family to be part of His plan. We each can have a strategic part to play in the game of life for His kingdom and for His glory, but only if we are operating according to His game plan.538
[God’s Will; Self-Sufficiency, Danger of; Surrender, Concept of]
Isa. 29:16; Matt. 6:10
IN THE Olympics, competitors work hard to win medals. They go all out. At the end of each competition, there is a gold, silver, and bronze winner. When they are presented with their medals, they take their places on the platform and music begins to play. What’s the music? The national anthem of the gold medal winner.
The gold medal winner doesn’t get to pick any old song they like and request that to be played at the Olympics. Even though they may have competed individually, their victory is not all about them. Their victory was part of a bigger picture and was under a bigger banner. If athletes from America win the gold in an event, our national anthem is played for everyone else to hear because in the Olympics, the athletes represent their nations.
God wants us to run for His kingdom so that when the song is played it represents His song and His glory. The lyrics will reflect the idea of “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done. Thine is the kingdom. Thine is the power. Thine is the glory. Forever and ever, amen.”
I’ve yet to see a gold medal winner frowning because the United States is getting all the credit. Why? Because when they come home, the United States is so proud of them that they give the athletes recognition. God will not forget those who run hard for His kingdom and let His flag wave high. He will not forget what we’ve done for His glory.539
[Ambassadors, for Christ]
Matt. 6:10; 1 Cor. 9:24