We
have been examining the Kingdom of God. Jesus told us to pray for the kingdom to come on earth
as it is in heaven. Matt 6:10 Your kingdom
come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven. Peter was given the keys to the kingdom
upon his confession of faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of
God.
The
first key is repentance.
The
second key is obedience to the Word of God.
The third key is Godly character.
In
a study of Matthew we find Jesus describing life in the kingdom:
The Kingdom of Heaven is ...
Living
with spiritual understanding.
Living
in a relationship of love.
Growing
into mature Christians.
Making
a positive influence in our world.
Making
a total commitment of ourselves and our resources.
It
is living in joy!
Living
in the kingdom enables us to live in the fullness of the will of God!
Matt 6:10 Your
kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth
as it is in heaven.
As
Jesus was teaching and healing the sick, his family came to ask Him to
come home for dinner. Jesus didn't ignore
his mother, but He elevated the status of all those who do the will of
God as being as valuable and important as his mother and his brothers
by saying ...
Mark 3:35 "For
whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother."
In
some circles Mary the mother of Jesus is venerated as being as holy as
Jesus. The Bible indicates that she was chosen of God and obviously had
a special place in God's plan. But with these
words of Jesus, He is saying that you were chosen by God for a special
place of ministry, too!
Living
in the kingdom and doing the will of God is an anointed relationship
which allows us to become useful in ministry. This
is not a place reserved for the few ... this is the destiny which
God has in mind for all of us! Those who
do the will of God live fulfilled joyous, lives and are used by God
to be a blessing to the world! You have
a special place!
Living
in the will of God calls for a transformed life.
Rom 12:2
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which
is good and acceptable and perfect.
If
you had given birth to a baby that never learned to feed himself, never
learned to walk, and never matured into a child and then into adulthood
... we would know something was wrong. Becoming
a Christian by placing your faith in Christ is the first step in your
spiritual life, but that is only the beginning! Being
saved opens the door to growing in the kingdom! But
most of us have habits and thought patterns which were common to us before
salvation ... which God now wants to change!
It
is the will of God that we become transformed and begin to grow in
Christ! It is the will of God that
our thoughts, our standard of living, and our conversation would be
changed so we begin to think like and act like Christ! The
will of God is for us to be looking for opportunities to obtain the
good, acceptable, and perfect ways of God. We
may never reach perfection ... but it should be a desire of heart.
For
most of us we think of doing the will of God as being led to some important
accomplishment in life. But the Bible wants
us to start with some simple things ...
1 Thess 5:18
In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ
Jesus.
A Pastor by the
name of Victor Shepherd related the story told by a missionary surgeon. On
one occasion he had stopped at a peasant hovel to see a woman on whom
he had performed surgery. She and her husband were dirt poor. Their livestock supply
consisted of one Angora rabbit and two chickens. For income the woman
combed the hair out of the rabbit, spun the hair into yarn and sold
it. For food she and her husband ate the eggs from the chickens. The
woman insisted that the missionary surgeon stay for lunch. He accepted
the invitation and said he would be back for lunch after he had gone
down the road to see another patient. An hour and a half later he was
back. He peeked into the cooking pot to
see what he was going to eat. He saw one rabbit and two chickens. The
woman had given up her entire livestock supply--her income, her food,
everything. The missionary surgeon concluded his story by reminding
us that we knew nothing of gratitude. He wept unashamedly.
Perhaps
the first step in following the good, and acceptable, and perfect will
of God is to learn to be grateful! Do you
want to find the will of God? Then let God
change your heart and let your attitude and your language change! It is the will of God for us to be thankful ... grateful
for all that the Lord supplies to your life on a daily basis. Even
in the middle of your most severe of circumstance we are to be giving
thanks and praise to God!
Don't
just change your words! Gratitude is
not something that comes just from your lips ... it comes from
your heart. As long as we are conforming
to this world our heart hasn't changed ... but as we allow Christ
to transform our thinking and our words where we will reflect Him ... and
we will have a grateful attitude and words of praise and thanksgiving
on our lips.
Don't
be a nit-picker! Don't be critical of others! Don't
be grumbling and mumbling about life! Be
grateful for life and praise the Lord! "In
every thing give thanks; for this is the will of God concerning you!"
Next
... learn to glorify God in all you do.
Eph 6:5-6
5 Slaves, (employees)
be obedient to those who are your masters (bosses) according to the
flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as
to Christ;
6 not by way of eyeservice, as
men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the
heart.
Whether
you are an employer, an employee, or a retiree ... whether it is
your work habits or your life-style ... we are to please God rather
than men. If the truth be known, most of us are more into pleasing "me" than
in pleasing Christ.
A
book was written a number of years ago entitled "What would Jesus do?" The story line was about a congregation who found it
difficult to help an indigent man ... and the man died while attending
services at the church. The result was a
stirring revival in some of the congregation ... those who began
asking themselves "What would Jesus do?" Do
you ever question yourself a question like that?
The
hungry that need food, the lost who need salvation, the children who need someone
to love them, the lonely who need a friend ... what would Jesus do? I
know I can't be everywhere and meet everyone's needs, but I am responsible
to do the right thing one day at a time, one need at a time. We
are all called to live our lives as unto Christ! What
would Jesus do if He lived in your shoes?
Finding
the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God involves giving thanks in all
things ... and serving Christ in all things. The
will of God also involves our ethical behavior.
1 Thess
4:3-5
3 For this is
the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from
sexual immorality;
4 that each
of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do
not know God;
The
sad story of the 21st Century is that many Christians decide
for themselves what is right or wrong instead of asking God. The
Church often mirror our society that usually bases truth on personal
experience instead of the written standard of Truth of the Bible. The
error of the world has followed many Christians into the church pew.
The
further you look into following the will of God, the more you realize
that those who inhabit the kingdom of God must
be different in character and activity than those who are conformed to
this world. The transforming touch of the will of God changes their
language, it changes their life habits, and it changes their ethics.
The
world where the Apostle Paul lived had false gods who encouraged immorality,
his world had the Roman philosophy of immorality of every kind, and the
Greek philosophy of self indulgence. His
world was a lot like ours, but he stated bluntly that it is the will
of God that a Christian abstain from sexual immorality. It's
the will of God.
When
we pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will
be done" we are asking for Christ
to be supreme in every aspect of our life! Finding
the will of God for your life begins first by doing what the Word says
... be thankful in all things, be a Christ pleaser, and live with
Christ like morality and ethics! This is
the will of God concerning you!
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