Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Let's start by talking about what a kingdom is. It's a culture or a society established by one king. He decides how this thing plays out, how you interact with people. What are the rules? What's the culture like? That’s up to the king. We follow the lead of one king when we are in Jesus. We follow His lead. The book of Matthew does a really great job of describing and capturing all of the things Jesus says about His kingdom. He says it's here and it's coming, so how do we live in that balance?
An Upside Down Kingdom
A lot of people actually heard this and felt tension with it. The political and religious structure of that day didn't know how to process Jesus and His teachings, and especially with ones about the kingdom. An example of this was Jesus healing on the Sabbath. Now, there was some tension here because you weren't supposed to work on that day. You were supposed to rest and not do anything that would be considered strenuous.
But Jesus, in the midst of a crowd, sees somebody who's sick and decides to heal this person. The religious leaders get mad. They say, "I found a reason to get rid of this Jesus." They start calling Him out for it. They say, "You shouldn't work on the Sabbath." But Jesus responds so beautifully. He says, "It's not wrong to do good on the Sabbath."
His kingdom points to the fact that good belongs on a day of rest, where the religious people had gotten into their heads about, "This is work. You shouldn't be doing this." To them, Jesus's kingdom was upside down. It was backwards. It didn't make sense.
If you look into the book of Acts, even the Bible records that the people around the disciples who were operating in miracles and healing and setting people free, they were known as the ones who turned the world upside down. We as believers, if you've said yes to Jesus, live in an upside down kingdom.
Living in the Upside Down Kingdom
If we really take a step back and we say, Jesus is the Lord of my life, and I'm going to look for His kingdom everywhere I go and how to live into it, the world should feel upside down to us. But if we're honest, a lot of times Jesus feels upside down to what we're used to. That's not wrong. It's not bad. But I think we need to call ourselves a little bit higher, especially with what He says in Scripture.
First, we start by looking for His Kingdom. The only way we know what it looks like is by studying the Word of God. So read through Matthew. Look at how Jesus describes His kingdom and start looking for opportunities.
The second thing is practical. He says to live it out, to live righteously. You might be saying, how am I supposed to live like I'm living in the kingdom of God? Start with prayer. Ask Jesus, how do You want me to live like I'm living in Your kingdom today? Even though the world around me looks a certain way and it's all going the same direction, if You want me to live differently, help me to see it and to show me what opportunities I can take to live it out.
It might look like taking your Bible to a coffee shop and sitting down at a table and reading so people can see someone digging into the Word. That might stir questions. It might stir faith. I know I've experienced that personally. It's led to some really good conversations about Jesus. Maybe it's just praying and asking the Holy Spirit, what do You want me to do today? How do You want me to live today? How do You want me to bring Your kingdom to earth in the way that You tell me to, in a way that honors You and honors the people around me?
