Embracing God's Upside-Down Kingdom: Humility and Transformation
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
### Quotes for Outreach
1. "I know it sounds crazy and I can't really explain it, but God is there even now. I have heard it said that some people can't see God because they won't look low enough. And it's true. If you can't see Him, look lower. God is there. God is on the bathroom floor." [45:03]
2. "Don't be conformed to this world. I've said this before, but I always get the image of like a ball of clay as we walk through life, that the world's just trying to push us and make us look like different things, trying to conform us to be this way or that way, to kind of, this is how you should look, or this is what you should say, or this is what you should do, and we're just this clay, and God says, I don't want you to be conformed anymore by this world. I want you to actually be transformed." [47:08]
3. "We always say this around here. We don't claim to have a perfect church. We just claim to have a perfect God. And we're excited that you'll get to meet Him and experience Him here today through His Word. That's a promise. When we open up His Word, you hear from the Lord." [07:10]
4. "Being a Christian, however, means that we will have different values than this world does, and God is trying to speak to us through his word that his kingdom runs differently than this world's, nearly opposite at times. And it makes sense. The ruler of this world is Satan, and he despises everything about God, about God and all of God's ways." [29:58]
5. "God's kingdom says that you have value because of whose you are, not because of what you've done or haven't done. God's kingdom, God's mindset is so contrary to ours. And unless we stay connected to our King Jesus through his word, we will constantly be confused because we live in a world, a world that influences us and tries to conform us to think in a way that's contrary to the kingdom of God." [32:18]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Do you see the danger of pursuing wholeheartedly success and wealth and status? When Jesus was walking on earth in His ministry, He was always going to the outcasts of society, healing those with leprosy, going to the widows, the woman that was caught in adultery as they stand around her to throw stones. Jesus enters into those situations, and as we kind of pursue these big glamorous titles or kind of our lives that we can kind of frame and be super proud of, sometimes I wonder as we pursue that, are we not really pursuing our callings to enter it in, enter into the thick of people's lives, wherever that might bring us? Are our values too maybe slightly distorted?" [45:53]
2. "Through Scripture, we can understand that even if we gain all the success that the world has to offer, the best case scenario is that we could become first in whatever category we're pursuing. We already know from the Scripture this morning that that's not that great because the first will actually be last. It's so hard to walk in this world as a follower of Jesus if you don't have this in your hand. When we have the Word of God placed in our hands, it gives us a fighting chance that we can have a stability that we can rest on. Otherwise, we end up just getting tossed around and tossed back and forth by whatever the world values on this given day." [49:20]
3. "When we start to long to be first and forget that we're going to be last, it's a problem. When we exalt ourselves and forget that pride actually comes before the fall, when we try to avoid the tough and unglamorous things in life because they're undignified, or when we think that we could, you know, that we don't think we could be used in people's messes or the kind of entering into hard situations or other people's kind of hard situations, it just kind of makes us nervous because it would rob us of our comfort or our routine. Or when we kind of forget that we're going to be last, we kind of think that we're kind of too good for some simple service act. We miss out on so much of our walk with Jesus. We miss out on seeing God work, not just in others, but through us." [40:50]
4. "Paul, throughout this letter that we're going to be going through this summer, is loving them. And trying to show this church how God is actually working even in the midst of this relationship that has become hard and uncomfortable. And above all, Paul's trying to reestablish the truth that God's kingdom is different than the world's and God's kingdom is upside down compared to what they're experiencing. That the first are actually last and the last are first. That we are not supposed to be impressive. But point to the one that is impressive named Jesus Christ." [34:57]
5. "In short, he's starting to lay out that we as Christians have a theology of the cross, not a theology of glory. That being a Christian doesn't mean we're going to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. It doesn't mean we should even pursue those things. It means trouble's still going to be there. It means trouble's still going to be a part of our life. And in fact, there's great things that come through struggle and hardship. We get to see God in big ways when we are weak and over our heads. We have a theology of a cross, a theology of suffering, humility, laying ourselves down. It's a crucified way of life that expands the kingdom of God." [36:15]
Ask a question about this sermon
1. "I know it sounds crazy and I can't really explain it, but God is there even now. I have heard it said that some people can't see God because they won't look low enough. And it's true. If you can't see Him, look lower. God is there. God is on the bathroom floor." [45:03]
2. "Don't be conformed to this world. I've said this before, but I always get the image of like a ball of clay as we walk through life, that the world's just trying to push us and make us look like different things, trying to conform us to be this way or that way, to kind of, this is how you should look, or this is what you should say, or this is what you should do, and we're just this clay, and God says, I don't want you to be conformed anymore by this world. I want you to actually be transformed." [47:08]
3. "We always say this around here. We don't claim to have a perfect church. We just claim to have a perfect God. And we're excited that you'll get to meet Him and experience Him here today through His Word. That's a promise. When we open up His Word, you hear from the Lord." [07:10]
4. "Being a Christian, however, means that we will have different values than this world does, and God is trying to speak to us through his word that his kingdom runs differently than this world's, nearly opposite at times. And it makes sense. The ruler of this world is Satan, and he despises everything about God, about God and all of God's ways." [29:58]
5. "God's kingdom says that you have value because of whose you are, not because of what you've done or haven't done. God's kingdom, God's mindset is so contrary to ours. And unless we stay connected to our King Jesus through his word, we will constantly be confused because we live in a world, a world that influences us and tries to conform us to think in a way that's contrary to the kingdom of God." [32:18]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Do you see the danger of pursuing wholeheartedly success and wealth and status? When Jesus was walking on earth in His ministry, He was always going to the outcasts of society, healing those with leprosy, going to the widows, the woman that was caught in adultery as they stand around her to throw stones. Jesus enters into those situations, and as we kind of pursue these big glamorous titles or kind of our lives that we can kind of frame and be super proud of, sometimes I wonder as we pursue that, are we not really pursuing our callings to enter it in, enter into the thick of people's lives, wherever that might bring us? Are our values too maybe slightly distorted?" [45:53]
2. "Through Scripture, we can understand that even if we gain all the success that the world has to offer, the best case scenario is that we could become first in whatever category we're pursuing. We already know from the Scripture this morning that that's not that great because the first will actually be last. It's so hard to walk in this world as a follower of Jesus if you don't have this in your hand. When we have the Word of God placed in our hands, it gives us a fighting chance that we can have a stability that we can rest on. Otherwise, we end up just getting tossed around and tossed back and forth by whatever the world values on this given day." [49:20]
3. "When we start to long to be first and forget that we're going to be last, it's a problem. When we exalt ourselves and forget that pride actually comes before the fall, when we try to avoid the tough and unglamorous things in life because they're undignified, or when we think that we could, you know, that we don't think we could be used in people's messes or the kind of entering into hard situations or other people's kind of hard situations, it just kind of makes us nervous because it would rob us of our comfort or our routine. Or when we kind of forget that we're going to be last, we kind of think that we're kind of too good for some simple service act. We miss out on so much of our walk with Jesus. We miss out on seeing God work, not just in others, but through us." [40:50]
4. "Paul, throughout this letter that we're going to be going through this summer, is loving them. And trying to show this church how God is actually working even in the midst of this relationship that has become hard and uncomfortable. And above all, Paul's trying to reestablish the truth that God's kingdom is different than the world's and God's kingdom is upside down compared to what they're experiencing. That the first are actually last and the last are first. That we are not supposed to be impressive. But point to the one that is impressive named Jesus Christ." [34:57]
5. "In short, he's starting to lay out that we as Christians have a theology of the cross, not a theology of glory. That being a Christian doesn't mean we're going to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. It doesn't mean we should even pursue those things. It means trouble's still going to be there. It means trouble's still going to be a part of our life. And in fact, there's great things that come through struggle and hardship. We get to see God in big ways when we are weak and over our heads. We have a theology of a cross, a theology of suffering, humility, laying ourselves down. It's a crucified way of life that expands the kingdom of God." [36:15]
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from May 27, 2024. Do you have any questions about it?