Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, November 20, 2022

Citizenship.

Today, Pastor Michael is having Duncan Crook deliver the message.  Duncan recently required his US citizenship and is using that experience to compare it to being a citizen of God’s kingdom. 

What would it look like to live as a Kingdom citizen in your workplace?  What specific actions would a Kingdom citizen do?  What did Jesus say his followers would be like?

In the book of Mark, Duncan discusses the parables in Mark and followed up with Michael’s lesson last week, on “Getting Dirty”.   Duncan drills down a bit on the parables in Mark’s gospel and explains to us that we are citizens of His kingdom and what Jesus expects his citizens do be like.  Duncan exhorts us to publicly identify with Christ, you should be faithful to listen and apply the Word and you should grow spiritually.  Jesus’ parable was about an oil lamp on a stand.  Your light will not shine brighter by yourself.  We can light up the world around us and God brings light to what is hidden.  And we should show that we are believers and people should see the light of Christ in us!

Kingdom citizens should also eagerly study God’s Word.  God will honor the person who eagerly receives His message.  How can we be better listeners to the Word?  Prayer before going to church or bible study.  Ask the Lord to prepare your heart for His message.  Join church bible studies and devotions.  Don’t listen as a critic, looking for things to argue about.  Think about what you can learn from teachings.  And take notes!

Lastly good Christians are good citizens.  Ultimately it all comes down to if we have surrounded to God.  It’s not about you, or anyone else.  It’s all about God!

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) 4:26–29. The final two parables once again liken the kingdom of God to seeds, the first parable focusing on the process of growth. A farmer plants a seed and then goes about life as usual (4:26–27a). The seed grows imperceptibly, and even the farmer “doesn’t know how” (4:27b). The seed possesses a power of generation independent of the farmer, who can be absent and even ignorant, yet the seed grows (4:28). Humanity, likewise, goes about business as usual, but the kingdom of God is present and growing, even if small and unobserved. The kingdom is not dependent on human activity; indeed, apart from sowing, the only human activity noted in this parable is waiting in confidence that, in God’s time and power, the gospel will grow into a fruitful harvest (4:29).

Verses can be found today in Mark 4: 21-29, Phillipians 3: 20, John 8: 12, Ephesians 5: 8, Romans 1: 16, 2 Thesselonians 3: 10, Deuteronomy 6: 4, Matthew 7: 2, Luke 6: 38, and Proverbs 11: 1.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.