The Kingdom is our message
Luke 9:1-3 (NIV)
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
When people hear or meet us they should experience or hear the sound of the Gospel (good news) of the kingdom of God. Every other kingdom our lives might represent should be secondary to the one that reigns and will always remain when others fail. Notice that the message the first disciples were sent to preach was the message of the kingdom – we need to make sure that that is still our message today. Don't worry, it does not leave Jesus out or rob Him of anything, because wherever there is a kingdom there is a king, and as we share the message of the kingdom we share the message of its King and His rule and reign at the very same moment.
The message of the kingdom is a powerful message that releases people from contained living, from imprisonment through what they have known, from things that may have negatively defined them thus far on their life journey. The truth is, people always live out of what they have been exposed to through their life until something comes from outside of the 'containing bubble of experience' offering something new. The kingdom of God comes like a pathway with new, bigger and better options for all of humanity – but remember, you always have to leave somewhere to go somewhere new. That's why Jesus said that we have to repent – "think different" – to see His kingdom.
I love missions trips because they take people outside of everything they have known and experienced thus far in their lives to a bigger place of world experience. When they have seen and felt new things they can't go back to what they knew previously – it's too small now because their lives have come into a bigger place. People who have experienced abuse or man-made religion remain contained by its effect and impact until another option to live differently comes in like a pathway to break them free and take them to a better way of living. That is what the Gospel does: it comes into places of containment and imprisonment and sets people free to live in a bigger place, offering them a pathway to a bigger and better experience of both life and love.
So remember, we are to preach the kingdom – and as we do lives will be set free and liberated. The message we share is the invitation and new pathway for people to know a better life, a life bigger and better then they have ever experienced.
Andy
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