Jesus told Pilate that He was a King but that His kingdom was not of this world. The same applies to us. The tension we deal with is the kingdom of God is invisible, does not look powerful, and does not always seem relevant to most of our life. When we say this, we really mean that our Heavenly King does not feel as real, relevant, and able to provide as the other kings in this world.
1. Worldly Kings: The Things Besides God that Rule Our Hearts
These are things that seem powerful and desirable. These things seem fit to rule
because of what they can give us.
White Witch and Edmund Example (Chronicles of Narnia)
Think of the things in our life that we lean on for support. We allow worlds kings to rule our lives because we think they will consistently give us everything we want. However, we ultimately find them to not be as powerful and consistent as we think. Our service to these kings will always be performance based and their satisfaction will always be conditional on our performance. They breed insecurity when we realize that we cannot meet their standards and they cannot adequately provide for us.
Ex. Relationships, GPA, Money, Business, Role Model, Pastors, Friends, Parents
Edmund Thrown in the Icy Prison (Chronicles of Narnia)
Whose blessings we want the most of and whose curses we are most afraid of determine who we serve and how we will live. You must please the Kings to get what you want! Kings aside from Jesus are never as powerful as we want them to be and always demand performance for acceptance.
2. Becoming Kings: Putting Ourselves on the Throne
"Everyone carries a kingdom in their heart" (John Calvin).
We want to control people, things, and situations for our security. Eventually we realize that we are unable to control the things around us because we are not God.
We then become insecure and operate using a blessing and cursing system and we put every person in our life on a merit based system of control...
Ex. "They can be my friend as long as they…" or "You do this and I am leaving……"
Being the King of our lives will end up being a disaster. When we are finished manipulating everything around us for control, we will find a very empty, insecure way of living.
3. Serving Jesus as King
You either serve a King that constantly demands everything from you which makes us insecure because we are unsure we can’t meet his demands or a King that provides for us and loves us unconditionally.
The kingdoms of this world operate on fear, flattery, and insecurity. Jesus is truly powerful and reliable. He is secure in his power and therefore does not coerce us with the worldly system and manipulation.
Even salvation itself is not merit based but the result of a King who provided his Son as a perfect sacrifice for us. He knows us, loves us, and has forgiven us. He can always provide us with what we need. That is grace. .
Colossians 2:13-14
We then do not serve a domineering God who conditionally loves us to control us. We serve a Heavenly Father and King who only disciplines us for our good, not out of insecurity, but out of love.
How does your relationship with God look? Is it a merit based relationship based on your daily standing before God or is it one who rests in the sufficiency for all that God has done in Jesus? How will the first type of service contrast with the second?
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