Proclaim the Kingdom by Bob Montgomery
If you open your Bible to Luke 17:21 you’ll find that it says, “Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God is among you.” The Kingdom of God is among you! Do we believe this to be true? Is the Kingdom of God some place far off in the future? Is it heaven? Or, is it something that we get to experience today? Well Jesus said, the Kingdom of God is among you, and Christians believe this to be true and I believe that we presently live in the Kingdom of God.
However, this morning when I woke up, I was bald and I was fat, and my breath was really bad. That doesn’t sound like a great kingdom to me. That’s not my idea of the Kingdom of God. I read the paper and it scared me to death. So how do we reconcile the statement that the Kingdom of God is among you with our present world? How do we reconcile it with an experience of cancer as Brenda shared; with one person surviving cancer and another one dying of cancer with no difference in the families? How do we reconcile the Kingdom with the sickness in our own families and the things that happen to us day after day? Christians have always struggled with that! Even Peter himself was crucified upside down. Yet that Kingdom promise was given to him. So Jesus invites us and said that the Kingdom is among us, yet I’m pretty certain that it’s not this place that I live.
Romans 14:17 says: “For the Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” So maybe the Kingdom of God isn’t a geographical place at all! Maybe it pervades everything and every part of our experience. Kingdoms have always been defined here on earth as the boundary of the king’s authority. Well, it makes sense that the Kingdom of God is where the King reigns. It’s where God reigns! Is God the King of my life? Am I in full submission to his will?
Week after week, here in our Community Gatherings, we come together to praise and listen to the Lord. We hear God constantly say, “Have you surrendered to me? Surrender to me; surrender all areas of your life to me. I want your ‘yes.’” We hear this message week after week after week, year after year. We constantly hear God calling us to him. So, how do I do this? How do I make God my King? How do I surrender and submit all areas of my life to Christ? In other words, how do I insure that the King is reigning supreme in every area around me?
I’d like to address these questions for a couple of minutes, and I’d like to use some of the profound wisdom that’s been shared over the last three weeks by David, Mike and Neil in their ten-minute teachings. But I’d also like to encourage us that Jesus was serious in Matthew 11:30 where he said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” We don’t have to be concerned about massive changes to our lives. The Lord wants us to be completely his and he wants us to change and he is in control. He knows us better than we know ourselves, so we don’t have to worry. All we have to do is say “yes,” so relax.
Prayer, praise, proclamation
We’ve got to get good at three things: at prayer, at praise and at proclamation. Prayer, praise and proclamation! Luke 11:1-4 talks about the apostles coming to Jesus and asking “Lord, teach us to pray.” Lord, teach us to pray. This is a key prayer for us so I want us all to practice. Repeat after me: “Lord, teach me to pray.” This is a critical prayer for us each and every day, every time we sit down to pray we ought to be praying that prayer.
David encouraged us in prayer three weeks ago in his teaching on prayer. He said that prayer is about experiencing the unconditional love of God, that the objective of prayer is to open us up in a way that we can hear God say “I love you.” What a wonderful perspective! It completely turns prayer on its head. Prayer isn’t something that I have to do; prayer is something that I get to do. I get to experience God’s love each and every day.
When the apostles asked, “Lord Jesus, teach us to pray,” what happened? The Lord gave us the Our Father. What Christian does not know the Our Father? If you don’t know the Our Father, I’m sorry, you’re just not Christian. It’s the fundamental prayer! He taught us how to recite a specific prayer. He gave it to us, and we can use that specific prayer in our lives.
But if you know the Our Father, do you think you know everything about prayer? No! Today Theresa shared Matthew 11 where Jesus spontaneously broke into praise, and he said, “Father, I praise you! Father Lord of Heaven and Earth, what you’ve hidden from others you revealed to your little ones.” Jesus was teaching us how to pray when he praised his Father. We can add that praise prayer into our quiver, into our armory of prayers.
If you know the Our Father and how to praise, do you know everything about prayer? Absolutely not! He told us, “Seek and you shall find; ask and the door will be opened to you.” He told us to ask for what we need. He told us to persevere. If you learn how to ask and persevere you think you’ve learned everything about prayer. No! It’s ridiculous! We can always learn more about prayer.
Teresa of Avila is considered the master of prayer. Of all the people in all of history, she’s probably right at the top of people who are considered to be great prayer warriors. Do you think that she knew everything about prayer? No! As she knew more about prayer, she wanted to know more. She was praying even more fervently, “Lord, teach us how to pray.” So we ought to follow her example and pray, Lord, teach us how to pray.
Praising with our bodies
Going on to “praise,” Mike said some wonderful things about using our voices, our minds and our bodies to praise God. But I’d like to focus on one other aspect. After Mike gave that wonderful teaching, David Sr. and I were talking. David began talking about the critical influence that our bodies play on this praise. Specifically, we talked about the position of our hands. Do we pray with our hands (partly down and) towards us like we are going to receive something, or do we pray in surrender with our hands (all the way up and facing) away. That does make a difference. It makes a difference in our bodies and in our attitudes. The Lord is asking us to surrender all, everything to him! So how do we do that?
Well, we can start, in a little way, by praising with our hands raised and outward in surrender. Not just shoulder level like I’m going to get a whole bunch of stuff. Instead, “Lord, I give you everything!” Turn our hands away and surrender. Remember, everything is connected; the hipbone is connected to the thighbone, the thighbone’s connected to the knee bone--you know the song. Likewise, our bodies are connected to our wills and our minds. Perhaps, if we use our bodies in a posture of surrender, maybe that will get through to our wills and our minds. Everything is connected, let us surrender everything to him.
Mark 1:15 says, “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” So surrender, and repent. We could give a whole teaching on just going to Confession and repenting. But time doesn’t allow. Perhaps we should make it simple and mimic the apostles’ simple prayer: “Lord, teach me how to praise.” “Lord, teach me how to praise.”
Proclaim the Good News
Finally, proclamation: Luke 4:42-43 says, “At daybreak Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The crowds went looking for him and when they got him they tried to prevent him from leaving. But he said to them, ‘To the other towns I also must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent,’”
Jesus was sent to proclaim the Good News and he’s given that mission to us. Neil talked about the Year of Mercy last week and specifically talked about the Pope’s call for a renewal of zeal for souls; to promote Life in the Spirit Seminars, to embrace the new Evangelization and to embrace a culture of Pentecost.
We tend to make a lot of things real complex, but I would boil it down to something a little more simple. We’ve simply got to talk about God! We have to talk about him and share about him with other people. This sharing doesn’t have to be a theological treatise. we don’t need to approach somebody like a “doctor of the church.” I had a mentor at Southwest Airlines who would simply walk outside, and if it was a beautiful day, he’d say “God done good today!” It’s as simple as that!
We can say little short things to people that we know and people that we’re running into, to let them know that God is real and that we have a relationship with him and that we have a God that loves us. So we can say little things like, “God! Thank you for this beautiful day!” Just burst out into that in public. It won’t kill us, rather, it’s great fun. Let people know that there is a God. Or maybe you might say, “Oh, God thank you for this rain that’s watering the earth and making the farmers dance! Thank you for this rain.” That’s an effective but small way that we can invite others into (a relationship with) God. We might say, “God! What a beautiful sunset. You are such an artist!”
Small proclamations like this work. We can practice the New Evangelization just by saying these small things and doing these small things. And if we add the prayer, “Lord, teach us how to proclaim” maybe Jesus will allow us to move from these little things to getting up at Prayer Meeting to deliver a word of prophecy, maybe a scripture reading, or maybe a praise report or a shoring of what he’s doing in your life. Maybe he’s calling you to join Sharon or me in Formation by giving a talk. Maybe he wants you to get up here and do a ten-minute teaching. Just ten minutes! It’s something each and every one of us can do.
Maybe he just wants us to listen to a friend who is in trouble, and maybe we can share with them about what the Lord has done in our life. Maybe we can encourage them to look to Christ for the answers to their questions. Maybe he wants you to join Nancy in providing these witnesses. “Lord, teach me how to proclaim.”
So, the Kingdom of God is where the King reigns. Let’s invite him to reign supreme in all areas of our lives. Let’s not waste any time but begin to fervently pray these three simple prayers: “Lord, teach us to pray. Lord, teach to praise, and Lord teach us to proclaim.” Amen.
(Community Gathering, 10-25-15)