Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Hey everybody, Pastor Chuck Allen here and thanks so much for joining me for another weekday podcast where today on this Wednesday we're going to talk about how do we live as an outpost in overlapping kingdoms.
I want to have this kingdom shaped conversation with you today because when Jesus steps onto the scene. Jesus never said one day far, far away, God might eventually get this thing under control.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: He said something much bolder, much brighter and much more promising. In Mark 1:14, Jesus says later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee where he preached good news.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: And he said, the time promised by God has come at last. He announced, the kingdom of God is near. Repent of your sins and believe the good news. Jesus is saying history has reached a turning point. In me, the king has arrived. And where I go, the kingdom goes. Because wherever Jesus walks, the rule and reign of God leaks out. Sick people are healed, broken people are restored, outcasts are welcomed, sins are forgiven.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: But he also gives us a response word we don't always love.
Repent and believe. Let me say it again. Repent and believe.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Because friend, you don't drift into the kingdom of God. You turn into it. You realign. You lay down your little crown for his to sit on your heart.
Colossians, where Paul writes to the church in Colossae, says that if you were in Christ, you've already had a kingdom transfer.
Now for most of you, you live in the United States, you still have a street address, but your deepest passport
[00:01:49] Speaker B: says you are a kingdom of God's dear son. Your allegiance, your hope, your values have shifted and so has your citizenry.
I like to picture it as two overlapping circles.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: One circle is this kingdom world with power and comfort and status and recognition. The other circle is the kingdom of God filled with grace, holiness, justice, mercy and self giving love. Let me say those two circles again. One circle is this present world that we live in with power, comfort, status and recognition. The other is the kingdom of God filled with grace, holiness, justice, mercy and self giving love.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Now, where those two circles overlap, that space that they share, that's where the church is supposed to live, right in the messy middle as an embassy of another world.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: So let me ask this question. Does your home feel more like this world or like an outpost of the kingdom of God? Is it dominated by hurry comparison? Is it dominated by constant conflict or marked by forgiveness and prayer and a different kind of peace?
Does your faith look more like a weekly religious show or like a living
[00:03:12] Speaker B: embassy where people who step into your life get a little preview of what it will be like when Jesus is visibly king over everything.
Maybe for you today, repentance isn't about some dramatic public decision.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: It's about a quiet and specific turn.
It's choosing kingdom values in this small moment, answering harshness with gentleness, choosing generosity over grasping and holding tightly, turning off the noise and letting scripture speak into your life.
Or refusing to demonize people who just disagree with you. Here's a simple way to pray today. Lord Jesus, you said your kingdom is near.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: I believe you. I turn from running my own kingdom and I choose to live today as a citizen of yours.
That you make my home, my workplace,
[00:04:07] Speaker A: and my church a little embassy of your grace, friend.
Inside that prayer, you might feel small and unseen, but you are carrying kingdom citizenship into every conversation and every room that you enter today.
Walk like someone who belongs to another world, because in Christ Jesus, you already do. And ask yourself as you move through this day, what would it look like to live this one moment as a
[00:04:36] Speaker B: citizen of the kingdom of God, rather than just a consumer of this culture? God bless you, friend. Thanks so much for joining me on today's Leap Day podcast.
