Other Relevant Scriptures

Matt 5:38-48; Matt 6:19-34; Matt 16:24-25; Matt 20:25-28; Luke 14:8-14.

Introduction

What do these scriptures tell us? That the Kingdom of God operates on different principles and with different values to those held dear in most human societies. Look at the following examples

The world’s values	Kingdom values
Do your own thing, be yourself	Deny yourself
Look out for number one	Love your neighbour as yourself
An eye for an eye	Turn the other cheek
Become a millionaire	Store up treasure in Heaven
Pursue a career	Put God’s kingdom first
Never forget a wrong	Forgive those who sin against you
Sue those who defraud you	Do not demand back what is yours
Get to the top of the heap	Be a servant
Assert your rights	Take up your cross daily
Get what you can	Give, and keep on giving

Kingdom Values are God’s Values

They reflect what God is like

Luke 6:35, “Then you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”

Eph 5:1, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.”

Kingdom values express what God is like. As His children we too will reflect the same attributes.

They are in harmony with God’s universal laws

John 12:24, “I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

This is a principle, a rule of action, that applies in the ordered universe God has created, and everywhere where He reigns unopposed. The value Jesus taught, ‘Give and it shall be given unto you,’ fits closely with this principle. This not some weird, impractical, pie-in-the-sky aspiration, that will never work in practice. It is the way God intends things to work. Farmers expect things to work like this. Investors in the stock market expect things to work like this. A healthy national economy works like this. Why do we children of the Kingdom sometimes find it so difficult to live like this?

God created us to follow them

Eph 4:24, “Created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Kingdom values express true righteousness and holiness – the ‘right’ way to live. We are made to live this way.

There was once a laird (a sassenach I regret to say) who had a large loch on his land. He decided to buy a sailing boat to use on the loch. One day the boat salesman visited the laird, and was amazed to find him floating about on the loch sitting on top of an upside-down boat.

“Oi,” he called (for the salesman was a true cockney) “Are you ‘buttercups and daisy’; whotyer fink yer doing with the mast and sails under water?”

“Oh, it’s quite ok,” replied the laird, “I soon worked out that it’s best to put all that stuff under the water. That way the boat catches the current in the loch and floats along quite splendidly.”

“But then you can only go where the current takes you,” said the salesman. “Put it up the other way and you’ll find that the wind will take you anywhere you want to go.”

“Oh no, I started off like that,” replied the laird, “and found myself being blown all over the place. Much better like this, where I’m in control.”

It’s not God’s Kingdom that is the topsy-turvy, upside-down kingdom. It is the kingdom of this world, deceived as it is by the enemy, that is upside-down. Live according to Kingdom values, and see how the wind of God’s Spirit will catch your sails, taking you where God wants you to be, instead of drifting along in the current of the world’s values.

The World’s Values are the enemy’s Values

Paul summarises what motivates the world’s value system in Eph 4:17-19.

Futile thinking; darkened understanding; separated from God; hard hearts; abandoned to sensuality; self-indulgent; lustful.

At the heart of it all is the lie of the enemy, so subtle, so near the truth and yet so far from it. Gen 3:5, “You will be like God.” Only it is his, false image of God. An image of grasping, getting, possessing, controlling.

Compare that with God’s intention for us. Eph 4:24, “Created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Jesus came into the world to destroy the works of the devil. Wherever God’s Kingdom comes, the enemy has to retreat.

Conclusion

Let’s work together to overturn the enemy’s topsy-turvy, upside-down values, and set things the right way up here in Westhill and Kingswells. In our lives. Increasingly in the lives of those who become part of God’s kingdom through our obedience to the Holy Spirit.

Let Paul have the final word. “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life or love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Eph 5:1,2.

Questions for Discussion

List some of the differences between the values of God’s kingdom and the values of the world we live in. What things would change most in Westhill and Kingswells were God’s kingdom to fully come in these communities? Are there some changes that we should commit together to pray for?

In Ephesians 5:8 Paul says, “You were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord; live as children of the light.” Ask if some group members would share their testimony about changes that have taken place in their life since becoming a follower of Jesus.

Read Ephesians 4:22-24. Discuss how TV programmes, films, videos, magazines and books may affect our ability to do what these scriptures teach.