A Different Kind of Kingdom
OPENING PRAYER:
Opening Prayer
King Jesus, Your kingdom operates by different rules than any earthly kingdom I've known. Teach me to see with Your eyes, to value what You value, and to embrace the upside-down beauty of Your reign.
"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him."
Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, a city obsessed with status, wisdom, and power. The Corinthian believers were struggling with divisions based on who had the most impressive spiritual credentials or followed the most eloquent teachers. Paul reminds them that God's kingdom doesn't operate according to human systems of value and hierarchy.
1 Corinthians 1:27-29 (NIV)
REFLECT:
Pastor Carter’s message emphasized something crucial about Jesus's encounter with the Samaritan woman: "What makes this interaction even more amazing is that the Samaritan woman is the first person ever recorded in scripture that Jesus reveals Himself to as the Messiah."
Think about that. Jesus could have made His grand messianic announcement in the temple in Jerusalem, surrounded by religious leaders and crowds of faithful Jews. He could have revealed His identity to the disciples first, the men He was training to carry on His mission. But He didn't. He revealed Himself to a Samaritan woman, someone triply marginalized by her gender, her ethnicity, and her moral reputation.
This is how God's kingdom works. As Todd said, "Jesus's kingdom is a different kind of kingdom than any of the rest of the kingdoms of this world." In the world's economy, the first to receive important news are the powerful, the influential, the respectable. But in God's kingdom, the first to receive the revelation of the Messiah is an outsider, someone everyone else had rejected and written off. God delights in choosing the unlikely, the overlooked, the broken, because when He works through them, it's undeniably His power, not theirs.
Todd shard with us Wayne's story as a powerful modern example. Wayne had struggled with drugs, had trouble with the law, had broken relationships. Many people in this world might not have chosen Wayne, he didn't look like he had the right spiritual credentials. But God chose him. And when Wayne encountered Jesus, he didn't just experience personal transformation; he became a conduit of transformation for others. His daughter got baptized with him. His extended family started coming to church. He baptized a mom and daughter from his softball team. God used Wayne powerfully, not despite his past, but through his story of redemption. This is the upside-down beauty of God's kingdom: the last become first, the weak become strong, the broken become whole, and the rejected become chosen.
I WILL STATEMENT:
I will stop disqualifying myself and start engaging in God's mission.
Identify one way you've been measuring yourself by the world's standards rather than God's kingdom values. Maybe you've felt disqualified because of your education level, your past, your current circumstances, or your lack of spiritual knowledge. Write down that disqualification. Then cross it out and write over it: "God chooses the unlikely." Ask God to show you one specific way He wants to use you this week, not despite your weakness, but through it.
CLOSING PRAYER:
Father, thank You that Your kingdom doesn't operate by the world's rules. Thank You for choosing the unlikely, the overlooked, the broken. Help me stop disqualifying myself based on worldly standards and start embracing how You see me and want to use me. I am Yours, and that's enough.
PRAYER REQUEST:
Share your prayer request and pray for others.