The Kingdom Isn't Confined to Sunday

It is easy to be a Christian on Sunday and something else the rest of the week: an employee at work, a voter at election time, a consumer online. The kingdom of God is meant to govern all of it. When God's rule shapes every part of your life, you gain a priority, a structure, and a purpose. No trend or political platform can give you that.

Why should being kingdom minded matter more than being culturally minded?

Being kingdom minded matters more because that is what a disciple is. A disciple of Christ is someone who sees God's rule as the authority over every part of life: a kingdom thinker, a kingdom walker, a kingdom talker.

The challenge is that we segment. I'm a Christian here, an employee there, a voter over here. On Kingdom Over Culture, Pastor Marty Sloan put it simply. Our ideology should come out of our theology. What you believe about God should shape how you see your job, your family, your money, and your vote. It shouldn't work the other way around.

How did the church drift from the kingdom?

The church drifted when people started chasing every new wind of doctrine. A doctrine is simply a belief system. You can have a doctrine about a phone brand or a shoe company. The danger is choosing teachers and voices because they scratch the itch you care most about. The alternative is living in and from the Word of God.

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

2 Timothy 4:3

When that happens, we chase things based on how we see life, not how God sees it. Cultural trends shift from one generation to the next. If no one checks them against Scripture, they slowly become the majority opinion. At Calvary the answer is to preach from the cross to the cross, keeping the gospel at the center every time.

Why does kingdom living matter for young adults?

Kingdom living gives you something to stand on when everything else is moving. Styles, music, and fads come and go. The kingdom has no fad to it. It has an eternal King.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

Isaiah 9:6

Pastor Jason McElwee noted that young adults today are learning false teaching through their phones, a little at a time. They are pulled in many directions at once. You need an anchor of truth you can fall back on. If you fall back and there is no truth there, that path can take you a long way down.

A good test is to ask whether something is temporal or eternal. Culture wars and cultural trends are loud. But they make it harder to find your purpose, not easier.

What does it mean that you were made on purpose for a purpose?

It means your life is a mission, not just occupancy. Every person was created in the image of God to serve the mission of God. Calvary uses two Latin phrases for this. The imago Dei is the image of God in every person. The missio Dei is the mission of God.

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness."

Genesis 1:26

Pastor Marty says it this way. The way God made you is part of His mission for you. Your ethnicity, whether you are a man or a woman, your story: none of it is an accident. God did not look at you and think He got something wrong.

Once you see that connection, being governed by the kingdom affects everything:

• your family decisions
• who you marry
• the career path you choose
• where you live and where you worship
• the influence you have in the zip code God has placed you in

You are here on a life mission.

What does the culture get wrong about love?

The culture says love is uncontrollable and can't be defined. Scripture defines it in detail and treats it as a choice.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

God is love; it is His eternal nature. Loving your neighbor, on the other hand, is an act of the will, not an instinct. By our sin nature we love ourselves first. The nature of Christ in us says to love others as we love ourselves, and then a little more. That takes intention.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Mark 12:31

The skeptic's question is the oldest one in the Bible. In the garden the serpent asked, "Did God really say?" The same doubt still works on people today. A simple test helps: is this producing life? Kingdom living bears lasting fruit that feeds generations. What is not of the kingdom eventually shrivels.

Can politics fix what's broken?

No, politics can't fix what's broken. No political platform can do what the kingdom does. Pastor Marty has watched presidents of both parties since Ronald Reagan. Each one promised a better nation: racial healing, prosperity, unity. In his words, no leader he has heard, Democrat or Republican, has offered a better plan for humanity than Jesus' teaching on the kingdom of God.

You can care deeply about your country and still keep that perspective. Jesus is the solution, and the church is the vehicle He uses to bring it. If believers lived His basic teachings on the kingdom every day, it would change the culture fast.

Whose name are we building?

We are building Jesus' name, not our own. Kingdom living means the goal is to make Jesus famous, not ourselves. That applies to pastors as much as anyone. For example, Pastor Marty said he hopes that when his time at Calvary is over, people will have a hard time remembering his name. The church is God's, not his. A servant of the King stewards what he has been given and points every bit of attention to Jesus.

The same is true for you. Your platform, your influence, and your gifts are for His name. As the episode put it, the goal is to form kingdom people, not to win culture wars.

Common questions

What does it mean to live kingdom first?

Living kingdom first means letting God's rule govern every part of life, not only Sunday. Your theology shapes your ideology, so your faith informs your work, family, relationships, and decisions as a citizen.

What do imago Dei and missio Dei mean?

Imago Dei means every person is made in the image of God. Missio Dei means the mission of God. Together they teach that how God made you is part of what He made you for, so no one is an accident.

Is love just a feeling?

Scripture describes love in specific, controllable terms: patient, kind, not self-seeking, keeping no record of wrongs. God's love is His nature, and loving your neighbor is a choice of the will that takes intention.

Can a political party fix our culture?

Leaders of both parties have promised healing and unity, but no political platform has offered a better plan for humanity than Jesus' teaching on the kingdom of God. Christ is the solution, and the church is how that solution reaches people.