The Kingdom of God

We're halfway through our series on Luke's gospel at Neighborhood Church. This week I went away to St. Columba's Retreat Center to gain a little clarity on the remainder of the series. One thing I continue to learn about myself when it comes to teaching is that I always have to keep the big picture in mind. Where are we ultimately heading? Why is this series important to the life of our church? One of the big questions for me was how to incorporate the Kingdom of God, Jesus' favorite subject to talk about. So after a day away, here's where we're going.

This Sunday we're on the parable of the sower, but instead of thinking about it in terms of evangelism, we're thinking about it in terms of the condition of our own hearts. There's a great quote by Rick McKinley about this:

Pay attention, Jesus was saying, because in a mysterious but powerful way, the condition of your heart radically dictates what the kingdom is going to look like in your life. If you wrap all your hopes and dreams around it and let it sink far into your inner being, the kingdom of Jesus will live in you and bear fruit

Next week we then begin another "series within a series" on the Kingdom. Here are my tentative titles:

The "Upside-Down/Available to All" KOG (2/28)

The "Advancing/Subversive" KOG (3/7)

The "Already/Not Yet" KOG (3/14)

The "Costly/Totally Worth It" KOG (after Easter)