Kingdom Offerings
Exploring the offerings of scripture concerning the Kingdom of God and becoming aware of the handwriting of Jesus Christ across all of history.
Kingdom Disciplines
January 27,2025
Transcript
Hi, this is Dave Scherrer and welcome to Kingdom Offerings. This is the site where One Hundred Fold Ministries presents our podcasts. And today we’re starting a new series that will last several weeks where we focus on the disciplines of the Kingdom.
And I think in order to do this, it’s going to take some content backfill. You see, for much of the last two years, our blogs and podcasts have been focusing on understanding exactly what is the Gospel of the Kingdom.
You see here at a One Hundred Fold Ministries, we have a sinking suspicion that many, and maybe even most, Christians today cannot give a working definition of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
I think there are kind of two huge problems that contribute to this Gospel of the Kingdom confusion. First, we as evangelicals have a hard time agreeing on exactly what the Kingdom of God is. We’re confused about that.
So in the next several weeks, we’re going to chat more about defining the Kingdom of God in our content block called Backyard Conversations. You can look for that.
That’s the first problem, exactly understanding what is the “Kingdom of God” as Jesus was referring to it. That’s the first problem.
And second, if we’re a seasoned Christian with an evangelical background, we may default to reciting the so-called plan of salvation, rather than impacting the broader, more theologically expansive Gospel of the Kingdom.
The plan of salvation and the Gospel of the Kingdom, they are not one and the same. So to add to our dilemma here today, I think we also need to give a bit of a primer on exactly what is a Kingdom discipline. If we’re going to spend several weeks talking about it, we better have a clear idea of what it means to be disciplined in the pursuit of the Kingdom. So let’s start there today.
So the spiritual disciplines have been a subject of deep prayer, conversation, of study for over 2,000 years. Since the beginning of the church, the early Christian thinkers applied themselves to understanding how we become well-formed in Christ. And that’s an interesting conversation in that we’ve been told by the Apostle Paul, “I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” We find that in his letter to the church at Philippi in chapter one.
“I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Well, when we read that, it sounds like the spiritual progress of the Christian pilgrim is the work of Christ alone. And that’s, of course, true. It is the work of the Spirit, but the believer can lean into the work of the Spirit in our lives by engaging in these ancient practices or disciplines that help us move forward in our spiritual maturity.
Okay, let’s tell a story. Let’s think of it this way. The Kingdom of God is like a man in a boat in a great river. He is floating in this small boat. He is driven by the current toward a great sea. Nothing can stop the flow of the water. Nothing can stop the eventuality that the man in this small boat will someday find himself at this sea.
He is being drawn to the sea without any contribution on his part. But what if? What if the man in the boat jumped out and hung onto the back of the boat and kicked hard so as to quicken his pace toward the sea? What if he looked around in his boat and saw there were even oars or a small sail that he might employ to hasten his journey and to improve his status as a traveler on this journey. The man in this case is simply yielding well and contributing through an act of his will, his obedience to the natural pull of the current of the water toward the sea.
One of our great contemporary writers of the spiritual disciplines is a fellow by the name of Dr. Dallas Willard. Listen to this compilation of quotes that speak to the issue of becoming conformed or discipled into the character and purposes of Christ. He says this:
“Discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if He were you. A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do. The most important thing in your life is not what you do, but it’s who you become. That’s what you will take into eternity. Spiritual formation for the Christian basically refers to the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ Himself.”
Those are all the thoughts of Dallas Willard. So the spiritual disciplines are those practices and behaviors that help us to yield, and even contribute, to the righteous formation of our Christ-like thought and practice.
Now, if we were to focus that thought even more, we could concentrate on the thoughts and practices that specifically move us away from a compromising walk with the world and then toward a more resolute and obedient walk in the Kingdom of God. That’s what we’re all doing – is turning our back on the world, repenting from that addiction to that dark set of values that the world brings and setting our minds and hearts on the Kingdom of God, walking obediently toward that.
And so here’s something to meditate on. Jesus Himself practiced these disciplines. In Mark chapter 1, we read that “rising very early in the morning and why it was still dark, Jesus departed and went out to a desolate place. And there he prayed.” So we’re seeing here that the disciplines of silence, solitude, prayer, meditation are on display in Jesus. Jesus practiced these. If He practiced them, then that means that we too need to follow in His disciplined footsteps.
Okay, to review and kind of wrap up, today we’re setting the stage for our series on the Kingdom disciplines. And I define these Kingdom disciplines as the specific behaviors and practices that help us turn and disengage from the worldly dark kingdom. That’s a kingdom of lies and death, and it’s led by the false lord Satan.
This turning away, or renouncing the world’s values and priorities, allows us then to engage and pledge our allegiance to the Kingdom of life, light, and love. And that’s of course led by King Jesus. Two kingdoms in conflict.
So different scholars have looked at this idea of Kingdom disciplines, and they have a different list of what constitutes these specific Kingdom practices. But what we do agree on is that without the practice of these disciplines, we risk losing sight of our hope and joy in Christ. The world is just so addictive and demanding, it draws us back.
So here’s my list. I have eight Kingdom disciplines, and we will unpack them over the next eight podcasts. Here they are in order.
If you’ve been following closely, you will see that I draw these disciplines directly from the greatest Kingdom sermon ever given, and that’s the Matthew account of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
So we’ll be taking a look at these disciplines in order and imagining what they might look like practically and specifically in our lives by way of a disciplined practice.
So let me close with this passage from the end of the same mountaintop sermon that we’ve been quoting so far. From Matthew 7:24, we read, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice will be like a man who builds his house upon the rock.”
So this is Dave Scherrer and these are Kingdom Offerings.
I trust that you’ll join me here in the next several weeks and we’ll look really hard at what it means to employ the Kingdom disciplines to move us forward in our journey towards and in the Kingdom of God. Take care.
Come check us out at One Hundred Fold Ministries and see the other resources available.
Peace to you.
And I think in order to do this, it’s going to take some content backfill. You see, for much of the last two years, our blogs and podcasts have been focusing on understanding exactly what is the Gospel of the Kingdom.
You see here at a One Hundred Fold Ministries, we have a sinking suspicion that many, and maybe even most, Christians today cannot give a working definition of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
I think there are kind of two huge problems that contribute to this Gospel of the Kingdom confusion. First, we as evangelicals have a hard time agreeing on exactly what the Kingdom of God is. We’re confused about that.
So in the next several weeks, we’re going to chat more about defining the Kingdom of God in our content block called Backyard Conversations. You can look for that.
That’s the first problem, exactly understanding what is the “Kingdom of God” as Jesus was referring to it. That’s the first problem.
And second, if we’re a seasoned Christian with an evangelical background, we may default to reciting the so-called plan of salvation, rather than impacting the broader, more theologically expansive Gospel of the Kingdom.
The plan of salvation and the Gospel of the Kingdom, they are not one and the same. So to add to our dilemma here today, I think we also need to give a bit of a primer on exactly what is a Kingdom discipline. If we’re going to spend several weeks talking about it, we better have a clear idea of what it means to be disciplined in the pursuit of the Kingdom. So let’s start there today.
So the spiritual disciplines have been a subject of deep prayer, conversation, of study for over 2,000 years. Since the beginning of the church, the early Christian thinkers applied themselves to understanding how we become well-formed in Christ. And that’s an interesting conversation in that we’ve been told by the Apostle Paul, “I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” We find that in his letter to the church at Philippi in chapter one.
“I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Well, when we read that, it sounds like the spiritual progress of the Christian pilgrim is the work of Christ alone. And that’s, of course, true. It is the work of the Spirit, but the believer can lean into the work of the Spirit in our lives by engaging in these ancient practices or disciplines that help us move forward in our spiritual maturity.
Okay, let’s tell a story. Let’s think of it this way. The Kingdom of God is like a man in a boat in a great river. He is floating in this small boat. He is driven by the current toward a great sea. Nothing can stop the flow of the water. Nothing can stop the eventuality that the man in this small boat will someday find himself at this sea.
He is being drawn to the sea without any contribution on his part. But what if? What if the man in the boat jumped out and hung onto the back of the boat and kicked hard so as to quicken his pace toward the sea? What if he looked around in his boat and saw there were even oars or a small sail that he might employ to hasten his journey and to improve his status as a traveler on this journey. The man in this case is simply yielding well and contributing through an act of his will, his obedience to the natural pull of the current of the water toward the sea.
One of our great contemporary writers of the spiritual disciplines is a fellow by the name of Dr. Dallas Willard. Listen to this compilation of quotes that speak to the issue of becoming conformed or discipled into the character and purposes of Christ. He says this:
“Discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if He were you. A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do. The most important thing in your life is not what you do, but it’s who you become. That’s what you will take into eternity. Spiritual formation for the Christian basically refers to the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ Himself.”
Those are all the thoughts of Dallas Willard. So the spiritual disciplines are those practices and behaviors that help us to yield, and even contribute, to the righteous formation of our Christ-like thought and practice.
Now, if we were to focus that thought even more, we could concentrate on the thoughts and practices that specifically move us away from a compromising walk with the world and then toward a more resolute and obedient walk in the Kingdom of God. That’s what we’re all doing – is turning our back on the world, repenting from that addiction to that dark set of values that the world brings and setting our minds and hearts on the Kingdom of God, walking obediently toward that.
And so here’s something to meditate on. Jesus Himself practiced these disciplines. In Mark chapter 1, we read that “rising very early in the morning and why it was still dark, Jesus departed and went out to a desolate place. And there he prayed.” So we’re seeing here that the disciplines of silence, solitude, prayer, meditation are on display in Jesus. Jesus practiced these. If He practiced them, then that means that we too need to follow in His disciplined footsteps.
Okay, to review and kind of wrap up, today we’re setting the stage for our series on the Kingdom disciplines. And I define these Kingdom disciplines as the specific behaviors and practices that help us turn and disengage from the worldly dark kingdom. That’s a kingdom of lies and death, and it’s led by the false lord Satan.
This turning away, or renouncing the world’s values and priorities, allows us then to engage and pledge our allegiance to the Kingdom of life, light, and love. And that’s of course led by King Jesus. Two kingdoms in conflict.
So different scholars have looked at this idea of Kingdom disciplines, and they have a different list of what constitutes these specific Kingdom practices. But what we do agree on is that without the practice of these disciplines, we risk losing sight of our hope and joy in Christ. The world is just so addictive and demanding, it draws us back.
So here’s my list. I have eight Kingdom disciplines, and we will unpack them over the next eight podcasts. Here they are in order.
- Confession or believe and repent. You would find that in Mark chapter one.
- The idea of generosity, the discipline of generosity. You’d find that in Matthew 6:2-4.
- Of prayer. You find that in Matthew 6:5.
- Matthew 6:14-15.
- Fasting as a discipline. Matthew 6:16.
- Treasure-seeking. Treasure-seeking as a discipline. That’s found in Matthew 6:20.
- Gratitude and contentedness, the discipline of contentedness. Matthew 6:31.
- And finally, the discipline of acceptance, that is practicing being non-judgmental. I see this as a discipline of justice and mercy. And that’s found in Matthew 7:1-2.
If you’ve been following closely, you will see that I draw these disciplines directly from the greatest Kingdom sermon ever given, and that’s the Matthew account of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
So we’ll be taking a look at these disciplines in order and imagining what they might look like practically and specifically in our lives by way of a disciplined practice.
So let me close with this passage from the end of the same mountaintop sermon that we’ve been quoting so far. From Matthew 7:24, we read, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice will be like a man who builds his house upon the rock.”
So this is Dave Scherrer and these are Kingdom Offerings.
I trust that you’ll join me here in the next several weeks and we’ll look really hard at what it means to employ the Kingdom disciplines to move us forward in our journey towards and in the Kingdom of God. Take care.
Come check us out at One Hundred Fold Ministries and see the other resources available.
Peace to you.