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This session does NOT follow the Discovery Bible Study format. Instead, particpants are asked to read a verse and then state:
This session also refers back to Session 1 where you looked at The Gap and described how your community would be different if everyone followed Jesus.
Get into groups of 3-4 people and share how did with the goals you set at our last meeting:
Over 70 verses in the New Testament speak of the “Kingdom of God,” and another 30 reference the “Kingdom of Heaven.”
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt 6:10)
There are many competing agendas at work in the world through the influence of people, institutions and the Devil, the Enemy of God. Everyone wants to be “king” of their own kingdom fulfilling their own agenda based around their own values, self-interests and desires.
Disciplemakers are committed to obedience to God’s agenda and desires surrendering to the will and serving the desires of their new King, Jesus. As they live this out they are an expression of the Kingdom culture of heaven.
In Session 1, you explored what would it look like if all the people in your community wanted God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We then looked at the Gap between your vision and the current reality.
What do you think God wants you to do about that Gap?
Living in Obedience to the Kingdom Agenda means actively practicing the answer to the prayer Jesus commanded us to pray, “Your will [Father] be done on earth as it is in heaven”. This applies both personally and in society. It includes families, organisations and communities living out the character and priorities of King Jesus, promoting His agenda of love, righteousness, justice, compassion, grace, mercy, healing, forgiveness, peace, service and more.
The Word of God is central in revealing God’s agenda for us and our world.
The transforming presence of the King within us is meant to influence and change the world around us. Through the power of His Holy Spirit and the authority of his commission as Ambassadors of his Kingdom He wants to bring the influence of heaven into every place of society.
Some ideas that participants might notice:
Read your assigned verses and then tell the group:
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.36 Simon and his companions went to look for him,37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
11 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him.12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”
14 Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
16 They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.”17 This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me,
46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
47 “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.48 There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.49 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
What other passages can you think of that show the Kingdom agenda and how Jesus fueled a Kingdom culture?
Version 2.10
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