Kingdom Mindedness | Episode 2

If it is a true that we are living in the kingdom that belongs to God, then how does that shape, impact and change the way we live in earthly kingdoms? How do we live heaven on earth lives? How do we serve King Jesus in our every day lives? How do we maintain a mindset and perspective that is eternal and not earth bound? In this podcast we answer these questions.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:59 Question of the week
• 5:17 What is the kingdom of God?
• 7:33 Matthew 6
• 13:09 Shush time
• 15:59 Overflow of worship
• 16:56 Discipline of simplicity
• 18:24 Selfishness
• 21:05 Practically how do we seek the Kingdom?
• 29:47 Conclusion

Transcript

Hey guys, welcome back to the WHAT on EARTH Podcast.

I'm Mariah.

I'm Karis.

Yeah, I'm very excited to be back.

Our second episode.

Yeah, last week we were kind of just doing an introduction to what we're doing and who we are.

Yeah, it was just a little quick one.

Yeah, and now this is our first podcast all about us.

This is our proper first one that's not about us.

Yeah, so today we're talking about Kingdom Mindedness, but before we do that, we're going to do our question of the week.

So yeah, the question that we got was, what is your weirdest encounter with a stranger?

Oh, and obviously we talked about this beforehand because we had to decide.

And also this is one that we both share this.

We share this weird encounter.

Okay, so setting, context, location.

We're in Donegal on our vocational vacation, mission trip.

And we had just had a pretty decent long day, like our main day of mission, and we had went out in the street and then we were in a nursing home, and visiting all people and stuff, and then we were literally leaving.

So I had been chatting to this lady the whole time.

This lady, Anne-Marie, shout out, she definitely listens.

She's from Germany.

Yeah, she's German, but she's living in Donegal.

I was chatting away to her, she was telling me everything she gets up to, because it's a residential home, they don't have to stay there.

They can go and leave, do whatever they want.

And basically, we were driving away, and we get a call from Takara, and Takara's like, I just picked up an old lady from there.

So we in touch were like, what?

She was like, yeah, she's woken up this dangerous hell, we really need to, can you guys come help?

And Kara's sitting in the back, and she goes, no, she does this all the time.

That's Anne-Marie, classic Anne-Marie.

She's going to her shed, she told me she was going to her shed.

I assumed that it was...

So she had told Kara, so she's a basket maker, and apparently she gets the 10 o'clock bus up to the shed, and then the 4 o'clock bus, or the 2 o'clock bus, back home.

Anyway, this was half five, so it was neither of those buses, but she had decided she was walking to the shed from the nursing home.

Kara walks her across the bridge.

I walk her out of the grounds.

Walks her out of the grounds of the nursing home, across the bridge, and then is like, okay, bye, have fun at your shed, do whatever you're doing.

Flash forward an hour later to Kara's like, I'm trying to get this woman into my car.

We don't know where she's going.

She doesn't know.

Anyway, we went back, searched around, there was no staff.

Okay, that's fine.

Josh is still on the phone in the car.

So we came back and he's like, right, let's just drive up the road and see how we can help her at this point.

And this shed was two miles away.

Takara had taken her to the shed.

The shed was real.

The shed was real.

There was basket making things inside of it.

But it maybe hadn't been opened in like six months.

Because there was spiders and cobwebs and everything.

But actually, it was so funny.

So we arrived across the road, like a busy road, busy road.

We crossed this road.

Some other lady had stopped then because she'd seen Takara struggling.

She was like, how do I, how do we get her help?

Was going to ring the guards.

Like literally was going to ring and get this whole thing.

And the shed was in a field.

You'd have to take a machete to get through it.

Yeah, it was like a jungle.

The grass was up to like here.

Literally.

Up to like halfway up our legs.

And we were climbing through, climbing through.

It was actually ridiculous.

And then we get to the shed, she's trying to give us all of her basket stuff.

She's like lifting out hammers and like, I don't even know what all stuff.

And then we go back to the care home.

We took her back.

It took three cars to get her home because we had the basket and her roller and Marie herself.

And then we got her up into her room.

And then she gives me and Mariah two chocolate bars each.

And then that was the end of the encounter.

She gave the bars to her in a whisper.

And we were like, no one's going to believe this is real.

Nobody understands how absurdly funny this day was.

It was so niche.

Not real.

Maybe it doesn't even feel weird to other people, but in the moment, we couldn't believe that that's what was going on.

But anyway, what a time.

That was our question of the week.

And our weirdest experience.

I'm so glad we get to share it on the WHAT on EARTH Podcast.

I hope you guys enjoyed that one.

But today, our topic is Kingdom Mindedness.

Which is really exciting, because, yeah, I don't know.

It's such a good one.

So yeah, I suppose we just get straight into it.

So our first kind of thing that we're going to discuss is what is the Kingdom?

And then what is this Kingdom that we're talking about?

Because whenever I was thinking about it, I was like, I would be stumped if somebody asked me to describe the Kingdom of God.

Yeah, because we were kind of talking about it, and we were trying to compare it to things.

Like how does this, how do we make the Kingdom, how do we get a picture for it?

What is our kind of idea of it?

But I think the best one we came up with, right?

So we kind of tried all these different ones, and we were like, medieval Kingdom, but no.

And then I was like, you know what it is?

It's the island from Moana.

The kingdom, whenever we think of that, it's like, it's providential, the word.

It provides for, it contains within itself.

There is a ruler, but everybody has their job, and it works in harmony.

And the island gives us what we need.

Literally the island gives us what we need.

The kingdom sustains us in all that we need, and all that we will ever need.

That is the idea of the kingdom.

Mindedness is then how do we focus ourselves on the kingdom, and not on the world around the kingdom, the world in which the kingdom is placed within.

Because obviously, we're on the earth right now, but the end goal is not here.

It's to be in the kingdom of God, I suppose.

You have God as overall authority, and the subjects working to advance it.

Yeah, exactly.

To be there in the...

Because I think the Bible is used as kingdom of heaven as well.

We are the workers working to create growth around the kingdom to grow it, to extend it, to further it.

But we are still in the mindset of everything that we do is for the glory of God.

It's all for the glory of his kingdom.

It's not...

And you hear a lot of people be like, it's not about our kingdom, which is something that...

Yeah, that will tie in later.

But yeah.

So I suppose our central verse comes from Matthew 6, which I will read the whole thing, not the whole chapter, but just the...

The whole thing.

Just verse 25 to 34, and I'm reading from the ESV.

So the verse that we're focusing on is verse 33, but we'll read around it first.

So it says in verse 25, Therefore I tell you, Do not be anxious about your life, What you will eat, or what you will drink, Nor about your body, what you will put on.

Is not life more than food, And the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air, They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, And yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they?

And which of you, by being anxious, Can add a single hour to his life span?

And why are you anxious about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, How they grow, they neither toil nor spin, Yet I tell you, even Solomon, In all his glory was not arrayed, Like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, Which today is alive, And tomorrow is enthroned into the oven, Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore, do not be anxious, Saying, What shall we eat, Or what shall we drink, Or what shall we wear?

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, And your heavenly Father knows That you need them all.

But seek first the kingdom of God, And his righteousness, And all these things will be added to you.

Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, For tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Amen.

So that verse, But seek first the kingdom of God, And his righteousness, And all these things will be added to you.

That's what we're focusing on.

It's seeking first his kingdom.

The crux of it is the prioritizing.

That's where we're getting to.

What we seek firstly, then all these other things.

And I think it's so easy.

I think that's what that context is saying.

It's so easy to think about other things.

And I think where this is coming from, it's definitely coming from a place of need, whereas I think we're in a place of seeking want, like the things that we want.

Yeah, and the things that we think we should have, because we see the world offering it to us, and we see it's available.

But there's so many things that we are not promised.

There's so many things that are not for us, and are not actually of God, and God doesn't want us to have them, because they would ruin us.

I did a talk a while ago about relationships, and one of the points that I was saying was we live our lives as if we are guaranteed a relationship.

And we live our lives as if we are guaranteed so many things.

Yeah, as if we are entitled to it.

We're not.

Yeah, okay, here's our relationship, because you deserve it.

What?

What on earth?

We deserve it?

Yeah, and this context is talking about things that you need.

You don't just want things.

You just want what you need.

And God is saying, don't even worry about those, because I'm going to provide them for you.

But the condition is, seek first my kingdom.

Yeah, it's like this, you don't need to worry about, if you're in line with your priorities, you're in line with seeking first the kingdom.

And like that can look so, so, so counter cultural to what the world looks like, because literally, constantly, the world is telling us, seek after yourself, like seek after what you want.

Look for the things that are going to bring you happiness.

If like, oh, you're in a bad place, go and spend some time in your own, like figure out what makes you happy, go and be selfish for a while.

What?

What do you mean go and be selfish for a while?

No, no, and like I think, we could probably speak from experience too, in like moments where we have felt down, or like upset about something, and like we've just been like, maybe tempted to be like, oh, I'm just gonna spend a couple of days, like looking after myself, or like, I feel like this will help me, so I'll go and do this.

It doesn't, it's just so temporary.

But like, you see, whenever you invest a little bit more into like, your relationship with God, or with like your relationship with other people, or even just trying to help other people, in the mindset that it's advancing the kingdom, that is so much more fruitful and so much more helpful than literally any other, like going and looking after yourself, or like spending time on yourself.

And like, it's the same as like, a lot of people, like I had shared this with you, like people, like especially around like New Year's time and stuff, it's like, oh, I hope this is like your year, this is the year of your like, oh yes, I really hope that like, you like do these great things this year, and like, you're so happy this year and stuff, but like what?

Where are you reading that?

Where does it say there's a year for you?

Because I'm not saying it, like, we are called to something so much deeper, so much greater.

It's just like, why would we waste what little amount of time we have on this earth, in spending a whole year dedicated to ourselves?

Never mind like, a day dedicated to ourselves, or like, putting aside something, or not going to something, reinvesting time.

And I think, just on that, the idea, I know we've talked about it before, in a different context, about shush time.

There's something that I have implemented on my team last year, because I just think people need to take some time away.

It's good.

It is a good thing to take some time away.

But I think that the need for that place comes from a place of weakness, and I know that I need it, because there's times where my patience runs thin, or I'm feeling just tired, or do you know what I mean?

It's in those places where you have to recognize that that's a weakness, that you need to take time away to go and replenish that.

Not on a selfish way, but I am going to do this, so that I can re-invest.

So that I'm strengthened to...

And it's like, where is your source of...

Where are you getting that source of energy whenever you take that time away?

Yeah, because I think if you just waste that time doing everything else, you're literally wallowing.

Yeah, wallowing in tiredness, just lying there.

You're not being empowered in any way.

And that's not even me saying, if your patience is running thin, you need to sit and get into the word, or you need to do this or you need to do that.

Taking that time away and just being with him, just being aware of him, that's what's needed.

That's part of seeking the kingdom, and we'll get on to that maybe in a while whenever we're talking about seeking him.

And then you had mentioned about then re-investing.

The re-investment is so crucial because I had mentioned earlier about personal kingdoms and building kingdoms up for yourself.

A common concept that a lot of people see, especially whenever they look at Christians or something, they would see...

If someone's taking part and up at the front and speaking a lot, a lot of people can be very critical of like, oh, they're doing that for themselves.

They want to get themselves up there.

Like, it's their kingdom.

It's them that's bringing them the glory.

But the whole heart behind it, as we said, is like seeking the kingdom first.

It's his kingdom.

And we do.

I think whenever you're in a ministry setting, that's something you constantly have to be checking yourself for.

Where is my heart at right now?

Was I tempted to make that a little bit about myself?

Or was I tempted to share a story that I think is good about me or is funny about me, and try and get a little bit of a crowd?

And it's something that you do have to constantly check yourself on, even in service and whenever you're doing mission trips and stuff.

Is it, I don't know, you just have to be careful.

I actually have had, I think two people mentioned this in the past week, about the overflow.

It's like service is the overflow of the quiet space.

I don't know, that's what singing is really, I think is you're working from the overflow.

I think that's in the book.

We were talking about a book, Celebration of Discipline, and it's such a good book, but it says something about how service overflows from a place of worship.

So if you're just in a state of worship all times of your life, you're going to want to do things with that.

You can't help but censor.

On that book, yeah, actually I mentioned that, because we were on that book, it's Richard Foster wrote it, and he talks about how, I think it's the discipline of service, maybe it's the discipline of service, or no, whenever he's talking about the discipline of simplicity.

Simplicity, yes, we were talking about this.

He says that that was the verse that he used, was sick versus the kingdom of God and all these things that he added to you.

And that's, I think...

We were talking about stripping back.

Yes, because we live in a culture, literally going back to our culture, where we think that we are deserving of so many things.

And we need all of these things.

Yep, that we need these things to just function and be seen.

And it's so difficult.

I think it's one thing for us to sit here and be like, oh, we don't need all these things, and we should have such simple lives, but it is so difficult whenever everyone around you is living this superficial, materialistic type lifestyle where they are collecting things and just collecting things and creating storehouses.

It's like the end of the story of the storehouses, and you had these big barns full of wheat, and they said, oh, let's eat, drink and be merry, and then that very same night you died, and what were the storehouses for?

That is so similar to what people, even in our culture, is collecting all these things, these great cars, these great jobs, as much money as they can, and what's it for?

Because the kingdom is what lasts.

That's what we're supposed to be focusing on, because it's the kingdom that lasts.

That's so good.

Yeah.

Definitely.

And I suppose, yeah, maybe going in a bit more to selfishness.

We were talking about that.

It's another massive part.

People, we're just constantly...

Nobody wants to be called out on selfishness.

Because I actually think everybody has it.

Everybody deals with it.

Whenever we talked about that idea of selfishness, or I saw on the posts that went up, I was like, oh my goodness, why is that being put out there?

Why are we talking about selfishness?

But let's talk about it.

Yeah, because I was saying it ties in really well, and I'm sure probably a lot of people that are listening to this will have done excess teams at some point.

But anyway, this year, the whole theme was saying you're just selfish.

And it was above and beyond, going above and beyond what is the normal for our culture to give.

The normal is to maybe just show care or say you care, but not to give anything of it.

But this was about going above and beyond, and so much of it was about saying, whenever we are Christians, we at that moment become not the center of our lives.

We are no longer what our lives revolve around.

And we were saying that it kind of ties in with the moral bondage of saying, before we are Christians, we have no reason to not sin.

And we were kind of talking about this, and we were kind of like, that is like what?

But people who are not saved or not in the kingdom and are not living for the kingdom with their whole being have no obligation to not steal, to not steal something.

If you see something and you know you're not going to get in trouble for stealing it, why would you not steal it?

It's kind of like, in that moment, you are the center of your life because you are the person that wants it.

You're not thinking about anything else.

And it's just wild that then we become so out of our own lives, our whole lives are not lived for what we want.

It's not for gratification for ourselves, and it kind of goes back to whose kingdom are we building?

You know what I mean?

It's such a big concept, it's actually quite hard to put it into words what we're meaning.

You know what I mean?

Not being the center of your life is a massive thing to actually get your head around.

Totally.

I knew it called out in my life, and I'm sure everybody needs it called out in everybody's life.

Everybody does.

About seeking ourselves more than the kingdom.

But then I suppose practically, what does that look like?

Because we can sit and talk about you're being selfish, or I'm selfish, or I'm not seeking this first, or how do I seek the kingdom?

But what does that actually look like?

And we kind of divided it into two places.

So you have seeking the kingdom in the sacred place, and also in the public place.

I love it.

I'm going to turn to it now.

The story of Mary and Martha is my favorite story in the Bible.

And I think probably the best example of the sacred place and the public place.

Because it's literally in the one story, in the one setting.

In Luke 10, where we see Martha welcoming Jesus into her house, and Mary just immediately sitting at Jesus' feet and just listening, hanging on every word that he had to say.

And Martha is bustling about the kitchen, making sure that everything is perfect for him.

And I think in that context, Martha sought to prepare the place.

Mary was seeking to prepare her heart.

I think, going back to what we were talking about before, about seeking first the Kingdom of God, it does not look like service all the time.

It's not always going out into the day on the platform, or doing street ministry, or prayer ministry, or anything like that.

Or always telling people the gospel.

It's just like in your heart's position to be showing people love.

We sing this song in youth called Like a Fire, and there's a line in it that says, Jesus, I'm desperate for you.

We sing these songs, but then we don't even mean them.

We're like, give me Jesus.

But it's like, we're just, what?

How does your life reflect that, if you're saying these words?

Because I know, as somebody who leads worship a lot, I have to make sure that that's, whenever I'm leading, I'm at the front and people are saying that, my song has to be, give me Jesus.

In my heart, I have to be meaning that.

And at the piano in my living room, my song has to be, give me Jesus.

Or I'm Jesus, I'm desperate for you.

Because we were saying desperate, the word desperate in itself, is massive.

If you are desperate for water, or if you're drowning, you're desperate for air, you're desperate for that part of oxygen, because it's gonna be what brings you back to life.

You're drowning, you're dying, you're failing, it's your weakness coming out.

And whenever we're saying we're desperate for Jesus, that is literally our whole being just needs him, to be the center of it, to be the focus of it, to be the advancement.

It's just like so many words are so used, just like thrown around and stuff.

Especially in Christian context, and it's so good because it gives people the space to think about what that word actually means.

But it's also dangerous because it's like, we could just get lost in this.

Yeah, totally.

So I always think Martha is so villainized in that story where it's like, oh no.

Yeah, she's always given us the bad example.

Yeah, it's such a good example of service.

You're doing it for Jesus, but do it with them as well.

Where Mary was at, yeah, great.

That's the place that Mary chose the good portion, prioritizing that.

So yeah, I think, going back to practicalities, I'm sorry, it's easy to just go off topic.

I know, it is.

Yes, so that's actually going back into the Mary and Martha, the sacred place and the public place, prioritizing the sacred place is what Jesus says.

It's the idea of from worship, flow service, from the secret place, flows the public place.

Without the secret place, you don't have the strength to go out to the public place.

Or if you do, it's only temporary, it's only for a little amount of time.

It's not sustainable, it's not going to last.

So good.

So I suppose, Mariah, if you were a young person listening to this, and you were needing help, or I was a young person listening to this, what kind of advice would you give me for seeking the kingdom of God?

Seeking the kingdom.

Practically.

It's just, it is going back to starting healthy habits, and to creating habits.

My dad is such a habit person, and he has this whole cycle of, it takes 21 days to break a habit, but it only takes 7 days to start one, or something like that, so it's actually crazy.

But it just goes back to starting little healthy habits.

It's like in your thoughts, in your subconscious, whenever you're not even realizing it, was it you in Donegal?

And I've been thinking about it since, and was it you?

I think it was.

And you had been talking to someone, and they had said about how they loved creation, but they had never thought about God in it.

And then you just said to them, can I challenge you?

Then just next time you see a good view, or next time you are just looking at people, or speaking with people, or have had a really good time, think about God.

But it's actually whenever you challenge someone by saying that, it is so difficult for them to not think about God.

The challenge is more like, don't think about God next time.

I dare you.

It's literally like that.

That is just the little tiny things, because you just never know how the Spirit is going to work.

You actually don't.

In a little conversation, I would say another thing is, as soon as you feel prompted to do something, if you see someone and you feel prompted, I feel like they need me to tell them something about Jesus, or just to say, Jesus loves you, or just to like, oh, you're carrying your bag, so it's your car.

Here, I've got a spare hand.

Do you want me to take one?

If you feel the Spirit prompting you even slightly, or you just feel like it's the good thing to do, you never know whether the Spirit can use that.

It's just, yeah.

And that's literally whenever I was thinking of what advice would I give, that's literally what I was thinking.

We had talked about, whenever we were planning this, about the mind of Christ, and that verse in, I can't remember where it's at, the Spirit of the Lord is not, I don't know, what is it?

The Lord is not giving you a spirit of fear.

Of fear, yeah.

Tenth of the seventh.

Self-control, and I think that there's times whenever I'm, even when I'm in the car, and I'm thinking about that, or you think about temptation and those things, or what's something else?

Confidence levels.

Whenever you feel like, I'm not confident enough to do this, it's like, no.

I have been given a spirit, not of fear, but of power, and of love, and of self-control.

And it's reminding yourself of God's truth, and that is what is going to help you seek his kingdom.

And I'm thinking also whenever you were saying, we had talked about the mind and the spirit of Christ, and embodying that for ourselves, and we had had a full conversation about this, but the scriptures just come to me now, so Acts, I think it's 10, verse 38, and it's just like, my dad always uses it, it's like, whenever people say, how do I be more like Christ, or how do I know what Christ would do in a situation?

The verse just says, he went about doing good.

You want to be more like Christ, you want to embody Christ in your day to day, just start doing good.

Just start doing things that are good.

Once you start that, it's just so hard for opportunities to not arise.

And I think a lot of people, whenever we talk about our experience with mission and things, a lot of people say, how do we start that, or how do we see opportunities like that?

But once you start, the spirit is just going to move as soon as you open up that door.

Yeah, like Jesus said, go.

Yeah, as soon as we start going, he's just somebody we ain't.

That's so good, so practically that's what we're saying.

I guess that's our advice.

That's Kingdom Mindedness, I guess, for today.

We could come back, I would say.

Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next Wednesday!