Rich Kao

Finished off last message in our Kingdom Series. In it I exhort the church back to the activity of proclaiming the gospel instead of explaining it. Yes, we need explaining and apologetics; I'm not dismissing that (just finished an apologetics series not too long ago). But my recent prayer times have given me a fresh burden for the imperative of proclaiming the kingdom and allowing the Holy Spirit to apply, convict and explain the word.

And when it comes to proclaiming, there are many ways to do it per Jesus' example. Sometimes it's about mercy (thief on the cross), sometimes it's about a new beginning (woman caught in adultery), sometimes it's about saying the tough things (rich young ruler). In each case, context and felt need helps govern the proclamation. Just as there are many "exits" to a city off the highway, so there are many on-ramps to the Kingdom.

Let's get back to proclaiming and calling people to Jesus.  The Holy Spirit will do the rest.  For full message, listen here.

When John the Baptist uttered his nine words of clarity, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Mt. 3:2)," it ushered in one of the most remarkable shifts in history.  Never before had the phrase "Kingdom of God" been uttered.  New vocabulary had to be created to capture the new revelation dawning on Israel, and ultimately the world.  The purpose of the shift?  To create and establish a new ethos, a new way of living and relating to God.  A new DNA was being created, and all who accepted Jesus Christ as their savior would receive this new DNA.

What was the value of this new ethos, new kingdom? Jesus gave us a glimpse in his parable, the Pearl of Great Price (Mt. 13:45-46).  It was worth EVERYTHING.  Once you touch it, you want to cash in everything to get it.  It's that exciting and amazing and desirable.  Nothing compares to it.   And in experiencing the Pearl of Great Price you imbibe of one of the great qualities of the Kingdom:  GENEROSITY.     God giving Jesus to us was the greatest expression of generosity.

Out of that comes something transformational...greed, selfishness, coveteousness have the opportunity to be broken as we learn to become big-hearted, generous and giving like God.  The more you give (and give away) the more the grip of materialism and selfish living is broken.  Lifestyle changes.   Tithing and giving is a joy.   You want others around you to succeed because you are a kingdom person.    You want other churches to suceed because they are part of the family.  You share, and spread you knowledge around freely, because Jesus said "Freely you have received, freely give (Mt. 10:8).

And this is just the beginning.  As the new ethos has its way in us, we will flourish like the mustard seed (Mk 4:30-32).  We will grow from hiddenness to prominence, from obscurity to "preferred status (birds will love to come and nest in our tree)."    Success and favor, and dare we say greatness, can't be stopped because its in the DNA.

This is what God has in mind for the church.  Embrace the shift.  Embrace the new ethos.  For entire message, click here.

Over the last few weeks, I've been pleasantly surprised by the number of people that refer back to the Engel Scale concept I shared as a prelude to my current series on "Conversing with Skeptics."    It has really helped people to see themselves relative to this scale and the journey of the seeker.  If you've never heard of this scale before, I hope you can glean the high points and main points from the powerpoint here.

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We're continuing our "Conversing with Skeptics" series and tacking the difficult question of how could a good God allow suffering?  Not an easy subject to tackle, but thanks to many thinkers and Christian intellectuals, there is a body of work that is cogent, compassionate and biblical in it's response to this question.   For my message, click here.

While the following video stands alone as a wonderful presentation (for those of you that take time to peruse this blog), this post is primarily for those in our church.   Because I'm currently doing a teaching series called "Conversing with Skeptics" based on the book "The Reason for God" by Tim Keller, this clip has particular relevance.   There's so much to take away from this talk, but the most important thing I want our members to see is how Christianity holds up under the most intelligent of audiences.  Arguably, Google has the most intelligent work force as a company on the planet (I can post their hiring standards some other time to prove my point), and thus we have the perfect "laboratory" for witnessing the robustness -- or as Pastor Tim says -- crunchiness of Christianity.  This is great stuff.