Behold The King, December 4

Behold The King
December 4, 2022
Pastor Nate Levering

Where is value found, and to whom is it given?

Good Afternoon, church and a very happy Monday to you all. My office window looks out onto where Tuolumne Road and Standard Road meet. The clouds have given a welcomed color-changing effect to this view all morning, matching the flutter of staff after a joyously full weekend. From delivering 1,000 cookies county-wide to hundreds of families and individuals, to having over a hundred children and high school students on campus last night for AWANA and the HSM Fast Food Flannel Formal, to our Advent reading and Sunday morning services. What a gift it is to be a part of this great community for such a time as this. Amen?

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 span of life? 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 thrown 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" (Matthew 6:25-34). 

Are the answers to those first questions obvious to you? Maybe you can answer those in ten different ways providing some philosophical development into the origin of value but let me ask you this, do you believe that true value is found in the one, true King, or are you earnestly awaiting for it in a paycheck, relationship, health screening or status? 

Pastor Nate Levering dove into the tension point of living in a now and not yet Kingdom of God, under the ruling of this one, true King.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion  and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:13-14).

"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:15).

Scripture tells us in both the Old and New Testament that the Kingdom of God is both near and here. How is this so? What if the Kingdom of God was more than a literal place? What if it is more the time and place where God dwells and has dominion? What if we were put on this earth, delegated to hold value where we live, work, establish relationships, all for His current kingdom? Does this change your perspective of family? What about your job? Your neighborhood? Your struggles? For such a time as this you were created, placed on the earth to live and breathe now. So what is God doing in you? What promise of His kingdom lives in you today?

Church, let us expect God to show up, to breathe His promises of value into our lives and into those around us.