Message Title: With Liberty and Justice for All
Date: July 12, 2020

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Kingdom of God Definition
The Kingdom of God is wherever God is "in charge." What would life look like if God got His way?

PCC BENEDICTION
May you jump into the arms of Jesus and may He push out into the world. May you be healed as you participate in the healing of others. Not because you must, but because you may. This is why we were born!

BEYOND SUNDAY
This 8-week series will provide an overview of the Kingdom of God, as it is taught throughout Scripture. During each week, we will focus on the theological foundation for the unity of the Kingdom of God, while making applications to our current national/cultural environment. The hope is to provide a Christ-like lens for how the Church can be a unified voice of good news in a uniquely profoundly divided country.

1. Interact with the premise of this series: “The only hope for a (politically, racially, socio-economically, generationally) divided culture is a united church.” Agree or disagree? How can our Kingdom unity bring hope to divisions in our culture? How does Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20-21 inform your answer?

2. Tony Dungy, a disciple of Jesus disguised as a Super Bowl winning coach and NFL analyst, recently tweeted: “Today we are a divided country. We're divided racially, politically, and socio-economically. And Satan’s laughing at the church because that’s exactly what he wants. Division, mistrust, and hatred help his kingdom flourish.” How much credit to church factions and cultural division can one give to Satan? What power does the demonic have in our world today? How does Ephesians 2:1-3, Luke 4:5-7 inform your answer?

3. Read Luke 14:25-27, the passage used this weekend to support the subtitle of the One Kingdom Series: Prioritizing Kingdom Allegiance Over Earthly Alliances. What earthly alliances was Jesus calling out in the passage? What earthly preferences compete for your primary allegiance to Jesus? What fears do you have in laying down and dying to your rights for the sake of the Kingdom growing in and through you?

4. In Luke 14:25-27 Jesus uses the word disciple 3 times. We define disciple as someone who learns from Jesus to live like Jesus, or someone who, because of God’s awakening grace, conforms his or her words and ways to the words and ways of Jesus. Where, in your discipleship journey, is Jesus inviting you to live like Him?

5. The Kingdom of God (what life looks like when God gets His way) was the primary message of Jesus. His Gospel was a Gospel of the Kingdom of God! (Jesus mentioned the Kingdom of God/Heaven over 100 times in the Gospels.) Interact with the following abbreviated collections of Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom:
--Jesus’ first recorded sermon- Matthew 4:17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
--Summary of Jesus’ teaching and miracles - Matthew 4:23: Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
--Jesus’ most famous sermon ever preached, The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) the recurring refrain? The Kingdom of God. (18 times)
--When asked by his disciples how to pray, Jesus’ answer: Matthew 6:9-10 “Pray this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come...' "
--On Palm Sunday and during the last week of his life, he was fixated on the glorious reality of the Kingdom. He was mad at the religious leaders. Why? Matthew 23:13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”

--After His resurrection - The Book of Acts says Jesus spent 40 days on the earth and what was His message? The coming Kingdom- Acts 1:3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

6. Finish your time praying John 17:20-21 for Kingdom unity and against anything in you that is an agent of disunity. Pray for PCC to be unified and passionate about joining Jesus and His Kingdom priorities on the Peninsula.

Resources (see links below)
---Gospel of the Kingdom video overview
---One Kingdom Bay Area website
---TableTalk for Families

For PCC's Fiscal Year:
June 1, 2020 through May 31, 2021:

Giving Update
Goal: $4,072,337
Giving to Date: $316,491
Still Needed: $3,755,886