A Kingdom-Minded People

Colossians 3:2 "Set your minds on things above"

Matthew 15:18 "But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart"

There's an old adage: "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." This is a good start, but not the full picture. We can't expect a cartoon rabbit to give us all that we need for life and godliness, but within the world there is a mix of good thinking and not as good thinking. We must be careful because the world has its own ideas about right and wrong, about how to be a good person, and about how to be successful. The world tries to influence us to control us and form us to its will. We must resist.

This saying, like many other good-sounding thoughts that are in the world, is a good start. What's better is for our hearts and minds to be changed so that instead of having to bite my tongue and hold my speech, I have something encouraging to bring to the conversation. So many ideas are out there. Many of them originate with well-meaning, good-intended people who have it in their mind a way to make things better. However, to really know if an idea is a good one or not we need to hold it up to the cross of Christ.

We need to listen, and hear, and think about these ideas but don't stop there. Ask questions. Does it go against God's law? Does it elevate human wants and needs above submission to God's will? Do we have to compromise the word of God if we want to see this idea come to pass?

We could also ask questions like: How does this glorify the church? How does this bring glory to God? How does this shine light on the cross?

If an idea can do that, it's probably a good start. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23

Matthew 18:12 “What do you think? . . " Jesus challenges us to think and not just blindly accept whatever we hear. "Test all things; hold fast what is good." 1 Thessalonians 5:21

How can we know what is good? We can learn to be kingdom-minded people. Hope you can join us this morning!