Live the Kingdom of God- Give Undeserved Forgiveness.

Luk_9:11  And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.

Jesus talked about the kingdom of God. 

Do we talk about the kingdom of God?

If in our lives we truly believe the kingdom of God is to be more desired than any other thing at all whatsoever that exists in our lives, are we talking about it to others?  When something is important to us, we talk about it, right? Sure, there will be those who say no, they are closed-mouth and keep things inside, to themselves and are loathed to share anything with anyone, and this might be true. If the kingdom of God is important to these close-mouthed individuals, then their lives will reveal God's kingdom in other ways, ways their mouths cannot do. Their actions will be those pointing to the kingdom, their way of living will point to the kingdom, they will live what is important to them beyond being able to speak it. In fact, some people deliberately choose to humble themselves and let their lives speak for them for fear of self-grandiose coming into play. They don't want to fall into the sin of pride, of holding themselves up to be idolized. Still, their lives will point to God and His kingdom.

Jesus, is the way to the kingdom. Jesus came to earth in flesh experiencing temptations to the depths we cannot begin to imagine. Jesus overcame every single temptation by not yielding to it, but turning to His Father for the strength He needed to overcome. Jesus preached the kingdom of God to all, and the ones who heard Him were the ones who were least caught up in putting on a show of religion. Those whose lives were changed completely- as they realized heaven could be theirs should they choose. Those who were most condemned by the seemingly pious and upstanding in society, were those most affected by the realization they were not forever branded at lost to God, but as children waiting to be found and loved in a way that they never knew before.

Jesus preached the kingdom because this is where our hearts should be.

As the world of chaos spins around our lives jabbing us constantly with spears tipped with the poison of angst inducing situations -all geared to keep our minds off of the kingdom of God, off of heaven as our reward, off of Jesus as our Savior, we must hold fast! One thrust in the side today, another thrust in the leg tomorrow, two thrusts to our heads and the poison threatens to fill us disrupting our relationship with Jesus, keeping us from growing in grace and knowledge of the very one who can save us.

Some poison is slow acting as it works its way through our bodies heading for the heart to destroy us. We might feel the initial prick into our flesh, and the poison seeps in and we don't even realize until the bitterness of it starts to act, corrupting our lives. We hold fast to poisonous grudges cherishing them, building on them, justifying our righteousness to ourselves, patting ourselves on the back for standing fast to our prideful belief that we must be acknowledged as being the injured party. We were wounded by another and we will nurse the wound with filth rather than let it be healed. We want the wound to remain open, fresh, raw until we are vindicated rather than let it be healed and closed through forgiveness completely undeserved by the party who wounded us. We imagine that if we withhold our forgiveness that we keep our personal integrity intact, we don't allow ourselves to see that we are letting the wounds destroy us. The poison is working day after day doing what it was intended to do, keep us from forgiving when forgiveness is completely and utterly undeserved. Forgiving as Jesus forgives us! Forgiving if we have the least hope of being forgiven for all our trespasses against our God. Forgiving with the heart God gives to us, forgiving with His forgiveness.

Forgiveness heals us, it doesn't absolve the one who sinned against us- they must find forgiveness through their own ability to forgive.

The kingdom of God, we are forgiven as we forgive. We forgive as we hope to be forgiven. We recognize our need, and in turn we recognize our need towards others. Christ in us acts in us.

All by the grace, the mercy, the will of our LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST, now and forever!!!!!!!

Amen.