D7 Band and Dylan share the same shelf in the CD Shop.
Earthly Kingdom vs. God's Kingdom
There are two different worlds and two different worldviews. You can either see yourself as part of God’s Kingdom or an earthly one. The problem sometimes is with what we see. We have to zoom out a little and see beyond the natural, we have to see beyond what we can see and touch, we have to see beyond our personal limitations and even beyond our current level of influence and size of our world.
Take the David vs. Goliath's case for instance. If David became a king by watching sheep imagine what you can become by looking after the people God has entrusted to you. What people you might ask? Look around you and beyond yourself and you will see plenty of hearts starving for love, a place to belong and concrete answers. God's Kingdom is all about people.
Check out this interaction between Goliath, God's people and David:
Goliath (1 Samuel 17:8) - "Aren’t you the servants of Saul...I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.”
God's People (1Samuel 17:11) - When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
David (1 Samuel 17:45) - "I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied."
David (1 Samuel 17:45) - "I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied."
we see in the above verses that:
Goliath saw servants of man, David saw the army of the living God.
Goliath saw frighted losers, David saw dead meat.
Goliath focused on the things he could see, David focused on the invisible.
Goliath had an earthly kingdom mindset, David had a God’s kingdom mindset.
Here is the punchline:
Who had victory?
Who came out of the battle with their head still attached to their body?
A kingdom mindset will shape your perspective and your perspective will determine your destination.
What perspective do you have? What are you living for? What actions are you taking towards your decisions?
The answer to the above questions will determine the outcome of your battles.
Chose to be like David. Be kingdom minded.
Kingdom Builders
Your focus will determine what you see, your priorities will determine your direction and what you are doing right now is setting you up for what is next.
What if you could simplify your focus to determine your priorities, defining your direction, pointing you towards what you actually have to do.
What is worth doing? A large chunk of our life is made up of things we do which is a reflection of who we are.
What if you could streamline your lifestyle towards something that really matters! What if you could spend your energy on something that will bear fruit 100% of the time!
But how do you get hold of such a thing and how do you implement such an idea? Is there such a thing as a fool proof system that will simplify things, bring forth fruit, abundance, satisfaction, meaning, purpose, excitement, everything that we desire and much more?
How do I live an exciting, full life as opposite to an empty and meaningless one?
Join us in this series where we explore what comes first. Discover that the answer is right where you are now!
Creating A Microcosm
Microcosm = a small place, society or situation which has the same characteristics as something much larger.
From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.
Matthew 11:12
Culture architecture can be hard work. One thing is to inherit a well established organisation where the culture within it has been tested and proved successful. But taking outsiders on this journey can definitely be time consuming. Take our church for instance, D7 is a baby church where most people come from an unchurched background, add to that addictions, deteriorating lifestyles, abuse, traumas etc and you have a nice challenge before you. Thank God for Hebrews 13:6!
That's why in our church we've had to create everything in a small scale. Our core team is going to dictate the culture for the rest of the church. In the way that the first 20 people in our church act, interact, give etc, will translate in the way that the next 50, 100, 10000 will also behave. So I insist that it is the primary task of my core team to set the culture for the rest of the church. We have to get this right from the very beginning as there is way too much at stake. We'll have to model and in order to accomplish this we have to create a microcosm.
We are here to build a church; the closest thing people in modern society will get from Jesus. So we dress for where we are going not for where we are. We are dreaming big dreams. We’ve often looked bigger than we were, out of place, and “overdressed”. But eventually we will not look awkward anymore. You see, we will either dress down to fit in or dress up for where we are heading. For example we've had to apply reverse engineering concepts to what we do, we've had to start with the end in mind and that means that we are now prepared to accommodate more people than we currently have. The answers and the way we do things should be uniform. Different scenarios, one vision, one way!