The Kingdom Culture Starts Small

By Greg Sanders

If you are a new reader, we are in the second week of discussing how each of us can embrace the Kingdom Culture of Heaven here on earth. Jesus prayed in Matthew 6:10 “Let Your Kingdom Come and Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” The purpose of this series is to align our lives with that prayer and welcome the Kingdom culture to our lives. Thanks for reading.

Today’s Lesson: Small things matter.

Matthew 13:33 Jesus also used this illustration: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour,

Beware of the little things you allow into your life. Little deposits pay huge dividends. This fact is true in the spirit and the natural. Small things permeate your whole life.

Be Intentional about your DAILY SMALL DEPOSITES…that is what is growing in your life.

I keep a piggy bank in my office. It’s in the shape of a golf ball so it matches my décor. I throw my change in there a couple times a week. Every year or so, I will empty it and do something with the money. Sometimes I use it to play golf on vacation. Other times I give it to missions. I have been doing this for so long I know what to expect when I open it. So now every time I open it and count it, I discover that the amount of money is about what I figured would be there. Many of us think this is how our life works. We think that what we put in is what we will have in a year from now. That is not how Spiritual deposits work. They grow exponentially. Small choices, whether good or bad, are growing exponentially in your life right now. You make small deposits into a retirement account. However, when you retire, you are not expecting to receive just what you put in there are you? I hope not. You should be hoping to make some interest and get much more than what you put in. In the same way, it is the small deposits that are shaping your life. Those small choices are creating the culture of your life. Those small deposits, good or bad, are going to create an exponential harvest in your life.

We have way too many event-driven Christians. Christians waiting for the next big event to transform them rather than recognizing that the great event starts when you plant the seeds of the Kingdom daily. When you mix in the yeast of the gospel into every part of your life and allow it to permeate your whole life, it will transform you. Small choices may seem like no big deal but they bring huge results to our lives.

This is the only passage where yeast is looked at in a good light. Most other places it’s warned about. Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, beware of sin. –Matthew 16:6

A little yeast(sin) can work through your whole life. – Galatians 5:9

Most of us have a pretty good concept that sin cannot be contained. It spreads. It has been said that sin takes you farther than you want to go, keeps you longer than you wanted to stay and always cost you more than you would have ever been willing to pay. That is very true. However, the kingdom of God has an even greater potential power than any potential power that sin has. A small act of obedience has exponentially more power to bring blessing than one act of disobedience does destruction.

I am not underestimating the cost of sin, but I do want to magnify the blessings of obedience. The more you mix in the Kingdom culture in your life, the more it transforms you and brings His Kingdom to your life. Small choices matter.

Today’s Challenge: Obey God in the small details of your life. You will be amazed how honoring God with small choices will welcome the Kingdom Culture to your life.

Blessings

Greg

To listen to the audio teaching of todays devotion it’s entirety, go to www.camdenfirstassembly.org and look for the message entitled “Kingdom Culture” Part 1.