As I pondered what to say during the past several weeks, God placed this message on my heart through the inspiration of Dr. Tony Evans. If you haven’t read his book, The Kingdom Agenda, I encourage you to do so as it is inspiring to the body of Christ as we embark in growing in our relationship with God. Today I wanted to post my sermon notes from my sermon The Kingdom Agenda in hopes of making a stand against injustice, and standing up for each of us to live by Righteousness defined by the Father. I pray this encourages you and inspires each of us to make the change that we see is necessary in the Gospel!!

Sermon: The Kingdom Agenda

By: Jonathan Carmack

I was going to continue our Then sings my soul series today but due to the events that have happened over the last several weeks, I just didn’t feel that the message I had prepared was what God was putting on my heart to speak about today.  I believe most of us are experiencing a lot of feelings as we witness this time in our country that is so surreal to most as we are going through not only this COVID Pandemic but with all  the protests and injustices surrounding us we now see a cultural pandemic.

I don’t want to shy away from the issues, or ignore what is going on all around us rather, I would like to talk to you about it, about during this most volatile time how we as believers in Christ need to be a staple for righteousness and love more than ever while also talking about how we got here, and how to move forward and grow as a person and be a light for a nation and a world that so desperately needs a light.

First off, I want to say how my heart breaks for George Floyd and his family, for Breonna Taylor, for officer Shay Mikalonis and all those who have lost loved ones during this dark period in our nation’s history due to injustice. Church our hearts should be broken and outraged over injustice weather it is racial injustice towards someone for what race they are, police injustice towards police officers who were just doing their jobs, or to business owners who lost their lively hoods due to injustice done in someone else’s name.  Every life is precious and when anyone has their life taken from them in such brutality and hate it should break each of our hearts.

The truth is while this is a cultural pandemic, this is truly a spiritual pandemic because the moral compass that we have been given through Jesus Christ is so obviously no longer the guide to which we are following and it is so apparent as we watch people loot and destroy business, shouting obscenities towards one another, using brute force to make a point and arguing our positions while disregarding the lives of the people around us. There is no love for our neighbors in what is going on and there is no standards from the father that we are following instead we are following our own standards that we have put in place and if there is anything we can see is that no good has come from our standards and our way.

So right now as we are in the middle of this, I believe it is important that we Reset, that we refocus on what the Word of God says, find that love and compassion that may be missing for those who you disagree with, to find that purpose of sharing God’s love during this pandemic rather than your political views. Trust me, I know it is hard, but that is what our world needs, less of what we think and more of what the Father teaches us to do and abide by.

This morning I wanted to share some of my thoughts on a message Tony Evans pointed out in his public announcement about Social Injustice as I believe it holds true to each of us and it is important for us to hear. Church, scripture is clear in Psalms 89:14, it says

¹⁴ Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
    love and faithfulness go before you.

• Scripture tells us that the foundation of God’s throne is found on Righteousness and Justice. One not more than the other, it doesn’t waver from situation to situation. They are both to be balanced side by side.
• Righteousness as Defined by Dr. Evans is the moral standard of right and wrong to which God holds men accountable base on God’s divine standard.
• Justice is the equitable and impartial application of God’s moral law in society.
• God want’s both, he wants to protect the life of the unborn child in the mother’s womb and he wants to see justice for the life once born. He doesn’t want a term agenda, he wants a whole life agenda.
• Church, I understand the outrage and heartbreak that we have when we talk about abortion but our hearts should also break and be outraged when a grown man is murdered before our eyes?
  • Doesn’t Proverbs 17:15 say – “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
• However, we see in our society not all lives are valued in the same ways. Whether it’s an unborn child or person of a different race, class of wealth but church that is not right because each person is a creation of our Almighty God and precious.

Today, I want to issue out the challenge that Tony Evans issued out to those of us who watched his announcement to the church to those who are watching me today. It is time to refocus on a personal level and systematic level that we change the course that has brought us to this point in society on all levels.

God has four levels that life is to be lived that changes need to be made, starting with the body of Christ.  You may have heard this called the Kingdom Agenda, but it is basically is the visual manifestation of God in every area of live .

1. It starts with an individual, it starts with you! You can’t change others, if you can’t change your heart. As a person we must look at others as creations of God, as precious as they are in the eyes of our father. Regardless if they look like us, if they are doing things or saying things you disagree with, or in the womb of the mother. It starts with each of us loving as God loved, and that means loving his creation.
   • A mothers love for her child doesn’t waver regardless of their crimes or choices, as the fathers love doesn’t waver for us. So let us love like the father.
     • Let us love as we are told in 1 John 4:19- Let us loved because he first loved us.
     • When you start loving others because they have a stamp from God as God’s creation, then the challenge becomes get to know those different from you.  Listen to their perspective, notice I didn’t say argue. Because the only place of understanding and unity can be found is in love. When you truly love as the father loves, you are going to be willing to listen and communicate even from different spectrum of ideology.
     • I think we can all agree this is where we must start, amen?
   • Then there is our family. I have touched on this several times but church we must pass down the moral teachings of the father to our children and family. If you don’t teach them what God declares as right and wrong and why then the world will gladly teach them. I have said this time and time again, but there are pastors, elders, deacons whose children believe non biblical truths because they were never taught by their parents, grandparents, therefore the world taught them.
     1. Righteous Value System must be instilled by parents. You can’t tell me that the position our society is in isn’t a direct reflection of the decline of the church. If you don’t feel the need to go to church but once a month, let alone, dig into your word and your relationship with God, then what is the urgency to teach your family? As mentioned before, If you don’t know yourself how can you teach your family the Righteousness of God?
     2. Body of Christ, It means you introduce your family to other families different from you. Where your children can see what mission really is, and culture is on your terms as you witness to them through families who are worse off than you. Live out what you preach, so that your family can know the righteousness that comes from God rather than what the world tells us makes us righteous.
   • Then there is the church, and let’s be honest the biggest problem in society today is the church. The truth is the Church has failed because we would not be in the place we are if the church called out the sin that God has called it in his word. Instead we ignored it, or didn’t talk about it because it was too controversial and in some cases promoted it.
     • We know there is racial injustice going on? We know there is sin problem going on? We know there is a division problem going on in our country?
     • Doesn’t Paul tell us in Galatians 6:1- Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
     • I love what Tony Evans said on this he said, how can you expect to change the white house if you can’t change the church house.
     • Church, we must call out sin, we must stand together for God’s Righteousness, isn’t that living out Jesus Great Commandment of Loving our Neighbor.
     • It starts by being the church that we read about in the early church’s letters, by living in such a way that way hold our brothers and sisters accountable. What happens when we don’t hold each other accountable, then there is a collapse in the system, amen. If you the church doesn’t hold each other accountable, we won’t hold our family accountable and then we won’t hold our selves accountable. Then before our eyes we live in unrighteousness and injustice.
     • Finally, it doesn’t mean that the church speaks politically because Jesus was neither an elephant or donkey, but it speaks of biblical truths that we must teach and live by because our Father instructed us to.
       • Yes, Stand up and speak against what is wrong, but more importantly church we must ACT. We must live out this righteousness in our live, with our families and as a body of Christ.
     • Finally, we must challenge our Civil Leaders on levels of Government to be agents of Unity and not division. To bring healing and compromise to our nation and not scars and division. That the words that are said, and the way they say them matter and must come from a place of strength and kindness rather than pride and anger.

Church, when we start living in this way, and modeling our lives in this way from the individual, to the family, to the church, to the community that is when Change will follow, that is when a Great nation that was once divided can become one again, when we love our neighbor to listen to them and find common ground with them more than being right. The truth is Only God is right, only his way is righteousness, therefore let us follow his way.

Let me close with this, We must pray and We must repent. It is not enough to say God help us or change us or our nation, we must act and repent and start doing and living out what he says to do by re aligning our self under his authority and relationship with him where his word can overrule our ideas, perspectives and agendas.

God can bring a miracle healing to our great nation but it starts with you and me making the Kingdom Agenda of living out God’s Righteousness and Justice in our lives the main priority. Church this is nothing new of what is being preached, this has been the agenda for a long time, perhaps now in the place we see our nation in, we may see the importance of what God’s word has told us all along. That we must follow the one way through your son Jesus Christ, that we live out your righteousness and justice that is found in you and you alone.

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:6