Training for Reigning

In one paragraph

This was week three of a series on resurrection. Brian Hunter walked the room through what scripture says about the work God's people will actually do after Jesus returns, focusing on the first of three things: helping to renew the earth. The conversation was loose and participatory, with questions and comments from the room woven all the way through. Brian opened by reviewing the first two weeks....

Read together

1. 1 Corinthians 15 (implied, not cited by chapter/verse) quoted as 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation' - actually 2 Corinthians 5:17, cited loosely without address
2. Matthew 6:9-10 read aloud as the Lord's Prayer, used to introduce the coming literal kingdom of God on earth
3. Revelation 20:1-15 read aloud to introduce the millennium, the thousand-year reign of Jesus, and ruling and reigning with Christ
4. Romans 8:18-25 read aloud to show creation groaning and eagerly waiting for renewal and the revealing of God's children
5. Isaiah 11:1-9 read aloud describing the coming ruler and the renewal of creation, wolves with lambs, children near cobras
6. Isaiah 61:4 cited to show God's people rebuilding ancient ruins and repairing destroyed cities
7. Isaiah 58:11-12 cited to show the Lord guiding his people and them becoming rebuilders of walls and restorers of homes
8. Ezekiel 39:9-16 read aloud describing the cleanup of the battlefield after the defeat of Gog's armies, used to illustrate renewing the earth
9. Romans 12:2 cited for the renewing of the mind as a foretaste and practice run for renewing the earth

What was said

• Read Matthew 6:9-10 slowly this week and sit with what it would mean for Jesus to literally establish his kingdom on earth, not just in your heart.
• Pick one passage Brian mentioned, Romans 8:18-25 or Isaiah 11:1-9, and read the surrounding context to see it with fresh eyes.
• Think about one area of your life, a job, a relationship, a habit, where the Lord might be asking you to renew your mind rather than conform to old patterns, and bring that to him in prayer.
• If anxiety is keeping you from showing up somewhere you know you should be, do what Leah did and rally anyway, trusting that the fellowship on the other side of the door is worth it.
• When you hit a battle this week, whether it is a hard conversation, a discouraging circumstance, or a fear you keep circling, try meeting it with praise before you try to muscle through it on your own.

Talk about it

1. Brian described worship as the counterintuitive way Christians fight their battles, drawing on Moses saying 'may God arise and may his enemies be scattered' before Israel moved camp. Where in your own life has praise actually shifted something, and where does it still feel like the last thing you would reach for?
2. Several people shared during the open mic time that anxiety or fear of being forgotten almost kept them from showing up. What has kept you from showing up, either to this community or to something God was asking of you, and what got you through the door anyway?
3. Brian walked through the three Greek words for life, bios, psuche, and Zoe, arguing that most people are alive in the first two senses but dead in the third until they receive what only God can give. How would you describe the difference between those first two kinds of life and Zoe life to someone who has never heard that distinction?
4. Brian asked everyone to consider the Lord's Prayer phrase 'your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven' not just as a personal or spiritual prayer but as a literal request for a real governmental reign of Jesus on earth. Had you ever read it that way before, and what changes, if anything, about how you pray it now?
5. Brian connected the millennial assignment of renewing the earth to Romans 12:2, the renewing of your mind, calling our current lives an apprenticeship or practice run for a future role. What does that framing do to the way you think about the ordinary responsibilities, jobs, relationships, and habits you have right now?