Our series during Ordinary time will explore the revelation of God’s Kingdom through his Son. We will look specifically how the incarnation—the ministry, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ—reveals the long-promised Kingdom of God breaking into human history demonstrating God’s love, destroying the powers that ravaged creation, and displaying the Messiah’s promise (to continue reading this essay, click on image above).
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YOUR KINGDOM COME
Pastoral Resources | 2025-26 Themes At-A-Glance
Baptism of the Lord: The Kings Anointing, Matt. 3:13-17
The baptism of Jesus reveals Jesus as God’s Messiah and King. His mission is built on his submission to his Father and the anointing of the Spirit, not through dominance and control but by identifying with the lowly and righteousness. Though he never sinned and was superior to us all, Jesus voluntarily stood in solidarity with sinners, yielding to a baptism of repentance to “fulfill all righteousness,” modeling the perfect obedience that God requires. The Trinity responded to this commissioning: opened heavens, descending Spirit, and the declaring Father confirming that Jesus’ path of humble identification would be the path in how God’s Kingdom would break into the world. We follow Jesus’ example by embracing God’s righteousness not as a badge of superiority but as a pattern of humble submission and service, identifying with those who need grace and are living under the Spirit’s empowerment as beloved children of the Father.
Our Focus Today
The Father’s Commissioning Voice, Matt. 3:17
The heavenly declaration—”This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased”—combines Psalm 2:7 (royal sonship), Isaiah 42:1 (the chosen Servant), and Genesis 22:2 (the beloved son), confirming Jesus’ identity as both divine Messiah-King and obedient Servant who will accomplish God’s Kingdom purpose.
Invocation
Father God, whose voice from heaven declared Jesus as your beloved Son and commissioned him for redemptive work, help me to agree with your Scriptures as they speak your affirming word over me. Help me to know that my identity as your beloved child is real, not earned and is powerful. Teach me to ground my life in your love and truth rather than in human approval or my own accomplishments. Help me to hear and believe your words of beloved-ness spoken over me, because I am one with you through Christ. Amen.
Gloria Patri
Glory be to the Father,
And to the Son and to the Holy Spirit:
As it was in the beginning,
Is now, and ever shall be,
World without end. Amen, amen.
Chronological Scripture Readings for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the entire Bible in one year in chronological order.
Saturday: Lev. 7-8
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Saturday: Psalm 17, 47, 77, 107, 137 and Proverbs 17
The Father’s Commissioning Voice, Matt. 3:17
The heavenly declaration—”This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased”—combines Psalm 2:7 (royal sonship), Isaiah 42:1 (the chosen Servant), and Genesis 22:2 (the beloved son), confirming Jesus’ identity as both divine Messiah-King and obedient Servant who will accomplish God’s Kingdom purpose.
Reflection
Kingdom identity and mission flow from God’s confirming and authoritative Word spoken over us! We are to ground our sense of worth and calling in divine affirmation and recognition of his calling. No amount of human wisdom, worldly validation, or self-suggestion will suffice for the ministry of the Kingdom. In Jesus we see the fusion of royal and servant imagery in the Father’s words which should challenge our assumptions about greatness and anointing. True Kingdom authority is linked to humble obedience and sacrificial love, revealing that the path to fruitfulness and the throne come through the towel and the cross. Jesus’ public commissioning came before he performed any miracle or preached any sermon! God’s leading and pleasure rests upon who we are in relationship to him and not how we perform or what we accomplish. He invites us to hear his words over Jesus as words spoken over us through our union with Christ, allowing our baptismal identity—beloved children in whom the Father delights—to touch and shape our entire approach to life, spirituality, and ministry, and the costly obedience that Kingdom service requires.
Engaging God’s Word Today
How might our daily choices, relationships, and sense of purpose be transformed if we truly lived from the secure foundation of being God’s beloved children in whom he is well pleased, rather than constantly striving to earn approval through our broken performance and uneven achievements?
Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, The Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.
We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God,
Begotten of the Father before all ages,
God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God,
Begotten not created, of the same essence as the Father,
through Whom all things were made.
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary and became human.
Who for us too, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried.
The third day He rose again according to the Scriptures, ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and His kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver,
Who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Who together with the Father and Son is worshiped and glorified.
Who spoke by the prophets.
We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sin,
and we look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the age to come. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.
Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise Him above ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Benediction
Today, dear Father, I go forth as one of your beloved children who carries your pleasure not because of my performance but because of my new position in Christ. Show me how to walk in the authority of one who is deeply loved, and may that security free me to embrace the servant path that leads to true Kingdom greatness. And may you, the God whose voice declared Jesus as beloved Son, continue to speak that same word of affirmation as I am anchored in the promises and pronouncement of your Holy Scriptures, which instruct me in the costly obedience that brings your Kingdom purposes to fulfillment. Amen.
Scripture Memory for this season
Isaiah 9:6-7 (ESV): The Prophet’s Vision of the Messianic King: Isaiah’s Testimony
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Scripture Engagement
As disciples of Jesus, the Churches of Christ the King strongly seek to engage the Scriptures to discover the centrality of Christ and his Kingdom in the prophetic and apostolic writings. You will find a rich treasure of resources on engaging Scripture at the Center for Scripture Engagement of Taylor University.
Books We Are Reading this Church Year, and When
• The Most Amazing Story Ever Told, Dr. Don Davis (during season of Advent)
• Get Your Pretense On, Dr. Don Davis (during season of Christmas)
• Destined for the Throne, Paul Billheimer (during seasons of Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, and Resurrection)
• The Presence of the Future, George Eldon Ladd (during seasons of Ascension and Coming of Holy Spirit)
• Kingdom, Church and World, Howard Snyder (during seasons of Headship and Harvest)
• The Gospel of the Kingdom, George Eldon Ladd (during the seasons of Hope and Remembering the Saints, Exalting the King)
Book Reading Reflection: Get Your Pretense On
“THERE’S PLENTY GOOD ROOM”
When I was a young boy, I used to love to go to church with my family. It was an amazing experience for me – all the sights, sounds, and sympathies of a poor black congregation left an indelible imprint on the consciousness of a little kid like me. I can remember seeing grown people weep and march and moan and sing. I still remember Mr. Foster, the official prayer warrior of our congregation, a rotund, deep-voiced, gentle man whom the pastor would call forward to the altar, who will echo in our little room supplications in Jesus’s name for the small yet zealous assembly. I remember Miss Jenkins on the piano, a tall slender lady with musical genius, who played the piano like a Motown Liberace and couldn’t read a note of sheet music. I still can hear in my memory the eight member choir whose “pipes” were so robust they could blow your hair back, even if you were sitting in the nether regions of that little church house. Amazing services, lasting most of the day, all amazing, all different, all anointed.
One of the songs our little church sang was a rousing chorus to welcome newly repented sinners into our fold, or to make pleas to those who were on the boundaries of salvation, anxiously deciding whether to join our happy few or not. The song was called Plenty Good Room, and the chorus said this:
There’s plenty good room, plenty good room, plenty good room in my Father’s Kingdom, yes, There’s plenty good room, plenty good room – choose your seat, and sit down! These simple words were sung over and over and over again, while the preacher made his impassioned pleas to those in attendance to hear the voice of Jesus calling to them, quit fighting his invitation, and come into the fold of salvation and grace. He would beg, and exhort, and cheer, and call out, always ensuring the audience that the Kingdom of God was never full, that there was plenty good room for him or her in the church, and all they needed to do is to respond with faith to God’s call. They simply needed to “choose their seat, and sit down!”
~ Davis, Don. Get Your Pretense On! Living as a Citizen and Ambassador of the Kingdom of God. TUMI Press, Wichita, KS, 2018. Electronic Edition. Location 676.
On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
The Time is Fulfilled: The Fall of Humankind and the Curse Overturned, Mark 1:14-15 (cf. Gen 3:1-15)
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