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
The Messiah’s Call to Discipleship: The Kingdom’s Demands (rich young ruler), Mark 10:17-27; Luke 18:18-30
God grants us eternal life in His Kingdom by grace through faith, a gift of God through His kindness and love, a marvelous grace that we inherit through our union with Christ, something neither earned nor won. This living faith results in wholehearted surrender to Jesus, not by our efforts or moral achievement. In His encounter with the rich young ruler, Jesus lovingly names the idol each of us clings to and calls us to release it for the true treasure of following Him. Because we cannot save ourselves, we should and can trust the God for whom all things are possible, giving everything to Him in order to gain everything.
Invocation
Gracious God, I come to you today as a seeker, and I readily and openly confess I cannot save or redeem myself by my own efforts. Search my heart and name the idols I may clutch, even unknowingly, in my spirit. Loosen my grip on every rival treasure, and grant me faith to surrender wholly to Your Son. Meet me here as the God for whom all things are possible, and draw me more each day into the beauty of Your reign. 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.
Sunday: Mark 1.1; Luke 1.1-38; 3.23b-38; John 1.1-18; Matt. 1.1-17
Lectionary Readings for Today
Our readings from the Psalms, the Old Testament, the Gospels and the Epistles are taken from the Revised Common Lectionary for this week.
Psalm: Psalm 124
Old Testament (or Acts [during Eastertide]): Exodus 1:8-2:10
Gospel: Matt. 16:13-20
New Testament: Romans 12:1-8
Click here for all of this week’s Scripture readings
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Sunday: Psalm 23, 53, 83, 113, 143 and Proverbs 23
The Messiah’s Call to Discipleship: The Kingdom’s Demands (rich young ruler), Mark 10:17-27; Luke 18:18-30
The Messiah’s call to eternal life confronts every would-be follower with the total claim of God’s reign. No one earns entrance into the Kingdom by their own will or moral achievement; the Kingdom comes to us through faith, our wholehearted, self-surrendering allegiance to Jesus — who demands everything precisely because He gives everything.
Reflection
A sincere, wealthy man asks Jesus how to gain eternal life, confident in his lifelong effort and obedience, in his own mind, to God’s commandments. Jesus, loving him, exposes his one idol (the god of wealth and luxury) and calls him to surrender all and follow. Sadly, the rich young ruler refused, leaving the Savior, grieving over his loss and his predicament. Jesus then reveals the extreme difficulty it will be for the rich to enter into the Kingdom of God, asserting that salvation is impossible through human effort yet always possible for God, who repays every sacrifice a hundredfold.
Engaging God’s Word Today
What is the “one thing” you are still clinging to that Jesus, in love, may be calling you to release? What fear or treasure makes it so hard to let go?
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
Thank you Father for the call to discipleship. Your Son summoned everyone, rich and poor, young and old, men and women, boys and girls, to come to him to repent, to hear the good news of the Kingdom and to respond. Help me to leave this place unburdened of every idol and open to seeing Jesus Himself as my portion and treasure. May You, the God who demands everything and gives everything, hold me fast, repay my every sacrifice a hundredfold, and keep me in wholehearted allegiance to the Messiah until I die or He appears to redeem us all in the age to come. I follow Him freely today, for in Him I know that I will gain all things. Amen.
Scripture Memory for this season
1 Peter 2:9-10, The Church as Visible Sign: Locus and Agent of the Kingdom
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
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 season of Epiphany)
• The Presence of the Future, George Eldon Ladd (during seasons of Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Ascension)
• Who Gets to Narrate the World?, Robert E. Webber (during seasons of the Coming of the Holy Spirit, and Headship)
• Kingdom, Church and World: Biblical Themes for Today, Howard Snyder (during season of Harvest)
• The Gospel of the Kingdom, George Eldon Ladd (during the seasons of Hope and Remembering the Saints, Exalting the King)
Book Reading Reflection: Kingdom, Church and World: Biblical Themes for Today
A Key to All of Scripture
Jesus was always full of surprises, even with His disciples. Perhaps the biggest surprise was His news about the Kingdom of God. Jesus came announcing the Kingdom, creating a stir. Through a brief span of public ministry, He kept showing His disciples what the Kingdom was really like. They understood only in part.
Risen from the dead, Jesus spent six weeks teaching His disciples more about the Kingdom of God. He explained that His own suffering, death, and resurrection were all part of the Kingdom Plan foretold by the Old Testament prophets (Luke 24:44-47). Now after the resurrection His disciples ask, “Are you finally going to set up your kingdom?” (paraphrasing Acts 1:6). How does Jesus respond? He says, in effect, “The time for the full flowering of the new order still remains a mystery to you. It’s in God’s hands but the Holy Spirit will give you the power to live the Kingdom life now. You are to be witnesses of the Kingdom and its power from here to the very ends of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8).
And so it was, and so it has been. Today we are finally nearing the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy that the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to the nations (Matthew 24:14). As never before it is time to speak of God’s Kingdom now. This is no attempt to out-guess God or pre-empt the sovereign mystery of the Kingdom. The Kingdom still and always remains in God’s hands.
~ Snyder, Howard. Kingdom, Church, and World: Biblical Themes for Today. Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene, OR: 2001. Electronic Edition. Location 11.
On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
The Messiah’s Call to Discipleship: The Kingdom’s Demands (rich young ruler), Mark 10:17-27, Luke 18:18-30
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