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 Confronting Religious Leaders: The Kingdom’s Revolutionary Truth, Mark 12:13-17, 35-40; Matt. 23:1-12
Jesus tears down every authority that exalts self while neglecting God and neighbor. The Kingdom is not about likes, hits, subscriptions, and notifications! The faith that honors God and advances the Kingdom’s ethic is built on the humility of Christ and does not seek to transform spirituality into performance staged for applause and recognition. The truth of the Kingdom pursues wholehearted allegiance to the Lord, who alone is worthy and who is King. We are therefore called to lead and follow His example, offering ourselves to Him in humble service, surrendering our whole selves to God and refusing the post-modern addiction to likes, subscriptions, and hits.
Our Focus Today
The Peril of Phony, Self-Exalting Religion That Preys Upon Others, Mark 12:38-40
Jesus warned us about spiritual leaders who crave public attention and accolades yet “devour widows’ houses” beneath a cloak of long prayers and performed ritual. He soberly charged every minister to reject any religion that exploits the vulnerable with empty performance and instead to shepherd God’s flock with integrity and self-forgetful care.
Invocation
Searching Lord, You see beneath every performed prayer, every phony kneeling gesture, and every robe and prayer to the heart within. Purge from my heart my craving for honor and the appetite for status. Make me a disciple of Jesus, with a heart of care and love for the weak rather than using them, learning how to be a servant who seeks Your approval alone. Let no pretense cloak our hearts this hour, but form in us integrity and self-forgetful love. 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.
Wednesday: Neh. 9-10
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Wednesday: Psalm 19, 49, 79, 109, 139 and Proverbs 19
The Peril of Phony, Self-Exalting Religion That Preys Upon Others, Mark 12:38-40
Jesus warned us about spiritual leaders who crave public attention and accolades yet “devour widows’ houses” beneath a cloak of long prayers and performed ritual. He soberly charged every minister to reject any religion that exploits the vulnerable with empty performance and instead to shepherd God’s flock with integrity and self-forgetful care.
Reflection
Jesus exposes the futility of any religion claiming to represent the Kingdom of God that seeks human recognition while preying on the weak. These leaders performed devotion outwardly yet exploited the very people God called them to protect, and their false pretense multiplied their guilt. As disciples of Jesus, we must therefore reject every brand of spirituality and ministry service that trades in show, performance, and self-advancement, and instead shepherd God’s flock with integrity, humility, and self-forgetful care for the vulnerable.
Engaging God’s Word Today
Where am I performing spiritually for attention, acting like I am devoted to the Lord—seeking notice, honor, or standing—while neglecting or even using the vulnerable whom God has entrusted to my care? What would self-forgetful, integrity-filled service require of me where I am at now, in my life?
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
Forgive me, Lord Jesus, for the times I have let my craving for the attention of others interfere with my devotion to You. Lead me into Your presence, not in the robes of self-display but in the garments of humble service. Keep me from the intoxication of recognition and praise, from every pretense, and give me a heart to guard the vulnerable living in integrity before Your eyes alone. And may the One who sees in secret reward the hearts of those who serve without seeking their own honor. 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
Kingdom, Church, and World are all biblical themes. Yet Christians often wonder (and debate) how they relate to each other. Faithful churches and effective witness require that we know what the Kingdom of God is; that we be able to distinguish between the Church and the Kingdom, and that we grasp the kingdom role of the Church in a troubled, sometimes terrorized world.
For various reasons the gospel of the kingdom is not being heard in most North American churches today. Richard Halvorson, former chaplain of the US Senate, expressed the issue well: “I am afraid evangelicalism is infected by the most subtle form of worldliness. It is the worldliness of Hollywood and Madison Avenue. We operate as though the only thing worth doing in the world is what we can measure by numbers and dollars. We are not kingdom of God people.” In 1984 George Barna identified a trend that is even clearer today. “The integrity of the Christian faith is being severely tested by a social transformation of massive proportions. All available evidence indicates a body of believers unprepared to meet the challenge, being more of the world than different from it.” Through its traditions the church too often voids the Word of God and its kingdom message. Many people who have been converted to Jesus seem never to have been converted to the kingdom He proclaimed.
Yet there is hope! Signs of a recovery of the good news of God’s New Order are sprouting everywhere. In fact, I believe there is more hope for a dramatic end-breaking of the Kingdom of God today than at any previous time in history. Much depends, however, on our hearing and obeying the good news of the Kingdom.
~ Snyder, Howard. Kingdom, Church, and World: Biblical Themes for Today. Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene, OR: 2001. Electronic Edition. Location 9-10.
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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