A New Country – God's Country

This is the first message of our series, "Higher Ground" (July 2020).  Jesus talked A LOT about the Kingdom of God. He literally meant, the span of God’s reign and leadership. The word ‘KINGDOM’, for us, immediately brings to mind a lot of stuff from the Middle Ages: knights, castles, princesses... stuff that has no real place in what Jesus meant. The word ‘country’ or ‘nation’ is where the basic constitution is about loving God and loving others. There’s a kind of BILL OF RIGHTS. But the WAY of this nation is the way of HIGHER GROUND; the kind Jesus talked about in labeling the roads, the narrow path which leads to life, and the broad road which leads to death. In the book of Philippians, Paul talks about what has been called the principle of the path: direction–not your intentions–determine your destination.