{"id":3761,"date":"2020-06-15T06:00:19","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T11:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/?p=3761"},"modified":"2020-06-15T06:52:41","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T11:52:41","slug":"word-pictures-of-the-church-greatness-in-the-kingdom-of-god-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/word-pictures-of-the-church-greatness-in-the-kingdom-of-god-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Pictures of the Church &#8211; Greatness in the Kingdom of God\/Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"yiv1483780320\"><span class=\"yiv1483780320\">Today, we are still looking at the Kingdom of God, but we are shifting our thinking to the attitude necessary for ministering in the Kingdom.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv1483780320\"><span class=\"yiv1483780320\">There is no doubt that humility is to be a mark of greatness in the life of a person. The disciples were definitely struggling with that.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv1483780320\"><span class=\"yiv1483780320\">Matthew 18:1\u20134 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv1483780320\"><span class=\"yiv1483780320\"><sup class=\"yiv1483780320\">1<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"yiv1483780320\">&nbsp;At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, \u201cWho is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"yiv1483780320\"><sup class=\"yiv1483780320\">2<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"yiv1483780320\">&nbsp;And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"yiv1483780320\"><sup class=\"yiv1483780320\">3<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"yiv1483780320\">&nbsp;and said, \u201cTruly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"yiv1483780320\"><sup class=\"yiv1483780320\">4<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"yiv1483780320\">&nbsp;Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv1483780320\"><span class=\"yiv1483780320\">If we are honest, most of us deep inside would like to think that we have made a mark in this world, to think that we are significant to others.&nbsp; This is true in Kingdom life as well.&nbsp; The well-meaning disciples were hoping to be a part of something larger than themselves.&nbsp; They wanted to be \u201csomebody\u201d in the Kingdom.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv1483780320\"><span class=\"yiv1483780320\">As crazy as it may seem, these immature, yet to grow up spiritually, men were arguing like children. And so, Jesus uses a child to correct their thinking. At first, He changes the subject from \u201cWho is the greatest in the Kingdom?&#8221; to \u201cHow do we get into the Kingdom?&#8221; The entry into the Kingdom is through the ways of a child.&nbsp; A child lives in dependency and in trust.&nbsp; As a child, we must depend upon Christ\u2019s power and we must trust in Christ Himself as our caretaker.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv1483780320\"><span class=\"yiv1483780320\">Then, Jesus stresses the greatest characteristic of a child: humility.&nbsp; Only a humble person can reflect genuine greatness.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv1483780320\"><span class=\"yiv1483780320\">Tomorrow, we discover what greatness looks like.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, we are still looking at the Kingdom of God, but we are shifting our thinking to the attitude necessary for ministering in the Kingdom. &nbsp; There is no doubt that humility is to be a mark of greatness in the life of a person. The disciples were definitely struggling with that. &nbsp; Matthew 18:1\u20134 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3761"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3761"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3763,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3761\/revisions\/3763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}