Kingdom Citizenship

When you know where you're from, it's easier to live an honest and authentic life. My son Cyrus was learning how to drive, and in Victoria where we're from, you have to do 120 hours of driving on your learner's license, and you put an L plate on the back of your car. All the states do this around Victoria. You have the L plate so that they know that you're just learning, and Cyrus was doing his hours, and we were working on— he was over 100 hours, and so we went on a holiday And we drove up from Victoria and we went into New South Wales. And as we were driving in New South Wales, Cyrus was driving along and then some blue lights started flashing behind him and he pulled over to the side and the police officer got out and walked up and knocked on the window. And Cyrus said, yes, he rolled the window down, yes, officer. And he said, son, do you know how fast you were going? And he said, yes, sir, I was going 110 kilometers an hour. The posted speed limit. And the officer said, yes, you were. And he said, and do you know the restrictions on learner drivers here in New South Wales? And Cyrus said, yes, sir, learner drivers in New South Wales are restricted to 80 kilometers an hour. And the officer just looked befuddled. You, you knew this? And Cyrus said, yes. He said, then why were you going 110 kilometers an hour? And Cyrus said, "Because officer, I'm not from New South Wales, I'm from Victoria, and I've been learning to drive in Victoria, and the law states in Victoria that we can go up to 110, we can go whatever speed limit is posted as we're learning. And when I was preparing for this trip, I looked in the manual and it said that I was to follow the speed laws and the traffic laws from from the state that I was from. And so, that's why I was going 110. And the officer got a little smile on his face. He said, "Hmm, I'll have to check on that." And he walked back to his car, and he stayed there just a little bit too long, and then came back, and he said, "Well, you're right. You are entitled to go the speed limit that's posted, because you're from Victoria. But I would warn you that if you continue to go 110 through New South Wales, you may meet some more of our fine police officers. And Cyrus said, thank you, sir. And then he— once the officer went back to his car, Cyrus pulled out on the road and he went right back to 110 kilometers an hour. And I just sat in the passenger seat, thought, the kid's got gumption, he's brave, he's confident. But the thing that Cyrus had was a knowledge of where he was from. He knew his citizenship was in Victoria, not New South Wales. He knew the plates on the car said Victoria, not New South Wales. And so he knew he was in the right in what he was doing. As Christians, we are citizens of the kingdom of God, and so we have that same right to live with boldness and to live with, uh, confidence and authority and honesty in the way that we live, to— but live by the laws of the place where we're from, from the kingdom of God, the citizenship that we have is not of this world but of above, because we've given our hearts to Jesus. And that means that we can follow Jesus's number one law. Even when the world says finders keepers, losers weepers, we have do not steal. And so when we find the $10 on the floor at the shopping center, we don't pick it up and put it in our pocket. We take it to the front and we give it to them and say, somebody lost this, because nobody threw it on the ground on purpose. And we live by a different law. And we live— the primary law that we live by was given or repeated by Jesus when he said, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor the way you love yourself. That is an amazing law if you think about living your life that way. Instead of doing things selfishly and looking for the way to make yourself have the best day you can have, look for the way to make others have the best day they can have. You know, that's actually how Jesus also rephrased the Golden Rule. It had been said many different ways, but basically it was, you know, the Buddha said, if there is suffering, end suffering. He said all life is suffering. Find the suffering, end it. Confucius said, if you see suffering in your own life, then look for that suffering in other people's lives and try to stop it, try to help it so they don't have to have that kind of suffering. And when Jesus came, he looked at the idea of defeating suffering and he said, "Do unto others what you wish they would do to you." He didn't say look for suffering. He said look for joy, look for opportunities to take people's life a step above where it is. Don't just end suffering, but bring joy. And there's no greater joy than this, than to give people the love that we have received in Christ. So that's your Kingdom Citizenship Update for the day. Go be bold, be brave, and live in Christ, because you have been, uh, given permission to in your citizenship and your law book.