Upside Down Power

We are in week four of the Upside Down Kingdom, the series on the Gospel of Mark. And boy, doesn't the world feel like it's been turned and flipped upside down. The greatest institutions across this world are, we're seeing the limitations of all our technology, all our know-how, all our strength, all our power. But one truth remains, and that is God's kingdom, though upside down it is, though different from everything else in this world, God's kingdom will never fail. God's kingdom is the everlasting kingdom. Nations may rise and fall, but God's kingdom lasts forever. The gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Now, two weeks ago, we looked at the upside down nature of greatness, that greatness in God's kingdom, you wanna be great, you gotta be least. You wanna be first, you've gotta be last. Last week, we looked at the upside down nature of goodness. The good life was not when you foremost try to please God with your good behavior. That's what the Pharisees were doing. No, the good life is when you foremost trust God and not your moral character, not your wealth, not your status, not your resources. The good life is not a life of wealth and luxury, but it is experienced when you let go and you trust God. And boy, do we need to do that more than ever in this age of the coronavirus pandemic. Today, we're going to look in Mark chapter 10 at the upside down nature of God's power in God's kingdom. God's kingdom is so differently organized from any corporation, any government, any hierarchical structure, any social network, it is truly counter-cultural. But before we get into the gospel of Mark, I do want to mention a few items. Hunter has talked about them prior to this, but I want to reiterate them because I know maybe you tuned in a little late to this live stream and didn't catch all the announcements. So in a time like this, when we need to remain physically distant from each other, we need to be connected more than ever. And so right now, Hunter and I have been hosting Zoom video calls or huddles for our family at Thrive and for anyone else who wants to know what's going on, who wants and has a need for community, for prayer and support. So we have currently scheduled five times during the week when we'll have a Zoom call. Monday at seven, Tuesday at noon, Tuesday at seven, Thursday at seven, and Saturdays at nine. Now, if any of those times do not work for you, let us know and we can try to fit another one in. And also, I encourage you to consider being a host of a Zoom call. Actually, zoom.us, it's a free service if you limit your calls to 40 minutes of video conferencing or less. The link is found in the Bible app that you have for this service as well as we're going through the upside down kingdom. Now, secondly, like we are doing Facebook live streaming right now, we'll continue to do that every Sunday morning at 10 a.m. as long as we need to. We actually have been live streaming for quite a long time. So even after we're able to gather face to face again, the live stream is there for anyone who is not physically located here in Southwest Florida or cannot make it to worship for whatever reason. We still would love for you to join us. Also, a second live streaming event is occurring Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. here at Thrive. And what we will be going through is the book of Philippians during this time as we are in a social distancing time. Now, why are we choosing the book of Philippians? Well, Paul, when he wrote it, he was actually in confinement, in prison, by the way, and he wrote it under a lot of duress and stress and difficulty. And yet the book is filled with joy and hope and a great gospel message for just such a time as this. In fact, I can't think of a better book in the New Testament to go through as a community right now than Philippians during this time. One of our brothers or sisters from the CMG community, this is a community of church management people who work in audio tech like Wyatt does here, put together a video on Philippians 4, verse 6, a very appropriate verse for this time and age. And I want to show you that video right now and how we're going to enter into the book of Philippians. ♪♪♪ So that will be Philippians on Wednesday night, 7 p.m. We'll have on the YouVersion of the Bible app a little study guide for everyone to take notes as well. So that's kind of some of the ways that we're trying to stay connected. But wait, there's more. This week on Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, we will be here at Thrive, just a couple of us, to have a Thrive drive-by where you can bring in the trunk of your car some groceries, some non-perishable food for the local food bank. And we will collect it here by the back door here at Thrive. We have that little drive-through, you know, be a great place to just come and drop it off. You don't get out of your car. You don't roll down your window or anything. We'll just wave to you. You open your trunk. We pick up the groceries. We thank you. And ...