Parable of The Divided Kingdom – Mark 3:23-27. “So Jesus called them over to Him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can satan drive out satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.”

Lots of people wa-ay smarter than me have preached on this parable but I’m not going to talk about all of it here. Today I want to talk about the fact that we can shoot ourselves, figuratively, in the foot, by having one foot in the kingdom, and the other in this world. That’s called having a divided mind and/or loyalty. Unfortunately we can easily be tied up by satan in this world’s difficulties.

We cannot advance God’s kingdom while we are constantly being overtaken by the things of this world. Sooner or later the world we live in will win – because this world is pushy! That’s what IN this world and not OF this world means. We live here but we are no longer from here – our home is somewhere else. So we have a totally different allegiance from the people who live around us. Our allegiance is with Jesus Christ and His Ways.

The King of all Kings wants to motivate us now, so we can serve Him … now. HE LOVES HUMANITY – He proved it! Now we live in another kingdom, by its rules. The thing is, many times we can easily kind of skate along the thin edge of looking like everyone else around us, so we can fit in. The problem with that is, while we are toying with this world’s games, we will have a clouded view of what the Lord Himself wants from us. The single greatest thing we can ever do – apart from choosing to follow the Lord, is to unequivocally give our lives to Him and refuse to take them back. Total commitment is the only way I know to eliminate the tendency in humanity to compromise.

We are not in this world to do the hokey pokey – one foot in and one foot out. It’s all in. OR … live in the hell of having to choose over and over again which way to go and getting sucked down the plug hole of sin. There is no compromise with the world around us, this world is too far gone. We simply choose to do what Jesus did – He died. We must die, here and now, daily – choosing His way over ours using our faith. His Grace can see us through anything. Sometimes it will hurt – but it simplifies matters.

When we make the bible our reference point we will definitely bump into other people’s excuses.This world doesn’t like that sort of clarity, it presents us with the wrong picture over and over again. EG: ‘if it hurts, then it is wrong, don’t do it!’ Avoiding pain has become a new art form. It will hurt, dying to self does! It killed the Lord… becoming sin broke His dear heart. 

I can remember seeing the line of total commitment off in the distance as a much younger Christian. I avoided going too close lest I fall over it. I did not jump right into the River of God. I sort of paddled about in the shallows – and sometimes I went in up to my waist. I was afraid of what the Lord might take from me, or what I would have to leave behind. But at that time I was absolutely ‘born again!’ I went to church every single time I could, and I joined in with everything. However, the line of what I could and couldn’t do, was blurry. It was blurred by my compromise. 

The Lord never meant for Christianity to be a two-step program. It is all in, forever. He sent back His power to the people who made a commitment to stay in the upper room for as long as it took. 50 days of waiting, praying and wondering if there was going to be a knock on the door, and men would come to kill them. Total commitment means we wait for His input. Staying close to Him has become our very life.

It means you start living forever today. Here and now. LET: “The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.” 1 Thessalonians 1:4b. MSG bible. 👋🏻