> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.chrisknightwrites.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Who is your King? - URL: https://www.chrisknightwrites.com/who-is-your-king/ - Published: 2026-10-04T12:00:30.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-04T12:08:04.000Z - Author: Chris Knight - Tags: After Amen, Formed Sermon Series ***Sermon by Austin Schertz*** It's a simple question and that's exactly what makes it so uncomfortable. Who is your King? Not on Sunday morning with a worship song playing. On Monday. In the car line. When the kids are melting down. When the calendar is full and nobody's watching. I found it very interesting that the word "gospel" wasn't a church word first. Rome used it to announce a new Caesar. So when Jesus walked into Galilee proclaiming "the kingdom of God is at hand," He was making a royal announcement. A new King has arrived and His kingdom is close enough to reach out and grab. Jesus said this before the cross. The cross is essential, but it opens the door. The good news is what's on the other side of that door. It is life with God, right now, under His reign. That's **the Proclaimed Gospel**, but two other gospels keep knocking. **The Political Gospel** tells us to get power, make laws, fix everything. It's subtle, and no single party owns it. It's the quiet *"if we could just..."* that shapes where we get our news, our identity and our blood pressure, yet Jesus lived under one of the most corrupt governments in history and never reached for its throne. You can't legislate a new heart. **The Prosperity Gospel** tells us to behave well, get blessed, then check your bank account to see how you're doing. Again, not the televangelist version. The quiet one. *"God, if You'll just give me \_\_\_\_, then I'll really serve You."* It turns God into a vending machine and leaves us anxious about what we have and what we don't. Which brings us right back to Matthew 6\. The birds don't stockpile. The lilies don't strive and your Father already knows what you need. Worry, it turns out, is often a symptom of serving the wrong king. When politics or prosperity sit on the throne, we have to hold everything together ourselves. When Jesus sits there, we get to seek first His kingdom and trust Him with the rest. His kingdom doesn't look like ours. It runs on humility. It's here and not yet. But it's real and it's available today. **So, who is your King?** Not the answer you'd write on a membership card. Who actually gets the final say when you're tired, scared or all alone? --- **Questions to Process** 1. Walk through tomorrow in your mind: morning, work, home, alone. In which moments is Jesus most clearly King and where does someone or something else quietly take over? 2. Where do I catch myself saying "If we could just..."? What does that reveal about where my hope really is? 3. Have I ever measured God's approval by my circumstances? How has that shaped the way I pray? 4. What am I most anxious about right now and what might that anxiety say about what I'm trying to control? 5. What would it look like this week to "seek first" the kingdom in one specific area of my life? --- **Questions for Discussion** 1. "Gospel" was originally Roman language announcing a new king. How does hearing it as a royal announcement change the way you read Jesus' words in Mark 1:15? 2. Why do you think the political and prosperity gospels are so appealing, even to sincere Christians? Where have you seen their subtle versions show up? 3. How can we engage in civic life (voting, serving, caring about policy) without putting our hope in it? 4. Of the three struggles named (the kingdom isn't earthly, it requires humility, it's now and not yet), which is hardest for you and why? 5. Jesus ties worry directly to what we seek first. What are some practical ways our group can help each other trust God as provider?