Why we need the kingdom gospel II - the kingdom story continues chosen & called

by pastor Wilson

Big idea:
God call Israel to be his kingdom people but they repeated fail to show loyalty

The ultimate purpose is to restore the kingdom of God on earth

Genesis 12:1
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;


It was no easy task for Abraham to leave country and culture, forsake deities of family and follow God whom his family did not worship. Abram shifts his allegiance to God

Genesis 15:6
Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.


God counted to Abram as righteousness solely by his believing loyalty to Yahweh

# Abram allegiance directed his life decisions and actions

Genesis 12:2
And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;


Yahweh promised He will raise a nation and make his name great because abram and his decendants will become the primary representatives to the nations

Genesis 12:3
And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”


Yahweh blessings on Abram was to be a representative and show the way back to God

# The passage has always been about God's desire to reclaim the nations for himself through the descendants of Abram

The context is Yahweh form Israel after God disinheriting the nations

This verse means in the ancient near east nations has their patron gods but Israel only have God as Yahweh. Those who bless and curse Israel will receive likewise

It was always about the God of Israel not about Israel

Galatians 3:8-9
The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” [9] So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.


# The good news of the gospel was and still about God's plan to reclaim the nations and humanity for His kingdom through allegiance

Israel is constantly attracting international attention.

God is still using Israel to show the world who He is

What's the big deal to keep allegiance to Yahweh?

Exodus 19:4-6
‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. [5] Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; [6] and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”


Role of priest is to be a mediator between God and men but the condition hinge on Israel obedience and loyalty to Yahweh. Israel could not fulfill her role as the kingdom of priest the moment she committed spiritual adultery with other gods in disobedience and losing allegiance to Yahweh.

2 Kings 17:6-20
In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. [7] Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods [8] and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced. [9] The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the Lord their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. [10] They set for themselves sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, [11] and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the Lord had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the Lord. [12] They served idols, concerning which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.” [13] Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.” [14] However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. [15] They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them. [16] They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. [17] Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him. [18] So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah. [19] Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced. [20] The Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.


After Solomon's reign, Israel was split into two kingdoms:
Israel (10 tribes) - the Northern kingdom, conquered by the Assyrians in 722bc

Judah (2 tribes) - the Southern kingdom, conquered by the Babylonians in 586bc

Both failed to keep the tribes

Ancient Israel was God's chosen people and still is today

# When God blessed you, it is never just about you. But always about God's purpose through you.

Israel is to be a conduit of God to show blessing in propagating God's love to the unreach in Singapore and beyond and to reclaim nations for Yahweh

Dead sea salt content is 10 times more than normal sea water, rich in mineral necause it absorbs everything with no outlet, only water loss through evaporation and left only salt and mineral. May our lives not be like dead sea with no marine life

The kingdom story so far (disrupted but not deterred)

by Ps Meng Cham

Why the kingdom gospel II (God's Reign Rejected)

(The kingdom story so far disrupted but not deterred)

Big idea:
Despite our rebellion God promises to restore His kingdom

Turn us from self rule to trust in faithful king

No matter how loud is our shout to be independence from God, there's always a whisper that God's kingdom will stand forever

1 John 2:15-17
[15] Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. [17] The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.


Desires of flesh, eyes and pride of life is from the world

Rebellion 1:
Choosing over God's authority

(Genesis 3)

Genesis 3:11-13
[11] And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” [12] The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” [13] Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”


Physical death is a Lost of sacred space, losing all access to the empowering God

The temptation:
The desires of the flesh is nothing wrong until we step out of boundary

It is dethroning God in our human heart

The result Adam and Eve were banished from the garden of eden

It is about authority

Rebellion 2:
Escalation of evil

(Genesis 6)

Human ventures further and further from God

With Enoch God was pleased

Insurrection from sons of God

The temptation:
The desires of the eyes

Genesis 6:2
[2] that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.


Produce Rival offspring, led to uncontrolled violence and evil

Proliferating evil, humans tends to follow

Rebellion 3:
Deliberate defiance

(Genesis 11)

The temptation:
the pride of life

Genesis 11:4
[4] They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”


All the good that was given to the human but they used it to put a stop to God's kingdom mandate to go out, they stayed put to build towel of Babel

the Result:
YHWH disinherited the nations assogning them to lesser supernatural beings

God was undaunted and He was not deterred

God's kingdom restated

Human rebellion cannot overturn devine authority

Genesis 3:15
[15] And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”


Kingdom of God

Disrupted, not deterred

Genesis 9:1
[1] And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.


Flood was a reset

Rainbow was a sign of covenant that judgement will not be repeated but a greater ARK will come

Psalm 2:1-4
[1] Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? [2] The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, [3] “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!” [4] He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.


God laughs because Whatever form rebellion takes, cannot unsettled God's rule and ultimate reign

Psalm 2:7-9
[7] “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. [8] Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. [9] You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’ ”


It's not human going towards God butGod coming to reclaim this world and redeem us back to Himself

Our rebellion may disrupt God's kingdom, but it cannot be deterred

Application 1:
We can exercise hope in our troubled world, in the light of His kingdom

We live in times of instability, moral confusion, political unrest ... Don't be afraid because History is bending itself towards God's ultimate reign. God is not perturb by all these according to Psalm 2..

Application 2:
We must continue to resist temptation because the tempter is still at large

Keep growing in the word of God, it is His truth that sets us free and keep setting us free

We must guard ourselves through prayer, for us to sensitive us to those things around us

our love for God must make Him king of our life NOW

When we are lone we are truly target, together we are admonished, encouraged

#Resist temptation
#We have hope

We get flustered easily during delays. What if delay is not always bad but redemptive.

Imagine this is a last mrt train service that me or others is running late to catch, we benefitted from the delayed train. However, there are some who feel flustered when train is delayed because they have waited for very long. But this last train will pick up everyone but will everyone get on?

What if the train is a kingdom train and is a last train?

Return as One

Ps Peter Lim

Are you moving in the right direction?

Auto pilot without manual overwrite is dangerous

Big idea:
When God's people repent and realign to God together, He brings revival and restoration

1 Samuel 1
There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite[a] from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. 3 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. 4 Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. 6 Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. 8 Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” 9 Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house. 10 In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. 11 And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” 12 As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.” 15 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” 17 Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” 18 She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. 19 Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. 20 So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel,[b] saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.” Hannah Dedicates Samuel 21 When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, 22 Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always.”[c] 23 “Do what seems best to you,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the Lord make good his[d] word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him. 24 After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull,[e] an ephah[f] of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. 25 When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, 26 and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. 27 I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. 28 So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.


Sacred Space is a place where God is encountered in a special or direct way, by virtue of which the very place becomes holy and set apart from ordinary space

1 Samuel 4:22
She said, “The Glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”


Sacred space was lost from the above

1 Samuel 7:1-2
1 So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord. They brought it to Abinadab’s house on the hill and consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the Lord. 2 The ark remained at Kiriath Jearim a long time—twenty years in all. Samuel Subdues the Philistines at Mizpah Then all the people of Israel turned back to the Lord.


Although there were lamentation but is only Deep sorrows but no repentance to change

When God send judgement on philistine they return the ark to Israel but that did not automatically brings revival to Israel

The ark was return but at the house of Abinadab which it was once seated on the hill for all to see

Let's Reflect:
Have we forgotten about God or treated His presence with contempt?

# Return to God with Genuine repentance

1 Samuel 7:3-6
So Samuel said to all the Israelites, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” 4 So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only. 5 Then Samuel said, “Assemble all Israel at Mizpah, and I will intercede with the Lord for you.” 6 When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day they fasted and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.” Now Samuel was serving as leader[a] of Israel at Mizpah.


1. Turn away from sin
2. Fix heart on God
3. Serve Yahweh only

# Repentance isn't just turning from sin - It's returning to the King

Repentance is humbling but life giving

Corporate prayer gathering reflected ancient Israelite practice, where prayer and worship were communal, deeply heartfelt and emotional. It was rooted in repentance, confession and dependence on the Lord.

"pouring of water"
Symbolic of brokeness, tears and signs of repentance

Fasting and pouring of water signify Self denial and abstinence from food and water and brokeness

Corporate repentance creates accountability as we submit to God's leadership together.

God's word brings conviction which leads to repentance; repentance puts us in a posture where God can change our hearts.

Application 1:
Cherish God's presence through Confession and Repentance

1 Corinthians 3:16
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?


Deuteronomy 30:19
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live


@ For restoration and victory

1 Samuel 7:7-11
When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. When the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. 8 They said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.” 9 Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him. 10 While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. 11 The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Kar.


Nursing lamb was meant to show the reliance/dependence of the people upon Yahweh

Thundered sound in war symbolise Diety was angry and dangerous therefore philistine fled

During crisis, Prayer and worship are never a waste of time because it show a reliance on God

Ebenezer - "Stone of help"

1 Samuel 7:12-14
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer,[a] saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” 13 So the Philistines were subdued and they stopped invading Israel’s territory. Throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. 14 The towns from Ekron to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to Israel, and Israel delivered the neighboring territory from the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.


Corporate prayer and heartfelt praise are expressions of reliance on God.

Let's approach prayer as reliance on God - where we receive strength and grace to face our challenges and fight our battles.

Souls are not gonna be saved unless God fights for us, broken families will not be restored unless God fights for us...

Application 2:
Return to God in corporate prayer and heartfelt praise

Let's honor God with loud praises, lifting of hands and joyful clapping

Does revival still happen today?
Yes, consider the 2023 Asbury revival

Cry out as One

by Ps John Lin

Big idea:
When God's people seek him together He realigns and restores them to live under His rule

We are created for community

Corporate prayer is the engine of renewal

Nehemiah 9:1-3
On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God.


By confessing together, it's not incidental moment but intentional, public act of alignment

# Each time we confess our sins, we come into alignment with God's word

Confession is like a tuning of our soul, it brings us back to God

Most of the time, we're so out of tune that we downplay it as mistake or struggle rather than agreeing with God and acknowledging our sins

Nehemiah 9:4-5
Standing on the stairs of the Levites were Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani. They cried out with loud voices to the Lord their God. 5 And the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.[a]” “Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.


The people didn't pray about their problems or struggles but recounting God's story

# Recounting God's Faithfulness restores our identity

Israelites are very forgetful people, felt hopeless, pointless

Problems become a Definition of our lives

We must remember who God is

By recounting God's faithfulness, Is a spiritual formation and alignment of our identity

Corporate prayer redirects the way we live. It renews our Allegiance and Restores God's mission

Nehemiah 9:38
“In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.”[a]


Nehemiah 10:28-29
“The rest of the people—priests, Levites, gatekeepers, musicians, temple servants and all who separated themselves from the neighboring peoples for the sake of the Law of God, together with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand— 29 all these now join their fellow Israelites the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the Lord our Lord.


Nehemiah 10:30
“We promise not to give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us or take their daughters for our sons.


They do not compromise

Nehemiah 10:31
“When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. Every seventh year we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts.





They were not pressured by the pace of the world

Nehemiah 10:38-39
A priest descended from Aaron is to accompany the Levites when they receive the tithes, and the Levites are to bring a tenth of the tithes up to the house of our God, to the storerooms of the treasury. 39 The people of Israel, including the Levites, are to bring their contributions of grain, new wine and olive oil to the storerooms, where the articles for the sanctuary and for the ministering priests, the gatekeepers and the musicians are also kept. “We will not neglect the house of our God.”


The temple of God were neglected over the years. So now the people committed to taking care of God's temple., to put God's first

The people did not stop at confession, feeling great but made a covenent

2 Corinthians 5:15
And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.


# Allegiance is how Peace and Purpose are Restored

They were re-establishing themselves as God's holy people, and chose to embrace Yahweh, not go back to living the way we want

Am I slowly compromising my faith towards God in my career, my upbringing of my children, my family, my daily life?

Something must shift and change, not just our hearts but action to follow