Kingdom Living - Part 1

What is the more nearer.

The most nearest thing to you is not the next Christmas, next wave of pandemic or next weekend.

Kingdom of God is near.

Matthew 4:17

17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven [c]is at hand.”

Matthew 3:2

2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand

What is at hand is 

Not the next weekend

Not the next long weekend

Not the next Holiday

Not the next festival

Not the next exciting event 

Not the next wave of pandemic

Not the next Christmas

Next Thanksgiving

But the most nearest thing is Kingdom of Heaven

But we live our lives, for next weekend, for next pay check, for next event, for next best thing.

But we rarely live lives for the Kingdom of Heaven.

But Lord Jesus starts his preaching ministry with Kingdom of Heaven, saying it is very near.

The reason for all his ministry, the driving point for all the teaching, the Kingdom of Heaven is near.

and Even John the Baptist says " Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand"

John 18:36

36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.

The Lord says My kingdom is not of this world.

Can you imagine, Jesus never used his words, servants, to fight or pursue for this worlds issues.

He sent disciples to preach gospel.

Everything he did is because My Kingdom is not of this world.

He was in the world, but His kingdom is not of this world.

We might be in the world, but our attention, our focus, our priorities 

In other words, my life should not be defined by the what i see around.

Satan is god of this world.

When worldliness brings into Church , what happens is titanic.

You want the boat in the water, but we don't water in the boat.

37 Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”  

Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

Kingdom of God is Truth

Satan is father of lies. Satan is liar, deceiver.

So if the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.... then we should live our lives for this Kingdom.

so how do we live the lives.

Starting point

1) Lord says, John the Baptist says - Repentance.

Although Hebrews says Repentance is Elementary teaching, but many in the Church miss the elementary thing.

Repentance

Sorry Lord

pharaoh - sorry is not repentance - he is not for kingdom

But look at tax collector - he cried, There should be genuine cry, wondering how did i live such life

 look at the theif - confession - Hope

look at zaccheas - he repaid  - Mend what went wrong.

The seriousness of the Kingdom

2)  Thy Kingdom Come

Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.

The prayer is that your Kingdom come.

That means if we are seeking Gods Kingdom, we should know that the King is our God.

we live 

story of satan.

Isaiah 14: 13,14

13 For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’

I will , I will, I will

The Kingdom man, Kingdom woman has this confession in every walk of life, that is  Your Kingdom come, and Your will be done.

Kingdom way of living is the living that God expects us to live.

3)  Parable - Kingdom way of living.

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure

44 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price

45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Treasure: Value

Having God rule  on our lives - most valuable.

Ask a sick man on his death bed - recovered and live again

Ask a woman waiting for 12 years from blood issue -

Ask a woman who waited for years to conceive- given up by every form of science., but remembered by God.

There is nothing more valuable than the treasure of Kingdom of heaven.

Having Gods rule over you.

Philippians 3:7,8

We live the other way.

We go find a job, we go find a house -- then we come to Church, we go to presence of God, and we do everything with God to get that thing that we found on earth,

A man in the field - found a treasure 

For Joy - he sold everything else and buys not just the piece of treasure, but buys the whole field.

When you think of Kingdom of heaven - there should be joy..

And for that joy, what you do matters.

Joy - 

when we are asked to do some work in Church.

Do you do out of a duty? or do you do out of Joy?

Sometimes we think we do sacrifice coming at 9 AM, sacrifice coming on a weekends, sacrifice in many things.

but can we see doing work for Gods Kingdom - is it a joy for us.

Everything else he has- he will sell it

That signifies what you think important in your life , you are willing to loose it.

Paul says - will consider it as rubbish as Paul says

You think , the food is the most important , and it is very hard that you cannot fast.

you are willing to give up food , fast and pray. for the joy of knowing your God.

We live the other way

For the joy of everyday things in life, we use all the blessing that we can get from God, and we use to get blessed.

The direction is very different.

The Kingdom living is about What value you put on everything in your life?

1) How much value you put for your sleep

2) How much value you put for fun?

3) how much value you put for your food

4) How much value for your kingdom of Heaven?

Removing every obstacle, between you and kingdom of heaven.

 

Priesthood part 2

Priesthood is about having image of God.

2 Corinthians 3:7-9
But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.

The more we come in His presence, we start seeing where we are falling short of His presence and His glory.

His Word becomes mirror to us.

When we come into His presence, we comeout with His power.

In old testament, if God is not glorified then the priest will be struck.

So, priest had to be pulled through the robe.

But now in His presence our lives are transformed.

Disciples, even though were from different background, after prayer in upper room, their lifes changed.

A prophet cannot build the Church, but a priest and kingship can build the Church.

Everyone should

Zechariah 6: 12,13

Then speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: “Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of the Lord ; Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord . He shall bear the glory, And shall sit and rule on His throne; So He shall be a priest on His throne, And the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” ’

Jesus is both Priest and King

John 15: priest prayer.

Two orders of priesthood.

Hebrews 5:1-6

Man to God - Aaronical priesthood
God to man, - Melchizedek priesthood

Hebrews 7:1-3
Melchizedek came from God to bless people.
Melchizedek came witg Bread and Wine.

1 peter 2:5, 9

We are called for intercession for fellow brothers and sisters.

Seperation matters.

Leave the common things which crowd follow, but let there be separation.

Aaron  clothing.
Nakedness should not be exposed.

Leviticus 16
Exodus 29

Matthew 5:23,24

First set your relationship right with your brother before coming into presence of God.

A priest when he comes out of presence of God shoild be able to bless others.

Private Life - Holy Priest
Public Life - Royal Priest

Joshua 6:
Instruction to priests

A priest should not speak, should shut their mouth.

As a priest, am not only peculiar, my ways are peculiar.

Acts 6 : 4

but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

Romans 15:16
that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

The more we spend time in His presence, our weak areas will be revealed.

A priest lives by the Spirit and not by the flesh

Psalm 63

Desire

Verse 1
O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;


Verse 6
When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.

There are different night watches in the bible

You might wonder what is a night watch?
fortnite watch
cnn watch
netflix watch
the 4th watch - you wont even be awake. 
after 3 AM after feeding your soul with cnn, video games, netflix and all the crap of the world, now your soul is satisfied and go to deep sleep.

But the bible talks about different watches

Mark 13:35
35 Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning— 36 lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping


Every ancient civilizations had these watches.
They keep the soldiers to watch the city and was divided between time slots to keep the city safe.

Especially in bible times, Roman kingdom has set up these watches.

Psalmist says He meditates on God in the night watches.

The more you feed your soul with news, information, in this digital age, your meditation will be when will be the next medicine, what is the next city that will get covid, which country is recovering.
All your thoughts that has fed into your heart.
But the Psalimst says he meditates on God in night watches.


It is in that meditation on God, that these many Psalms are born out of his pen.
Psalmist could say, " I am fearfully and wonderfully made"
"The Lord is my Shepherd, i shall not lack"


For us, God means probably  a 15 min prayer time, or  a 1 hour prayer .
But for David, he is called a man after Gods  own heart. David meditates on God through out the night watches, and early he gets up to seek HIm.


It is the desire of man that dictates his life.


When a person is not hungry, that is the one of first sign of problem.
Similarly when a person is not hungry for God, that is a sign of spiritual deadness.

V1
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.

This world is like a dry and thirsty land, there is no pure water you can get here.
but Psalmist says soul thirsts, flesh longs for God.
8 

8) My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds me.

Abrahams tent

TENT

a portable shelter made of cloth, supported by one or more poles and stretched tight by cords or loops attached to pegs driven into the ground.

Some Characteristics of Tent.

1) Easily Taken Out.

2) No Boasting about the tent

3) Not Permanent

Name some people that are associated with Tents.

1) Abraham , Isaac, Jacob - lived in tents

2) Paul - Tent making business along with Prscilla, Aquila,

There are 2 aspects of the tent we will see today in believers life.

1) Tent  - Body

For we know that if our earthly [a]house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our [b]habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as [c]a guarantee.

6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

 a) In New testament, the human body is also referred as tent.

 b)  In this tent,

What we usually do with this tent.

We decorate it, mask it, dress it, color the hair it.

We all want it to be clothed. How many of us like to have nice clothes.

I think our Church is famous for nice clothing.

Let us see what Paul says about this tent. 

we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed.

Wait. Paul says he also wants to this tent to be clothed.

But his seeking clothing from heaven.

This clothing is something form heaven, that is a resurrection body.

1 Corinthians 15:35-44

35 But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” 36 What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. 37 And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 38 Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. 39 Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

40 There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. 41 The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.

42 It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. 44 They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.

So every body has a glory.

sun has a glory, moon has a glory, every celestial body has a glory.

In same way, the heavenly bodies will have that glory. and John says we shall be like Him.

1 John 3: 

. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

So, this tent changes year after year.

Your body is not the same as 10 or 20 years ago.

and as you get 60 or 70 years then it will change. and as you get to 80, it will change more.

But when we are given the resurrection body, that will be glorious.

so as John says ,so we have this hope and wait for this hope, let us purifies himself as He is pure.

The Resurrection Bodies - no marriage, they will be like angels in this aspect.

Matthew 22:29,30

29 Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. 30 For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2) Tent - Abraham's tent

what so special about Abraham's tent

Hebrews 11
9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God

This is a special tent out of all the tents in the bible.

let us look at this Abrahams tent.

1) There is a generation living in this tent.

Abraham and Sarah lived in this tent.

Genesis 24:67

 67 Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent; and he took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

So Isaac brought his wife rebekah into his mothers tent.

Genesis 25:27

27 So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a [f]mild man, dwelling in tents

Jacob Lived in tents.

In every generation, we see the youngsters think that the parents are outdated, they dont know whats latest, whats the new thing. 

But Isaac and Jacob has learnt one thing from their father that they did not think that their father was outdated man, they did not think that my dad doesnt latest cool thing, they did not think my father might have used ols style, but i will get new style because thats the cool thing.

You see esau differed from his father and became a man of the field.

but Jacob dwelt in the tents.

We might think that this is just a tent, what a big deal in this.

But Hebrews says, because dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob,  they are the heirs with him of the same promise.

9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;

There is an inheritance of the promise, when you walk in the footsteps of a spiritual man.

even in a simple matters of life, like where you live, what you wear.

That greatest inheritance is the inheritance that you get as the Child of God.

How great will be the inheritance of the promise of your parents.

Now let us look at how this Abrahams tent is

Genesis 14: 4

4 Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

How many were born in his own house?  318

Now look at this tent where 318 were born when Abraham and Sarah they themselves did not have children.

Look at the heart of tent owners : Abraham and Sarah.

Usually when we are in a lack in a particular area, we will not try to bless others in that area.

But Abraham's is different and his tent is special.

before the son of the promise came, there were others sons that are born in that house.

Not only that Abraham also prayed the Abimilechs kingdom when their wombs were shut.

A tent of Godly man gives birth to many spiritual sons.

Is your tent a host for spiritual sons to be born?

Is your tent just for yourself? 

Abrahams tent has no children of their own, but that did not stop that tent for spiritual sons to be born.

In your lack , what you do to bless others in that area, will inturn bless you and ina greater measure.

Training of the servants

Not only these 318 were born in Abraham's tent, but they were trained.

1 Timothy 4: 7

 7 Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly

2 Timothy 2:1,2

2 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also

Do not be contended that we have a healthy body, everything that we have for the body to be taken care.

D o not be contended that we have tent, the place that we live, but rather check ourselves whether tent gives birth to sons, and that tent raises and trains the next gen?

and also the tent gives the inheritance of promise to the next gen.

Abrahams tent  was special insihgt of God, it was mentioned in the Hebrews 11.

Psalm 62

1 1.Truly my soul silently waits for God;
From Him comes my salvation.
2 

2.He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be greatly moved.


5 5 5.My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
6 

6.He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be moved.


The Psalmist says my soul finds rest in God. my salvation comes from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation.

He only is my rock.
It is easy to say the words that He only is my rock.
But when times like these comes, who by their life styles proves that He only is my rock.

Every walk of our life should confess that He alone is my Rock and salvation.


your soul silently should wait for God. 

What are you waiting for today?
Are you silently waiting for children , Are you silently waiting for a job , 
waiting for a breakthrough?  Psalmist says when you soul silently waits for God, you will see the salvation.


V2 says I shall not be greatly moved.
These are the days many believers are being greatly moved.

In the last days, people believers will be tested through different situations, 

whether it is coronavirus, or some persecution that may come. whatever it is, what is being tested is our faith.

Those who say God alone is my Rock and my salvation.

They are not trusting in the blessing , but they trust in the One who blesses.

Are you waiting for vaccine? Do not think vaccine can save us.
Vaccines are good, medicines are good, but the healing comes from God.

Healthy food is good, but good health comes from God.

You talent is good, but your success from God.

What do you have in life, that you have not receive from God?

Moses was great in word and deed and at the age of 40, when he went in his own strength, people did not understood him and they rejected him.

But the same Moses at the age of 80, when he could not talk well and old, he became the deliverer of Israel.


A believer who is waiting for the second coming of the Lord Jesus, he will truly confess by his lifestyle that God , you only is my rock and salvation.

If we cannot believe in God for little things, you wont believe even for eternal life.


V 10 If riches increase, Do not set your heart on them.

We see so many people, after they are blessed with something, they forget God.

some people pray to God for children, and after they are blessed with a child, their life goes around the child and dont have time for God.

When a person is waiting for job, you will see that person coming to fasting prayers, but after that Sunday Church becomes harder.

If riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

Abraham was rich, but he lived in tents.

David was a king, but he says, 

Psalm 84:10

10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

V11

11 God has spoken once,
Twice I have heard this:
That power belongs to God.

what God has spoken, it must be repeated in the hearing of the people.

SHAKING

20 And again the word of the Lord came to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, 21 “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying:

‘I will shake heaven and earth.
22 I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms;
I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms.
I will overthrow the chariots
And those who ride in them;
The horses and their riders shall come down,
Every one by the sword of his brother

shaking happens to see the holiness.