2 Chronicles Overview Part 6 - Alternating Successes/Failures? Restore David's Burning Heart of Hope In The Promise
Present confirmation of our walk with God -> assurance of hope
1. Lifetime vision (RSYRJG) = Love God
Confirm -> Decide every morning even if weak
2. The tasks God fixed for me today (Holy) = Test and approve and submit
Lifetime research on the tasks in my role, in all situations -> discover new tasks (will give thanks), new grace in the management of my heart daily -> submit = most holy tests
3. Ask for wisdom (spirited/agility 灵活) => Ask
Use the heart of a COG to ask
Chronicles Overview: the promise is still effective
1 Chronicles Overview
1. Genealogy (Have promise)
2. Unite the kingdom
Daily submission -> noticed -> people come to you one day
3. Safe-keep the Ark of the Covenant (Promise)
Do it driven by God (God-driven)
4. Totally victorious
won by running ahead (vision) -> conquered/healed without notice
5. Prepare to build the temple
Unity of Israel -> continued to expand
Reason: David = prophet (Psalm), great authority -> see Israel/church was so chaotic, no real unity exists -> Prepared in his golden years of thirties to build the temple (equip)
= the spiritual aroma in David's heart that touches God
2 Chronicles Overview: 3 great points in the outline
1. Solomon Inherited David <1-9>
2. The success and failures of the 20 kings <10-36:21>
3. Exiled -> 70 years -> Returned <36:22-23>
1. Solomon Inherited David <1-9>
1) Wisdom (1000 sacrifices)
Ask for wisdom before doing anything
* Gospel: heard, believed, submitted
2) Build the temple (system)
Military, Levites
(1) Life operating system
(i) View of World
(ii) View of History
(iii) Lifetime Philosophy
(iv) Values
=> priority, first to move into, tell people to respond, consistency
(2) Living operating system
protection
* Church-centered
Church -> small groups -> exercise -> others (tidy, clean, systematic)
3) Offer sacrifices (7 worships)
4) Evidences come
(Spirit, heart, body, living, interpersonal relationships, financial)
barbarians (difficult to lead) admire
5) Testify
2. Kingdom split and continued to fail repeatedly (reason)
Idols -> Lose love of God and to men -> burden people with laws <-> Heart of David
1) Lose promise to start with
2) Religion (notion, abstract, not practical) -> law, mystic
Ritual, dryness, zealous for themselves <-> Desire to be filled with HS, inheritance purpose, love to God
3) No strength (No Emmanuel evidences)
Not because the enemies or problems are too strong, but the Lord is not with them
4) Mixed with the world (compromise, Gentile wives, idols)
Be wary of "But..."
5) Totally failed
<-> Reason of conservativeness
1) Knowing the Promise
Loved -> promise -> want to follow/submit
* Have the heart
It is not making an effort to seek God but we need the heart to see He has given all -> joyful when seen
Activate the fire in our hearts, burn for God, be convicted in leading ministries -> then there will be no idols
2) Promise must be accomplished right and then
* Explanation
Vision -> discouragements -> overcome by explanation of problem/process -> timetable
3) Promise accomplishment process
* Cross Red Sea, make covenant
The discipleship training that we have is getting more and more blessed. It is as if the meeting is a new fresh start. It didnŐt seem that the very blessed me will continue to sit down and listen to the message. The Lord will use the ones who so hungrily listen to the message and one day make them stand on the pulpit to share.
Have we asked ourselves everyday whether we live correctly in our Christian living? This is important. If there are some things we say out of grumbling and negativity, it may be due to a lot of reasons. That is okay. However, right then, we must confirm whether the roads we are walking are correct. If I know that I, as a preacher, have checked that I have a heart that is far more hungering and upright before the Lord than many preachers in South East Asia, then we will definitely know that the Lord will use me to send many workers out to South East Asia. We must really ask ourselves. Only then will we have confirmation.
1. Lifetime vision (RSYRJG) = Love God
This is the first thing we must confirm. Is there still anything in the world that is better than the word of God, or better than the lifetime vision in our hearts? The Holy Spirit has already convicted us to come for this meeting though we are still weak in some areas. Let us not be accused, but we must confirm whether we cannot but follow this vision and hunger for the only meaning of life in the world. Having seen and confirmed this, we must decide to live by this. No matter how weak we are, in the morning when we wake up, we will agree with God that this is our road to walk. If that is so, the Lord will know in His heart and remember us.
2. The tasks God fixed for me today (Holy) = Test and approve and submit
If we have the lifetime vision, we will surely be serious about discovering and submitting to the tasks God has fixed for me today. It is not difficult to submit to such tasks. If I am a wife, I just research for my whole life on how to be the best wife to live my very lifetime role as a wife to my husband. If I am single now, I confirm how to use the conditions that a bachelor will have to do the tasks given me. If I am a deacon, I just continue to climb and serve towards being an elder. If we do not discover the tasks given me today, how can we give thanks? But we give thanks when we receive new refreshing grace every day. The problems, people and situations we meet every day are different and so too is the Lord's perfect will different every day. Sometimes, my heart is not focused such that time passes so quickly. While I seem to be involved here and there, my heart does not connect to God. Then when evening time comes, I feel so sad of the wasted life then. I quickly come to the Lord and conclude the day. We must preserve and manage our hearts daily. How do I have the heart to teach children with time and heart as a mother every day?
When I discover that I can do these tasks, I discover that such tasks are so holy. I thought in the past that the holy task is when I stand on the pulpit and preach. But I discover that the most holy task is when I have the heart and time to spend with my children and to my wife. When I see someone who is in my family or in church needing help from the Lord, and I help them all the way, I discover that the goodness that come to me when I rely on the Holy Spirit, rely on the joy of the Lord and submit to the daily examinations are the greatest. With such submission and very holy tasks, we then can be used by the Lord to speak on the pulpit to share, not principles, but living spring of messages. I discover that some brothers and sisters secretly climb up to the arena of blessedness because they submit daily in their holy tasks.
We must really ask if we live correctly by the lifetime vision. Therefore, we can then go on to the tasks God gives us today. If we know how to discover and submit to the daily tasks that the Lord has fixed for me, even if the day is not easy, it will be beautiful. The Lord will definitely notice such a person. Sometimes, we will do or speak wrongly which hurt people instead of edify people in evangelism. However, we just ask for wisdom how to be victorious even to overturn such weaknesses.
3. Ask for wisdom (spirited/agility 灵活) => Ask
If we ask for wisdom, the Father will definitely give. This is when we really have the heart of a child of God to ask. The Lord does not pick on this kind of heart but He will definitely bless. Preachers are also the same. Preachers are not made from the theological centre.
The above is the Sunday message (Today's Jesus 130 - Testify to All Nations, and Then the End Will Come). If we go through the above steps daily, the Lord will definitely raise us up and people will come to you and ask you to be their group leader or regional leader. If I know that I love the Lord, and I want to test and approve and submit to His fixed tasks given daily, and if we are lacking and we ask the Lord for wisdom, the Lord will definitely attach importance to us.
Chronicles Overview
1, 2 Kings were written as history goes. However, 1,2 Chronicles were written after Israel went into exile. Therefore, 1,2 Chronicles were written to emphasize that the promise of the Lord is still effective.
1 Chronicles Overview
1. Genealogy (Have promise)
We are not descendants of Chinese. Our disbelieving parents may tell us that we must not sell our roots away. Actually, they are correct. We actually have our roots in God, and even our parents.
2. Unite the kingdom
The church of our Lord must be united. This will happen only when a person like David emerges. David was one who was asked by all to be their king. Therefore, I tell you, if your life is more upright than many pastors, and we live our daily tasks in submission, we will definitely be noticed. In time to come, the Lord who knows all hearts will raise such people up while bringing some others to their downfall. A person became a bodyguard of the king. Then one day, he became the king. No one had thought that this person was the youngest child of Jesse. This was David.
3. Safe-keep the Ark of the Covenant (Promise)
Jerusalem is on a hill. The Romans used the strategy of stopping the food supplies to conquer Jerusalem. David asked, "Whoever leads the attack on the Jebusites will become commander-in-chief." Joab, son of Zeruiah went up first, and so he received the command. Everything David did to safe-keep the Ark of the Covenant was God-driven.
4. Totally victorious
Christians have sufferings. We cannot pray for peace, as it will not happen . We will be slandered, blamed, "shot at", and we will have problems when we go to work. Therefore, do not pray for such peace. The problems are not overcome by attacking it in their faces. But we look far and run ahead because we love the vision, and one day, we will just realize that the problems have already been conquered sometime back even without our notice.
5. Prepare to build the temple
The lands of Israel continued to expand with unity of Israel as they builting the temple.
David wrote 80% of the Psalm. He was actually a prophet! Do we realize how much authority he had? Though he was not like the abnormal Hitler, his authority was like this dictator. Once Hitler patted a corporal's shoulder and the corporal cried out of thankfulness.
The churches are so chaotic nowadays. There is no vision given to the saints and the church gives chaotic explanation. Their messages either tell people to go out to evangelize or tell them to be a conservative family church. If we build the temple, people will come to ask to help them in their problems one day.
There is a hymn about "the tabernacle of David". I can understand a little bit of the heart of David when I look at the churches in this era. I can see how Satan continues to attack and deceive people in their Christian living through their motives. Every time when Christians come together even to celebrate and hold evangelistic meetings in the Singapore Indoor Stadium, they look so united. However, they criticize one another back in their own churches.
How old are we? Are we not in our thirties? We are not in our sixties whereby we are slow in our thoughts then and it is difficult for us to equip and format. Therefore, open our hearts to read the newspaper and become an expert in the bible. This is our golden age. Do not wait till then. We may encounter many difficult situations now, but these are great experiences for us to equip.
David is so spiritual. He is the character that I like most in the bible. Even when he sinned, he had so much promise, so much freedom, yet was so normal. Look at his lifetime in his story and the psalms. Once, my wife asked me why the God in the Old Testament is so vicious and the God in the New Testament is so forgiving. However, the Lord is the same. The one who faces a vicious God is one who is continually being accused and thus does not have the strength to submit to Him. Look, the psalms of David are totally the same as that of Paul's. They are of the same grace. We must really have the spiritual aroma like David so that God can smell it!
2 Chronicles Overview: 3 great points in the outline
1. Solomon Inherited David <1-9>
2. The success and failures of the 20 kings <10-36:21>
3. Exiled -> 70 years -> Returned <36:22-23>
1. Solomon Inherited David <1-9>
1) Wisdom (1000 sacrifices)
Solomon understood a very important truth. For a person that lived on earth, before a person must set up his family, his church, or his profession, he must first acquire wisdom. Have we asked for such wisdom? When we are so cut up in our hearts to ask for anointing to do music ministry or lead the meeting, the Lord will definitely give.
* Gospel: heard, believed, submitted
I am not talking first about the wisdom of being a parent or an employee, but of course this is added to us later on. But here, I am talking about the gospel as the foundation and as the wisdom itself.
2) Build the temple (system)
Before we bless and manage the people, we must build the temple so that people can learn by it. Solomon built the temple, and then he could teach people by it. Therefore, the most important thing is the system. Look at Israel: they are so systematic! They have hierarchy in their military ranks, and the Levites had roles with focus and specialization.
(1) Life operating system
We do not use our bias (our values and perspective) to help or counsel someone. God has built a system for us. Jesus stood before Pilate and he knew how to react in front of him as if he had his life operating system from God. Then we will be able to manage our emotions. This is the most important especially for those who lead ministries.
(i) View of World
The world consists of spiritual world, and this influences the visible world.
(ii) View of History
There is a view of history that happened from creation till now, till the end of days, about how the gospel flowed. We must join together the view of history.
(iii) Lifetime Philosophy
We then understand our lifetime view by joining up the view of world and history.
(iv) Values
Then we will acquire the values in our life.
Actually there are a lot of views that can be developed, but these 4 views can represent everything. Jesus had a perspective to treat people. He knew what is the most important for the person. He lets a person know how much God loves him, then where his problem is, and thus the areas he needs to make covenant with God. I discover that everyone has chaotic views in his/her life and there is no consistency at all. They can be happy by the environment, and frustrated immediately by the environment.
Our bible overview must develop these points if we are to read the bible livingly.
(2) Living operating system
This protects saints. When saints should go to church, they go to the disco. When they should study, they watch television. Without the living operating system, saints are not protected.
* Church-centered
Living operating system is centered on following the trumpets of the high priests. Saints abide by the Sunday worship message, and then live their Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. If small group is on Wednesday, we live central to the meetings. We should not change our small group meeting if we have some group members who cannot make it that day as this is not living central to the church. We change other events according to the small group meeting. Then we will be protected. I also discover that some brothers and sisters cannot start their exercise schedule because they do not place their exercise schedule in their living operating system. Only ministries can super-cede my exercise schedule.
Look at our Prime Minister who has his daily schedule planned out. He exercises daily in the morning, then has breakfast, and then sits at his working desk. His desk has a file and the most important things to attend to are all categorized by red tabs. His desk is very tidy and clean. For us who have the Holy Spirit, we must all the more have a living operating system. Is our desk at home tidy? Those who rely on the Holy Spirit are tidy and have a system.
3) Offer sacrifices (7 worships)
Do we remember our past Sunday worship service message? I discover a lot of saints do not remember, and they want to talk about their own messages.
4) Evidences come
(Spirit, heart, body, living, interpersonal relationships, financial)
The queen of Sheba came with many spices to Israel. Solomon gave more back to her and her country. Although she was abundant, there was still some untidiness and no system in her. She almost fainted at seeing the system of Israel with the clothes Solomon wore. She had never thought that such a tribe ever existed before.
Is there someone who sees us so differently? Looking at the joy and satisfaction of a saint, looking at the answers he has, one shall be much surprised, almost fainted and with tears. Barbarians are difficult to lead. They are like those belonging to the world. However, when the glory of the system is so great, barbarians will admire and want to seek and learn. There are few saints who are like this in the world.
5) Testify
Israelites do not wash the toilets and things that are "lower in class". They do not use bronze equipments but golden ones.
2. Kingdom split and continually repeatedly failed (reason)
When Solomon took wives and worshipped other gods, the end of the kingdom did not result in problems then. It happened in the times of Rehoboam. Solomon worshipped other gods and thus lost the love of God and to men. Therefore, he put a great yoke on the people. People came with Jeroboam to ask Rehoboam to lighten their yoke. With the young men living from Rehoboam, they suggested to use more yoke and burden on the Israelites. The supervisors of the world use power to pressure people. However, the church cannot be like this. The church speaks with authority, but cannot force people to follow. Those who are willing to follow shall come together. We must restore the heart of David.
Passage Reading: 2 Chronicles 12
1 After Rehoboam's position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the LORD. 2 Because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam.
Because Rehoboam defied the law, God made people overturn him.
3 With twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen and the innumerable troops of Libyans, Sukkites and Cushites that came with him from Egypt, 4 he captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.
5 Then the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Judah who had assembled in Jerusalem for fear of Shishak, and he said to them, "This is what the LORD says, 'You have abandoned me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak.' "
The Lord's discipline comes if we continue to oppose Him.
6 The leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, "The LORD is just."
We must not let the word of the Lord hurt us so that we must oppose it. When things came, we just humble down and accept the word of the Lord.
7 When the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the LORD came to Shemaiah: "Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them but will soon give them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak. 8 They will, however, become subject to him, so that they may learn the difference between serving me and serving the kings of other lands."
9 When Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, he carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold shields Solomon had made.
God allowed this for His children because the difference would make them turn to Him with their hearts. This is the heart of the Lord, to want people to desire Him with their hearts.
10 So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace. 11 Whenever the king went to the LORD's temple, the guards went with him, bearing the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom.
12 Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the LORD's anger turned from him, and he was not totally destroyed. Indeed, there was some good in Judah.
13 King Rehoboam established himself firmly in Jerusalem and continued as king. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name. His mother's name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. 14 He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the LORD.
15 As for the events of Rehoboam's reign, from beginning to end, are they not written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer that deal with genealogies? There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. 16 Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. And Abijah his son succeeded him as king.
Actually Rehoboam was disciplined halfway. For the evil kings after him, God disciplined totally.
1) Lose promise to start with
It is not that Christians do not read the bible or do not attend meetings. They read and attend and there is no use. They fail in the world not because they never read the bible or do worship.
2) Religion (notion, abstract, not practical) -> law, mystic
Because of them losing promise, their Christian living becomes religious. The quiet time and going to church becomes a religious ritual. They worship because they are Christians. No! We do worship because we want to receive strength and desire to be filled with the Spirit to go into the ends of the world with the gospel. We do not just learn the bible or be a good father or mother. But if we just receive just a little bit of knowledge here and there, this is called religion. This is called transforming to just doing goods or a conscience to do good. No! We do good for the inheritance and our crown. Look at the churches. Many pastors and preachers chase after abiding the laws. It should be that the one who follow the law would be so filled with love. However, look carefully: they are filled with so much dryness and wrinkles. Therefore, I tell you, if the prayer of a Christian is like those who pray in the temples, we must really be wary! I see cell group leaders having no more conviction when their group leaders hate them. I pity such people. What they do are ritualistic and they just do it so abstractly.
Because they cannot see practically how God loves them, they will want to evangelize so much to gain respect. They do not do it out of love of God. It comes out from their own selves and they are zealous actually for themselves. But evangelism is done because you have seen the promise.
3) No strength (No Emmanuel evidences)
Every time, Christians go to healing ministries, but yet do not receive healing themselves. They attend revival meetings and are revived a bit, but cannot maintain. Therefore, they will fall. They cannot see evidences in the workplace and they will lose their strength.
It was not that the enemies are too many for Israelites. Even Gideon and 300 men could win over the enemies. Look at how David won over his enemies from all sides. It is because the Lord is not on their side that Israelites were continually defeated.
Because they have no strength, they will see and envy those who worshipped idols. They see that the results are almost the same as with worshipping Baals and Ashterahs. Have you ever heard Christians who say that those worshipping idols have the same problems and they get discouraged?
4) Mixed with the world (compromise, Gentile wives, idols)
Therefore, seeing that it is all the same, they gave up and mixed compromised the world. The kings of Judah compromised with the enemies. Prophets rebuked them but they tell the prophets to shut up their mouths and told them that they did not know politics. Slowly, they married Gentile wives and visible idols really came in. We must be wary when we say, "But we still must have brains in the world, right?"
5) Totally failed
For a blessed saint, absolutely, he will fail. For Gentiles, their unity will bring some advantages, but for blessed saints, there is no way.
I have no more convictions when I see City Harvest and New Creation establishing buildings like a spaceship or a shopping mall. I know they want to go into the society to influence them. I think they should be more passive, because for such, people who are not true saints may just come in. If I were given 48 million (City Harvest's building construction cost), I will definitely use it to build a great building with a cross with conservativeness.
However, here, I shall not comment anymore of them. I just give my personal opinion, as they are not wrong also. It is only because it does not follow from the system that this will bring unity and success.
The most important is not to lose the promise.
1) Knowing the Promise
Abraham and David were blessed because they were blessed with promise, not that they were organized and obedient. They received the promise, and then they were obedient to follow the rules. I do not tell my children to just call me Daddy or to wash their hands. However, they must know who they are, and then I want to see if such a heart will live out a normal life of following and submission. With loving themselves, they will surely love to pray and do worship. Christians do not know the promise and this is the reason why they are tired during meetings.
* Have the heart
If you have the heart, the Lord will come close to you. This is not religion. Neither is it about us making an effort to seek after God. But the Lord has chosen us. He has given us everything and loved us. Because He has first done for us, therefore, we just have the heart to see by this. If we have the heart to do this, this does not become a religion, but we will be joyful to see that this is no longer a religion.
Cars are good. If they are good, they can run up to 200 km/h. The weight is about 1 tonne but it can move you from place to place. But to use it, ome must add petrol and the engine must be activated. We are saints. The Lord talks about the fire in the heart. Bring the heart of "Lord, I love you, You love me." When I look at some Christians, I feel that they are cold. It seems that they are carrying the 1 tonne of car with them, "I need to do quiet time. I need to do worship now. Oh, this is the time to give tithes." No! It is certain that God is with me. I should do worship. It is in my very life that I can come before Him and pray.
When I am weak, I thought about how God turned me around 10 years ago. I thought about His grace to me from this message a few years ago. When I think of this, my heart become zealous. How many people are so upright as I? Sorry I am a bit embarrassed to say this in front of you all. However, it is true that I have never forsaken the vision given to me from heaven and my tears of work are truly all for the congregation. We must be hot in our hearts and burning for the Lord. If not, there will be things that will overtake the Lord in our prayers. Unless we want to be like a Pharisee, we can just remain cold in preparation for our small group. Whenever I led such a meeting, I would go home and cry after that. Serving the Lord is not about beautifying our speeches, but to speak what the Lord convicts us, and to say what we have never heard before.
2) Promise must be accomplished right and then
Some of us have PlayStation Portables. There is a manual that tells you how to operate the machine when you buy the machine. However, it does not become enjoyable when we read the manual and mesmerize ourselves into thinking how enjoyable that device is. We must use it immediately to enjoy the games that it can provide.
* Explanation
2 different people explain things differently. With the correct explanation, we will see differently. I tell you frankly. There are few things that can affect me as I am brought up like this from young. However, because the vision pulls me along, I will be affected when something happens to my brothers and sisters. I feel that I am more in sorrow when I see them in weaknesses and having no heart for the word. For a person leading a ministry, he will have "bionic" eyes. He will be able to see through the small group members who are bounded by the world and this affects him. However, we must overcome such an attack from Satan. We must confirm first of all how the Lord loves the weak brother. If a person has not been convinced in his heart, how can he submit? Then I hear the Lord telling me, "Do you accept my timetable that I have fixed?" Then I am comforted.
I am actually quite affected by the Penang ministry. No one called me thereafter. I looked so much to the Lord for the vision given me then. However, I roughly explained through and thought through. The Lord tells me that important things are happening, as things do not turn well overnight. Our family members do not become revived overnight. If there are sufferings, there are surely more blessings. "Lord, I love and pray for this person so much. Will it become so that the person will become colder?" We must explain things correctly, or else we will be deceived.
For example, let me give you an example. There is a sister who is is taking her exams now. She went to her friend's place to study and her friend's mother said that she had no focus in her studies and thus concluded that she has a learning deficiency called dyslexia. She cried in church last Sunday over this. However, I confirmed with her that this is about being average-minded and not about learning disability. She has always attended church, and through it, she stopped watching television in the midst of her examination preparations. If she continued to watch the television even after people telling her that she has dyslexia, she has problems worse than dyslexia. So, I confirmed with her that she no longer place a textbook in front of her while watching the television . I called her again on Wednesday and she testified how she prayed with sweating cold hands amidst her Chinese examination paper and the peace of the Lord just came to her. Therefore, I told her not to forget that God loves her and she has no problems at all.
3) Promise accomplishment process
If we cross the Red Sea, the problem will no longer come to us.
Transcript of Discipleship Training on 2 Nov 2007, 2 Chronicles Overview Part 6.