Hello Who's Calling | Dr Daniel Kong

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Today's topic or message is pertaining to this whole area

of Hello, literally hello, who's calling? Okay, who's calling? And

sometimes it's important to understand that this is part and

parcel of what we do in church. And this will

also and hopefully at the end of the message, you know,

you sort of see the link between what we are

called to do this year or focus on this year,

which is to ensure that all will know of Jesus

right now. So next light, I did send this, like

suggests she helps me out with these things as well.

She's like, do it? Why so many slides? Okay, I'll

try to go through as fast as I can. That's

why I'm going through very quickly. Now. The first one

that says, God's calling? Okay, Now, what comes to mind?

What do you think of when you see the call

or calling? Shout out anybody? Yeah? What comes to mind?

Someone looking for you? Okay, anything else? Sometimes for us

is the more modern day of calls. How many of

you have been in the era where they use those

those phones? Yeah, yeah, too much? Yeah, too much time

on the phone. Okay, okay, Now what comes to mind

when you see God's calling important? Okay? Now why is

this important? Because who is calling? Right? Good? Good answer,

good answer. Okay. Now, of course we need to establish

the fact that it is important, like what Joel is

saying earlier also established another fact. You know, we are

here on earth and we are sent here on earth.

A lot of Bible scriptures tells us that they were

sent here on earth. We're not thrown here like a

by product. You know a by is right, you go,

look at what biproduct is. We're not thrown it in

this world, but we're sent into this world. Okay. And uh,

you know who else in the Bible have we read about,

you know, God calling them many? Right? Name some just

names our bier characters. Moses, yeah, Moses called Abraham, was

called Noah. Yeah. Last week doctor Jill spoke about Noah.

Noah's so called. So you get the idea. Okay, all

these people are called from God, I mean by God

for a specific purpose. So there's too perspective. And you

see this word God's calling, Okay, you can think of

it from a perspective of God is calling you or me. Okay,

there's one perspective, literally trying to reach out to you.

A second perspective is what's God's calling in your or

my life? Okay, not too difficult, right, It's just two

very simple English statements or questions or whatever. But in

both ways, in both perspectives, it involves God calling you okay,

the mister establishing that connection with you somehow okay. And

that that is the nature. So often for us we

need to understand, and sometimes we do this right, We

seek clarity on what that call is. Right, whenever we

pick up even a regular phone call, you're like, hey,

what's up? Because you say who's there? Hello, Hello, you

hopefully recognize the name regardless person, and then you're you.

You you talk to the person and try to understand

the context or the purpose of the phone call. And

this is exactly what I'm coming from. You want to determine,

you want to establish some clarity so that you can

actually establish maybe a response to that call. I'm just

talking about physical call, okay, So I want to know

why the purpose of the call is before I can

decide what I do. Sometimes or uh, honey, take off

the you know, the the the kettle of the and

all this to have cattle of the of the of

the stove anymore. But you get the idea, right, You

have some instructions sometimes and then you react to the

instructions and sometimes that's what purpose called. Zach do your homework, Yeah,

the kind of thing. Yeah. So so you get the idea. Okay.

Now that is the established of a typical human call.

And God also calls us likewise. Okay. Now everybody's seen

this book before. Next book, The Purpose Driven Life by

Rick Born, very popular. If you've been around the church

circle for quite some time, you would know. And if

you don't know, what this is all about is people

people to buy this book try to yearn or rather discuss,

want to discover their purpose or in other words, they

are calling from God in their life. Okay. That's why

it's called the purpose driven Life. Essentially, the questions that

they ask they want to address is why am I

here on earth for? Okay? What am I here to do? Okay?

And and and this also sits and ranks even as

one of the top selling self discovery books out there, okay,

even compared to the secular non Christian circles. Okay. In

twenty thirteen, they're not anymore. They didn't publish a new edition,

but they have some editions, but twenty thirteen was the

last edition. And in twenty thirteen they established that they

have five hundred, sorry, fifteen million copies sold. Then it's

ten years later. I'm quite sure there's more. I don't

know the stats, but fifteen million was where it was

about ten years ago. But again, the reason why people

buy these books is because, at least from this perspective,

they want to know this, Why am I here for God?

What are my talents? How do I use my talents?

What have God given me? And then how can I

perhaps use it for your glory as in God's glory? Okay,

some other ways of perspective looking at it as well

is that they may be looking at a self identity

or self discovery where they say, am I important enough

to God so that you know? Because you know? Purpose

is like this, right, If you give you a mission,

you have purpose. If you don't give your mission, sometimes

say I'm effectively not useful or can't be used. And

that's why another way to put it, is important and

this is not strictly for Christians only. If you think

about it, there are many many self help books out there,

and people go for it right because they want to

discover what they're called to do. Maybe not so much

in the godly context or Christian context, but it's the

same thing. And just in case you're wondering if I

just jump straight to the conclusion, is that you are important. Okay,

everyone here is important. I want to establish that. If

you don't know that, come and speak to me after.

But the key point here is God has a plan

for you and me. And God is calling you. Because

why is God calling you? He wants to bring you

or establish a purpose that He has in store for

your life. Okay, So that's the key thing. So every

one of us here is important. Every one of us

here is significant. Every one of us. God has a

tailor made plan and purpose for you. And just like

a phone call, you can do two things to it.

Either you ignore the phone call, or you pick up

the phone call. You don't don't know who that is?

You know. Sometimes you pick up call, you serv you

recoonize even though the person doesn't say the name, especially

the total life, they sort of starts to Yeah, anyway,

you get the idea. Sometimes you're like, who's this? And

then sometimes for me in my context is that they'll

call my full name Chinese name included, Hello, is this

in shake Daniel cong? Then you you know that's my

full name, and you know that the person is not

really really and it's not very relational because it's probably

somebody's establishing, maybe trying to telemarket something, et cetera. Okay,

but we also can choose to ignore. And that's not

my dad. If you know, some people of that generation,

the moment they see a call coming unknown phone number,

they won't pick up. And my dad's like that till

this very day. So sometimes I really have to make

sure I call him with a recognizable number, or I

have to pre m him. I text before I call.

If I have calling, say from another number, et cetera,

say please pick up, I need to talk to you. Okay,

But that's it. So back to this whole thing. We

can either choose to ignore it or we can choose

to answer it. And that is essentially because God is

always calling you, like it or not. Okay, like it

or not. So how many of you know, how many

of you know what's God's calling for you in your life?

Sure events it to be shy that be modest Oay,

some of you may know, some of you may not know.

That's fine. Some of you who here wants to know, okay,

wants to know, or any if you establish it, we

want to know. Okay, that's good. It's a good start.

And the other thing you need to understand and realize

as well, this is not a one soft thing. Sometimes

God can review to you, and he can constantly review

to you or even establish your calling for you. Why

because your calling can sometimes also change a little bit.

When I say change is minor tweaks along the way

depending on the season you're in. So you have to

constantly listen, is what I'm trying to say here. If

you stop listening is when something could happen in the

bad sense or you will not be able to fulfill

that will, God's will or your purpose or your design

in life. Okay. And that's why you need to continuously

listen every stage of like regardless whether you are a

new Christian, whether you've been in the game for like

the last sixty seventy years, et cetera, you still need

to continuously listen because it continuously expands, it continuously evolves. Okay,

just like how even if you're married to your husband

or your wife, hopefully it's not just hello, high and

all that in the first year of your marriage and

then l after that like hm sialla, I feel like

picking up or picking up right, Yeah, the idea. Now,

before I go any further, let me just introduce you

to several types of calling. Okay, there are generally two

types or two categories of calling. Next slide, there is

general versus specific calling. Okay, Now, if you if you

recognize that character over there, good, If you don't, plane

this this this character here is from Sheep in the

Big City. I think that's the that's the that's the

it's it's a cartoon network series beyond my generation, by

the way. Okay, and this guy's name is general specific.

That's why I put it out. Anyway, go look it up.

Go look it up, Go look it up. If you don't,

that's fine. It's not it's not some North Korean person.

And no, no, it's not that. It's nothing nothing like that. Okay,

ignore the ignore The thing is meant to be humorous,

but ignore it if you don't understand it. But it's

really about general calling versus specific calling. That's the main thing.

Now general calling is for all Christians, okay, all believers.

How many of you are believers here? Okay? So you

have a general calling. Okay, this is universal. Everybody's included.

As long as you call yourself a disciple of Christ

or a christ follow or a Christian, you have a

general call calling. Period, No questions asked, no, no, no, no,

no doubt about that. Okay. And this is the general calling,

going deep a little bit, but the specific calling is

tailor made for each one of you. You have a

different calling. You have a different specific calling. I have

a different specific calling. It is shape based on your background,

your size pointing out Zach, your skills, your life circumstances,

your access to different things, where your place, different stages

in life, your upbringing, where you were born, who your

parents are, where you go to school, even your circle

of influence, your access to different things. Okay, And it's

tailor specific. So essentially my trying says that no one

else can fulfill that calling except for you because of

that special specific mission that only you have access to

that nobody else has. Okay, So general versus specific, not

general specific anyway, get that in So no one else

can step in that place. But if you don't do it,

will it be fulfilled? Still, maybe God has to find

another way to fulfill it. But hopefully at the end

of the day, you understand that you have a specific calling,

and we'll, most of us will try to discover what

the specific calling is for our lives. Okay. Now, some

may ask why border with this specific calling thing? Why

why why can't God just create robots and and you know,

take care of everything all these calling bits? Why border?

He could have just made a clone army, right, those

Star Wars fans you know I'm talking about. But that's

not what God is interested in. He's more interested in

using individuals and that it still made his own image.

Don't get me wrong, but you bring a special mix

to the graded, to the to the table essentially. Okay,

And let's drill down deeper into the general's specific bits, okay,

and the two categories of God's calling. Next line, I'll

use subscriptures to walk through the different types of calling,

general calling and also specific calling. So first one is

from Tessilonian. Sorry, specifically first Tessalonian for versus seven. Okay,

I'm reading from a new Living translation. Okay, say it

says here God has called this very specific, called this okay,

not not so much in traditional phone. But his called

is for sure to live holy lives, not in pure lives.

Now what does this actually mean? What is being holy?

Not the same as others different standards? Sometimes they say

all right? Uh? In some versions you read holy means

being set apart. Right, So in laymen's term, we are

designed or called to be more specific to whole or

live by a different standard, okay than how your traditional

typical world dictates. Okay. Now, actually this is a good advice. Okay.

You know why if you think about it, the world

standards is continuously changing, right, the standards in the sixties,

It's different from the standards today. It's very progressive, right,

the world standards? Right? And is that a good thing?

Or is that Are we progressing to make things better

or we progressively getting worse in the world standards? Subject

to your own interpretation. Okay, I'll tell you a short story.

I was in Melbourne last year and some of you

may have heard that in Australia things are a little

bit more progressive, okay, with some of the worldly standards.

I was in an abby. You know, Abby is like

a place where religion is maybe a bit more forefront

in the way they do things. That I went because

I had a meeting there. And I went to the

toilet the laboratory, okay, and there was a all gender

toilet okay, And can see that it's changed from traditionally

previously male and previously female. Now it's all gender both sides.

So of course I went to the one that is

closest to the traditional male toilet because their urinals they're

right more convenient. Now it was all fine. Somebody walked

past behind me and I couldn't tell whether the person

is uh the traditional male female Okay, I think it's

more female, at least from my perspective. For the first time,

I felt very uncomfortable, Okay, And you get what I'm

trying to say. Is that progressive? I don't know, okay,

But again that's not the main thing here. I'm trying

to say is that God's standards a different standard. And

actually the beauty of God's standard is that it hasn't

changed since the perion of time. It is man that

constit changes. So if you think about from a from

a simplicity perspective, we have to keep up with the

world standards right, what is right, what is wrong? And

it's quite tiring. God's standard is the same, yesterday, today

and forever. More so that's actually a good thing in

a sense. So back to this whole thing again, general calling.

We're called to be holy, We're called to live by

God's standards. So sometimes we hear of things like the

Daniel's diet where we take you know, water and just vegetables,

something so old school, you know. No, actually it's God standard.

I mean not saying that in the literal sense, but

in the living standards based on God's design. Okay, now,

and also just a bit extra, you know, the people

that take in their diet they still are appear to

be ten times stronger than the traditional ones that go

we meet, et cetera. Anyway, let's come back. I digress

Philippines three. The next one, okay, talks about also general calling.

It says, yeah, Breton, I do not count myself to

have been, to have apprehended, but only one thing I

do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward

to those things which I hit. So I highlight a

few things for getting the past and focus or focus

on what lies a hit Okay, I press toward the

goal for the price for the upwork called again the

work call is here. It means I look forward to

what's a hit on me and another call from God.

But it's a call or a price of eternal life.

So again, what's this context here? We are call to

not just start things well, we are called to end

things well as well. No, it's nearly the end of

the year, in our final quarter of the year, and

most of us, at least from a work perspective, we

will try to finish up whatever we started right, all targets,

et cetera. And likewise in life as well. If God

has put something in your life and you're called to

finish it, now is the time to recount and recollect

and make sure you finish it well. And just also

looking not just a no basis, just as an entire lifetime,

we are also to call a so called to focus

on finishing well. Jason Martin came some time back, I

think last day, spoke about uh, you know, he showed

the racing life is like a marathon kind of a

thing and go to different stages of marathon. I think

recently you guys went through a marathon right, it's easy

to start your gung ho. The the gun shoots and

then you just and I don't know really shooting guns

or just some siren or whatever, but you rush out.

You both out the gate. But you must understand you

need to pace yourself. But most important thing is that

you need to end. Well, you don't finish. It's called

a d N d n R. I think do not DNF. Sorry,

you did not finish? Okay, the the d NR is

something else. I think it's everyone anyway, all right, you

got the idea. Uh and recently you might have read

in the in the in the in certain the news.

You know this side sad. Sorry, he had some accident.

He was running an iron Man. Uh he he hit

a tree, a tree fall and he raised his tree.

But he was still wanted to finish. Yeah, the tree

fell where I was doing iron Man in lan Kaui.

It's big news anyway. But anyway, if you follow him,

but he still wanted to finish, so he was bleeding

literally and finishing the race. And people can understand that

you need to finish to really finish sports like iron Man.

What more in the race or the the you know,

the the the call that God has in your life? Okay,

it matters when you finish. Now, I'm a bit more

bit or rather I'm a bit more engineering mine in nature.

I looked up my life expectancy. A typical Malaysian Chinese man,

you can look it up lives up to seventy seven

point one year of their life. Okay, And if I

put that gauge and I put my age to it,

I'm about fifty five percent there, fifty six percent. So

my question to myself really is that, am I I'm

a midlife crisis today? Okay? Am I gonna glorify God

at my funeral? What if we're gonna say during my funeral? Right? Again?

It sounds that's what we need to ask ourselves. Are

we ready to finish or I've got suddenly? It just

takes you and heard stories like this before, right, so

just take you what would you say? Did I lead

someone close to Christ? Or did I deter someone from

coming to Christ? All right? And and that's what we

need to reflect on. We need to see that we

are to focus on the end game as well. Is

our testimony going to glorify God? Okay? This is what

this whole passage is all about Okay, the call on

your life. Next one morbid smile song. Okay, okay, first

Peter three. Okay, it says here what what on the

world The words starts suffering. Anyway, let's read on. Finally,

all of you be like minded de si I think,

love one another, Be compassionate and humble. Do not repay

evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary,

repay evil with blessing. Because to this you were called. Again,

they were called so that you may inherit blessing. How so,

so it's so easy to love right people that are lovable.

It's very hard to love people that are not so lovable.

And you all know this. I don't go a bit deeper.

Even then, it's easy to love God. And sometimes it's

very difficult to love men. Men can fall right, men

can disappoint. But here in the verses that we just read,

do not repay evil evil tough men, very tough in fact,

not just that you have to go and bless them,

someone love them and this and this, that's why I

think it's classified suffering. Right. I put the words in

brackets suffering for good suffering on the top. But what's

the purpose of this, what God calls to do this

or suffer like this, right really is to bring us

closer to God. If you don't already know that, because

it's counterintuitive, counterculture, counter world culture. To be more specific,

it is God's culture. So and again I haven't gone

to specific calling this or this general calling for everybody

your name is everybody's name is there to the next

ten or everybody is not there to the next tent.

It's but only a handful of people can actually do this.

But the main thing, if you didn't catch everything that

just shared the tree versus that I shared, the main

thing is again to live a holy life, to set

yourself apart for him, right to be different in a

good way. And this again still the general I haven't

gone to specie last one under the general category. Galatians.

Now you're saying with freedom, right, this is also freedom. Okay,

let's let's look true for you have been called again.

The word call is written here to live in freedom

by sorry, my brothers and my sisters. But don't use

your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your

freedom to serve one another in love. Again, very difficult,

right for the whole law can be summed into one command,

love your neighbor as yourself. So far, all the verses

here are all the you are called, your called, your called.

The four verses that we just read. So God has

called you, and many a times sometimes for us we

use an excuse to not pick up the call because

it's actually very hard. Even the general ones don't even

talk about specific yet the general ones we cannot. We

cannot handle. And if you hasn't caught you maybe because

you haven't picked up the Bible before or yet or

as often. I know, it's very ouch, but it's all there.

So don't say, God, what is my calling? Read versla

Read the general verse before you ask for the specifics

all right away? Okay, so far, yeah, you can do.

You can do more than just pray and wait for

God to show you a calling. Just read the Bible.

O get very easy. Go read the Bible. It's all

over the Bible. Okay. So in short, let me just

summarize the general part and never move on. Okay. We

are called to love selflessly, mean to say, to put

our selfish desires aside, to focus on the greater good,

if you want to call it that. We live in

a fallen world where everything is for It's almost like

a batter trade. What can what can I if I

do this? What they get out of it? Okay? Kind

of a world, right ah? And but we are caught

here to love someone who cannot repay you. And if

you know the context, right, you read about how Jesus

has already done that. Right, he came the highest order,

the highest sacrificial love, even to call it that was Jesus, right,

God said, he's only begotten son. You know that we

cannot repay that, No one else can do that, or

rather repay the kind of love. But he still did it, okay,

and that we are called to do the same as

well in that same capacity. So far, okay, Now let's

go to specifics. All right, all right, galician one, I'm

looking the time, okay. But even before I was born,

God chose me and called me. He again called me

right by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to

reveal his son to me so that I would proclaim

the good news about Jesus to the gentiles. Okay. So

this is the specific calling, and to be scifically specific. Ah,

it is not a mistake. No one hears a mistake

everyone here. I mean sometimes we say it might be

a mistake, but even then God can use a mistake

to make to glorify him in the process as well.

Nothing is by accidents. I'm trying to say here. God

has chosen you. It says it very clearly, chosen you

by his miraculous grace. So if we claim this, what

we're what we're claiming here is really what's our identity

in Christ. We are firm, we know where we stand. Okay,

let's look you a scripture on specific calling, uh, Jeremiah one,

and I'll use different versions because sometimes they express things

better than certain versions. Okay, Jeremiah one here talks about again.

I highlight the work call because it's also jeremih is

called and so called to always. I knew you before

I formed you in your mother's roomb, before you were born.

I set you apart, seeing set you apart different and

appointed you as my profit to the nation. Again, God

didn't make mistake. Human can make mistakes, but God didn't

make mistake, Okay, and can use it for a glory.

So everybody turned to your neighbor and saying God has

a plan for you, that's a plan for you. God

has a plan for me, and it's very specific. Can

be generous and so can be specific. Okay, it's all

written here, all right, So all this is just an introduction,

introduction to helping us understand that God has a plan

for you and God has a plan for me. And

when you understand this, you want to ask God for

the specifics. You want to ask God because you want

to essentially live in full essence of what He's called

you to do. Okay, And I know sometimes when God

actually reveals to you it can be very mind blowing

and be like, how do I do this? It's okay,

it's gonna be life changing. But mind you, this is

actually embracing that phone call that rings every day that

you ought to pick up, ought to pick up rather okay,

every okay, so far, all right, Okay, this is just

an introduction, Like I said, uh so let's move on.

And that's why when we talk about discipleship, we are

talking about living and walking in line with God's calling.

All Right, next year, in case you have not already,

he's not already alluded to you, we are going into

a whole year of focusing on discipleship, and part of

it is also to understand what is your calling? What

is the type of calling that God has called you

to do? And then also more importantly, you need to

respond to it. Okay, So now that we know God, sorry,

now that you know your call is important? So what

is my calling? I know there's a lot of hands

lifted up, some already know something like what's my calling?

You know? Uh, do you need some help? Do you

need some guidance? Are you confused? You know? Purposely put

the lost sheep over there? Ah? You know some some

of you're fearful, you know when God tells you like,

oh how man, how God? It's okay, It's all good.

But what is your calling? What? What is the emotion

that comes with it? Whenever you you you you face

your face with this question? Or what is calling? In

generous just the word english, the English or for calling?

What is calling? What is calling? Some people think, right,

my calling is my occupation, my my God given talent.

I'm good as being an accountant or I mean just blank,

like you know, I'm just using an example. So therefore

my calling is to excel in that department, right, some people, Yeah,

my mission is at work. So, okay, no problem. That

might be a calling. Okay, but I put in some

here first. You just park it on the side of

your notes for now, knowing God to know your calling.

I'll explain it a bit, but let's look at the

English dictionary the English definition of calling for a bit smaller.

I actually screenshot this whole sale. Okay, wholesale. Uh, don't

focus on the last one. The last one. Calling actually

means the characteristic cry of a female cat in heat.

This meant to wake you up, by the way, okay,

cat call, that's when you do the quiet very prophetic Joe. Yeah, anyway,

that's not the main thing. Go back to the first

one and don't get distracted. Okay. It says here a

strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action, especially

when accompanied by conviction of divine influence. This is the

English dictionary. No, not not Bible, nothing. Just like I said, screenshot,

even all the ads will come out, Okay, And that

is what it says. Strong in the impulse. What does

it mean? Sometimes that nudging that you get from God,

that's what you call that strong inner impulse? Right, This

comes from God comes into your heart when you feel it.

There's a calling, but whether you respond to it is

your own business. Land. But I'm sure all of us

have experienced this before, right, and again we need to

recognize that this is a this is ah, this is

God's calling. Even English Dictionary defines it as that. Okay.

So that's why in the previous life I say you

need to know your calling by knowing God. Okay. Now,

today's message, and just beginning the message today is focus

on the story of Gideon. Don Rie. I'll let you,

guys go or okay, wherever you okay, so far right Gideon. Okay,

so if you can look to Judges, I'm going to

be focused on Judge, focusing on Judges six, mainly chapter

six and some of the uh uh sorry, some of

chapter seven. Okay. This is the Giden story, the famous Gidden,

the Giden's Bible. This is the guy who whoo who

the name was named after. Okay. So, and I titled

this message actually know title messages previously. But it's God's

call to Gideon during difficult times. Right. To give you

some context and some intro. The story of Gideon begins

in the Book of Judges, and it's a time when

Israel had no central leader okay, uh, and they were

caught in a wholest multiple series of rebellon.

Uh.

There was rebellon oppression, there was deliverance. Essentially, when when

when the Israelites uh, they have no solution, they are stuck,

they reach out to God because they fall an enemy's hence,

they cry out to God, and God will come and deliver.

They will raise up a judge, and that's why it's

called judges to deliver them whenever they call for help. Okay. Now,

Gideon here is your unlikely hero. He's probably rigislated, but

he's actually a lowly He consist of a lowly family.

In the time when you first meet him, you'll be

in fact, we're gonna read this shortly, but you're going

to meet him in a blind press, hiding and doing

something a bit dodgy okay of pressing. Okay, we'll talk

about why. Because he was actually fearful of the army

of the Midden Knights. Okay. So the story here, just

to give you a bit of a snapshot, tells us

that God often calls unlikely people just like Gideon, Okay,

to fulfill the purpose of God's purpose. Even sometimes bigger

than himself. Sometimes you is calling her as a very

selfish god. Time of my calling, I want to make

sure I hit my KPI. But you must understand your

key pare so to extend beyond yourself. Right, you didn't

hear if you read on the story, he actually saved

the entire world, literally, the whole Israelites. Israelites were saved

because of him. And again, very unlikely person. But let's

let's just set the stage here when we read versus seven. Okay, okay,

so far, okay there, let's go to seven. I know

it's a little bit worthy, but bear me. When the

Israelites cried out to the Lord because of me, and

these are the army that's coming to attack the Israelites,

he sent them a prophet who said, this is what

the Lord, the God of Israel, says. I brought you up. Sorry,

I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the

land of slavery. I rescue you from the land of

the Egyptians and delivered you from the hand of all

your oppressors. I drove them out before you gave sorry

before and gave you their land. And I said to you,

I'm the Lord your God. Do not worship any god,

do not worship the gods of the emirits in whose

lands you live. But you have not listened to me.

So this God narrating the story saying that, hey, what gives?

I brought you out on all this, I saved you,

and you're still ideal worshiping. Okay, So again some contexts.

As I mentioned to you, Israelites will always under attack. Okay.

In fact, if you read the scriptures before this, the

people that used to attack them will come and seize everything. Everything, crops, sees,

livestock ceased. So basically right there were in the point

of desperation. It's not just monetary, uh, desperation. They can't

even survive, not even food on the table because everything

was seized. Okay, everything was wiped out. So they were

read desperate, and that's why they were calling out for God,

and God here sent a prophet. Let's read on. Okay. Eleven,

the Angel of the Lord came and sat down under

oak tree in Oprah that belonged to Joe Ash the

abbey's right where where his son Gideon was trashing wheat

in the wine press to keep from the minnie nights.

So this is where you first introduced to Gideon. Where

was he in the wine press? You know what's a

wine press? Right inside you know, inside the wine press. Okay,

just to give you some some some context again, this

is at the bottom of the wine press. Normally, when

you trash wheat, if you haven't seen, I should put

a picture of there. But you know you trash wheat,

you hit it in a pub open space where you

won air to sort of blow and separate the husk

from the wheat so you can take the wheat. So

normally they go in it's like Paddy, a bit like Paddy.

Are you the thing? The wind will carry the husts

or the shells, and then you get to harvest the wheat.

So he is doing this in darkness in an unconventional way.

Why because he was afraid. He was afraid. Why because

almost he had no choice. You think about it. If

they found out, they will seize it, then everything is futile.

He has nothing to eat, and that's why he's desperate. Now,

let's read on verse twelve, when the Angel of the

Lord appeared to gid In he said, the Lord is

with you, mighty warrior. You think about it, right, this

guy is hiding there like this, And the Angel of

the Lord came and said, mighty Warrior, what would you

think that we'll go into Giden's mind when he heard that,

put yourself in his shoes. You're like yeah. Then the

angel a lot came and said, mighty Warrior, I would

be if if he was Malaysian. I mean huh wrong number? Sorry?

Yeah yeah, how would you respond? You'll probably be looking

around talking to me me, mighty warrior? They God made

a mistake. Okay, So gidd In right, not just his

family lineage, right, he was also at his lowest when

God called up to him. He was his lowest moments.

He was desperate. And sometimes we are a bit like

this as well, right, We tend to hide and then

when God calls this mighty warriors to be like really really? Okay,

So just take a pause there for a while. Let's

look at some of the different context here. Pre a

few verses before when the Israel called to the Lord, right,

what the God said, send a prophet? When he didn't,

he didn't even call, but God responded and gave him

a call. What the God said an angel? Why so biased?

On?

Why so different? Treatment? You know for us always say

why why so not fair? You know z that will

always argue with his brother how come he gets more

of this and that? But you must understand it's different

treatment because also different contexts. The Israelites do not know

God like he didn't knew God. Okay. One is more

the almost at the omnipresence, you feel God, but you

don't really have a relation with God, and he didn't

had the relation. So essentially he's got a direct access

because of that relationship. Okay. But what I'm trying to

say here is that how you understand God's calling, right,

Sometimes it's based on your relation God. You cannot fast

track that or you cannot speed things up because you

have no relationship with God. Okay, So he got to

express line because he actually knew God. And the Bible

talks about this as well. Okay, even though yes, danger

was there, he got hide and all that. But ah,

he had direct access because of the relation he has.

And sometimes God will not reveal to us our calling

because that relationship did not exist before. Now why is

it's important? We'll talk about it a bit more. But

if you know God's heart well, you know his character,

you will also be able to handle things a bit better,

even in natural sense. Sometimes we say that if somebody

suddenly gets success overnight too quickly, they cannot handle what

the fame, the glory and all these things. Right, So

what more? If God blesses you and tells you your calling?

Are you ready for it if you don't know him

or And that's why it's important. So my very first point,

the very first point is you need to commit to

knowing God. And what does it mean to commit to

knowing is really you need to know Him in a

personal way, no other way, no shot cut, spend time

with him, and he didn't knew God, all right, And

you can only discover your calling when you start to

know God in a personal way. Your leader can't help you,

your discipler can't help you, your friend can't help you.

You need to have that again, not talking about general

to go to the specifics you need to have a relationship. Okay,

now zero point two and three I'll go to very

quickly because the sorry why I covered first second point

is to acknowledge your general calling. We talked about that, really, okay,

recognize that everybody has a general calling. This is universal.

We are called to live our lives. But essentially you

need to love others. That's a general calling. Okay, and

live unblemish or other holy life. Third point any four

points think it energy correct. Third point listen for specific direction.

This is the specifics, but specific calling. Okay, and we

covered specifics as well. Okay, different ones have got different

uh locality, different reach, different upbringing. But understand that it's

uniquely designed for you. Okay, all right, So one to

entry done, one last point and then now and I

expand a bit more on the last point. Now, now

that you know you're calling, whether it's general, specific or rather,

you know the importance of it, and you've got reviews

to you and you've covered all those things earlier, what

you have to do after that is you have to

respond to the card. There's no point. The full rings

until the cows come home. It rings ten times. Sometimes

my wife is like this, I cannot get her. I

called Joline because she just doesn't pick up. She was kidding.

She puts it on silent signals me as unless I

suspect she does that. But anyway, back to this, once

you know, God, I lost my train of thought. You

know your calling, whether it's general or specific. You also

gain confidence over time because why you recognize the voice right?

And this leads me to this next phase, which is

your part. But how would you respond next line? So

if you didn't catch that, once you know God, you

understand your calling either general specific, the one, two and three,

sorry two and three. Rather you need to take some action. Now,

let's go back to Gid in Judges six the teen.

He says, to pardon me, my lord. He didn't reply.

But if if the Lord is with you, why has

all this happened to us? Where are all his wonder

that our ancestors told us about when they said, did

not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt? But

now the Lord has abandoned us and given us to

the hand of the Median verse fourteen. The Lord turned

up to him and said, go in strength, in the

strength you have, sorry, and save the save Israel of

the Median's hand, out of the Median sands. Sorry, am

I not sending you ray keyword?

Here?

Said He's being sentinel. Pardon me, my lord, Gideon replied,

but how can I save Israel? My clan is the

weakest in Menaseh, and I am the least of my family,

and the Lord answered, I will be with you ry

star wars. No, no kidding you, you will strike down

all the Midian knights, leaving none alive. Okay, So just

looking at this feels it's very important to understand a

few things. Okay. First point is how do you see yourself? Next?

Light a purposely put this picture cute right? How do

you see yourself? Or more importantly, how do you view God?

To break it down a bit further, and then knowing

that second statement, how does that shape how you view yourself? Again? Okay,

two very important questions because when you receive your calling,

if you got this to figure out, your response will

be very different. Okay. Again, you receive a call, most

of the time you'll be like how those kind of

things right? But when you get these two things right,

there will be a bit of a boldness. There will

be a bit more assurance, a bit more steadiness, and

then you know what to do. Now, let's go back

to Giddin. Let's revisit again the tin the slight before

see how they how did he respond? Gidn' was venting.

If you look at it, he was like disappointed, He

got why why all these things?

Right?

But what they got do? In verse fourteen, he didn't

border to to to defend himself. What did he say?

Go go? Sometimes parents are like this, right, we do this,

Just go trust me, just go right, even though they

event and all that. Right, And if you go back

to the next light, right, Sorry, the where GI didn't

felt right? If you go back to the next light,

this is what it's meant to be. Sorry, before this

one one before the mirror, the mirror, the image. Sorry. Okay,

so this is what he's supposed to see true God's eyes.

But if you read the thing right, he probably sees

this and then not only see a cat image, but

probably see something lesser of that. I'm the least of

my family. Read the weakest cat you can think of.

Readout fur. That's no good or maybe even worse. A

different animal, a rat, And what he said, but this

is exactly that. I'm just using a picture to illustrate

my point. But you get the idea, right, get their point.

Let's go back to the one before. Yep, okay, thanks,

So how they didn't view himself probably lesser, not a lion,

for sure. He probably says things. In verse fifteen says

I can't do it. It's impossible. God, you're calling the

wrong person, wrong number, right, familiar? Right? No, we all

do that, right. Have you ever responded this day before?

I know I have if you're honest, right, got right? Yeah?

So again, the two important things you really need to

focus on is how we view ourselves more importantly, how

we view how we view ourselves through the lenses of God. Okay,

I remember this last week we're saying of this song.

I think it's called gratitude. It talks about what's what's

the versa? I lift up my song and then there's

a lion inside of my lungs the lyrics. Right, there's

a lion in your lungs. Man, you gotta recognize that.

With God, all you do is just really the shift

shift from yourself your capacity to what God can do.

So again, it's about the bonus comes from God. Next slide. Okay,

So stepping into God's calling on your life. No sugar

coating here. Bonus required, right, bonus is required, and the

courage comes from him. Okay, So can you all understand that?

Can you accept that fact? Right? You need God to

help you otherwise you just see either a cat if

if worse we see a rat in the image, but

we need, we ought to see something even greater. Right,

So again God called Gideon. Gidon was not the best fit,

not the best candidate in the humanly sense, but God

sees a different image. Right. So bonus is what it

needs to step into God's calling in your life. So

what can hinder you from that? That? That that achieving that?

What can rob you of your boness that God has

installed for you past experiences? Maybe disappointments, hurts, discouragement. I

may recovered a lot of these things in the past,

so I'm not gonna go to too too much into it.

But sometimes the biggest enemies that you yourself. You don't

see the potential in yourself. Right, instead of speaking life

into something we sung about dry bones and all that,

you need to sing life into a so called this situation. Right,

And sometimes our view has to be stepped fast, has

to be firm because God's view hasn't changed. Is we aretherwise?

That religious quite a lot long, right, we flip from

one to another. We need to be step fast. Understand,

no matter what, God remains the same. He's good, his

character is good, His plan for me is amazing. Awesome.

And that's why I circle back to the original point.

You need to know God, you need to recognize Him,

and therefore, only then you can safeguard yourself from being robbed.

And we know the enemy is very good at this

stilty and destroy thing, right, he will come to rob

all these factors. Fear, abandonment, you know he talks about

abandonment is real. He feels abandoned, disappointment, anger, doubts, et cetera.

Even hungry hung Hunger is a real thing. When you're hungry, right,

something are quite hungry, you cannot focus right. And people

put the Israelites true to God put it right through

that because they need to understand beyond themselves. Let's circle

back to Daniel. Last time we talked about the the

you know, shared measure, em Betty go right. They they

were step fast to the point that even if they

were throwing to the fiery furnace, they still will not

bow down. Were they fearful, probably, but they said that

no matter what, I will remain step fast. So my

point here is really, even though you're fearful, you still

need to take that step forward into God's calling because

fear right cripples you everybody felt fear before. You don't

move for you know, you see a liar. Now you

were like, naturally, you don't move. Maybe you might run away,

but you will not move forward for sure. But we

are called to move forward again, not dismissing the fear,

not discounting the fear. But you still need to do it,

take that small step forward, even in fear. Okay. I

remember one time and we're traveling, Zach has a fear

of roller coasters, okay, and then you're here admit that,

and we say that it's okay, we do together. We'll

do together. It didn't help discount the fear. But sometimes

when you do it together, there's safety in numbers. Okay,

there's a bit more assurance that we will survive this together.

And this is exactly what the scripture that we're going

to read later on. Okay, let me just quickly mention

this verse. God speak the loudest during the toughest times.

It's a promise. Sometimes we get too distractive the other elements,

the external factors that we cannot hear. God, you need

to learn how to filter out all the different noises,

all the dubs, all that needs to go away again.

My point is go do it even though you're fearful.

That's fine. Just go for it. And this is my

last point here number four. You need to live it

out in faith and this takes bonus and this is

what faith is all about. Again, let me just quickly

expresses this a macro view, a big picture of view.

But how do we attack it from a micro level? Okay,

next line, As I mentioned earlier, even when you're afraid,

you got to advance forward. How I already alluded a

little bit. You need to do it with God. And

good thing for you there is friends. Friends can be

your fellow believers that would go through it with you. Okay,

and that's why sometimes we we always you know, stress

is wo thing about you know, it's important to not

journey through this alone. Right, and let's look at how

of course the God part, you know, right with God,

it's not your own strength. You know he'll go with you.

It's a real promise. In fact, if you go back

I think, uh the slide with verse the teen, you

just go back there. Uh, there's another verition of this.

So the original says I'll be with you. The second

version is on the NKGV says it'd be better. Surely,

I'll be with you, and you should defeat the Midia

Knights as one man. So what God's trying to say

is that when I go with you is as if

you're fighting it as one person, unity, one unit. Right,

that's how close. It's almost like akin to a marriage.

You know, you work together, and it's more stronger that way.

So the God part, I think we understand. Okay, let's

look at the let's uh uh, let's look at Judges

six twenty five, and this will be the last words,

and then I'll probably end here Judges six twenty five.

Let's read this now. It came to pass the same

night that the Lord said to him, take your father's

young bull, the second bull of the seven of seven

years old, and tear down the altar of bail or

bow that your father has built. So a bit of contexts,

his father was also ideal worshiping, right, this is a

this is a what do you call this, Gideon? And

cut down the wooden image that is beside it, and

build an altar to the Lord your God on top

of this rock in the proper arrangement, And take the

second bull and offer it as a burnt sacrifice with

the wood of the image, they may use as fuel

or fire or sorry or firewood which shall cut down. Okay,

So Giddon took ten men among his servants and did

as the lord said to him. But because he feared

his father's household, the men of the city of the

city too much to do by day, he did it

by night. So what they didn't do, he was afraid.

Like I said, do not discounterfeit. He still did it.

That's the main story, right, he did it with friends,

and just to address that fear, he did it at nite.

It's still okay. As long as you do it, that's

the main story. Again, that's the main storyline. He was

still obedient. He managed his fear well. In other words,

he didn't disobey or he didn't fail to not do

his calling because of fear. He was fearful. Dude, you're

asking him to go and tear down his dad's altered

you know, But damn, I mean a lot of us

in our context, you know, like sometimes if you first

generation Christians, you know, you face that, right, you oppose

your your dad. It's harder sometimes, right, he did so,

did it fearful? Yes, he got some friends, right, didn't ignite,

don't get caught, but obedient, obedient? Okay, I'm going to

end he already, uh last night, if you didn't catch

all that once, like with the word call cl one after,

I think, sorry, so again you spelled everything that's called

commit to knowing God? Right, you need to understand that,

acknowledge there's a general calling and also there's a specific coing.

But ultimately you need to step up in faith regardless

of that fear. Okay, because the I said earlier, fear

can cripple you, and fear can deny you of not

just picking up that call. But when you receive that call,

you do not action it, and that becomes a problem.

Like I said, I'm already at fifty five point seven

percent of my remaining life. I am doing a stock

take right now. Am I responding to what God has

caught me to be to do? I need to do

so otherwise? Problem? Okay, Now this is the main thing

I'm going to cover today. Hopefully you caught something from it.

I will give you some bonus material. We need one

more point and then end. Okay, extreme can start coming

up soon. Okay, bonus material you see God will expand

your tent and larger tent and larger capacity as you

walk into his calling. You see here, right, it's a

small thing. He needs to take down the altar from

off his dad. Although as scary as it seems, it

needs to be done. You will read in the next verse.

He just flash up the next verse or sorry, next

chapter rather in verse seven, I'll read very quickly. The

title of this talks about Giddon defeating the Midi Knights

defeating the army again. Backtrack, First, he did the small thing.

He was obedient, As scary as as it is, being

wagged by his dad, he still did it. And this

opened up and allowed him to But it doesn't stop there.

You look at this, I'll just run straight down to

this section here, he said. But if you are afraid

to go down this God telling him, why don't you

go down to camp with poor out your servant, and

you shall hear what they say. After that your hands

shall be strengthened. So God still recognizes that that fear

still creeps in every little step you take. Doesn't mean

that it gets easier. There is still fear, right, but

God is going to be walking alongside you to ensure

that you can still walk in that calling. And that's

why I said, calling is not just a one time call.

He keeps calling you, making sure you're all right and

giving you the avenue to do what you're called to do. So,

as I said, he didn't say it fear, but it

didn't stop him. He carried on. And here the story goes.

In the end, he's still attacked. He won. And if

you I don't have time to go to this, but

the next one talks about you know, the thirteen k

thirty thousand men reduced to three thousand, sorry, three hundred,

not the movie three hundred. And you know the story.

You're some lap the water, some some bend down and

get the water. This is how God filtered the strong men,

and his army, in short, has been reduced from thousands

to just three hundred men. And he still won. When

your army is reduced tremendously like that, you think there's

no fear. In fact, there'll be more fear. But he's

still walked, pursued, he still went, he was still obedient.

And like I said, it's small baby steps like this,

God will enable you. But God will enlarger capacity. God

will make it easier, not say easier easier, but you

have more confidence in him. So knowing God, acknowledging him,

acknowledging his call for you is very specific. Living it

out step by steps, small baby steps, and it will

still be okay. He will increase you. He will increase

the bonus and the faith that you require as well.

And then we can really like what we're saying. Sometimes singing.

Sometimes you can really move mountains. Right, it's not overnight.

You can't say those bue prayers. God send me. You

do the small things to read your Bible vers before

you ask for those things. You really need to understand

this as he and it's if you can you join

me and stand. I'm just gonna close her. One thing

I want to draw you too. If you look at

the scriptures from chapter six to chapter seven, as we

just roughly covered, I don't have time, please go through it.

It's amazing story. In chapter eight I'll read very quickly.

This is when Gideon was asked by the Israelites to

once they won. They asked me, can you rule over us?

And what they didn't say, No, I will not rule

over you, nor will my son rule over you. But

the Lord will rule over you. You see the posture,

the difference from verse sorry from chapter seven he was like, God,

is it me right? Even though he was called to

to You know, he was called this, this, this thing

by the Angel. Is it really me? Do you get

the wrong number? You see that boldness changes because of

that calling that he recognizes and continuous journey with him.

You know chapter six he was called mighty hero. He

gained confidence over time, and even in the very end

when he won, when he was offered the position, the

high position of taking over and ruling, he still said, no,

this is God's not mine. If you do not touch all.

That is really about humility as well, you know, faith, courage, boldness, willingness,

and all that years is important. But ultimately it's also

to develop that character that you understand that God is

still God. Whatever we do, we need to do it

unto Him, according to him, according to his calling, and

under his covering. So I don't know who this is

meant for, but with all head spell and all eyes closed,

I just want to give you this opportunity to really

respond and remember that God has done it all. Even

if you feel that you are not able to remember,

God is calling you. He constantly calls you. In fact,

if you don't respond, you'll call you over and over again.

Why don't you just give him a chance respond, let

him speak to you. Try that little step, Be obedient

and your life, like I said, will never be the

same again. But you must understand this. God is in control.

Submit to this, to Him wholeheartedly and everything will be fine.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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hit for you. God bless