Pendulum Swing or Two Sided Coin?

This sermon explores Exodus 19:5-6, where Israel is called God’s treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are two sides of one coin: blessing the nations while staying holy. Under the law, people couldn’t hold this tension and swung between compromise and isolation, a problem the church still faces today. Through Jesus and the new covenant, 1 Peter 2 gives believers this same identity, but some secret sauce to make it possible. That's the power of the Spirit, who replaces hearts of stone with living hearts, and the church, where believers are built together as living stones.

Speaker:	Andy Moyle,
Series:	God's Multicoloured Wisdom
Date:	11th Oct, 2026
Download:	Pendulum Swing or Two Sided Coin?
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Sermon notes:	PDF Pendulum Swing or Two Sided Coin? Pendulum Swing We have been looking at God’s multicoloured wisdom  - where God shows off his amazing diverse multicoloured wisdom to the angels and demons through what he is doing through the church. Your life has meaning and purpose – you are part of a cosmic plan that God has! Started with creation – in all its diversity created by God who personifies diversity in unity – Father, Son and Spirit Then we looked at the Fall – where Adam and Eve disobeyed God and experienced shame, guilt and fear. God made a sacrifice to clothe them with the first leather outfits! Then we began to see God’s rescue plan for the whole of humanity start through God call one person – Abraham to be blessed so that through his offspring every family would get the chance to be blessed. God often chooses one to be bless many. He has chosen you too! Now we jump forward hundreds of years – the Old Testament people of God, Israel are being formed. They have escaped slavery in Egypt and they are about to receive the ten commandments – and the rest of the Law. But before that God tells them these amazing words. Exodus 19:5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” Condition – Obey God fully and keep my covenant. They are about to get the law – not just 10 commandments. Jewish scholars counted 613 separate commands. They are there to show how holy God is and how much we need Jesus to save us. King Solomon tells us in Eccl 7:20 Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins. Paul will teach the purpose of the law was to bring us to Christ – Gal 3:24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith They had been saved by grace from slavery but still the Old Covenant was conditional on obedience first. Ex 19:5 again IF you obey me… then out all the nations you will be my treasured possession. Treasured Possession If your house was to catch fire and everyone was safe and you could grab one thing, what would it be? That’s your treasured possession. The Hebrew word is sagula which means shut up treasure – the kind of treasure that is highly prized and kept safe. That’s who the people of God are to the Lord. Then from that identity as God’s treasured possession, they are called to be a Kingdom of Priests Kingdom of Priests A priest is someone who mediates people to the Lord. Their job as a blessed people was to show that blessing to all the families of the earth – to carry on Abraham’s call. Mal 2:7 says for the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord almighty and the people seek instruction from his mouth. Holy Nation God is Holy and commands his people to be holy. The command “Be holy, for I am holy” is all over the Bible! Lev 11:45 I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy. Two sides of a coin – the edge says treasured possession. That is their identity. One side is be a kingdom of priests. Make a difference in the nations, influence them and bless them so that they follow god. The other side is Holy nation – be holy. Don’t compromise with sin. They were meant to hold it in tension – be in the world but not of it. But OT Israel and actually anyone without Jesus just cannot do it. It ends up being a pendulum swing of making a mess Instead of kingdom of priests – influencing the nations. End up with anything goes, doing the awful things the unbelievers were doing. Then they’d swing the other way again missing the point. Holy nation – despising the other nations and being completely nationalistic. Or separating themselves. Even today – you can see religion in general and “religious” people making a mess of the pendulum swing. In the world and doing what they do – anything goes, chaotic lifestyles, liberalism – making Christianity wishy washy but palatable. Swinging the other way – Christian ghetto, avoiding the world, holy huddle, leagalism. Paul warns against that in 1 Cor 5:10 “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.” That’s a great example of two sided coin – be in the world, but don’t be like the world. The call to live out being a treasured possession by being a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation is impossible in our own strength. The law was mean to point us to Jesus. Christianity has a new covenant, a new deal – a better deal. 1 Peter 2 lays out the ideas of what treasure possession, kingdom of priests and a holy nation look like with Jesus But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but not you have received mercy. If you have become a Christian, Peter declares like Jesus you are born again – a new creation and we have been give a precious identity – chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation, God’s special possession. God has done it- he has made us the people of God and has given us with mercy. Our destiny is not the pendulum swing of messing it up – we can live as the double sided coin – treasured possession round the edge – kingdom of priests and holy nation as the two sides, We can do it. You may be thinking, no I can’t I swing from one extreme to the other! What’s the secret sauce? A few verses before Peter shows us As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Living Stones Peter is writing to people who were mostly Jewish background before fining Christ, so they would have had Old Testament understanding of what that means. Centuries before Jesus came Ezekiel was prophecying to a wayward pendulum swinging Israel and he says this “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.” God showed Ezekiel that without Jesus people are stony – cold and hard and unable to follow and obey Jesus. The promise he prophecied is that God would remove peoples dead stony hearts and give them a new heart. In Ezek 36 he repeats it – “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Peter picks up the imagery of that and shows that Christians are now living stones – we have the Spirit in us, making us so alive. Spiritual house Then he talks about us being built together into a “spiritual house” to be a holy priesthood. A spiritual house is literally a house of the spirit. Together we are the house where the Spirit of God dwells. We need each other – you can’t go it alone in Christian faith – the devil will pick you off straight away. The secret sauce that makes the two-sided coin doable – is the power of the Spirit available to all of us and the church being the place where we are built together. New Covenant is incredible. The law of 613 commandments is impossible, nobody apart from Jesus has completely obeyed. So, Jesus came to bring us close to God Eph 2:14-15 “For he himself is our peace who has made the two groups on and has destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations” The Law was just a schoolmaster or guardian to shows us we need Christ. Now grace has fully come and we find that we can be more holy than the law demanded by enjoying God’s grace and walking in the power of the Spirit. The law said don’t commit adultery – grace says don’t even think adulterous thoughts. Titus 2:13 tells us “grace teaches us to say no to unrighteousness” It is walking in the Spirit that enables us to be holy and make a difference. Gal 5:16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. It is the Spirit that gives us power to be witnesses Act 1:8 It is the Spirit who grows the fruit of holiness in us Gal 5:22 It is our experience of being living stones – filled with the Spirit and built together as God’s church that means we finally get to enjoy living our new identity But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. If your life feels like a chaotic pendulum swing – God wants to turn you into a two-sided coin! Come to Jesus Be filled with the Spirit Be built together

   

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God speaks to us in many ways.

Firstly and most importantly through Scripture. Nothing trumps that. In one sense everything we need for life and godliness is in these pages in timeless truth.
Prophecy is important too in two ways.
In foretelling – where God gives a now word for us of what he is planning to do. Amos 3:7 tells us “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing with our revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.”
In forthtelling – where God explains or gives revelation about what is already happening

Both of those can be really helpful in our personal lives and as a church and family of churches in our nation and the nations.
Habakkuk 2 gives us some very helpful instruction on how to seek for prophecy, hear God and what to do with it.

1) Listen to God – actively listen to God. “Stand at my watch”, “station myself on the ramparts” speak of going into battle in prayer for our nation and then looking to see what He will say.
2) God speaks and tells Habakuk to write it down. “Write down the revelation, make it plain on tablets so a herald may run with it”
I have a mantra, if it's not written down it won't happen. It'll get forgotten. Jan learnt that early in our marriage and leaves me endless notes!
The prophetic needs writing down so it can be remembered. It needs making plain so it can be acted upon, waited for, seen to be fulfilled.
Once it's been weighed – does it align with Scripture?, does it have a ring of truth? Does it bring us closer to Jesus? Is the prophetic person someone of godly character? Once we have been through that, then there’s 3 elements to a prophetic word's application that I like to main plain

i) What God says is true. Prophecy contains things that God says is already true – we need to believe it. I highlight those in red!
ii) Things I need to do. Prophecy often contains things that I need to do. Conditions for the promise to come to pass. I highlight those in yellow
iii) Then there are things that only God can do – promises we therefore need to pray in and wait on God for. Those I highlight in green.

3) The third Habbukuk 2 teaches is that we need to wait for the fulfilment.
How we wait is important!
We can passively wait, sitting doing nothing. Letting go and letting God. Then we get bored and forget. That kind of waiting is what Joyce Meyer calls “more wishbone than backbone”
We can also wait expectantly, getting ready, praying, hoping expectantly, believing in faith and looking for the fulfilment actively.
Like Elijah's servant who was waiting for the cloud to come – he looked seven times!
Like the parable of the virgins who kept their lamps trimmed and filled waiting.

What has God spoken over us as a Church and a family of Churches?

Over the Gateway

Multicultural
Initial call – South Gate – call it the Gateway for it will be a gateway for the gospel to go to the nations
Tony Thompson “A kaleidoscope plant different colours called together to produce splendour”
Julian Adams to me personally: There is something of an anointing to mix Gentile and Jews, something of an anointing to gather different nations and put them together even as Peter did and God is really going to release that on you as an apostolic got and Its going built into the foundations of the Church.
Karyn Romeis: Food is going to have a part to play, including Borscht
Jeremy Hazell: Do supernatural ministry and I believe that supernatural ministry is going to be key into breaking into some of those communities. The key. Actually the key to breaking upon some of these Eastern Europeans. Many of them, especially the Polish. I believe that there are some people who are Polish in that area that God is going to allow you to break into, They have known a form of godliness without the power. And the Lord just wanted to demonstrate something that is break some of the strongholds that are in those places. The same thing with the Russians – they have had that orthodox thing. The orthodox Church has mixed itself with the ancient Shamanism in the area and the Lord says that He is going to break that and there are actually going to be some power encounters that you are going to have.
Markus & Ellen Adolfsson: There will many colours in this place. People from many nations. Saying “Praise the Lord” in many languages. You may be thinking there aren't many colours in King's Lynn. God will carve them out of rock and build something beautiful in this place.

Size
Julian Adams: God wants to give you an anointing for a big church.A big church. I feel like God wants you to break the 500 mark in this church as you plant. I see God wanting to give you a sizeable percentage of the community as your inheritance.

Wave/Flood
Paul Thompson River Ouse regularly breaks its banks but it is contained in Kings Lynn. God wants to break the bank and flood the presence of God that will combat a lack of expectation in a deprived town. Prepare the ground and sharpen the plough – it needs to go deep and long to break ground from previously impoverished centuries.

Move of God
Julian Adams: You know the incredible thing about Peter, is that he was a herald of a new move of God. It's on you brother, the herald of a new move of God.
Tim Green: Be prepared for the unpredictable winds of God, like the Kite buggies on the beaches of Norfolk. Some surprising moves of God and stories will come out of Kings Lynn.
Jeremy Hazell: God gathers resources, pools for helping to reach into the rest of the region… the bottom of Lincolnshire and into the Northern part it and I belie that part of what is going to happen in Kings Lynn is that it will be a place where resources are pooled for the push and God is going to help bring them along.
Keith Hazell: I saw by the Holy Spirit that there is like water, there is like a wave that's gathering. I see a gathering wave. It's like the wind has got under it and it is gathering. And the Lord says that from where you to stand on the beach it looks not much more than like a ripple. But from where he stands, it is a wave that is beginning to flow. It is a wave that is going to being to flow onto this church into this church and God says that the cry of the heart of the people of this church has gone up to Heaven and has been heard. The Lord says that there is coming a time of the Holy Spirit in this church which requires you to prepare, which requires you to get ready. The scriptures say that Jesus said to the disciples “I want you to go up into the upper room and prepare a meal because I am going to eat with you” and God says there is a time of preparation for the church. God says don't just look at the wave. Get ready for the wave. Don't just say a wave is coming. Prepare for the wave. The Lord says that there will be an ingathering in this place that will cause you to be so busy that if you haven't prepared you will be swamped and overwhelmed. The Lord says: Don't try and make the wave happen. Don't try to drag the wave along. Just get in the wave as it comes. Allow the Holy Spirit to do this. There is going to be an outflow of evangelism into this community, says the Lord. I am going to stir up the gift of God that is in some of you. There is some of you that have never done anything for God and never heard anything from God and sometimes don't know whether God knows about you. I declare to you tonight that God is going to release you into active work in the kingdom of God. The work of the kingdom here is going to increase, says the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord is upon you. The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on you.
Sarah Vonk: I had a recurring dream in early 2013. (Around 4 x), before I returned to the UK for surgery.
The dream was of the KLA venue; in 2013 we were still in the Gaywood community school. Janet was on welcome . The glory of God filled the venue and as the doors opened it released into the streets. The next thing I saw were people coming into the church, a little bemused and overwhelmed but caught up with the glory. They weren't sure quite what was happening only that there was this presence calling them in. It wasn't ones and twos, it was many people.
The only other thing that I remember about the dream was the venue being full. It was standing room only full. People were on their knees or worshipping. The presence of God was over them like a tangible fog. I heard the words revival is coming!!

Wow!

Here are some recent highlights for our relational mission family

A shaken nation: I will shake the heaven and the earth and that which cannot be shaken will remain. It is a time for this nation to seek the Lord. My people I am for you, I am with you but I speak to you of a shaking in this nation.
Unprecedented: That which is unprecedented is the beginning of many unprecedented things in this nation. Great challenges will come; I am about to move in this nation in a way that hase bot yet been seen in your day.

A Church for a shaken world
Arise: this is the season of defining moments and giant steps. Hibernation is over. The church is to rise and stand up. Spirit and Word is coming together. Nothing will prevail against God's church.
Be prepared – be a prepared people in prayer, in your finances, to support the vulnerable, to speak and for the floodgates to open and for church as you know it to change.
Open floodgates 2 Sam 5:20 “The burst through like a raging flood”. A holy Spirit flood is coming. It will bring life; it will not discriminate between people. Nothing will be the same again. Broken people will be washed clean, lives restored, a massive baptism. This fresh powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit will be characterised by love and demonstrated by supernatural signs and wonders and at its heart will be the preaching of the unadulterated gospel of Christ.
Rescuers: Therefore be ready, not with flood defences, but with first response teams. the church is going to be called rescuers. RM will be like a rescue cruise liner, combining rescue with laughter. Don't get distracted from your mission to be rescuers for a shaken world.
Holy Spirit dependence is vital: Leaders and churches must know in theory and more importantly in practice how to drink and keep in step with the Spirit. We need to know how to work with the Holy Spirit and to not limit or hinder what He is doing.

Ginny Burgin: God speaking through a series of hearing about houses that had hidden rooms suddenly opened up. Owners just hadn't realised they were there. All the houses suddenly had far more potential and capacity than previously without changing the basic footprint. As individuals and the corporate body, you are the house of the Lord and you are coming into a time of revealing of hidden potential and a time of enlarging. God will do it just like Isa 54:2, Psalm 127:1

So…
God is saying the same things to us as He is saying to our church family and from what I understand other church families.
Move of God on its way
Get ready
Rely on the Spirit
New capacity and ministry from within.

Three things we are going to do as a church to align with the prophetic.

Encounter 1st Sunday – soak in God's presence, be dependent on Him. Learning how to drink and keep in step with the Spirit
Engage 2nd Sunday – Keith's prophecy told us to prepare for the wave. We are going to engage with the prophetic in prayer on the 2nd Sunday. Praying in the promises, engaging with the prophetic. Not your usual prayer meeting! More an Acts 4:31 type gathering “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”
Emerge 3rd Sunday – if God is opening up new rooms and up to now hidden capacity, we need to call it forth. If God is bringing a wave that will swamp us if we are not ready then we need leaders, a lot of leaders.
One of the struggles in the recent Reading outpouring is that they were swamped by the “decisions” and not ready of follow up. When that happens here we will need dozens of small groups for follow up, bigger everything! So Emerge is leadership training open to everyone.