2025: AYEAR OF KINGDOM COMMITMENT (Matthew 6:33)

“But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness…”

The guiding light of the year 2025 for the members of St. Joseph’s Chosen Church of
God, and the Body of Christ as given by God through the Holy Spirit to His Servant; His
Eminence, Apostle Samson Nyeche Ogbu, Spiritual Leader, St. Joseph’s Chosen
Church of God.
Compliments of the Season!
Happy New Year Church!

It is with Jesus’ Joy, that I stand in the presence of the Omniscience God whose mercies
and loving kindness has kept us alive, as we usher in a New Year that the Lord has
made; it is a great privilege and honour to see the end of a year and another comes,
because His mercies are new every morning.

It is a known fact that some did not make it to this year for one reason or the other, some
may be that their assignment on earth was over or the devil terminated their existence
before time. In retrospect, I saw the actions, inactions, reactions, hustling and the
various conditions that transfused into our personal, national, social, economic, family
and sacred lives in 2024. One can say, it was an eventful year. Despite all the
challenges, the Lord kept us and was always in His Church, leading as we follow Him.
Glory be to God!!!

The year 2024 was a year filled with spiritual activities for us in St. Joseph’s Chosen
Church of God. All the Regions and Zones, Ministries and Fellowships invested their
precious time and other resources to organize their Conventions to the Glory of God.
The Spiritual Leader and his team attended all the Conventions including the one held
in Europe: it was a time of refreshing in the presence of God.

The Church also had some challenges, but God’s hands have always been strong in
steering the affairs of His Church; we are victorious, the kingdom of darkness has failed
again. We must consistently be in touch with divine guidance and heaven’s current
policy framework for humanity, especially as it relates to our Church.
For this purpose, the guiding Light and Spiritual Compass for the Church – St. Joseph’s
Chosen Church of God and all who believe in the Covenant God has with this Church
this year 2025 is “KINGDOM COMMITMENT”. The Year 2025 is our year of
KINGDOM COMMITMENT. Matthew 6:33.
Brethren, you are welcome to the year of KINGDOM COMMITMENT. This is going to
be the focus of all our programmes and teachings for this year. It is the perfect will of
God for us to be Kingdom minded people. We must seek His Kingdom above every
other thing in our lives, and walk with Him to possess the Kingdom; for it is our Father’s
good pleasure to give us the Kingdom, Luke 12:32. This year’s Delegates Conference
will be dedicated to teachings on our guiding light.

THE KINGDOM
BIBLE TEXT: LUKE 17:21; REVELATION 11:15; HEBREW 1:8;
Three main components constitute the word kingdom:
1) Sovereignty – the rule and reign of a king.
2) Territory – land or location or space under a king’s authority
3) People- the citizens or people living with a kingdom.
Akingdom is a territory or system whose people are subject to a king or queen. Aking is
a sovereign (highest authority, power or dominion over a territory) ruler of a kingdom. In
this context, we shall view kingdom on a universal level (heavens, earth, beneath the
earth) with God as the only King. This is how it has been even before time began, and as
God has designed it and that is how it will forever be even in the occurrence of
oppositions.

KINGDOM OF GOD
This refers to God’s reign over all creation.
In Gods kingdom there are other sub administrative offices that run the affairs of Gods
Kingdom, some of which are archangel, principalities, elders, powers, princes,
dominions (Man was meant to operate in these offices over the affairs of the earth), etc.
but only one King meaning only one kingdom. This was why God was not pleased when
the Israelites (the people on the earth that He identified and choose to be his own
among a sinful and rebellious world) demanded to have a king that will lead them just
like other nations around them. (1st Samuel 8:5-7)

KINGDOM OF DARKNESS
Lucifer dissatisfied with his administrative office, desired that office which only God
possess, he wanted to be a king, and he wanted a system or territory of his own where
he will be answerable to no one. His desire stirred him to rebel against God and his
kingdom and for this he was cast down with angels and demons that joined him in his
rebellion.
Kingdom of darkness refers to the realm of spiritual darkness, evil and rebellion against
God, led by Satan and his followers. This realm is characterised by spiritual darkness
(separation from God), evil and wickedness, rebellion against God. The kingdom of
darkness is under the dominion of Satan (who is the prince of darkness and by
deception became the ruler of the kingdom of men (John 12:31; 2 Corinthians 4:4). The
kingdom of darkness is temporal and doomed to destruction as it will be ultimately
defected by the kingdom of God and His Christ (Revelation 12:10).
Those who reject God and His salvation are unknowingly serving the kingdom of
darkness. But glory be to God, the kingdom of Christ has come to rescue us, first, from
the kingdom of darkness and then the kingdom of men.
As believers we must be conscious of the deception, manipulations and the agenda of
the kingdom of darkness against us, men are their main target because they know their
fate is sealed, so their aim is to get all men to be destroyed alongside with them (2
Corinthians 11:2; 4:8-10; 1 Thessalonians 3:5; Ephesians 4:1-6).

KINGDOM OF MEN ,
Kingdom of men refers to a territory where man is king.
God recreated the earth, and made man in His image and likeness and empowered him
to have dominion over all He has created, take note God didn’t address him as a king
but classified him in the office of dominion (he was meant to be subjected or answerable
to God as king). Satan, having failed in his attempt in heaven deceived man and this
deception altered the ways man was meant to operate in running the affairs of the earth.
Man began to operate as king and started creating kingdoms for himself and the result
has been a disaster. All operations on earth now fall under the kingdom of men, politics,
businesses, legal systems, rulers, even the religious system is at risk of being part of
the kingdom of men. Any operation on earth that does not intentionally identify with the
work of Jesus Christ (the one by whom God created a platform on earth for His kingdom
to operate) and runs its system according to the principles that Jesus taught (Jesus
taught the principles of the kingdom of heaven) is categorized in God’s sight as the
kingdom of man.
The kingdom of man will not last forever; it will meet its end in judgement and
destruction alongside with its kings, lands (territory) and citizens. This is because it
was not born out of Gods will and purpose but out of rebellion and it is characterized by
all kinds of evil such as murder, envy, hatred, malice, adultery, idolatry, fornication,
witchcraft, jealousy, oppression, intimidation, greed, deceit etc. (Daniel 2:44;
Revelation 19:11-21).

THE COMING KINGDOM (THE KINGDOM OF JESUS CHRIST)
The kingdom of Christ refers to the reign of Jesus Christ over all creation, which was
established through His life, death, resurrection and ascension, the establishment of
this Kingdom is God’s plan to rescue man from the corrupt kingdom of men and its
pending judgement, it is also God’s strategy of reuniting the kingdom of men and the
Kingdom of God as one with God alone as the only King in both heaven and earth. With
God reigning supreme in heaven and Jesus Christ (also God manifesting as man)
reigning on earth. The Kingdom of Christ is eternal and everlasting (Hebrew 1:8-10);
righteous and just (Isaiah 9:6-7); peaceful and harmonious (Ephesians 2:14-18).
This Kingdom is already in operational, enlisting her citizens by their sincere and
committed faith in the finished work of Christ. This kingdom was inaugurated on earth
by the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4) and this kingdom continue to expand
through the preaching of the Gospel, conversion of sinners and the growth of believers
(Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).
The choice is yours; which kingdom will you be committed to in time: kingdom of men
(indirectly kingdom of darkness) or the Kingdom of God and His Christ?

KINGDOM COMMITMENT
Kingdom Commitment is a resolve of a course of action based on the convictions
established in the word of God, going above and beyond with a compelling desire to
please God. The aim of Kingdom Commitment is to please God more than anything
else.
Pleasing God is a supernatural conviction of the heart that chooses to obey God, doing
things acceptable in His sight and advancing His course on earth. It is of utmost
importance that we are committed to God, but many times our commitment to God
falters because of situations.
Eph 6: 5
Here we see that we have an obligation to do and obey the orders of the company
Commitment is more than relationship with the church and family, Kingdom
commitment shows also in the work place.
Heb 10:25
Instructs us not to forsake the assembly of brethren, we have a commitment to the
church families by being a part of it
1 Cor. 6:19
Speaks about our bodies, we have to be committed to God via the way we keep our
bodies.
Matt 22:37-38
This is our chief commitment and it is to God, Jesus is telling us here that with every
fibre of our being we must be committed to loving and serving God. You cannot love
God without serving God.
We cannot say we love God and serve our purpose. We must hold nothing back from
God because He did not withhold anything from us (Jn 3:16). You see God’s
commitment in saving the world hence He gave His only begotten Son.
Luke 14:26-27
Jesus tells us that commitment to God supersedes our commitment to anything else.
Such Commitment to God means our family relationship may suffer just to fulfill God’s
will, we may not see our family members eye to eye all because of our commitment to
the ministry or we can disagree with our family beliefs or traits just to stand with the truth
of the Gospel.
Our commitment to Christ requires us to turn away from the love of family that negates
the love of Christ.
What Jesus is driving home here is the fact that your commitment to God should be so
strong to the extent that you are willing to sacrifice your families’ pleasure at the feet of
Christ just as Abraham willingly gave Isaac but God still provided a sacrifice in place of
Isaac.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that God wants you to hate your family. He is saying that
your commitment to Him has to supersede the love you have for your family and not the
other way round.
Jesus spoke this way because He knows that even in this commitment, persecution will
come, as well as trials; we will have to endure if we choose to follow Him. In John 15:20,
Jesus informed us that people will persecute us because we choose to follow Him. (2
Tim 3:12).

SELF DENIAL
The true cost of one’s commitment to Christ is self-denial (Luke 9:23 24). The picture
painted here is for us to be sacrificial, selfless and be ready to serve. This is what God
demonstrated when He gave His Son. He showed His commitment to save this dying
world. Therefore, we must be willing to copy what our Master did in other to fully portray
our commitment to the Gospel of the Kingdom.
The Life of Apostle Paul as an example of Commitment and Sacrifices to the
service of God

You cannot have sacrifices without service

Gal 2:20
Paul was a Pharisee who persecuted Christians but then at his transformation, he saw
himself as a slave of Christ. He knew it was no longer him hence he had to go after the
Spirit of Christ within him.
2 Tim 4:6-8,
Paul encouraged Timothy and others to step up towards the service of God. Though he
was about to leave, he was still not concerned about himself but about the people he will
leave behind so he had to encourage them to continue in the service of the Almighty.
Do not get tired of service? Do not become weary; you have to stay in the fight, for we
shall reap if we refuse to faint. You need not to bother about your life; if you commit all to
God, He will not fail you. Prov. 16:3.
He will show you because he is the Light unto your feet.
Our Lord Jesus Christ encouraged us to seek first the Kingdom of God and his
righteousness, take up His yoke and learn of Him, then we will find eternal rest unto our
souls – Matthew 6:33; 11:29-30.
Brethren, be committed to living the kingdom life, because Christ is coming with His
reward in His hand to give to every man, so let Him find you in peace with Him without
spot and blame.
NOTE
All the Ministers are encouraged to dwell on our guiding message for this year in all their
teachings and preaching sessions for the fifty two weeks of the year. All programmes
and themes should relate with the message for this year; so that at the end of the year,
we will be able to give account to the Master that we have kingdom citizens for Him.
Remember, total commitment to God means that Jesus is our sole Authority. He is our
guiding light. And our unerr compass; and being committed to Him means doing
something fruitful for His Kingdom.
Beloved brethren in Christ, the Church will converge at the Global Headquarters in
February 2025 for Delegates Conference, all Regions are expected to participate fully
and be part of the growth of the Church. I thank everyone for their involvement and
contributions towards the development and expansion of this Church. May God
continue to bless you all.
God has made this year 2025, a blessed year for all who would commit themselves to
the Kingdom of Christ. As you walk through the year of Kingdom Commitment, may you
experience the presence of God Almighty in Jesus name, amen.
Once again, I wish you a prosperous year 2025. Remain blessed!

APST. Dr. S. N. OGBU