Christlike Part 7 - Principle Check

In this episode, we challenge common misconceptions about God's character and discover what Scripture truly teaches about faith, suffering, and the believer's position in Christ. Learn why God does not use hardship to humble His children, how understanding your identity in Christ transforms your walk with Him, and why faith—not fear or pain—should be the foundation of your prayers. Listen now and strengthen your confidence in God's goodness, stand firm in His promises, and build a faith that remains unshaken in every season.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Praise God forevermore. Amen. First, I want to congratulate you because it takes courage. Okay, and I'm speaking to specific people. Courage to keep coming back. Praise God. It takes courage to keep coming back to church. Why? Because the way God has created this life, everything is delayed. What do I mean by that? Everything you do now, you will only see later. Praise God. For example, if you're on a pursuit to weight loss, you will not see the weight loss the same day. You understand that? If you're on a pursuit to building a business, that business will not become a hundred million pounds business the same day. Usually, depending on what field you're in, these things take a little bit of time. Amen. When you're courting a lady and you want to marry this young lady, her feelings for you have to grow over time. When you plant a seed in the ground, if you want to take the harvest, the harvest will come over time. So God has designed this world in so much of a way that things that you do today, the results are almost certainly delayed. You understand that? Most certainly delayed. When you plant a baby in the womb of a woman, it takes time. Praise God. And so I'm encouraging you and I'm congratulating those who have not even missed a Sunday or a Thursday. Yes. If we are in the business of correcting you if you do something wrong, then we must also congratulate you when you do something right. Praise God. So those who have been consistent, you've not missed a Sunday or Thursday. You deserve to be congratulated. And all the Sundays and Thursdays that are accumulating, you will see the results of them in a few months, in a few years. Some of you are already living in the results of these things. And so that's the beauty of God because the results you start seeing them, and it encourages you to keep coming back. Human beings need to be encouraged. I've seen the beauty of God, and I ask myself very regularly, what would I have been if I wasn't a Christian? And not only a Christian, but what would I have been if I didn't, you know, understand these revelations? Because being a Christian is one thing, we have many denominations. We have Jehovah's Witnesses, we have uh so many now, you know, Protestants, we have so many, and so each and every denomination has their revelation of God. So I asked myself, if I wasn't a Christian, a believer, and I didn't read this Bible for myself and discovered these things, where would I have been? I can tell you where I would have been, I would have been suffering. Amen. Toiling, sick, downtrodden and depressed, bitter, revengeful, angry, maybe even an alcoholic. Amen. Ask yourself, where would I have been if I didn't discover these principles? And if you don't know, the good thing to do is ask yourself where you were when you came here. Where were you in your walk with the Lord when you when you came into this ministry? Where were you in your walk? Praise God. It's a it's a it's a it's a good thing to reflect on because it makes you grateful, and it makes you value you know the revelation and the leadership that you're under. Praise God forevermore. Yeah, you start valuing uh the messages, you value the messages. Yeah. So today we're gonna do what I call a principle check. I'm gonna say some things to you, and you're gonna tell me whether these things are truths or not truths. Every teacher must check that his students are learning, and we will discuss all these truths. Some of them are supposed, and some of them are not. Praise God, but we must discuss it because you've been living by some of these things. I will read out to you today. Some before you got here, before you met this revelation, or when I say revelation, this side of God, you were living by some of these things. Can I read them out to you? Alright, I'll try and be concise. Thank you, Holy Spirit. I'll read out maybe seven or six, we'll see, and we'll continue on the next one. On the next service. Amen. First thing. This is an easy one, it should be an easy one. God gives his strongest battles to his strongest soldiers. Yes or no? Are you sure? I'll read it again. God gives his strongest battles to his strongest soldiers. I've heard that so many times. Okay, some people on that side are saying, Yes, that's true. Okay, can I hear from the middle? Yes or no? On this side, yes or no? On that side, yes or no. Amanda says, Yes, he does. Praise God. And don't castigate anyone for saying a different answer. And this is this is proof positive that some of you would live by some of these things. Do you understand? Because human beings create coping mechanisms. You understand that? So we we we we create all kinds of realities to encourage us to keep going. Nice. So keep that as number one. Amen. It will get harder as we progress. The next one. If it's God's will, he will save me. Think about it. If it's God's will, he will save me. So on the left, yes or no? In the middle, yes or no? My extreme right, yes or no? If it's God's will, he will save me. Have you noticed that the room is getting quieter and quieter? I haven't even moved on to the third one. If it's God's will, he will save me. What do you think? When you say no, what do you mean? That's not true. Does everyone agree with him there? Yeah? Alright. Adama, you don't agree with that, do you? Adama says if it's God's will, he will save me. That's that's nice, nice. Amen. Another one. Bad things keep happening to me, so God is humbling me. Daniel says yes. You agree with that? Yeah? Bad things keep happening to me. So God is humbling me. On the left, yes or no? John says yes, Daniel says yes. A few others, there's a few disagreements. In the middle, yes or no? Yes? Fred says yes. Nice. Okay. On this side, bad things keep happening to me, so God is humbling me. Yes or no? No?

unknown 11:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

What's that number? Three. Number four. I prayed and nothing happened. So it must be God's will. I prayed. I fasted. I sowed. And nothing happened. So it must be God's will. Extreme left, yes or no? In the middle, yes or no? On the right, yes or no? My extreme right. No? Okay. I think let's unpack those ones first before I continue. Yeah? Because they were interesting ones. I've got even more challenging ones. Because the things that come out of people's mouths. Should we start with the first one?

unknown 12:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

The first one was God gives his strongest battles to his strongest soldiers. Some people said yes. Raise your hand if you said yes to that. He gives his strongest battles to his strongest soldiers, David. Sorry, Daniel, John.

unknown 12:34

Okay, nice.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Amanda as well. Alright. Can we look at the word? Let's look at the word. Let's go to Second Chronicles, Chapter 20. So it's chapter twenty, verse fifteen.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Thank you, sir. Second Chronicles, chapter twenty, from verse fifteen, says, and he said, Listen, all you of Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat, thus says the Lord to you, do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

So let's read that statement I said again. God gives his strongest battles to his strongest soldiers. But if you read second chronicles, all right, chapter 20, verse 15, it says the battle belongs to the Lord, not you. So if you were fighting, you were not fighting for God, you are fighting for yourself. Some people get cancer and they say, God gave this to me because he believes I'm strong enough to go through it. Praise God. If you didn't know this, let me tell you, God does not give people cancer. He doesn't. So I understand that these things have come from you trying to encourage yourself. Praise God. God doesn't want you standing in that place where you believe you're fighting for Him. Everything terrible that happens to you, you're fighting God's battles. No, God fights his own battles, he fights his own battles. Hallelujah. Say after me, God fights his own battles. Okay, so Pastor, what if something terrible happens to me? Something bad happens to me. These terrible things that are happening to you are as a result of what you carry inside your heart. A lot of people don't know this. Bad things happen to people who carry the nature of what's happening to them in their hearts. You may think, but okay, I know a lady who was praying every day, and bad things still happen to that lady. That's the thing, though. You don't know what was living in her heart. You cannot vouch for someone else's journey, you cannot make decisions about your Christianity based on someone else's journey. You cannot listen. Can I be honest with you? Or maybe I should sugarcoat it. Even if something bad happens to me, you can't say, Ah, Pastor Max was so devoted, and then yet he got into whatever. So, oh you can't make decisions about your Christianity based on my life because you don't know what's living in my heart. Do you understand that? I may be teaching you, but I have unrepentance in my heart. I may be teaching you, and I have unforgiveness in my heart, and as a result of my unforgiveness, something happens, and you not knowing, because the Bible says, Men judge by the outside appearance, but God judges the heart. So God looking upon me saying, Yes, I sent him, yes, he's my son, but his heart was the problem. The Bible says, Guard your heart. You know why it tells you that out of it flows the issues of life. I told you that word issues is an error, out of it flows the power. You understand that? To control, to detain life. Guard your heart. Yeah, say I'm gonna guard my heart from bitterness and unforgiveness and unforgiveness and rage of guard my heart. So a lot of people do that. They watch their mom, mom has been praying for years, mom has been praying and fasting, and you judge God based on what your mother did. Say, ah, how can my mom die of a sickness? My mom was giving, she was at church every week. Do you know what your mother had in her spirit, in her heart? That's the question you have to ask yourself. And another question you should ask yourself is Am I willing to bank my entire Christianity on my mother's righteousness? Are you listening? Because you don't know what people do in secret. So I made up my mind years ago that I will not bank my Christianity on anyone, I will study it myself and let that beautiful scripture give birth to things in my heart for me. And yes, you you you you may have been there, you may have watched your mom or your dad or your siblings praying, fasting, doing all of those things, and they still never got what they needed to get. Praise God. Are you following? That's nice. Now I appreciate that in this area you will have questions. Amen. So what we're working on at the moment is a forum, all right, our own platform, where you can ask questions during the message, and then right after the message, we'll answer those questions to avoid you speaking out during the service. Praise God. But this is something we're actively working on. We are very proactive, and so we rest assured that that's being uh handled. Amen. Now, what was the second one? If it's God's will, you will save me. If it's God's will, you will save me. If it's God's will, you will save me.

unknown 22:00

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Read it again.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Thank you, sir. Titus chapter three from verse five says, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Amen. So what was the quote itself again? What was it? If it's God's will, he will save me. So let me change it a little bit. It was God's will, so he saved you. Write that down right next to it. It was God's will, so he saved you. Yeah. If you read Titus, he's saying it wasn't by your works. It wasn't by your works. But by his mercy that he saved you. So you can't say, um, you know, if it's God's will, he will save me. Some of the things I realize believers talk about, they don't realize has already happened. Say, God saved me long time ago. Nothing to do with what I did. But just because he loves me. Listen, read that one more time. And the scriptural references I'm giving you, write them down as well, so you can also meditate on them in your personal time. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Thank you, sir. Titus chapter 3 from verse 5 says, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Praise God. I want to show you another scripture on why this point is very, very important. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Um, go to uh Hebrews chapter 5, verse 13, and can you read the Amplified? I'm gonna go there myself. This will tell you why this specific quote is very, very important.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Thank you, sir. Hebrews chapter 5 from verse 13, the amplified version says, For everyone who lives on milk is doctrinally inexperienced and unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a spiritual infant.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

So why why this is important is because the Bible is saying, Paul is saying here that you are actually immature in the things of God if you don't understand your position in Christ, if you don't understand that he has already saved you, if you don't understand the mechanics of righteousness, you are an infant in the things of God, and as you know, you can have milk from time to time, but you cannot survive on milk. Are you listening? So if you don't understand this, all right, this part, he says you're an infant, and you are uh surviving on milk, so every other thing is milk. This is strong me. Why why why is this why is this strong meat? Because this is what keeps you alive. He knows that if you don't understand your position in him, you may do all the other things he asks you to do, but you will leave Christianity. Because without understanding righteousness, you will get discouraged. You will say, I can't do this thing. Christianity is too hard. That's because you don't understand righteousness. If you become skilled in understanding righteousness, you can never leave Christianity. Are you listening? You can't leave the faith because you understand, you know that this thing isn't by your power. Yes, you made a mistake, but this thing isn't by your power. It's only the ones that don't understand that get upset when they fall into sin. They get upset and say it's too hard. I might as well continue living anyhow. This Christianity thing is it's it's difficult. You talk like that because you're still on milk. Read it again, read, read it slowly. All right, understand, he says that you are a spiritual infant.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Go on, thank you, sir. Hebrews chapter 5, verse 13. The amplified version says, For everyone who lives on milk is doctrinally inexperienced and unskilled in the word of God.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Everyone who lives on milk. So, by default, what he's actually asking you to do is to live on meat, which is the understanding of your position in Christ. That's what you live on. Listen, listen, build another word, is found your Christianity on your position in Christ. If you found your Christianity or find your Christianity on something else, you will leave the faith. If you build your Christianity because Pastor Max has been nice to you, you will leave the faith. If you build your Christianity on the fact that Pastor Max preaches really well, you will leave the faith because a Sunday will come where I'm just above. What are you gonna do then, brother? I come on and I'm just saying, you know, things. What will you do then? You can't you can't build your Christianity upon another man, you can't build your Christianity on anything but your position in Christ Jesus, and understanding that position is so important. Understand why is it that when you fall in sin, you feel some type of way? What is that feeling? What is it? You have to know what that feeling is, so you know how to deal with it. Is this the conviction of the spirit, or is this myself, or is this just guilt, or is it the information I have? What is this? You have to know what that is, you have to understand what that is. Amen. Some some believers genuinely believe in their heart, genuinely, that God wants them poor. I've I've met thousands of them genuinely in their hearts, they believe God wants them poor. Yeah, praise God. You see, when you understand what Jesus really did for you on the cross, let's put leaving the faith on the side for a second. When you really understand what he did for you on that cross, nobody will be chasing you to wind souls. Nobody. Living off milk is and and I'm gonna say something that may confuse you, but I'll touch on it another time. Yeah, milk, giving is milk. Yeah. Did you know that? Miracles, milk. Prosperity, milk. He says you cannot live off those things. Faithfulness, milk. Milk is not bad, but it cannot be the only thing that you're living off. You go to the doctors to tell you you are malnourished, my sister. He said you need strong meat. Strong meat is under I understand, I know who I am. I'm not defined by my errors because Christ dealt with all my errors on that tree. It doesn't stop there. It doesn't stop there. He put to bed my errors. That's the part you don't understand, do you? You say, I mean if you put it to bed, so why am I still doing it? That's that's why the Bible says you're an infant. Some people, right? Some believers, when they fall like that, you will not see them in church again for months. What a what a uh Nepeos, what a child. How can you run away from the only source that can clean you?

unknown 31:52

No, sir.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

You fell into the mud, my brother. Go and take a shower, man.

unknown 32:00

No, sir.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

Take a shower. How'd you take a shower? You go to God. Sin should not make you run away from the church, it should make you run towards the church. But that's if you that's if you understand. Are you listening? Do you understand what he's trying to tell you there? Those who live off milk. So many times I'm soul winning, and the person says, Yeah, you know, I'm just trying to finish all my sins. Like, I'm just trying to finish all my sins, then I'll come church. I said to him, Can you give me uh the ETA on when you'll finish your sins? Yeah. Estimated time of arrival. Give me your ETA on when all your sins will be done. He said, I don't really know, bro. I don't know. Walking confusion. Walking confusion. I need to, I need I just need to feel ready. I just need to feel ready. That's another problem people have. I need to feel, I need to feel, I need to feel, I need to feel, I need to feel, I need to feel, I need to feel. Tell your neighbor, you are not your feelings. Yeah. So because you feel hungry, does that make you hunger? You're not your feelings. This side is real quiet. Tell them you're not your feelings. Yeah. Praise God. You want me to move on from this section? This is an important section. This is a key section. If God wants to, he will save me. Say he has saved me. He has saved me. I'm already saved. Even if I make errors, doesn't mean that I'm no longer saved. I'm still saved. In fact, my errors prove why I need saving. My errors prove why I needed to be saved. In the first place. Yeah. Praise God forevermore. I want to do a long series on righteousness. A long one. I want to do a long series on righteousness. Because it's important that you act and behave correctly when you're vulnerable. Because at your most vulnerable, yeah, that's when Satan starts encroaching. You know what that word means? He starts slowly approaching you to devour you at your most vulnerable. And you are the most vulnerable when you believe that God is mad at you. When you believe that God is angry at you, you are your most vulnerable. Because you look around and you say, Ah, if God is against me, who will be for me? Satan is already against me. God is also against me.

SPEAKER_02 35:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

What will I do? No, but I took this attitude from uh King David. King David numbered Israel, he made a mistake, and the seer, God, approached him and said, You have to choose. God says, He wants to hand you to your enemies for some time. Or, you know, uh something will break out, some sort of an epidemic will break out in your country. You pick one. David said something remarkable. He said, I'd rather be handed over to God. Because at least God will have mercy on me. When he sees me suffering, God will have mercy on me. But if you give me to my enemies, you know your enemies? They'll rape your wives, rape your children, pillage the whole place. Your enemies have no remorse. But God in heaven, when he's mad at you, he will look and say, No, that's my child. Now, now, what's interesting is that wasn't even New Testament. Let me just let's move to the next one. That wasn't even New Testament, that was old testament business. So a man in the Old Testament knew that God still loved him, that God in his anger had a limit, a place he will not pass. In the old, we've come into the new where Jesus Christ, our King, has died for us. So forever connect us to God by covenant. And you choose the time to be guilty is now. You belong in the Old Testament. You should be, you should have been around with Jezebel. Yeah. Because around those times, it's okay to behave the way you behave. You make a mistake and you feel sorry for yourself. You're down. I'm not going to church this week. I need to wait two weeks before I'm clean. What religion are you in? No, what religion are you in? So you believe that in two weeks' time is when your sin will wear off. Oh Lord have mercy on us. So what type of sin wears off in two weeks? No, brother, you got it all wrong. Praise God. You see, when I teach these these kind of messages, and this is especially this area, you find that the enemy tries to distract you. That's when you feel sleepy and you feel tired, you feel because this is where the meat comes in. If you get this thing right, Satan can't trip you up anymore. You won't you will never run from God again. You will make an error, run towards him by yourself. No one has to investigate you, no one has to force you, you run to him yourself and say, Daddy, I made a mistake. Because you know him. So when that voice comes to you and says, Look, you messed up, you don't deserve the position you have in church, you can respond. You say, What are you talking about? Where is this in the Bible? Because you know your position. I'll do a very long series on righteousness because if we if we are to grow, and I'm excited for it, yeah. If we are to grow, we need to grow you into maturity. I can't do the work by myself. You have to be able to tell others, no, the way you're thinking is wrong. The way you're thinking is wrong. Praise God. I don't have to correct everything, you can do the work as well. But you won't be able to give someone what you don't have. If you're walking in guilt and another person comes, have you ever seen a guilty party? Have you seen a guilty party before? It's terrible. This one knows she did something yesterday, so she comes with a head like this. And the other one comes to church as well, hiding. Everyone's hiding at the back, and then they encounter each other at the end. My sister, how are you? You know, I did something yesterday. Ah, me too. Yeah, this is how they're talking. Yeah, me, me too, me too. I did something yesterday. What did you do? It's that guy again. He tripped me up one more time. It's that guy, he tricked me up one more time. Praise God. No, but get out of that pity party. You understand that? Yeah, you make a mistake, you walk in the church boldly. Yeah, you're walking in boldly. I have nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing. That's why I'm here. Because I know I need help. Where else am I gonna go? Yeah. This is where you leave everything here on the altar. Do you understand that? Whatever it is that you did yesterday, you leave it here on the altar. Nothing is more powerful, potent, than the blood of Jesus. Amen. And some believers will also not like this gospel because they love staying in the guilt. You see, if I'm you and I'm messing up like this, just constantly making errors, right after the error, you say you say, God, you said I'm your project. You said I'm your project. Change me. Now you're allowed to say that because it's biblical. You're in his will, you're walking in accordance to what he has said to others in the past. You tell him, change the content of my heart. Now, for the following day, you may fall again. What'd you do? Go back again. You may say, but how many times will I keep going back to God? How many times do you shower? How many times do you shower, my brother? How many times talk less of brushing your teeth? How many times? How many times? How many times? Wow, wow, wow, so you got to keep going back now. The physical representation of God Himself, Jesus Christ. The disciples asked him, How many times do I have to forgive my neighbor that sins against me? He said, 70 times seven. By the way, that's in a day. That's in a day. No, it's fine, it's fine. Leave it. That's one day. Now, if you can keep a record of 70 times seven, I think it's 400 and something. What is it? Yeah. If you can keep a record of 490 wrongdoings, I think you got a problem. Praise God. Yeah. So he said, in actual fact, infinity for the day. Forgive as much as you can for the day. Can I change that? It didn't sound right in my spirit. Forgive as much as he says for the day. Yeah, when I said that, my spirit felt off. Forgive as much as he says for the day. So you forgive now, you forgive in the next two minutes again, you keep forgiving because he asked you to. He said, Forgive. Amen. So if Jesus is saying forgive that much, what do you think he's up there doing for us? Say, I'm free of sin. Say I'm free of sin. I'm free of sin. I've broken out the yoke, brother. I'm free of sin. I'm delivered. I'm free of sin. I am. Praise God. Sit down, sit down. Can we move on to the next one? Alright. What was that? Is that number two or three? So three next. Alright. So what was number three? Oh. Bad things keep happening to me. So God is humbling me. Raise your hand if you believe that. Thank you for being honest. God bless you. Bad things keep happening to me. So God is effectively humbling me. Amen. Now I think I remember talking about this. Alright? And I and I said, so what if okay? The bad thing that has happened to you is a car crash. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, no, no. So let's say you crashed your car and you're unable to walk now. And as uh you're unable to walk, you find that in the wheelchair you're still dealing with some sins, and the sin is pride. So by virtue of your principle, it means God should put you in another car crash. No, because you said bad things keep happening to you, so it means that God is humbling you, so more bad things should happen to you, so you can be more humble. My brother, you gotta be careful with what you're saying, man. You gotta be careful. Bad things keep happening to me, so God is humbling me. Really? So the next thing is then they should amputate that leg, then until you're left with nothing, just a toso. You say, God, I'm finally humble. I've lost one leg, two legs, I've lost an arm. Now I am humble. Oh, what a terrible God that would be. So God is humbling me, and in fact, I'm still dealing with some things. Can I shock you? Have you noticed that God will bless you with something that you know you're not ready for? So when you get that thing, you're even still making mistakes. The very mistakes you promised him you would not make. But he's blessed you anyway. What does that tell you about him? He does not bless you based on what you do. What God bases, all right, on what you do is promotion. It's different. Promotion. Getting a job is not promotion in the kingdom. Getting a job is your right. Am I talking to you know believers? Getting married is your right. It's your right. Getting a job is your right. Being healthy is your right. What do I mean right? I mean it's your spiritual right. Whether you misbehave or not, these are things you should be having. So I misbehaved, so I should be sick. No, that's not the gospel. Promotion is different. What is promotion? All right, what is promotion? More responsibility. That's promotion. So one thing is blessing, God is blessing you, or He has blessed you. Alright. And another one is responsibility in His kingdom. It's two different things. Promotion is when it comes out of bearing responsibility on yourself, for example. Alright? You say, um I want a job. The Bible says that those who do not work will not eat. That's in the New Testament. Yeah. In the book of Thessalonians. Alright. The disciples were discussing with each other, and they said to the church that in Thessalonica, they said, if you don't, if you don't go and work, you're not gonna eat. They said that to them. Praise God. So getting your job, getting a job is your divine right. Now, where it becomes a promotion is if you're now asking for something that encompasses other people's well-being. Are you listening? So I may ask God, give me a business idea. Whereas in that business, you're going to be paying people's rent, people's bills, taking care of people. God may even give you the idea, but you stay on one level where you're the only worker there. You may even try to employ someone and you run out of money, and so you go back to that same level again because you haven't been promoted. You will fight with everything you have to go to the next level, but you'll go back again because he hasn't promoted you. Promotion is now encompassing other lives. Why? Because these are people that Christ died for. So for him to give you them in your responsibility, it means a lot to him. Praise God forevermore. So being blessed and being promoted are two different things. I hope you understand that. So let me say it to you in layman's terms. God does not use bad situations to humble you. He doesn't. So if I had not taught about this, you would have left. Something bad will happen, and you think, ah, God is mad at me. You know what you sound like? You sound like those uh those individuals, all right, that they were not really educated. They thought when it would rain, God is angry, he's crying. Say, oh, we've upset him. The rain is coming down, they're like, I we've upset him. So they'll go and give uh sacrifices because it's raining. Can you imagine? And when the sun comes out, they say, God is smiling at us. Hi, he's smiling. What do you think they thought thunder was? See, they said it was the end of the world. The world has ended. The world has ended. That's what you sound like. Are you listening? Well, Pastor, I remember doing something bad, and then immediately something terrible happened. Of course now, of course it did, because that's what you believe. Of course it did. Of course it did. Because that's what you believe. That very bad thing that happened to you right after you did something bad was as a result of your unbelief. How do I know you're you were unbelieving in that time? Because sin attacks your faith. Whenever you sin, like I mentioned earlier on, you want to run away from God. So sin effectively is attacking your faith, and when your faith goes down, Satan attacks you. That's how it works. Now, of course, I'm in no way encouraging you to do bad things because I told you in Acts chapter 10, verse 38 that you've been anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, and you go around doing good, that's your identity. You go around doing what? Good, it's your personality. You look for all the good you can do, and you do them. But if you find yourself in a spot where you messed up, there's a wrinkle in your shirt, don't throw away the whole shirt. Are you listening? Don't throw away the whole shirt. I hope you're learning something. Now let me give you the scripture that will combat this. Are you ready? All right. Romans chapter two.

SPEAKER_00 55:57

Thank you, sir. Romans chapter two from verse four says, Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

SPEAKER_01 56:12

Can you read that one more time for me? One more time.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

Thank you, sir. Romans chapter two from verse four says, Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

SPEAKER_01 56:30

Read the amplified version. I really want you to understand this before we move on to the last one, because I gave you four, didn't I? Right? So we're gonna dissect those four and then we'll pray.

SPEAKER_00 56:43

Thank you, sir. Romans chapter 2 from verse 4, the amplified version says, or do you have no regard for the wealth of his kindness, tolerance, and patience in withholding his wrath?

SPEAKER_01 56:57

Are you listening? He says, Do you have no regard of the wealth of his tolerance? God has a wealth of tolerance for me. I thought I raised you better. God has a wealth of tolerance for me. God has a wealth of tolerance for me. He tolerates me. I keep making errors, but he tolerates me. He takes me on, it takes me on, he takes me on, he keeps taking me on. He has a wealth of tolerance for me. I make mistakes every day, but he tolerates me, he's not angry at me, he loves me, he washes me, he cleanses me, he wants me, no matter what I do, he still wants me. What a God I serve. Praise God forevermore. That should make you happy. That should make you so happy. We haven't even finished yet, and and that's already worth celebrating. Okay, stay stay standing because we we're gonna celebrate a little bit. So go ahead, go ahead, continue reading.

SPEAKER_00 58:38

Thank you, sir. Romans chapter 2 from verse 4, the amplified version says, or do you have no regard for the wealth of his kindness and tolerance and patience in withholding his wrath? Are you actually unaware or ignorant of the fact that God's kindness leads you to repentance?

SPEAKER_01 58:59

Are you actually unaware? Are you actually unaware that his kindness, some other versions say his mercies lead us to repentance? So sit down for a second. How how how then can God use bad situations to humble me if his mercies lead me to repentance? It's in your Bible, the mercies of God lead you to repentance, the kindness of God, the patience of God when you notice that you've done even, you know, sometimes you get to a place where you're like, I even I wouldn't forgive myself, and then you get to God and He says, I forgive you. Will you not change for that type of person? You have done terrible things, and you get there and he says, I love you and I forgive you. And you're trying to explain to him, but yesterday I did this, I did a robbery, I did this, I told drugs, I did, I told my body, I was thinking filthy yesterday, and he says, I don't care about none of those things. I love you and I forgive you, and he embraces you. How can you not want to change for a God like that? Amen. Listen, you you you gotta ask yourself a question, alright? Ask yourself a question when your parents used to tell you of did you change? Did you change when they beat you? Did you change? You know why you didn't change? Because you came of age. Beatings are not for people of age, mercy is the rod is for children. Yeah, the rod is for kids when you come of age, God doesn't deal with you like that, the mercies of God leads one to repentance, the mercies of God lead one to repentance. I want you to meditate on that for a second. The mercies of God lead one to repentance, the mercies of God. So, what does God's schedule look like for me when I mess up? There's love, there's compassion, there's intimacy, there's forgiveness. You understand that? Yeah, he wants to hold my hand, he wants to go on a walk with me and talk with me, he wants to tell me how much he wants me to be better, he wants to tell me how much he wants me to be like him. Yeah, and those walks that you're going on with him is fasting. When you fast, he starts talking to you in a kind, nice way, and he starts expressing to you his expectation for you. He starts telling you, I need you to be like me. If we're gonna change this world, you cannot do it being like you, you have to do it being like me. Amen. Yeah, praise God. Is that number three? What was number four? Say it together. One to go. I prayed, and nothing happened. I prayed and nothing happened. So it must be God's will. Read it, let's read it again. Let's read that again. Say it again, one more time. All right, let's go to James chapter one. Let's debunk that, and I know this is so relevant. So many people think like this. So many people think like this. I prayed, I did everything, and nothing changed, so it means it is the will of God. All right, let me teach you some things. So, James chapter 1, jump to verse 6.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:37

Thank you, sir. James chapter 1 from verse 6 says, But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:54

Hallelujah. You know why that scripture is very relevant? Because I found in my time of pastoring that a lot of believers pray from a place of pain. He didn't ask you to pray from a place of pain. Are you listening? He didn't ask you to pray from a place of pain. He said, Pray from a place of faith. Now, what you must understand is that faith can be replaced by pain. Try and follow me, try and follow me carefully here. This is a very important part. Alright, a lot of believers pray. Alright, let's say you can't meet uh your financial responsibilities at the end of the month, so you pray to God, God, I need your help. Okay, are you praying? That prayer from a place of faith, or is it coming from a place of panic? Let's say you got a letter through the door, and the door says, and then the letter says, sorry, from the NHS, we've done a body MOT of you, and we found X, Y, and Z. And you rush into prayer. You're too quiet. What moved you? Fear. I learned these things years ago. So when things happen, alright? And God doesn't tell me deal with it now. When things happen, you know what I do? I brush. Until I'm calm about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:53

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:54

Are you listening? You know, I get a letter because I get letters of whatever. And I don't like what I just read. I throw it in the bin. I'll deal with that in five days. And that's if it's still bothering me. He said, Don't think that your prayers will be answered if you're praying in doubt. Because you are equivalent to a man tossed to and fro. The bailiffs have come to your house. You ran, you are now praying. You see, you see that prayer? Stop that prayer, open the door, let them in. Because nothing will happen. Are you listening? He asked you to do something, be a doer of the word. He said, Pray, pray from the place of faith. Do not pray from the place of panic. Do not pray from the place of sorrow. Some people say, Ah, I've gone into prayer. Ah, my tears will move God. Listen, listen to me. The only time I've seen that happening was in the Old Testament, where God requested a special request for some particular ladies to come before him and pray and and cry before him. That's what he wanted at that time. But should we now practice it? Because we saw it once in the Bible. The Bible says Elijah took fire and I mean he created this thing in the ground, he dug in the ground, put water in there, and then he added some other ingredients, and fire came down. Should we do that as well? No, we have to learn how to study the scripture. Are you learning?

unknown 1:08:52

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:55

You get a letter about your business. I need to go into fasting. Okay, I need to shut down. What will I do with the business? Okay, I'll fast tomorrow. Okay, no, a hundred thousand times no, a billion times no. Let HMRC wait. Yes, get yourself together. Tell your neighbor, pack it in. Yeah, get yourself together, put your spirit back where it was. Get yourself in that place of peace. Then from there, you can attack properly. Amen. You heard some news from back home. Daddy is sick. Kai. Oh, I need to go. I need to go to prayer. You know what's worse than that? Oh, I need to go, Pastor. I need to uh listen. I'm not one of those men of God that will get you dependent on me. I have my own mountains and have to move, brother. You understand me? So of course I'm happy for you to call, but I'm saying I need you to grow. I need you strong. So that we have more helpers, so that you can help me in my vision. Praise God. Amen. You don't have to ring me for everything. No. No. You have the Holy Spirit. Yeah, you have it in your spirit. Praise God forever. Again, let me make it clear. I have no issues with you calling me at all. Amen. But I'm saying that over time, just study yourself. Over time, you find that you will grow. And when you feel strong, then you can start practicing. Amen. So please don't take anything I'm saying offensively. Amen. I'm a father and I love it when you call so I can help you. The more I do I deposit in your spirit, the more you can grow. Amen. I spend hours on the phone with some of you. Hours. It's nice. I called a lot of you yesterday. We spoke on the phone. Some of you are here. We spoke on the phone for a while. We had good conversation. I advised you. I blessed you. Praise God.

unknown 1:11:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:49

Very important. So I'm happy to do that. Amen. But God also wants you to grow. He wants you to grow. He wants to see you strong. Yeah. So when a terrible uh situation occurs in your private life or in someone that you care about's life, do not panic. Be anxious for nothing. It means that there's not one excuse in this world where you should panic and be anxious. Pastor, what if it's someone I love with all my heart? You can't love that person enough to self-destruct. That's the first thing you must know. The second thing you must know is that you don't love that person more than God.

unknown 1:12:58

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:00

No one should have the power in your private life to make you panic. And I'm gonna talk to the relationship people for a second, then I'll move on. Alright. You get a text. I'm no longer interested in this marriage. You put your head, your hand on your head. You are looking for somewhere to lean on. Say, I need to breathe, I need to breathe. I need to breathe. This this is your life. This is your life. This is your life. You get a text. I found someone else. So I need to. This is your life. This is this is this is this is what you this is proof that you were leaning obsessively and toxically on this person. Your rock was not Christ Jesus, your rock was that person. The person says, I'm no longer interested. You're thinking about how you're gonna kill yourself. I will show him. I will show him. I will show him. No, no, no. This we must televise this. He will see me on social media. What I'm talking about is some of you, you know who you are. Some of you were there last year, and you heard the word of life, and you grew up in that place. You want to be to God, amen. And unfortunately, some of you are still there. It's a terrible place to be. You get a text like that, and you're not looking on Instagram to see who the girl is. Does she look like me? What does she have that I don't have? Why is your life like this? Why is your life like this? Now, it sounds like the ladies are worse than the men, but the men are worse. The men in America, there was a guy that was, you know, really doing really well. We uh encountered in I encountered this individual in the team. I got there, he was doing very well, he's a good guy, he had long hair, nice hair. Amen. One day in practice, I was there for about a year, a year, a year coming up to two years. One day in practice, he comes in angry, he storms in and his head is shaved. I said, So what what happened? And when I got closer, I realized that he shaved his eyebrows as well. I said, I said, wow, what happened? You know, now you know in in Europe, in Europe, yeah, in Europe they do that stuff for for cancer, they raise money. Do you understand? They I I I still don't understand it today. How shaving your hair raises money for cancer. I don't understand it. Maybe someone will explain it to me later. But I saw him, I thought, ah, he must be doing it for cancer. Something happened. So I approached him, I said, Why did you shave your head? You know, maybe I can join you on this on this nice thing you're doing. He said, I need to talk to you, man. You remember we're in America. So as we sit down, we sit down and he starts lamenting. He's explaining to me that his girlfriend left him a text. Yes, but he opened the phone and just showed me the text. It was a long text. I read it, and the text essentially says that I'm no longer interested in you because you can't provide for me. So I said to him, So I don't understand what the connection is between shaving your hair and the he said, I know, I just I just got angry and I just shaved everything. I said, I can't be friends with this guy. No, I I I I I'm telling you, I was already determined at that time. No, but the spirit of God was on me. I said, I can't be close to this guy. No, I can't be close to this guy. This is alarming. Yeah, you know, some sometimes when you see some things on your friends, they're no longer your friends. After that, I decided that day I don't I don't have the tools to help this guy. Yeah, so I have to leave. No, I thought to myself, for a woman, he shaved his head for a woman. You know, his hair was like uh nice dreadlocks, beautiful, like that gentleman there, nice with the hat there. You see that gentleman, nice hair. His hair was like that, very nice, curly, you know, very handsome guy. He shaved everything, even the brows, praise God, God wants you to hear this message because a lot of you men, all right, if you don't get this thing under control, you may find that you hear bad news and you go and kill someone, you go and harm someone. How many uh you know, mini documentaries have we seen where an upset husband or an upset ex goes to kill the lady because she's moved on? Why? Why is your life like that? So your whole life was based on a woman. You must be you should be ashamed, absolutely embarrassed of yourself. Your whole life founded on a woman. As a believer, something like that comes to your door, you see it, say okay. Like I said earlier, it's if if if you were married or you were together for a long time, it can move a person. Get yourself together. Are you listening? Get yourself together. Because listen, let me tell you something. I I'll adjourn here because I don't want to take up your time. Do you know that you can have a heart attack? You can you can die from stuff like this. You can you you can open the door for the enemy to to absolutely destroy you like this. If you don't get yourself under control, nothing should move you that much. You hear this news, you get yourself together. Give it a day or two, get yourself together. After you get yourself together, you walk into the place of prayer. Amen. You know, in the process of getting yourself together, in that time, God would have told you if this is his will or not. Why? Because you're in the place of peace, that's where he can talk to you. So in that place of peace, he will whisper to you that I'm not in there. That was demonic influences. So, what do you do? Now you know that that's not God. You go into prayer and you deal with the spirits that have caused this divorce. Praise God. You don't you don't inflict pain on the other person. See women slashing people's tires, breaking windows. Is that really your life? I think I told you of a situation of a Christian lady who was with a Muslim man, and you know, eventually she said, you know what, for after 20 years, she said, This is not really working. So she told him, I would like to leave. So they discussed it. He was very calm. Amen. He was very calm. Should I end the sermon? Are you sure? He was very, very calm. And then uh she said she didn't know he became so nice. Because he had asked for two months. He said, Okay, this is your house. Give me two, three months, let me get myself together and then I'll find a place. After two, three months, in within the two, three months, he became so nice. Very kind. He was cooking for her, doing everything. But you know what she said? She said he was putting poison in her food over time in bits. So after the first three weeks, she was having severe headaches. She would go to work, she can't finish the day. And her job requires for her to use her mind. She said, I can't finish today. She'll go to the hospital and they're giving her other news. Praise God. She said that went on for up to three months. She said by the third month she was um in bed and she was praying. She woke up and she was praying. And then after she finished praying, she tried to move and she couldn't move. Her limbs were not working, nothing was working, she was just in bed. So in that moment, she started talking to the Holy Spirit. Said, Lord, I can't move. What do I do? You know what the Spirit of God said to her? This is her testimony. He said, Something bad is about to happen to you. But I want you to know that I'm with you throughout the whole thing. So the man came, he came into the room and she pretended to be sleeping. He thought she was dead. He tried to wake her, she wasn't moving nothing. So he said, okay, he closed the door, he raped her. She said she could feel everything. But she had to play dead.

unknown 1:24:16

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:18

After raping her and finishing all his madness, he took her into the bath and tried to try to drown her. But she still had to play dead, and she was praying in her heart saying, Father, I don't want to die. I have a daughter. This is all happening whilst the daughter was at school. So he turned on the tap, he put her in there, so she can drown. I'll tell you the rest next week. Amen. What I'm trying to tell you, what I'm trying to tell you is this is that when you found and build your life on a person, this is a it's called a false foundation. Don't build your life on your husband. Don't build your life on your wife. What does don't build your life on them mean? It means do not put on wavering responsibilities of loyalty on them. Because the day they do something that you deem disloyal, you may do something that you never thought you could ever do. Amen. Some of the hardest men, hardest guys.