THE LORD of HOSTS by Papa E. A. Adeboye-
Bible Text: Psalm 24:7-10
“Lift
up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and
the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD
strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye
gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the
King of glory. Selah.”
There are 3 categories of Christians. The
first are the baby Christians who drink only milk and cannot take hard
stuff (1Peter 2:2). The second category are adult Christians who can eat
strong meat (Hebrews 5:12-14). Then there is a level of those higher
than adult Christians, they don’t only eat strong meat, they crack bones
so they can reach for the marrows (Mark 4:10-11). These mature
Christians are the ones who are given the opportunity to see the mystery
and hidden things of the kingdom.
You know the category a
Christian belongs to by the way they respond to things of God. When you
say to a baby Christian ‘God loves you’, they get all excited and it
ends there. When you say God loves you to a mature Christian ‘God loves
you’, they are quick to say ‘Amen’ and they also spend time pondering
because they know the bible says God chastens and corrects those He
loves (Proverbs 3:11-12).
For example when God had to proof that
he had power over fire , his beloved Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego go
through fire (Daniel 3). When He had to proof that he was the Lion of
the tribe of Judah, he sent Daniel and allowed him go into the lion’s
den (Daniel 6).
Tonight’s message is for matured Christians who
are bone crackers. The Lord of host is a man of war, He hardly looses a
battle. Sometimes He can lose a battle in order to win a war but He
never loses a war! When it seems like God is losing a battle, then he
has a surprise coming up.
If you read through the book of Daniel
chapter 3, you will realise that God kept quiet while the 3 Hebrew boys
were being persecuted, He did nothing while the fiery furnace was being
heated but waited to show His power when the boys had been thrown into
the fire. By the time God was through with Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, King Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged God as the most high.
In
the name that is above every other name, God will fight your battles
for you. Amen!You will have the last laugh in Jesus name… And by the
time God finishes with you tonight, you will begin your journey to
prosperity in Jesus name. Amen
There are battles God will fight
for you. In Exodus 14:13-21, Moses told the children of Israel to be
still and watch God fight for them. When you are being pursued by
generational enemies, it’s only God that can fight the battle for you.
There
are battles God will fight WITH you. If you read through Joshua 10,
while Joshua was fighting his own battle on one side, God was raining
down great hailstones on Joshua’s enemies from heaven.
Finally
there are battles He will fight THROUGH you. Mark 11:23, says “For
verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be
thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his
heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to
pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith”.
This is a way God
fights your battles though you, you have to do it yourself by saying
what you want. Also in Isaiah 54:17 bible says “No weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against
thee in judgment thou shalt condemn”. The statement “No weapon that is
formed against thee shall prosper” is a battle God will fight for you
while the other bit “every tongue that shall rise against thee in
judgment thou shalt condemn” means you also have to fight the battle
yourself.
Tonight God will fight for you. With you and also fight through you in Jesus name. Amen.
Many
of us like to quote Psalm 68:1-3. “ Let God arise, let his enemies be
scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him. As smoke is
driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let
the wicked perish at the presence of God.”
A baby Christian will
simply say amen to this bible text, an adult christian might even sing
it as a song but matured Christians don’t just quote it, they check to
make sure they are not God’s enemies.
In 2Samuel 12:1-7, God sent
a prophet to King David when He sinned against God, David passed his
judgements not realising the person the prophet was talking about was
him.
You also need to make sure that it is not God fighting
against you. You see, God can either be for you, be against you or just
be very neutral with you. When God is neutral with a man, He is neither
for or against the man, He just leaves the person alone. If God leaves
you for one day, you are finished!
Before you pray for God to fight your enemies tonight, make sure you are not the enemy
SEVEN THINGS THAT CAN MAKE YOU AN ENEMY OF GOD:
1)
You can become an enemy of God by lying to Him. You insult the
intelligence of the all knowing God by telling him a lie. In Acts
5:1-11, Ananias and Sapphira died the same day just because they lied in
the presence of God.
2) Failure to pay your vows can make you an
enemy of God . Ecclesiastes 5:4 says” When thou vowest a vow unto God,
defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools” and remember
Psalm 14:1 says “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God”. In
other words, when you make a vow to God but refuse to redeem it, you are
indirectly saying God doesn’t exist… and when you say to God that He
doesn’t exist, He tries to show you that He does exist.
3) You
can become an enemy of God by not obeying Him completely. If you are not
going to obey God completely, don’t bother obeying Him at all because
God hates incomplete obedience.
4) Lukewarmness can make you an
enemy of God. Revelation 3:15-16 “I know thy works, that thou art
neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because
thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my
mouth”. This is the one many of us are guilty of! Many atimes we have to
be begged to do certain things for God. God doesn’t like lukewarmness
at all, He would rather you were either very hot or so cold. If you are
going to be a Christian, be a Christian but if you cannot be a
Christian,GO! Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well! If you want
to serve God, serve Him but if you don’t want to, stop pretending! it
makes God feel insulted.
5) God gets pretty upset when you doubt
him. Hebrews 11:6 says without faith it is impossible to please God.
Bible also says whatever is not of faith is sin. Doubting God’s promises
makes Him feel insulted. If His words says it, that settles it! Many of
us have lost our miracles half way because of doubt
6) When you
sin, you make yourself an enemy of God. Psalm 7:11 says God is angry
with the wicked every day. That is quite frightening but yet many
Christians continue in sin and expect grace to abound! You can not be a
born-again Christian and still live the way you like.
7) God gets
upset when He warns you but you keep ignoring His corrections. Proverbs
29:1 says “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall
suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”.
Many Christians
have cheapened grace…we tend to say “God is a gracious God” but we need
to remember that it was in this same dispensation of grace He killed
Ananias and Sapphira for telling a lie. Don’t let anybody deceive you,
God is the same yesterday, today and forever!
If you have not yet
given your life to Christ, surrender your life to Him now! And if you
are a Christian still toying with sin, ask God for forgiveness now so
you don’t remain His enemy.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Father! I
didn’t know that I’ve been my own enemy, please forgive me oh! Lord. I
will change completely from tonight. I will serve no other god except
You. Have mercy on me. I will pay all my vows. I will obey You
completely. I will never doubt You again
2. Father! All the
battles that I cannot win on my own, please fight them for me. All
generational curses, Father deal with them for me
3. Father! I
won’t doubt You anymore. Father! I’m saying to these mountains in my
life: sickness, barrenness, any obstruction to my success,
fruitlessness, pains to move in the might Name of Jesus
4. Father! Arise and let all Your enemies be scattered
N.B. Daddy GO says tomorrow (friday) is going to be a great day and he encouraged everyone to prepare by fasting till 6pm.
By Pastor E.A. Adeboye
Day 2 of RCCG 61st Annual Convention 2013:
Theme: JESUS. By Pastor E. A. Adeboye
Bible
Text: Matthew 1:21 “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt
call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”
Romans
6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. When the bible says the
wages of sin is death, God isn’t talking about physical death alone. The
death could be spiritual, financial or even emotional death.
There
is only one punishment for sin and that punishment is death. John
5:2-14 makes you realise what sin can bring into the life of a man. The
man at the pool of Bethesda had been sick for 38years. He tried to get
into the pool 38times and failed 38 times but one day Jesus had mercy on
him and healed him. After he was healed in verse 14, Jesus said unto
him:
“Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee”.
38years of this man’s life was wasted, his life had been stagnant and he was in bondage for 38 years just because of sin.
Sin
and sorrow go together. Psalm 16:4 says “Their sorrows shall be
multiplied that hasten after another god” and in Job 15:20 the bible
says “The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days”
Brothers
and sisters, sin is horrible and that is why there is so much joy in
salvation. When a sinner comes in contact with Jesus and by the blood
the sins are washed away, all the devastations of sin can be reversed in
one day. Immediately the man at the pool came in contact with Jesus,
peace, joy and hope came into his life.
If you go to a man of God
who promises you healing or blessing without salvation, please run away
from him because what he will give you is not a miracle from God but a
magic from satan. Salvation comes first before blessings.
Revelation
12:11 says “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb”. If the
blood of Jesus does not wash away your sin, you remain a slave to satan.
It takes the blood of the lamb to give you freedom from all forces of
darkness.
When you truly surrender your life to Jesus, you begin
to enjoy peace in your body, soul, home and place of work because Jesus
is the prince of peace.
Did you know that there is no salvation
without genuine repentance? Proverbs 28:13 says “He that covereth his
sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall
have mercy”. In Luke 13:2-5, Jesus said unless you repent you will
perish. In 2Peter 3:9, bible says God doesn’t want any man to perish but
wants every man to repent. God wants you to change your ways so you can
obtain mercy.
Many people claim to be born again but they do not
have a clue about what it really means. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says godly
sorrow brings about salvation. When you repent of your sins, you feel
sorry and sad for all the wrong things you have done and then apologise
to God with a determination to change your ways.
Genuine
salvation will turn you completely into a new creature. The bible says
in 2Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new.”
How can you claim to be saved and your lifestyle remains
exactly the same as before? That is a big contradiction to what the word
of God says. When you truly surrender to God, old things pass away…the
one who lies no longer lies, the one who used to steal stops stealing.
There is transformation of character from bad to good.
When you
are saved, there is no sin that is called ‘small sin’, you wouldn’t want
to commit any type of sin because you are conscious Christ lives in
you.
The bible says in Isaiah 3:10-11 “Say ye to the righteous,
that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their
doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of
his hands shall be given him.”. If you are saved, your tomorrow will be
alright but if you choose to remain in your sin, your future will be
terrible.
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been attending church
or whether you are a minister or worker in the church, if you cannot
remember the day or period you gave your life to Christ, you need to
give your life to Christ today. When you give your life to Christ, you
become married to Him. If you cannot remember your wedding date, and you
say you are saved, you’re saved from What?
If you have never
given your life to Christ or if you did in the past but backslidded, you
also need to surrender your life to God today. Confess your sins, make a
decision to forsake all your sins and ask God to have mercy on you.
PRAYER POINTS
1) Father, because Jesus saved my soul, I say bye bye to sorrow, sickness, failure, and defeat.
2)
Father, you said in your word that it shall be well with the righteous.
Because I am Your child, let my tomorrow be alright Lord.
Pastor E. A. Adeboye
