LFM – 2016 June 5: It’s All About Jesus!

LFM – 5 June 2016

 

• It been about a year — Choices have to be made on the way forward
• May –> Transitions –> Next level –> Life to be fruitful & Multiply – Moving forward
• — Pastor Graduation & Ordination
• — Secretary Ken developing into Pastor Ken
• — Me – Taking up seriously the Teaching Ministry as I develop the other gifts
• About choices, moving to the next level, setting the appropriate foundations
• Requires kugharamia – building a new house not of the world but of spiritual things
• Requires focusing –> Goal & Prize of the heavenly rewards as — This is not our home

 

Last week

• When in a problem, we easily look for God –> my life
• What about after the problem?

 

• God’s Mercy & Grace presents us with a the option of coming back to God –> Life
• No discipline = No Love
• Choices have consequences –> The wages of sin is death
• Deuteronomy 30:19 (NKJV)

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

• Choosing the narrow & difficult gate (Kugharamia) –> Life , or the wide gate –> Death

Mathew 7:13-14 (NKJV)

13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because[a]narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

• When things seem too good to be true e.g. the wicked prospering –> LOOK OUT
• — Over speeding in Western Kenya
• Everyone has to make a choice – no fence sitting
• Revelation 3:15-16 (NLT))

15 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other!16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!

 

• Changing to striving to know God for who he is , not for what he can do for me
• There is a goal and a prize for the upward call that we are seeking
• It is not of this world –> WE ARE NOT YET HOME
• Not focus or worried about worldly things –> e.g. wicked prospering –> Psalm 73
• When fear, doubt or unbelief comes into focus, means I am focusing on the problem and not on the Almighty God – undercurrents of bitterness, envy, jealosy
• What we focus on is what manifests in our life

 

• Concluded –> Focusing on God and not the World and the things of the world
• Mathew 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

 

 

 

 

 

Last week — main service – John 5 –

• Pool of Bethesda – House of Mercy
• Those with infirmities sought the mercy of God to be healed
• Healing came in God’s timing and season when the angel of the Lord came down to stir the water
• The time and season for the lame man came after 38 years when Jesus came to the man – He was chosen out of the many.
• Do you want to be well? A question that the Lord ask each of us
• –> Blaming / focusing on others — there is no one to put me in –> sign of bitterness
• — Everyone else is the problem, but me
• –> Not reacting fast enough — someone goes ahead before me as I prepare to enter
• But Jesus came with his Mercy & Grace to overlook this mans shortcomings / sins and healed him

 

 

Conclusion / Application

• God tests my reaction time to obedience
• — I pray for the Fear of the Lord –> He says, I jump and ask questions later
•  — Similar to when a dangerous animal came to the room — run and ask questions later??

 

• I need to prepare myself and my answers to God –> Choices
• –> Not lose opportunities for blessings
• Jesus is not interested in the cause of the problem, Jesus is interested in the solution
• He is the solution, Am I interested?
• Some sin in our lives may hinder our healing / progress / prosperity
• When I still sit on the sin, it means I am not ready to let it go –> excuses
• When sin is carrying me, it means it has control over me
• If we cannot confess / get up from our sin, we shall wait till the coming of Jesus
• — My prayer is –> Thy Kingdom come & –> according to Psalm 27:13
• I want to live to see & experience the Goodness of the Lord in the land of the living
• Jesus gives me power over sin & have control over it.
• God’s mercy & grace should lead us to true repentance and seeking after Him
• – Jesus found the man in the temple and told him to stop sinning or something worse may happen

 

My conclusion / application / what I was blessed with last service:

• Isaiah 55:6 (NLT)

Seek the Lord while you can find him.

    Call on him now while he is near.

 

At Lord Favour we are blessed to have a pastor with a prophetic ministry

• Revelation 19:10 (AMP)

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy [His life and teaching are the heart of prophecy.

 

• My understanding of a prophet is one who represents the heart of God to His people.
• 2 Chronicles 36: 15-16 (NLT)

15 The Lord, the God of their ancestors, repeatedly sent his prophets to warn them, for he had compassion on his people and his Temple. 16 But the people mocked these messengers of God and despised their words. They scoffed at the prophets until the Lord’s anger could no longer be restrained and nothing could be done.

 

• When we put ourselves into problems –> Our choices have consequences
• God in His Mercy & Grace saves us, not because of what we do, but for who He is
• — Mercy –> We do not get what is due to us – The wages of sin is death
• — Grace –> Unmerited, undeserved favour – We get what we do not deserve

 

Numbers 21:4-9 (NLT)
The Bronze Snake

4 Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea[c] to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient with the long journey, 5 and they began to speak against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!”

6 So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died. 7 Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that theLord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people.

8 Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” 9 So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!

 

 John 5 — New Testament example – putting oneself in problems because of sin

Numbers 21 – Old Testament example – 

• Challenges in our Christian walk with God –> we may lose patience and complain
• Usually it is a problem of our own making –> Choices have consequences
• –The Israelites refused to obey God –> Go & take possession of the promised land
• Murmuring, complaining & bitterness clouds our focus & thinking
• Vs 5 –> have you brought us here to die?
• — Just like the lame man for 38 years –> We start focusing on the problem / negative  and not on the positive  –> God as the Al Mighty – El Shaddai
• They lost focus and started to overlook even what God was already providing for them
• — They were provided with food – Manna – but they complained that there is nothing to eat
• What we focus on manifests in our life –> focus on death, death came and manifested- — people were bitten and died from poisonous snakes that the Lord sent — Vs 6
• Vs 7 — Recognition of sin & repentance – We have sinned against the Lord & you
• Intercession from the prophet –> Moses prays for the for the people
• The Lord provides a solution –> A bronze snake attached to a pole
• Just look at it and be healed –> nothing else –> God’s mercy & Grace
• — Not focusing on removing the snake (the problem) but on the pole – Jesus (the solution)
• — Not relying on self effort / worldly solutions when in a precarious situation that seems deadly –> FAITH

 

Why a bronze snake?

• Bronze –> judgement
• Snake –> SIN
• Bronze snake –> Judgement for sin –> Cross of Christ Jesus
• When Jesus was crucified, he took the judgement for all sin

 

John 3:14-15 (NKJV)

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but[b] have eternal life.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT)

21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,[e] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

 

• The serpent on a stick was a reminder of their sin which brought about their suffering
• Jesus on the cross is a reminder to us that he became sin for us to be reconciled to the Father
• Therefore, whatever sin afflicts us in life, we just need to look to the cross of Jesus Christ and we shall find our healing / salvation
• If we refuse, we commit the unpardonable sin??
• No other way to the Father but through Jesus (   )
• Mark 3:28-29 (NLT)

28 “I tell you the truth, all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, 29 but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. This is a sin with eternal consequences.”

 

Applications

• It’s all about Jesus
• John 5: 25 & 39 (NLT)
• ²⁵ “And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live..
• ³⁹ “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!⁴⁰ Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

 

• Isaiah 55:6 (NLT)

Seek the Lord while you can find him.

    Call on him now while he is near.

• No one can curse who the Lord has blessed –> Numbers 23:8
• But we can bring curses upon ourselves –> Choices have consequences
• When Jesus comes to offer us the options….
• Deuteronomy 30:19 (NKJV)

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

• May I / We choose LIFE

 

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Sick man at the pool –> received the testimony of Jesus for his life

At Lord’s Favor –> Let’s not wait but also receive the testimony of Jesus for our lives .

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Prayer Points

• Accept God’s mercy & grace…
• Not be a fence sitter…
• Choosing life that we may live…
• Pray for grace to take the narrow / difficult gate that leads to life…
• Thy kingdom come & Thy will be done…
• Live to see and experience the goodness of God in the land of the living…
• Fear of the Lord..
• An obedient lifestyle towards the Lord…
• Keep focus on God and heavenly / spiritual things…
• What we focus on manifests….
• Pray against internal hindrances – bitterness, jealousy, envy …
• Thank God for the Ministry – Lord’s Favor …
• …Prophetic ministry …
• The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy…
• …may Jesus continue to testify into our lives…

 

• Pray for a humble and contrite heart…
• Uproot the spirit of stubbornness and rebellion …
• Accept God’s mercy & Grace…
• looking to Jesus by faith…
• …made the righteousness of God in Christ…