Again, we are glad to bring you the review of today’s sermon. Oh how sweet it is when brethren fellowship round the word of God, it brings renewal and spiritual cleansing. As the Holy Spirit has told us through His servant how our survival this year is tied to these three things: Fellowship, Prayer and facing his work; it pleased him again to bless us this evening.
Texts: JOB 1:8-22, 1 CORINTHIANS 10:13, GENESIS 37:10, 1 CORINTHIANS 12:25-27, JAMES 5:12-16
As we keep up the good fight of faith, we shouldn’t expect it to become easier, rather it’s getting tougher, because great faith is needed to meet up the coming of our groom. God, more so, having prophesied of the end time condition in the Bible, is making them come to pass, and everything is failing us, so that we can fix our gaze on him alone, and be in expectation of the better kingdom to come. God uses trials to make us spiritual, everyday in this world cannot be sweet, else, we won’t seek that kingdom he’s prepared for us. God is allowing all of these things to wake us up, and to realise that the word of God is true.
On Tuesday, the sermon ‘restitution’ was preached, to let us know that there first needs to be restoration, before God can come to rapture us, and that is why he brought us to a message of restoration (the ministry of Malachi 4:4-5). And as we heard in the message, we need to confess our faults to one another because the absence of that, can hinder our healing (James 5:16). We need to be humble and have a repentant heart. ‘Effectual fervent prayer’ is not how much you shout, but the condition in which such prayer is offered -having a contrite heart. He’s restoring us to his word and hence we must not take the word of God lightly; Righteousness is ‘making yourself right by the Word of God’.
Great men, great women in the Lord, they always have great trials because to whom much is given, much is expected. So don’t be confused when you are facing great challenges (so far it is not self inflicted) because God sees you as great. It’s not your money that makes you great in the sight of God, it is your faith (you may be great in this world and be nothing in the sight of God). It is the fear of God and righteousness of God that Job exhibited that made him great in the sight of the Lord; Job was a great man and he went through a great trial.
Think about a man as Job, when God was boasting about him to the devil, God knew he wasn’t serving him because of wealth, or material things; contrary to what the devil was thinking that Job must have been serving God because He blessed him, and that is why God, wanting to show the greatness of Job, permitted the devil to touch him. Thus, because Job was great, he had great trial, and truly the greatness of Job was manifested, after all that happened to him, he did not charge God wrongly, he exclaimed “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Brother, your greatness truly, is the faith you have. That was what God boasted of in Job.
When you’re passing through trial, don’t despise or mock God; at the end of it, it’s going to be joy. He will not allow you to be tested above your faith and when he’s testing you, he is the one that will make a way for you. He’s not testing you to destroy you, he’s testing you to bless you and keep your fire burning. What God is using to draw us closer to him, the devil is using it against us. The greater you are, the greater your trial because your reward will also be greater; at the end, God restored in double fold what Job had lost and God blessed him because when God tested him, he did not deny Him
May God increase our Faith. Shalom.
You can please follow up with the sermon video here