Mathew 24:26
By Odon Bulamba
It’s a joy to be here this morning and a privilege. Early this morning, when I woke up, after praying I watched the All blacks and Irish team playing rugby. I can tell you that many people were happy to see the All Blacks winning that game. Those that lost, they didn’t enjoy the game and were sad. When you lose something in your life, how do you feel? Do you become angry, blaming someone else or do you accept that you failed?
Today the church is preparing itself for the return of Jesus. If you fail, who are you going to blame? Your coach, your team members, your neighbourhood, or yourself if you are not saved? On several occasions, as a student, I used to be happy to have 100% but if I got 80% I would become angry and instead of accepting, I will find a way to blame the marker, or the teacher, or someone else because I didn’t want to take the blame myself.
Mat 24:26, Jesus told us it will be a time when people will start to tell you that Jesus is in the desert or He is here, be careful, do not go. This is a lesson like a teacher in a class room, do not go there no matter what they say. But we all have that intention of going where we are told not to go.
As the All Blacks were playing but people who weren’t playing the game were trying to do the moves to help the players. Because we are a part of the game, although we are outside of the field, we put ourselves in the game and feel apart of the game. When one of the players made a mistake, someone shouted, “Oh why that?” Sometimes we are good at trying to make the Bible fit into our desires and feelings, “God it shouldn’t be this way, I want it this way”.
One of the biggest warning of our time is to not go where people are saying Jesus is. I travelled recently, in one of the churches, after the pastor finished praying, he took the bread and told people, “This is the body of Jesus therefore Jesus is here, if you want to touch Jesus, come here and touch this bread, if you want healing speak to Jesus”. Many people came and worshipped the bread. They believed the bread was Jesus while Jesus said this is just a symbol.
I stood up and ate the bread and said, “This is not Jesus, He said do this to remember me”. The pastor wasn’t happy and I was told that I was misleading his church. When we are misleading others, we always believe we are right and others are wrong. When we mislead people, we try to convince them that what we are saying is the right way and others are wrong. Therefore, you will see preachers in churches telling you all that they want and because democracy is in the church, the church is ruled by the democracy.
New Zealand law says that all are equal before the law so we try to make the Bible fit our law. In the Bible it says do not kill but around the countries, some allow death penalty to keep the country safe while only God is the one who can keep you safe.
Exodus 14: the Israelites had become slaves. I have seen how slaves are treated. In middle east, Africans have become slaves because they are tricked to go there for work and once there those that exploit them take the Africans’ passports. I have seen people being burnt by their masters and I asked, “Why are you doing this?” He said, “I am the master and he is a slave”.
The Israelites were in Egypt for 400 years of slavery, living in fear and trouble and then it was their time to leave. Moses told them, “We have to let you go”. They must have felt joy to leave Egypt to be free. How do you feel when someone tells you about freedom? Here in New Zealand, you don’t understand the importance of freedom but where I am from, to find a small hole of freedom, you feel the heaven coming down.
In Congo, when you wake up, you praise God because you didn’t know you would wake up and when you leave the house you say good by to your wife because you don’t know when you will see her again. When you live in a free country and the government tries to stop your freedom, you will complain but that’s not possible in some countries like Congo.
The Israelites went through slavery for some time and after leaving Egypt they were singing. Then God put them in front of the Red Sea and pharaoh behind. Imagine you are a slave, you used to work hard and everyone makes your life hard and after being freed, suddenly that king is coming to say he made a mistake and is coming to take you back.
After walking miles and now the king is coming to take you back. You will feel fear growing in your heart and when fear comes, it doesn’t care about your size, knowledge or who you are. Fear attacks you to the point you lose control. You may scream or shout for help but fear will continue to be there. You will lose your appetite and joy. You will see things that you normally wouldn’t see.
One time I was flying with Air New Zealand coming back to New Zealand and suddenly the plane dropped like a stone for a few meters and people screamed and we felt it was the end of our lives. fear doesn’t give you time to shout. You can start to run but you don’t know where to run or hide. The pilot apologised but people were not happy and people complained when we landed. Fear can make you hate someone.
I think Israelites froze with fear. They started to blame Moses while it was there own salvation. They accepted to leave Egypt but when things went wrong, they blamed Moses. Moses looked up and spoke to God and God told Moses, these Egyptians you see, you will not see them anymore. God told them to continue walking across the sea, believe me you will never see these people again.
Ask someone like me to cross the Waikato river while I can’t swim. I will tell you better that they take me rather than I cross the river. I know I will die in the river if I walk across. It arrives sometimes in our lives where there is a tough situation and we don’t know where to go and we feel that God is not capable of giving us solution to our problems.
These people of Egypt wanted to keep the Israelites as slaves. When you were saved, you left Egypt and Jesus told you, salvation is yours. You felt joy and freedom and you started your journey with Jesus. Now Jesus is telling you, “When someone tells you I am here, don’t go there”. The serious problem that we Christians are crossing is that whatever the pastor says, we believe. We don’t have time to read the Bible and understand that our church leaders can sometimes make mistakes because they are humans too.
We believe everything our pastor says must be the truth. In Kenya, this pastor was preaching and he said to people, “Jesus is in me and lives in me and I can feel his presence right now. Women who have been suffering and have problems giving birth and want to be married, its your time now to come and kiss my feet and by doing that you will get all that you need”. He stood up and put his leg forward and a que of women were coming and kneeling down and kissing his foot.
I wasn’t present but my friend was there and he became angry and kicked the pastor’s foot. The churches response was to stand up and say, “Devil in Jesus name, we cast you out”. Young men caught him and put him outside. We believe that Jesus is here. Some of those men are going astray and have left the Bible and are trying to mislead the church.
Salvation is a personal matter and the bridge is not your pastor or you friend, the only bridge is Jesus. Trust in Jesus. When he says be careful, don’t go, please don’t go. If they tell you Jesus is in Auckland, check with Jesus, “Are you in Auckland?”
When I was 11 years old I used to say, “I will never fail”. My cousin challenged me, “You never fail?” and I said, “Yes never no matter what”. She took 50-100 red chillis and told me to eat them in 10-15 minutes, “Then I will believe that you never fail”. In my brain I thought 10 mins was a lot, I can finish in 5 mins. I asked her, “What will you give me if I succeed?” “I will call you boss and give you glory”.
After only 2 chillis, I started to scream like a pig. When my mum discovered what I had done, she asked me if I was normal, “Why are you eating chilli? You must kill yourself to be called boss?” She smacked me and told me I am stupid because only a stupid person will do that.
Sometimes we do stupid things when we want glory. We want to prove we have a greater relationship with Jesus than others but we look stupid. Who crucified Jesus? People who knew the Word of God, who used to spend day and night reading the Word of God. Jesus was never their friend but he became the friend of someone next to Him on the cross. How many Pharisees came to Jesus to talk about the Kingdom of God? They had no time for that.
You are invited to remember that your life is short on this earth and soon we will give a feedback of all our actions. Know that Jesus lives in you and you in Him and if someone says, Jesus is in Ngaruawahia, tell that person that Jesus lives in me so I don’t need to go to Ngaruawahia to seek Jesus. His presence is in you so no need to climb a mountain to see Jesus.
The first commandant says to have no other God or to make something a God. If you believe you feel the power of God in this chair or in this corner of the house, you are creating an idol and you may not enter the Kingdom of God.
Once you realise you don’t respect God’s warning, please make two steps back and repent. Once you know that Jesus has said don’t and you have been doing it, you must repent to keep a good relationship with Jesus. If not, you won’t enter the Kingdom of God when He returns.
I must accept the responsibilities of my life, my soul and the souls of those around me.
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