The round-about

Once again glory to God for being here today.  Today is a new day and tomorrow is coming and we have no idea what it will bring for us.  Are you ready to receive tomorrow?  If yes, praise God.  If not, think twice.

 

Mark 6:37

They came to Jesus saying, we need something to eat and He said, “Give them something to eat”.  This is what I will call that the roundabout.  At the roundabout you find three or five or six different roads coming from different corners of the city and you have to decide what road you will take and if you choose the wrong one you may end up in the wrong destination but choose the right one and you end up in your destiny.

 

Jesus was preaching and suddenly He said, “We have to go because the crowd was increasing” and He went into the boat with the disciples.  Those on the land will run by the boat and wherever the boat landed, the people would be there.  Humans were rushing to catch up with Jesus.  Maybe the disciples said, “We can breathe now that we have left them behind, we are now free” but then suddenly the crowd shows up again.  Jesus looked at the crowd of people with compassion and said, “I can see they are like sheep without a shepherd and they need someone to look after them”.

 

How often do you have compassion on others, to yourself, to your work and what you do with that compassion?  Jesus has compassion on us and He knows we need someone to feed us and look after us.  The disciples knew the Word of God but they weren’t supplying enough to these people.

 

Jesus started to preach to them, to feed to them and after taking it all in, time was not waiting for them and now it was late in the evening.  The disciples stood up, “Lord, these people are tired and it is getting late”.  Look how the disciples are teaching God the time and reminding him that time is ticking, you are taking too long.  Sometimes we shake God, look time is passing, why are you taking long before you let us go, feed us, give us the answer to my prayers.

 

These people are hungry, they need food.  Maybe the disciples themselves were hungry.  Jesus looked at them and said, “Give it to them”.  You ask God for something and He puts it on you to find the solution while you have nothing.  Jesus didn’t have any food in His hands but they were asking Jesus for food to eat.  Give them food to eat was his answer.

 

When you reach a roundabout and you haven’t decided which lane to take, you panic and maybe stop in the middle of the roundabout and then a person will beep at you and you will miss the road and try again.  Sometimes God takes us around and around and you have to give yourself the answer.  You are capable, don’t stop at the roundabout because you will create a problem and someone might be killed.  You can’t say, I will leave my car here and walk.  You need to move at the roundabout and have to get prepared for vehicles that come and we have to be alert on right and left, how will I escape.

 

Jesus said it is your role to play, find something for these people.  How?  Ourselves, we have nothing.  We are too far from the shops.  How will we do this?  They were moving and thinking what they could say, they didn’t have money or shops or enough bread to feed everybody.  “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked His disciples.  He knew they had nothing.  The disciples were not prepared to stay there forever and were sure they will go back home and won’t need to bring food with them.

 

This is the challenge God sometimes puts us in.  You have to give offering and people will tell you, I have nothing.  Maybe give your heart, voice to sing.  He needs what you give from the deep of your heart.  Jesus said, “Put those people together in groups of 50s and 100s.  The disciples counted.  How long can it take to count those groups and when they were counting, they were hungry and tired while people are moving and disturbing the order so the disciples had to count again.  After counting and putting them in the groups, “Who has food among you?”

 

The little boy whose mother gave him 5 bread and 2 fish spoke up.  Jesus came by water (on the sea) and the people ran on the land.  The fish comes from water and the bread comes from the land.  The fish and the bread met together in the bag of the little boy.  No one knew what was inside of the bag while people were hungry.  The boy spoke up, I have some bread.  Five loaves.  A crowd of thousands and you only have five bread.  Jesus said, bring it here.

 

Once they brought it to Jesus.  Before they saw the bread and fish, they have to unpack the bag.  You can have all the blessings with you while others are crying with hunger but you have to unpack what is inside.  When you think about the desert (where they were) you think about dry land with sand and no grass but miraculously there was grass here because Jesus said to sit on the grass.

 

You might be in a situation where everything in your life is dry (love, relationships, money is dry) but God can make grass for you with a group of 50 people to make happiness in your life.  In that big crowd of people with a little child with his little bag of fish and bread and no one noticed him because he was just a child.  Maybe the disciples were only asking adults and putting the children aside.  That is what the church is doing today.  I’m a pastor, I only want to talk to pastors.  You people down there, I have nothing to do with you.

 

Lord our God blesses you through small things.  The first Adam was created as a man but the second Adam was born as a baby.  Jesus was born as a child.  Why not come down as a fully grown man?  The Kingdom of God is like children.  The secret behind children?  Jesus calls us children of God even though we are adults.  I’m an adult but God will say, you are my child.

 

This young boy didn’t cook the fish or bake the bread, the mother did the job and gave it to him to eat.  The mother did not come with the boy, he went by himself.  The boy is among the crowd of adults with fish and bread hidden, bring him out.

 

When you are at the roundabout in your life, look at the children (those who are humble and will tell you the truth).  Jesus took the five bread and counted them.  How long would it have taken to count?  Two seconds to count the fish and bread while the disciples had to count groups of 50s which took time.  Five plus two equals seven which we all know the meaning of that number.

 

The people were sitting down waiting and hungry.  Be patient.  Jesus picked up the bread and broke it piece by piece.  Hurry up Jesus, we are hungry.  Jesus broke it into small pieces and maybe some pieces were dropping on the ground.  Finally the blessings started to show up.  The power of breaking the bread started to show up.

 

If you want blessing in your life, accept to be broken first.  Accept to be broken in pieces and accept that you are nothing and that is when God will bring you a huge blessing that can feed 4000 men.  If you don’t want to be broken because it hurts, God will tell you, “If you don’t accept to be broken, forget about my blessings”.

 

All those in the Bible who were blessed, even healings, He will tell you, you are a sinner, sin no more.  I will break you by informing everyone here, you are a sinner, don’t sin anymore.  Imagine you are exposed in front of the crowd.  How will you feel?

 

This rich person, “I’ve done everything God, now tell me how to inherit the Kingdom of God”.  Give away your wealth.  “No way, I’m against that”.

 

This young boy made a big sacrifice to give away his food and he stayed there empty handed because he gave everything away.  He didn’t hide it or keep for himself but gave for the entire crowd, “Jesus take it all, do what you want”.  How often do you give to God all that you have?  We very often hold onto half of it and only give God a portion because we believe we will lose something. 

 

God is asking you to give it all and the boy did.  Suddenly they forget about the boy and only focus on their own loaves and fish.  They started to eat.  After eating the bread, the Bible says that 12 baskets were collected.  Why do you cry or complain about your situation everytime and tell God you don’t have enough?  God is saying you have your bag with you, five loaves and two fish, it’s enough for you and others but why don’t you bring it out and share with others.

 

I only have $10, what can I do with this? I have two kids, maybe we can have fish and chips and then while I’m thinking, Ange turns up with four girls and then Annette with Chris.  If I buy $10 chips with this crowd of people, my children will not have enough.  We become selfish, I will wait for them to leave so we can have enough.

 

God says, “I have given something small in your pocket but you don’t want to share with others”.  Some will prefer to use the money for a movie ticket while someone is hungry.  Where is love, where is Christianity?  Aren’t we like the disciples, God has given them a crowd and He feels compassion because they had no leader.  The disciples had knowledge for themselves but not to share with others.  Judas had money but didn’t suggest to buy food, “No, I’m a good accountant, we don’t have to spend money”.

 

When it is a matter of money, people become serious.  Because of love of money, people will fight the government, their bosses, the shopkeepers, “you gave me the wrong change”.  Here Jesus is teaching us to give it all.  The boy didn’t say, “mummy said its mine, I can’t share it”.  He opened his heart, “here it is”.  Now this small boy is written in the Bible as sharing his food.  Where were the adults?  Maybe some adults had something small but didn’t want to give it, they kept it for themselves and when the miracle was performed, they thought, oh I should have given.

 

We sometimes run behind God and ask God for something and He says, “You have it,” and you go around and around the roundabout and God says, “Give what you have”.  What you have to do is open your mouth and ask God what road should I take?  That is the first mistake Adam did.  When the serpent arrived and gave Eve the fruit.  Why didn’t they wait for God and ask Him if they were allowed to eat it.  Because of lack of patience they didn’t want to wait.  We always need patience in life.

 

If you don’t have patience, you don’t have love.  Those who sat down waiting, they could not see this if they couldn’t wait for the disciples.  Once the miracle happened, the job of the disciples was to distribute the food and people were eating with joy.  How do you feel when people eat with joy with you?  Some might feel like telling the visitors, “You have eaten enough now, stop now,” because they are thinking of tomorrow. 

 

When God gave the manna, that bread could only be eaten today and not tomorrow because God gives more tomorrow.  The blessing that you get, even the talking that you do, seeing people are all blessings so use it and share in a nice way with others.  Be kind with others.  Treat others like human beings.  God is asking us to use our blessings so others benefit from it.  If you have extra shoes, give them to others and that is how you get more blessings.  After giving away, you will be surprised to see you still have 12 baskets of blessings (After eating, Jesus said to collect it all the leftovers). 

 

We send our children and we want them to be children of God.  When satan comes in our family and wants to snatch our child, what do we do?  Stop, give him/her back and you fight.  The secret to finding the solution is to pray, seek God first.

 

God says, I’m here for you.  Show off pastors will pray and command Jesus and Jesus says, “I will not do it, who are you to command me?”  Give your problem to Jesus directly, He will break you but give you the solution and you will get all the blessing.  Don’t minimise yourself, you have enough because five loaves fed 4,000 people.  Two words in front of God is enough.  A pastor can never sort out your issues, talk to God, He is your friend and God and provider.  God can do it.  There is no other solution except for God. 

 

Instead of going around the roundabout, ask God which way to take and He will tell you which exit to take and you will continue your journey.

The Test

 

 

 

Glory to God to be here this morning, this is a blessing for all of us to see another day.  Every morning I look at myself and think, I was younger than this two years ago.  When I look at what I used to wear two years ago, I wonder how I wore it because now it is old fashioned.  Life goes on and everyday there is something new and what you saw yesterday as being flash and perfect, is now useless. 

 

I found a Bible here that belongs to Tyrone.  If someone tells you to pay $40 for the Bible, you will say no because it is old but the words inside the Bible are not old, they have the same power as a new Bible.  Why do we prefer something new?

 

Today’s message is titled the test.  When a test is in front of you, what do you do?  Do you quit, endure, surrender or say, I don’t know what to do?

 

1 Sam 17

This is a story we know very well, the story of Goliath and David.  David was born in a family of boys.  His brothers were stronger physically, they were taller, bigger and more handsome and more attractive.  Awkwardly, David is there as a tiny little boy and some theologians wonder if he was really the descendant of Jesse because he looked different to his other brothers.  Even David wrote that his father he did not know.

 

Everybody in the family looked down on David, he didn’t deserve to be there because he was different from the rest.  The father wondered what kind of boy is this, shame on me to have a son like you who can’t act like a man so he sent him to look after the sheep, a job normally given to slaves and workers and those not really strong for a battle.  A shepherd is looked down upon in that society and whenever a shepherd looked for a wife, they would be ashamed to tell the woman that they are a shepherd.

 

When it was time to anoint a new king of Israel, God sent Samuel to go to the house of this man Jesse and bless the one He has chosen to become a king.  Samuel asked the father, who among your children should become the king and he took the first born because for the past several years he had been serving the army and knew all the strategies of the war so Jesse believed that son will become a very good king but God said, “no, not him”.  Then Jesse chose the second son but God put him aside also, and then the next son until there were no sons left except David. 

 

Samuel must have looked at David, a skinny, sickly looking boy, “This is the one? God are you joking” but God said, “Yes that is the one, the weakest one, the one that you believe is not like others”.  Maybe the brothers started to say, “We are not even sure who his father is, he is not even one of us”.

 

Samuel put the oil on his head but he didn’t become king straight away.  Receiving anointing is like a ring when you get married and you say, “look this is my ring I give to you and from now on me and you are one, during hard times and joy, we will be together”.  If you take the ring off and put it on another finger, it will change the interpretation and whoever will see the ring is on a different finger will not believe you are married.  The same ring can go through different fingers.

 

This alliance God did with David, He said keep it there, the anointment is on you, now start to work.  Whenever God anoints you with oil on your head, how long will you keep that on your head?  Will you not take a shower?  Will you be afraid to if you shower, you will lose it? 

 

Samuel 17:17, David’s father requested that David take food to his brothers at the army camp and to check on how they are.  The next morning, David started the journey.  He took only the meal to his brothers and no one else and his only mission was to find out how they were doing.  He didn’t leave home without any other purpose or idea that he will face a big challenge in front of him.  He came with his food only.

 

When he arrived, the anointing started to play a role in David’s life and that is when God made the anointment to take up action and it started to shake David.  Goliath showed up and he was a giant.  The Bible tells us how tall he was, he was three times the height of me.  His arm circumference of his arm was almost the size of my chest and when he walked, the ground would shake because of his size and looking at him, you see death.  Imagine the army of Saul who were trained and were good soldiers and their role was to fight and kill the enemy but when Goliath turned up, the whole battalion feared.

 

Why couldn’t they put together their entire strength and defeat him.  He would abuse God and Israel.  Saul said, “If you fight I will give you everything you want, even my own daughter,” without asking permission from the daughter.  Who doesn’t want to become rich?  That day, people were running away from wealth and believed it is better to die poor.  The little weakest David, was there.  Whoever will fight Goliath would get power and wealth.

 

David, a shepherd found this mission in front of him.  David has zero training of how to fight or even put on the military clothes. He doesn’t know because he is not a soldier.  Goliath started to abuse God and David wasn’t happy.  Abuse someone else but not God.

 

The battle was not David’s battle, he is not a soldier or here to fight the enemy but God put him in that position to allow David to join in.  I remember when I was a child and my young sister on our way to school said, “See that person, he beats me up every day”.  I was around 9 and he was the same age.  I didn’t stop to think and I jumped on him and started to fight.  As a child, I had a terrible way of living and whenever I fought someone, I would never give up until I had won the battle.  If I lost the fight, I would come back the next day to fight and I would keep coming back until I finally won.

 

People separated us and I told them that he beats up my sister and my sister said, “No, not him the other one”.  I jumped into a situation and fought the wrong person.  What should I do?  Whenever we have strength from God and His alliance and we have life and talent, we sometimes misuse that talent.  Who chose you to be born how you are?  Did you choose your mother/father or choose to be clever/not or short/tall?  God has put you in a position where you face the realities of the world and you have no choice.

 

You might be born in a broken family or in a family where your father has no time for you or your mother is a witch and someone comes to you and says, “Odon what do you want to tell us, your mother is a prostitute,” and I get abused for what God had chosen.  Why this battle Lord that I don’t even know? Some people will hate themselves or others because God has put them in a terrible situation.

 

Now David is here, “I have to go and fight against the giant”.  “Hey David, what are you saying?”  Then his brothers became angry, “No, you didn’t come to fight but you came to bring food and now it’s time to go back to look after the sheep.  You don’t’ deserve to be here”.  How often do people come into your life and tell you that you don’t deserve this, “We know you are weak,” and they stress you and push you down and you start to doubt who you are.

 

“Your sheep are in the desert waiting for you, they will get lost and your place is there”.  How often do you feel you are not good in this area and others tell you, “You are not good at this, you are better at something else?”  E.g. “Odon you are not good in English, don’t preach here in New Zealand, just wait until you go back to your country so you can speak in your own language”. 

 

You may start to convince yourself that you are weak but we sing, “Let the weak be strong”.  David remembered he had the anointment, “I was anointed and chosen to become a king”.  Although it was impossible for someone who had not joined the army to become king but David held unto God’s promise.  The Bible clearly said, the first born became angry.

 

Imagine, if you Peter go to see your older brother Ken and he becomes angry at you because you won’t listen to him.  You know how brothers can fight.  David tried to reason with his brother which means he started to become afraid of him.  Someone told Saul that they had found someone who is ready to give up his life to save the kingdom.

 

Imagine being Saul and no one accepts your order to fight.  “Go forward,” and they move back.  If you are the king, you will maybe kill all them yourself because they are not good soldiers, they are running away.  When the Prime-minister is there, the rugby team of that country will play stronger and accept to break all their bones because their leader is present.  Here, the presence of Saul did not stop those people from running away.

 

Saul asked David, “What is your size?”  He gave David the clothes from the king, clothes that not every person can touch.  The brothers of David started the first war against David while he hasn’t even faced Goliath yet.  Instead of unifying themselves to attack the enemy, they attack their brother.  In the Christian community, those that are with you will be the first to let you down and tell you, “I know your weaknesses”.

 

The next battle David faced was to put on the king’s clothes that didn’t fit and try to use the king’s weapons.  David tried to wear it but he decided, “No, I won’t use what you have given to me because this doesn’t belong to me.  I have the oil on me.”  The anointing God has given you, is on you and the world can’t see it but God can always see His hand upon you.  How many stones did David have?  Five.  He picked up the first stone.  I’m sure his brothers thought he would die.

 

David didn’t remember he was a simple shepherd but remembered, “Whenever the enemy attacked my sheep, I would use my slingshot”.  The enemy here is abusing God.  What will you use?  Remember what you have is sufficient.  Your life is sufficient to defeat those who others used to run from.  If you have $2, it is enough.  If you have a message to preach, it is enough.

 

Goliath, “Are you joking, look at me, little man, are you joking?”  David, “In the name of the Lord, today, your day is finished”.  Goliath, “You are coming to me like someone who is attacking a dog,” and he became angry.  David wondered, should I go back?  If you see a tree 600 metres away from you, the tree looks small but coming closer, it gets bigger.  David coming closer realised Goliath was bigger.  David said, “I’ve given my life for the sheep, let me try”.  Others cheered him on, like parents at a rugby match.  When he scores, we take the glory of our son.

 

Goliath was killed and he couldn’t be killed without David’s effort.  God gave David the skills, the anointment and the right time to be at the battle field.  Although the purpose was to bring food, God changed the plan and he became a hero.  You can think your life is this but in one second, you can become someone else.

 

Maybe his brothers cheered and said, “Glory to our family”.  Now he is part of the family and maybe they start to think about money, “It’s because of us that you came here to bring food”.  What would be your reaction against your brothers, maybe you will take revenge.  

 

After killing Goliath, the Philistines ran away.  David knew how to use a sling shot but he had to use his physical effort to make the stone to move from one point to another.  Most of us Christians fail when it’s time to use our effort, “God help me,” “Oh, He knows my weaknesses”, “Please God, I can’t do it, forgive me God”.  Why not?  “Because I’m weak”.  Who told you are weak? What about My anointing I gave to you? 

 

There is no small or weak anointing but we try to bring ourselves down because we are weak but you are not weak, it’s just a matter of making a decision.  When you want to buy shoes, you will make a decision.  It’s up to you to know where to go from here.

 

David made that effort.  He had four stones left to kill.  What you have is more than sufficient.  God will tell you, “You still have four left if you use one”.  What excuse can I give to God?  If you are a sinner, yes, ask for forgiveness and move forward but we start to try to forget the number of stones we have.  We want to prove to God, I only have one stone, and I can’t talk because I stutter like Moses.

 

How many Goliaths do you have in your life, in your workplace, in your home?  Sometimes even your brain will challenge you.  I was born as the only boy in my family, I needed a brother so we could play.  Maybe Colleen is the only daughter and her brothers put her aside.  You feel it.  Whenever they are doing their own things, you can’t take part.  Those challenges will continue day after day but it is time now to defeat those challenges and remember we have the anointing and the role we used to play to look after the sheep is finished and our role now is a warrior and we have to fight. 

 

The warrior will not use a sword but a slingshot.  A sword means you have to come close but a slingshot can be from a distance.  Try to cut the stone with a sword.  No matter how weak you are, with your slingshot, you can defeat it in Jesus’ name.  Leave the problem, take distance and the problem will collapse.  Although Goliath was taller, it didn’t take long to fall down.  The strongest man was killed by the weakest person of the entire nation of Israel.  We are all stronger than David, physically, spiritually, mentally.  The anointment came once.

 

God gives you the anointing every single day in the Holy Spirit to teach you, guide you and He is living in you.  It is not like David who had two drops of oil on his head.  Who is that Goliath that will resist you?  Only if you refuse to take control or make a decision or effort. 

 

The son of David is Jesus.  David didn’t give birth to Jesus.  Jesus came down to save Israel and then He brought food for us (bread and wine which is His body and blood) and He told us to take it and eat but we are in a battle field, “I’m coming to see how you are doing down here, it’s not your battle, it belongs to me”.  Your sickness, worries, money problems, just say in Jesus’ name and it will be won.

 

We go to our friends and ask for help while God is looking at you and says, “You have enough, you don’t need a sword or to wear what Saul is wearing before you fight”.

 

Pray and tell God, “Make me a warrior, change my status, I don’t want to be a shepherd taking care of useless things, I should take care of Your nation and take care of Your work because you anointed me to be a part of your family and your work”.

The Persecuted

Below is the message typed as Odon spoke.  Therefore, it will not be exactly what Odon said.

The message today is about the persecuted and when we talk about persecution we can only think about torture, misery and hard life. 

 

My message will be built from Acts 3: 1-2.  The man in this verse had only one job and that was to ask for support from others.  Last time we talked about the ninth hour and we know what happened in this story but now we have to think about this man who was begging, without thinking about Peter or John. 

 

This lame man was born from a mother, like your mum or my mum.  When the mother was pregnant, she didn’t know the boy was going to be lame, she was sure he would be born beautiful and she will love him and give all the care needed so he can grow up with happiness and joy.  “I’ll be a good mother who supplies all his needs”.  Maybe after a few months of pregnancy, she praised God that the baby is growing and maybe she praised Him for this new life she was producing that the world has never seen.  Every baby is unique, even twins can never be the same.  You can love them two at the same level but they will be two different persons. 

 

When you give birth, everybody wants to know how the baby is.  Babies attract everybody and all want to hold the baby carefully and cover it and protect it.  When the baby cries, mothers want the baby to stop crying but will never shout at the baby but will talk nicely and kindly and make the baby feel happy.  Some silly parents will try to smack them.  Others put them down and believe after a time they will stop crying when the baby gets tired.

 

At maternity, when someone is giving birth, they are waiting to receive this gift from God.  The nurse will be the first one to see the baby, to know whether it is a boy or girl and the nurse will be the first one to inform you if it is big or small and the nurse will pass the baby to you.  You will feel joy.  After going through the pain of giving birth.  The mother of this boy had pain, cramps and now her turn had arrived and knew she was receiving something precious but then he is born lame.  You are waiting with joy but he turns out to be lame.  How will you feel if you are the mother?  It’s hard. 

 

You might think, “oh, he will never play sport or drive a car.  This is another burden God you have given to me because for the rest of his life, he will be a dependent child”.  Have you thought about dependency and how you have to do everything for this person who is with you and you feel this is too much, I can’t take it anymore?  God is now giving you this precious gift that is going to suck all your strength, mind and money.  The mum had to accept her son as he is. 

 

How often do we reject what we believe doesn’t satisfy our needs?  How often do we say, “why this?” because we know it is tough and hard? 

 

The child grew older but couldn’t do what other children do.  He could only sit down.  I don’t know how he moved from one place to another but his job was just to sit down from morning to evening.  You feel tired when you sit all day.  You need to move around but this child couldn’t move.  When others were playing, he couldn’t play.  Maybe he tried to push himself with his arms but he couldn’t play and maybe other children told him to just stay there because you can’t play with us.  Others might have let him play for a few minutes before they left him behind. 

 

As days were passing, the parents realised they had to find a place for the boy so they decided to take him to the temple where there is mercy, “If God doesn’t remember mercy to our child, maybe human beings will”.  But I tell you that when things are tough, God doesn’t forget mercy or love, He continues to love and have mercy.

 

The parents believed the child will be fine at the temple.  Maybe they took a mat and said to the child, “this is your place in front of the temple, sit there”.  I don’t know what position he was sitting in but he was just sitting begging to people.  Let me pick up Ange, Ange pass here, it’s not easy to see me from up there.  I’m at the lowest level.  She may pass without seeing me because my level is too low.  I will call out and maybe even hold her trousers if she doesn’t pay attention.  Maybe she will even step on my hand by accident but she will carry on. 

 

Those that have headphones on may not see or hear the man begging.  The big job of the person was to ask, not only once but several times per day to each person. “Please help, look at me, I’m suffering, help, help”.  If they drop you at the temple at 7am and pick you up at 5pm every day, how many times will you say the word help?  That temple was visited by thousands of people per day but after saying help, help several times per day, maybe he only returned home with a few dollars or even nothing because many didn’t want to listen to him. 

 

Others were maybe were like an i-pod with a battery that is dying because they gave yesterday, the day before and the day before so, “today, I have nothing, I have done enough, you should also take care of yourself, your family should help you, it’s not my responsibility” and the compassion they had is dying like an i-pod battery going flat.  “The love and mercy that I have in my heart is disappearing, you should look somewhere else”. 

 

When we have two feet and the strength to take care of ourselves, we believe that those that can’t do it, are not good enough.  Those that cannot move for themselves, that’s their business.  This man called Cain, he gave an offering to God but it was rejected (without God explaining why) while his brother’s offering was accepted.  Cain became jealous and killed Abel.  The blood of the young brother went before the throne of God, “look my brother killed me”, the blood was crying to God. 

 

In Revelations, we see the same situation, those who have been persecuted are crying to God.  Why are thy crying?  Maybe because of the need they have or the suffering or because someone is making their lives harder.  Many people in the church are crying for the persecuted but in different ways.  Some pray, some offer money and some don’t care and those who are persecuted are Christians like you and I from the same family of God.  Imagine you have your brother or sister from the same father and mother and you live in the same house and because they are lame you don’t want to assist them.  What will happen if you don’t help them?  Who will do it? 

 

Maybe your mother will ask you to take your brother to the hospital and you reply, “No I’m tired, it’s not my turn”.  Everybody says the same thing and declares that someone else can do it and the job to help the brother is pushed from one person to another.  If you were a lame person and others don’t want to help you, how big will your heart be? How angry will you feel?  How happy will you be in your family where your brothers and sisters don’t have time to listen to you, help you or care for you. 

 

There is only a small proportion of the church that God decided to make them to be persecuted.  They didn’t want to be born and be called persecuted but God has allowed it to test the church, “because I told them to love one another”.  Before you love your father, love one another.  “You can’t love me, your God, if you don’t love your neighbour.  Be in unity”.

 

This is scary.  Before you see me, see your brother Graham first.  If you love him and give everything to him, then I will be happy.  How can I love someone lame?  We can’t sing or play together because her abilities are not like mine and so we put them aside and don’t care.  Jesus continues to say, “the day I come back, I will ask you a few questions, when I was in prison you didn’t visit me, when I was hungry, you didn’t feed me.  It’s clear.  When I was in hospital you didn’t visit me”.  We may become like those foolish ones and say, “I never saw you in prison, hungry, in hospital” and you will get the answer that we all have read and understand that Jesus is talking about those around us who are suffering and we didn’t help.

 

The lame man was collected in the evening and was most likely asked, “how much did you earn today?  What did people say?  Did anyone ask about your family?”  They would be curious to know about his day without offering support.  How often do we go somewhere to learn about the stories of persecuted?  We go to an event just to hear the stories of the persecuted man who is coming to church today because of curiosity and then we only talk about how lucky we are here in New Zealand. 

 

To be in New Zealand doesn’t mean you are safe.  In God’s eyes you are not safe because you are failing the test He has given you.  After hearing the stories, what did you do?  You were informed but you did nothing so you failed your test.  It will be harder to be free like New Zealand than to beg on the mat because the one suffering will never be asked, “why didn’t you help?” because he was the one suffering but those passing without seeing or those complaining, they will be asked, “what did you do?” 

 

Sometimes God is mean, He will give us someone like that for 40 years.  How can we handle that?  Sometimes I say moving the furniture in the church once per week becomes a pain and we complain, this person didn’t help, I do it every time because we believe the job is hard.  Imagine carrying the big man on your back, feeding him, taking him to toilet.  You might say better for him to die.

 

Like Job’s wife said, “just abuse God and you will be better off”.  We might lose our joy and our love for others because of the work we do for the church.  God is looking at you, you still have another 40 years before you get the crown.  Your crown is prepared but I want you to persevere until the end but when you start to complain, you start to discourage yourself and then your courage will start to die.  I’ve heard people being asked, “can you be the leader?” and they answer, “no not this time because I have another program”.  We can compare God’s program with our own programs.  This is God’s program! 

 

We would rather watch rugby and God’s program is not a priority.  What brought satan down?  By making himself like God by putting himself first.  The decision is mine so I make myself like God.  God I’m busy, I have my own business.  I don’t have time to care for these people.  Why did you create them?  Why can’t you just give them legs?  Why only me?  Others are there.  They can play this role.  Slowly, you start to find yourself detached from God because of arrogance and trying to compete against him.

 

The Wednesday night prayer and Bible Study program is only 1 hr and 15 mins, just once per week and each of us only lead once per month with that privilege as his daughter to come close to God and serve Him.  Instead of being proud to be associated with God’s business, we think, no God I don’t need you.  God is sad, I gave to you talent and ears and eyes and didn’t make you lame so you don’t have to depend on others and so that those around you can depend on you but you say, no I have my own program and you start to persecute God.

 

When you are together, praying, sharing, leading, you are supporting others and those souls that are begging start to get feed from you.  Give love, prayer and once you do, the name of God is glorified.  Those who are persecuted over the world are waiting for us, what do we do?  Physically they are suffering and spiritually.  Some don’t know how to pray.  Others don’t know how to read the bible.  You know how to read and pray and you don’t have time to help those people.  God has given me the capacity to understand and to read the Word of God but I can’t put it in practise by helping others.  We don’t help. 

 

Our only job is to complain that others don’t play their role.  Are we really helping them to play their role?  Maybe they are weak and our job (those who are strong) is to support the weak.  How much support do you give to the church of God, to pray for those who can’t read or understand Word of God, or those who sleep while the preacher is talking?  What is killing the church today is that everyone wants to come with a new theory of judgement, “I don’t like how you pray sister”.  We come with judgements that don’t unite us but divide by bringing different opinions.

 

Jesus used to go to the mountain to pray.  His disciples fell asleep.  “You can’t even pray with me for one hour” Should we really pray together?  Today we have churches that tell you, whenever Robbie is praying, be quiet and listen.  There is no verse that says that.  You can all pray at the same time (corporate prayer).  If colleen prays for fifteen minutes, I will have nothing to say and so I think about what I should say to people and not God while the prayer should be in secret between you and God.  When we pray as a group of people it is not easy to listen to what all are saying, easier to pray yourself.  When there is corporate prayer and one starts to finish and we all start to finish because we don’t want others to listen to our prayer to God.

 

But in church today we judge others’ prayers, others’ messages.  Did you start to intercede in your heart or just look at your watch so we can go home?  God is telling us to not be like those passing the lame without helping him.  Why didn’t they take him into the temple with them?  They could have invited the man inside, “Maybe it will rain?  Or it will be too hot?  Come inside”. 

 

When others are crossing a painful situation, do we bring them close to God or do we not care? Do we help?  God gave us the authority to pray for others to give them healing in His name and they will get it.  We have that power.  He has chosen us to go over the world and we can pray for someone in Sudan while we are in New Zealand.  Go everywhere in my name spiritually, there are no borders.  Why don’t we pray?  If we can’t come close to them with spiritual things, why can’t we offer physical ones?

 

Some people think that the Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton campaign is going to be funny.  Don’t you see the danger?  House prices now are making people cry in New Zealand. This is a serious problem that is coming.  Those who are poor are being persecuted and suffering because someone is torturing them.  We have the power.  Authority comes from God.  We can tell God, we need a key.  Why can’t we talk to God?  The beauty of New Zealand is going downhill, with the country and the church because we don’t listen to those who are persecuted.  We can see misery coming.

 

2 years ago, $1 could buy something but today we can’t buy anything with $1.  Prices are going up and up while salary is the same.  How are we going to afford living in New Zealand without God’s help?  How will we overcome the situation we are facing?  The church doesn’t talk about the persecuted anymore.  If you say, “Pastor, I’m going to visit Eastside”, he will say, “why what’s going on there,” because they don’t want you to go and there is no unity between churches.    There is no connection between churches and we break the chain while Jesus put us together like a chain. 

 

Why don’t we support each other?  There are very big churches in New Zealand but they may be born lame.  They have problems.  All of us have problems and handicaps and we need each individual to do something.  Talk to someone, tell God, look at my friend, do something, intervene.  He is there is listen to you and offer to you what you are asking for.  What are you asking from God?  When you see those on the street, children in poverty, those who are dying, those you are persecuted in other countries, terrorism.  You are not doing anything.  I’m not asking you to shoot the terrorist but to tell God.  God lock that door. 

 

Colleen when you were little and scared, what did you do?  You might scream and shout for help from your parents, “mummy, help”.  I will shout for help.  How often do you shout for help because of what is happening in front of you or do you say, all is alright, we are in New Zealand, we are safe?