End Days - Mathew 24:26 - Don't Go

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.

End Days - Mathew 24:25 - "See, I have told you"

By Odon Bulamba

Mathew 24:25


“Behold [or see] I have told you in advance”.


A very simple but powerful message.


When someone tells you, “See, I have told you,” what is your impression?  E.g., “I told you so”.  Meaning you were told but you didn’t care about what you were told and later you face the consequences.  When that consequence happens, someone reminds you, see what happened.


We have the privilege to be called a child of God.  It’s more than a grace to be redeemed, to be accepted and to be one of the children of God.  In my life experience, I see many people going from one church to another running after preachers even moving cities because they are trying to be children of God but they can’t be children of God by simply doing that.

I’ve seen people telling God, “I will not leave this room until you save me”.  Some will die from hunger and God let them die without salvation.  You cannot force God to save you, you can’t purchase it from a shop or order on line, it is just a choice of God.  Once you are chosen, you must understand that you are special.  Being chosen from among millions is a privilege.


One time as a child, we went to a competition and as we were running those that were taller could make one step to my two steps.  They were mocking me but in my mind I thought, “what should I do? Maybe I should run slowly so they will slow down too and after a long distance they will get tired”.  After 20 minutes, they got tired and because my lungs were bigger, I increased my speed and I run faster and I won.  Those big lungs that I had did not come from my feet, they were there to support me to move forward.


God has put things in your life to keep you moving forward.  You shouldn’t minimise yourself and say, I’m not a pastor or prophet so God doesn’t care for me because He does care for you.  Being a child of God means that God tells us in advance what is going to happen.  All of us want to know what will happen next.  When God tells us something in advance, we have that gift of knowing what will happen while others do not know.  


From reading my Bible, I will know what will happen such as people will love money but for those without the revelation will find this normal and won’t see it as a sign of Jesus.  In Mathew 24, Jesus gave us all the signs of His return.  Knowing this is a privilege.  What do you do with that information?


One time I sat an exam at the University of Waikato.  I asked a simple question to my lecturer by email and he replied with all the answers of the exam.  The email was very long and I took the courage to go through it all and the next day in the exam, I couldn’t believe it…it was a three hour exam, I was completed in 20 minutes because I knew the answers. 

God has been telling us the answers to all the questions we will face on judgement, “Your actions will follow you so be prepared, don’t sin, repent because all of these will be the questions that I will ask you on that day”.  We already know the questions and the answers but are we ready to stand up in front of God to give him the feedback.


Mathew 24:25, “I have told you in advance”.  Meaning we won’t have any justification on that day to say, “Jesus, I didn’t know”.  Imagine you have told your child, “Tomorrow this is what you are going to do”, and then your child is not ready the next day what you had planned to do.  E.g. we want to go to Auckland, we are leaving at 11am and we have planned everything correctly and then at 12pm I am not there yet.  You will ask yourself what has happened and then you will be disappointed because I didn’t take our plan seriously.


From this verse, Jesus is giving us a program, “My Kingdom is coming soon and I don’t want to be selfish, I want you My children to live with Me in this Kingdom.  I have prepared everything for you.  I want to show My love to you My children so get ready I am coming to pick you up.  At 8am I will be ready and I will pick you up at such place so be ready. When you see the signs happening, remember that I am on my way so clean yourself and be ready so we can go. 


Yet, instead of reading those signs and preparing ourselves, we say to God, “I am sick of this, this preaching, the Word, the name of Jesus”.  Why aren’t you sick with your behaviour, character and things of this world?  We live the same things every day, it’s a routine.  Aren’t you sick of that?  We should be sick of this physical life and think about a new life that is not boring and is eternal. 


One time my mum told me, “My son, how long do you want to live on this earth?”  I said, “Maybe 1000 years”.  “Regardless of all the challenges surrounding you?”  She told me, “I understand but Jesus said that it is better to live like children,” meaning that children will adapt themselves to any situation.


Ange is holding her daughter.  Imagine if someone tells me to sit on Ange’s lap like that.  I will say no.  Children will let you know when things go wrong and don’t have shame or shyness to express what is inside them.  How often are we shy to prove to the world that we belong to God.  For children to sit on their mum’s lap, they are free without asking anyone and it feels good.  When God wants to hold us because people are around us, we don’t want to be identified as children of God.


My mum told me that everyone on earth works hard to be happy.  We go to work to find money to be happy.  When we visit parts of the world we want to be happy and enjoy what we see.  Even what we eat, we want good and tasty food to make us happy.  My mum said happiness is not on this earth.


If you want happiness think about the next Kingdom to come.  You lovbe money but money doesn’t love you.  You love your house but your house does not love you.  You love God, He straight away loves you without condition.


When I was around 20 years old, I understood that everything around me can kill me.  We are surrounded by several enemies.  For that reason, God said that in my Kingdom, death won’t be there anymore, suffering and crying won’t be there anymore, you will be there living in joy celebrating.  See, I have told you in advance.


When someone tells you in advance, “You get prepared”.  It is not only a matter of being informed but preparing yourself.  Are you ready to meet with the Lord and to enter the Kingdom of God?  Are you ready to sit in the room with Jesus?  When you were told in advance, you don’t have to forget, you must make sure that you don’t forget.


Jesus said, “You will receive the Word of God but satan will snatch it”.  You read the Word of God a few years ago or received a message but now you have forgotten it.  If you have a box to store to jewellery or money, then you should also have a place in your heart to store the Word of God.


When I want to get credit on my phone, I am told to top up my phone.  The topping up process is not for free, you must pay.  Although I have been using Vodaphone for several years, they don’t have any mercy when my New Zealand dollars have finished.  They don’t care that I have been using their service for 20 years.  At the end of the month I must top up and they always take away from me.


If I think about the money that I have wasted topping up my phone you might be shocked.  Although my phone cost me money, my phone is not enough, I must add credit every time before I use it.  When I say that I am not topping up my phone, it becomes useless.


It is the same with the Word of God.  When you are saved, when Jesus redeems you, He wants you to refresh yourself every time, to top up your knowledge, prayers, gifts and all that He gives to you because at the end of the day those that perish will be those that did not.  If you don’t want to perish, top your knowledge. How much do you know, how much is your knowledge and how much are you prepared?


In the Bible, those with handicaps were taken to Jesus to touched to become normal.  Jesus was touching them and healing them.  My heart can be sick and my mind can be sick but I have to go to Jesus to ask for healing.  How often do we ask Jesus to heal our spiritual life?  Come close to Jesus to ask for healing.  Pray to God, “I am your son or daughter, you have chosen me from among millions, please don’t forget me on the day that you come back, don’t forget my family and my people, I want to see them in heaven”.


Jesus said, “Go everywhere to preach the gospel and make them my disciples”.  God wants you to bring people into his Kingdom.  Do you do that?  


I was reading the poems by Gloria.  These poems are deep and touching.  God lives in me day and night.  Even when I sleep and I don’t know what is happening around me, God lives in me even when I am having night mares.  As we were singing, Ange brought a few songs, the second one if you read from your sheet you will be amazed.  


The love of God for you.  He loves you.  Do you love him?  He cares for you, do you care for him?  He wants you to be His child, do you want Him to be your Father?  He is preparing a place for you, are you ready to come?  He wants to come close to you, do you want to come close to him?