NTCG Harvest Temple, Wolverhampton, UK – http://www.ntcght.uk
Message by Bishop Ruben King
Watch the live service at https://youtube.com/live/kss3AhGJsdw
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Music:
TempleSound: https://youtu.be/AA9kGL7B4dQ
Revd Paul Grey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mkSbYMFcaY
Sonia King: https://youtu.be/PXBaTZ6fTUM
Revd Casbera Schasmith: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxSYe6f3-BQ
I do have a proclamation but I think we will make it at the end of the message because I think it will make more sense if we do this Proclamation at the end and I think it will be more palatable also if we do at
The end and you will see when we get there why I’m saying this we’re looking at 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18 through to 31 and because we’ve been out of Corinth for a good number of weeks now just want to a quick recap before we get into this
Passage remember we spoke about Corinth a city Corinth is in Greece it’s a densely populated city there are about 120,000 people per square mile that live in Corinth so it’s about 14 there’s about 14 times more people people in Corinth per square mile than there is in wolver Hampton lot of people congested
City it’s a city where any Vice you can imagine is possible and taking place in this city sexual immorality child prostitution substance abuse and all sorts of habits that people are hooked on it’s all there on open display in Corinth because it’s a two-port city and you have Sailors and
People always in and out traveling passing through Corinth another thing about this city is that there is intense segregation taking place in the city of Corinth people are divided along ethnic lines along income lines and there are over 50 different schools of philosophy in Corinth so for them these
Philosophers was like entertainment for them they didn’t have iPhones and iPads internet this was their entertainment to see like two philosophers sort of really having a go at each other we be like going to a sporting event the equivalent of going to a sporting event for them and then people would choose which
Philosopher they believed you know was making the most sense out of life and then that person would become that individual’s hero so some would say well I follow this philosopher he he makes the most sense and someone else is said well I follow this other philosopher cuz this one definitely
Understands where I’m at and I can relate to the philosophy of that particular person so what we need to understand what’s going on in Corinth here is that this church is less than 2 years old it’s an immature church people are getting saved coming to Faith in Jesus
Christ but they are bringing into the church their way of thinking from the world so those who was following a particular philosopher get saved come into the church and now what they’re doing is making Heroes out of the preachers out of the pastors and hence the last passage we
Looked at someone saying well you know I am of Paul I am of Apollos I am of seus so the they’re bringing the same kind of worldly thinking into the church and elevating human personalities and whenever we do that in church it divides the church the wisdom of God is exchanged
For the wisdom of a human being so we all know that Unity is strength division breaks Fellowship it weakens accountability and eventually division leads to collapse it leads to fall so we need to be United and that’s why Jesus prayed in John 17 that we be one that we can be a
Witness to the world so that’s a bit of a recap if you want something more in detail you can go back on YouTube and uh watch the the foundation that was laid in the first message and some of what was done in the second message so today’s theme is Discerning God’s wisdom
From Human wisdom and we’re going to look at this in this lesson and also in the next lesson and what we’re going to see that In this passage and going into chapter two the word wisdom is mentioned several times probably about 15 times something like it’s mentioned quite
Often In this passage and through into chapter two and what Paul is going to do is draw a contrast between God God’s wisdom and human wisdom and how many know that these both of these wisdoms are like Polar Opposites they are diametrically opposed so God’s wisdom is not the same
As human wisdom it’s on a totally different level and what we’ll see that the best of human wisdom is actually foolishness when you compare it to God’s wisdom so this is where we’re going here’s the road map we’re going to be looking at In this passage the gospel is not a
Form of sopia or philosophy this is what Paul’s going to be dealing with In this passage the gospel is not a form of philosophy it’s not a form of even Divine philosophy because all philosophy can be challenged by human reasoning so God’s wisdom is above human or even Divine
Philosophy the gospel is not based on the attainment of the recipients so the gospel is not based on those who receive it so none of us can boast about salvation and we’ll look at that today and then next time we come to look at Corinthians the gospel is not
Based on eloquent and clever speech the gospel is based on the spirit’s power and what we’re going to see in this text is that the wisdom of God is primarily seen in the Cross of Christ and not everybody sees it and we will see why not everybody sees it as we
Go through the passage so beginning in verse 18 I’ll just go through the passage and comment as we go so Verse 18 Begins by saying for the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God and notice it
Starts off saying for the message because it’s referring back to what was written by the Apostle Paul in verse 17 he says for Christ did not send to baptize but to preach the gospel not with wisdom of words lest the Cross of Christ should be of no effect and then
He goes to say for the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God can I get amen so here the Apostle Paul is putting all of humanity into two groups you are either
Perishing if you don’t name the name of Christ so that’s one group or you are being saved you’re in one group or the other I’ll try to illustrate this on on the board you see the road there there’s a road there we’re all on the same road
Every human being we’re all on the same road but what direction are you traveling in are you perishing or are you traveling in the opposite direction are you being saved let me just deal with being saved salvation is a progressive process and I just want to use three
Words which I hope will help you to understand salvation and what it means to be being to be being saved hopefully this will register in your mind you can take notes or screenshot or go back and watch it afterwards but this is really important really important to get this so what
Does it mean when Paul is saying that to us who are being saved the three words are firstly penalty someone say penalty penalty secondly power someone say power power and then thirdly presence someone say presence so when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord we are saved from the penalty of
Sin so the moment you receive Jesus Christ as Lord if you were to die you’re going to heaven amen so the moment we accept Jesus we are Sav from the penalty of sin John 3:16 but we don’t stay there because really that’s just the start of the journey isn’t
It as we mature as we grow in Christ then we are then being saved from the power power from the influence of sin amen this is a a a process we are progressively as we yield to the Holy Spirit obviously if you don’t yeld to the Holy Spirit you’re not going to be
Delivered from more of that influence and power of sin but as we grow in faith as we live in obedience to uh God and as we submit to the Holy Spirit we are then continually being set saved from the power of sin the influence of sin amen are you getting this y good
Good and in one day in eternity we will be delivered and saved from the very presence of sin because in heaven there will be no sin present there Revelation 2127 so when we accept Jesus we are Sav from the penalty of sin over time as we walk the walk of
Faith and yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit we are being saved from the very power and influence of sin what does that mean that means that things that would perhaps upset me or things that I would do that would displease the Lord 10 years ago if I’m still doing that now then
That’s an issue that’s a problem and I’m not saying that when we get saved we’re perfect but we should be able to identify in ourselves this progression of being delivered from the influence and power of sin can I get some more amens in the house we’re talking about growing in
Christ and then one day Hallelujah we will be delivered from the presence of sin amen so we’re all on the same road but which way are you heading are you walking towards God and the things of God or are you walking away from from God because we’re either walking towards
Perishing or we are walking towards being saved Verse 18 He says for those in the process of perishing they look at the gospel and they see it as foolishness those who are in the process of perishing so those who are walking in the direction of perishing to them the
Gospel of Jesus Christ is foolishness that word foolishness in the Greek is Maria and it means silliness absurdity foolishness and from this word Maria we get our word we used to use that word a lot when we were teenagers used to call each other you don’t hear it so much these
Days days so to those who are perishing to those who are walking away from God when they look at you and I as Christians that we believe the Bible we believe in God they think we’re morons to them it’s foolishness they they they just don’t they don’t get
It but to us who are saved it’s the greatest thing that ever happened to us amen so you can see the same gospel has complete polar opposite meanings depending on which way you’re walking depending on which way you are heading so we need to ask ourselves again today which way am I
Heading am I perishing or am I being saved see the Bible is full of warnings and as you read through the scripture you’ll see many many times the Bible commands us encourages us to repent and just as being saved is is a process penalty power presence likewise perishing is also a
Process what I want to just say to anyone here who hasn’t made Jesus Christ Lord you haven’t made a commitment to Jesus Christ the longer you take to make that decision is the harder it becomes to make that decision you see when we reject the truth when we know the truth and we
Reject the truth or we suppress the truth the Bible describes us as people who have a foolish heart and that leads to us sometimes suppressing and rejecting the truth and the Bible talk about something called a seared conscience when we continually and habitually reject the truth our conscience becomes callous becomes hard
Becomes seared 1 Timothy 4:2 you know in the gospels in John 12 excuse me John 1239 and 40 the Pharisees kept rejecting the message message of Jesus and in verse 39 of John 12 it says therefore they could not believe doesn’t say they would not believe because they kept rejecting the
Message of Jesus the scripture says that they could not believe and we also see this with Pharaoh don’t we Pharaoh went through 10 plagues he suffered his people suffered he kept rejecting the message from God to let the people go his heart became harder and harder and
Harder so what I’m saying to you if you are not saved if you’re not being saved if you’re walking in the opposite direction remember there’s only two categories you’re either walking towards God and the things of God or you’re walking away from God there’s no sort of in
Between if you’re not walking towards God you’re walking away from him and you keep rejecting the truth that you know the truth that has been revealed your conscience becomes seared and it then becomes very hard to accept the truth and likewise the same thing happens with Believers you know our consciences can
Become sear too you know because God speaks to us and God puts his finger on things in our lives doesn’t he and God says deal with that or he says get rid of that God says sort that out and if we keep rejecting that over time you know at first we’re convicted
Aren’t we we do something wrong we feel guilty come to God in prayer and repent but you know if you keep doing that it just becomes a norm doesn’t it and you just you just do it and you just don’t feel no way about it so our consciences can become Sear
To we don’t want that to happen to us we want our hearts to remain soft before God so when God speaks to us we respond with immediate obedience amen that’s the place to be so we don’t want to end up like a pharaoh with a hard heart then verse
19 Paul here is quoting from the prophet Isaiah and it says for it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the Prudence so that’s being quoted from Isaiah then verse 20 where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the
Disputer of this age has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world for s since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God he pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe amen Paul is referring here to 2
Kings 19 and Isaiah 29 and this is a story that took place in the time of Isaiah the prophet and Hezekiah king of Judah and just to give you some backdrop in terms of what takes place in this story the Assyrian army in this story have invaded the
Promised land and marched all the way up to Jerusalem so God’s people Judah are inside the city walls of Jerusalem they’re barricading themselves inside the city wall to protect themselves from the Assyrians and then we have the Assyrians on the outside who are who are using threatening language to the people of
God saying basically we’re going to get through this wall and we’re going to destroy you so the king Hezekiah he’s is very afraid he’s shaking in his boots and he wants to hear from the prophet Isaiah so Isaiah sends a message to King Hezekiah and said man just take a chill pill
Relax yourself calm chill out God is going to turn this thing around and you’re going to see that the wisdom of men becomes foolishness and then after Isaiah sends a letter to King Hezekiah he goes into the temple and he prays and basically God does a work of of
Destroying the enemies without any human involvement so Judah they go to sleep and then when they get up in the morning 2 Kings 19:35 and it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians
185,000 and when people arose early in the morning there were the corpses all dead so Hezekiah was in himself these Assyrians are are throwing threats at Judah as Isaiah says chill out just cool yourself when they get up in the morning an angel one Angel one Angel wipes out 185,000 have you got
Enemies all you need is one Angel to turn up on the scene one Angel so God’s people are victorious but without any human contribution and then Paul now contrasts this with the messes of the gospel and salvation and what Paul is saying in the same manner God has brought about
Salvation and deliverance for the human race with without any human contribution whatsoever our Salvation is not dependent on our own righteousness our our Good Deeds our good standing in society we don’t contribute at all to our Salvation And this is the wisdom of God this is the wisdom of God in verse
20 it says where is the one wise where is the wise Paul is asking and I want to say that you know human wisdom if it was so great why do we live in a world with so many problems I mean how long has how long have we been through how many
Generations and the same problems exist today that existed in my parents’ generation in my grandparents generation and going way back so human wisdom ain’t all that it ain’t all that we have problems today of corruption we have challenges with war we have the same challenges with poverty today that we’ve had for decades
Nothing is any better I looked into this here are some statistics this is uh in regards to Poverty percentage of population in relative low income this is in the United Kingdom and that graph is from 1961 to 2018 now it shows pensioners children working age with children working age
Without children now most of those Trends there’s only one Trend that really comes down for the pensioners but most of those other Trends on there are either the same or they’re creeping up so this is saying there are more and more people who are in the category of low income
Can you go forward to the next one again this is taken from uh Joseph rantry trust another graph showing a similar thing next one please and again we can see here that in 20 in 2008 in the United Kingdom 16.2 million people were below the minimum income standards that was in 2008
2009 jump forward to 2000 to 2020 19.2 million are now living below the minimum income standard so it’s not getting any better the gap between the and the poor is getting wider but yet we have all these educated people who are running the the country and and our countries they they’re using human
Wisdom but it’s not solving crime in fact they’re saying that since this economic crisis burglaries are getting up so make sure you get anti- snap locks on your front and RAR doors yeah get your CCTV you think I’m joking cuz burglaries are going up and when you call the
Police see you in two weeks so the burglars know they’re not coming out so they’re not they’re not bothered they’ll come right up in your face if they have to where is human wisdom in all of this if human wisdom is so great how come none of these issues ises are being
Solved thousands and thousands and millions of pounds are being invested in communities who are you know we’re talking about leveling up you’ve heard that terminology haven’t you you see what T to happen is that they give people things and don’t teach them it’s like you know the old proverb about
Giving them man to fish instead of teaching the man how to fish millions of poured into communities but not much is invested in showing people how to rise above poverty giving them the tools and equipping them to think differently and to rise above it but we know human wisdom it
Fails and Paul’s not putting that education here or knowledge but it’s got to be more than knowledge it’s more than just acqu iring facts and figures on any subject matter but wisdom is the right application of knowledge that’s why you can have people and we can even count ourselves in this
People who have lots of knowledge information but we make really stupid choices anybody done that sometimes even when you have the right information you still make stupid choices so it’s not about knowledge it’s we wisdom and the scripture says that in this time knowledge is going to increase
Daniel 12:4 many shall run to and Throne knowledge shall be increased but how is that knowledge being applied how is that knowledge being applied well if you look what the world’s doing not so long ago they launched the James web telescope it cost 10 billion why because I want to find out
The origin of the Union and they want to prove the theory of evolution that we came from a big bang so they they’re willing to put 10 billion pounds into that while people are starving don’t have clean water got no Prospect of a a decent education that’s human wisdom what’s human wisdom producing
Well we have ai anybody signed up to chat GPT it’s good I signed up we can help you but what’s happening with that now identity theft so people are using AI now to clone people to pretend they can take your voice they can take an image of you
And create like a video that looks like you sounds like you’re talking and no that they’re using your image particular if you’re famous to promote some brand or something that’s what human wisdom is getting up to human wisdom is making us to be like fools why because we refuse to
Acknowledge God whenever humans fail to acknowledge God and refuse him and suppress the truth we become as fools Romans 1 if you want to read more into that so we see some further Insight now in verse 22 he says for Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom so
Again we have two groups here Jews and Greeks or Greeks can be called Gentiles or anyone who’s not a Jew is a gentile yeah so the Jews they seek signs they like signs there’s a history of the Jews living through and witnessing many miracles and signs if you read back in
The scripture they witnessed the plagues in Egypt the crossing of the Red Sea A Cloud by day pillar By Night Mana falling from the sky Sky water coming out of a rock Quail coming out the sky when they said they fill up with this food we want meat so they witnessed many
Signs but did it help them cuz they still went through this cycle of when for one moment they were living in obedience to God God was blessing them and then the next moment they were walking away from God disobeying God and then God God’s judgment came down upon them
Sometimes they ended up in captivity or they would lose battles and so on and so forth so signs didn’t really help them because signs don’t help you to develop your faith if everything you’re going to do you have to see a sign first you’re going to have weak
Faith cuz 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that the just live by faith sometimes you just have to believe it’s comforting and encouraging to have a sign Gideon was one like that wasn’t he with he put out his fleece and and so on but I’m telling you that the the the
Higher way is just to take God at his word and believe because the danger is when you follow after signs cuz you know the devil can perform signs as well don’t you can appear the angel of Light so if you’re just following after signs you can end up anywhere the
Just live by faith and when the Jews came to Jesus and said Jesus show us a sign Jesus said there’s only one sign I’m going to show you and that’s the sign of Jonah he was in the belly of the F three days and what Jesus was talking about was the
Resurrection and look at these Jews that were looking for signs in the time of Jesus they missed the Messiah they were asking for signs they were looking for signs but because they weren’t reading the word the very Messiah came in their time and they missed the Messiah so we don’t
Follow signs Church of God signs follow us we are not to seek signs there are lots of people running here and there to this meeting to that meeting want to see signs you have to be careful I’m telling you signs follow us we don’t run after
Signs what we follow is the word of God Amen and we don’t always need a sign we live by faith amen so the Greeks then they didn’t want signs what they’re seeking for wisdom all these schools of philosophy here in Corinth they’re seeking for some new philosophy some new
Wisdom and they had their various Gods remember I’ve mentioned in the previous study they had 12 temples in Corinth so polytheistic worship so to them the message of the Gospel of God humbling himself and condescending to become a human being then being murdered at the hands of his
Own creation this to them was just absolute Madness because they couldn’t imagine Zeus or one of their gods doing anything like this how could one of our Gods come and be like one of us be spat on be ill treated be crucified they’re just thinking this message of the Gospel is
Just absolute foolishness to us and you have to remember for them the cross I mean we glory in the cross but for them the cross is an instrument of death so to make it come home and make it real to us the cross to them would be
Like an electric chair I know we don’t have capital punishment in the UK but some countries do so imagine an electric chair or a needle with a lethal injection or a Gallows where someone would be hung or a guillotine when someone’s head you will be chopped off so when Paul’s talking about preaching
The cross they’re thinking this is it don’t make no sense to me can you imagine singing at the electric chair at the electric chair where I first saw the light and my burdens they thinking what on Earth are you talking about was absolute Madness to them the
Preaching of the Cross they they just they just couldn’t get it and we still people boasting in a lethal injection or Gallows I mean it it it just didn’t make no sense to them verse 23 but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks f
Foolishness but to those who are called both Jews and Greece Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men so you see that Paul addresses the the stumbling blocks for
Both of these groups to the Jews who are looking for signs he says that the preaching of the cross cross crucified is the power not just in word power of God and to the Greeks who are looking for wisdom well the cross is the wisdom of God what
I like about the message of the gospel and the cross is that throughout the centuries people try to attain and reach up to God but our savior came down to us in the the person of Jesus Christ and the Salvation that is provided for us has nothing to do with
Us whatsoever we cannot contribute to make ourselves more saved we can’t do it we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone so we see the wisest of human wisdom is foolishness to God verse 26 for you see your calling bre that not many wise according to the flesh not many
Mighty not many noble are called but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are Mighty and the base things of the world and the things which are
Despised God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to the the things that are what Paul is saying here just just look around the room look around this room any any Aristocrats in here there might be I don’t know anyone here schooled at Eaton or
Gone to oaksbridge and there may be some but by and large those who are called those who are saved they’re just ordinary ordinary folks would you agree yes and God has set it up that way so this is kind of like the opposite to what we would do perhaps if we were
Setting up a kingdom you wouldn’t just want the ordinary folks would you you want the elite of the elite but God’s kingdom is not resting on human wisdom so God gets ordinary people like myself I can say I’m ordinary and he calls us and he saves us
Foolish to the world as it may be but God wants to use ordinary people just like what Jesus did when he was calling his disciples he didn’t go around and choose all the top people he went to the fisherman didn’t he he chose someone like a tax collector that people just
Wanted to Duff up in the in the dark alley if they had a chance Jesus throw some zealots you know those that wanted to overthrow the Roman rule them kind of people Jesus was hanging out with you see Jesus was bad man if he can control all of
Them Jesus was ruling things man and they had respect for him so God deliberately calls to Salvation those who are not Mighty those who are not Noble why verse 29 that no flesh should glory in his presence so that no one should boast before God God has designed it this way so that
Salvation bypasses all that we are all that we have inherited all that we have achieved or anything that we can contribute totally bypassed because God has chosen the foolish things the despised things of this world so that he will get the glory when you think about John the
Baptist remember what Jesus said of him he said there’s no one born greater than this man here John the Baptist but who was John the Baptist John the Baptist had no formal educ ation he lived out in the wilderness he wasn’t a rich man I doubt if John the Baptist owned lots of
Property and land he certainly didn’t wear designer clothes he didn’t shop at herods he didn’t eat at Mitchell in starred restaurants Locust and wild honey in the eyes of the world John the Baptist was a loser he didn’t Mount too much at all but yet Jesus looked at him and he say
You see that man there that’s the greatest man that’s ever born on this on this planet God chose John the Baptist because he wanted to use him to prepare the way for the Christ to come what a task that must have been again God God chose someone who was
Lowly nobody to those who would have known him or grown up with him because human pride is the enemy of God human pride is the enemy of God human Pride wants us to think that we are better than we are Romans 12:3 Pride wants us to think more highly of
Ourselves than we ought to and when we think that way because we all do it from time to time when we think that way it is very difficult for God to correct us pride is like a Barry isn’t it oh when you know you’re wrong you’re right yes people sometimes make decisions in
Pride that they end up suffering for it but God wants us to P outside our our pride recognize that without him we we are absolutely nothing we’re absolutely nothing without him and without salvation verse 30 says but of him you are in Christ who became for us wisdom from God righteousness and
Sanctification and Redemption and here we see the same progression that we saw at the start for those who are being saved righteousness is being saved from the penalty of sin sanctification being saved from the power of sin Redemption one day being saved from the presence of
Sin and verse 31 says that as it is written he who glories let him glory in the Lord not in what we have achieved or who we are or our reputation or what we possess he who glories let him glory in the Lord because you know that
Everything that we have has been given to us by God we’re just stewards over what God’s given to us we don’t possess anything God has blessed us in so many ways but we must give God the glory and I believe that in giving God glory I don’t I think this passage here
Is specifically referring to giving God glory for salvation I don’t think it’s to me it’s not referring to giving God glory from my house my car my job my this and that it’s talking about giving God glory that we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ and that we have
Not contributed to that salvation because God has designed it and set it up that way so it’s above human wisdom so we’re going to give God some Glory now I’m going to ask you if you can just stand with me please if you’re able to stand I want us to read this together
And then spend some time just giving God glory that we are saved amen we don’t have anything to boast about of ourselves it’s not because of where we were born or who we know or any other thing that we can come with that’s not why we’re saved it’s by
Grace through faith in Christ alone and we have contributed nothing to our our Salvation even the faith that we exercise to receive Jesus Christ as Lord comes from God we have nothing to boast about you know some people think when they get to heaven they go and say look
What what look what we do for God we hand out so many tracks me witness me visit we pray for the sick there’ll be nothing to boast about in heaven because the way God has set it up there’ll be nothing to boast about all we’ll be able to do is to just
Glory in Christ and say God thank you that you chose me and that I am saved amen so let’s read this let’s see how this uh settles with you see if you’re comfortable with reading this let’s read together boasting in you Lord has nothing to do with my worldly possessions or
Achievements whatever good may come from my life and Ministry help me to remember in human terms I am weak foolish lowly and despised therefore I give all the glory to you God and to you alone how does that settle with you you think if you had said this at the beginning of the
Message weak foolish slowly despise with a give you indigestion I’m sure will that settle all right with you okay so we’re going to read it again and then we’re can just take some moments to glory in God to give him the glory amen is that okay let’s read it again
Boasting in you Lord has nothing to do with my worldly possessions or achievements whatever good may come from my life and Ministry help me to remember remember in human terms I am weak foolish lowly and despised therefore I give all the glory to you God and to you alone let’s just
Give glory to God in your own way just give him the Glory thank you God you are the god of our Salvation you have rescued us from darkness and brought us into light Lord we cannot boast that we have contributed to the salvation but we
Thank you that you are mindful of us and Lord Jesus you came down was born in a lonly stable Hallelujah took on human flesh died on the cross in our stead Hallelujah that we might be saved you were resurrected raised from the dead send it to your father Lord and we live
In the expectation of your return we were saved by faith by grace alone in Christ alone we thank you God for your great and your magnificent love hallelujah hallelujah and that you would use us just ordinary people Ordinary People to bring forth your glory Lord to share the message of
The Gospel use us Lord use us hallelujah thank you Lord Hallelujah Lord I pray as we walk this journey Deliver Us from the power and influence of sin Deliver Us from the power and influence of sin Lord as we walk towards you as we are being Sanctified and being
Saved let your perfect work take place in our hearts and Lives May our hearts not be callous but may our hearts be pliable and soft of Lord that you can speak to us Lord that you can move us that we will obey your will in the name of
Jesus Amen if you’re in here and you’re not a Christian I want to ask you which way are you heading if you’re not being saved then you’re heading to a place where you will perish I’m going to appeal to you not to harden your heart not to suppress the truth you
Know that Jesus died for you you know that he took your place you know that he paid the penalty for your sin but maybe you’re not ready or you don’t want to give up your your your lifestyle you don’t want to make that full surrender well as I said earlier the longer you
Leave it it can be the harder it becomes to make that decision some have said I’ll do it in 5 years time I’ll do it in 10 years time time we don’t know if we’re going to have the time and even if we do have the time but then your heart
Might be so hard like the Pharisees you can’t believe you want to believe but you can’t believe today is the day of salvation if you uh feel the tug of the Holy Spirit today then I want to encourage you to make Jesus Christ Lord of your life
And just like many of us in this room have have done over time you don’t have to worry about well how am I going to keep up to this commitment how am I going to live like this it’s going to mean so many changes in my life well I
Would say don’t be overly concerned about that because when you come to Christ by faith you don’t live by your own power you live by the power of the Holy Spirit and that’s the difference you see with human wisdom human wisdom can give you lots of education but the gospel gives you the
Power of the Holy Spirit anyone has your life been transformed in here you’re not what you were and you know that it wasn’t yet just going to school and getting education that changed you it’s a power of the holy spirit that transforms Our Lives doesn’t
It so you don’t have to worry about that if you make that decision God will trans form your life if you’re here today I want to encourage you to maybe put your hand up or come forward so that we can pray for you if you’re online you can do
The same you can accept Jesus Christ right where you are wherever you’re listening to this service turn around that’s what repent means head in the other direction start walking towards God and the things of God accept Jesus Christ as Lord and be saved secure your eternity
If you’re here I want to pray with you before we go forward to the requests anyone here just slip your hand up or just come forward thank you sir anybody else don’t Harden your heart don’t suppress the truth you know that the the word of God is true make that choice
Today my good sir if you don’t mind would you come forward to this altar let’s praise God Amen blessing yeah anybody else want to join this gentleman here at the front we’re on the brink of 2024 I can’t think of a better decision that anybody could make today than to accept Jesus Christ as Lord there’ll be no regrets let’s just pray with this gentleman
That’s come forward father thank you for this my brother he’s been coming to church over the last few weeks and he’s here again today I just thank you Lord for his honesty Lord that he’s been courageous to just step out and come to the front in the name of Jesus Lord I break
Every Power Of Darkness Lord that is now trying to influence his heart and mind and maybe even place that to say what are you doing at this altar are you doing the right thing I break every such influence in the name of Jesus and I
Pray God that he will walk in light like he’s never experienced and seen before Lord like it will be like scales falling off his eyes Lord that he will see you see your word see your kingdom in a way he never seen and experience in the name
Of Jesus Lord I pray for a transforming work by your power and by your spirit in his life oh God that he will be rooted and grounded in the truth he will be like that tree that is planted by the rivers of waters that will bring forth
Fruit in every season even when there is drought in the land lord he will yield fruit not just material fruit Lord but the fruit of righteousness the fruit of Peace the fruit of Love In The Name of Jesus and so Lord we pray that this decision today will hold fast there’ll
Be no turning back Lord that you is heading now in a New Direction in the name of Jesus just say after me Lord I come to you I recognize that I need to be saved to be and I cannot save myself can myself so Lord I humble myself I hum myself and ask you to be Lord of my life I believe Jesus rose from the dead that I might be saved I accept your free gift of
Salvation free gift of Salvation transform my life transform My Life by your power by your power I will not be the same from here on the same from here I will give you all glory and all praise in Jesus name amen God bless you let’s praise God hallelujah