What choice will you make?

Life is about sacrifice. 

Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. Mark 10: 29-30 KJV

What Jesus is saying that there will/may come a time we have to chose between family, money, business, your life and the God who created you and gave you all those things in the first place. When this opportunity of choice comes please chose God.

There are so many people who have laid down their life for their country because of the love and believe they have for it. The same way there will come a time to chose between God and those things we love most. If we truly want to be great, sell all that you have, give it to the poor and follow Jesus. You will be surprised some people will not make heaven simply because they were not ready to give it all.

The man that will make heaven is the one that has the right heart towards God and the things of God. Find a way to tell the truth all the time according to your heart and the spirit of God that works in you.

You must also give something out of that which God has given you. To overcome the fear of lack we need to learn to give from that which we have. Giving in itself is a form of sacrifice. It is making a choice between what is beneficial to us and what is beneficial to others.

Exploit to do the extraordinary

And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.  1 Chronicles 28: 9 KJV

Text: 1 Chronicles 28: 9 - 11

Those who know their God, who are familiar with their God, those who understand their God shall do great things and they shall be strong. The reason why David was able to kill Goliath was because he knew the God he served. Goliath was big and a giant but David knew that he was an uncircumcised Philistine and David saw a small and important weakness which he leveraged on. There is no problem in life that has no agreement with God.

You need to know who you are and what you are in Christ Jesus. This certainty will move you forward in life and move you to success. Anybody coming against the covenant of God will be faced with problem.

You need to understand that anybody that did an exploit was an ordinary man. A man of flesh and blood. The bible speaking about Elijah said he was a man of like passion. Saying he was a man like you and I, a simple man but yet the man prayed that rain must not fall and it didn't rain and when he prayed that it should rain, it did. Ordinary men who know their God shall do extraordinary things.

I was listening to Myles Munroe this morning and he said ‘it takes discipline to excel in life’. He said people that have done great things is because they have been disciplined in one area in their life. They focus on one thing and become great in it.

There are things that we need if we as ordinary men must do the extraordinary

1. Vision, a clear vision
2. Focus on your vision Jesus said to Martha one thing you lack and that thing Mary your sister has done
3. Place a value on yourself. You have to become valuable at what we want to become in life. We must live based on the value that God has placed on our life. If you have value people will run after you. 

Everybody keeps saying the country is hard, no the country is not hard; we are the ones who are not thinking. In the midst of the hardness some people are making so much money because they are focused. Myles Munroe said he decided to focus on his ability to talk and this created a value that made a way for him.

Initially people may not see your value, remain focused because bit by bit you will be noticed. When you become noticed your focus will be rewarded. We must see value quickly.

How do you do exploits?

1. Know your God and serve Him 1 Chronicles 28:9
2. You must be courageous Joshua 1:6
3. Have power and moral understanding
4. Trust God with all your heart. Proverbs 3:5 (you have to believe that if you fall God will catch you, if you jump God will catch you. 
5. Keep yourself in total consecration and obedience Joshua 3:5 Deuteronomy 28:1
6. Have faith in God and take steps of faith. If you have faith you will say onto this mountain move and it will. Take a step of faith and let’s see what God will do in your life. When you move God will move. 

You cannot lie on the bed of Delilah and expect to rise up with power the next day just like Samson. Read the word for yourself and apply it to your life. Do not depend solely on the words that come out of the pulpit. We need to take Christ and Christianity much more seriously. We need to take our life and eternity more seriously.

Who is God?

And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. Daniel 11: 32 KJV

The background to this passage was the story of a young man called Daniel who was taken away in captivity into Babylon along with other children of Israel. Daniel lived through 4 kings (Nebuchadnezer, Belshazzar, Darius and Cyrus) and he was preferred above all the wise men by these same kings. Towards the end of his life Daniel saw the vision of the restoration of Israel to their land. He also saw the war between the king of the south and the king of the north. Daniel was encouraging the people not be anxious concerning that problems they see around the world but that a people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits. The word "to know" is “Yada” in Hebrew. It means to have deep intimacy with the subject matter. To to perceive and see, find out and discern, ro know by experience, to understand, to acquire knowledge intimately of God. 

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6  KJV

Daniel was saying a people that know their God intimately can actually be strong and do exploit. The challenge of life is that most people don’t take enough time to know the subject and object they are pursuing after. A while back a young man came to me and said he wanted to pursue a musical career. I asked him a couple of questions

1.How will you succeed

2.Who are you modelling your career after?

He seem not to have an intimate knowledge of the career to know exactly what he was pursuing after and the environment. This also happens a lot in marriages and between married couples. Husband and wife fail to know themselves intimately, they do not have an indepth knowledge of each other. These causes friction and misunderstanding. 

Some couples spend years in marriage and fail to be able to discern the character of their partner because they fail to take enough time of the other person. I tell you people that in courtship people behave well in courtship but in marriage they settle down. If you know your spouse or life partner very well then you can be strong together and do exploits. A lot of Christians fail to take time to know God. They rely solely on what the pastor says; hence they treat their pastor like God and will act only on what the pastor says.  People fail to know God for themselves. 

Things about knowing God. Who or what is God?  

1. God created all things; there is nothing that was created that was not created by him. Man does not create anything; what man does is to add value or reshape what God has already created. God created Gold and man reshapes gold to make things from it. Chemistry and technology are revelational knowledge of God given to man proven over time e.g 2 parts of Hydrogen and 1 part of oxygen will give you water. This is a revelation of how God made water. Science is the revelation of knowledge from God to man. 
2. God is the owner of the universe. Nothing that we have belongs to God. Not even the clothes, shoes, house or cars we have belong to us. We are just hiring it for the period of time it is with us. When we die or lose them it will go into someone else’s keeping. Life goes round the circles. Everything that you own is not your own. 
3. God is who He was, who He is and who He will be forever more. The only thing you can do this wonderful day is to give your life to God. The “I am that I am”. 

A life without regret pt.2

And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 

Luke 16: 22-25 KJV

A lot of people might end up with one form of regret or another if we don’t know what we do at the end of life or where we would be when death comes calling.

People generally fall into 4 categories which are;

1. A group of people who never knew what life could be. They live in complete ignorance of what life is or what their life could be. (the lame man at the pool of Bethesda)
2. A group of people who see a bit of possibility but do not have the capability or think they do not have the ability, capacity or right spirit to make the best of it. A lot of people see them themselves as non-achievers
3. A group of people who have opportunity, see the opportunity and have the capacity to make the best of the opportunity but misuse the opportunity. What they use the opportunity for was not what it was designed to be used for. 
4. A group of people who through sacrifice, knowledge and understanding made the best of all opportunities in the best way possible. They can say I have finished the race

A lot of people would look back and say, “if I had known”. In the first part of this topic we spoke about people who were facing death but didn’t want to die as they do not know where they would go after death.

A lot of people don’t understand life and what life should be. We spend so much time building up a future that brings a burden and life of regret. Luke 16: 19- tells of a very rich man who had more than enough to eat; there was a poor beggar who looked to eat of the scrap left to the dogs. According to the rich man he lived a very good life. He sat very respectably over the city but at the end of that life he had regrets.

What kind of life are we living at this time of our life? Are you going to say at the end of your life that it was a great life, a well lived life or will you say it was a life filled with regrets? Will be on your bed and spend the end of your life thinking of all you could have done things differently? Do you care for the ordinary person you see on the street? Do you see a beggar on the road and help them? Do you consider other people and make their life a bit more brilliant? How many of you pick up a child and send them to school? How many of you see your friend going through hard times and help make his life better? How many of you know the name of your staff?

The rich man had wealth but his life was a failure. The other one was poor but the life he lived ended in success.

A life without regret

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; 7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Ecclesiastes 12: 1&7 KJV

This morning we look at the subject “a life without regret”. We will start and continue it through a few more posts.

Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 tells us a little story written by the man who was considered the wisest, most profound and richest man in the world at his time. A man was promised by God that there was none as wise as he was and there shall be known as wise as he is.

He says, ’remember your creator in the time of your youth’. Remember the lord in the days when you have the wisdom and capacity to serve Him. As in time, sooner than we think, the end of life as we know it on earth will come for each of us and our spirit will return to God who has given it. Solomon was saying that in spite of it all, he has a few regrets. We shall not have regrets at the end of our life in Jesus name, Amen
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One of my favourite people is a doctor. He said in his career he has witnessed 3 categories of people that pass through the hospital

1. People who are in a coma with no knowledge of what is going on in life. They are in a vegetative state with no strength or power over their own life. Someone else or a group of people have the say or control over whether they continue to live or the plug be pulled to end their life. A lot of people go through this category of life
2. There are a lot of people struggling with life. They have tears on their face and they are begging the doctor to save them. They are so afraid to die as they have no idea what comes after death. They are neither prepared nor are they ready for life to end. Alas, there is no one on earth who will not die; death will come for each of us at any time. I have seen death leave the poor and take the rich; take the rich and leave the poor, leave the weak and take the strong.
3. Then there are those who are peaceful, comfortable, calmly reassured and seem to know exactly where they are going when they die. They look death in the face and say, “death do your worst for I know where I am going”. 

You need to be prepared for that day so that you don’t look back and have regret. What are those things in your past that when you look back you begin to regret. Today is the time you must make amends because no one knows what tomorrow will bring.

Some of us have wasted time on things that have no value, spent our life in anger and a lot other things that when we look back we would regret and wish we had done things differently.

We don’t want to wait till the time when we have to say I didn’t know that it would end like this, I wish I could tell you I love you, I wish I had not said those words, I didn’t know it would lead to death. Our prayer is that we would not live a life of regret so that in our old age we would be at peace with our past. Billy Graham said there are 3 things that science cannot solve

1. The wickedness of man
2. The suffering of the world 
3. The certainty of death

I don’t know how your life is going now. I don’t know if you are busy with the things of life, planning parties and thinking of how to look better than your neighbor; know this “Life will go on without you when you are gone”.

Jesus was speaking to Mary and Martha and He said Mary has chosen the most important thing “the kingdom of God”. But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Luke 10: 42 KJV. What part have you chosen?

You must redirect, refocus and reprogram your life and leave all the struggles of life. If you are a living being visit the hospitals and see human beings like yourself who can’t help themselves. The second place you must visit is the mortuary so that you can see one day exactly how you must end. The third place is the grave, go there and see your final resting place.

Talk to Jesus today about your life; God has given us a special gift of life and we must make good of it. If someone like Solomon can look back and regret, then we need to check our life.

If there is something in our life that we have done that we regret or did that we find difficult to tell to anyone else; I implore us today to talk to Jesus about it. If you know you haven’t been close to Jesus as you should be, put your right hand on your heart and ask Jesus into your life so that He can help you and show you His mercy.