2019 OPERATION 18-18 (DAY 6) – DELIVERANCE FROM SELFISH CHRISTIANITY

TEXT: Matthew 25: 41-46

Anytime the Lord is telling you to look inwards, to stop or to drop some things or to clear the records, it is because He wants to bless you and take you to higher level. In the kingdom of God , the way down  is up and the way up is down. Deep repentance and deep foundation call for beautiful glorious things. Talking about sin and repentance is not being sin conscious. Sin is like dust, it finds its way of coming to us through some little opening. That you are not dust conscious does not mean that you don’t carry dust.  And so what do you do with the dust? You clean  up!  It is our responsibility to clean off dust. Like we saw in our gospel of purification, ample provision has been made for our cleansing by our heavenly Father. We need to download, apply the provision so we can come out radiating with joy.

Christianity is sweet when you can relate to what you are reading in the bible practically. That is when Christianity becomes real.  The one you relate to, you apply. When you apply, you see result and it strengthens your faith. That is why I want to be a practical teacher and preacher of the word. The word of God is the greatest thing God gave to man.

Never you get tired of looking inwards. A man of God gets his message from everything, from his environment, from his interactions, from his struggles but most importantly from his flock he is trying to shape and shepherd so that it will be good for everybody. The message can come in the form of reproof, repentance, etc . We need to be sober, clean up and come close to God so that we don’t feel okay when we are not. This is hypocrisy!

People don’t understand the nature of evil that’s why they deodorize it. No matter the deodorant you use, evil will mix with the deodorant and come out a stench forcefully. While on earth Jesus was not a pacifist. If Jesus comes to the nations of the world today, do you think he will keep quiet? He will tell them, woe! God expects you  to hate evil. There is a blessing for those who hate evil. If you know how I hate evil, you will not want to mess up with it. It is someone who loves you that will tell you to flee from evil. Holiness is not loving God and going about your business and not hurting anybody.

 Holiness is loving God and hating what God hates and loving what God loves and going the extra mile to see that the will of God is established in your life. And this is our responsibility,  it is not a cheap mandate. Any pastor who is a pacifist cannot fulfill the mandate, his congregation may hail him but he has not done what God has asked him to do. Ignorance is part of the things the devil likes celebrating. He gets people into that, they get carried away, doing the wrong things and what they should do they leave undone. We are here to do the right thing; we are desperately in need of revival. The church in the world is desperately in need of revival. Years back, Benny Hinn was hailing the prosperity preachers but few months ago, he said it is no longer right. Revelation is progressive. The closer you come to God, the more he tells you things to drop, things to change, where you are not standing right so you can straighten up. What we are dealing with, anybody who wants to go far in his walk with God must  take it serious.

Read Matt. 25: 42-46.

May the Lord make us those who will enter into life eternal? It is so easy to be passive in your righteousness and think you are righteous. True righteousness is being actively involved in meeting God’s needs. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Where are your fruits? True righteousness should produce fruits. God has needs. How much of God’s needs have you met?  That’s what the scripture in Matt. 25: 42- 46 means. His needs are always related to the needs of our fellow man. It is like a loving father who has a wonderful plan for his children and he sees someone who is meeting a particular need or challenge in the life of any of his children that he loves. What happens? The person will become the father’s partner. Today, what we have is selfishness in Christianity. It is appalling. We are here to receive deliverance from selfish Christianity. Jesus was never hungry; he was talking about the hunger of those around us. How many have you fed? How many people won one soul within the last one year? We need to repent. To tell you how selfish we are. We are very unproductive in our Christianity today. Every day we gather, it is either God bless me or bless me again.

All these things are in direct opposition to what Christianity should be. Everything I read from Matt. 25: 42- 46 were all written in red and were the direct preaching from Jesus. Another direct word of Jesus is from Luke 12: 15 ; “Take heed and beware of covetousness for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of things he possesseth”. After sharing  the parable of the rich in v21.  Jesus said, “So is he that layeth treasures for himself and he is not rich towards God. Accumulation for personal aggrandizement!  It has entered the church big time. It is one of the weaknesses of prosperity that gets into the church especially the church in Nigeria. Are we prospering in touching lives? Are we prospering in lifting people? How well are we prospering in alleviating pains that we see everywhere around us? Why do we need bigger auditorium, bigger cathedral? To accomodate for what? I want us to look in, it is a  very serious matter.

 What is the essence of building the biggest cathedral in the world that will accomodate vultures, eagles and lions? If you keep money in the auditorium, it will evaporate. If you keep your phone, in less than five minutes before you come back, it has disappeared. Inside the biggest auditorium is the biggest thief. We need to repent. Where is the Christian character? Where is the brotherly love? Rich towards acquisition, very poor towards God. Selfish Christianity is so easy to practice. You need to call yourself to order every time. Every time, I ask myself, Brother Tony, why are you in ministry?  That is the reason why you need to hear God very well before you answer. From time to time, you have to revisit the call otherwise you run a race that is very dangerous. This thing we call motive is very deep, we have been emphasizing it in this particular operation 18/18. What is your motive? You want to show them that you have arrived. Crooked motive! You can be doing the right thing with a crooked motive. Anything that is done in a crooked manner cannot please God. You are dressing to draw attention to self. Crooked, selfish Christianity! Projecting self above anything. It manifests in so many ways, even in the place of prayer. When you are given a microphone, your concern is how to sound and not to connect to God.

A man may just as much commit sin in praying, reading the bible or going for religious service as  in anything else. Every selfish motive is useless even if it is in the church, even in prayer, in choir.  So far a man simply prays with the view to simply promote his self- happiness. Is that God fearing? Where is God in that motive? It is not more than attempting to make God his almighty servant. Inadvertently, that is what most prayers have made God. A God to use to get, you can even send him on errand to go and kill your enemies. It is nothing but an attempt to put the universe and God in position to make the self happy. It is the greatest degree of wickedness.

PRAY-
Dear Heavenly Father i worship you. I ask you to have mercy on me and forgive me all my wrong and selfish motives in serving you. Cleanse me with the precious blood of your son Jesus Christ. Make me holy and acceptable to you, In Jesus’s name. Amen.

TO BE CONTINUED…