20th September 2020
Minister: Pastor Seyi Osanyinbi
Text: 2 Timothy 4:5
We all have an obligation and a personal responsibility to God but most of us do not appear to be serious about it as much as we should. God gave five gifts so that each can release the grace of its ministry to the church. You must learn to sit down and listen to other gifts no matter how big you think you are. In the main text above, Paul admonished Timothy to do the work of an Evangelist though he was the Pastor of the church in Ephesus. Without doing the work of an evangelist, Timothy would not have been able to make full proof of his ministry though he was called to be a pastor. The only ministry with which you cannot be false is the ministry of an evangelist. There can be false pastors, apostles, teachers, but there cannot be false evangelists. I have not seen one.
The sad fact is that death is still killing people today but by any means, and people are stepping into eternity daily without us speaking and warning them of the impending judgement. You need to preach to people and never mind if the person listens or not, just do the warning. I have observed that many of us are becoming elitist in our preaching of the gospel. You must be able to preach your gospel in your language and to local people around you otherwise it is not the gospel that you are handling.
Daniel 12:3
Your future state in eternity is not going to be accidental; it is something you have to invest in. God has given us enough time to invest into our eternity. Once you step over to the other side, you cannot amend your ways again. The doctrine of purgatory is a dangerous doctrine. It has damned many souls and condemned them into an eternity in hell. So the pertinent question that we need to ask ourselves today is ‘what are you doing with your time on earth’? What is your ambition here on earth? The most important ambition anyone can ever have in this life is to have the desire to turn men unto righteousness. The angel told Daniel that those who are wise will turn people from darkness to righteousness and be regarded to shine like stars forever. Remember that stars were created to govern (Genesis 1: 14 – 18).
John 1:40-48
In this story, Andrew was one of the disciples of John the Baptist and later followed Jesus after, John had pointed Him out as the messiah. Immediately he left John to follow Jesus and after that went to look for his brother Peter to bring him over to Jesus. The issue before us is how much do you value the Jesus you profess to love? How passionate are you about Him? We will know how passionate you are with the way you respond to people’s need for salvation. You have to place value where necessary. Do you persist on speaking to someone about Christ even when the person is being cynical? People around us are at the verge of making life-altering decisions that could turn away their souls from God forever, and we are not sensitive. We must pay attention to the people around us that need to be saved and we must not be in a hurry to abandon them even when they are being heady. We must stay until we prevail over them.
Acts 8: 26-40
Philip was instructed by an angel to go to a road that was in the desert and he obeyed. This is a lesson for us to note that it will be easy for angels to talk to us if we are sensitive. And note that the ministry of angels is more prevalent in the new testament than the old. Some people do not understand the gospel because there may be things they are battling with and questions they are asking. We are those interpreters who are to bring solutions to their needs. But then, how many of us can fill that space? You should be able to preach Christ from anywhere in the scriptures. You must be skillful in your art and profession. You must be able to rightly divide the word of truth such that you can give answers to people’s questions.
For many of us, it’s about the fear of being despised or embarrassed by people’s responses. But then, if Jesus bore the shame on the cross, why do we care so much about the shame we could face when we start preaching him? We should not be ashamed to join ourselves to the chariot because we are a miracle going somewhere to happen. Many need Jesus and we are the ones God has placed in places to show them how to have Him.
We have to be blessings to people. It is not money that humanity needs but Jesus because He is the most precious personality that a man can know.