Cdc July 9 2018 We Must Not Faint in Prayers

[Intro Voice] Churchism fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God waitly desires a godly home from these are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Life Ministry. May ye be blessed as ye listen. [Speaker 1] The things of this world can be attractive. They can be alluring. They can be pulling. Like Sister Koppa said one time, the pull can be so inviting that de de de be wo. Ma de be wo. Ma de be wo. Because sometimes you might think God is a God of second chance, but there may not be a second chance. There may not be a second chance. So let us just be very, very careful. Let us just be very, very careful. So for David, yes. Oh, you want me to give you the chapter? The Isaiah is, it should be Isaiah 33. Let me quickly check it. Isaiah 33 verse 1. Please check. Please check. Isaiah 33:1. If I am correct. Isaiah 33:1. Am I correct? Yes. Please help me check it. Am I correct? [Speaker 2] Yes. Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. [Speaker 1] So it is 33:1. While the other one is Proverbs, Proverbs 12:3. Proverbs 12:3. Please check it too just to be very sure. Proverbs 12:3. Proverbs 12:3. [Speaker 3] A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved. [Speaker 1] Exactly. You can only joke that you are iro ni. Iro ni. You cannot. It will look as if I have made it. Oloriburuku ni, o make nkan kan. O make anything. Ise bere ni. You know what it means to finish—just give a good example—you know what it means to finish building a house? Just imagine that you have built a house. You have finished everything. You have put your load inside. You and the children are living inside. Then suddenly, the government came without notice. They just put bulldozer and bring the whole thing down. How many things will be lost? Everything you have built. Including your property, your things, everything that you have put. Then where do you now start from? Because normally, what happens is when you see so spoiled, you will be spoiled. It is going to be a sudden destruction. Oba t’o r’o. When you are not thinking, when you just feel, thank God. When you are not expecting, when you feel that yes, I have finished, I have accomplished now. When you want to rest. You know when a man wants to rest, he has wasted all his labor. He has regained all his strength. What the Yoruba call sometimes pe, ma je n f’ojo gbogbo jiya baba. Ma je n f’ojo ale s’ofo l’ori omo. You can imagine after you have built and built and built, and then when you are thinking that and then suddenly, every children went off. Then I do not know if you understand. At the time when you cannot marry again. I do not know if you understand what I am saying. So it is I tell people so many things about life. Life is something that is mysterious. It is mysterious. Mysterious because there is a God of justice. There is a God of justice. And that is why wisdom is to fear the Lord. Let us be sure that anything we are obtaining, no matter how small, no matter how great, ko se bo se ma tobi to. I tell people I prefer to be cheated than to cheat people. People can cheat me because they know I do not fight. I hardly a f’ele f’ohun. It is a battle of the tongue. A f’ele. But they do not understand that I need to pray for you again that God does not judge you. Because if you do not pray again for mercy, that thing that you think that you have taken, by the time you are through with it, that is when somebody... the Bible says even all things are of the Lord, even the wicked for the day of evil. God preserved wicked people when he wants to do evil against evil people. Are you aware of that? Yoruba call it in another way since they do not have the Bible. Won ni omo buruku ni ojo tie. God preserve wicked people, God preserve evil people so that evil people can receive the reward for their evil because the good people will not do evil against evil men. So these are these are let us in everything no matter how small, no matter how great, let us be sure you are building correctly. Better is a little with righteousness than much with vexation of spirit. Yoruba Yoruba Yoruba won a mu gari t’o f’iku l’ekul’eku mu ti o jale. O je pe iba righteousness. It is better than turning figures and cheating. So these are these are principles of life we need to learn. We need to know. We need to make our our values in life our pursuit. If I wanted to change this vehicle, I would have changed it long ago. When I was surrounded by students who set car, my part-time students, tan t’o moto, tan t’o ile, and you are the one supervising their project. And oga, ki l’e fe ka se? Oga, oga. All they want me to say is just ma worry, you will have an A. Bring this. And you can be sure by the time they put themselves together, you have a Corolla. You have this, you have that. Students who are rich that will come and meet you that, oga, Mercedes wa, ko je dandan ka ko kini yen. Oga, e wo ba se ma se e. Manipulate mi o, a se chapter 1, chapter 2. Oga, t’eni l’ole se, won l’ole se to somebody that can do that for them. It is not a must I supervise. But the one that I supervise, she will go. Section chapter 2. They finish everything and they go. No money, nothing. I am okay. I tell people, look, do not think that it is only the children that are tempted. Temptation is everywhere. Students that pass exam. Oga, good evening, sir. Yes, sir, I know I cannot pass it but what do I do, sir? Yes. Oga, I know I cannot pass it, but what can I do? Se t’o wa ri ni? I am talking of female student. So there are if you do not guide your heart, you can make money in a short time. You can move on but the point is the question of... that man was eating, o n je n lo, o n je n lo. Oun na n jeun bi awon eyoku. Suddenly, how come you are here without the garment? O l’e je ounje yi kale. O l’a n je nkan t’eyan le je kale. Let us be careful. Let us know the... I am saying this thing because society has become so so so perverse, so corrupt that sometimes you will be feeling that se d’oke s’ode bayi se ma make e Nigeria? Olorun ma je o. I am telling you sometimes you will be wondering, will I make it in this country? Are you sure that se ma gbe’ri bayi laarin? By the time you are trying to do research to write, awon eleyi t’oti file 50 papers ready for the promotion. Not because they went to the field. They just conjure data on computer. And you do not want to conjure data and you are fighting for the same promotion. You know you can be in your room and write 20 papers and you say you went to the field, you collect... and you just see your friend o n y’anyan. Se promotion ni? Ko si nkan kan. And will you also do the same thing and build unrighteous unrighteousness? Then when they are caught, won a ni, ah, ki lo sele? Won o ti e je ko ri kini e, je cancer lo pa. Some things are not cancer. They are spiritual afflictions. Have you not read it in the Bible? The people of Corinth, they were misbehaving with the Holy Communion. Won l’o pe it is just for play. Instead of waiting for themselves so that they can take it correctly, some will take the wine, won o pa’ra, some will eat the whole bread before others stuff. What did God do? God said some of you are weak, some are sick, and some have died. Olorun pa won. God can kill people, God can kill believers. There are scriptural things but you see, e ri o l’owobere m’eniyan mo. I am saying because people do not fear the Lord. We need to fear the Lord. We need to fear God. God is slow, but do not take God for granted. God is slow, but do not take God for granted. Do not take God for granted. Because when he arises to judge, it is in a way that you may not be able to you may not be able to comprehend. You may not be able to comprehend. You know some of the things we discussed then, I just felt we should remind us today because what we want to look at today somehow goes around what I am discussing now but not very, very directly. There was a case in the Bible, a very familiar story. Are we all familiar with the Book of Esther? I believe you are familiar with the Book of Esther. I want to raise something there and then we will close the meeting for today. Who is very familiar with Haman's story, Mordecai, Esther? Who is not familiar with the story? You are not very, very familiar with the story. So we are all very, very familiar with that story. Okay, so T’ayo will make us start. Now, you know the way the thing turn was that the king promoted Haman. He promoted Haman and he above every other princes that were there and so Haman became very, very important. He became like a prince of princes. You get the point. You know there were other leaders but he was placed above them. And then when that was done, the king also gave an order that everybody, whenever they see Haman, they should bow. You know Haman never had problem with Mordecai because he never noticed that Mordecai was not bowing down to him. Ko mo. It was other gate men at the gate that told Mordecai that the king say we should bow to Haman. Why are you not bowing? And he said, "I'm a Jew." By implication, he was reiterating what Exodus chapter 20, "thou shalt not bow to any graven image, all of that." So I begin to see that it seems that that bowing is not just to bow. Maybe it is a bow that is a kind of worship. I hope to get the point I am making. Just like when Daniel refused to eat the king's meat. Not as if the meat... why would you not eat the meat? You are in a school. But he had more knowledge that that meat was offered to idol. You know you just be wondering why he is not eating the meat. Meat cannot defile anybody now. But it was because he had more knowledge about the source of the meat. You get the point I am making. That was why he proposed not to eat. So it appears that that bowing was something that has to do with the worship of Haman. Mordecai must have... because there is nothing wrong with "E pele o" to bow the normal greeting. So I do not think it is something like that. So Mordecai said, "Because," the only reason he said, "I'm a Jew." But they told him that even if you are a Jew, it does not matter. You should still... he said no, that he is a Jew. A Jew will not do that. They are the ones that now went to Haman and told Haman that Mordecai is not bowing to you. So that is when he now paid attention to now see that, eh, so he never saw that he should be for until his attention was drawn was drawn to him. But that is somewhere I am really going. The point was that there was now crisis between Haman and Mordecai. And Mordecai now... Haman now felt that how will he kill Mordecai is from which race? He said the Jewish race. He said killing only one gate man will not be enough. Let me wipe off the whole of that race. That will be what will be okay for me. May God deliver us from the Hamans of this world. Men who want to take more than we have offended them. You get the point I am making. It is one man who offend who offended, but now he wants to kill the whole race. But of course, it was also test that Haman is a proud person. I hope you get the point I am making. He is a proud person. There is nothing wrong with you coming and you punish the man but that was no, he wants to show that he have access to the king, he can do and undo. And then a conspiracy was made, a decree was issued, all the Jews were to be wiped out. What I want to share with us today—I will close shortly, we will talk more about it later—you know day before yesterday, day before yesterday, yesterday, and for about three, four days ago now, I have been on that scripture, on this Haman story. I have been on it and the more I look at it, that was when I noticed that what we have to discuss in this meeting. You notice that the circumstance in which Mordecai the Jew and Esther found themselves, the way the thing played out was a very, very difficult one. Haman have access to the king, which Mordecai does not have, so he cannot explain himself. Mordecai relied on Esther to be able to help house, but Esther also had a problem. What was the problem? What was the problem? She cannot access the king except the king invite him invite her. So the only person that have direct access to the king is Haman. So it was because when they told Esther, "Esther ni e, even me I cannot go, I don't have access. Except the if I just go like that, the king will kill me." It was a difficult scenario. It looks what was the way forward? Mordecai himself did not know which is the way forward. But he only told Esther that look, if you do not do something, who know that is why you are the queen now. But if you do not do something, anyway, God will do something about... because he did not even know his first tongue was to call Esther. But when Esther was drag-fitting, he just felt that deliverance will come from the Jew from some other place. But from where? You know when you are when you are clueless as how to get out of a problem. You are just clueless. There is something happening around you. The something looks urgent. The something looks you need to reverse the situation. The something looks somehow pressing and yet you are clueless as what what to do. So Mordecai was clueless. He said then Esther now said, "Maybe what we'll do, you, everybody go and fast. Me too, I will go and fast. After three days, I will go to the king. But perhaps if it does not fetch out the staff, then me I would have died. Then solution will come from some other place." I hope you get that at that instance, all the possible solutions that were suggested is not as if there was a light of hope in them. It was just possibly let us try this. And what did they try? They prayed. They prayed. And then eventually, even though there was nowhere where God appeared in the whole of Esther, I hope you know there was nowhere you see God. God was not written in the whole of Esther from beginning to the end. There was nowhere God appeared. But events began to turn. After the prayer, Esther went. The king set out, the king could not sleep. Haman was to see the king was brought to see the king before Haman could say make his request. If it was the other way around... Mordecai was not there, could quickly see king, sit quickly talk, quickly talk before Haman talk. I hope you understand me. But thank God the king spoke first because he could not sleep overnight. And Haman said, "Who could they want to reward but me?" [Background noise] And then he made something that made you know that his pride his trusting God or something that the king will soon die and he will become king. Say, "Let him wear the robe of the king. Let him ride in the chariot that the king normally ride. Let him..." He want to show that this is the next king. Unfortunately, it was the other way around. He said, "Then let the most the most noble prince be made..." Haman was the noble-est. Mordecai is for so truth to type for you. Do it for Mordecai and then from that point, Haman began to go down. The story was changing gradually, gradually, and then we will not be talking about we will talk more subsequently. But what I want to bring out to you is the fact that it does not it does not matter how things may think around you today. [Background noise] I want you to know. I want you to realize. I want to remind you again about the efficacy of prayer. Prayer may look weak. Prayer may look like ba wo l'o ni ba wonu situation yi. There was no angel Gabriel that appeared with sword. There was no no sign, there was no visible sign of God, but there was a quiet hand of God working in the situation. It was a quiet hand of God. I as I want us to close the meeting right now, I just want to remind you again for the past three, four days somehow, I have had a very a a strong burden to wait on the Lord. Particularly as we enter into the second half of the year. It was as if he was drawing my mind back to these things that look. It does not matter how it looks. It does not matter how it is. Do not ever let anything make you think that prayer is not a way forward. [Background noise] Do not allow anything make you think that prayer... it may look weak. It may look weak, it may look like it may look helpless. It may look like will this thing work? Will is there a way forward in this? But I am just stirring up our our holy minds again. Just to stir up our spirit again. [Background noise] Just stirring up your spirit. What is this? What is that thing? It looks it looks ah. What is the way forward? You are clueless as to what to do. You are you are at loss. It seems you have done you you could not just see light. You could not just see how you will move forward. But do not ever let any anything make you feel that when we turn to God in prayer, [Background noise] an invisible hand, you may not see an obvious hand, you may not see something working bra-bra-bra. But I want you to know that when men earnestly earnestly cast their cares upon an unseen God, [Background noise] an unseen hand also takes up their matter. When men earnestly when they earnestly when it looks like olori aye mi ni yi se bawo ni bayi. Do not let something tells you that no, there is no need earnestly crying to this unseen God. That unseen God has an unseen hand. A hand that quietly works in the affairs of men, that quietly speak where you cannot speak, that shows up where you do not have access. I will end up with this testimony of my friend. This testimony of my friend. We were to gain admission into University of Benin. I entered on merit, but there is this brother, in fact, he should be visiting me August. He will be in my house in August. Kayode Martins. Somehow his admission was not just coming through. He has tried it, he has tried that. He was told that he is not up to the cut-off for economics. He that this is not possible, that is not possible. He has met who he should meet. He has I do not know if you just understand me. He had done everything he he could do. So when every door seemed to close against him, that night, he just fell down before the Lord and he said, "God, I don't know what to do again. But God, please send your angels. Let them go and put my name on the admission list." [Background noise] He did not know that his name appeared. I am telling you a true-life story. We are both friends. We live in the same room. We got to the University of Benin. He just went back there and his name was on the list. How? We are both graduated now. But how his name got back there? What brought his name to that list, he cannot explain. You know when you have met all all the who is who. So what put the name there? How was it written? That is not what is important. What made Haman to parade Mordecai may not be visibly seen, but we know it was a response to a what? A prayer. It looks weak, but I just want to remind us again that God, the ears of the Lord is attentive to the prayer of the righteous. It does not matter how things seem. Do not let any anything make you lose sight of this eternal truth. Psalm 34 say the eyes of the Lord is against them that do evil, but his ear is attentive to the cry of the upright. Let us pray. We will pick it up from there next week. I want us to pray. Just talk just talk to the Lord. Talk to the Lord. Talk to the Lord. A reminder again. A reminder again. That when it seems all roads, all roads that we know, when we seems we are clueless, we have gotten to our wit's end about a matter, we do not know what to do. You are even just confused. Do not let something tells you that no, there is no need earnestly crying to this unseen God. That unseen God has an unseen hand. A hand that quietly works in the affairs of men, that quietly speak where you cannot speak, that shows up where you do not have access. I will end up... I will end up with this... tell the Lord I will not give up. Don't forget that one the Lord gave us. He said do not be weary in well-doing, for you will reap in due season if only you faint not. Tell yourself I will not faint. I will not faint. I will not faint. In prayer, in worship, in work, in godliness, in righteousness, in uprightness, in taking steps, in godliness, in the fear of God. I will be expectant, for the Lord will come. For the Lord will come. Thank you, mighty Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.