Fear Not My Little Flock It is Your Fathers Good Pleasure to Give You the Kingdom 14092020

Church fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home for you. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tents Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] Indeed among other gods, there is none like thee. There is none like you, our Father. Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders, Creator of the universe, who declares the end from the beginning, saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasures. We worship you, our God, we lift you high again for today, unto you we gather this evening to learn, to look into your word, looking up unto you for instruction in our heart. Lord, we pray, both the hearer, the speaker, Lord, instruct us in the name of Jesus. Cause oh God, that our darkness will receive light from your spirit in the name of Jesus. Lord, shine your light. Lord, shine your light. Cause the light of the day of the Lord to appear in our situation. Thank you, eternal Father. Blessed be your holy name. In Jesus' name we pray. We have been considering or we started the topic, a new topic last week: Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Our text was from the book of Luke 12:32. We read between verse 32 and verse 38. We were considering some important issues that Jesus raised in discussing with his disciples. We were able to, by the help of the Lord, raise important issues last week from the verse 32, which was our major verse of consideration. I said we will be journeying down through 33, 34, until we get to around verse 39, comparing scriptures with scriptures. As we want to move on today, brethren, we normally act asking our brethren who are physically with us. Those of you that are joining us online, you may not have the immediate benefit of doing that, but of course we get the comments of brethren via WhatsApp and all of that, and sometimes even on Facebook we get the comments of our brethren. But those of us who are physically present, we like asking that is there any major point of lesson? Is there something that became a matter with you or a blessing to you that you want to share with us? Is there something that the Lord pointed your attention to that could be of great benefit to us if you share with us? Does anybody have anything to say before we move on today? [Speaker 2] Praise the Lord. Last week I was blessed through the disciple class. Both to explain to us that the disciples, they were afraid. And the thought of fear made them to be afraid. Even today we are afraid. In everything we are afraid. We keep thinking what's happening. Last week I learned that if we know our sonship, if we know that it is secure, if we are very sure of our sonship, we have learned the fatherhood of God, that it is not possible for a father to be looking at his son and for that son to perish after he have invested so much on that son. Not long when I got home, I was now singing the song, *Omo baba l'emi n se nipa igbagbo*. Another song, I know God is on my side, God is on my side. We sing that song with confidence, but when trouble comes or when we are passing through one challenge or the other, we forget the content of that song. So last week now, I was so blessed and that one now, the message boosted my confidence that truly, if God is my father, I am very sure I should relax. I should relax. So it made me to be more secure and I rededicated my own sonship, to say God, please give me the consciousness of who I am in you. Praise the Lord. [Speaker 1] Hallelujah. Thank God for that contribution. Honestly, the more we feel secured in our sonship, the more we understand that we are children. Honestly, it shapes a lot of things. It shapes a lot of things. If Jesus could be telling them that look, if God could so clothe the grass which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith? Even though many times the things that God seems to be saying, they look very abstract. They look like this thing, can I rest my life on it? Am I sure that this thing is going to work out? Can I be confident on this? But we saw that when Jesus was also speaking to the disciples, what he was raising with them, they were not just exaggerated statements. They were statements of reality. They were looking abstract to them. Some of them they could not even understand. The things that he was telling them when he was there with them, some of them they did not understand it. They were still working with God in their own consciousness. That is one thing I believe God must deliver us from. Following God in your own consciousness and expectation of God, contrary to following God in the light of what God intends to do. They were following God in the light of their own expectation, that very soon now Jesus will just draw sword, kill all the Roman soldiers, give them the kingdom. They were following God in that consciousness. They were not following God in the fullness of that which God intend to do. That gave them a lot of problem. Gave them a lot of problem. And that was why immediately Jesus died, what did Peter say? What did he say? Peter, what did he say immediately Jesus died? He said, look, as this thing is going, if there is... if we cannot go forward, after all, I have not forgotten my skill of how to fish. If we cannot make livelihood with this man that have died, I have not forgotten how to fish now. Let me go back to my fishing and make things work out for myself. But you know, Jesus had to tell him, Lovest thou me more than these? And on and on we saw how Jesus was able to restore those people. So we will be moving on today, brethren. Fear not. Honestly, I must confess to you that last week and now, even though I am the one ministering, in several ways I have been personally blessed by last week message, honestly, both the teaching and all that we said. I got home and I found myself telling myself again, fear not. Fear not. It is your Father's will to give you the kingdom. And this kingdom you will get because it is his good pleasure. It is his good pleasure. Praise the Lord. So we try to move on today, brethren. Jesus said, do not fear. We are looking at verse 32. We have looked at why we should not fear. We have looked at the matter, do not fear. We have looked at the matter, little flock. We look at the matter, your Father. We saw the matter of his good pleasure. Four things that we focused on last week: why we should not fear, understanding of little flock, understanding of it is your Father, not just God, no, it is that God is also your Father, and understanding that it is his good pleasure, it is his joy. I do not know how I will express it. It is in your success as a Christian, your Christian life, that God is glorified. Do you understand that? Do you know that even the wicked, God don't have pleasure in the death of the wicked? Are you familiar with that? I am quoting the scriptures. Even the wicked, when the wicked perish, it is not God's good pleasure. It is not. That is why you notice that sometimes you just feel that somebody offended you and all you want to say is that evil should befall the person. It is not a pattern with God because even when a man is wicked, that is why sometimes people begin to wonder about the nature of God. Somebody has been in all kinds of diabolic activity, operating as a wizard or a sorcerer or a witch, and he has bewitched several people and have killed several people. At a point that person will find mercy. He will repent and be on his way to heaven. Then you will be wondering, all those people that he have killed, why did God forgive? God should have just cut off the person's head. Look at God and the people of Nineveh. Look at Jonah's attitude. Jonah felt these people that would come to Israel, carry sword, put it in the stomach of pregnant woman, rip it open, tie people to their horses, be pulling them on the floor. These are heartless people, they must die. And I wonder the prayer life of Jonah. God kill them, God kill them, God kill them. Then one day the Holy Ghost came. Jonah, arise. Go to Nineveh, that great city. Go and preach to them to repent. I mean, preach to them to die. I thought you would send me to go and bring fire to finish them. Jonah arose and said, God forbid, me I will not go to Nineveh. They must die. As if he is the owner of the Israelites that they killed. As if he is the owner of the people. But the owner said go. Then he took a ship to go to Tarshish. God forbid they must die. God said, no, you Jonah, you will be the one to go. Then God began to arrange several things. Arrange a storm, arrange a fish. The fish swallowed Jonah. God allowed him to stay there. God will not allow him to die. I wonder how that thing was done. Where was he getting oxygen? God move in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. Doctors will have supplied oxygen through the fish and do something, put him on oxygen support. I do not know how God did his own, but God just said, be in fish belly and don't die. He functions and rule by his word. Jonah was there. By the time Jonah was almost dying inside the fish and he said, God I repent, I repent. Have you repented now? Oya, go to the place. Then God brought him there. Still wishing inside him that they will die. Then he preached, hoping that they will not believe the message. Are you seeing how man is? You preach a message and you are praying they will not believe. When they believe, you got angry with God. That is what I thought, I know you will show mercy. I don't know whether you understand me. I am trying to make you see that even for the wicked, it is not God's good pleasure for them not to get the kingdom. Are you getting where I am starting from today? Now, what do you now think about the children? Please, what do you think about the children? If the wicked, it is not God's pleasure for them to perish, what do you now think about yourself? Please, how are you seeing yourself? The wicked that said God, there is no God, and they are busy killing God's people, God is thinking of how they will not perish. So what is the thought of God towards you? Can you try to think it out? Do you need a prophet to come and meet you and say, woman, son of man, God have good gifts? You don't need a prophet in this matter. Scriptures cannot be broken. God cannot deny his word. Brace up, stand up, understand this matter. It is God's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Now, I want us to look into something today about the manner of God's workings. When God said, "fear not little flock, it is your Father's pleasure to give you the kingdom," it might be good for us, which is what we want to do today, to try in looking at this matter of do not fear, to see why we should not really fear by considering the manner of God's working. I want us to look at it from the beginning. We just look at some things from the beginning. We try to look at the ways of God. You will see something that is consistent with God. When in recent time I have been studying the book of Revelation, that what I saw in Revelation again gave me greater confidence that this is a pattern with God. That is why the saints need not fear, honestly. I show you by the spirit of God, it doesn't matter how it looks now, just like we ended last week when we said Abraham. Abraham continued to hope when there was no reason to hope, and eventually his life did not fail. I am assuring you, it doesn't matter how it is now too, your life cannot fail. It may look as if you are against hope. Why is it that the saints do experience this kind of thing? That's what I want to show you. When it looks as if the saints are pitched against hope. Now, let's look at the book of Genesis. But because I would not want us to read the whole of that, I just want to draw an inference from Genesis itself. Let's look at it. In Genesis, God created the first Adam, isn't it? Why do we call him the first Adam? Why am I saying first Adam? Because there was a second Adam. Is that not so? We get that from 1 Corinthians 15. Look at 1 Corinthians 15. That's where I want us to go. We want to look at something about Genesis, but looking at it from 1 Corinthians 15 could help us. Are you there? 1 Corinthians 15. I want to read from verse 39. "All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies, but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars, for one star differs from another star in glory." Are you following something? Talking about different glory, that even stars don't have the same glory. It says, "So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." What a matter of natural and spiritual body. We are talking about sequence, isn't it? It is first sown the natural body, then what happened? Raised the spiritual body. Immediately he mentioned the natural and spiritual body, he now made a reference to a scripture. And so it is written. What is written? The first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Are you following something? That there is a first Adam and there is a second Adam. Look at Romans 5. I am trying to explain to you why as little flock, no matter what it may look like today, why you even though you may be against hope, where we stopped last week, why you must still hope in hope. That's what we want to look at. Why? And I said I want you to look at this pattern of God. Look at this pattern. And take encouragement from scripture. Look at Romans 5. Look at verse 14. NKJV says, "Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come." Another translation please. [Speaker 3] Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as Adam did, who is a pattern of the one to come. [Speaker 1] So, in type, another word for type is pattern. Are you seeing it? Adam was a type, Adam was a pattern. There's another translation: figure. Figure. Similarity. Pattern, type, figure. What about symbol? Adam, as at when God was starting, he started with Adam. I am talking of in creation, the first Adam. That first Adam that he started with was actually a type, a pattern, a figure, a symbol of another one to come. But look at it. That first one that came was natural. The one that came after it was spiritual. The one that came first was not the best of Adam that we can get. The best of Adam that we can get is the second Adam. So you notice that at creation, when he was beginning the work, the spirit gave a picture of an Adam that gave hopelessness. But that was not the peak of Adam. The peak of Adam was an Adam that gave hope. Things did not move from eternal life to eternal death. Rather it move from eternal death to eternal life. The first Adam gave us death and condemnation. The peak of Adam was resurrection and hope. Move quickly and shift from Adam. Can we come to Abraham? There were two children. Ishmael and then Isaac. Who came first? Ishmael, representing bondage. "Cast out the bondwoman and her son that correspond to bondage." What came after bondage? Isaac, that correspond to freedom. Can we step further again to Jacob and Esau? Who came first? Esau. Who first settled down? Esau. Hope you know that after Esau took his wife and settled down was when Jacob began the life of wandering. Wandered and wandered and wandered and wandered, got to Laban, Laban, got Leah, Leah, got Rachel, and then before he now came back. At that time, Esau was already a fully settled person in his own land, the land of Edom. Jacob was still a wanderer. He came back again, he had still not gotten his own land. He went back again into Egypt in bondage. was there again. It was later God raised Moses, and then through Joshua, Jacob was now settled down in his own land. But look at it. It says Jacob I love, Esau I hate. The real translation is that I preferred Jacob to Esau. I want to ask you, if you look at the story of their life in terms of settling down and getting rest, who would you prefer? Because Esau settled down, got a wife, settled down, everything. This one was still wandering, wandering, wandering, wandering, why? Because God told Abraham, know surely that your children will be in captivity in a country that is not their own for 400 years, after that they will come forth. Why? He said because the sin of the Amorites is not yet full. But when their sin is full, I will bring back your children. So it was when the sin of the Amorites was full that God now brought Israel back to drive them out of the land, to take over their own land to settle them down. That which was preferred was that which settled last. I will make you move on. Look at the covenants of God. We began with which covenant? The covenant of innocence. That was broken in Adam. Then Moses came up with another covenant. What is that one? Law. Law began to operate, law operated, operated, operated for years before God now brought a new covenant, which is the covenant of grace. Beginning from innocence, was hope not lost? When we move to law, was hope actually restored? What happened? Condemnation rather increased. Why was the law given? Why did God give the law through Moses? Romans 5:20. "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound." So why was the law given? The law was given so that sin can increase. To make it clearer, look at 2 Corinthians 3. Let's look at the comparison. Verse 4. "And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life." Verse 7. It began the comparison. "But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the spirit not be more glorious?" What did he call the ministry of the law? Ministry of death. The first covenant was a ministry of death. It is not a ministry of life. If the ministry of death was that glorious, how much more will the ministry of the spirit be more glorious. Verse 9. "For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory." Now, verse 11. "For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech." What am I trying to make you see? Which ministry first came? The ministry of death. The ministry of condemnation. It looks glorious, but what was superseded by what? The ministry of life, the ministry of righteousness. Do you know what I'm trying to make you see? I am seeing a consistent pattern in God. What is the pattern I am showing you? That the best of a man does not precede his good and his better. That is not the way God works. God begins from a point. The spirit gave a picture of an Adam that gave hopelessness, but that was not the peak of Adam. The peak of Adam was an Adam that gave hope. Things did not move from eternal life to eternal death. Rather it move from eternal death to eternal life. The first Adam gave us death and condemnation. The peak of Adam was resurrection and hope. Let's move on. Look at the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Can we evaluate something? Look at Jesus. Keep all of those other things if you do not get understanding from it. Let's look at Jesus. Why we should not be hopeless as Christians? Why even when we are against hope? I am showing you a consistent pattern. That is why I have showed you the way God work. Now let's come to Jesus, the author and the finisher of this faith, this your faith that you present. This faith that is given to us, let's see how. Jesus came into the scene, and when he came into the scene, the Bible says how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power (Acts 10:38). He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. So the matter was not that God was not with him. God was with him. Then gradually, the miracles were coming in. His ministry was expanding, from one village, town to the other, and things were going. Along the line there have been conspiracy. Conspiracy, conspiracy, conspiracy. At one time, among the crowd, they wanted to kill him. What happened? He walked through their midst. Nothing happened. And when that happened, what will you say? God was with him. Then from within, a man's greatest enemy is always from within. Then from within, when the enemy could not come from without, the devil tried, use temptation, entered Peter, did everything. All of that could not work. Then from within, someone was hijacked and then they began to sponsor the project. And the project was prospering. They went on, they negotiated, they took it and bam! It worked out. With a kiss he betrayed him. As they planned, he was taken. And when he was taken, the matter started. From beating, beating, beating. They beat and beat and beat and beat and beat. They left that, they were not satisfied. All kinds of torture. While all this was going on, what were the princes of darkness, the power of darkness, what were they doing? They were rejoicing. All that was going on, it was their joy. Their joy was that we have succeeded. They were succeeding. As they were succeeding, what happened to the side of the disciples? Things were getting darker and darker and darker and darker. Eventually, what was the climax of all they did? Crucifixion. Please, after that climax, how many hope remain? I am trying to show you how your faith was authored. And why your faith cannot work to the contrary. Hope was authored at the peak of hopelessness. Is it looking like your situation is moving from bad to worse? And from worse to worst? Is that why you are losing hope? Is that why you are becoming hopeless? Is that why you are becoming fearful? We are looking at this matter "fear not little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure." It is just that you must understand the patterns of God. There is a pattern with God that we are not looking at. There is a pattern with God. I am going to show you that there are biblical examples of this pattern. I will show you how men missed out because they don't understand this pattern. I will show you how some men did not miss out but they got it. It is a pattern with God. You notice that it was at the point when everything was completely hopeless—hopeless in the sense that number one, he was killed, crucifixion. Number two, to be sure that nothing will happen, they put him somewhere and they carried stone and they rolled it against it. To be sure that everything is secure, what did they do? They brought soldiers to guard the place. As far as disciples were concerned, what did Peter say? Brethren, let me go back to fishing. There is no hope in this faith. There is no hope in this Jesus. But I want to ask you, in all of this that we are discussing, who was masterminding it? You know that God was not the effective... what I mean by that is God is not the one that went, did the deceiving and then the betrayal. There was a Judas. And Jesus said woe to the man through whom it happened. But what I'm trying to bring out, who was the originator of the whole thing? God. What we were seeing effectively was Satan, Satan, Satan, darkness, evil, that, that. And it looks like God was powerless. But was God really powerless? He wasn't. I remember something in one of our meeting once said: when they were busy beating him, what was God securing? He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. What was God working at the other end? Victory. That is what we suppose. I'm telling you, many times when you look at what is happening around you, you will become hopeless. You will become so fearful. But don't look unto your situation, don't look unto the circumstance, look at Jesus, look at infinite power, look at his wisdom, look at his operation, look at the manner of God's working, look at the mysterious ways by which God move. Look at all of these, looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of your faith. Look to how your faith was born. Look to how hope came for us. Today Jesus is the hope of glory. Look at how the whole thing was organized. I thought he would say *oti baje*. He said no, it is finished. We have finished everything we needed to do. Is that the pathway to it? Does that look like a pathway to breakthrough? I am showing you the faith, this faith that you confess. Can you see the pattern? Go and check this pattern. It is a pattern with God that there will first be something that look like hopelessness, and then hope will be restored. Situation will start trending down and then you will see. But my real focus today is on the foundation of our faith. When we come next week, I will be showing you biblical example of this thing. You will see that there is really nothing new. There is nothing new. And that is why you will notice the Bible warns, look at Romans 15:4. "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." He said whatever thing were written formally were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scripture. Please, what is the Scripture about? Patience and comfort. As often as you turn away from Scripture, your life will be hopeless. That is the reality of it. Because what God put in place to give you hope... and that is why you notice the enemy is turning us away from the Scriptures to philosophy, to fantasy. You watch certain things and then you begin to think that that is the reality of the situation. The reality of your life is in what God said. The reality of your life is not in a theory. It is not in a philosophy. It is not even in your understanding. Bible says do not lean on your own understanding. Because it passes your understanding, the way God have planned to make your life work. If you understand it, then God will not be God. The thing will be coming, that is why the Bible says the just shall live by his faith. Why? Because no man can search out God. No man can by finite mind search out an infinite God. His ways are infinite. You can't search it out. You can't just figure it out. Even when you say angels that are more powerful and they are spirit, could not figure out that it is by the peak of hopelessness that God will give birth to hope. The Bible says if they had known, they would not have crucified the King of Glory. The craftiness of Satan, that is cunning. He is so much that man at the peak of his glory could not withstand it. Yet that man that is so full of crafty wisdom was outsmarted by God. And man want to figure out God. When several times man cannot even figure out Satan except by the spirit of God. Remove the spirit of God from man and let man face Satan, if man can. Remove the Holy Ghost, let us face Satan. If he comes as an angel of light, if we will be able to confront him. But we by the spirit of God, we are able to confront Satan. But that man himself, God turn things, that he himself was lost inside the wisdom of God. He was lost. And when he thought wah! suddenly the next thing that followed on Sunday was that ah! On Friday he was jubilating. On Saturday they were dancing. On Sunday they were confused. I announce to you: after the Friday, after the Saturday, there is a Sunday. There is a Sunday. There is the third day of resurrection. Our hope is based on the power of resurrection. There is always resurrection. Fear not little flock. It is your Father's good pleasure. It is just that his ways are unsearchable, his judgment they are past finding out. At the peak of your hopelessness, your hope will be born in the name of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter how it look dark now. I want you to make that our prayer for this evening. Lord, this thing that is looking hopeless. Let hope arise tonight in the name of Jesus. Let there be an awakening in our heart to the fact that you are our father and it is your good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Lord, let this be the reality of our heart in the name of Jesus. Every lies of the enemy that we have bought into, Lord, please deliver us from them now in the name of Jesus. Every of those things that are whisper in our ears that say it is not possible anymore, we are asking the Lord God Almighty you will cause us to snap out of them in the name of Jesus. Thank you Lord for your son that you have used again tonight. Thank you Lord for your grace upon his life. We are asking oh Lord that this life in him shall not die in the name of Jesus. Your life that is bubbling in him and that is bringing sufficient life to share with others, Lord we pray you will sustain it by the power of your spirit in the name of Jesus. Thank you for hearing us pray. Thank you Father. Lord for as many of us that are listening to these messages we are asking oh Lord let there be evidence of your word in our heart and in our lives in the name of Jesus. Thank you for hearing us pray. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forever more. Amen. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. This message is coming to you from Family Tents Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development and mission help. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class every Monday, 5:00 PM at Odyssey Seniors and Singles Club; every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars, regular school outreaches and everyday counseling. For further counsel, you can reach us at our location, Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Veryjoy filling station along Igbara Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytents@yahoo.co.uk, familytentsministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentsministry.org. Our phone numbers are 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.