Who Will Believe Our Report - 5

[Background music: Choir singing in Latin] [Speaker 1] Church and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Life Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] We look into the scripture. The more we are trying to move on on the matter of what God is showing us, the more it looks as if we keep emphasizing one part. This is it. We keep drawing on the matter of the word, the word. Every time we want to journey further, God will bring us back again. The matter is the issue of my report. Who will believe? Before you enter the report, who will believe? And sometimes you will be wondering that is it that there is nothing to say or can't we move on? But what I've come to discover is that when God is emphasizing a matter, God keeps bringing everything around one matter. And that matter around which God keeps bringing everything about is the key to all other things that God wants to do. Many times, the real thing in spiritual things, they look weak. The real issue, they will look weak. They will look like the things to set aside. Let me give you a good example of what I'm trying to say. Look at the ministry of Jesus. What was the real issue about the ministry of Jesus? What was the real issue? Can we just try to see what could be the real thing in his ministry? Can we look at possible suggestions? [Speaker 3] Faith. [Speaker 2] Okay, faith. Any other thing that come—what was the real issue in the ministry of Jesus? What was the real issue? [Speaker 4] Prayer and the word of God. [Speaker 5] Deliverance and miracles. [Speaker 2] Deliverance. Yeah, you will notice that, yes, all of these, all of these are different part of the ministry of Jesus that you have either the area of faith, the area of deliverance, the miracles, the prayer, the word of God. And you will notice that of all of these, which one got the attention, the acceptance of the people most? We can put it in a bigger concept: the miracles. Either the healing miracle or the provision miracles. There were healing miracles, then were deliverance miracles, then were these other kind—the miracles. That was the thing that was what was going on. Would you notice that that one that seemed to draw the people was any done for the disciples? Actually, that was not God's investment on his own. What looks like the big thing about him. Now, the real thing in his ministry was his death. How many accepted that death? Is it not the 'Let him die, die, crucify, crucify!' And that was the real thing that was their deliverance. That was the real thing that marked the finish, that the work finished. [Speaks in Yoruba] The loudness because I am trying to say 'God, let's journey on.' And God says, 'Oh, see, there are issues that associated with this you need to establish.' And every time we come, we can see new dimension of this matter of who will believe this report. Everything we have been saying so far in the different dimensions and in prayer is just one thing. Can you just agree with this report? You agree with me. And so you will notice that God is doing a thing and God is making me to see that the real thing, what God begins to pay attention on, when you see God paying attention on a matter and keep emphasizing a matter and keep emphasizing a matter, it is because it is a matter that has still not been understood. It is a matter that is still not clear. The weight it needed to carry, it has not been carried. It will look like let's move on. This matter, you need to understand the matter. And if you look at it too, at some point if they ever did that the people ever realize that that very one that they despised and rejected is actually the joy of the earth. [Speaks in Yoruba] All that accepted the miracles [Speaks in Yoruba] would just diffuse. And so you see the matter in the matter when it comes to the things of God, they look very weak. They look [Speaks in Yoruba]. And yet that's the real matter, that's where the deliverance is. What I'm saying is that the Lord seems to be emphasizing to us that the real issue about our salvation is not whether if God will do it. No. The real issue about our salvation is like Jesus told that man when he said, 'Oh, if you are willing, please help my son.' He said, 'If I'm willing? If only you believe.' For many of us, it is looking like if only God will be willing. If only God will be willing to loose us, if only God will be willing to free us. But I see God saying the matter is not whether I am willing. The matter is if only you will believe. The matter is not whether will God do it? That's the way we put the matter. Can God do it? Perhaps he may. While it is true that he does his things in his time, the matter about our salvation is not if only God will be willing to do it. No. The matter is that if only we will believe what he has said about it. And yesterday the Lord was calling my attention to something and it just began like a small impression but it began to expand and expand and expand. And before you know it I'm already discussing with you as we began this evening. It came to me in the word of a philosophical statement but it starts becoming a matter that is serious. And it was, 'What is the greatest lesson that we can see in history?' And of course, philosophically we normally say the greatest lesson in history is that man don't learn from history. It's a philosophical statement that we normally use in terms of my discipline. What has happened, man still makes the same mistake before all that. And suddenly it became a matter that do you realize that this matter is not about history? But look at something brethren. It's a very familiar scripture. Let's read this familiar scripture. Scripture we have read over and over in this class and we have discussed it. But we just want to look at it a little closer again for the sake of learning from the word of God. Now, 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. You are already familiar with the story we want to read. Now, it says from verse 1, I'm reading from NIV translation, 'For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them. That rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. Their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now, these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry." We should not commit sexual immorality as some of them did. In one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ as some of them did and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the culmination of the ages has come.' Please, what is this scripture trying to say? In a very simple—what is it saying? To learn from them. That is the simple thing it is saying. Now, but if you look a little inside that thing that he said, it said, 'Now these things happened to them.' It says verse 6, 'Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.' Now, these things that happened to them, does it not just look like an event in history? Something that just happened, just like hearing the story: kidnappers killed 30 people, robbers stole. Is that not the way we take the news? Are you understanding me? Now, it said, 'But these things happened,' and then it says they were written. How were they written? How were they written? The answer is also in the Bible. Holy men they wrote, they spoke and they wrote as they were carried along. So who was writing? The thing happened like an event. The event had gone and then the Holy Spirit took such an event and began to put the story, put it down, put it down, put it down, put it down. Now, when they were put down, God wants us to see the record and allow the record to determine how we will live. That is the essence of the record. Is that not true? I'm trying to show you something very quickly. Look at this popular scripture again, another popular scripture. Joshua 1. Joshua 1. Many of us can quote it offhand. Can we go ahead? Verse 8. Can we do it offhand? Let's just put our hands here. 'This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein. Then you will make your way prosperous and you will have good success.' Please, what is the essence of having Joshua to meditate on the law? Why is God asking him that it should not depart from his mouth, he should meditate on it? Why? What's the reason? Do you notice that his way being prosperous, that he would make his way prosperous and have good success, it is just a consequence. That wasn't the reason. Look at it so that you can observe to do what is there. God was not asking him to do it so that his way will be prosperous. His way being prosperous is just a consequence. So that when God is calling our attention to his report, when God is saying, 'Look at my report,' the burden in the heart of God is so that you can observe to do it. I'm trying to see how God will help me to bring this thing to you the way it came to me. The matter about God, think to your widest imagination, whether in terms of spiritual blessing, financial blessing, marital blessing—just think of anything, think of anything to your widest imagination. Those things, they are not the matter for which God is calling our attention to himself. Maybe I should explain it better. What I mean is that those things, they are not things that God needed to make any effort to accomplish. God don't need to put off some special ability in order for God now—for God to just for God to say, 'Okay, a dead situation, come to life.' God don't need to make any special, he don't need to do anything, anything particular to get it done. Those things, they have been done. Thank you, Jesus. One scripture came to my heart now. Maybe it will help us to—I'm trying to communicate something to you that the Lord caused my eyes to see. But a scripture came now, in addition to the things that I have before that will make it clear. You know if you read—you are familiar with when we were going through Ephesians 1. You still remember. We said, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has' what? 'Who has blessed us with all.' God is not trying to do something for you. He has done it even though you are not seeing anything. If you look closely, the matter in 1 Corinthians 10 is that God wrote these things down. They were stories, they were events. But he particularly inspired men. I want to ask a question. Do you take time to write out the story of your everyday life? When you keep diaries, is it not for important dates? Do you keep diaries of everything and everything that is going? Do you keep such diaries? It took God to inspire men that this ordinary thing needed to be written down. The matter is that if these things are not written down, there will be no word to meditate on so that you can observe to do. It is not that God is asking you to do it so that he will be able to bless you. He had blessed you. It is so that when you observe to do it, if you see it happening to people, how it happened, so that you will be able to see it and do it, you will be able to enter into what God has blessed you with. The reason why God opened Isaiah 53 with 'Who will believe our report' is because in the similar manner in which he recorded the ordinary everyday life story that looks so ordinary about the fathers, it is the same way they are going to take time to inspire men again to write the ordinary story of everyday Jesus' life. Ordinarily if somebody was robbing a case, they betray him and they kill him, and so—and so? He was not the first to die that way. They have been killing criminals like that. They have been killing criminals like that. But what makes his own different is that God said, 'This one is for your salvation.' When they whipped him the first one, this group of sicknesses flew away. When they slapped him, it is so that your pain can go, because God said. Just like he said. So God took time again to put this record how? Down. Put the record down. The records are there not to make God to bless us. No. By the fact of that thing that happened, our blessings have been finished, it has been settled. But so that you can be prosperous, so that these blessings can be yours, so that it can be an experience, there is a place of what? Observing to do. Observing to do. Observe. The essence of his report is for you to meditate on it day and night, day and night, so that you can see it clearly. You can see it, you can see it, you can see it and say, 'Okay, so this is it. It wasn't clear to me before. Okay.' And then you do it. The matter is not is God willing to bless me? He has blessed us. Somebody will now ask me, 'But what of if it is not yet God's time, for instance? What of if this? What of if that?' Are you following me? But do you notice something? Do you know that it is as we look—how did Apostle James describe this record? He said the law of liberty. As we look into that law of liberty, that liberty, that thing that sets us free. Do you know that whether you are talking about timing, you are talking about where, you are talking about all of these things, all of those things you are talking about, you can never ever even understand them until what? Until you observe to do. Because you will notice that in that scripture, what God told Joshua is that first you will make your way how? Prosperous. So what is the first thing about observing to do? It will give you a way. It will give you a way. This is the way to do this thing. This is the way to do this. This is the way. It first put you in a way. Everything that God wants to do for you is in the way. So the matter is first come where? Come into the way. You see when God is calling our attention to what he is calling our attention to in this meeting is that do you also realize that even for us as Christians, one great lesson from history is that we have not learned from history. Are we learning from history? Or we are seeing history as what? As what? We are seeing history as history. For example, when he wrote that he fed them for 40 years without any economy. If you actually see that as a thing to observe to do, do you know that the whole shout about economic recession will not affect you? But you know you are already getting afraid. That is why you are thinking of what do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do? But your fear will soon become a reality because you are not walking in faith. Fear has torment. Many of the business you want to start is because you are afraid. It is not that it is wrong to take a step, but what I'm saying is that the first thing God told Joshua is that he will be where? In the way. Everything God wants to do for you had been done. Everything about the matters of your life is not the thing that God wants to settle. God is not trying, God is not—what God is trying to do with you by bringing you to fellowship everyday, by calling your attention, by saying pray, by journey that God want you to do is so that you may observe to do according to what he has written. The whole reason why God, look at something in Isaiah chapter 53, he recorded the ordinary everyday life story that looks so ordinary about the fathers. It is the same way they are going to take time to inspire men again to write the ordinary story of everyday Jesus' life. Ordinarily if somebody was robbing a case, they betray him and they kill him, and so—and so? He was not the first to die that way. They have been killing criminals like that. They have been killing criminals like that. But what makes his own different is that God said, 'This one is for your salvation.' When they whipped him the first one, this group of sicknesses flew away. When they slapped him, it is so that your pain can go, because God said. Just like he said. So God took time again to put this record how? Down. Put the record down. The records are there not to make God to bless us. No. By the fact of that thing that happened, our blessings have been finished, it has been settled. But so that you can be prosperous, so that these blessings can be yours, so that it can be an experience, there is a place of what? Observing to do. Observing to do. Observe. The essence of his report is for you to meditate on it day and night, day and night, so that you can see it clearly. You can see it, you can see it, you can see it and say, 'Okay, so this is it. It wasn't clear to me before. Okay.' And then you do it. The matter is not is God willing to bless me? He has blessed us. Somebody will now ask me, 'But what of if it is not yet God's time, for instance? What of if this? What of if that?' But do you notice something? Do you know that it is as we look—how did Apostle James describe this record? He said the law of liberty. As we look into that law of liberty, that liberty, that thing that sets us free. Do you know that whether you are talking about timing, you are talking about where, you are talking about all of these things, all of those things you are talking about, you can never ever even understand them until what? Until you observe to do. Because you will notice that in that scripture, what God told Joshua is that first you will make your way how? Prosperous. So what is the first thing about observing to do? It will give you a way. It will give you a way. This is the way to do this thing. This is the way to do this. This is the way. It first put you in a way. Everything that God wants to do for you is in the way. So the matter is first come where? Come into the way. You see when God is calling our attention to what he is calling our attention to in this meeting is that do you also realize that even for us as Christians, one great lesson from history is that we have not learned from history. Are we learning from history? Or we are seeing history as what? As what? We are seeing history as history. For example, when he wrote that he fed them for 40 years without any economy. If you actually see that as a thing to observe to do, do you know that the whole shout about economic recession will not affect you? But you know you are already getting afraid. That is why you are thinking of what do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do? But your fear will soon become a reality because you are not walking in faith. Fear has torment. Many of the business you want to start is because you are afraid. It is not that it is wrong to take a step, but what I'm saying is that the first thing God told Joshua is that he will be where? In the way. Everything God wants to do for you had been done. Everything about the matters of your life is not the thing that God wants to settle. God is not trying, God is not—what God is trying to do with you by bringing you to fellowship everyday, by calling your attention, by saying pray, by journey that God want you to do is so that you may observe to do according to what he has written. The whole reason why God, look at something in Isaiah chapter 53, he recorded the ordinary everyday life story that looks so ordinary about the fathers. It is the same way they are going to take time to inspire men again to write the ordinary story of everyday Jesus' life. Ordinarily if somebody was robbing a case, they betray him and they kill him, and so—and so? He was not the first to die that way. They have been killing criminals like that. They have been killing criminals like that. But what makes his own different is that God said, 'This one is for your salvation.' When they whipped him the first one, this group of sicknesses flew away. When they slapped him, it is so that your pain can go, because God said. Just like he said. So God took time again to put this record how? Down. Put the record down. The records are there not to make God to bless us. No. By the fact of that thing that happened, our blessings have been finished, it has been settled. But so that you can be prosperous, so that these blessings can be yours, so that it can be an experience, there is a place of what? Observing to do. Observing to do. Observe. The essence of his report is for you to meditate on it day and night, day and night, so that you can see it clearly. You can see it, you can see it, you can see it and say, 'Okay, so this is it. It wasn't clear to me before. Okay.' And then you do it. The matter is not is God willing to bless me? He has blessed us. Somebody will now ask me, 'But what of if it is not yet God's time, for instance? What of if this? What of if that?' But do you notice something? Do you know that it is as we look—how did Apostle James describe this record? He said the law of liberty. As we look into that law of liberty, that liberty, that thing that sets us free. Do you know that whether you are talking about timing, you are talking about where, you are talking about all of these things, all of those things you are talking about, you can never ever even understand them until what? Until you observe to do. Because you will notice that in that scripture, what God told Joshua is that first you will make your way how? Prosperous. So what is the first thing about observing to do? It will give you a way. It will give you a way. This is the way to do this thing. This is the way to do this. This is the way. It first put you in a way. Everything that God wants to do for you is in the way. So the matter is first come where? Come into the way. You see when God is calling our attention to what he is calling our attention to in this meeting is that do you also realize that even for us as Christians, one great lesson from history is that we have not learned from history. Are we learning from history? Or we are seeing history as what? As what? We are seeing history as history. For example, when he wrote that he fed them for 40 years without any economy. If you actually see that as a thing to observe to do, do you know that the whole shout about economic recession will not affect you? But you know you are already getting afraid. That is why you are thinking of what do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do? But your fear will soon become a reality because you are not walking in faith. Fear has torment. Many of the business you want to start is because you are afraid. It is not that it is wrong to take a step, but what I'm saying is that the first thing God told Joshua is that he will be where? In the way. Everything God wants to do for you had been done. Everything about the matters of your life is not the thing that God wants to settle. God is not trying, God is not—what God is trying to do with you by bringing you to fellowship everyday, by calling your attention, by saying pray, by journey that God want you to do is so that you may observe to do according to what he has written. The whole reason why God, look at something in Isaiah chapter 53, he recorded the ordinary everyday life story that looks so ordinary about the fathers. It is the same way they are going to take time to inspire men again to write the ordinary story of everyday Jesus' life. Ordinarily if somebody was robbing a case, they betray him and they kill him, and so—and so? He was not the first to die that way. They have been killing criminals like that. They have been killing criminals like that. But what makes his own different is that God said, 'This one is for your salvation.' When they whipped him the first one, this group of sicknesses flew away. When they slapped him, it is so that your pain can go, because God said. Just like he said. So God took time again to put this record how? Down. Put the record down. The records are there not to make God to bless us. No. By the fact of that thing that happened, our blessings have been finished, it has been settled. But so that you can be prosperous, so that these blessings can be yours, so that it can be an experience, there is a place of what? Observing to do. Observing to do. Observe. The essence of his report is for you to meditate on it day and night, day and night, so that you can see it clearly. You can see it, you can see it, you can see it and say, 'Okay, so this is it. It wasn't clear to me before. Okay.' And then you do it. The matter is not is God willing to bless me? He has blessed us. Somebody will now ask me, 'But what of if it is not yet God's time, for instance? What of if this? What of if that?' But do you notice something? Do you know that it is as we look—how did Apostle James describe this record? He said the law of liberty. As we look into that law of liberty, that liberty, that thing that sets us free. Do you know that whether you are talking about timing, you are talking about where, you are talking about all of these things, all of those things you are talking about, you can never ever even understand them until what? Until you observe to do. Because you will notice that in that scripture, what God told Joshua is that first you will make your way how? Prosperous. So what is the first thing about observing to do? It will give you a way. It will give you a way. This is the way to do this thing. This is the way to do this. This is the way. It first put you in a way. Everything that God wants to do for you is in the way. So the matter is first come where? Come into the way. You see when God is calling our attention to what he is calling our attention to in this meeting is that do you also realize that even for us as Christians, one great lesson from history is that we have not learned from history. Are we learning from history? Or we are seeing history as what? As what? We are seeing history as history. For example, when he wrote that he fed them for 40 years without any economy. If you actually see that as a thing to observe to do, do you know that the whole shout about economic recession will not affect you? But you know you are already getting afraid. That is why you are thinking of what do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do? But your fear will soon become a reality because you are not walking in faith. Fear has torment. Many of the business you want to start is because you are afraid. It is not that it is wrong to take a step, but what I'm saying is that the first thing God told Joshua is that he will be where? In the way. Everything God wants to do for you had been done. Everything about the matters of your life is not the thing that God wants to settle. God is not trying, God is not—what God is trying to do with you by bringing you to fellowship everyday, by calling your attention, by saying pray, by journey that God want you to do is so that you may observe to do according to what he has written. The whole reason why God, look at something in Isaiah chapter 53, he recorded the ordinary everyday life story that looks so ordinary about the fathers. It is the same way they are going to take time to inspire men again to write the ordinary story of everyday Jesus' life. Ordinarily if somebody was robbing a case, they betray him and they kill him, and so—and so? He was not the first to die that way. They have been killing criminals like that. They have been killing criminals like that. But what makes his own different is that God said, 'This one is for your salvation.' When they whipped him the first one, this group of sicknesses flew away. When they slapped him, it is so that your pain can go, because God said. Just like he said. So God took time again to put this record how? Down. Put the record down. The records are there not to make God to bless us. No. By the fact of that thing that happened, our blessings have been finished, it has been settled. But so that you can be prosperous, so that these blessings can be yours, so that it can be an experience, there is a place of what? Observing to do. Observing to do. Observe. The essence of his report is for you to meditate on it day and night, day and night, so that you can see it clearly. You can see it, you can see it, you can see it and say, 'Okay, so this is it. It wasn't clear to me before. Okay.' And then you do it. The matter is not is God willing to bless me? He has blessed us. Somebody will now ask me, 'But what of if it is not yet God's time, for instance? What of if this? What of if that?' But do you notice something? Do you know that it is as we look—how did Apostle James describe this record? He said the law of liberty. As we look into that law of liberty, that liberty, that thing that sets us free. Do you know that whether you are talking about timing, you are talking about where, you are talking about all of these things, all of those things you are talking about, you can never ever even understand them until what? Until you observe to do. Because you will notice that in that scripture, what God told Joshua is that first you will make your way how? Prosperous. So what is the first thing about observing to do? It will give you a way. It will give you a way. This is the way to do this thing. This is the way to do this. This is the way. It first put you in a way. Everything that God wants to do for you is in the way. So the matter is first come where? Come into the way. You see when God is calling our attention to what he is calling our attention to in this meeting is that do you also realize that even for us as Christians, one great lesson from history is that we have not learned from history. Are we learning from history? Or we are seeing history as what? As what? We are seeing history as history. For example, when he wrote that he fed them for 40 years without any economy. If you actually see that as a thing to observe to do, do you know that the whole shout about economic recession will not affect you? But you know you are already getting afraid. That is why you are thinking of what do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do? But your fear will soon become a reality because you are not walking in faith. Fear has torment. Many of the business you want to start is because you are afraid. It is not that it is wrong to take a step, but what I'm saying is that the first thing God told Joshua is that he will be where? In the way. Everything God wants to do for you had been done. Everything about the matters of your life is not the thing that God wants to settle. God is not trying, God is not—what God is trying to do with you by bringing you to fellowship everyday, by calling your attention, by saying pray, by journey that God want you to do is so that you may observe to do according to what he has written. The whole reason why God, look at something in Isaiah chapter 53, he recorded the ordinary everyday life story that looks so ordinary about the fathers. It is the same way they are going to take time to inspire men again to write the ordinary story of everyday Jesus' life. Ordinarily if somebody was robbing a case, they betray him and they kill him, and so—and so? He was not the first to die that way. They have been killing criminals like that. They have been killing criminals like that. But what makes his own different is that God said, 'This one is for your salvation.' When they whipped him the first one, this group of sicknesses flew away. When they slapped him, it is so that your pain can go, because God said. Just like he said. So God took time again to put this record how? Down. Put the record down. In Jesus' name we have prayed. Amen. Let's join the grace together. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forever more. Amen. Surely God's 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. [Background music: Choir singing in Latin fades out]