Ogundipe oluwatoyin amos The Bible Calendar for 13th June 2024.
Deuteronomy 28: 38–68
Amos 5 & 6
Luke 14: 25–15: 10
POINTS:
1. The Consequence of Disobedience
2. Seek the Lord and Live
3. Joy in Heaven
1. THE CONSEQUENCE OF DISOBEDIENCE
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, anyone who fears Him will keep His Commandments and will not fall into the curses pronounced in the above scripture. Critically studying this chapter I asked myself why God prepared these curses for the children of Israel that He called His people. Then I discovered that: (1) with the works done by God in their midst for forty years, anyone contravening His Commandments among them has no fear of God. (2) They have been taught laws and injunctions of God by God Himself and the laws are to be part of them and to be remembered by them day and night. (3) To every breach of God’s covenant carries punishments and the culprit will be punished accordingly. (4) God has destroyed many nations for these people to live, and those nations destroyed were also created by God, but for the lack of the recognition of God they were sent out, if Israel falls victim to the same offense; it will be treated as insubordination to the highest order of the most high God. Jesus has also saved us not minding our former position, He used His blood to redeem us from perdition, He called us not because we are the best, He lavished His love on us and still pleading at the right hand of God and He has gone to prepare a place for us, it will be the greatest disappointment if we deny Him. We are also in covenant with Him and Paul said sin is a way to put Him to open shame, denying Him is a certificate to hell. Looking at this Chapter, we can also see the position of the nations in the world especially our nation, war, pestilence, slavery, kidnapping, rape, killing, wickedness, mercilessness, hunger and many other evil works mentioned in the chapter are facing us in our nation today and these are the consequences of the lack of the fear of God. We can boldly say that many of these problems are man-made, God didn’t deny us a good atmosphere but because of evil embedded in humans without the fear of God and the selfish end, we are troubled. We need to plead for the mercy of God for the redemption of this nation.
2. SEEK THE LORD AND LIVE
The solution to the problems of this nation is to seek God individually, and collectively as a church and nation at large. The Prophet is saying that it’s not until you come to Bethel or Gilgal, that means not until you go to the mountains but what is important is to seek God. Going to the Convention, Camps or mountains did not change much because they counted these as routine and eating and meeting places to the extent that many were not listening to the sermon and seeking God. Many turn places of worship to social and people’s gatherings instead of a place to meet with their God. Let the gathering of the saints be with fasting, soberness, spiritual drilling, and uplifting; let it be a place of internal and external evangelism, let it be a place of truth not a place to raise funds, a place of prayer, a place of faith, a place to bless, a place like the place of the cross where we forget our sorrow. Prophet Amos placed right the true pictures of the church today he mentioned the suppression of the poor, building and decorating the house of God without building up the people of God, the righteous are suffering and judgment is perverted, evil multiplying in the midst of the congregation and on the altar, God is calling his church to seek for Him. Satan and his host have planned serious evil against the church of God, and the church is ready to be wiped away believing it is Almageddon war, forgetting that the Almageddon war will be after the rapture. The nation shall rise against the nation not for religious war, for the spiritual and religious war emanated with the church in terms of persecutions and it will continue till His second coming. But Paul says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to put down the strongholds. Prophet Amos alerted us to come out of our comfort zones and use our weapons which are prayer, word of God, gospel, and holiness. The meeting we are having with the government is just postponing the evil days, let us utilize our Christian bond to call on our God the owner of the universe. Let us cry for mercy for God says through the Prophet here in the passage, that He will raise up a nation against His people to reduce them so that they can trace their way back to Him. Why should we wait for God to reduce us before we cry? Let us cry now individually and collectively to turn away the wrath of God from the church.
3. JOY IN HEAVEN
Looking critically at the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, I have not seen where He declared the heavens rejoicing except on the repented soul. Not on the miracle of any kind, neither prosperity nor healing that makes the heaven rejoice except for the salvation of man. This is because all miracles are to be received from heaven, but the saving soul is adding to heaven. That is why leaving ninety-nine for one to be saved is a great impetus for the Christian, bringing the lost back to the fold makes heaven rejoice greatly. And the only one that got saved can populate the kingdom of God than the ninety-nine that have been saved already. The lost are those that have been in the fold and left the fold for one reason or another, they have no replacement, and some ministers are not thinking in this direction as some of them will say “If one goes ten will replace,” but anyone that comes is another person entirely, let’s look for them, entreat them to come for there is joy in heaven for bringing them back. Those in the world are also important because they are the fresh fish in the river, God is also happy bringing them back to Him. But it is painful for a fisher when the fish already caught escape back to the river and might not be caught up again. Please can you remember anyone that has gone back to the world? Please look for him or her; for there is joy in heaven over a sinner that comes back home.
Pastor M. O. Shodipe.
For question: 08056044717
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