1 Samuel 2:30 “Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith,, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed”.
God in this scripture was telling Eli the High Priest that though He had promised Eli’s house, be it far from Him. That promise will not be fulfilled because Eli’s sons have not honoured the Lord in their life. They were the next in line to be High Priests but because they dishonoured God, the promise concerning their lives will not be fulfilled.
God says that “for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed”.
The sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were sinning against God at the door of the Temple. They had no regard for the law of God neither did they honour God in their lives so this law had to come in operation for them to be punished. God therefore sends Samuel to announce the consequences to Eli. The sons of Eli die in a war with the Philistines, there is a great slaughter and Israel flees from its enemies, the Ark of the Lord is captured and Eli falls backward and breaks his neck thereby he also dies. The consequences of dishonouring God are very grave.
However for those who honour God, He in turn honours them. Samuel decided to honour God all his life and was lifted up as the High Priest and prophet of Israel. He who was not in the lineage of Eli, he was not the next in line to be the High Priest, he merely ministered before the Lord but God had to change the order so that he would become the next High Priest. Joseph refused to sin against God by refusing to sleep with Potiphar’s wife. He refused to fall for the woman’s advances. This was something that many would think will cause the woman to speak to her husband on Joseph’s behalf. But Joseph refused to sin against God so God rewarded him by lifting him up to become the prime minister of Egypt. From slavery to prison to Prime minister.
God always honours those who honour him. Daniel refused to eat food offered unto idols and was rewarded to serve as governor under about four kings. Daniel again refused to obey the commandment not to pray to God. He honoured God in this action and yet when he was placed in the lion’s den, the angel of the Lord shut the mouths of the lions such that they could not eat him up and he was released the following day. Even the King of the day fasted for him. May you stand for God no matter how difficult the situation is. No situation should cause you not to honour God. No circumstance that you find yourself in should stop you from glorifying God. When we learn to honour Him, he will also honour us. Despite all the faults of David, God called him his friend because he knew how to honour God. God even overlooked his faults. May God honour you. May he call you his friend.
God will honour you if you learn to honour Him. If you learn to honour Him in your marriage by honouring your husband as unto the Lord, then God in turn will touch his heart and before you know it, your husband becomes a new person. If you honour the Lord by loving your wife even as Christ loved the church, then very soon God will also honour you and the marriage that was heading towards divorce will turn over a new leaf.
If you learn to honour God in your business by respecting your customers, by being honest and treating them right, then God in turn will honour you by giving you more customers than you can imagine. This will lead to an increase in your income. If you honour God in your work place by doing what you are paid for and not forcing people to pay you bribes but rather earn an honest day’s wage, then God will also honour you and grant you promotion. If you honour God in everything that you do, then God in turn will honour you. May you honour God all the days of your life. May God come through for you and honour you so that it will be known that the Lord that you serve has honoured you.
There are certain specific ways that we can honour God.
1. We honour God by honouring His commands. Keith Miller said “We Christians have developed a kind of selective vision which allows us to be deeply and sincerely involved in worship and church activities and yet almost totally pagan in the day in, day out guts of our business lives…..and never realize it”. This sums up the depravity and shallowness of Christianity today. We go to church and pretend to be holier than thou but our lights do not shine when we are in our homes or when we go to our secret places and in the communities. We mistake being busy and active participation in religious activities to mean holiness. We are dishonest in our businesses, we do not have integrity in our circle of influence, we fuel the perception that Christianity is a religion of mere words and no action. Unbelievers make mockery of our God because of our level of hypocrisy and depravity of our conscience. We mistake religious conformity to mean honouring God. We have to honour God by honouring His words.
2. Honour the Lord with all your heart, soul and spirit.
Isaiah 29:13 “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men”.
Do not relate to God in a superficial way or in pretence because He can see right through you. The genuineness of your relationship with God will be revealed when your faith is tested. That is when you will know what you are truly made off. Many people who call themselves Christians have allowed the gospel of convenience to override what God tells them in scripture so much that they do not even realise when they start to drift. A lot of Christians today accept relative truth instead of the absolute truth in the Bible. Relative truth is when you only see something to be true in relation to some other circumstances. When the circumstance changes, then that same thing may not necessarily be truth. Many find themselves in the category of people who worship God with their lips but their hearts are far away from him.
3. We honour God by honouring our parents and people in authority.
Ephesians 6:2-3 “Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;). That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth”.
God has placed them over us and we need to offer that honour unto them. We honour them not because of what they do for us but because God requires us to do so. Some parents and people in authority may have treated us unfairly or may have not performed their duty as they should but we do not have the authority to judge them. All we can do is to obey the word of God and treat them with respect and honour. When we do this, we are honouring God.
It is in our own interest to honour the people in authority. It is when we honour and pray for them that we will be able to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
4. We honour the Lord by coming to His house. Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another:: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching”.
It is the plan of the devil for you never to go to church. Please honor God tomorrow and come to church. You have stayed home for too long a time, start coming to the house of God to fellowship with people of like faith. God is calling you to honour Him and come to His house to have fellowship with Him.
Wednesday 27 April 2011
Message from Hell
Luke 16:19-31; FACTS:
1. This is a true story and not a parable (vs 19 There was. In no parable is someone named)
2. There is life after death. (vs 22 because this happened)
3. Heaven and hell are real (vs. 22-23)
4. Lazarus didn’t go to Heaven because he was poor. He went because his name was found in the book of life. He was in right standing with God. Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
5. The rich man didn’t go to hell because he was rich. He went because he was a sinner, his name was not in the book of life. Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
6. Lazarus was in a place of comfort, joy, and happiness. No sorrow, no regrets, no torment.
7. The rich man cried for mercy, he was in torment, he was in suffering, he regretted the life he had led, he was thirsty. (vs. 24)
8. When you die, your soul and spirit go to one place, either Heaven or hell. The soul is your mind/intellect, your emotions and your will.
9. There is a gulf between Heaven and Hell. (vs. 26)
( vs 23-31 main message)
You cannot repent after death. Now is your opportunity to repent.
There is a message from hell for you. Someone in hell wishes he had the opportunity that you have today so that he could have repented.
He wishes that he had listened when he heard the word of God. The Bible says now is the day of salvation 2Cor.6:2.
Someone in hell wishes he can change his position with you today because you are not doing God’s will. He wishes that you take advantage of all the opportunities you have today because tomorrow does not belong to you.
No one will come from the dead to testify to you. There are enough true preachers in the world today that you have to listen to. He is praying to God that you will listen to the men of God and be obedient.
Someone in hell is praying that you preach to his family members about Jesus. He is counting on your obedience.
Someone is praying that you will not keep your mouth shut until everyone you come into contact with is saved.
Someone is praying that anytime you meet his family member, you sit in the car with them, meet them at work place, that you will share the gospel with them.
Some of you say Oh we are sitting on the fence, There is a message from Hell for you, the fence belongs to the devil so you can’t sit on it. Awake from your sleep and slumber and seek after Jesus.
You say Oh I am standing in the middle of the road, we know what happens to people standing in the middle of the road, they get ran over by a car. God is calling you to come to His house.
Some of you have been wounded and even your faith has been killed by the Church. Christianity is the only army that kills it’s wounded soldiers. But god is saying that is not an excuse for you to go to hell. Rise up and still come to the mercy seat of God because you will find mercy there. Let nothing stop you from the love of God.
Romans 8:35-37 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
1. This is a true story and not a parable (vs 19 There was. In no parable is someone named)
2. There is life after death. (vs 22 because this happened)
3. Heaven and hell are real (vs. 22-23)
4. Lazarus didn’t go to Heaven because he was poor. He went because his name was found in the book of life. He was in right standing with God. Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
5. The rich man didn’t go to hell because he was rich. He went because he was a sinner, his name was not in the book of life. Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
6. Lazarus was in a place of comfort, joy, and happiness. No sorrow, no regrets, no torment.
7. The rich man cried for mercy, he was in torment, he was in suffering, he regretted the life he had led, he was thirsty. (vs. 24)
8. When you die, your soul and spirit go to one place, either Heaven or hell. The soul is your mind/intellect, your emotions and your will.
9. There is a gulf between Heaven and Hell. (vs. 26)
( vs 23-31 main message)
You cannot repent after death. Now is your opportunity to repent.
There is a message from hell for you. Someone in hell wishes he had the opportunity that you have today so that he could have repented.
He wishes that he had listened when he heard the word of God. The Bible says now is the day of salvation 2Cor.6:2.
Someone in hell wishes he can change his position with you today because you are not doing God’s will. He wishes that you take advantage of all the opportunities you have today because tomorrow does not belong to you.
No one will come from the dead to testify to you. There are enough true preachers in the world today that you have to listen to. He is praying to God that you will listen to the men of God and be obedient.
Someone in hell is praying that you preach to his family members about Jesus. He is counting on your obedience.
Someone is praying that you will not keep your mouth shut until everyone you come into contact with is saved.
Someone is praying that anytime you meet his family member, you sit in the car with them, meet them at work place, that you will share the gospel with them.
Some of you say Oh we are sitting on the fence, There is a message from Hell for you, the fence belongs to the devil so you can’t sit on it. Awake from your sleep and slumber and seek after Jesus.
You say Oh I am standing in the middle of the road, we know what happens to people standing in the middle of the road, they get ran over by a car. God is calling you to come to His house.
Some of you have been wounded and even your faith has been killed by the Church. Christianity is the only army that kills it’s wounded soldiers. But god is saying that is not an excuse for you to go to hell. Rise up and still come to the mercy seat of God because you will find mercy there. Let nothing stop you from the love of God.
Romans 8:35-37 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Sorry Folks
I had to go to Africa on a missionary trip and have since not been able to update this blog. I am really sorry for this long break. However I am still there but have found a means to access the internet now so can regularly put up new update. Stay tuned. God bless you all.
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