PERFECT LOVE BELIEVERS CENTER, BENIN WEDNESDAY SERVICE MESSAGE EXCERPT MESSAGE BY PASTOR PRESTON IDORO 20TH AUGUST, 2014. TOPIC: PERFORMANCE EVALUATION When you have spiritual stability, you’re sure not to be shaken by every wind that blows. Paul said, “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Our living is for Christ; that way, we are sure our death is gain. My life is for Christ; if you live without Christ, you’re wasting your time and days on earth. God expects us to live for His will. There’s an assignment tied to everybody’s life; God expects everybody to fulfill a special assignment. If you do anything outside this assignment, you have wasted your time on earth. You didn’t come here on your own; it was God’s plan and desire that you be here. No one chose the family they were born into, likewise, you don’t tell God the things you want to do; He tells you what He expects you to do. I told you on Sunday that no product fulfills its own plan; but every product must do what the manufacturer, manufactured it for. It is necessary that as we live our lives, we take out time to evaluate it properly. This isn’t just thinking about how much progress you’ve made, but it’s about how much progress you’ve made in His (God) will. Remember, for every evaluation, there’s always a standard of measurement. There should be a standard for evaluation; you don’t build a standard for yourself, but you should evaluate based on the Lord’s standard. It is possible to do many things and yet not do well before the creator; He brought you here and He knows best whether or not you’re doing well in line with His will. He spoke these words to Jesus; “this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” Someone remarked today, “I don’t like attending prophetic churches; they could give accurate words of prophesy sometimes, but they don’t give accurate solutions to problems; anyone who visits such places, end up living their days in fear yet without a solution. I have come to understand that when you go to a bible based church, you’d be able to withstand every situation yourself.” Prophesy is good and for the edification of the church; but we are built by the word of God. If we must properly evaluate our lives, we have to go to the standard, the word of God. What does God’s word say concerning us; I’m not talking about the general word but God’s specific word. So, by the time we are leaving earth, we would be able to ask ourselves, “have I lived a good life; have I lived a productive life; have I lived a fulfilling life or I have wasted my days on earth?” Those who spend their lives in pursuit of vanity have wasted their life and time. One could exert energy and not make progress in His will. In physics work cannot be said to be done when force isn’t applied to a specific direction. Some people are scalar entities (magnitude without direction); while some others are vectors (magnitude with direction). You could have magnitude without direction. When there’s energy exerted without direction, there’s no progress. The one who knows what he wants to do in life, will not give in to distractions; but the one who doesn’t will. We look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). For every time we take our gaze off Him, we reduce our pace or the ability for us to move faster. There’s no better life outside Christ. The best life to live is living for Christ. Christ gives fulfillment, happiness, joy, and when death comes, you’re not scared because there’s eternity waiting for you. Paul called dying gain (Philippians 1:21); for a man to say death is gain, then he is sure of where he is going. Dying can never be gain for the one who doesn’t know where he is going. Sinners are scared of rapture but the true believer isn’t scared because they are ready at anytime because they see it as another flight to go home. Heaven is the best home. The world that we live is a temporary place; He brought us here temporarily. It is wrong to invest your entire life on earth and not in the world that you’d live for all eternity. I love to assess my life all the time; that’s one way you can keep yourself focused. If you don’t assess yourself, you’d lose focus. This is the same reason there’s periodic assessment in every good organization; assessment is done either for promotion; demotion or even sack as the case may be. Matthew 6:19-21; “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Don’t layup treasures on earth; everything that has to do with materialism isn’t forever. You could lose them when you least expect and when you want them the most. People take time to care for themselves than they would for the work of God; you could hardly see someone saving for a church project but they could save for a new phone and other material things. A pastor asked his members to come with their seats to church in a bid to getting more chairs for the church. The following service day, the members brought chairs. If you don’t buy chairs in your house, you’d seat on the floor; right? This is the house of the Lord and it is your father’s house. He won’t throw down chairs from heaven. Those who gave towards this church project will be blessed of it. When we are gone, the souls that would be won here will be credited to our account with God. In evaluating yourself, you should ask yourself, how much you have been laying up in heaven. How do we lay up treasures in heaven? When we commit into the kingdom’s work. No one labours in heaven; all labouring ends here on earth. That means whatever you labour now on earth, that’s what you’d use up all your life in eternity. Think about it! You could make some mistakes here on earth and still correct it; you could be poor here and later be rich here still. But for eternity, what you have invested there is what you’d possess forever. That means if the cleaner in the church is bigger than the pastor of the church in eternity, its forever. If the cleaner is bigger on earth, one could still do better to either catch up with the cleaner or overtake the cleaner. In those days, pastors were the stingiest people in the world; they tell you to give but they don’t trade the principle of giving; and that was why they were very poor. When you see a wealthy pastor, know that he is a giver except he is into something illegal. Givers never lack! Giving is a principle of life; “Galatians 6:7; “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”” Peter asked Jesus what their gain would be for leaving all to follow and Jesus replied thus, “Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospels, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” Where your treasure is, your heart would be also. If your house is on fire, you wouldn’t stroll home; you’d run home because your treasures are in there; probably your certificate, cash and other belongings. If you layup treasures in heaven, your mind will be focused on heaven; people get tired of the church because they don’t give to the church. One of man’s greatest treasure is money. If a bank folds up for instance and a man’s life savings is in that bank, that man would fold up as well. Isn’t that true? Where your treasure is, your heart will be also. A proof that your heart is in a particular thing is when your treasure is on that thing. If your spouse always begs you for money or anything, you don’t truly love. If your heart is there, then your treasure should be there. Anything you put your treasure, you love; anything you love, you give your treasure. If you’re going to truly evaluate your life, what are the things that truly take your fund? What takes that which matters the most to us? These are the things we love the most; don’t tell God you love Him, if your treasures are not in His business. The more the money you spend on a thing, the higher its value in your heart. The more you invest into the kingdom’s business, the more your heart is there. Where is your heart? God is more interested in your heart than your outward appearance. What you display or do is the content of your heart. Matthew 5:8; “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” You cannot see or hear God when your heart isn’t pure; a pure heart is a heart that isn’t biased, impure or contaminated. Love your neighbor as yourself; how many people are truly doing so? We tend to love ourselves more than we love our neighbor. Jesus gave us a little assignment to do and gave Himself the big one. Jesus only told us to love our neighbors as ourselves but He loved the world more than Himself. If He didn’t love the world more than Himself, He wouldn’t have given Himself for the world. So, what He is telling us to do isn’t different from what He has done because He did more. He valued us more than His life; that’s why He gave His life on the cross. Are you a Christian? We say many things with our mouth; we have many church goers but few truly living Christianity. James 1:25; “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” We judge and evaluate ourselves from that mirror. James said, “For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” When we look at God’s word, we see where we get it wrong and put things right. When we try to assess ourselves, we look at the word and do what the word says. This isn’t about what we like but what God wants. Remember what Jesus did; He prayed so much on the mountain that the sweat that came out of Him was as thick as blood (Luke 22:44). Jesus felt the pressure of going to the cross; He prayed a prayer of pain. When Jesus prayed, He emboldened Himself (James 5:16). When faith is stirred up, you don’t think from the flesh point of view. When you pray in the holyghost, you become unusually bold; you’re no longer scared because you have stirred up yourself. Don’t give up when your faith fails you; you have a standby; all you need do is stir it up. Don’t be deceived, nothing good happens easily. The reason it seems hard for you to pray, study the bible, go to church, it is because that’s where the light is. Anything that comes so easy has no light but darkness in it. Do you know why? Because Satan will not fight anything that has something good or great for you. Tough things are for tough people; if you’re useless, why will the devil fight you? If there’s no hope for your life, then why the challenges? It is because your future is very bright that’s why there are plenty challenges. Think about it! There’s so much pressure because we are unique and very special. John 15:1-4; “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” The word of God we hear cleanses us. “Abide in me and I in you....” When you cut off a branch and attach it to the parent plant (a process called budding), it grows back. The branch cut off should be able to match or be compatible with the parent plant. For instance, for a kidney transplant to be successful, the kidney must be a match with the individual receiving the kidney. Have a hold on God and let Him have a hold on you. If you love God, you will keep His commandment. If you do what God says, God’s hold on you would be firm. When you do this, you will bring forth much fruit and your fruit will remain. You can’t be a Christian and practise another culture outside Christianity. The day you accepted Christ, you accepted His culture. God isn’t pleased with tribal nonsense. What Christianity are we truly practising; some Christians are not truly born again. Some Christians are traditional Christians; some go to church on Sundays and on Fridays; they are at the native doctors. They try to combine Christ with juju. Christ is fully functional in my life because I am abiding in Him and He is abiding in me. By his stripes, ye are healed..............as long as Jesus received the “floggings”, we have received the healing. Don’t measure your life based on what is happening around but according to what the word of God is saying. Ecclesiastes 2:1-26; “I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity. I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done. Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness. The wise mans eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all. Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity. For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool. Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity. Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun. For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil. For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun? For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity. There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God. For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I? For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Mr busy, what are you doing? It isn’t about being busy; being busy means, Being Under Satan’s Yoke. All that you see here will end here and all your life labour here will end here. It is good to be excellent and with results. It is good to live a good life; but if you do all these things, and you fail as concerning the things of God, you’ve failed badly. How does God see you? What do you mean to His kingdom? You can’t tell who’s dying tomorrow; so be good, be kind at all times. Preach the gospel; commit to the gospel at all times. Don’t wait for others; you’re the one to get the job done. Preach the gospel, win souls; don’t get into the politics of the church. Labour for the kingdom; get involved in the soul winning business. Who are you working for? The grave won’t be able to carry your property. Life is short, access your life. where is your treasure?Jesus loves you and He wants you to love Him too; He wants you to manifest and prove your love for Him. Those in the will of God for their lives hardly go through health challenges. Jesus didn’t labour to pray to increase the bread and turn water into wine. We pray so much because our heart is far from God; we labour so much for a miracle because of this same reason. It isn’t too late to labour right. Solomon wasn’t sure who would well manage the fruits of his labour. Life is short; where’s your treasure? That’s where your heart is. Put yourself properly so that when you speak the word, it would be accurate. Ephesians 3:20; “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” How much of God’s power at work in you will determine how much He can do for you exceeding, abundantly above all that you can ever ask or think. Before some people think about a thing, it is done; while some others may think and call it forth yet no result because they are far from God. Dont be far from God.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 10:34:12 +0000
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