Category: Single Message Series

Categories
Single Message Series

Title: Boundaries to respect (b)

Series: See to it

We have been looking at certain instructions we are given in the book of Hebrews, chapters 3 and 12, on watching over one another. And we are looking at the things we need to pay attention to in order to carry out the instructions.

Let me show the instructions again, from Hebrews, chapter 3, verse 12:“See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:12-13NIV)Then, in chapter 12, from verse 15, we are told this:“See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.

Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears he could not change what he had done.” (Hebrews 12:15-17NIV)Those are the instructions we are given in Scriptures about watching over one another. And I began to show you that there are boundaries we need to pay attention to, boundaries that we must not cross while trying to fulfil them. The first is that we cannot help people beyond what they want. We cannot fellowship with any believer beyond what they want.

So, we have to respect their privacy. And we have to respect their right to make certain decisions for themselves. Now we may not be okay with the decisions or choices our brethren make for themselves. But we must respect their right to make decisions for themselves. We must not try to run their lives for them. We must not try to take the place of God in their lives. We can counsel people. We can pray for people, something we will still talk about later. But we must respect their right to privacy.

And we must respect their right to make decisions for themselves.Well, the bottom line is that we can fellowship with people only to the degree that the permit us; we can only help them to the degree that they permit us. Otherwise, we may ruin our chances of helping them or destroy whatever opportunity that might have been created by God for us to help them. There is another side to all this. The first side we looked at has to do with recognizing the boundaries people have placed around them, so that we do not cross them while we are making effort to help them or to fulfil the word of God that tells us to watch over one another.

The other side of it has to do with watching ourselves while we are trying to watch over others. For instance, Paul told the Ephesians elders of the necessity of watching themselves, so that they would be able to do well in watching over the flock God had placed under their care. Look at how Luke puts this from verse 28 of Acts 20: “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28NIV)The first thing Paul says here is, “Keep watch over yourselves.” This, of course, would mean that the elders must keep watch over one another.

Also, it would mean that each of them must keep watch over himself. If we do not learn to keep watch over ourselves, we will not be able to keep watch over others. We cannot give what we do not have.He says something similar to Timothy in his first letter to him. He says:“Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1Timonthy 4:16NIV)What is his instruction to Timothy here? It is that he must watch his life and his doctrine closely. First, he has to watch his life and pay attention to it. He has to pay attention to what is going on in his relationships.

Then he must pay attention to his doctrine and see to it that it is in line with the will of God. And Paul says that as he does this, he will be able to save both himself and his hearers. Thus, Timothy has to be able to save himself first before he will be able to save others. In like manner, I must be able to save myself first, if I will be able to save others. This, of course, does not mean that I have the power to save myself. I do not. Only God can save us. And if we do not count on Him for our salvation, we will not be saved at all.

But it is important for me to take my own salvation more seriously than the salvation of any other person I may be relating to or may want to help, as far as spiritual matters are concerned. It is when I am able to keep myself safe by taking advantage of the grace of God that I will be able to keep others as well safe through His grace.What we are saying, then, is that it is important that in making effort to watch over one another, we do not lose our own souls or other beautiful relationships we have.

Yes, it is important that in trying to help others we do not become a part of the problem we are trying to prevent or solve. Look at what Paul says along these lines in Galatians, chapter 6, verse 1:“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.” (NIV) Did you pay attention to that? If someone is caught in a sin, those who live by the Spirit, that is, those who are spiritual, should restore the person gently.

Now remember that we have a duty to prevent any of us from being caught in any sin. That is, in fact, what we have been dealing with all along. But sometimes, for various reasons, people may be caught in a sin. I mean that regardless of what we do for our brethren in watching over them and praying for them, some may still be caught in a sin.Jesus prayed for Peter and the rest of the apostles. Yet that did not stop them from falling away for a while. But because He had prayed for them, God was able to restore them.

So, we are told here that if any of us is caught in a sin, we are to restore them. How are we to restore them? We are to restore them gently. Then, while we are restoring the person, we are told to watch ourselves. Otherwise, we too may be tempted. In other words, we too can fall where the person has fallen. We can, in fact, fall into the same sin that the person has fallen into. So, in trying to help one another, we should not do so with a mindset that we are better than the person we are trying to help or that we know much better than the person or that we cannot make the mistakes they have made.

We can make the very same mistakes they have made. We can err where they have erred. In fact, we may even do worse than they have done, if we will not watch ourselves.So, we need to pay attention to our lives, as we are seeking to watch over other believers. And this is why we too must recognize those boundaries that we must not cross in our lives while we are trying to help others. We must know the degree to which we can help others. We must know where we can help them and where we cannot help them. We must not know how we can help them and how we cannot help them. And we must know the extent to which we can help them in their walk of faith.

All this is important because there are people whose hearts are not right. And because their hearts are not right, it does not matter what form of spiritual help we are offering them, it will not work. Such people really do not want our help. They may give us the impression that they want our help. They may give us the impression that they are interested in the things we are doing for them or with them. They may give us the impression that they are excited to have us share the word of God with them, pray with them and counsel them. They may give us the impression that they too want to grow in the things of God.

But their hearts are full of dirt. And unless the Spirit of God reveals to us what is in their hearts, we will not know it. However, if we will follow the word of God in relating to everyone, we will be able to keep ourselves safe from those who may want to injure or corrupt us while we are seeking to watch over their souls.For example, we are told of Simon the sorcerer in the bible. He claimed to have become born again like other people in his city and began to follow Philip up and down. In fact, this man must have joined Philip in praying for others, in following up the brethren and in doing other things pertaining to ministering to God’s people. He must also have sat down like others in listening to Philip teach the word of God. He may even have been asking questions like others to know the truths of the Christian faith.

In short, Simon showed himself to be genuinely interested in what Philip was doing for the spiritual health of the people in that Samaritan city. (Cf. Acts 8:5-24)However, when Peter and John came to the place, the evil in his heart was revealed. It was brought out in the open that what he had wanted all along was popularity. He had been a very popular person in the place until Philip came and started preaching Jesus and doing all kinds of miracles. So, his popularity vanished and nobody paid attention to him again.

Now this man wanted his popularity back. He wanted people to be coming to him or running to him, as they used to. And he felt that he could used the power of God to do that. So, he offered the apostles money for the gift of God. You can see, then, that his heart was not right. Because his heart was not right, all that he was doing was a lie. And because those he was relating to were spiritual, they could detect the evil in him and put him where he belonged.In like manner, we have people like Simon in the church today whose hearts are not right. Their intentions are not right.

So, it does not matter how much spiritual help you are trying to offer them, it can only be a waste. I remember a brother that we used to attend a particular Christian assembly together. He initially showed himself as one that wanted to know God and live for him. But his heart was not right. He was, in fact, a very terrible liar. Most of the things he told us about himself was a lie. In fact, his name too may have been a lie. But I did not bother to check that out.

Why, in any case, was this young man in the church? What was he after? Well, he wanted the money of the church. He also wanted to prey on the unsuspecting sisters in the church, so that he could rip them of their money and also mess them up sexually. So, he was greedy, immoral, deceitful and even violent. But God exposed him. God exposed him because we were relating to him in love. And at some point, his sins found him out. So, we do have individuals like such in the church. That is why we have to be very careful in relating to other brethren, so that we do not become a part of the problem we are seeking to prevent or solve.

Paul, speaking to Timothy in his second letter, speaks of certain individuals who are ever learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth (2Timothy 3:6-7). Why? The reason was that their hearts are not right. For instance, all that some people are after is to corrupt others, for they are loaded with corruption. Remember that the bible speaks of people whose eyes are full of adultery (2Peter 2:14). That is real. And such people may come close to you, giving you the impression that they want to know God or learn the ways of God or do the things of God.

But all they are after is how they will be sexually involved with you. And we have seen cases in which pastors, church leaders and some wonderful people of God fell into the sexual traps of certain individuals that they were trying to help spiritually.Now we may be quick to blame such people. But the fact remains that any of us could become a prey of such individuals, if we will not watch ourselves and our relationships with other believers. So, just as we are told not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, we must also understand that we must not be unequally yoked with believers.

How, then, do we become unequally yoked with believers? First, any kind of relationship with a believer that is preventing us from serving God the way we hurt to serve Him is unclean. That means you have to watch it and do the needful about it. And if you cannot clean it, you have to drop it.What I am saying is that if you find that your involvement with a believer that you are helping spiritually is preventing you from doing the will of God, praying, studying the word of God and taking church meetings seriously, you must watch and deal with that relationship.

That kind of person is most likely not someone you can help spiritually. That person may just want to drag you down. Also, any kind of relationship with a believer that makes you irresponsible in doing your duties in other legitimate relationships you have or that is preventing you from taking any of your responsibilities seriously has become unclean. Therefore, you need to deal with it. You can see that you must watch what those that you are trying to help spiritually are leading you to do or get involved in. If they are leading you to be irresponsible in dealing with your family, in handling your business or in handling your Christian responsibilities, they may just want to drag you down.

You must, therefore, watch yourself with them. Their hearts may not be clean. And if you pay attention to them, taking advantage of the word of God and prayer, you will be able to learn the truth about them.Well, the point I am making is that we have to watch ourselves, as we are trying to help one another in our walk of faith, and not allow anyone to make us a part of the problem we are trying to solve or prevent. Jude, in closing, also tells us something along these lines. Look at it from verse 22:“Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude 1:22-23NIV)

Did you see that? There are people we need to snatch from the fire of destruction. And God expects us to take advantage of His grace to do so. There are also those that we need to show mercy and rescue from their errors. But we are told to watch ourselves, as we are trying to show them mercy. The words are: “…hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” That means we must not ignore the corruption in anybody’s life while trying to help them spiritually. Otherwise, we may become corrupted ourselves.If people’s hearts are right, the help we are offering them will work – it will lift them up and establish them in the will of God.

But if their hearts are not right, what will happen in the long run is that they will drag us down, if we are not careful. So, we need to be careful, as we are trying to keep watch over one another. And we can do that by first keeping watch over ourselves. Our own safety is most important. It is when we are safe spiritually that we will be able to save others.

Let us pray.

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Single Message Series

Title: Anniversary admonitions

Series: Single sermons

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We thank God for another opportunity He has given to us as an assembly to be celebrating our thirteenth year anniversary, our thirteenth year of meeting together as an assembly in this town. We thank Him for what He has done in us, for us, among us and through us in these thirteen years. He has been good and kind to us. And we will surely leave out some time to take testimonies in the course of this meeting.

But before we do that, let me quickly encourage you with some things about church growth, especially as it concerns our assembly.Now the church cannot grow beyond the growth of each of us. In other words, the overall growth of our assembly is hinged on the individual growth of each member of the assembly. In other words, each of us must take very seriously our spiritual growth and development in the kingdom.

It is unfortunate that many of God’s people think it is only the leaders of their assembly that need to be making effort towards spiritual growth and development. They think Christianity is all about joining a church, bearing a bible name or having a personal copy of the bible. But Christianity goes beyond all of such things. And being born again goes beyond confessing the lordship of Jesus. You have to grow in Him; you have to develop in your faith in Him.

See, it does not matter how sound or spiritually developed a church leader is, if members of his assembly are not following in his steps and making effort to grow spiritually, they are going to limit that assembly. That is because the growth of that assembly is not hinged on the growth of the leader alone; it is also hinged on the growth of the individual member of the assembly.

That is why, in Colossians, chapter 2, Paul says this to us:“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” (Colossians 2:6-7NIV)

Did you see that? The receiving of Christ Jesus as our Lord is the starting point in our spiritual journey with Him. That is how we become born again. That is how we become new creations. But everything does not end with the receiving of Jesus as our Lord. We also have to continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him. That means we have to begin to take advantage of His grace to be established in Him, to grow in our walk of faith.

There is really a lot to say about what Paul says here. But I just want to encourage you that having become a child of God, having been born again, you need to continue to live your life in Him and to take your spiritual growth and development very seriously. It is not going to happen automatically, if you will not commit yourself to things that will make you grow. You will not grow by accident.

No child of God grows by accident or automatically, just as no baby born grows by accident or automatically. If the things that are supposed to be done to a baby are not done to him, he will not grow all by himself. Instead, his growth will be arrested. In fact, he may even die in infancy.The same thing is applicable to spiritual growth. We have to be devoted to those things that will result in our spiritual growth and development.

We have to be devoted to be doing those things that will result in spiritual growth and fruitfulness. We have to be devoted to doing those things that will make us overflow with thankfulness everyday. A child of God ought to daily overflow with thankfulness. But no child of God will automatically overflow with thankfulness. It is spiritual growth that results in being thankful and being joyous.

There are Christians that are always complaining instead of being thankful. And there are Christians are often sad instead of overflowing with joy. The main reason is that they are not growing. And why are they are not growing spiritually? They have not seen the need to grow. Once you see the need to grow spiritually, you will begin to take steps that will result in your growth. Once you see the need for your spiritual development, you will begin to deliberately take steps that will result in your development.

Now as each of us takes seriously our spiritually growth and development, our church will grow in fruitfulness and in usefulness. As I said before, the growth of our assembly is not hinged on the growth of our leaders alone; the spiritual development of our assembly is not hinged on the spiritual development and health of the leaders alone. The spiritual health of our assembly cannot be left to our church leaders alone.

If our church will grow to be all that God wants her to be, if she will grow to be a model to all the assemblies of God in the land, that is, in life, in love, in faith, in speech, in the grace of giving and in purity, then, all of us must take our personal growth very seriously.

Moses, for instance, was a great and sound leader of God’s people. But the people that He brought of Egypt limited him. They made him needlessly spend forty years in the wilderness, wandering with them. He had no intention of wandering in life. But those people made him wander because they made no serious and deliberate effort towards spiritual growth and development. Their unwillingness to grow in the things of God affected Moses as well.In Psalm 103, verse 7, the bible says, “He made his ways known to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel.” (NIV)

Think about that. Moses knew the ways of God. So, he was able to walk with Him faithfully. But those Israelites that he led out of Egypt were not serious about knowing the Lord. They only wanted to enjoy His miracles. There was a time God spoke to them, and they told Moses to tell Him not to speak to them directly again but to communicate with them through him. That means they were not ready to grow in the things of God. No wonder many of them lost their lives in the wilderness. Moses could not lead them into the land promised by God to them. (Cf. Exodus 20:18-19)

In like manner, if our leaders will be able to lead us to the places promised to us by God, if they will be able to lead us to where God wants us to be, we must take our personal growth and development very seriously. Now there are things we must devote ourselves to in order to grow spiritually. The early church members devoted themselves to these things and their devotion to them resulted in their growth.

Yes, their devotion to those things made God continually add to their number. God saw that it was safe for Him to add to their number. He saw that they were spiritually healthy enough to add to their number.If we too will have God continually add to our number, He must see us as spiritually healthy enough. I am not talking about the addition that comes through the use of human wisdom and schemes.

Rather, I am talking about the addition that God Himself sponsors. People use all kinds of schemes today to add to the number of their churches. But if we want God to add to our number, if we want Him to multiply us, He must see us as spiritually sound and healthy enough.Look at what Luke says about what the members of the church of those days devoted themselves:“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.” (Acts 2:42-43NIV)

What were these people devoted to? They were devoted to the word of God. They were devoted to fellowship. They were devoted to sharing meals together. They were also devoted to prayer. That means they took these things very seriously. And because of that, they grew spiritually and also increased in number. Also, because of their devotion to these things, God was able to mightily use the apostles among them. When brethren are yielded to God, it is easy for their leaders to minister grace to them. But when they are not yielded to God, even if when their leaders are praying for them, there is no guarantee that the blessings of those leaders will rest on them.

Well, as we begin another year of fellowship together, I want you to be devoted to these things we just saw in the bible. Be devoted to the word of God. Be devoted to fellowship. Be devoted to sharing all good things with the brethren. And be devoted to prayer. In short, I want you to take your personal growth very seriously. That is because if you are not growing spiritually, God cannot rely on you to bless anybody. How, then, is that going to be a blessing to the church? It won’t. And we want you to be a blessing to us.

My prayer is that God will strengthen you to daily take your spiritual growth very seriously, in Jesus’ name. Amen.Happy celebration.

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MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTS Message Transcripts 2025 Single Message Series

SEE TO IT (8)BOUNDARIES TO RESPECT (A)

Date: May 04, 2025

Series: See to it

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We have been looking at a number of things on the relevance of taking certain instructions given to us in Hebrews, chapters 3 and 12, very seriously. These instructions have to do with watching over one another, so that we do not go astray or fall short of the grace of God. This, of course, has led us to looking at various things that we need to pay attention to, if we will be able to freely help one another stay in the truth and not become a part of the problem we are trying to prevent or solve. And the last thing we looked at on this note had to do with relating to one another only on the basis of the word of God, not on the basis of human traditions or superstitions, not on the basis of mysticism and not on the basis of our feelings, idiosyncrasies or experiences.

Our traditions may be good. And our experiences may be okay to teach others. But we must use these things in relating to people only to the degree that they agree with the word of God. Wherever they do not agree with the word of God, we must discard them in our dealings with people. Otherwise, we may end up judging those that God has not judged or condemning those that He has not condemned.Now there is another thing we need to pay attention to in relating to one another, if we will be able to truly watch over one another and keep ourselves from going astray. This has to do with recognizing those boundaries that we must not cross in people’s lives. There are boundaries we must not cross in our dealings with people. These boundaries may not be obvious. But they are there. And in relating to people, we must recognize and respect them. Otherwise, we may not be able to help them in any serious way or end up becoming a part of the problem we are trying to prevent or solve.

One of such boundaries is people’s right to privacy. The Lord Jesus has called us to live in freedom. So, we must allow every child of God to enjoy their freedom, as long as they are not using it as cover up for evil (Galatians 5:13; 1Peter 2:16). The point I am making is that we can only help people to do degree that they permit us. So, we must know when and where people want us in their lives and when and where they do not want us in their lives. We must not attempt to impose ourselves on anyone. We must not be close to people beyond want they want or what they permit. If someone has set certain boundaries in their lives that they do not want you to cross, then, you must respect their right to privacy.

In 2Corinthians, chapter 6, Paul says this from verse 11: “We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange – I speak as to my children – open wide your hearts also.” (2Corinthians 6:11-13NIV)Paul is counseling the Corinthian brethren here to remove the boundaries they have placed around their lives, so that he and his ministry companions could freely affect them.

According to him, they are not withholding their affection from these Corinthians. Instead, they have freely opened wide their hearts to them, so that they could share their lives with them. So, it is only fair that the Corinthians do likewise. And that is what Paul is placing his fingers on here. But you can see that Paul is not trying to impose himself on these brethren. Yes, he was the one that God used in starting their church. And he had spiritual authority over them and could command them to do those things that are right for them to do. Yet he would not impose himself on them.

Instead, he wanted them to realize the need for them to consciously open wide their hearts to them, so that they may freely and fully affect them in their walk of faith. And that was because he respected their right to privacy.In like manner, it is important that we respect people’s right to privacy. It is important that we respect their right and freedom to choose what they want and do not want, to choose how we help them and the extent to which we help them in their faith. So, if someone does not want us to help them in certain areas of their lives, we have to respect their decision and stay away from those areas of their lives that they do not want us to touch.

Yes, we may know exactly what they need in those areas of their lives. But if they will not permit us to help them, we will have to let them be until God opens their eyes to see that they need us to help them in those areas of their lives.Look at how Paul relates to Philemon in his letter, as an example of the need for us to learn to respect the rights of others to make certain decisions for themselves: “Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul – an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus – that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. I am sending him – who is my very heart – back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel.

But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary.” (Philemon 8-14NIV)The things Paul says here are in favour of a man called Onesimus, who used to be a slave of Philemon. The man ran away from his master and was meant to be severely punished for doing so. But as God would have it, he met Paul at some point and become born again. Not only did he become born again, he also grew in his faith so much so that he became a very dear son in the faith to Paul. Naturally, Paul would want to keep this young man to himself. But he knew it would not be right for him to do so, since he knew his master, Philemon. The right thing for him to do would be to send him back to his master for reconciliation. Yes, he could just write a letter to his master, using his spiritual authority over him to command him to let Onesimus remain with him. But he knew that would be an abuse of his spiritual authority and his relationship with Philemon. He knew that if he did that, he would be trampling on the man’s rights.

So, he would not do so but would instead appeal to the love of Christ in Philemon. And that is what we see in this passage.Now is it the will of God for people to keep slaves? No! But during that era, God did not contend with humanity about making slaves of themselves, though He forbade His own people, the Israelites, from making slaves of their own brethren. Why did God not contend with people on this matter? The reason was the hardness of their hearts. God knew that unless people were recreated and changed from within, telling them not to make slaves of themselves could only fall on deaf ears. But as the gospel prevailed in the world, slavery diminished in acceptance.

And today, slavery is no longer socially or politically acceptable in any part of the world.In any case, at that time, there was no law against having slaves. So, Paul would not trample on Philemon’s right to own slaves. But since Philemon was a child of God, he appealed to the love of God in him in dealing with Onesimus, his run-away slave. As I pointed out already, Paul could have commanded this man to forgive Philemon and to also release him to him as a helper. But he respected his right and wanted him to function on the basis of the love of God in his heart. So, he appealed to him to welcome back Onesimus and reconcile with him, out of love for Christ. That way, all of them could continue to freely fellowship together as members of the same family, the family of God.You can see that even though Paul was an apostle, he respected the right of Philemon to make his own decision about the matter of Onesimus.

We too should learn to respect people’s rights to make decisions about their lives. We should not treat them as morons and keep trampling on their rights to decide for themselves, just because we have spiritual authority over them. Instead, we should respect their freedom to make choices that they believe are right for them. And we should respect their right to privacy.Yes, we may know what is right for others to do in certain situations of their lives. But we must still respect their rights to choose what to do for themselves. We can encourage them. We can warn them. We can open their eyes to see the will of God for them. But as long as they have come of age, we must learn to respect their right to choose for themselves whatever they want in life. That way, they will not do anything because they are forced or manipulated or threatened to do it but because they want to do it.

What I am saying, all along, is that if someone does not want us to help them in certain areas in their walk with God, we just have to let them be. We see our Lord Jesus dealing with us in this same manner. He does not cross whatever boundaries we set for Him in our lives. Look at what is written to us in the bible about this: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Revelation 3:20NIV)The Lord is not speaking to unbelievers here but to believers.

Interestingly, often, this Scripture is used to address unbelievers to give Jesus a chance in their lives. And that is not a bad thing. But in the context, the words were originally said to believers and not to unbelievers. These believers were shutting the Lord Jesus out of certain areas of their lives. So, He had to tell them to open the door for Him to come into those areas of their lives and fellowship with them there.Well, He is saying the same thing to us today. He is telling us to allow Him in every area of our lives. Yes, He lives in us by His Spirit. But He may be living in us as guest, a visitor. There are, in fact, many believers who think of the Spirit of God as a guest in their lives.

They do not see Him as the owner of their lives. But He is the owner of our lives. And we must treat Him as such.However, He will not force Himself on us. So, the right thing for us to do is to willingly offer ourselves to Him. The word God tells us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God, holy and acceptable, which is our logical act of worship.

In other words, the willing offering of our bodies to God is the right thing for us to do. We have to realize that it is the right thing for us to do and do it.Well, we see Jesus telling the brethren in Laodicea that He is standing at the door and knocking and that if anyone hears His voice and opens the door, He will come in and fellowship with that person and they with Him. But what if the person does not hear the Lord knocking at all? He won’t force His way in. Instead, He will keep knocking until the person hears and opens the door. Or what if the person hears and does not open the door for the Lord? He won’t still force His way in.

He will just let the person be until he realizes the need for him to open the door for his Lord to come in and fellowship with him.So, if you do not want the Lord to address you about your marriage, for instance, He will let you be. But you can be sure that you will be a failure in that area of your life. If you don’t want Him to address you about your finances, He will let you be. Or if you are stingy and selfish and do not want Him to talk about these things, what is He going to do? He will let you be. Even if it is your health that you don’t want Him to touch, He will let you be. He will not force Himself on you. If He had been forcing Himself on all men, then, all men would have been born again already.Truly, the Lord wants to fellowship with us in every area of our lives. He does not want us to live alone in any area of our lives. That, in fact, is what God has called us to. He has called us into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ (1Corinthians 1:9).

He has called us to live with Him and for Him to live with us. He does not want us to walk through life alone. Instead, He wants us to have His companionship every moment of our lives.However, we may not have His companionship every moment of our lives. That, of course, will not be because it is unavailable. Rather, it will be because we are not permitting Him in our lives. That is how the Lord functions. That is how we also must function. We must learn to knock the door of people’s lives instead of badging in. Jesus knocks before coming into any area of our lives.

Why does He do that? That is respect. He is showing that He respects our rights to choose for ourselves. He may not respect us for the choices we have made. But He respects our right to choose whatever we want to choose for ourselves. We may choose badly. We may choose what will destroy us. But since He has given us the right to making choices for ourselves in certain areas of life, He knows that He has to respect our right to make those choices.Just think about this: God has given us the right to make our own choices in certain areas of our lives. We, of course, do not have absolute rights to choose in life. There are things that are chosen for us by God or by people. But there are areas of life in which we have been given the right to choose for ourselves. And God is not taking that right away from us. He is not trampling on it at all. He will always respect it. He will not contend with us in using it. But He is always concerned that we choose right.

How painful it must have been for Him, then, to watch us use the right He has given to us to hurt ourselves and others badly? Well, God will continue to come to us, asking us to open the door of every area of our lives for Him, so that He can come in and lead us to choose right. He will show us what is right and what is wrong and tell us to choose what is right. He will show us the difference between life and death and also show us to choose life. He will show us the difference between health and death, between wealth and poverty, and also lead us to choose that which is right for us. In like manner, as I have been saying, we must respect people’s privacy and also their right to choose whatever they want for themselves. It may hurt us badly that people are making the wrong choices.

But we still have to respect their right to choose for themselves, if they will not permit us to help them choose right. A man once told me that he had resolved to maintain a private life and to shut those of us who were his brethren out of his home. And I told him right there that I would respect his choice, even though I knew it was a terrible one. I also went on to inform the brethren to respect his privacy and not visit him uninvited. Now was I happy to do that? No! But that’s what the Lord Himself would do.

So, if people do not want you to help them in certain areas of their lives, you have to let them be. That way, neither they nor God will be able to hold you responsible, if they should fall away from the grace of God. Let us pray.

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Single Message Series

See to it _Based on the word only (c)

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Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 20). Based on the word only (c)(Vol. 7, No. 49). See To It.

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I want to further share with you concerning the instructions that we are given in Hebrews, chapters 3 and 12, which have to do with watching over one another. We are told to see to it that none of us develops a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. We are also told to see to it that none of us falls short of the grace of God. And these things have led us to looking at series of things that we need to pay attention to, if we will be able to help one another stay in the truth.

Now the last of the things we have been dealing with has to do with relating to one another only on the basis of the word of God. As I pointed out, we must not relate to one another as believers outside the confines of the word of God. There are things the word of God commands us to do. And they are the things we must command ourselves to do. There are things His word encourages us to do. And these are the things we must encourage ourselves to do. In like manner, there are things the word of God commands us not to do. And these are the things we must command ourselves not to do. Then there are things the word of God discourages us from doing. These also are the things we must discourage ourselves from doing.

But then, there are also things that God has not spoken for or spoken against. Paul refers to such things as disputable matters. And we have rules given to us in Scriptures in handling such matters. We have these rules given to us so that we will not find ourselves judging or condemning our brethren for things God has not condemned them for.

Now I want to press this further by talking to us on dealing with one another according to human traditions. Remember what we are saying is that we must relate to one another only on the basis of the word of God and not on the basis of our feelings, experiences, idiosyncrasies or traditions. We may have feelings that are good. We may have experiences that people may learn from. And we may have traditions that are good. But these things must be consistent with the word of God. Otherwise, we must discard them as useless. We must not impose them on anybody or demand that anyone act on their basis.

For instance, in Saint Mark’s gospel, chapter 7, we are told this:

“The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”” (Mark 7:1-5NIV)

We see here that the religious leaders of the Jews were judging the disciples of the Lord based on the traditions of the land, not based on the word of God. Truly, the things that are said here about their traditions are not bad. Washing your hands before eating is not bad. Washing your cups, pitchers and other things you use for eating is not bad. And taking your bath, having come back from a journey or the market, is not bad.

However, we do not have any command in the word of God that we must wash our hands before we eat or that we must take our bath before we eat or do any other thing. These things are not bad in themselves. But they are not rules given to us for godly living. It will, therefore, be wrong of us to judge anyone on their basis or to conclude that someone is not living to please God on the basis of these things.

Interestingly, even in marriages, husbands and wives can have issues along these lines. They can begin to make on themselves demands that the word of God is not making on them. You, as a husband, may love to always take your bath when you are back from work, for example. And that is a good thing. But your wife may not love that or may not have been raised to function like that. Truly, it will not be a bad idea for her to copy you in doing this. But to insist that she also must do so before you can relate properly to her in your home is to miss it. That is because you are making a demand on her that God is not making on her.

Don’t miss my point here. I am not saying that it is alright for someone to be living a dirty life. If someone has been working for hours and needs to take their bath in order not to irritate their spouse or others around them, they should do the needful. But we must also understand that something like that will not make them godly or ungodly. Yes, I know there is this slogan that says, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” But it is not scriptural to say so. There is nowhere in the bible in which we are told that cleanliness is next to godliness.

To say the fact, cleanliness is not next to godliness. Someone may be dirty in their lifestyle and still be godly. And someone may be clean but ungodly. Lazarus, as we see in the story Jesus told about him and a rich man, was dirty and poor. His body was filled with sores and wounds. Yet when he died, angels came to carry him to paradise. But the rich man that was living a neat life ended up in hell. Did Lazarus go to paradise with his dirty and awful body? No! He went there in his spirit. And as we are told in Scriptures, he would, henceforth, begin to live with a glorified body, a body that sicknesses and diseases could not afflict. (Cf. Luke 16:19-31)

So, we need to watch ourselves as we relate to one another. Otherwise, we may be judging ourselves on the basis of some traditions or superstitions. And this will affect our relationships with one another. It may make us condemn or judge the innocent. It may shut whatever door of opportunity we might have had to help one another stay in the faith. If you cannot properly fellowship with another person because you have placed a barrier of traditions between both of you, that person may not be able to reach you, if they should need your help. And even if you should want to help them, they too may not want your help. The same thing is applicable to you.

Well, when these religious leaders of the Jews began to judge the disciples of the Lord based on their traditions, He responded. Look at his response from verse 6 of the chapter:

“He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God) – then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”” (Mark 7:6-13NIV)

There are three basic things Jesus says here about the religious leaders of the Jews. First, He says that they have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions. Second, He says that they have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe their own traditions. Third, He says that nullify the word of God by their traditions. What is the point of all these? It is that these people took their traditions more seriously than the word of God. So, they were ready to replace the word of God with their traditions, wherever the word of God goes against those traditions.

Nothing, as I said before, was wrong with the tradition of cleanliness that these religious leaders of the Jews had. And it is not wrong for us too to have such a tradition. It is not wrong to take care of our body and the things we use in eating and drinking. On the contrary, it is good to be hygienic. It helps us to live healthy. But it is wrong for us to place whatever we believe or practise about this above the word of God. And it is wrong for us to make whatever we believe or practise about it a rule of life for anybody.

Rules of life are made for us on the basis of the word of God. I mean that what God says is what determines our rules for living, not human traditions. And in relating to one another we must be careful not to present our traditions as the word of God. Yes, we must be careful not to judge people on the basis of our traditions or superstitions. There are all kinds of superstitions from place to place. For instance, among the Yorubas, it is a taboo to sit and eat at the entrance of a house. And it is indeed not a commendable thing to be eating at the door of a house. But it is not a sin. You can choose to eat wherever you like. It is not a sin. You can even choose to eat at the dumpsite, if you are okay with it. It is not a sin. There is no Scripture that says that it is a sin for anyone to do so.

So, we need to be careful how we judge people. Certain things may not be socially acceptable. It does not mean that those things are wrong or that God is against them. How people dress may not be socially up-to-date. Some will dress and not tuck in their shirts. Some others will dress and not button up. They just want to dress down all the time. Is that a sin? No! I used to attend an assembly in which a cell leader would tell his members that it was a sin for them to dress and not tuck in their shirts. And is that indeed a sin? No!

See, we must respect people’s right to live as free people. As long as they are not using their freedom as a cover up for evil, we must respect their right to live as free people. Paul also shares some things with us along this line in his letter to the Colossians. From verse 16 of chapter 2, he says:

“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” (Colossians 2:16NIV)

We dealt with this in our last lesson. We said whatever people believe about what they eat and how they handle days, times and seasons is between them and God. And no one should judge anyone on the basis of how they handle these things. Then, from verse 17, Paul goes on to say this:

“Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.” (Colossians 2:18-19NIV)

Paul is speaking here about mysticism. He is referring to a situation in which people try to impose certain spiritual experiences they claim to have had on God’s people. These ones often want to use these spiritual experiences they have had as their rule for judging God’s people or for determining how God’s people are to live their lives. They will talk about the visions or dreams they have had or talk about certain angelic visitations they have received.

Now the word of God is not against visions, dreams or angelic manifestations. These are some of the means that God uses in revealing His will to His people. However, any vision or dream we see must be consistent with the word of God. If it is not consistent with His word, then, we must reject it. We must never place our visions or dreams above the word of God or use them to replace the word of God.

What about angelic visitations? They are real. But it is not every time that people have angelic visitations that they are of God. In 2Corinthians 11 Paul tells us that Satan often masquerade as an angel of light and that his servants also do likewise. So, demons can masquerade as angels of light.

How, then, do we know when an angelic visitation is of God or not? First, a true angel of God will never demand that you worship him. He will always tell you to worship God. Second, a true angelic visitation will only seek to glorify God. Therefore, no angel will tell you to do anything that is contrary to what is written in the word of God. (Cf. Revelation 19:9-10; Revelation 22:8-9)

Unfortunately, there are those who have judged God’s people as going to hell on the strength of certain angelic visitations they had. I listened to a woman who went into details of the things some angels showed her about why Christians may go to hell. According to her, certain Christian ladies were taken to hell because they used earrings, wore trousers or used hair attachments when they were here on earth. And that is an example of what Paul is saying to the Colossians. He is speaking of those who will go into great detail about their visions, dreams or angelic visitations, saying things that are not consistent with Scriptures. What do we do about such things? We throw them away.

You cannot tell me that someone is going to hell because they wear trousers or earrings. On what strength? On the strength on your dreams? Is that what the word of God says? If that is not what the word of God says, I must reject what you are saying. We have prophets who do similar things. They give prophecies that are inconsistent with Scriptures. And they expect everyone to follow them. If you, then, will not follow them, they may take you as a rebel or as an unbeliever. Such things are wrong.

Well, Paul says that you should not allow anyone to judge or condemn you on such basis. In fact, he goes on to tell us that people who do such things have lost connection with the Lord of the church, that is, Christ. Also, he tells us that they are unspiritual. They may appear spiritual. But they are not. So, we should not take them seriously.

Furthermore, Paul says from verse 20 of the chapter:

“Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.” (Colossians 2:20-23NIV)

This is similar to what I shared with you in Mark 7 on relating to human traditions. There are traditions and superstitions of men that say, “Do not touch! Do not handle! Do not taste!” But as long as they are not consistent with the word of God, we do not take them seriously. Yes, there are times we need to exercise caution or discretion in relating to the traditions and superstitions of people in some places. Yet, as long as their traditions are against the word of God, you too must be against them.

But then, if a tradition is not against the word of God and accepting it will make it easier for you to relate to those who practise it, you may want to accept it for their sake. The word of God tells us to be at peace with everyone. And if respecting the tradition of those with whom we live or work or study is not contrary to the will of God, we can show some respect for it. That may help us in living in peace with them. But where their tradition is contrary to the word of God, we must reject it.

What we are saying is that we must not allow our lives to be judged or run on the basis of mere human commands or superstitions. It is sad that we have church leaders that impose things on their brethren that God has not imposed on them. They tell them to dress in certain ways. They force them to fast for some number of days. They tell them what colours they must not use. They don’t want them to use perfumes or lotions. They just want them to treat their body harshly.

These things, however, are not commands of God. If you do not want to use lotions or perfumes, that is fine. But there is nowhere we are commanded in God’s word not to use them. Also, there is nowhere we are commanded in the word of God to fast for any number of days in a week. Is something wrong with fasting? No! But we have no specific command from God on when any of us should fast. Yet we find church leaders imposing these things on God’s people. And that is replacing the word of God with our own traditions.

Sadly, as Paul shows us, all these rules have no power in restraining sensual indulgence. They have no power in changing people’s lives or in stopping people from sinning. Only the word of God has the power to change people’s lives. Only His word has the power to make us the people wants us to be. So, in relating to one another, we must do so only on the basis of the word of God. Otherwise, we will be wrong.

Let us pray.

Copyright © 2025 Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 08146472876)

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From Pastor's Desk 2025 FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2025 Pastor's Desk Single Message Series

Witnessing greater works of God_By Johnson Lawal

Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 20). Witnessing greater works of God

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Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 20). Witnessing greater works of God (Vol. 12, No. 51). From Pastor’s Desk.

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours abundantly from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to the Easter Sunday of this year, year 2025. My prayer is that all that Jesus accomplished for us through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension will not go to waste in our lives. Amen.

As we begin this new week, I want to encourage you with these words of our Lord Jesus: “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.” (John 1:50NIV) Who did Jesus say this to? He said it to Nathaniel, one of the men that later became His apostles. Why did He say it to him? Well, as the account goes, Philip had told Nathaniel that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah they had been waiting for and that he should come and see him. But Nathaniel did not think that anything good could come out of Nazareth. Nevertheless, he went with Philip to see Jesus. (Cf. John 1:44-46)

Now when this man met Jesus, and He told him by revelation where he had been that day, he immediately believed and said, “You are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” And because he appreciated the little revelation Jesus gave him, the Lord told him that he would see greater things. That means the way to witness greater things from the hand of God is to appreciate whatever He shows us or does for us, however little it may seem.

Truly, there is nothing God does for us or shows to us that is simple or little. But even if what He has done for us or shown to us appear to be little, our attitude towards it is what will determine whether He will show us greater things or not. When God first appeared to Moses, He only gave him two signs. And those two signs were actually profound. But he had to appreciate them and take God seriously on account of them for him to witness greater signs and miracles. And he did witness greater signs, miracles and wonders from God, signs, miracles and wonders too numerous to count.

The same thing was applicable to Nathaniel and all the apostles of the Lord Jesus. They all went on to see things greater than what they were first shown when they met Him. But that would not have happened, if they had not appreciated Him for the things He first did for them or showed to them.

So, if we want to see greater works of God, if we want to see miracles, signs and wonders that are greater than whatever God has done for us in the past or is doing for us now, we must show Him that we appreciate what He is doing for us, however small or little it may see. Otherwise, we will only keep hearing great testimonies of His goodness to others but never have any great testimony of our own to share.

Have a lovely week.

Copyright © 2025, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 08146472876)

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Single Message Series

Based on the word only (b)_By Johnson Lawal

Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 13). Based on the word only (b). See to It.

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We have been looking at how important it is for us to watch over one another based on the instructions we have in Hebrews, chapters 3 and 12. And there we are told to see to it that none of us develops a sinful heart that turns away from the living God and that none of us falls short of the grace of God. Then, in the last lesson, I began to talk to us about relating to one another only on the basis of the word of God. If we are relating to ourselves on this basis, we will not condemn ourselves or judge ourselves contrary to the will of God.

Now we may want to relate to one another on the basis of our experiences, traditions or idiosyncrasies. But where these things do not align with the word of God, we must drop them. We must draw the lines between the demands the word of God is making on us and the demands we are making on ourselves. People must not be taken as having fallen away from the grace of God or as being on their way to falling away from His grace simply because they are doing things that are contrary to our traditions or experiences in life. We can only take people to be walking in the path of error, if the word of God says so.

As I pointed out before, there are demands placed on us by the word of God. And these are the demands we must place on ourselves. The things that the word of God tells us to do are the things we must command and encourage ourselves to do. Then the things the word of God commands us not to do are the things we must command and encourage ourselves not to do. And as long as we stick to these rules, we will be able to help one another remain in the faith.

But then, there are things the word of God is silent about. And how we handle these things, of course, is what will determine whether these things are right or wrong for us to do. For instance, the things we eat, the things we wear and our attitude towards days, times and seasons do not affect our relationship with God. How we use them, however, is able to affect our relationship with one another. So, we have guidelines in Scriptures on how to handle those things that God is silent about. That way, we will not end up condemning or judging ourselves contrary to the will of God.

In Romans, chapter 14, verse 1, Paul says this to us: “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.” (NIV) Can you see that? There are disputable matters. These are matters that we cannot have a final word on them. That is because God is neither for them nor against them. Therefore, none of us can have a final say about them. Yes, we may argue back and forth on whether it is right or wrong for us to do them. But none of us can have a final say over them, for God has not given any final word about them. He has only given us guidelines on how to handle them so that we do not through them destroy ourselves or our relationship with one another.

Well, from verse 2, Paul goes on to say:

“One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” (Rom 14:2-8NIV)

What is the point Paul making here? It is that what we think about certain things that God has not given any word about is up to us. And what we think about such things should not be our basis for judging or condemning anybody. For instance, in handling food matters, you may eat whatever you please, as long as you are convinced it is alright to do so. So, no one should judge you for choosing to eat certain food, just as no one should condemn you for choosing not to eat certain food. That decision is up to you.

Your attitude toward days, times and seasons is also up to you. If you want to be celebrating your birthdays, it is up to you. And if you choose not to celebrate birthdays, it is up to you. So, no one should judge or condemn you on the basis of what you do or do not do, as far as this matter is concerned. Celebrating birthdays or some other days or times or seasons does not bring us near God, just as not celebrating them does not drive us away from Him.

Look at what Paul says in 1Corinthians, chapter 8, verse 8:

“But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.” (NIV)

That is a rule to pay attention to in our walk with God. There are things that do not bring us near God. In other words, our doing such things does not make us better, just as our doing them does not make us worse. And food happens to be one of such things. We can eat anything we like to eat. That is not going to bring us any closer to God or take farther away from Him. Food is meant for the body, just as the body is meant for food. So, whatever goes into the body will come out of it. And that has nothing to do with our relationship with God.

However, what we eat or drink may destroy our body. Now our body does not belong to us but to God, as we are shown in Scriptures (1Corinthians 6:19-21). If we, then, are putting into our body what destroys it, we are not taking God seriously but are sinning against Him. So, we need to know those things we will put in our body that will destroy it and stay away from them. That is what makes drunkenness a sin. Nothing is wrong with the consumption of wine or alcohol in itself. But when you take it to the point that it takes charge of your mind and begins to control you, you are sinning against God. The same thing is applicable to gluttony. Nothing is wrong with eating well. But when you begin to eat so much that your health or finances or relationship with others is being affected, you are already sinning against God.

What I am saying is that nothing is wrong with eating or drinking. It is the way we handle what we eat and drink that may make the consumption of certain foods wrong for us. In the same vein, our celebration of certain days is not wrong. Those who celebrate birthdays, Christmas, Easter and so on are not wrong to do so. And those who do not do so are not wrong not to do so. The point is simply that those who do not do so are not closer to God than those who do so, just as those who do so are not farther from God than those who do not do so. Therefore, do not think that because you do not eat certain food, you are closer to God than those who eat it. That is not so. It is never going to be so.

The same thing is applicable to our use of dresses. How we dress and the things we wear differ from place to place, based on the culture of where we find ourselves. We can wear whatever we like. What is important is moderation. What is important is modesty in the way we handle whatever we hear. So, we should not argue on whether people can wear a particular kind of dress or not. What we should focus on is modesty. As long as we are modest in the way we dress, as long as what we wear does not expose private parts of our body, it is fine. What we wear may not be acceptable in our culture. But is it modest? If it is, then, we should not judge or condemn anybody for it. We must be careful not to make our culture take the place of the word of God in our dealings with one another. That is because there are things that are acceptable in every culture that are not acceptable by God.

Well, Paul, in this chapter of the book of Romans, is telling us that whether we do certain things or do not do them is up to us, if God has not given any final word on those things. So, we should not condemn anybody for not doing what we do or for doing what we do not like to do, as long as God has not given any word for or against it. The point is that we must respect the right of every believer to live in liberty. The Lord has set us free so that we can be free. We, therefore, must respect that and not seek to put any yoke of slavery on anybody.

However, we are also warned in the Scriptures not to destroy other believers through the exercise of our liberty. God may not have condemned an act. But we need to be careful that we do not destroy other believers through that act. So, first, we need to watch that what we are doing is not destroying us. God has not condemned what you are doing. But is it destroying you? If it is, then, you need to watch it.

For instance, smoking of cigarettes is not condemned anywhere in Scriptures. So, you are not to judge anyone for smoking tobacco. However, we know from experience that the smoking of tobacco is capable of destroying your body and also the health of others around you. So, out of respect for your body, which belongs to God, you should not be smoking. Then, out of consideration for others’ welfare, you should not be smoking. That is how the consumption of tobacco can become a sin.

Paul explains these things in this manner, from verse 13 of Romans 14:

“Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil.” (Rom 14:13-16NIV)

Did you see that? Paul says I am convinced that no food is unclean in itself. Why does he say this? He says this because everything God created is good. It is the fall of man that has made some things bad for us to use or enjoy. Yes, it is the fall of man that has deprived us of the understanding of how to use all the good things God has created and put at our disposal. So, we must not pass judgment on one another or condemn one another in relating to things God has not condemned. What is important is that we do not become the reason someone will stumble and fall in their walk with God.

For example, I said before that nothing was wrong with taking alcohol, as long as you do not get drunk. I do not say that because I drink alcohol. I do not drink. Rather, I say that because the word of God says so. And His word is truth. However, if a brother that had just be rescued from drunkenness by the Lord should see you drinking alcohol, will he not be offended or even emboldened to want to drink it? Then, he may just find himself trapped again in drunkenness. And your lack of consideration in this matter will make you responsible for his fall. When you do so, you are not acting in love, for you are destroying someone for whom Christ has died.

So, Paul goes on to say this to us:

“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall. So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.” (Rom 14:19-23NIV)

I do not have the time to explain everything Paul is saying to us here. But the point of it all is that we must be considerate and must also aim for mutual edification in all that we do. We must not just be concerned about pleasing ourselves; we also need to be concerned about how what we do will affect our brethren. Here is something similar said by Paul from verse 9 of 1Corinthians 8:

“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.” (1Corinthians 8:9-13NIV)

You can see that consideration is key in the way we relate to one another. So, even though God has not condemned what we are doing, we must be considerate in doing it. That way, whatever we are doing will not result in the fall of another brother or sister.

Mind you, what we are dealing with is how to keep one another in the faith. And we are saying that we are to do so only on the basis of the word of God. The word of God, then, tells us that even in matters where God has not given a final word on what is right or wrong, we must be considerate and do everything for mutual edification. That way, we will not expose our brethren to any kind of spiritual fall.

But then, we must also be careful not to judge or condemn people where God has not condemned them. That you like to do something that someone else does not want to do does not mean that something is wrong with you or with that person. If God has not condemned you for what you do, then, you are not condemned. And if what you are doing is not hurting anyone’s faith, you should not allow anyone to judge for doing it. That is because there are people who get irritated about what other believers are doing. And they want them to stop doing those things because they are irritated. But that you are irritated does not mean that your faith is being hurt or injured. So, don’t judge or condemn anyone merely on the basis of what irritates you. If what they are doing is not contrary to the word of God, you should let them be. And you should apply the same rule to your life.

Let us pray.

Copyright © 2025 Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 08146472876)

Categories
Single Message Series

Based on the word only_J.O._Lawal

Recommended Citation

Lawal, J. O. (2025, March 06). Based on the word only. See to It series.

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We have been looking at the instructions given to us in Hebrews, chapters 3 and 12, on watching over one another so that none of us will develop a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God and so that we will not fall short of the grace of God. And this has led us to examining some of the things we must pay attention to in order to be able to fulfil these demands placed on us by God.

Now I want to give us another point that will aid us in helping one another to remain faithful to God to the very end. And it is that we are to relate to one another only on the basis of the word of God. What I am saying is that we must encourage, instruct, admonish, correct or rebuke one another only on the basis of the word of God. We must not relate to one another on the basis of feelings or experiences but on the basis of the word of God.

Don’t get me wrong here. Our feelings are important. Our experiences are important. But they are only important to the degree that they align with the word of God. We can use our feelings and experiences to illustrate the word of God to people. But we must not allow our feelings and experiences to take the place of the word of God in our lives or in the lives of others, especially the people of God in our lives. So, as we relate to one another, our relationship must be word-based. That is the only way our relationship with one another can be clean and also beneficial to all of us.

While addressing the leaders of the Ephesian church, Paul says this to them in his farewell message:

“Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” (Acts 20:32NIV)

There is something he says here about the word of God. And it is that it can build up God’s people and give them an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. That means it is the word of God that we must rely on, if we want to be built up in our faith and if we want to receive and enjoy our own share of the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of God. Prayer is important too. But it cannot take the place of the word of God in our lives. Through prayer, of course, we can be built up in strength, spiritual strength. But it cannot take the place of the word of God in our being built up in our faith, just as the word of God cannot take its place.

Well, I am saying that in dealing with one another in the church, we must do so only on the basis of the word of God. Now there are things the word of God demands or encourages us to do. And we must be demanding and encouraging one another to do these things, if we want to remain in the truth of Jesus. In other words, we must command ourselves to do the things the word of God tells us to do. Also, we must encourage ourselves to do the things the word of God encourages us to do.

For instance, the word of God commands and encourages us to take our devotion to Scriptures, prayer and Christian fellowship very seriously. And we must take these things very seriously in our individual lives. Not only that, we must also demand that our brethren take these things very seriously in their lives as well. If your brother or sister, then, is calling your attention to the need to take the word of God, prayer and Christian fellowship seriously, you must not think that they are doing something wrong or out of place. What they are doing is not out of place. That is because the demands they are making on you are the demands the word of God makes on every one of us.

Now when we take our devotion to prayer, the word of God and Christian fellowship very seriously, other things that God wants us to take seriously will become clear to us as well. That way, we can also take them seriously. The point I am making, in any case, is that in order for us to fulfil the demands that God is making on us to keep our brethren safe, the demands we will be placing on them must the ones God is placing on them. Otherwise, we will be wrong.

Then there are things that God has told us not to do, things that He has already condemned. We also must condemn these things in our own lives and in the lives of our brethren. ‘Acts of the flesh’, for instance, are condemned everywhere in the Scriptures. We must condemn them as well in our lives and in the lives of our brethren. Also, slothfulness, laziness, waywardness and lukewarmness of every form are condemned in Scriptures. We too must condemn these in our lives and in the lives of our brethren. What about immodest living? It is condemned in Scriptures. So, we too must condemn it. We must condemn everything that is immodest among us.

Sadly, there are times that people, in their attempt to evade correction or rebuke, will say, “The word of God says, ‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged.’” They say this to scare their brethren away from addressing the wrong things in their lives. Now it is true that the word of God tells us not to judge others, so that we will not be judged. But on what basis does it say that? In what context does the word of God say this?

When you read the passage where this is said carefully, you will see that Jesus says what He says there in the context of ‘morality in judgment’. In other words, the Lord is speaking of situations in which we are not qualified to judge others. Look at the passage:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plan out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5NIV)

You can see here that we are dealing with morality in judgment, where you have no moral right to judge others. And when do you have no moral right to judge others? You have no moral right to judge them when you are doing what you condemn in them or when you are doing things that are worse than what you condemn in them. I mentioned some things along these lines in the last lesson. I said you cannot afford to be a part of the problem you are trying to solve, if you want to help God’s people. Therefore, if you have fallen short of the grace of God or have developed a sinful heart that turns away from God, how can you keep your brethren from doing something similar or help them out of something similar?

Well, the Lord in this passage is speaking of morality in judgment. And it must not be torn apart. Often people tear what He says here apart. They will quote only the first line of His words and leave the rest of what He says in the same context out. That is wrong. It is a wrong way to treat the word of God. The context of this passage is of morality in judgment, where you have no moral right to judge others. And you do have no moral right to judge anyone, if you are guilty of the same offence that you want to judge or of worse offences than the one you want to judge.

The second thing we need to keep in mind in dealing with this text is that if God has already judged something, then, anyone that has a moral and spiritual right to judge it can judge it. So, don’t say, “Don’t judge me, if you are doing what is wrong.” God has already judged what you are doing as wrong. You, then, had better accept it. God has judged immorality as wrong. He has judged greed as wrong. He has judged envy, sorcery and witchcraft as wrong. He has judged sexual immorality as wrong. And He has judged homosexuality as wrong.

Today people, especially those who practise homosexuality and lesbianism and other similar nonsense, get upset when we condemn these acts. They get upset that the church will not embrace or celebrate what they are doing. Their thought is that we hate them. But we don’t hate them. The thing is that God has already judged their lifestyle as wrong. We, then, are not trying to judge them. God has already judged them. And if God has already judged something, we also can judge it, as long as we have the moral right to judge it.

So, if you are being rebuked for something wrong, do not say, “Why are you judging me? The word of God says that you should not judge.” If God has already judged what you are doing as wrong, then, anyone with a moral right to judge it can judge it and should judge it. Of course, there is none of us that is perfect. Each of us must strive for perfection. But if you are doing something that is wrong, we will not ignore you because we also are not yet perfect in conduct. We have to call your attention to what you are doing that is wrong. That is because God has already condemned it. Also, it is because God has told us to see to it that none of us develops a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from Him.

Now since we have this instruction, we must fulfil it. And to make it easy for us to do so, we are told this by Paul in his letter to the Ephesian brethren; “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5:21NIV) What is our instruction here? It is that we should submit to one another in our relationship with one another as believers. Why? Out of reverence for Christ! So, the reason I submit to you is not that you are better than me. The reason I do so is Christ. What we are saying is that the reason we submit to one another in the church is not that some people are better than others. Rather, the reason is that we honour Christ when we do so. For instance, when we honour our leaders and submit to them, it is Christ we are honouring and submitting ourselves to.

Well, I am bringing this up to let you know that if we will make it easy for our brethren to help us stay in the truth, we must submit to them. When they are getting involved in your life and trying to place their fingers on things you may be missing, you must not be furious or angry. Instead, you must listen to what they have to say. They may be wrong. People may be wrong when they are trying to place their fingers on certain things that are wrong in our lives. They may even not use gracious words in addressing us, which, by the way, is a wrong way to relate to others. Nevertheless, we must be willing to look at what they are showing us and to listen to what they are telling us.

This is often the problem in the church: we get all furious when others are trying to rebuke or correct us. And that is because we don’t want to look at what they are showing us or to listen to what they are telling us. That is a wrong attitude. It is an attitude of an arrogant person. And if we do not deal with it in our lives, it will sooner or later get us into trouble.

As I already said, people may be wrong in their attempt to rebuke or correct us. But we will be more wrong, if we are not going to look at all at what they are showing us or listen at all to what they are saying to us. We will be showing ourselves as proud, if we are like that. And the bible says that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. (Cf. James 4:6; 1Peter 5:5)

Yes, in this case, you are not wrong but right. The problem, however, is that your attitude is wrong. And because your attitude towards correction is wrong where you are right, when you are actually wrong, there may be no one to set you right. Then, before you know that what you are doing is wrong, it may have destroyed you. You can now see why we are told to submit to one another. And these include leaders as well. They also must submit to one another and to their brethren. This does not mean that they are to yield themselves to be led by their brethren. Rather, it means they are to be open enough to welcome complaints or observations from their brethren.

There are leaders that don’t want to hear any complaint or observation from their brethren. They will ask them to shut up. And there are assemblies in which brethren cannot freely ask questions about the things they do not understand in Scriptures. Someone will ask them to shut up. And that is not helpful for the health or growth of the church. It is important, then, that if we will be able to help one another stay in the truth, we must submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. This does not have to do with the age, experience academic qualification, social status or financial status of those we are relating to. Rather, it has to do with showing reverence for the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you truly revere Him, you will submit yourself to your brethren and not make it difficult for them to watch over you or to counsel, correct or rebuke you.

Let us pray.

Copyright © 2025 Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 08146472876)

Categories
Single Message Series

Your life and your message_J.O._Lawal

Recommended Citation

Lawal, J. O. (2025, March 30). Your life and your message. See to It series.

I want of further share with you on ‘See to it’. As you now know, we are told in Scriptures to see to it that none of us falls away from the grace of God. We are also told to see to it that none of us develops a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. We have these instructions given to us in Hebrews, chapters 3 and 12. And we have been looking at those things that will aid us in taking them seriously.

Now, based on that, I said we must be involved in one another’s life. If we are not involved in our lives, there is no way we will be able to help one another from falling away from the grace of God. Remember that if any of us should fall away from God’s grace, as we are told in the Scriptures, we will have to dissociate ourselves from the person. That does not mean we are not to pray for the person’s restoration. But while that person remains fallen away from the grace of God, while that person has chosen to be living in sin, we will have to dissociate ourselves from him. For that not to happen, we have to be involved in one another’s life. We have to know what is going on in one another’s life. That way, we will be able to protect ourselves from the schemes of the devil.

But then, as I equally pointed out before, if we will be involved in one another’s life, then, we must be open with our lives. If we are not open with our lives, there is no way we can adequately know what is going on in one another’s life and be helpful to one another. And the leaders must take the lead in doing this. Our leaders must first be open with their lives. It is only then that they can encourage their brethren to also be open with their lives. And once we are open with our lives in this manner, we will be in a position to help one another.

However, it is not enough for us to be open with our lives; what is seen in our lives also has to be what God wants to see in them. Our lives have to be showing that we actually know what we are doing. Our lives have to be showing that we are walking in the light of the truth and that we are not a part of the problems we are trying to solve. And I remember giving us some Scriptures to show the main qualities we must have to be able to help one another stay in the truth of Jesus. And what are these qualities? First, we must be full of goodness. Second, we must be filled with knowledge. Third, we must have the wisdom of the Spirit to help one another.

Now I want to dwell a little on this point, which is that we cannot help one another, if we ourselves have fallen away from the grace of God, if we ourselves have developed a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. We may try to help others. But it will be hypocritical of us to try to do so. That is because we ourselves need help.

Then let me say this: Falling away from the grace of God is not always evidenced by staying away from church meetings. It may happen. It may not happen. Where it happens, it is usually what happens last. It is usually the last evidence of the fact that someone has fallen away from the grace of God.

What I mean is that many who have fallen away from the grace of God have not stopped attending church meetings. There are many who have turned away from God who still attend church meetings. And we have pastors, evangelists, prophets and so forth among them. They still preach. They still own personal bibles. But they are living in sin. And because they attend church meetings, pray, own personal bibles and preach we are not paying attention to the fact that they are living in sin and in need of help. Yet they are always out there trying to help others live right, when they themselves are not living right. This, of course, is wrong.

Look at some of the things Paul has to say about this in Romans, chapter 2, from verse 17:

“Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth – you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”” (Romans 2:17-24NIV)

What is Paul driving at here? Well, he is simply showing us the possibility of a living a life that is contrary to the message we live. It is possible for our lives to be completely contrary to what we teach. It is possible for us to be telling others not to steal, when we ourselves are stealing. It is possible for us to be telling people not to be involved in adultery, when we ourselves are involved in adultery. It is possible for us to be telling lies, while preaching to others not to tell lies. And where this is the case, we are just being hypocritical and cannot help anybody.

Our Lord Jesus mentions something very similar while sharing with the Jews on an occasion. He said this, from Matthew’s gospel, chapter 23, verse 1:

“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”” (Matthew 23:1NIV)

First, here, the Lord says that the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. In other words, they are representing Moses. So, they are authorized to teach the people. This being the case, Jesus tells the people to be careful to do everything they tell them to do.

However, the Lord goes on to say that the people must not do what these men are doing. Why? The reason is that they do not practise what they preach. That means their lives are contrary to their teachings. So, while people can follow their teachings, they cannot emulate their way of life. And this is the situation in many Christian assemblies. We have people who are trying to guide others but who themselves need guidance. We have people who are trying to help others but who themselves need help. We have people whose lives are not right but who are trying to help others get their lives right. Can they, in all honesty, help anybody? No!

Yes, people may say the correct things. But if their lives do not agree with what they say, and this is open to people, will they take them seriously? This is one of the reasons our witness in the world has been weak. What we are preaching is contrary to what people see in our lives. We claim to be preaching righteousness but are not walking in righteousness. We claim to be preaching truth but are not living in the truth. We claim to be preaching peace but many of us are difficult to relate to – we are quite uncooperative. It is only when we hold our bibles that we appear cooperative. But when people interact with us outside that scope, they find us to be very uncooperative and difficult to deal with. So, they are not drawn to the truth or the light we claim to be shining.

Well, the point I am making is that if we will be able to help one another, it is important that we ourselves have not fallen away the grace. Yes, if we want to help our brethren to stay in the truth and daily live lives pleasing to God, then, we must show through our own lives that we are in the truth and established in righteousness.

Paul says this to the Corinthians:

“For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.” (1Corinthians 4:7NIV)

Here Paul is saying that his way of life agrees with what he teaches everywhere in every church. So, it is not that he teaches one thing and then does something else. No! His life is in agreement with what he teaches. And it has to be like that for every one of us too, if we will be able to help one another. Our lives must be in agreement with the message we preach. There, then, must be nothing like my message is different from my life. My message must not be different from my way of life. My life is actually my message. Otherwise, no one will take what I say seriously.

So, if you are teaching people to be full of joy but your own life is not full of joy, why should they take you seriously? If you are teaching people to be gentle, humble and peaceable but your life is not a revelation of these things, who is going to take you seriously? This is why Paul goes on to say this to Timothy:

“Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1Timothy 4:16NIV)

How do we help others? We start by first watching our own lives and doctrine. Our lives and our doctrine must be in agreement. So, we have to watch them closely. That way, we can tell whether they are in agreement with the will of God or not. And once we see that they are in agreement with His will, we persevere in them. That means we are to keep on living that life that is in agreement with God’s will. Then and only then are going to be able to save both ourselves and our hearers.

What I have been saying all along is that if we will be able to help one another stay right in the will of God, then, our lives must be obviously right – they must be obviously in agreement with the will of God. Otherwise, no one will take us seriously. You can see why we have many in our various Christian assemblies who are rebellious and do not take instructions seriously. These ones live as they please. And one main reason is that most of their leaders, most of those who are in a position to set them right are not living right. They are hypocritical themselves. My prayer is that God will rid our lives and our various churches of everything that has to do with hypocrisy. Amen.

Copyright © 2025 Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 08146472876)

Categories
Single Message Series

Competence to help_J.0_Lawal

Recommended Citation

Lawal, J. O. (2025, March 23). Competence to help. See to It.

DOWNLOAD HERE

I want to further share with you on the instructions we have in Scriptures that say that we should see to it that none of us falls away from the grace of God or develop a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. This, of course, calls for a careful watching on our part over one another. And we have instructions along this line given to us in the book of Hebrews, chapters 3 and 12.

Now, in dealing with this, I said we must know what is going on in the lives of our brethren. In other words, we must be actively and deliberately involved in one another’s lives. We will not be able to protect ourselves from the evil one, if we are not involved in one another’s lives and also know what is happening in one another’s lives. But then, in order to be effective in doing this, our leaders must take the lead. They must be the first in opening their lives for us to see. Until they are open in their lives, they will have no moral right to ask us to be open with our lives for them to see. But when they are open with their lives and we can see what they are up to, we can be encouraged to do likewise.

So, if you are a leader of God’s people in any capacity, your life must be opened to those who are under your care. You must deliberately do this. Your brethren must know enough about you. They must know enough about what is going on in your life. They must see that you are not a hypocrite and that the life of faith you are calling them to live is what you yourself are living, not something else. That way, you will be able to help them, if they are missing it.

Another thing that is important is that we know how to live right, especially those of us who are leaders. Let me say this again: church leaders have to take the lead in doing these things, if they will work at all. I mean that if we will be able to adequately and appropriately watch over one another, the leaders must take the lead in doing what is right. So, those of us who are leaders must show ourselves as possessing sufficient knowledge about how to live right. At least, what we want is for our brethren to consistently live right before God and not turn away from His grace. And we too have to consistently live right before God and before them, if we will be able to help them in doing this.

For example, Paul says this to the Thessalonian brethren:

“You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed.” (1Thessalonians 2:10NIV)

What does this mean? It means that the lives of Paul and his companions were open to the brethren in Thessalonica for them to see. And what they did they see in them? They saw that they were holy, righteous and blameless in the way they lived. It is important, then, for leaders not just to be open with their lives but to also show with those lives that they know what they are doing. It is one thing to be open with your life; it is another thing for people to see the right things in your life. You may be open with your life. That does not mean that what is going on in your life is helpful to the people of God.

It is bad enough not to be open with your life in relating to the people of God, if you are a child of God or a leader of His people. But when you open your life for them to see, what do they see? Is it hypocrisy? Is it bitterness? Is it envy or jealousy? Or is it righteousness, peace and joy of the Spirit of God?

The Thessalonians were witnesses of the holiness, righteousness and blamelessness in the lives of Paul and his companions. That means it was not only God that was a witness to the quality of life these men lived; the Thessalonians were also witnesses to it. So, I am saying that if we will be able to watch over another in line with the will of God, each of us that sees it as his duty to do so must not just be open with his life but must also show himself as possessing sufficient knowledge about how to live right and not fall away from the grace of God. Otherwise, we may soon become a part of the problem we are trying to prevent or solve.

In this same 1Thessalonians, chapter 4, Paul says this to the brethren in verse 1:

“As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.” (NIV)

Did you see that? Paul says we instructed you how to live to please God. So, these brethren were taught how to live to please God. They knew how to live to please Him. And they were living to please Him, at least, at the time this letter was written to them. So, Paul only needed to tell them to continue or persist in living to please God. And they could be told to persist in living to please God because they already knew how to live to please Him.

It follows, then, that if we do not know how to live to please God, even if our lives are open to the brethren, they will be able to draw no strength or encouragement for true Christian living from what they see. So, if we will be able to watch over one another and keep ourselves from falling away from the grace of God, it is important that we show ourselves as possessing sufficient knowledge on how to live right. Not only that, we also have to be living right. We must not be a part of the problem we are trying to prevent or solve.

If we ourselves have already fallen away from the grace of God, how can we prevent others from falling away? It cannot work. Jesus says a blind guide that is seeking to lead a blind man can only lead both of them to fall. So, if you are not living right, you cannot help others to live right.

Also, in Romans, chapter 15, verse 14, Paul says this to us:

“I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.” (Romans15:14NIV)

There are three qualities that Paul mentions here. And these qualities are ones that we must possess, if we will be able to help one another live right and remain true to the grace of God, from start to finish. The first is being full of goodness. Paul could say of the Roman brethren that they were full of goodness. In other words, their hearts were right. The goodness of God had settled in their hearts. So, they would not deliberately do evil. They may make mistakes. And that someone is full of God’s goodness does not mean that the person cannot make mistakes. He can. But he will not deliberately do anything that is wrong. Whatever he does will always be with the right intentions. So, even if he misses it, he will be missing it with the right intentions.

Well, my point is that we have to be full of goodness, if we will be able to help one another. And this has to be obvious, for Paul says, “I am convinced that you are full of goodness…” So, people have to be convinced that we are full of God’s goodness, if we will be able to help one another live right and not develop a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. That means we must be known as good people by our brethren; we must be known as people whose hearts are right.

What we are saying is that our brethren must have no doubts about the fact that our hearts are right, as we relate to them. They must have no doubts about our intentions. And this is one of the problems we often face in the church – lack of conviction about the intentions of the brethren. When people are not convinced that our intentions are right, as we come close to them, they may not make room for us to affect or help them.

Mind you, this is not something that will happen automatically. The fact that we are in the same assembly does not mean that we will be able to automatically help one another. We have to give it time. We have to consistently show over a period of time that we are full of goodness and that our hearts are right. Yes, every child of God can manifest the goodness of God, for His goodness is in every one of us. But it is not every one of us that is currently manifesting the goodness of God. So, if people will allow you in their lives, they must see that you are a good person. This must be obvious to them from the way you talk, live and interact with others. And when they are convinced of this, they will have no problem allowing you to be a part of their lives.

The second quality Paul mentions is being filled with knowledge. That means being full of goodness is not enough to help God’s people live right; we also have to know what we are doing. That means we need to be educated in the will of God. Remember that we read from 1Thessalonians 4 of how Paul instructed the Thessalonians how to live to please God. So, people must know that we know what we are doing, that we are knowledgeable enough in the things of God to help their lives and faith. Otherwise, they may not want to have anything to do with you.

What I am saying is that if you are ignorant of the things of God, other people of God may not see why they should permit you to interfere with their affairs. So, you must show yourself as possessing sufficient knowledge of how to live to please God. But this will not happen by accident. You will have to give yourself to prayer. You will have to give yourself to the word of God. You will also have to give yourself to fellowshipping with the people of God, so that your faith is built up. This, of course, is not just about having bible knowledge; this is about possessing the knowledge of the truth, the knowledge about living to please God.

The third quality Paul mentions has to do with competence in helping one another. And this kind of competence only comes from the Spirit of God. It has to do with wisdom to help others. And as I said, it only comes from the Spirit of God. He is the only one that makes us competent to live to please God and competent as ministers of the new covenant.

Now all of these three qualities were possessed by the Roman brethren. So, Paul was convinced that they could real help one another in their walk of faith. If we possess goodness but lack knowledge of how to please God, we may end up becoming a part of the problem we are trying to solve. In fact, we may not be able to help anybody at all.

Also, if we possess goodness and knowledge but possess no ability or wisdom to use our goodness and knowledge to help others, we are still going to be failures. People will be falling away from the grace of God right under our noses. Yet we will not be able to help them. Yes, we may love to help them. But we won’t be able to help them. Whatever step we take will be counter-productive.

See, there are people who are good in their hearts and who also possess the knowledge of true Christian living. Yet they are not able to help anybody live right. Why? They lack the wisdom and the skills to do so. They really want to help. But they just can’t. You may have encountered people like that before. They truly meant well and wanted to help you live right. But everything they did was counter-productive. Their words were counter-productive. Their moves were counter-productive. That was because they were not wise. So, they could not help you live right.

So, we are dealing with possessing the wisdom of the Spirit to be able to help one another here. We are talking about a situation in which we know what to say and what not to say, when to talk and when not to talk and when to visit people and when not to visit them. We must know these things. And as I said, we will not become competent like this by accident. We have to give ourselves to prayer, the word of God and Christian fellowship. That way, we will be growing in the truth of Christ Jesus.

If we are not growing, we can be of no help to nobody. And it is the degree that you grow in your faith that you will be able to help others in their faith. So, don’t feel bad that you are unable to help certain brethren in their faith at the moment. It only shows that you have not grown enough in your faith to be able to help them. What, then, should you do? You should commit yourself to doing those things that will make you grow in the faith even more. These things have to do with spiritual maturity. A man cannot go beyond his strength. So, the more you grow in your faith, the more fit you are to help other people.

We will stop here for now. Let us pray.

Copyright © 2025 Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 08146472876)

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Open up leaders_J.O._Lawal

Recommended Citation:

Lawal, J. O. (2025, March 9). Open up leaders. See to it.

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I want to further share with you on the need for us to take seriously what Scriptures tell us about watching over one another as believers in Christ Jesus. And in the last lesson, I showed you from the Scriptures what we are told to do to so-called believers that are living in sin. We are told not to associate with them. But then, I asked, “Should we wait for any of our brethren to become immoral or ungodly and then have to dissociate with them? Should we allow that to happen at all?”

As we also see in Scriptures, there are instructions to us not to allow any of our brethren to fall away. And I want us to look at some of those instructions again. First, in Hebrews 3, we are told this:

“See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:12-13NIV)

We have a similar instruction in Hebrews 12. From verse 15, we are told this:

“See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears he could not change what he had done.” (Hebrews 12:15-17NIV)

These instructions are all pointing to the same thing, which is that we are to keep watch over one another, so that none of us develops a sinful heart that turns away from the living God. That means we are to pay attention to ourselves, so that none of us becomes immoral or ungodly. Otherwise, we will also have to obey the word of God that tells us not to associate with them. The word of God tells us not to associate with them for two major reasons. The first is that they may see how terrible their condition is and see the need for them to repent. The second is that they may not pollute us. And we must bear these two reasons in mind. If anyone that we know to be a believer becomes immoral or ungodly in any way, we have to dissociate ourselves from him for these reasons, if he is not willing to repent.

But I am saying that we should not allow any of our brethren to become immoral or ungodly. And this is not just something good for us to do; we are also given instructions to do so in the bible. We are told to see to it that none of us develops a sinful heart that turns away from the living God or falls short of the grace of God.

However, we also need to know how to go about this. If we do not know how to go about this, we will just realize that, day after day, we will keep having brethren that are turning away from the living God and won’t be able to stop them. So, first, we need to know what is happening in the lives of our brethren. And for us to be able to do that, we must be deliberately involved in their lives.

Now I know that someone may ask, “What if our brethren don’t want us to be involved in their lives at all?” I will come to that later. But we must deliberately be involved in their lives. That way, we can know what is going on in their lives – what businesses they are involved in, what sort of friends they have, what places they go, what people they listen to or follow, what teachings they are exposed to and so forth.

All this, of course, does not mean that we have to unduly police our brethren or interfere with their lives. I will get to that as well. But it is just important that we are fully involved in their lives that we may know how they are faring. Look at some of the things Paul says along these lines to the Thessalonians:

“But brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. For we wanted to come to you – certainly I, Paul, did, again and again – but Satan blocked our way. For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.” (1Thessalonians 2:17-20NIV)

Here Paul is expressing their desire as apostles to visit these brethren in Thessalonica. They had ministered to them and among them for a while and had also had to leave them hurriedly because of persecutions. But after a while, they began to long for them. They wanted to see them and know how they were faring. And personally, as he points out in the text, he made effort to go and see them. But twice, as he equally points out, Satan prevented him from doing so.

How did Satan prevent Paul from visiting these Thessalonian brethren? He would not say. He does not disclose that in the letter. But he makes it clear in the text that it was Satan that prevented him from visiting them on the two occasions that he had attempted to do so.

Now if visiting them was not important or significant to their faith, why would Satan prevent him from doing so? I mean that if Satan did not know the relevance or significance of Paul’s visit to these brethren, why would he prevent him from visiting them twice? So, even Satan knows how important it is for us to keep in touch with one another as believers. And he will do whatever he can to isolate us and keep us from continually fellowshipping with one another, so that he may have his way with some of us or all of us and ruin our faith. We, unfortunately, are the only ones that seem not to appreciate the significance of this.

Well, Paul, in chapter 3 of this same letter to the Thessalonians, goes on to say:

“So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labours might have been in vain.” (1Thessalonians 3:1-5NIV)

Look at that. Paul was concerned about visiting these brethren because he wanted to know how they were faring in the faith. And he was concerned in this manner because he was aware of the devices of the devil. He knew that Satan would use any opportunity he had to tempt these brethren and to turn them away from the truth of Christ Jesus. So, he wanted to be sure of their faith conditions by visiting them.

Now that is how it has to be for us too. We must be concerned about the faith conditions of our brethren all the time. And to show that we are concerned, we have to be participating fully in their lives all the time. Yes, we have to know what is going on in their lives.

However, charity begins at home. What I mean is that we have to set an example in this manner. In other words, we, especially those of us who are leaders, have to make our lives open to the brethren. That way, we can continually get to know what is going on in their lives. So, we have to set examples for them. We have to let them know what is going on in our own lives. That way, they can see that we have nothing to hide and that our lives are a clear example of what we are telling them to do or how we are asking them to live.

In Ephesians chapter 6, from verse 21, Paul says this:

“Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.” (Ephesians 6:21-22NIV)

Paul is setting an example for the believers here of how important it is for them to know what is going on in one another’s life. Otherwise, they may not be able to fully fulfill the word of God that tells us to watch over one another. Well, he says I am sending Tychicus to you to tell you how I am and what I am doing. That means he wants the brethren to know how he is faring and what is going on in his life and in the lives of his ministry companions. And if he is opening up to them like this, then, they too will not see it as something strange to share their lives with him.

Also, in Colossians, chapter 4, from verse 7, Paul says:

“Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here.” (Colossians 4:7-9NIV)

Paul, again, is being open to the brethren about what is going on in his life. So, no one will have to start investigating his life or carrying around any rumour about him. That is because he has already made plain and open his life and what is going on in it. Therefore, no one will say that they do not know what is going on in his life or what he is up to.

You can see, then, that it is important that people know what is going on in the lives of their leaders. Otherwise, they may begin to misbehave. Remember that when the children of Israel did not know what was going on with Moses, they began to misbehave (Exodus 32). In like manner, when people cannot tell what is going in the lives of their leaders, when they cannot see anything about how they are living their lives, they may begin to misbehave.

Yes, leaders may be giving their brethren all kinds of faith instructions. They can be instructing them on the relevance of praying and studying Scriptures. But can they see them praying? Can they see them studying the word of God in any serious way? Can they see them living righteous lives where they live or work? If they cannot see these things, then, they may not take very seriously the instructions that these leaders are giving to them about living right. So, I am saying that, as leaders, if we will be able to fully get involved in the lives of our brethren and fulfill the word of God that tells us to see to it that none of us falls away from God’s grace, we must first be open with our own lives.

Before I move on, let me give you another Scripture that shows us the significance of watching over one another. It is from Acts of the Apostles, chapter 20. From verse 28, it says:

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:28-31NIV)

We see here, again, how important it is for us to keep watch over one another. It is important because, as I said before, Satan will be looking for whatever opportunity he has to deceive us and turn our hearts away from the living God. He will be looking for any opportunity he has to introduce impurities, greed, bitterness and other forms of ungodly things into our lives. And once he succeeds in sowing any of these wicked seeds into our lives, it will not be long before the seed grows and begins to bring forth fruit. Then we will become upset and begin to raise alarms.

But what were we doing when Satan was planting those seeds? We were not paying attention. And we would not know anything until the seeds have become big trees that are producing fruit of immorality, greed, jealousy and so forth. If we, however, will begin to pay sufficient attention to what is going on in our lives, then, we might be able to tell when Satan is sowing some evil seeds into our brethren’s lives and then move in to prevent him or uproot his seeds from their lives.

Well, the point I am making is that it is important that we watch over our brethren, if we do not want any of us to fall short of the grace of God or becoming unbelieving and turn away from the living God. Then I am saying for us to be able to watch over them well, we must be involved in one another’s lives. And the leaders must take the lead in doing this. The leaders must first make their own lives open to their brethren. Then they can expect them to follow suit.

Now look at what Paul says about this in 2Corinthians, chapter 6, from verse 11:

“We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange – I speak as to my children – open wide your hearts also.” (2Corinthians 6:11-13NIV)

Paul, here, is challenging the Corinthians to be open to them about their lives and affairs. And on what basis is he doing this? He is doing it on the basis of the fact that he and his ministry companions have already done this to the Corinthians. They have already opened wide their hearts to them, expressing their love and concerns for them. Why, then, are they not doing the same? That is his question to them. Why are they withholding their affection from these servants of God? Why don’t they want them to know what is going on in their lives? Well, he tells them that as a fair exchange, they too should open wide their hearts.

In like manner, there are brethren who may not want us to know what is going on in their lives until we begin to deliberately show them what is going on in our own lives. When we let these ones know what is going on in our lives, then, they will not think of it as strange, if we are asking them to let us know what is going on in their lives. So, leaders must take this very seriously.

If a leader wants to travel, for instance, he should let his brethren know. But there are leaders who will not want their brethren to know their movement. Even if it is fear that will not allow them to do that, it is still inexcusable. I do not, of course, mean that you have to inform the brethren of every step you take. But they need to be able to tell where you go and where you don’t go and what you do and what you don’t do with your life. They don’t have to rely on outsiders to be telling them about you or about your life. It really should not be in the dailies or on the social media that they will be finding out what you have been up to.

So, let them know what is going on in your life, if you are not having some secret affairs. And be deliberate about this. Be deliberate about letting them how you are faring in life and in business. Let them see what sort of challenges you are facing and how you are handling them by the power of the Spirit of God. You will be using this to teach them to open up.

Now remember that until we know what is going on in their lives, we may not be able to help them stay in the faith. Also, remember that if any of our brethren should fall away from the grace of God, we will have no choice but to dissociate ourselves from them. But what is the guarantee that they will be restored to the Lord, if we have to stay away from them in that manner? Yes, we have to stay away from them so that we do not become corrupted by them and so that they may see the need to repent. But what is the guarantee that they will repent on their own?

So, it is better we do not let any of our brethren fall away at all. Yes, regardless of how much attention we give to some brethren, if they are determined to mess up, they will surely mess up, just as Judas Iscariot did. But we have to be sure that we do our own part in ensuring that none of our brethren falls away. And I am saying that in order to do that, we must be fully involved in one another’s lives.

Let us pray.

Copyright © 2025 Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 08146472876)