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By: Johnson O. Lawal

Series: Receiving through servants of God

I will share with us very briefly because we are going to be reviewing our ‘House of prayer’ bulletin this morning. Two weeks ago, if you can still recollect, I began to share with you on ‘Receiving through servants of God’. And the first thing I pointed out was that we could only receive what God had given. When we are talking about receiving from God, we can only receive what He has given – we cannot receive what He has not given. It does not matter how hard we try to exercise our faith, it can only receive what God has given or provided. So, it is important that we make effort to be educated in the provisions of God for us, so that we can know what we can receive from Him and what we cannot receive from Him.

Then I went on to say that besides receiving from God through His servants, there are other ways through which we can receive from Him. I mentioned one of them to us in that meeting, which is that we can receive what God has given by saying the same thing in agreement with Him. That means if God has given something, we can lay claim to it by the words of our mouths

There is another way we can receive from God, which I also want to mention before we go on to looking at receiving through His servants, which is by praying to Him. What I am saying is that we can receive whatever God has provided by praying to Him. For example, Jesus says this to us:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 6:7-8NIV)

Here our Lord Jesus is speaking to us directly about how to receive what God has provided. And the first thing He mentions has to do with asking. That is a way to receiving what God has provided. That means if God has provided something, you can ask Him for it, and it will be given to you. What will be given to you? What God has provided, which you have asked for!

You can see why the Lord goes on to say that everyone who asks receives. So, if you are not receiving, it may be that you are not asking. James says something that complements this in his epistle, the fourth chapter. Look at it:

“You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.” (James 4:2NIV)

James says you do not have because you do not ask God. This is drawing our attention to something very significant, which is that there are things God has provided that will never be ours unless we pray for them. What are those things? We would not know, for there are no specific instructions given to us in the Scriptures about them. What I am saying is that we would not know what those things are that we will never have unless we pray about them. That is why Jesus tells us to pray at all times. This is also why we are told in Scriptures to pray in every situation and to pray about all things. (Cf. Luke 18:1; Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Well, since you cannot tell what those things are that will not be yours unless you pray about them, what do you do? You pray about all things! The word of God already makes it clear to us that if we will not ask, there are certain things that will never be ours. Yes, God has provided these things for us. Nevertheless, He wants us to pray to Him about them.

As James points out here, the reason we do not have is that we do not ask God. So, if there are things you believe ought to be yours and which are not yours yet, you should be talking to God about them. If you are not talking to Him about them, you may not have them. Remember that Jesus says, “Those who are asking are receiving.” So, if you have not received, what should you do? Keep on asking, for those who are asking are receiving! You may say that you have not received yours. But there are those who are asking and who are receiving. Your job, then, is to ask, while His job is to supply.

Of course, there are other instructions given to us in Scriptures about how to ask. And don’t forget I said you can only receive what God has provided. So, in asking God for anything, you have to ask Him for what He has provided. John says that if we ask God for anything according to His will, He hears us (1 John 5:14). So, your asking has to be consistent with the will of God. In other words, first, what you are asking for must be what God has provided. Second, your asking must be done with the right intentions. In fact, that is the next thing James says in the passage we are reading from. Look at it from verse 4:

“When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:3NIV)

On the one hand, he says you do not have because you do not ask. On the other hand, he says when you ask you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives. So, praying to God has to be with the right motives. Otherwise, what He has provided may not be ours.

But we are establishing a point here, which is that one of the ways to receive what God has provided is to pray for it. One, then, may ask, “Since God has already provided what we need for us, why does He still make us pray or ask for them?” That is a good question. And we need to know why that is so.

Now one main reason that is so is that we may not forget God. If God keeps allowing us to access the things He has provided without our asking for them, there is every tendency that we may totally forget about Him. Consider human relationships, for example, say the relationships among parents and their children. Do you know that if a parent continues to provide all that their kids need for them, without their asking, those kids may totally forget that parent?

If your children have food to eat in a day, if they have all the toys they need to play with and if they have their friends around, do you know that they may totally forget about you that day? It is only when they are hungry that they will show up. And if they know that food is available somewhere for them to take, they will just go there and take it without asking for your permission. So, that day may go without those children relating to you in any way.

That, of course, explains how some children became totally disengaged from their parents. Growing up, they had access to everything they needed. And at some point, they just totally forgot about their parents. Then a guy would go into his room, close the door behind him and may not show up outside again until he needs foods or something else from his parents.

I visited an aunt of mine some years ago and began to ask about her son. Then she said, “Am I sure we are living together in this house, for I have not seen him for some days?” But he was in the house. It was just that he only came out of his room when he needed food from the kitchen. And once he got whatever he needed, he would go back to his room and shut the door. He would not even come out in the morning to greet anybody.

Now if we can relate to human beings that we can see like that, how much more God that we cannot see? We would do worse things to God. So, to maintain our fellowship with Him, God, in His wisdom, has to organise things in such a way that there are certain things that will not be ours unless we pray to Him about them. There are a lot of things that He gives to us without our asking. But there are things that will never be ours to enjoy unless we pray to Him about them.

Well, the point I am making is that the fact that God has already provided something does not mean that you will automatically enjoy it. And if you know that you have not yet received something that God has already provided for you, what should you do? Pray to Him about it!

I will give you an example from 1 Kings 18. As a background, in 1 Kings 17, Elijah had said to King Ahab that there would neither be dew nor rain in the land of Israel until he said so. Now if that is the only account you read, you may get the notion that Elijah just stood before that king to say, “There will be neither dew nor rain until I say so,” and it was so. But that is not the case. James, in chapter 5, of his letter tells us that Elijah actually prayed to God that there would be no rain in the land. And it was so for three and a half years. (Cf. James 5:17)

So, Elijah had prayed to God before he said what he said to Ahab. He had prayed that God would shut the windows of heaven against the land of Israel before making the announcement to the king. And could someone actually ask God to do that? Yes, any Israelite could ask God to do that, on the basis of what God Himself had said to them in the Laws of Moses. One of the things God said to the people in the law was that if they would not obey Him, He may shut the windows of heaven and not allow rain to fall on their land. That would be judgment. (Cf. Deuteronomy 11:16-17)

Now since, at the time, the people of Israel were not living in the will of God, Elijah could ask Him to fulfil that word by shutting the windows of heaven against them. And that was what he did. He asked God to fulfil His word by withholding rain from the land because the people were not following His commands. The point is that Elijah called for God’s judgment on the land, in agreement with the word of the Lord Himself.

Well, in chapter 18 of the book, from verse 1, we are told this:

“After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab…” (1 Kings 18:1-2NIV)

Who spoke to Elijah on this occasion? God! What did He say to him? He told him to go and present himself to Ahab. And what would follow? Rain! So, Elijah was not just making decisions by himself concerning the land. Some prophets today think they can just say anything they like about their nation or country, simply because they have read in Scriptures that Elijah did all kinds of things to his country. No wonder their words often amount to nothing.

See, there are things you don’t just say because you feel like saying them or because someone said them in the past. That someone said them in the past and they worked does not mean that if you too say them, they will work. The person said those things on the basis of divine revelations. So, they worked. If you too want to say them, you have to do so on the basis of divine revelations. Otherwise, they will not work.

Elijah was acting on the basis of divine revelations. God had told him to present himself to Ahab and that He would send rain upon the land. And on that basis, you may think that the sending of rain by God would be automatic. But God did not send rain immediately Elijah presented himself to Ahab. The man, of course, presented himself to Ahab. In fact, he carried on some works in the land that day, judging the prophets of Baal in the land. And having done that, one would think that God would send rain right away. But He did not. Why?

Now these things were written down for us to teach us that even when God has said that He would do something, you may still need to ask Him to do it before it is done. Look at what is said about Elijah’s situation from verse 41 of the chapter:

“And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.” (1 Kings 18:41-42NIV)

Why did Elijah tell Ahab to go and eat? It was because God had told him that He was going to send rain on the land. That also was why he told him that he heard the sound of a heavy rain. And what sound did he hear? Was there some noise or rumbling in sky? No! It was with the ears of his spirit that he heard the sound of rain. There was nothing to suggest that rain was coming that. There was no cloud gathering at the time. But since God had said that He was going to send rain, Elijah believed.

So, while others were waiting for rain, Elijah went up Mount Carmel to pray. It is James that actually makes this clear to us in his epistle. He tells us that Elijah prayed earnestly that rain would fall, and it fell. Look at the account 1 Kings, from verse 43:

“Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. “There is nothing there,” he said. Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’” Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord came on Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.” (1 Kings 18:43-46NIV)

Did you see that? Even though God had said that rain would fall, Elijah still had to pray earnestly for rain to come. When he prayed the first time and sent his servant to check for any sign of rain in the sky, the man could not see any. And seven times he did that before the man said that he could see a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea. That, of course, was enough sign for Elijah that rain was about to fall. So, he told his servant to tell Ahab to be on his way before the rain stopped him. And did it rain or not? It did.

But what brought about the falling of rain that day? It was the prayer of the man of God. And what is this teaching us? It is that even though God has already promised to do something for us, it may not happen automatically. And if it is not happening automatically, what should you do? Pray! If, having prayed, you still cannot see the manifestation of what you have prayed for, what do you do? You pray again. You keep on praying until you see the manifestation of what you are praying about.

Now it is not in every situation that this is applicable. But there are situations in which this is applicable. Yours, then, is to pay attention to what is happening in your life, so that you will know when you need to keep on praying until you witness a manifestation of what God has said or promised. Remember that Jesus says that we are to pray until our joy is full (John 16:24). So, if your joy is not yet full over a matter, you are to keep on praying about it.

Well, you can see that one of the ways to receive what God has provided is to pray about it. Yes, you know that God has already provided it. But as long as you are not yet enjoying it, keep on praying about it, instead of complaining. Elijah could have been complaining and saying, “God, you told me that you would send rain. Why, then, have you sent it?” He would not do that. Instead, he went to pray.

So, don’t be found complaining. It will not solve the problem. Don’t be found grumbling. It will not solve the problem. What you should do is pray. Tell God, “You said that this thing is mine. But I am not yet seeing it. Clear the way for it to be mine.” You are to keep on talking to God like that until what He has said happens. Will you, then, be able to work with this knowledge this week?

Let us pray.

Copyright © 2026 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)

Download

By: Johnson O. Lawal

Series: Receiving through servants of God

I will share with us very briefly because we are going to be reviewing our ‘House of prayer’ bulletin this morning. Two weeks ago, if you can still recollect, I began to share with you on ‘Receiving through servants of God’. And the first thing I pointed out was that we could only receive what God had given. When we are talking about receiving from God, we can only receive what He has given – we cannot receive what He has not given. It does not matter how hard we try to exercise our faith, it can only receive what God has given or provided. So, it is important that we make effort to be educated in the provisions of God for us, so that we can know what we can receive from Him and what we cannot receive from Him.

Then I went on to say that besides receiving from God through His servants, there are other ways through which we can receive from Him. I mentioned one of them to us in that meeting, which is that we can receive what God has given by saying the same thing in agreement with Him. That means if God has given something, we can lay claim to it by the words of our mouths

There is another way we can receive from God, which I also want to mention before we go on to looking at receiving through His servants, which is by praying to Him. What I am saying is that we can receive whatever God has provided by praying to Him. For example, Jesus says this to us:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 6:7-8NIV)

Here our Lord Jesus is speaking to us directly about how to receive what God has provided. And the first thing He mentions has to do with asking. That is a way to receiving what God has provided. That means if God has provided something, you can ask Him for it, and it will be given to you. What will be given to you? What God has provided, which you have asked for!

You can see why the Lord goes on to say that everyone who asks receives. So, if you are not receiving, it may be that you are not asking. James says something that complements this in his epistle, the fourth chapter. Look at it:

“You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.” (James 4:2NIV)

James says you do not have because you do not ask God. This is drawing our attention to something very significant, which is that there are things God has provided that will never be ours unless we pray for them. What are those things? We would not know, for there are no specific instructions given to us in the Scriptures about them. What I am saying is that we would not know what those things are that we will never have unless we pray about them. That is why Jesus tells us to pray at all times. This is also why we are told in Scriptures to pray in every situation and to pray about all things. (Cf. Luke 18:1; Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Well, since you cannot tell what those things are that will not be yours unless you pray about them, what do you do? You pray about all things! The word of God already makes it clear to us that if we will not ask, there are certain things that will never be ours. Yes, God has provided these things for us. Nevertheless, He wants us to pray to Him about them.

As James points out here, the reason we do not have is that we do not ask God. So, if there are things you believe ought to be yours and which are not yours yet, you should be talking to God about them. If you are not talking to Him about them, you may not have them. Remember that Jesus says, “Those who are asking are receiving.” So, if you have not received, what should you do? Keep on asking, for those who are asking are receiving! You may say that you have not received yours. But there are those who are asking and who are receiving. Your job, then, is to ask, while His job is to supply.

Of course, there are other instructions given to us in Scriptures about how to ask. And don’t forget I said you can only receive what God has provided. So, in asking God for anything, you have to ask Him for what He has provided. John says that if we ask God for anything according to His will, He hears us (1 John 5:14). So, your asking has to be consistent with the will of God. In other words, first, what you are asking for must be what God has provided. Second, your asking must be done with the right intentions. In fact, that is the next thing James says in the passage we are reading from. Look at it from verse 4:

“When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:3NIV)

On the one hand, he says you do not have because you do not ask. On the other hand, he says when you ask you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives. So, praying to God has to be with the right motives. Otherwise, what He has provided may not be ours.

But we are establishing a point here, which is that one of the ways to receive what God has provided is to pray for it. One, then, may ask, “Since God has already provided what we need for us, why does He still make us pray or ask for them?” That is a good question. And we need to know why that is so.

Now one main reason that is so is that we may not forget God. If God keeps allowing us to access the things He has provided without our asking for them, there is every tendency that we may totally forget about Him. Consider human relationships, for example, say the relationships among parents and their children. Do you know that if a parent continues to provide all that their kids need for them, without their asking, those kids may totally forget that parent?

If your children have food to eat in a day, if they have all the toys they need to play with and if they have their friends around, do you know that they may totally forget about you that day? It is only when they are hungry that they will show up. And if they know that food is available somewhere for them to take, they will just go there and take it without asking for your permission. So, that day may go without those children relating to you in any way.

That, of course, explains how some children became totally disengaged from their parents. Growing up, they had access to everything they needed. And at some point, they just totally forgot about their parents. Then a guy would go into his room, close the door behind him and may not show up outside again until he needs foods or something else from his parents.

I visited an aunt of mine some years ago and began to ask about her son. Then she said, “Am I sure we are living together in this house, for I have not seen him for some days?” But he was in the house. It was just that he only came out of his room when he needed food from the kitchen. And once he got whatever he needed, he would go back to his room and shut the door. He would not even come out in the morning to greet anybody.

Now if we can relate to human beings that we can see like that, how much more God that we cannot see? We would do worse things to God. So, to maintain our fellowship with Him, God, in His wisdom, has to organise things in such a way that there are certain things that will not be ours unless we pray to Him about them. There are a lot of things that He gives to us without our asking. But there are things that will never be ours to enjoy unless we pray to Him about them.

Well, the point I am making is that the fact that God has already provided something does not mean that you will automatically enjoy it. And if you know that you have not yet received something that God has already provided for you, what should you do? Pray to Him about it!

I will give you an example from 1 Kings 18. As a background, in 1 Kings 17, Elijah had said to King Ahab that there would neither be dew nor rain in the land of Israel until he said so. Now if that is the only account you read, you may get the notion that Elijah just stood before that king to say, “There will be neither dew nor rain until I say so,” and it was so. But that is not the case. James, in chapter 5, of his letter tells us that Elijah actually prayed to God that there would be no rain in the land. And it was so for three and a half years. (Cf. James 5:17)

So, Elijah had prayed to God before he said what he said to Ahab. He had prayed that God would shut the windows of heaven against the land of Israel before making the announcement to the king. And could someone actually ask God to do that? Yes, any Israelite could ask God to do that, on the basis of what God Himself had said to them in the Laws of Moses. One of the things God said to the people in the law was that if they would not obey Him, He may shut the windows of heaven and not allow rain to fall on their land. That would be judgment. (Cf. Deuteronomy 11:16-17)

Now since, at the time, the people of Israel were not living in the will of God, Elijah could ask Him to fulfil that word by shutting the windows of heaven against them. And that was what he did. He asked God to fulfil His word by withholding rain from the land because the people were not following His commands. The point is that Elijah called for God’s judgment on the land, in agreement with the word of the Lord Himself.

Well, in chapter 18 of the book, from verse 1, we are told this:

“After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab…” (1 Kings 18:1-2NIV)

Who spoke to Elijah on this occasion? God! What did He say to him? He told him to go and present himself to Ahab. And what would follow? Rain! So, Elijah was not just making decisions by himself concerning the land. Some prophets today think they can just say anything they like about their nation or country, simply because they have read in Scriptures that Elijah did all kinds of things to his country. No wonder their words often amount to nothing.

See, there are things you don’t just say because you feel like saying them or because someone said them in the past. That someone said them in the past and they worked does not mean that if you too say them, they will work. The person said those things on the basis of divine revelations. So, they worked. If you too want to say them, you have to do so on the basis of divine revelations. Otherwise, they will not work.

Elijah was acting on the basis of divine revelations. God had told him to present himself to Ahab and that He would send rain upon the land. And on that basis, you may think that the sending of rain by God would be automatic. But God did not send rain immediately Elijah presented himself to Ahab. The man, of course, presented himself to Ahab. In fact, he carried on some works in the land that day, judging the prophets of Baal in the land. And having done that, one would think that God would send rain right away. But He did not. Why?

Now these things were written down for us to teach us that even when God has said that He would do something, you may still need to ask Him to do it before it is done. Look at what is said about Elijah’s situation from verse 41 of the chapter:

“And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.” (1 Kings 18:41-42NIV)

Why did Elijah tell Ahab to go and eat? It was because God had told him that He was going to send rain on the land. That also was why he told him that he heard the sound of a heavy rain. And what sound did he hear? Was there some noise or rumbling in sky? No! It was with the ears of his spirit that he heard the sound of rain. There was nothing to suggest that rain was coming that. There was no cloud gathering at the time. But since God had said that He was going to send rain, Elijah believed.

So, while others were waiting for rain, Elijah went up Mount Carmel to pray. It is James that actually makes this clear to us in his epistle. He tells us that Elijah prayed earnestly that rain would fall, and it fell. Look at the account 1 Kings, from verse 43:

“Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. “There is nothing there,” he said. Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’” Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord came on Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.” (1 Kings 18:43-46NIV)

Did you see that? Even though God had said that rain would fall, Elijah still had to pray earnestly for rain to come. When he prayed the first time and sent his servant to check for any sign of rain in the sky, the man could not see any. And seven times he did that before the man said that he could see a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea. That, of course, was enough sign for Elijah that rain was about to fall. So, he told his servant to tell Ahab to be on his way before the rain stopped him. And did it rain or not? It did.

But what brought about the falling of rain that day? It was the prayer of the man of God. And what is this teaching us? It is that even though God has already promised to do something for us, it may not happen automatically. And if it is not happening automatically, what should you do? Pray! If, having prayed, you still cannot see the manifestation of what you have prayed for, what do you do? You pray again. You keep on praying until you see the manifestation of what you are praying about.

Now it is not in every situation that this is applicable. But there are situations in which this is applicable. Yours, then, is to pay attention to what is happening in your life, so that you will know when you need to keep on praying until you witness a manifestation of what God has said or promised. Remember that Jesus says that we are to pray until our joy is full (John 16:24). So, if your joy is not yet full over a matter, you are to keep on praying about it.

Well, you can see that one of the ways to receive what God has provided is to pray about it. Yes, you know that God has already provided it. But as long as you are not yet enjoying it, keep on praying about it, instead of complaining. Elijah could have been complaining and saying, “God, you told me that you would send rain. Why, then, have you sent it?” He would not do that. Instead, he went to pray.

So, don’t be found complaining. It will not solve the problem. Don’t be found grumbling. It will not solve the problem. What you should do is pray. Tell God, “You said that this thing is mine. But I am not yet seeing it. Clear the way for it to be mine.” You are to keep on talking to God like that until what He has said happens. Will you, then, be able to work with this knowledge this week?

Let us pray.

Copyright © 2026 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)

Download
By: Johnson O. Lawal

Series: Receiving through servants of God

This morning I want to begin to talk to you about ‘Receiving through servants of God’. The Spirit of God, I believe, wants me to share some things with us along this line to help us. That is because I have come to accept the fact that many of God’s people don’t know how to receive through the people God has sent to them.

That, of course, is not the only thing many of us don’t know about receiving from God. There are other aspects of receiving from God that many of us do not understand or do not know how to take advantage of. But the aspect I want to begin to focus on this morning is that which has to do with receiving through servants of God. A lack of understanding along this line is what is responsible for the continual movement of many of God’s people from one Christian assembly to another Christian assembly and from one prayer mountain to another prayer mountain. Many problems that could have been readily solved in many of our Christian assemblies are being taken to prayer mountains or to all kinds of prophets, most of whom are taking undue advantage of God’s people. And this cannot continue to be so.

Now the only way to stop that is to continue to feed God’s people along this area. When we feed God’s people again and again on a particular subject of the bible, it settles in them, at least to some extent, so that they can begin to act on it. If we just skim over it, certain things that they need to get may not be gotten. The word of God has to be taught intelligently, just as it has to be acted on intelligently. Otherwise, people may not profit from it as they are supposed to. That is why it is important some subjects are taught in the church thoroughly before others are introduced.

Some of us have been in assemblies in which a new topic is taught every Sunday or every new week. And there are times that may be okay. But if God’s people will grow, the teaching of the word of God cannot be handled in that manner. In our secular schools, there are subjects that we cannot teach once and expect the students to get them. We have to go over such again and again. Sometimes, at every higher level, the same subjects are introduced with additional details. Why is that so? The reason is that if such subjects are not taught that way, what needs to be learnt about them will not be learnt. We have to think of the word of God in the same manner, if we are going to truly profit from it.

Well, what we want to focus on is that aspect of receiving that has to do with receiving through servants of God, which many of God’s people are not taking advantage of. That is because they do not know how to do so. But to begin with, we must understand that we can only receive what God has given. Even if you are going to receive through a man of God or a woman of God, you can only receive what God has given. You cannot receive what He has not given. You cannot lay claim to what He has not provided. That is why it is first important that you are adequately educated in the provisions of God for you.

Now, before we progress, let us look at Saint John’s gospel, chapter 3, verse 27:

“To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven.”” (John 3:27)

That is a biblical principle that cannot be altered. So, you must hold on to it. That is because it is foundational, as far as receiving from God is concerned. I am saying this because we have many so-called faith preachers today that are giving us the impression that we can lay claim to anything through our faith. They will say, “Jesus says that all things are possible to the one that believes.”

Indeed, Jesus says all things are possible to the one who believes (Mark 9:23). But you need to know what He means by ‘All things’ or what ‘All things’ He is referring to. For example, we have the account of the building of the tower of Babel in the book of Genesis. While the people were at it, God looked at what they were doing and said, “Let us go and confuse their language. That is because if, as one people, speaking the same language, they have begun to do this, there is nothing they plan to do that will be impossible for them.” (Cf. Genesis 11:5-7)

Now by saying that, was God saying there is nothing humanity plans to do that will be impossible for them to do? No! When He said that, He was speaking of what is within the abilities of man to do. Man has abilities. But His abilities have limits. So, when God says there is nothing they imagine to do that they will not be able to do, He is simply talking about what is possible for man to do or what is within the scope of man’s abilities.

In like manner, when Jesus says, “All things are possible for the one who believes,” He is talking about ‘all things’ within the scope of what God has provided. Remember that the word ‘believe’ is an action word. So, if you are to believe, there must be something to believe. You cannot say ‘believe’, if there is nothing to believe. So, there must be something to believe for faith to be activated.

What, then, do you believe? It has to be something that has been said to you or spoken of. If it has not been spoken of, you cannot believe it or demonstrate faith in it. So, when Jesus says, “All things are possible for the one who believes,” the one that believes must have something to believe. And who provides that one that believes the things to believe? It is God. That is because we are dealing here with believing, as it concerns our relationship with God.

Therefore, you cannot on the basis of the statement ‘All things are possible for the one who believes’ just believe anything. What you believe has to be what God has said to you. Otherwise, your faith is baseless. Your faith has to be hinged on something. There must be a background for your faith. And the one who provides that background for your faith is the one you are relating to, in this case, God. So, if you are going to exercise your faith, it must be towards what God says or what He has provided.

I said all that to say this: Your faith can only receive what God has provided. If God has not provided something, it is useless exercising your faith to receive it. That is because it has not been provided. Mind you, that God has provided something does not mean that it has been provided for you. It may have been provided for someone else. And if it has been provided for someone else, then, you have no business exercising your faith to receive it.

You can see why God said to the children of Israel, “You shall not covet that which belongs to your neighbour.” What belongs to your neighbour has been provided for your neighbour, not for you. So, do not covet it, whether in your mind or in your prayer. (Cf. Exodus 20:17)

Furthermore, God told the children of Israel, as they were being led into the land of Canaan, not to covet the lands He had given to the descendants of Esau, Edom. He said that He would not give them even a foot there. He said that though they would be frightened by them, as they passed through their lands, they must not turn aside to take their lands. Otherwise, they would not succeed. So, they were not expected to use their faith to possess that land. For it was not for them. (Cf. Deuteronomy 2:4-6)

Also, He told them not to covet the lands belonging to the descendants of Lot. He said that He would not give them even a foot from their lands, even though they would be afraid of them. That was because He had given those places to the descendants of Lot. They were not, then, to try to use their faith to claim them. (Cf. Deuteronomy 2:9-22)

What God gave them was the land of Canaan. That was what they were expected to use their faith to receive. So, the exercise of faith has boundaries, boundaries determined by God Himself. If you go outside those boundaries in using your faith, you are acting in covetousness, greed. And that will come with consequences or repercussions.

What is the point we are making? It is that you can only use your faith to receive what God has provided. If God has not provided it, you have no business exercising your faith to receive it. If God has provided it, you can exercise your faith towards having it, towards receiving it. So, you need to know what God has provided. You need to busy yourself learning what God has provided and what He has not provided, what you can go for and what you cannot go for. And you should know what God wants you to have and what He does not want you to have. If you can establish through Scriptures that God wants you to have something, then, by all righteous means you can go for it. And I want you to keep that in mind.
Now I already said that it is not only through servants of God that we can receive from God. There are other ways through which we can receive from Him. And I will briefly share two of them that are key with you. First, we can receive what God has given or provided through our confession, our confession of what He is saying.

When we are talking about confession, we are talking about saying the same thing in agreement with God. When we are talking about confession, it means that you are saying something in agreement with what has been said or what has already happened. It goes beyond talking about sin. For many believers, when we are talking about confession, what readily comes to their minds is a confession of sin. You have done something wrong and you need to confess it.

But what does it even mean to confess our sins? It means to acknowledge them. It means to admit them. It means to call them what they are, what God says they are. That is what confession is. It means what you are saying is in agreement with what has actually happened. You are not trying to give it a new picture. You are not trying to repaint it. You are saying it just as it is. That is what is called confession.

Then, as I also pointed out, confession goes beyond speaking in agreement with what has already happened; it also involves speaking in agreement with what has been said, in this case, by God. I am saying that by saying what God has said we can receive what He has provided. In other words, if God says, “I have provided this for you,” by speaking in agreement with what He has said, I can receive what He has provided.

For example, God has said, “Soundness of body is yours. Health is yours.” By saying, “Health is mine’, I can experience health. Or let me use salvation to illustrate this. How do you receive salvation? It is by speaking in agreement with what has been done about your salvation, which you have been told. You have been told that God presented Jesus Christ as a sacrifice of atonement for your sins. And because of what He has done, salvation is now yours.

How do you, then, claim that salvation? You say something in agreement with what has been said. You say, “Jesus has died for me. So, I receive the salvation that His death has provided.” That is how you become saved. Or do you do something else to become saved?

Some people actually fasted to become saved. But what they received was not the salvation that Jesus provided. It was something else that they received. The salvation that Jesus provided is not something you receive through fasting. It is not something you work for. It is something you receive by faith. How? By agreeing that salvation is yours, just as God has said!

Now you have been living on the strength of that, haven’t you? Since you became born again, you have been living on the strength of what you were told that Jesus did for you. Every day you wake up, you see yourself as a believer. Why? You believe that Jesus died for you as you were told. And any day that can be challenged in your heart, something begins to happen to your so-called salvation.

You know that someone may wake up and not feel saved. It happened to some of us before because of how we came to be saved. Well, I am saying you may wake up one day and not feel saved. So, you start wondering, “What is happening to me?” And that is because you do not feel saved. So, you start asking, “Maybe I need to do something to feel saved.” You cannot be the kind of Christian God wants you to be, if you are like that.

Your salvation is not based on your feelings. It is based on something that actually happened. So, even if you wake up not feeling saved, you have to remind yourself that your salvation is not based on your feelings but on what God did for you, which is true and which will always be true. And if the reality of what happened can be challenged and upset, then, your salvation becomes baseless.

Well, I am making a point, which is that we can receive what God has provided through our confession, through our saying the same thing in agreement with God. Look at what is said from verse 22 of Saint Mark’s gospel, chapter 11:

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.” (Mark 11:22-23NIV)

There is a bible translation that renders the part of this Scripture ‘it will be done for them’ as ‘he will have what he says’. It is still the same thing. In any case, Jesus, on this occasion was responding to something. There had been an incident. He had seen a fig tree one day and had approached it because it was in leaf and He had thought there would be fruit on it. But on getting to it, He found nothing on it. So, He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” (Cf. Mark 11:12-14)

Now the disciples heard Jesus when He said that, when He placed a curse on that tree. But they did not really take what He said to heart. Why? When He said what He said, nothing changed in an obvious manner about the appearance of that tree. It remained as it was. Nothing changed about its physical appearance. So, they did not take His words seriously. They must have thought, “Is the Lord not being too much here? Why would He curse this tree? Let just move on from here.”

But the following day, it was Peter that first noticed that the same tree had dried up from the roots. It was completely dead. So, he cried out, “Master! Look! The tree you cursed yesterday is completely dead. But it did not look like anything happened to it yesterday, when you cursed it.” The Lord, then, took that moment to teach them something about confession. And the first thing He said is, “Have faith in God.”

Remember that when I started, I said that you could not just say, “Have faith in God.” Have faith in God for what? There must be something that my faith is channelled towards. So, when the Lord says, “Have faith in God,” He means that in dealing with a specific situation at hand, we are to have faith in God. In other words, believe that what God is saying about that situation is the truth and act on it. So, if we are going to understand what Jesus says in that passage and apply it correctly, that is where to start from.

Again, the Lord says, “If any of you says to this mountain…” So, there is a particular mountain that they could all see at the time. Observe that He did not say, “If any of you shall say to a mountain…” Of course, He could have said that and still communicated the same thought. But He said, “If any of you shall say to this mountain…” That is a specific mountain. And what is it to be said to that mountain? It is this: go and throw yourself into this sea.

Now the Lord goes on to say that if the person that speaks to that mountain does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he has said will come to pass, he will have what he said. In other words, the person will receive what he has said. But on what basis is he to speak to the mountain at hand? It is on the basis of faith in God. In other words, he needs to first know what God is saying about that mountain. And having known what God is saying about the mountain, he is to begin to say the same thing in agreement with it and not change his mind. Then he will receive what he has said, which is exactly what God Himself has said.

I am saying this because from time to time we hear preachers say, “Speak to your mountain, and it will move.” And many are saying, “I have been speaking to my mountain. But it is not moving.” But Jesus has not said that if you spoke to you mountain it would not move. Rather, He says that if you speak to your mountain, it will move.

However, what you say to that mountain is important. Also, the basis for which you are saying what you are saying to that mountain is important. So, you are not just to say anything to the mountain. There is something specific to be said to it. And that thing has to be said on the strength of what God has said about it.

For example, God, on one occasion, told Moses to speak to the mountain before him and that it would pour forth water for the children of Israel to drink. Who spoke to Moses? God! What did He say to him? He told him to speak to the mountain. What was supposed to be his expectation, having spoken to the mountain? A pouring forth of water! So, he already knew what the result of his speaking to the mountain would be. (Cf. Numbers 20:2-12)

Now what was Moses going to say to the mountain? He would say, “Mountain, bring forth the water in you.” Of course, the way he would phrase that may be different. But if God had said the same thing to you, you would have gone to the rock knowing exactly what to say to it. And what you would say to it would be in your own words.

Someone, for instance, may say, “Water, come out of this rock.” Another may say, “Mountain, break forth water.” Whatever the case may be, the idea was to speak to that mountain to release the water in it. And you can see that speaking in this sense is not based on anyone’s idea, fantasy, dream, wish or greed. This is based on what God has said.

Sadly, Moses missed it on that occasion. But the instruction given to him was clear, which was, “Go to the mountain and speak to it. And it will bring forth the water in it for the people to drink.” And you can see that it is not anything different from what Jesus says to us here in Mark 11, or is it different? He says, “Have faith in God.” In other words, what you are going to do or say next is to be on the basis of faith in God. And again, faith in God must have a subject. There is must be something you are having faith in Him for.

Whatever that thing may be, in any case, you are to speak to it on the basis of what God has said about it. And as long as you are speaking on the basis of what He said, you will have what you say. So, a way to receive from God is to know what He is saying and speak in its basis. As long as you are speaking on its basis, you are going to have what you say. In other words, God’s provisions will be made available to you on the basis of what you have said. Is this clear to you? We will continue from here when next we meet on the same subject.

Let us pray.

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By: Johnson O. Lawal

Series: Acting on the word of God

We have been looking at what James says to us about acting on the word of God. In his epistle, chapter 1, verse 22, he says:

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (NIV)

This is not a suggestion. This is a command to us, a command that we need to take seriously, if we will benefit fully from the word of God that is coming to us or from the word of God that we are reading or studying. We have to do what the word says, if we expect the word to produce in our lives the results God wants to see.

That, of course, has led us to looking at why people may hear, read or study the word of God and still not do what it says. First, we said that if people would not see the word of God as His word, they would not take it seriously or act on it. Second, if people will not agree with God on any matter, they will not do what He says or they may not do what He says. As long as you will not agree with God on any matter, you will not do what He says. In other words, if you can be right and God wrong, why should you follow Him or act on His word? You are the one that is right and He is the one that is wrong. Is it not, then, the will of the one that is right that should stand? What I am saying is that as long as you can see yourself as right and God wrong, you will not be acting on His word – you will be acting on your own will.

Then we talked about insufficient strength. That is the third point we considered. And here we are not looking at a situation in which people do not take the word of God as His word or in which they do not agree with His word. Rather, we are looking at a situation in which, though people accept the word of God as His word and also agree with Him, they are not doing what He says. Why? At the point of acting on the word of God, they realise that they do not have sufficient strength to do what He says.

Now there are many of us who often find ourselves in such situations. We know the right thing to do. We know what God expects us to do. Yet we are not doing it. We are not doing it, not because we really do not want to do it but because we realise that we do not have sufficient strength to do it.

That can be overcome. That should be overcome. If we will give ourselves more to meditating on the word of God, to praying and to fellowshipping with God’s people, it will eventually be overcome. That is because God Himself wants to give us strength wherever we are lacking in strength. In Isaiah 40 we are told that God gives strength to the weak. And the child of God should take that seriously. Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. So, as long as you fix your gaze on Him, as long as you put your trust in Him, you will find your strength renewed.

If you, then, at the moment find yourself to be weak in certain areas of your life, do not be discouraged – do not give up. What you need is to give yourself more to the word of God, give yourself more to praying and give yourself more to fellowshipping with His people, and God will take care of that weakness. He is the only one that can take care of our weaknesses. There is no weakness that we can take care of by ourselves. He has to take care of it for us. Ours is just to put our trust in Him. As we put our trust in Him, we will soar on wings as the eagle, we will run and not grow weary and we will walk and not faint. That is what the word of God says. It says it so that we may experience it. And if you want to experience it, you will have to give yourself to the things I just mentioned: the word of God, prayer and Christian fellowship.

But then, if you have not forgotten, I said last week that two things must be at work in our lives, if we would be able to do His word. The one is the power of God and the other is the mercy of God. And I want you to keep these in mind.

Now we are going to look at another reason people may hear, read or study the word of God and not act on it, even where they agree with Him. And to say the fact, it is important that you agree with God, if you will act on His word. You must agree that what He saying to you is right or that His way is the right way for you to go. But then, I am saying that we may still not do the word of God, even though we agree with Him. And we need to know why. If we do not know why, we won’t be able to fix this problem. You must identify the source of any problem you want to fix in order for you to be able to fix it. You must identify what is strengthening the problem in your life first, if you will be able to deal with it. Once you identify its source, you can deal with it and have it resolved.

Well, the point I want to make this morning has do with distractions. When people are distracted, they may not act on the word of God that they have embraced. Talking about distractions, our Lord Jesus put them under two main headings: ‘Love of the world’ and ‘Anxiety’. The love of the world will distract us and prevent us from focusing on the word of God to do it. Also, any form of anxiety will distract us and prevent us from focusing on what the word of God says.

See, for us to act on the word of God, our focus or gaze must be on it. You must have your eyes on what God says, on the demands that He is making on you, on what you must do and on what you must not do. My eyes have to continually be on that, if I will act accordingly. That is why, all through Scriptures, we are commanded not just to read, hear or study the word but to also meditate on the word.

Meditating on the word of God has to do with ruminating on the word. It has to do with considering the word. It has to do with thinking with the word. You are considering what the word says to see how it is applicable to you. You are considering His word to see where it is relevant in your own life. And as you do that, as we are told in Scriptures, it will be hard for you not to do what the word says.

Even if your senses are fighting the word, even if the circumstances of your life are contrary to what the word says, as long as you are meditating on it, at some point, you will gain sufficient strength to do what it says. That is why God said to Joshua, “This book of the law must not depart from your mouth. You must meditate on it day and night, so that you may do all that is written in it…” That means when you meditate on the word of God day and night, and long enough, you will do what it says. If we ponder long enough on the word of God, we will do it. (Cf. Joshua 1:8)

Now this is applicable to any command from God. If we ponder long enough on it, we will act accordingly. So, if you want to gain dominion or ascendancy over any kind of weakness in your life, what you need is to meditate on what the word of God says about that area. Keep thinking about what His word says about that area of your life. As you are doing that, you will find yourself talking to yourself. That is what happens when you meditate. You are taking what God says to talk to yourself, to preach to yourself, to counsel yourself, to strengthen yourself, to enlighten yourself. At some point, your spirit will become one with the word and you will not be able to act contrary to it.

But if anything can prevent you from doing that, that thing will also prevent you from acting on the word. If anything can prevent me from meditating on the word of God for any area of my life, if anything can keep me from fixing my gaze, my focus on what God says about any area of my life, that thing will eventually succeed in keeping me from acting on His word. That is why I said even though we agree with God, as long as we are distracted, we will not act on His word.

Our Lord Jesus speaks about things that can distract or choke the word of God in us. He places them under two headings, as I said before: ‘Anxiety’ and ‘Love of the word.’ And one of the passages in which we see this is in Mark 4. There the Lord shares with us a parable about a sower that went to sow some seed. In verse 7, the Lord says:

“Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.” (NIV)

Then, in explaining the meaning of this, He goes on to say this:

“Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.” (Mark 4:18-19NIV)

There are two major things the Lord speaks about here. The one is anxiety. The other is the love of the world. You have received the word of God and know it is the right thing for you to do. But your love for things, your love for position or your love for pleasure can keep you from acting on the word. This will distract you. The things you want to acquire for yourself, the positions you want to occupy and the enjoyment you want to have can so get your attention that you will fail to act on the word.

The one meditating on the word of God will gradually let go of these things. What I am saying is that as you are meditating on the word of God, you will begin to let go of your love for things, of your love for positions and your love for pleasure. It is not that God does not want us to have things or occupy important positions in life or enjoy ourselves. Rather, it is that God does not want any of these things to destroy us. And any of them will destroy us, if we permit it.

In your quest to having some things, you can destroy yourself. You just want to have this thing. And because your focus is simply on having it, you may begin to do away with caution and all godly principles. That, of course, will mean that you want to have that thing at all cost. But there should be nothing you will want to have at all cost. The only one you should want to hold on to at all cost is our Lord Jesus Christ. And you can hold on to Him at the cost of your life, which is okay. That is because if you lose your life for Him, you will find it again. And it is not even in every situation that He wants us to lose our lives for Him. But He is the only one we should want to have or hold steadfast to at all cost.

If you, however, do not have your focus or gaze on the word of God, you will, at some point, realise that you want to have certain things at all cost. So, you will begin to do things that are contrary to the will of God, here and there. For instance, if you want to have a particular job at all cost, you may not care that you have to bribe someone or change your age or change your state of origin or nationality. You are already destroying yourself, if you do that. And that is because you are distracted. If you are not distracted but focussed on the word of God, the moment someone tells you that you will have to change your age or state of origin or marital status or anything else, you will say, “That is off the table. I cannot do that.”

But you know that it will take someone that is continually focussed on the word of God to do that. That is because you will remember at that point what the word of God says and say, “No, I am not going in this direction.” And this is applicable in handling anything we may want to have or get in life. I mean it does not matter whether we are talking about things, positions or pleasure, if your focus is on the word of God, you will not want to have it any cost. Pleasure, for instance, is good for us. God wants us to have pleasure because He does not want life to be boring to us. But at what cost do you want to have pleasure?

Well, the point I am making is that the love of things will distract us and prevent us from acting on the word of God that we know to be true. For example, Solomon went astray at some point in his life. Why did he go astray? It was the love of pleasure that led him astray. We are told that he had a thousand women in his life, seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. That was a lot of pleasure, or what do you think? Some people are having a hard time coping with just one wife. Yet someone had a thousand of them in his life. That is too much for a lifetime.

What made it worse for Solomon was that most of these women were of foreign origins. They were women that he married from among the people God had told them not to marry. And look at what is said about his situation from 1 Kings, chapter 11, verse 9:

“The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command.” (1 Kings 11:9-10NIV)

God appeared to Solomon twice. About what? About the women in his life! God appeared to him two times about the women in his life. That was because they were luring him into idolatry. This was a man that built a temple for God. But he later began to build temples for idols, the idols of the women in his life. Did he not know that it was wrong to do that? He knew! More so, God appeared to him twice to warn him. Yet he did not obey. Why? The love of pleasure!

The love of pleasure overruled Solomon’s devotion to God. So, the love of pleasure can overrule our devotion to God. It can overcome our devotion to God and prevent us from acting on the word of God that we know. We know the right thing to do but will not do it. Why? The Love of pleasure!

What about King Saul? He disobeyed a direct command from God, as we see in 1 Samuel 15. He was commanded by God to go and destroy the Amalekites. It was meant to be an irrevocable giving over of the people and their things to the Lord. But he disobeyed. He actually went to kill them. But he spared their king. He also spared the best of their animals. That was partial obedience. And partial obedience is nothing but disobedience before God.

But why did Saul do that? The love of things! If he had kept his focus on the word of the Lord to him, he would have obeyed. Even though he was enticed by the animals of those people, he would still have obeyed, if he had fixed his gaze on the word of God. Any of us can be enticed by the things we see, by the things we hear or by the things happening around us. That enticement is distraction. That is because you are already being lured away from the Lord, from His word that has already come to you and that you have embraced to be the truth.

Saul was enticed by what he saw. So, he began to find a way between doing the will of God and satisfying himself. He was trying to seek a balance between doing the will of God and satisfying himself. And can we find a balance between doing the will of God and satisfying ourselves? No, we cannot. It is either you do the will of God or you satisfy yourself. If you have chosen to satisfy yourself, you will not be doing the will of God. But if you choose to do the will of God, you will eventually have yourself satisfied. Doing His will, of course, may not be satisfying in the beginning. But sooner or later, you will realise that you have chosen the right way.

What is my point? It is that the love of things will distract us, if we permit it. There is none of us that does not want to use things. That is because everything here has been placed here by God for us to use. But He does not want us to fall in love with anything. So, there should be nothing that I will not be able to do away with. The only person I must not want to do away with is God, my creator. Any other thing can be done away it. And anything that should be done away with must be done away with. That way, we can focus on doing the will of God.

Now there is another thing Jesus places His fingers on in the passage we read when I started sharing with you this morning. And that has to do with anxiety or worry. This also can be very distracting. What you want is something legitimate, not something out of place. But you are anxious about it and saying, “I just want to have it.”

God also wants you to have it, seeing that it is not contrary to His will for you to have it. Yes, you want the problem solved. And it is not contrary to His will for the problem to be solved, since it is annoying. But you are anxious about it. You are anxious about it because it annoying, troubling and upsetting. And you want it to go away. So, you are desperate about it. That, of course, may be the point in which you begin to neglect the word of God.

God tells us not to be anxious about anything. And we must understand that He does not just tell us not to be anxious about anything but also tells us what to do. Otherwise, we will remain anxious. Telling me not to worry is not sufficient to keep me from worrying. That is because something is responsible for the worrying. And I have to be certain that what is responsible for the worrying is being dealt with. As long as I am not certain that it is being dealt with, the worrying will continue.

So, the word of God goes beyond positive thinking, positive confession or positive speaking. It does not just say don’t worry; it also tells us what to do. It says:

“Do not be anxious about anything. But in prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all human understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Cf. Philippians 4:6)

So, you have to do something about the situation causing you to be anxious. It is what you do about it that will remove the anxiety. If you do not do that, the anxiety will remain. So, if I am anxious about something, I have to pray about it. If that anxiety remains, having prayed about the situation, I have to pray more about it until the peace of God settles in. Once the peace of God settles in, then, I will no longer be anxious. The situation may still remain unchanged on the surface. But you will know that it has been handled since you have the peace of God in you.

Well, we have a command not to be anxious. That is because anxiety will distract us. It will keep us from fixing our gaze on the word of God. We will just be desperate. An anxious person is a desperate person. And in his desperation, he will not care what he does to get relief or where the solution comes from. So, if someone introduces witchcraft to him in that situation, he may just go for it.

Perhaps it is your finances that you are desperate about. If someone in that situation should show you how to embezzle funds in your office and not be caught, you may just go for it. That is because you are desperate. And at that point you will totally forget what the word of God says.

Let me use King Saul again to illustrate this. In 1 Samuel, chapter 13, from verse 13, we are told this:

““You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”” (1 Samuel 13:13-14NIV)

From what we see here, God had given Saul a command to keep. What was it? It was for him to wait for Samuel seven days. He was to wait until Samuel came to make a sacrifice on behalf of the people. Then he could go to war against the Philistines.

Now if you are reading the verses before these ones, you may not see that there was actually a command given to Saul about the situation. But there was a command given to him by the Lord. It was not a suggestion. The command was for him to wait seven days for Samuel. Why seven days? We would not know. Samuel was only functioning as directed by the Lord. God had said to him, “Tell Saul that you would be with him in seven days’ time for the sacrifice to be made. So, he should wait.”

But again, if you read the preceding verses, you will see that Saul was in an annoying situation. It was annoying in the sense that he had a small army to face the Philistines and yet his men were running away. Why were they running away? They were running away because they were afraid, and rightly so. They were afraid because they did not have weapons to fight with. As the account shows us, only King Saul and his son Jonathan had weapons. Others had only had agricultural implements to fight with, hoes and cutlasses. And that was because there was no blacksmith in the land to make swords, spears and javelins for them.

So, they were looking at a large army that was well equipped before them. But they were nothing but farmers converted in the dying minutes to soldiers. Why would they not want to run away? And Saul felt helpless about this. So, in his desperation, on the seventh day he went on and offered the sacrifice himself.

Now Saul did not offer the sacrifice on the first day, on the second day, on the third day, on the fourth day, on the fifth day or on the sixth day. Rather, he offered it on the seventy day. That means he actually wanted to obey the command. He actually wanted to do the will of God. But he was also desperate. That was because he saw his men leaving him. So, on the seventh day, he asked, “Where is Samuel? Why hasn’t he come? Bring me the sacrifice. There is nothing special about it that I cannot handle.”

But the seventh day was not over yet. And sadly for him, the moment he finished offering the sacrifice Samuel came. And he said, “You have done a foolish thing. You have not kept the Lord’s command. If you had, your kingdom would have endured.” That means the man lost what he was trying to keep by not acting on the word of God. Why did he not act on his word? He was desperate. He was desperate because he was distracted by what he was seeing. If he had fixed his eyes on the word of God, if he had told himself, “Even if all my men desert me, God is able to handle this. He has told me to wait for Him. So, I will wait,” he would have done the will of God.

Remember I said you must focus on the word of God, if you want to do it. And that can only happen as you meditate on what He says. When you meditate on His word, you will be able to think the way He wants you to think and see what He wants you to see. What made it possible for Abraham to obey God in sacrificing his son? It was meditation! As we are told by the writer of the book of Hebrews, Abraham reasoned that God was able to give life to the dead. In what sense? (Cf. Genesis 22:1-19; Hebrews 11:17-19)

Well, God had told Abraham that He was going to reckon his offspring through Isaac. And since the same God who made this promise to him was asking him to sacrifice the boy, he reasoned in himself that God must have it in mind to raise Isaac from the dead, after he had sacrificed him. So, he went ahead to sacrifice him. What made him arrive at that conclusion? Meditation! It was while he was meditating on what God had said to him that it came upon him that God was able to give life to the dead and that he should go ahead and give Him what He asked for.

But then, God would not allow him to sacrifice his son. He stopped him along the line and told him that he was satisfied with the steps he had taken. So, taking certain steps of obedience is enough for God. It is not every time He wants us to see through what He has commanded. There are times that He will just want to see whether we are already obeying, whether we are already going in the right direction. That is why I said our eyes must be fixed on His word. And anything that takes our eyes away from His word is distraction. That thing, of course, will keep us from acting on His word.

So, you want to keep acting on the word of God, focus your attention on it. There will be distractions. Don’t allow them. There are so many things that can make us anxious in this world: school fees, rent and so forth. It is, in fact, in this world that people become anxious. But fix your gaze on the word that says, “My God supplies all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Also, fix your gaze on the word that says, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.” And fix your gaze on the word that says, “No disaster will strike you. No violence will come near your home.” Just fix your gaze on His word. Then you will find yourself acting on it.

Let us pray.

Copyright © 2026 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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By: Johnson O. Lawal

Series: Acting on the word of God

We started looking at the need for us to give ourselves to acting on the word of God last week. And I want to further share with you on the same note this morning. So let me take you back to James, chapter 1, verse 22, which reads:

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (NIV)

Did you see that? Don’t merely listen to the word of God. But do what it says. Otherwise, you will be deceiving yourself. As I told you last week, it is self-deceit to merely listen to the word of God and not do it and yet be expecting to see in your life the results the word speaks about. Yes, by listening to the word of God, there are things that God is able to do in our lives with His word, if we are listening with the right attitude.

But as we also see in the Scriptures, listening alone will not get all the job done – it will not get our lives fully established in the will of God. We also have to take corresponding steps. We also have to act on the basis of what God is saying to us. In other words, as the word of God is coming to us, we have to identify how we need to respond or what demands the word of God is placing on us, so that we can act accordingly. Otherwise, all that God wants to accomplish in our lives will not be accomplished.

Then we went on last week to look at or to begin to look at why people may not act on the word of God, even though they are listening to it or reading it or studying it. The first reason has to do with not seeing the word of God as the word of God. As long as you will not see the word of God as the word of God, you will not act on it. You have to receive the word of God as His word and not as the idea of someone or as the opinion of someone or as the experience of someone. Otherwise, you will not give it the seriousness that you are supposed to give it in acting on it.

The second thing we talked about had to do with not agreeing with God. Wherever you disagree with God, you will not act on His word. As long as you can judge that you are right and God is wrong, you will not act on His word. We are looking at these things that we may place our fingers on our reasons for not acting on the word of God and begin to do the needful. If you realise that you are not acting on the word of God in your life and want to begin to act on His word, the first necessary step is to identify why you are not acting on His word. Until you identify your reasons for not acting on His word, even if you desire to act on His word, you will most probably end up not acting on it.

Then, in talking about acting on the word of God, we are not just looking at as it concerns righteousness. We are also looking at as it concerns ministry or serving God. Then we are looking at as it concerns obtaining or receiving or enjoying His provisions for us. In addition, we are looking at it as it concerns our enjoying God’s protection.

What I am saying is that when we are talking about acting on the word of God, it cuts across every aspect of our lives. We are looking at acting on His word as it concerns walking in righteousness, as it concerns serving Him, as it concerns enjoying His provisions for us and as it concerns enjoying His protection. So, if you will not act on the word of God that is meant to lead you in walking in righteousness, your life will not manifest righteousness. If you will not act on His word to you about ministry, you will remain not useful or useless to Him. If you will not act on His word as it concerns His provisions for you, there are provisions of His that you will not enjoy. That is because there are God’s provisions that your enjoyment of them is premised on your acting on His word.

See, certain provisions of God will come to you out of His mercy, whether you act on His word or not. But there are provisions of His that will never be yours to enjoy, if you will not act on His word that is meant to lead you to enjoy them. In like manner, if you will not act on the word of God for your protection, there are areas of your life in which you will not enjoy His protection.

So, when we are talking about doing what the word of God says, we must not assume that we are only dealing with matters that have to do with sinning or not sinning. I am saying this because most of the time when we talk about doing what the word of God says, our focus is on the practice of righteousness. But it goes beyond the practice of righteousness. It also has to do with everything that concerns our lives.

Well, there is another reason people may not act on the word of God. And this has to do with lack of strength. We are not looking here at a situation in which someone will not accept the word of God as His word, neither are we looking at a situation in which someone does not agree with God. Rather, we are looking at a situation in which, though we agree with the word of God and agree that God is right and also desire to act on His word, we do not have sufficient strength to perform at the point we are required to act on His word.

Now there are many of God’s people that are in that situation. They may not lack the strength to act on the word of God in every area of their lives. But in certain areas of their lives, they often find themselves not having sufficient strength to act on what God says. So, they are spiritually weak in those areas of their lives. Each time they make effort and are determined to do what God says in those areas of their lives, they find themselves too weak to do the word of God in the face of the pressure coming against them.

See, just as God wants us to act on His word, there are also circumstances of our lives that will not want us to act on His word. Every day we come in contact with various circumstances of life that pressure us to act contrary to what God says. There is none of us that is exempt from that. There is none of us that does not come in contact with circumstances of life that will want to prevent him from doing what God is saying to him.

You know what God is saying to you. You agree that what God is saying to you is the right thing. But there are circumstances that you are confronted with that appear too powerful for you to handle. So, instead of doing the word of God, you end up not doing it. And the problem with that is that, at some point, people may conclude that it is just impossible to act on the word of God. What I mean is that if you have been attempting to act on the word of God and are failing, you may, at some point, conclude that it is practically impossible for you to act on what God is saying in that area of your life.

But your weakness is not an excuse for not acting on the word of God. Your weakness also cannot be your reason for concluding that it is impossible to act on the word of God in whatever area you are weak. Every weakness can be overcome. It is meant to be overcome.

Now anyone can act on the word of God, if there are not opposing circumstances. Anyone that agrees with God will, in fact, go ahead and act on His word, if there are no opposing circumstances. But that we agree with God and desire to do His word does not mean that we will end up doing His word. That is because we will always be faced with opposing circumstances. If we have sufficient spiritual strength, we will walk in victory over those circumstances. If we do not have sufficient spiritual strength, we will find ourselves failing to act on what we know to be the truth.

So, if there are areas of your life in which you are not acting on the word of God, you may want to ask yourself this: “What is my reason for not acting on God’s word in these areas of my life? Could it be that I do not have sufficient strength to do so?” But don’t excuse yourself from acting on His word on account of that. Don’t embrace that weakness as a cross for you to carry.

There is nowhere we are told in the Scriptures to embrace any spiritual weakness as a cross for us to carry. What God expects is for us to overcome it. It could even be in the area of disputable matters that God expects you to overcome some spiritual weakness. And you should take advantage of His grace to do so, for you can do so.

But then, there are certain things we need to know, if we will overcome any form of weakness that is preventing us from acting on what we know to be the truth or to be the will of God for us. First, let me remind us that Jesus says the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. That means the willingness of the spirit to do the will of God is not sufficient. The spirit must also have sufficient strength to deal with the weakness of the flesh, as far as doing the will of God is concerned. (Cf. Matthew 26:41)

It is the weakness of the flesh that will make us surrender to opposing circumstances, circumstances that are working contrary to our doing the will of God. So, the spirit must gain sufficient strength over the flesh. Otherwise, the weakness of the flesh will continue to keep the spirit back from doing the will of God.

Sadly, many of us hardly examine our lives and our walk with God. That is why we keep on surrendering to circumstances that we should not surrender to, circumstances that are preventing us from acting on the word of God that we know. If we start asking each of us as per how much we know of the will of God, we will be amazed. Truly, none of us knows enough of the will of God or of the word of God. But many of us don’t even act on what we know. We know but we don’t do.

I am saying that let us for a moment forget about what we do not know of the will of God for us and deal only with what we know. How much of what you know of the will of God do you act on? You may know that it is will of God for you not to be envious. You may even agree with it. Yet you are envious. Or you know that it is the will of God for you to be forgiving. You know it and also agree with it. Yet you are unforgiving. Or you know that it is the will of God for you not to cheat. Yet you cheat. Why?

You may equally know that the word of God tells you not to fear. And the word “Do not fear” is a command. Yes, it is part of the word of God that you are to do or act on. If you, then, fear, you are disobeying a direct command from God.

In like manner, the word of God says, “Do not be anxious”. That is a command. That is in the imperative. It is not a suggestion. It is not a piece of advice. So, God expects you to act on it and not be anxious. If you are anxious, then, you are disobeying a direct command from God. And there will be consequences or repercussions.

Well, I am saying that we may have a reservoir of spiritual knowledge that we are not acting on. We know a lot of things. But how much of what we know are we actually acting on? If we are not acting on all these things that we know, then, something is wrong. And among the things that could be wrong is lack of sufficient to perform.

So, Jesus says, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” What that means, as I already said, is that the willingness of the spirit is not sufficient to do the will of God. In Proverbs 24:10, Solomon says, “If you falter in times of trouble, your strength is small.” That is the problem. The reason you falter in the face of opposing circumstances is that your strength is small.

Peter, as we know through the bible, told the Lord that he was willing to die with Him. But the Lord said to him, “Before the cock crows tonight, you will deny that you know me three times.” Think about that. The Lord said that this man would deny that he knew Him, not once, not twice but three times. Peter, of course, could not see how that was possible. That was because his heart was right and willing to do the will of God. What he did not know, however, was that the willingness of the spirit is not enough to do the will of God. The spirit must also have sufficient strength to do the will of God. Otherwise, when it is required to do the will of God, he will not be able to do it. (Cf. Matthew 26:33-34; Mark 14:29-31; Luke 22:31-34)

We can’t always picture well all the circumstances that will go against us in doing the will of God. For instance, growing up as a Christian, you may have a certain habit you told yourself that you would surely drop. It may be lying. And you may have told yourself, “I will always tell the truth and never lie again.” But then, you found yourself lying on an occasion and got really sad. So, you promised yourself again, “I will never lie again. When next I am in a position to tell the truth, I will tell the truth, even if telling a lie may appear better.”

Now, all along, you were assuring yourself that you would always tell the truth. But then, you came in contact with a situation again in which you realised that telling a lie may be better than telling the truth or in which you realised that the punishment that may come with telling the truth was not what you could bear. So, you ended up telling a lie again. You were willing to tell the truth. But in the final analysis of things, you did not tell the truth but a lie. Why? Insufficient strength!

So, doing the will of God goes beyond determining to do it. It is important, of course, that we are determined to do the will of God. It is important to agree with God that He is right about everything He says. It is when you agree with Him that you will want to do what He says. And it is important that you are determined to do what He says. But you must also have sufficient strength to do what He says to you. Otherwise, at the point of acting, you may not find sufficient strength to do what He says to you.

If you, then, want to continually and consistently do what God says, as it concerns walking in righteousness, as it concerns serving Him, as it concerns enjoying His provisions and as it concerns enjoying His protection, you must first of all keep this in mind: it does not depend only on our desire or determination – we must also have sufficient strength to do so. Look at what God says through Zechariah to us, for instance:

“So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.”” (Zechariah 4:6NIV)

God, speaking through Zechariah to Zerubbabel, says, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit.” What does this mean? It simply means that doing the will of God or the word of God is not a function of human might, human power or human intelligence. Rather, it is a function of the activity of the Spirit of God in us. That is also why we are told that it is God that is at work in us to will and to act, according to His good purpose. In other words, God Himself has to take charge of us in order for us to act according to His will.

So, if you will consistently be acting on the word of God in any area of your life, you cannot rely on anything of yourself. You cannot rely on your desire. You cannot rely on your will power. You cannot rely on your determination. All those things have their proper places in our walk with God. But you cannot rely on any of them. If we rely on them, there are situations in which they will fail us. And some of us may have identified some areas of our lives in which we are not doing the will of God, even though we want to and are making effort to. Why? The reason may just be that we are relying on our will-power, determination, strength or discipline. And those things are failing us.

The only one that will not fail us is God Himself. So, we have to count on His power. I have been saying that if you ever want to consistently do the will of God, as revealed in His word, you have to count on Him for adequate strength to do so in every given situation. Yes, you may be looking at what is coming and be telling yourself that you may not be able to handle it. Do you, then, need to wait until what is coming comes and you are unable to handle it? No, you don’t have to do that, when you can actually obtain the strength to handle it from the Lord.

But then, there are times that, in our self-delusion, we may tell ourselves that we will be able to handle a situation coming when it comes. Yet when it is time for us to handle it according to the word of God, we find ourselves unable to do so. Why do you think you will do the right thing, that is, at the point that you are telling yourself that you will do so? You think so because you are counting on your desire, strength, will-power and determination to do the right thing. But when certain forces confront you on the way, you may find yourself unable to do the right thing.

Now you will not be happy that you have failed to do the right thing. But it will be on record that you did not do the right thing. Peter went out to weep, having failed to do the right thing, three times in series. But it is still on record that he did not do the right thing, that he failed God. So, I am saying that if we will continually act on what the word of God says, we must never rely on our desire, our will-power, our strength or our determination to do so. Rather, we must always rely on the power of God.

God Himself has said, “It is not by power, neither is it by power, but by my Spirit.” So, we have to trust the activity of the Spirit of God in us to do His word. So, as you are hearing His word, you also have to be communicating with His Spirit, saying, “I want do what your word that I am hearing says. And I am asking that your Spirit will supply me with sufficient power to do so.” And it shall be so.

Let me give you an additional Scripture. This is in Romans, chapter 9, verse 16, which says:

“It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” (NIV)

Again, this is showing us that doing the will of God or the word of God in any area of our lives goes beyond our desire to do so; God’s mercy must also be at work. So, we are having a combination of two things for us to be able to do what the word of God says. The first is the provision of His power. The second is the provision of His mercy.

What we are saying is that in order to do the will of God, we must count on His power and also on His mercy. There are circumstances in which it will take the mercy of God for you to do what He says without getting yourself injured. Peter, in the situation we must mentioned, was initially determined to stick with the Lord Jesus to the very end. But when he himself saw how critical the situation was, he realised that there was no way he would identify with Him and not get himself injured. So, he backed out and denied Him three times in a row.

Now assuming that, in his will-power and stubbornness, Peter still identified with the Lord in that situation, it would take the mercy of God for him not to die. And if he had died in that situation, would he have resurrected on the third day with the Lord? There was no guarantee that something like that would happen. That is because it is not written concerning him that he would die in that manner and be raised with the Lord on the third day.

Don’t miss my point. I am not saying that if Peter had died with the Lord on that occasion, he would not have been raised at the resurrection of the dead. He would have been raised at the resurrection of the dead on the last day. But I am saying if he had been killed with Jesus that day, there was no guarantee that he would have been raised with the Lord on the third day. We would just have had it on record that a martyr died with the Lord in that hour.

Well, my point is that there are times that desiring or making effort to do the will of God is not sufficient; His mercy also has to be at work. Otherwise, doing what the word of God says in those situations may be your end. And you yourself may be able to see it that doing the will of God in some situation will be your end. Will you, then, have the strength to go ahead and see your end while doing the will of God?

That is why the word of God shows us that it is not everyone that has been given to die for the Lord Jesus. Those who have been chosen to die for Him will have the strength to die for Him without bitterness. Their death for Him will not be something accidental; it will be something they will embrace. And it takes spiritual strength to do that.

So, I am saying that when we are talking about acting on the word of God, it goes beyond our agreeing to do His word, our making effort to do His word or our being determined to do His word; we also must have access to sufficient power and sufficient mercy from Him. And we can have access to these things. How? Through prayer! Through acting on the word of God! Through consistent fellowship with God’s people!

Let us spend some time to pray.

Copyright © 2026 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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By: Johnson O. Lawal
Date: August 30, 2026
Series: Acting on the word of God

This morning I want to briefly share with you on the need for us to commit ourselves to doing the word of God or to acting on the word of God and not just hearing it alone. It is important that we draw our attention to this from time to time because we can get used to hearing the word of God and not acting on it, if somebody does not draw our attention to the fact that we have just been hearing and have not been doing. And to say this in advance: It is our acting on the word of God that will result in the transformation of our lives. It is our acting on the word of God that will bring about the fulfilment of His word in our lives.

So, we need to remind ourselves from time to time that it is not enough for us to be listening to the word of God or to be reading the word of God; we also have to be acting on it. I will endeavour to share some things with us on why people may not act on the word of God. These will help us see how important it is for us individually and collectively to give ourselves to acting on the word of God or how important it is for us to make up our minds to be acting on the word of God and not just hearing it.

Mind you, you need to understand that it is not everywhere that people have the privilege of actually hearing the word of God and not people’s opinions, ideas and experiences. It is not everywhere that people have the privilege of getting the truth of the word of God and not something adulterated or something that their itching ears want to hear.

Also, it is not everywhere that hearing the word of God is free for people. During the week that just ended, my daughter told me about a particular minister that started a dating site. She said that she saw the information online. And it was about how the man would be helping singles to get things right on the road to marriage. That was all that she told me about the matter, for that was all that she saw about it.

But while I was personally reading news during the week, I came in contact with a piece of news that discussed the matter. That was when I realised that what the man is doing is not going to come free – some money will be involved. Based on what I read, there is a regular package of eight weeks counselling, which goes for seventy thousand naira. There is also the premium package that goes for three hundred and fifty thousand naira. Then there is the VIP package that goes for seven hundred thousand naira.

Now I said to myself, “Hope this is not true? Hope it is all a lie?” I said that to myself later, as I thought about it. But when I first read it, I was like, “I am begging people to join my ‘Singles’ straight-talk’ meetings online to learn for free. But they are not taking it seriously. And here is someone that will take money for them to listen to him. What a shame!” Just think of how much I would have made by now for teaching our singles all these years, week after week, back-to-back, if I were to monetise it.

But what has become of ‘Freely you have received, freely give?” There are indeed people who will give a justification for that. For instance, someone may say, “People will not appreciate the counselling sessions, if they will not pay for them.” That, in a sense, is true. People hardly value what they do not pay for. But you cannot make that decision for God. That is because what you are giving to others belongs to God and not to you. And the one that owns what you are giving to them says, “Give it to them free.” So, whether they appreciate it or not, your instruction is to give it to them free. And if they do not appreciate it, it will not be your business but the business of the owner that has said that you should give it to them free.

Well, I really don’t want to move away from what is before us to look at this morning. I just shared that with you for your contemplation. So, let us look at what James says in chapter 1, verse 22 of his epistle:

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (NIV)

This is God giving us instructions on what He expects us to do with His word. And we can see that He is not just telling us to listen to His word; He is also telling us to do it. He is not just telling us to receive His word, to read His word or to study His word; He is also telling us what to do with His word. So, He says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.” In other words, if you are merely listening to the word of God and will not act on it, you are deceiving yourself. It is self-deceit to listen to the word of God alone and not act on it and still expect the word to produce the results it talks about in your life.

Of course, there are blessings that are associated with listening to the word of God, just as there are blessings that are associated with reading the word of God or studying the word of God. So, what we are saying here does not mean that you won’t be blessed at when you listen to the word of God. By listening to the word of God, there are certain things that will be taken care of in your life. That is because the word of God carries the power of God. So, it is able to fix certain things in our lives by merely listening to it.

But then, there are things that will not just automatically happen in our lives by merely listening to the word of God. For some things to happen in our lives in that manner, it must mean that we are listening with the right intentions. If you are listening to the word of God with the right intentions, His word will transform your life to some extent. But God wants you to know that listening alone is not enough to get the job done. No, listening to the word of God alone is not enough to bring about the fulfilment of the entire will of God in your life. You have to do something with what you are listening to. You have to act on what you are listening to. In other words, you have to take steps corresponding to what you have heard. That is because, as I have been saying, hearing the word of God alone, reading the word of God alone or studying the word of God alone is not enough to accomplish His entire will in our lives. We also have to take steps that are consistent with what we are reading, studying or listening to. Otherwise, the change we are expecting in our lives will not be effected.

All this is why James says that if you are merely listening to the word of God and not acting on it, you are deceiving yourself. So, he is referring to someone that is listening to the word of God and is, on that basis only, expecting the word of God to work in his life. And he is saying that listening to the word of God alone is not enough to accomplish the will of God in your life. You have to take corresponding steps. Otherwise, even if you wait till Jesus comes, the word will not accomplish in your life all that it is meant to accomplish.

Now you must understand that it is not a new thing for people to hear the word of God and not act on it. It is not something that is associated with this period alone. Truly, we may look around us and see all kinds of people that are continually hearing the word of God and will not act on it. These ones have probably been listening to the word of God for years. Yet you cannot see corresponding changes in their lives. So, you are asking yourself, “How come this person’s life is still like this, even though he claims to have been born again for years? What has he been doing with the word of God that he has been listening to? Or has he not been listening to the word of God at all?”

Well, I am saying that is not a new thing. Back in bible days, we also had people who listened to the word of God and did nothing with it. Look at what is said in Ezekiel, chapter 33, from verse 30:

“As for you, son of man, your people are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, saying to each other, ‘Come and hear the message that has come from the Lord.’ My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to hear your words, but they do not put them into practice. Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice.” (Ezekiel 33:30-32NIV)

This is God’s testimony about the audience of Ezekiel. And He gave this testimony about them because if they were fooling themselves, God did not want them to fool Ezekiel. The word of God already says that if you are listening to what God says only but will not act on it, you are fooling yourself. So, His word will not change your life; it will not accomplish in your life the results that it is meant to.

Well, in Ezekiel’s case, the people were fooling themselves by listening to the word of God from his mouth and not acting on it. But God did not want them to fool Ezekiel. And it actually appears like Ezekiel was already being fooled by the attitude of the people towards his sermons. As God told him, the people were talking about him among themselves everywhere and even inviting themselves to come and listen to him. Think about that. These people were discussing Ezekiel, talking about his ministry, just as people talk about preachers today.

You know that people say all kinds of beautiful things about preachers today, just as they say bad things about them. Some will say, “I love that preacher. I love the way he simplifies things. I enjoy his messages.” That is not a new thing.

There are also times that when people are given an opportunity to comment on what they heard or read, as per the word of God, you may hear things like, “I love what I heard. It was so exciting.” We even do that in our assembly. Some will say, “Thank you, pastor, for bring us this message. It is so timely. This is what we need in this hour. In fact, we spent time discussing this at home.” And that will probably wake pastor up, if he has been sleeping in the meeting.

Well, that is not a new thing. People were also saying that about Ezekiel. They said that he was bringing to them a timely message. So, they were encouraging themselves to come and listen to him. That means they were coming to him in large numbers. And there is no preacher that will not be moved or thrilled by that. Even when our Lord Jesus saw crowds of people coming to Him, as we are shown in the bible, He was moved to teach them many things.

So, as a preacher, if you see many people coming to you to hear the word of God, you will be excited. You will want to give everything in teaching them the word. But God is saying that you should not allow yourself to be fooled by such things. Why? The reason is that the fact that people are eagerly coming to you to listen to the word of God does not mean they will act on it. And the essence of teaching the word of God, the ultimate aim of preaching is that people may act on what they have heard. That is because until they act on what they have heard, the will of God will not be fulfilled in their lives.

What this means is that the preacher should not focus his attention only on the hearing of the word of God from his mouth; he should also focus his attention on what those who hear the word from his mouth do with it. He should, therefore, not say to himself, “I have done my bit,” having preached the word. He should also be concerned about the fruit of the word that he has preached.

Of course, it is not the preacher that will make the word fruitful or work in the lives of those who listen. It is not on him to make the word of God work in the lives of those who are listening. But he has to be concerned about what the word is doing in the lives of those listening. Is it producing the fruit it is meant to produce in the lives of the hearers? If it is not producing the fruit it is meant to produce in the lives of the hearers, he needs to ask himself, “Am I giving them what I am supposed to give them? Is it the word of God that I am giving them or my own ideas, experiences or opinions?”

The preacher’s opinions will not produce the will of God in the lives of those listening to him. Also, his experiences will not produce in their lives the will of God, however, inspiring those experiences may be. Then his ideas also will not produce in their lives the will of God. The only thing that will produce the will of God in their lives is the word of God. That is why Paul says to Timothy, “Preach the word, not your ideas, not your opinions, not your experiences.” (Cf. 2 Timothy 4:2)

So, the preacher will need to ask himself, “Am I actually give these people the word of God?” if his messages are not producing the will of God in the lives of his hearers. And if he can ascertain that it is indeed the word of God that he is giving them, he will know that the problem is with those listening. He will, then, have to let them know that they have just been listening to him and not acting on what they are hearing.

In any case, God told Ezekiel not to be fooled by the people coming to him to hear his sermons. Yes, they were saying among themselves, “Let us go and listen to this preacher. His sermons are powerful. His messages are fire.” Yet God said to him, “Don’t be fooled by them. That is because they are not acting on what you are teaching them.” In fact, God shocked him by saying, “As far as these people are concerned, you are nothing but an entertainer.” That means they were just using him to entertain themselves. How bad could it have gotten?”

So, you can see that it is not a new thing for people to use preachers to entertain themselves. Today, there are many assemblies in which people are using preachers to entertain themselves. Sadly, there are preachers who also like to entertain their audience. They like to entertain them with Greek and Hebrew words. They like to entertain them with heavy vocabularies.

You have to keep your dictionary by your side in order to understand what some preachers are teaching. In fact, you may need an encyclopaedia to be able to grasp what some preachers are saying. And there are people who love such things. Some love phonetics. They love smooth talkers. But those things don’t empower the word of God. On the contrary, they can rob the word of God of His power. Paul says that the gospel can be emptied of its power. In other words, it will come to people without the power of God. And that will be because somebody messed it up. (Cf. 1 Corinthians 1:17)

Well, my point is that God does not just expect us to hear His word; He also expects us to act on it. That is because it is the one that acts on the word of God that is blessed through what he has heard. Until he has acted on it, the blessings associated with what he has heard will not be experienced by him.

Remember that Jesus shares a parable about a man that said to one of his sons, “Go and work in the vineyard today.” But the young man said, “I will not go.” Why would he not go? We are not told his reasons in the account. We are just told that he said that he would not obey his father. And since the father had another son, he said to him, “Go and work in the vineyard today.” And he said, “Yes sir, I will go.” But did he go? No! Why did he not go? We would not know. Whatever his reasons may be, the fact remains that he did not go – he did not do the will of the father. (Cf. Matthew 21:28-31)

But the first son that said that he would not obey his father eventually changed his mind and went to work in the father’s vineyard. So, Jesus asked, “Who did the will of the father between the two of them, the one that said that he would not go but later went or the one that said that he would go but never went?” Evidently, it was the first son that did the will of the father.

Similarly, we have in the church today many who look cooperative. They look like they are in agreement with everything you are saying to them. But they will leave their church meetings to go and do the exact opposite of what they have heard. And you are asking yourself, “What is wrong here?” The issue is that these individuals don’t understand that hearing the word of God is not enough; they also have to act on it. It is in acting on the word of God that His will is accomplished in our lives.

So, hear me this morning: we have had the privilege of being blessed with the word of God in this assembly and, if Jesus tarries, will continue to have it by the grace of God. But hearing the word of God is not sufficient; we also have to act on it. If we have not been acting on it, we need to ask ourselves, “Why is that so?” If you have not been acting on the word of God that you have been receiving, you need to ask yourself, “Why is that so?”

Now this goes beyond the word of God that is being preached to you in our meetings. It also involves the things you have been reading yourself. See, it is possible for you to read a passage of the bible this morning and leave your house to do something contrary, something that is the exact opposite of what you have read. This is not about someone else preaching to you; this is about your preaching to yourself. When you are reading the bible, you are preaching to yourself. Or don’t you know that is what you are doing? And I am saying that it is possible for you to read the bible now and go, in the next few minutes or hours, and do something contrary to what you have read.

What, then, is the point of reading the word of God, if you will not act on it? Don’t you think that is an effort in futility? You are wasting your time. You are wasting your energy. It will mean that you are just reading the bible to fulfil all righteousness. In other words, you are just reading it to comfort yourself that you have read it today.

Well, if you are indeed concerned about the fulfilment of the will of God in your life, you will be asking yourself, “Why have I not been acting on the word of God that I am listening to or personally reading or studying?” The problem, as you see, is not with God. The problem is with you. The problem is with me. So, I need to find out exactly what that problem is that I may deal with it. Otherwise, I will be fooling myself. People may be counting the years of my faith for me. I may even be the one counting it for myself, saying, “I have been a Christian for twenty years.” But what measure of spiritual growth have I experienced? To what extent have I become like Christ?

Now let me begin to give you some of the reasons people may not act on the word of God, though they are hearing it, reading it or studying it. The first has to do with not seeing the word of God as the word of God. When you do not see the word of God as the word of God, there is every tendency that you will not act on it. You have to take the word of God as the word of God, as the word of your maker, as the word of one that has authority over your life, in order for you to take it seriously.

As long as you do not see the word of God as His word but as the word of a man, the opinion of a man, the experience of a man, you will not take it seriously, not to talk of act on it. Why did Peter act on the word of Jesus, when He said, “I want you to go back to that place where you failed and let down your nets for a great catch?” He saw what He said as more than the words of a mere man. He saw what He said as the word of the master. So, he said, “Because of your word…” (Cf. Luke 5:1-10)

Peter was not stupid. He would not, on the strength of the word of a mere man, go back to that place where he toiled all night and caught nothing. He thought of what he heard as the word of God, as a command from God. He saw what he heard as God asking him to go back to where he had failed so that he may succeed. And when he acted on that word, what happened? There was a change of experience.

So, I am saying that you have to see the word of God as His word and not as the word of a mere man. Sadly, when the word of God is coming to some people, they will be saying to themselves, “That is pastor’s opinion. He is entitled to his own opinion.” The word of God is coming to you and you are saying, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion.” When you are dealing with God, you are not entitled to your own opinion. Your opinion does not count. Your maker is talking to you. Your creator is talking to you. And you are having opinions?

Look at what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 13:

“And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.” (NIV)

Here the man of God is talking about the attitude of the Thessalonians towards the word of God that they brought to them. He says that when you heard the word of God that we brought to you, you did not receive it as the word of a human being but as the word of God. And because they received the word of God as His word, the word began to work in them. Why was the word able to work in them? It was because the received it as the word of God.

So, any time the word of God is coming to you, you have to receive it as His word. As long as you do not receive it as His word but as the opinion of the preacher or the idea of the preacher, you will not take it seriously. Instead, you will think that you have alternatives or options. And I am asking, “Could that be the reason you are not acting on the word of God? Could that be the reason you have not been acting on certain instructions that have been coming to you?” You do not see it as the word of God but as the word of God mere humans. So, you are not acting on them.

Now as long as you are not acting on them, those instructions will not produce in your life the results that they are meant to produce. You will not become the person God wants you to be. You will not be able to enjoy the things that He wants you to enjoy.

Let me add one more point to that this morning. If you will not agree with God on any matter, you will not act on His word. What does Amos 3:3 say? It says can two people walk together unless they agree. So, once there is disagreement between you and God about a matter, you will not act on His word.

Sadly, people disagree with God a lot. Even many of us who claim to be Christians disagree with Him a lot. On the surface, it may look like we are all for God or that we are in agreement with Him on every matter. But moment by moment, as we act, it can be told whether we are in agreement with God or not.

For instance, up till this moment, there are people that disagree with God that sex before marriage is wrong. I am talking about those in the church and not outside the church. Also, up till this very morning, there are people in the church that disagree with God that homosexuality is wrong. Some find Scriptures to support their claim that homosexuality is okay. Some don’t even care about finding any Scripture to support their claim. These are just in disagreement with God and are saying, “On this matter, I do not agree.”

Then we have people that are in disagreement with God about cheating during examinations. Again, I am talking about those in the church and not outside it. They have heard again and again that it is wrong to cheat in examination halls. Yet they will go tomorrow and cheat. Some will even say, “What could be wrong with merely asking someone to remind you what you forget in during an examination? It is not as if I brought in materials to copy? Is God so harsh?” What is the problem? That person is not in agreement with God.

The other time I talked about someone that removed ten years from her age in order to get a job. That is a believer. And we do have believers that will fight you because you talk to them about such matters. They may choose not to greet you again. They will say, “Why would you say that to me? Don’t put your mouth in anything that concerns me again.” Why? They are in disagreement with God. As far as that matter is concerned, they are the ones that are right while God is wrong.

Now if you could be right and God be wrong, why should you follow His word? Supposing you could be right and God be wrong, would there be any need to act on His word? No! So, I am telling you that any area in which you disagree with God, you will not act on His word there. You may not voice out your disagreement or express it. But as long as you disagree with Him, you will not act on His word.

So, ask yourself, “In the areas of my life in which I have not been acting on the word of God, could it be that I disagree with Him?” Mind you, disagreement with God is nothing but unbelief. Let us spend some time to pray.

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By: Johnson O. Lawal
Series: Little foxes

We are still looking at ‘Little foxes’. And remember that I said that there was no way I could possibly give you an exhaustive list on this. There may be other little foxes and, in fact, there will be other little foxes that this teaching will not cover. It is on each of us, then, to identify what those little foxes are and deal with them in our lives.

In any case, let us read again to ourselves our foundational text, which is in Song of Songs, chapter 2, verse 15, and which reads:

“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.” (NIV)

Now we are talking about inattentiveness as another little fox that we need to deal with in our lives, that is, if it is present in our lives. We rounded off the last time we were looking at this by looking at areas in which people may be inattentive. I also mentioned some points on why people may exhibit inattentiveness. For instance, when you are too preoccupied with yourself, you may be inattentive. Also, when you do not know the consequences of being inattentive, you may freely give yourself to inattentiveness.

But as we will soon see, it is not in your interest to be inattentive where you are supposed to be attentive. It is never in your interest to be inattentive. And I should remind you of this: if you are inattentive, the problem is not that you lack the ability to be inattentive; rather, it is that your attention is misdirected. In other words, your attention is focused on the wrong thing. That is because at the moment that you are inattentive to what should get your attention, your attention is on something else. And inasmuch as there is something else that is getting your attention, it means that you can be attentive. You, therefore, do not have a problem of lack of ability to be attentive. Your problem is that your attention is misdirected.

It may be that you have not learnt to discipline yourself to pay attention to the things you need to pay attention to. As I said before, in life, all kinds of things will want to get our attention. But it is not everything that requires our attention. Anything that does not require our attention is a distraction. It does not matter how important that thing may seem. As long as it does not require your attention, it is a distraction. That distraction may require the attention of someone else. But as much as it does not require your attention at that time, it is a distraction.

In fact, that thing may require your attention some other time. But if at this moment it does not require your attention, it is a distraction. And if you give your attention to it, you have misdirected your attention.

Well, again, if you are not attentive where you should be, the problem is not that you cannot be attentive; rather, it is that you are misdirecting your ability to be attentive. You are giving your attention to what should not get your attention. So, you should call yourself back.

Now remember that we are looking at areas in which people may demonstrate inattentiveness. We already looked at the area of studying or learning. Anything that has to do with studying, give it your full attention. It does not matter where you are studying or learning, give it your full attention. Inasmuch as you have identified or placed your finger on the fact that you need to learn something, give it your full attention. If you are not supposed to be learning it, then, don’t be there learning it. Don’t expend your energy or time on it. But if it is something you are supposed to be learning or studying, then, give your attention to it. Discipline yourself to do that. Otherwise, there will be consequences.

Then, in the area of tasks, people may demonstrate inattentiveness. This is a task you are supposed to carry out. If you are going to do it the way it should be done, you will have to give it utmost attention. One of the reasons people handle their tasks in silly ways or anyhow is that they will not give those tasks the right amount of attention. If you will handle a task in the way you are supposed to handle it so that it will accomplish what it is meant to accomplish, then, you must pay attention, utmost attention, to what you are doing.

There is no way you can handle anything diligently, if you will not give it utmost attention. So, if you are continually having problems with the way the tasks you are handling are turning out, it may be that you are not giving what you are doing utmost attention. Someone may lack the required skills to do something well. That is a problem on its own. But even if you have the required skills to do something well and you will not give it the right amount of attention when handling it or pay attention to the details involved, there is no way you will do it well. This is applicable to any task.

See, even in cooking a meal, if you are not paying attention to what you are doing, the result will not be good. The meals of some people are often not sweet. Why? One of the problems is that there is no dedication to cooking something that will be sweet from them. If I have to prepare any meal, what will be at the back of my mind is cooking something delicious. I will not just be after getting something cooked. Rather, I will be after cooking something that will be delicious in my mouth, something that I will like to eat myself. I don’t want it burnt. I don’t want it to be wasted. So, I will give it the necessary amount of attention.

But if you will not give whatever task you are handling the right attention, it will not come out well. So, if people are complaining about your job or about the tasks you are handling, you need to begin to watch the amount of attention that you are giving to what you are doing.

The same thing is applicable to writing examinations. When instructions are being given to some people in the examination hall, they will not pay attention. When some collect their examination papers, they will not pay attention to the instructions on them. They have been told again and again, “Read the instructions first.” But the moment these ones collect their examination papers, they will start working. And they may have gone half-way into the examination before it occurs to them that they have been answering the wrong questions. That, of course, will come at a cost.

For some, it is the discipline of going over what they have written on their answer booklets that they do not have. They cannot settle down to read through and see where they have made mistakes or omitted things. That discipline is not just there. So, when we are talking about inattentiveness, we are dealing with something that is very present with us. And we have to begin to deal with it, if the quality of the work we will be turning out will be something to write home about.

Look at what is said about Joseph, from verse 4 of Genesis, chapter 39:

“Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate…” (Genesis 39:4-6NIV)

The part I want to draw your attention to is where we are told, “With Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.” In other words, he did not have to pay attention to anything he had. Why? Someone was already paying adequate attention to those things. Joseph was already paying close attention to everything Potiphar had, making sure everything the man had was performing, making sure everything the man had was safe, making sure everything the man had was doing well, making sure his possessions were multiplying. And when the man realised that Joseph was paying adequate attention to the things he had, he removed his eyes from them.

Now, in the same chapter, from verse 20, we are told this:

“Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.” (Genesis 39:20-23NIV)

Did you see that? The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care. Why? Joseph was attentive. He gave utmost attention to whatever was entrusted to him. So, the man who entrusted these things to him did not need to pay attention to them again.

Perhaps you do not yet get what I am saying. It is that you need to give adequate attention to any task entrusted to you. Otherwise, the person who has entrusted the task to you may come and oversee it again. Once your task is done, it should be done indeed, requiring no revision, requiring no correction. What will bring about that? It is your commitment to paying attention to every aspect of that task while you are handling it, so that when it is done, it is completely done.

It, then, does not matter whether you are an artisan, a trader, a merchant, a teacher or a student. You should do any task that is given to you in such a way that no one will come around and say, “You should have done this and not neglected it.” It should not be that way. You may have started that way. But God does not want you to continue like that. That is because what it means is that you are not paying attention to the things you ought to pay attention to.

In many of our workplaces, we often have problems with employees along these lines. You have to come back to review and revise the tasks that you have given to them again and again, so that they may go back and redo them. And sometimes, that may take hours, days or weeks. The child of God ought not to be functioning like that. If people have given you a task to handle, they should be able to take their eyes away from them, knowing that you will require no supervision or less supervision to get the right thing done. They should not have to call you back every now and then to say, “Should you not have seen this while you were working?” That will show that you are not paying attention to what you ought to pay attention to.

Sadly, we have workmen that will get offended when you draw their attention to things they ought to have fixed while handling the work you have given them. Someone has fixed a gadget, for example. And while fixing it, he saw other problems or potential problems that need fixing. But he would not say anything about them. Then when you complain about what he has done, he may say, “But you did not tell me to fix that part.” But he saw it and knew that not fixing it would affect the quality of his work. Yet he would not say anything about it but would wait until fresh complaints were made about his work.

A child of God should not be like that. That is not excellent. If you are excellent minded, you will be attentive while doing anything entrusted to you. If you are not attentive, it shows that your mind is lacking in excellence. The one who is focused on excellence will pay attention to detail. The one who is focussed on excellence does not want anyone to call him to redo what he should have done well the first time.

Look at what is said in Exodus, chapter 39, about those who handled the work of the tabernacle of the Lord:

“The Israelites had done all the work just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the Lord had commanded. So Moses blessed them.” (Exodus 39:42-43NIV)

Those who handled the work of the tabernacle were not there when God spoke to Moses about it. They did not see what Moses saw. They did not hear what he heard. But when he came back, he told them everything he saw, describing all that he had seen and heard to them in detail. And when they were done handling the work, Moses inspected it. What, then, was his comment? He blessed them. Why? The work was excellent. So, he did not ask them to redo it. if they had not done it well, he would have asked them to redo it.

Read the book of Exodus yourself for the details of the building of the tabernacle. Reading it can sometimes be boring, to say the fact. Yet those people listened attentively when Moses was giving them instructions about it. They must, then, have made notes where they needed to do so. They also must have drawn some images where they needed to do so. So, when they turned out the work, it was excellent. That was why they did not have to redo it.

Sadly, when you are giving some people instructions on what to do, they will not pay attention or make notes. But they do not have photogenic brains. So, they cannot possibly remember everything you are saying to them. Then they will begin to assume.

Now some will make notes and still not work with the notes they have made. This is very common among carpenters, fashion designers and other artisans that work with measurements. You did the measurements yourself. Yet you went and did something else. So, you may see a smaller window in your building than what is on the building plan. Or you may not see doors where doors are clearly put on the plan.

We have two flats in our house. Interestingly, when the bricklayers that built the house were working on the second flat, they did not put any door opening in its sitting room. They just totally forgot to do so. But there was a door opening on the plan. So, it was after the flat had been completed that we put the opening there. Yet nobody paid attention to that while they all were working. What caused that? Inattentiveness! You cannot just be working and not paying attention to what you are doing. It does not befit you to have to redo something you have spent hours doing, all because you will not pay attention to the details.

Another area in which people manifest inattentiveness has to do with what is happening around them. Remember I said self-occupation is one of the reasons people don’t pay attention to what they ought to pay attention to. I am not saying you should not think about yourself. But you cannot be self-occupied, so self-occupied that you are not paying attention to what is going on around you.

See, regardless of how busy you are, you must be paying attention to what is happening around you, especially as it may affect you. For instance, in Acts 20, we are told of a man called Eutychus that fell down from the third story of a house where Paul was meeting with the believers in Troas. He fell down because he was sinking into deep sleep while Paul was sleeping. Of course, he had his own issues. He was sitting in the window. Yet he was sleeping instead of listening to the word of God coming to him. And he also did not have enough sense to change his position, when he realised that he was sleeping. So, he fell down and was picked up dead. Thank God Paul brought him back from the dead.

But my focus is not on Eutychus but on those who were around him when he was sleeping. Was he alone in the place? What about the people standing or sitting closest to him? Evidently, they were not paying attention to the fact that the young man sitting in the window close to them was sleeping until he fell down and died. If it were not a church meeting, they would take him home dead.

You have to pay attention to what is happening around you. That is my point. You cannot leave little children with some people. That is because they will not pay attention to what is happening to them. They may be watching movies or Facebook reels or WhatsApp status. And till the children around them will hurt themselves, they will not know. Some will be sitting very close to your kitchen and will not know that something is burning until the house is burnt. As I told you before, there are consequences to inattentiveness. It always comes with consequences. So, mind yourself.

In Acts 27 we are told of a shipwreck that Paul experienced while he was being taken to Rome as a prisoner. Of course, if the sailors had listened to him, they would not have embarked on that dangerous voyage. But that is not the point I want to discuss. The point I want to discuss is that, at some point, Paul told them that an angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him that none of them would die, even though they may lose the ship and their cargoes. On that note, he encouraged them all to eat.

Now it was about that time that, as Luke reports, the sailors let down the lifeboat and pretended that they wanted to check something under the ship. But they actually wanted to escape. They wanted to abandon the ship. And there were soldiers on the ship. There were merchants on the ship. There were traders on the ship. But who knew what was about to happen? Paul! How? He was paying attention to everything happening. And he was the one that told the centurion that if those men should escape, all of them would be doomed.

But soldiers were there on that ship. How come they did not know? They were not paying adequate attention. They were lost in what was happening. You, however, must not be like that. Regardless of the noise, regardless of the partying or merriment, pay attention to what is happening around you. God expects you to do that.

Watch and pray. Isn’t that what Jesus says? It is. There is the part of praying and there is the part of watching. And what does watching require? Attention! Otherwise, you will suffer the consequences, unless you are shown mercy.

If we want to start talking about the consequences of inattentiveness, the list may be inexhaustive. But one thing is clear, which is that each time you do not pay attention to what requires your attention, you lose something. If it is in the church that you will not be attentive to the word of God, for example, you will lose what you are learning to the devil. In some cases, you will lose money or time. If you have to start all over again what you have done before, what are you losing? Time! If you are losing your time, what are you losing? Your life! Your resources!

So, nobody can speak of the magnitude of what you will lose if you are inattentive. But each time you are inattentive to the right thing, you lose something. That is why you have to labour to be attentive wherever you ought to be attentive. Identify areas of your life where you need to be attentive and be attentive there. Don’t let your mind wander where you are supposed to be paying attention to what is happening, to what you are doing or to what you are learning.

May God help us, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Copyright © 2026 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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By: Johnson O. Lawal
Series: Little foxes

I want to further share with us on ‘Little foxes’. We have been looking at what Solomon says in his song, Song of Solomon, chapter 2, verse 15, which reads:

“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.” (SOS 2:15)

I have been saying that even though this is said in the context of a love relationship or marriage relationship, it is applicable to various areas of our lives. And when we are talking about little foxes, we are talking about those things that appear to be insignificant to us in our lives but which are quietly and gradually causing different sorts of damage to our lives. So, we need to identify them and catch them as Solomon says here. We have to catch and stop them from working in our lives and ruining things. On this note, we have considered a number of things, starting from nonchalance and moving on to procrastination, lateness and excuses.

Now I want us to begin to look at ‘Loose talking’ or ‘Careless talking’. This is also another little fox that may be working in our lives and quietly destroying us. But then, I must first say that I won’t be able to share all that I have in mind to share with us on this note this morning because of the amount of time we have. I will, however, endeavour to place my fingers on a number of things for you, things that I believe will be helpful to all of us.

Well then, when we are talking about loose talking, one of the reasons we may not pay close attention to it is that we think we do not have a culture of it. Loose talking can be a culture for someone. And if you have a culture of loose talking, most of the people around you will identify it with you. It may, then, be easier for you to identify it with your life, especially if people have been condemning you for it.

But if you do not have a culture of it, if it is just once in a while that you talk loosely or carelessly, you may not think it is a problem. And if you don’t see it as a problem, you may not pay attention to it in your life. If it is something that happens once in a while, if it is something that happens because of certain circumstances in which you find yourself, you may not give attention to it.

The point I am making is that there is none of us cannot be guilty of loose talking. There is none of us that is incapable of being loose in talking. You may not do it all the time. You may not do it every day. But you may have the tendency to do it, to talk loosely. If the tendency is there, it follows that when the circumstances are right, you will talk loosely. And when you talk loosely, you will face the consequences of doing so, unless you are shown mercy.

We have adequate instructions given to us in Scriptures on how we are to talk or communicate or converse with people and even with ourselves. And we will touch some of these Scriptures. But I want us to first look at the main categories of loose talking so that we may be able to tell where it is evident in our lives and begin to deal with it.

Now when I said ‘Loose talking’, some of us may say, “No, I am not a loose talker. So this is not applicable to me.” But I already said that any of us can be loose in talking, if the tendency is there. The fact that you don’t talk loosely all the time does not mean that you can’t talk loosely or that you are not a loose talker. It is the circumstances in which you find yourself that will show whether you can talk loosely or not or whether you are a loose talker or not.

In any case, I said I will give us or highlight to us the main categories of loose talking. First, there is a category of loose talking that is premised on an unregenerate heart or an unrenewed mind. Even though we are dealing with this as believers, we cannot overlook the fact that there are people that talk loosely because their hearts are unregenerate. In other words, they have not been born again – they have not been regenerated.

A child of God is not expected to talk loosely under any circumstance. But if someone is not a child of God, then, based on how he has been raised or the society in which he has grown up, he may be prone to talking loosely. He will talk loosely because he doesn’t know any better. He will talk loosely because he has been raised to do so. He will talk loosely because it is natural for him to do so.

But the Christian is not expected to be loose in talking. That is because we have instructions in Ephesians 4, verse 29, on how we are to talk or handle our conversations in every situation and at all times. Look at it:

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (Ephesians 4:29NIV)

This is not a suggestion. This is a command given to us. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. It may want to come out. It is on you not to let it come out of your mouth. Why? You are a child of God. It is not natural for you to say unwholesome things. But the one that is not a child of God doesn’t know this. He has not personally received this instruction. So, he will say anything that comes into his mind.

See, when we are talking about loose talking, that is exactly what we are dealing with. We are talking about a situation in which you say anything that comes into your mind. Once it enters you mind, you say it. You don’t weigh it or consider its import. Once it drops in your mind, you just say it. And I am saying it is natural for those who are not believers to say anything that comes into their minds.

Some will even say to you, “I just love to say what is in mind. I don’t like to deceive anybody. So, let me say my mind.” But what is in your mind? What is that thing in your mind that you must say? Poison! Nonsense! Something that will earn you a slap or some beating! But you just have to say it. That is loose talking.

Well, in Ephesians 4, verse 29, we are shown that a believer is not permitted to say just anything that comes into his mind. Whatever he says must be something wholesome, something edifying. In fact, it has to be something edifying, said according to the need of his hearers. But the one that is not a believer has not personally received this instruction. So, he can be loose in talking – he can say just anything that comes into his mind. And he won’t even care. He won’t even lose his sleep over it. That is because he is unregenerate.

But then, we can and do have believers that say anything that comes into their minds. Why? Their minds are unrenewed. Don’t forget that I am dealing with categories of loose talking here. And I am saying that the first category has to do with an unregenerate heart or unrenewed mind. If your mind is not renewed, even though you are a Christian, you may find yourself talking loosely, talking carelessly, saying things that ought not to be said.

In any case, if you have an unregenerate heart or an unrenewed mind, you may find yourself saying things that are abusive, caustic, immoral or negative. And there are people that most of the things that come out of their mouths are caustic. Someone must be upset when they say something. Their choice of words offends people. Even when they have something good to say, the way they will phrase it will offend someone. That is a product of either an unrenewed mind or an unregenerate spirit.

The same thing is applicable to those who are immoral with their words. If you stay with them for some minutes, you will hear something immoral. This has nothing to do with their age. In fact, for some people, the older they get, the worse they become in saying immoral things. And this is the case in many of our workplaces. We find in them people who use immoral or filthy languages. So, even when you say something sensible, they will twist it and create an immoral version of it. That is loose talking.

Well, if your words are immoral, you are careless with your speech. If your words are abusive, you are careless with your speech. Some people will say things that will drive others crazy. Some will say things that may drive some others to commit suicide.

As we are shown in the Scripture, Abigal had a conversation with her husband Nabal one morning. And after that conversation, the man had a heart attack. Truly, there was an issue between the man and David and his men the day before. And Abigail could not talk to him about the matter that night because he was drunk. The woman judged that it was not wise to be talking to a drunk man. And that was commendable. (Cf. 1 Samuel 25)

But we would not know what words she used in conversing with the man the following morning. We only know that after that conversation his heart became as hard as stone. And right there, he had a heart attack. Seven days later, he died. What did Abigail say to him? We would not know.

My point, in any case, is that your words can be caustic. And you may have your excuses for that. But that will not change the fact that you are loose in talking and your words are hurting people. That, as I said, is a product of an unregenerate heart or an unrenewed mind. If you are a child of God, your spirit has been regenerated – it has been recreated. But as long as you are loose in talking, your mind is not renewed.

In addition, being negative with your words in loose talking. And when I am talking about being negative here, I am dealing with it in the light of the word of God. I am talking about saying things that are inconsistent with the word of God. You are just readily negative. You say things about your life that are negative and inconsistent with the word of God.

Mind you, when some people say negative things to you or about your life, you need to first check the sort of words they have been using in addressing themselves or describing their own lives. You need to do that before you start getting upset with them. A child of God should only say things that are consistent with what God has said about his life. If you are saying anything about your life, about your home or about the lives of others, it should be consistent with the word of God.

The circumstances of your life may be unpleasant. That, however, does not mean that you should be negative. That is because in spite of those circumstances, God has already given His word about your life. He has already given His verdict about your life. He has already told you that He is working for your good. He has told you that no evil would befall you and that no disaster would strike you. He has told you that He would never leave you nor forsake you. So, even if the circumstances of your life are contrary, you should not say anything contrary to what God has said to you. But if you do not have a hold or a handle on your tongue, you will say just about anything that enters your mind, on the basis of what you see or the basis of the things happening around you.

As I am dealing with these things, I am sure you can begin to see that any one of us can be loose in talking. So, before you say that you are not a loose talker, first begin to pay attention to what I am sharing on this note. The fact that you don’t say something immoral or caustic does not mean that you are not a loose talker. That is because there are other ways to talk that will show one as a loose talker.

We have another category of loose talking that has to do with saying things that you are not warranted to say. There are things we are not warranted to say, that is, from one person to another person. That may be because we are ignorant in an area of life or of the matter involved. if you are ignorant of a matter, then, you are not warranted to speak on it or to comment on it.

But a lot of times we comment on matters that we know nothing about. We are quick to make judgment on cases that we do not have sufficient knowledge about. That is loose talking. And if you want to be the kind of person God wants you to be, as revealed in Scriptures, these are some of the things you must pay attention to in your life.

Well, I am saying there is a kind of loose talking that is based on saying things we are not warranted to say. And an example of this is when you are commenting on a matter that you know nothing about or that you do not possess sufficient knowledge to comment on.

Then we have matters that we have no ability to handle or fix. And if you do not possess enough ability to handle or do something, then, you have no right to make any commitment to doing it. This is why people end up making promises or pledges they cannot keep. Why? At the point that they are making the pledge, they are not considering their ability to fulfil it.

Jesus tells us that our ‘Yes’ should be ‘Yes’ and our ‘No’ ought to be ‘No’. And He goes on to say that anything different from that is of the devil. What is that telling you? It is that you should not be talking loosely. Why will your ‘Yes’ not be ‘Yes’? Why will your ‘No’ not be ‘No’? When you say ‘Yes’ where you should have said ‘No’, you are a loose talker. As simple as this is, when you say ‘No’ where you should have said ‘Yes’, you are a loose talker. What it means is that you have not processed well the matter at hand before commenting on it or giving your word on it. (Cf. Matthew 5:37)

For instance, if you tell someone, “I will come to see you tomorrow,” have you considered your ability to do so? At the moment, do you have the money that will take you to the person’s house? If you don’t have it, why, then, are you giving them your word that you will come to see them tomorrow? You are hoping that some money will come to you before then. What if it does not come? You will begin to make excuses. And the Lord is saying that is lowness of character. So, the child of God must deal with it. Many of us don’t pay attention to things like this because we see them as insignificant. But the word of God wants us to pay attention to them. That is because ultimately these things define our character.

In our primary schools, our children often sing a song that communicates the idea that one is not to say ‘Yes’ when they mean to say ‘No’. Why? That is loose talking. It will ruin your character. It will ruin your reputation. It may not be something that people will punish you for. But it is already saying something about your character.

So, if you don’t have the ability to do something, don’t commit yourself to it with your words. You don’t have to do that. Solomon, speaking about making pledges or vows in Ecclesiastes 5, says that you should let your words be few when you are before God. In other words, watch what you say. You don’t need to make any vow or pledge before Him, if you do not have the ability to fulfil it. No one will force you to make a vow to God. People are not meant to be compelled to make vows or pledges. So, you don’t have to make any pledge to God, if you do not have the ability to fulfil it.

In fact, Solomon tells us not to say that it was a mistake. In other words, don’t lead yourself into that situation where you will say that your vow was a mistake. Otherwise, God may strike the works of your hands. That is because that is a product of loose talking.

Jephthah, in Judges 11, made a vow without looking carefully at the circumstances, without considering his ability to fulfil it. Herod also made a pledge to give up to half of his kingdom to a dancing girl. Did he think carefully about it? No!

Well, I am talking about a category of loose talking that has to do with saying things that we are not warranted to say. This may be because we are ignorant of the matter at hand. It may be because we do not have the ability to deliver in the situation at hand. It may be because we have no control over the circumstances involved in the matter at hand. Or it may be because we are not authorised to speak on the matter at hand.

See, there are things we are not authorised to speak about, things that we have no permission to talk about. That is why, in entrusting secrets to people, you need to watch the kind of people you entrust your secrets to. If you should entrust your secrets to a loose talker, you are done for. That is because a loose talker will not consider the fact that he does not have the permission to talk about the matter at hand before talking about it.

When someone tells you that something is a secret, he is simply saying that you do not have his permission to talk about it. He is saying that you should just keep the matter to yourself – it is for your knowing alone. That, of course, means that you have no right to talk about it to someone else. But a loose talker may end up talking about it.

It may not even be a secret that we are dealing with here. It may just be matters of an organisation or institution. And these things may not be what you are warranted to talk about. That is because they are above your pay grade. Even if your family members should ask you questions about them, you still have no right to talk about them. But a loose talker may end up talking about them.

Now why do people end up talking about things they are not warranted to say? Excitement, sorrow, anger and desperation are part of the main reasons people do that. When some people are happy, they talk about anything. So, if you want to get them to divulge certain secrets, make them happy. They will immediately become loose and start talking about things they are not warranted to say. They may even tell you things that you have not spoken to them about.

For some others, it is sorrow or sadness or anger that makes them loose in talking. Once they are sad, they will start talking carelessly. If you make them unhappy, they will start talking loosely. They may even start spilling out all the secrets that you have shared with them. Now they may think they are trying to get at somebody by doing that. But the real problem is that they are loose in talking.

If you are not loose in talking, your emotions will not determine what you say. I mean that your tongue will not be controlled by your emotions. On the contrary, your tongue will be controlled by the Spirit of God all the time. But as long as your tongue is controlled by your emotions, then, you are loose in talking.

In Herod’s case, it was excitement that drove him to make that pledge. He told a dancing girl that she could ask for up to half of his kingdom and that he would give it to her. What did the girl know? She did not know a thing. She had to run to her mother to tell her what to ask for. So, she did not know a thing. She was not mature enough for public life at the time. Yet Herod was going to give her half of his kingdom. How was she going to manage that? Perhaps you too talk anyhow when you are happy. You are loose in talking. And that is a little fox that you need to deal with in your life.

Now, in your own case, it may be sorrow or pain that makes you talk loosely. Sorrow and pain made Job talk loosely. They made him say to God things that he was not warranted to say. And if God had not been merciful to him, he would have reaped the consequences of his loose words in full. So, don’t allow sorrow or pain to take charge of you in any situation and make you begin to talk loosely.

Then there is desperation. When you are desperate to have something or get something, you may say anything. Someone wants to borrow money and, out of desperation, may say, “I will pay back next week, if you will lend me this money.” But does he have the means to pay back at the mentioned time? No! He is only speaking out of desperation.

What made Jephthah make that pledge? Desperation! He was desperate to win the battle at hand. But the Spirit of God had already come upon him to win. Why, then, did he still go ahead to make a pledge, a stupid one? Desperation! He said that he was going to sacrifice to God the first thing that came out of his house to greet him after his victory. But was it a dog that would come out to greet him? Or was it a horse or a donkey that would come out to greet him? Was it not a human being that would come out to greet him? (Cf. Judges 11)

Now was he warranted to make that kind of pledge? No! There is nowhere in the law of Moses in which human sacrifices is demanded or required or condoned. But he said that he was going to offer God a human sacrifice, if he should win the battle at hand. What was that? Desperation! That is a little fox and you need to deal with it, if it is in your life.

I am showing you these various sides of loose talking so that you will not say that it is not applicable to you. It may be appliable to any of us. If you are given to saying things you are not warranted to say, you are a loose talker. And you need to deal with it. It does not matter whether it is excitement, desperation or sorrow that is driving you to be loose in talking, you need to deal with it. That is because you may not understand the extent to which it is hurting or afflicting you. I pray that the Spirit of God will help us see clearly what these little foxes that we need to deal with in our lives are and also fill us with adequate strength and wisdom to deal with them.

Let us pray.

Copyright © 2026 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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By: Johnson O. Lawal
Series: Little foxes

We are still looking at ‘Little foxes’, as a topic. So, let me read to you again from the verse of the bible that we have been using, which is Song of Solomon, chapter 2, verse 15. It reads:

“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.” (SOS 2:15)

While this, in the context of the passage, is dealing with marriage or love relationships, there are other areas of life in which it is applicable. In other words, there may be some little foxes that are quietly and gradually ruining our lives. And if we will not give them the right amount of attention and deal with them, they may end up ruining our lives beyond expectations. So, we need to identify what these little foxes in our lives are and immediately deal with them.

Then, as I pointed out before, when we are talking about little foxes in this manner, we are talking about those things that we take to be seemingly insignificant in our lives but which are limiting us. We are not paying to these things because they appear to be insignificant. They don’t appear to be affecting or hurting us. But they are affecting us. They are hurting us. They are limiting us. And if we will not pay attention to them, the kind of damage they will do to our lives may be unspeakable.

In any case, we have already looked at some of these little foxes, which are ‘Nonchalance’, ‘Procrastination’ and ‘Laziness’. Now I want us to look at ‘Excuses’. You know that making excuses can become a culture to us. And when it becomes a culture to us, we must see it as a little fox that is already ruining our lives. There is no child of God that should be given to making excuses. In fact, there is no human being that should be given to making excuses.

What are excuses, by the way? Excuses are reasons that we provide for not doing what is required of us. That is a simple way to define them. The reasons we provide for not living up to expectations or for not doing what is required for us are what we refer to as excuses. Those reasons may appear genuine to us. Nonetheless, they are excuses. From where we stand, those reasons may appear genuine. But from where those that are assessing us stand, they are nothing but excuses.

Just to make this quick, why do people make excuses? Or shall I say, “Why do people end up making excuses?” One of the reasons people end up making excuses is a lack of commitment to doing what is expected of them. When there is no utter commitment in your heart to do what is expected of you, you will most likely end up making excuses.

When Adam, for example, sinned against God in the Garden of Eden, he gave God an excuse. What was his excuse? Let us look at it from verse 8 of Genesis 3:

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”” (Genesis 3:8-12NIV)

Adam’s excuse was that it was Eve that made him disobey Him. He was given a very clear instruction by God as to what to eat and what not to eat in that garden. But someday, he ate what he was not supposed to eat. And when God asked him, “Why?” he had an excuse to give Him. He said that it was the woman that God had put there with him in the garden that led him to disobey Him. He was, in other words, saying, “Before you brought this woman here, I did not disobey you. And if you had not brought her here, I would not have disobeyed you.”

But the woman that was brought to him was meant to be a helper to him. And before their fall, the woman had been helping him. Unfortunately, when they fell, he put the whole blame on the woman. That was an excuse. And why did he have to make that excuse? The reason was that his heart was not fully committed to obeying God. If his heart had been fully committed to obeying God, he would not have given Him any excuse.

The point I am making is that one of the reasons we end up making excuses in life is lack of commitment to doing what is required of us. If we don’t want to be making excuses in life, then, we have to be committed to doing whatever is required of us. As long as you will not fully commit your heart to doing what is required of you, you will end up making excuses for coming behind or falling below expectations. You will make excuses for failure. You will make excuses for not being punctual. You will make excuses for not carrying out your duties. There will be literally nothing important in your life that you will not make excuses for not doing.

So, I am saying that if you do not want to be making excuses life, once you can place your fingers on something that is required of you to do, fully commit yourself to doing it. The moment you do not fully commit your heart to doing it, you will end up making excuses for your failure to do it.

We have another example in King Saul. He was given a clear instruction from God through Samuel, which was that he should go and destroy the Amalekites and everything they had. It was an irrevocable giving over of these people and everything they had to the Lord. He was not to spare anything. And he did go there to carry out the instruction that he had been given. But when he got there, he and his men decided to revise the instruction. When they saw the fat calves and sheep of the Amalekites, they became unwilling to destroy them. (Cf. 1 Samuel 15)

In addition, they spared the king of the Amalekites, Agag. Why did they spare him? We are not given any clear reason in the bible. But it may be that the man promised them something. Perhaps he told them that he had silver and gold and that he would give these things to them, if they would spare him. So, they spared him. Otherwise, why did they spare him?

Well, God later sent Samuel to confront him with his folly. And what did he do? He began to make excuses. First, he said that they brought those animals to offer as sacrifices to the Lord. Then Samuel said, “Has God asked you for sacrifices? Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings more than in obedience to His word? Don’t you realise that obedience is better than sacrifice and to hearken to the voice of God better than the fat of rams?” Then Saul went on to say, “Oh, it was my men that pressured me to do this. I did not want to disobey God.”

What was Saul doing? He was making excuses. Why did he end up making excuses? The reason was that his heart was not fully committed to doing what he was meant to do. The bible clearly says that they were unwilling to destroy all the livestock of the Amalekites. It was a lack of commitment. We are not dealing with a lack of ability here.

So, don’t think that people make excuses because they are lacking in ability. Saul was not lacking in ability. He had the ability to carry out the Lord’s instruction. The reason he did not carry it out was that his heart was not committed to carrying it out.

Adam was also not lacking in the ability to do the will of God, neither was Eve. They both did not lack the ability to obey God. That is because God will not ask us to do something that He has not provided us with the ability to do. He will not ask us to do something that He has not furnished us with the ability or the resources or the opportunity to do. He will supply you with the ability to do whatever He is asking you to do. Of course, everything you need to do what He wants you to do may not be immediately available. But if you take the first step of obeying Him, you will find everything you need made available to you.

So, the reason you are not obeying God is not that you lack the ability to do so or that the resources to do what He wants you to do are not available. The main reason is that you are not committed to doing what He is asking you to do. And we are not only dealing with spiritual matters here; we are also dealing with natural matters. I mean that we are equally dealing with our relationship with people. One main reason we often make excuses for not doing what is expected of us, whether in our office, neighbourhood, school or family, is a lack of commitment to doing it. Even if it is in the church that you are making excuses for falling below expectations, the reason may just be that your heart is not committed to doing what is expected of you.

Now that is a little fox. And it is hurting you. You may not know that it is hurting you. But it is hurting you. And if you don’t deal with it on time, it may end up hurting you greatly.

Well, I am talking about the reasons people end up making excuses. And laziness is another one. When you are lazy or when you have a lazy attitude, there are areas of your life in which what you will have will be nothing but excuses. You will be making excuses for not doing what is required of you. You will be making excuses for falling below expectations.

Again, this is not a problem of lack of ability. Rather, it is a problem of unwillingness to use what you have to do what is expected of you. Those who are lazy are not lazy because they are lacking in ability. Those who are lazy are not lazy because there are no opportunities for them to do what is expected of them. They are lazy because they are unwilling to drive themselves to use their abilities or the opportunities presented to them to do what is expected of them.

Now it does matter whether what we are dealing with is mental lazy, spiritual laziness or laziness of the hand, the same results will be gotten – nothing that is expected to be done will be done. A lazy person will come back with an excuse. He will come back with an excuse for his failure. He will come back with an excuse for not meeting up.

In Saint Matthew’s gospel, chapter 25, we have an account of a man that gave talents of gold to three of his servants to work with. We have a similar or parallel passage in Saint Luke’s gospel chapter 19. Well, in Matthew’s account, we have one among the three servants that would not do anything with the talent that was given to him. Why did he not work with it? Was it because he was lacking in ability? From the account, the answer is ‘No, he was not lacking in ability’.

Or was it because this man did not have enough time to work with the talent he was given? Again, judging from the account, the answer is ‘No’. Or was it because there was no opportunity for him to use the talent that he was given to work with? Once again, the answer is ‘No’. He had the ability to work with that talent. He had the time to work with it. He also had opportunities to work with it. Yet he did not work with it.

What, then, did he come up with when his master came back? An excuse! He had an excuse to give. Why? He was lazy. See, before he gets started with what he is expected to do, a lazy person will have come up with an excuse to give for not accomplishing what he is meant to accomplish. A lazy person just wants to while away time. He wants to get by with the minimum thing that can be done with his energy, with his brain. He always wants to get by with the minimum.

Look at what is said from verse 14 of the chapter about that servant’s situation:

“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.” (Matthew 25:14-15NIV)

Now pay attention to the part that says, “Each according to his ability…” When we were little, we were taught in the church that the reason this servant did not do anything with what was given to him was that he considered it to be too small. But he was given that one talent because that was what his ability could handle. So, I am saying that the reason he did not work with the talent was not that he lacked ability but that he was lazy. His master would later say that to him. He said of him in verse 26 of the chapter, “You are wicked and lazy.” Just take a look at it:

“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.” (Matthew 25:26-27NIV)

You can see that the man also drew his attention to the fact that there was an opportunity for him to use the talent. His own excuse was that he was afraid of losing the talent. But the master said that the reason for his failure was laziness. He had the same amount of time as others. He had the same amount of time as the man who was given two talents and as the man who was given five talents. What, then, did he do with that time?

More so, if he had said that he did not have the opportunity to use the talent, it would still have been an unacceptable excuse. That is because his master drew his attention to an opportunity he could have taken advantage of. He said that bankers were all around him. And he could have saved the money with them. Then he would have received it back with interest. So, his problem was laziness. He would not use his mind. He was unwilling to work.

Well, whether you are dealing with the things of God or the things of men, make up your mind that you will not make excuses for falling below expectations. Yes, make up your mind that your heart will be fully committed to doing it and that you will not be lazy about it. Something has already been entrusted to you, tell yourself, “This will be done. I am not going to make any excuse for not doing it. I will not be lazy about it. And I will fully commit myself to doing it.”

Some people are so funny in the way they act that though they agree with you to get something done, they already have it in mind that they will not do it. Then when you ask them, “Why have you not done this?” they will say that they did not think it could be done in the first place. They are just like that third servant. All along, he knew that his master was a hard person that looked forward to reaping where he had not sown. Why, then, did he not tell him from the beginning that he would not be able to work and prosper with the talent and that it should be given to someone else? The reason was that he was also wicked and not just lazy.

Now let me give you one more point on why people end up making excuses for falling below expectations? It is that those who make excuses do so because they are ignorant of the fact that their excuses will not change the situation. Whatever your excuse may be for falling below expectations, it will not change the situation. How so?

Let me explain. First, your excuse will not fix what you have not fixed or change what you have not changed. It will not do what you have not done. Your excuse is just your excuse, mere words. Consider the third servant that did not work with the talent he was given again. Did his excuse change anything? Did it multiply the money? Could his excuse have multiplied the money? No! What did his excuse change, then? Nothing!

In the same vein, if God asks you do to something and you will not do it, will your excuse do it? No! A pastor that I respect highly once told me that his pastor’s wife at a time asked him why certain things that he was supposed to do were not done. And he gave her a number of reasons he did not do those things. Then, according to him, the woman said to him, “Pastor, do you know that excuses don’t move the work forward?” And when he heard that, he began to ponder on it. Then when I heard it too, I also began to ponder on it – excuses don’t move the work forward.

What am I saying? Excuses are just excuses – they don’t move the work forward or change the situation of things. If you have been saddled with a task in your workplace and come back with excuses, will the task get itself done? No! The task will remain there, undone, unless someone else does it. In fact, a bad situation may have become worse by the time you are giving your excuses. So, if you are someone that is prone to giving excuses, you must understand that your excuses will not change the situation. Your excuses will not fix what you are supposed to fix.

More so, your excuses may not eliminate the consequences of falling below expectations. If you are shown mercy, it may eliminate the consequences of your falling below expectations. But if you are not shown mercy, your excuses will not eliminate the consequences of falling below expectations.

For example, Adam’s excuse did not change the situation that he brought the whole humanity into. His excuse could not undo what he had done. His excuse did not keep God from placing a curse on the ground because of him. His excuse did not change the situation the woman found herself, one in which she would go through childbirth with great pains. Or what has the excuse he gave that day done in changing the childbirth situation of women ever since then? Nothing! That situation will not change until this world is over.

Also, King Saul gave his excuses for not doing the will of God. But did his excuses change the situation? No! God still removed him as king. So, whatever excuse you are giving will not change the situation of things, unless you are shown mercy. That is why instead of preparing yourself to be making excuses, prepare yourself to do what is expected of you at every given point in life. Don’t prepare yourself to be making excuses in life. Otherwise, it will become a culture for you. And every time they ask you why you have fallen below expectations in an area of your life, you will have an excuse. You will have someone to blame. You will have a situation to blame.

It is no wonder, then, that Solomon says that a lazy man will say that there is a lion out there. That is his reason for not moving. But others around him are moving and getting things done. He, on the contrary, will not move to get anything done.

Well, we are saying that among the little foxes that may be ruining our lives are excuses. And you have to begin to deal with whatever it is that has made you prone to making excuses. Is it a lack of commitment of your heart to do what is expected of you? Deal with it. Is it laziness? Deal with it. Then keep telling yourself, “My excuses will not change the situation. So, I had better begin to do what is expected of me.”

Now I will not know where this is applicable to you. Wherever it is applicable to you, you need to begin to deal with it. It may not be in every area of your life that you make excuses. But wherever you have been making them, you need to begin to deal with it. Excuses don’t befit you or any child of God. In fact, the bible says that no man will have any excuse before God. So, rid your life of excuses.

Let us pray.

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By: Johnson O. Lawal
Date: May 31, 2026
Series: Little foxes

The other time I began to share with us on ‘Little foxes’. Our text is from Song of Songs, that is, Song of Solomon, chapter 2, verse 15. And it says:

“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.” (NIV)

We are looking at how this is applicable to life. Clearly, Solomon speaks of the little foxes that ruin vineyards here. And these little foxes are able to cause terrible damage to vineyards. That is because people will not pay much attention to them because they are little. They are not like large animals that people can easily see and deal with appropriately. They are little. And they move around causing damage here and there in vineyards. Yes, it may look like what these little foxes are doing is not significant. But in the final analysis of things, you will realise that they have caused a lot of damage to the vineyard. So, this man says, “Let us catch them. Let us quickly pay attention to them and deal with them before they cause untold damage to our vineyards.”

Now your life is your vineyard. And I am saying there may be little foxes in your life that are already causing damage to it. But because these things that are causing damage to your life are little, you may not give them the right kind of attention. But at some point, when you begin to look at your life to see how far you have gone, you may realise that these little things that you have not paid attention to or have refused to pay attention to have hindered you or limited you in unspeakable ways.

So, we are looking at what these little things are. Though we may not be able to place our fingers on all of them, we will look at some of them to see what sort of damage they have been causing in our lives and also see what we can do to deal with them. The last one we looked at was ‘Procrastination’. Now I want us to look at ‘Inability to prioritise’. It is also a little fox. It is so little that one may not give it attention at all. In fact, one may go through his entire life and not give it attention at all. Yet it will be damaging the person’s life. It will be limiting the person. It will be ruining the person’s life.

What am I talking about? I am talking about ‘Inability to prioritise’. See, there is a need for each of us to get our priorities right. The word of God tells us that there is time for everything. And that is true. But knowing that there is time for everything is not sufficient. It is also important that you know what to do with your time each passing moment.

Besides, there are other things that we have been given by God as gifts and that we will be given by Him as gifts, as we progress in life. We must also know what to do with each of these things each passing moment. I am saying you need to know what to do with your time each passing moment. You need to know what to do with your energy each passing moment. You need to know what to do with your resources each passing moment. Then you need to know what to do with your relationships each passing moment. That is why you need to get your priorities right.

Somebody has said that the main thing is that we make the main thing main. And to a very large extent that is correct. We need to make what is major ‘major’ and what is minor ‘minor’. There are all kinds of things in this life that will vie for our attention. People will vie for our attention. Situations will vie for our attention. Circumstances will vie for our attention. But it is not everything we can give our attention to. And even in giving our attention to people or things, we must know what degree of attention we are to give them. Otherwise, we will not be getting our priorities right. And that may be limiting us to a great extent. It can even expose us to problems that are not meant to be ours in life.

We are not talking about management principles here in the sense that managers and administrators in secular organisations will talk about them. But we do find management principles in Scriptures. And it will be okay for us to pay attention to them so that we can apply them to our various lives and situations.

Well, in life, you must know what is important and what is not important. And in life, you must know what is urgent and what is not urgent. Your knowledge of these things will help you in knowing those things that really matter that you need to give your attention to and those things you can take as irrelevancies or non-essentials. There are things you can do without in this life. There are things that nothing will happen if you do without them – you will not be hurt a bit. On the contrary, you may find yourself moving higher, moving faster and being free to be the person God wants you to be and do the things He wants you to do.

Now I need to quickly say this in advance, so that you don’t miss my point: There are things that are given to us by God for the refreshing of our lives. These things need to be used by us in moderation. For instance, sleep is given to us by God for the refreshing of our lives. And we must sleep, if we want to live long. But we must know how to use sleep. Otherwise, it will take charge of us and begin to use us.

In like manner, God wants us to eat, to drink and to have some recreation to settle down to reflect on life. But we must understand that these things must be taken in moderation. Otherwise, they will take charge of us and our lives will begin to go in the wrong direction. In fact, our lives can be reduced to fun, so much so that the only thing we will be thinking about is recreation or novelty.

Well, I want to give you some Scriptures this morning to ponder upon. These are talking about the need for us to prioritise in life. They are talking about the need for us to identify those things that we need to commit ourselves to and the degree to which we need to commit ourselves to them.

As I said before, there are all kinds of things that will be vying for our attention. And if we commit ourselves to everything that wants our attention, we will be torn in different ways. Though you may be busy, in the long run, it will be as though you were busy doing nothing. That is because though you are busy, you are not making progress.

It is okay to be busy. God wants us to be busy. But He wants us to be busy doing the right thing. You can be busy doing the wrong thing. You can be busy doing that which is not profitable for you or those around you. People will see that you are busy. People will know that you are busy. But in the long run, what will you have to show yourself or God or men for your busyness?

In this country, for instance, there are a lot of people that are busy. They are described in Psalm 127 by Solomon as people who rise up very early and sleep late in vain. That is not a reference to everybody but to a class of people. These wake up very early and sleep late. Yet it is all in vain. Why? It may just be that they are busy doing the wrong thing. It may just be that all their activities are focussed on things that are not profitable. So, being busy or busier is not the issue here; rather, the issue is being busy doing the right thing.

Recently, many people in our country are talking about the need to look out for how to earn more money because of the economy. And indeed, if you look at what you are earning and it is clear that it is not enough to take care of your bills, you will want to see how to access more resources. This may lead you to want to become busier. You will be asking yourself, “What other things can I do to earn more money?” We will call that side-hustle. And it tends towards your becoming busier, right?

But will becoming busier in that manner surely lead you to having more resources? Will it surely give you a better life? So, it is not just about becoming busier; rather, it is about being busy doing the right thing. That is part of getting your priorities right.

Now as it is in the natural so also it is in the spiritual. That means when we are talking about getting our priorities right, it has to be viewed in a wholistic way. We have to look at it in its totality, as it concerns the totality of our lives. You need to be asking yourself, “Have I been devoted to doing the right things? Is my time devoted to doing the right things? Are my resources devoted to doing the right things? Are my resources being channelled towards the right things? Is my energy channelled towards doing the right things?” Otherwise, you will wake up everyday and commit yourself to all kinds of things, without asking yourself, “Am I getting my priorities right? Are the things I am committed to the right things for me? Is the amount of time I spend doing this is the right amount of time to be spent doing it? Is this thing worth the resources and energy I have invested into it?”

In Isaiah 55 is a counsel to us not to spend our money on what is not food and our labour on what does not bring satisfaction. And it is indeed possible to spend your money on what is not food. You want to get food, but what you eventually get with your money is not food. Or you are labouring for satisfaction in life. But what you are labouring on is not what will bring you satisfaction. Why will that happen? One main reason is that your priorities are not right. Your focus is on the wrong thing. And this is a call to focus on the right thing each passing moment.

Now let us look at 1 Kings, chapter 20. But let me first give you a background to what we want to look at. There was an ongoing war between the nation of Israel and the nation of Syria at the time. Benhadad was king of Syria at the time. And Ahab was king over Israel at the time. Benhadad came to besiege Samaria at the time. But Ahab was able to defeat his mighty army by the word of the Lord.

Afterwards, however, Benhadad’s generals told him to attack the land of Israel again with as much military force as the initial one. They also told him to replace all the kings he used as commanders before with military officers. Their thought was that the reason Israel was able to defeat them was that their God was a God of the mountains. In other words, if they should draw them to the plain, they would be able to defeat them.

Therefore, God sent the prophet He had initially sent to Ahab to him again to say to him, “Because the Syrians are saying that I am only a God of the mountains and not of the plains, I will hand them over to you.” And it was so. The Israelites defeated them the second time. That, of course, led Benhadad to ask for terms of peace. Sadly, Ahab obliged him, without consulting God. So, God sent another prophet to tell him that because he spared a man that was destined to die, it would be his life for his.

But then, what I want us to look at is the way the prophet sent to Ahab by God phrased his message. Look at it from verse 38, 1 Kings 20:

“Then the prophet went and stood by the road waiting for the king. He disguised himself with his headband down over his eyes. As the king passed by, the prophet called out to him, “Your servant went into the thick of the battle, and someone came to me with a captive and said, ‘Guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life, or you must pay a talent of silver.’ While your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared.” “That is your sentence,” the king of Israel said. “You have pronounced it yourself.”” (1 Kings 20:38-40NIV)

Look at that man. While on the battle ground, someone came to him and said, “Guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life.” That was the order that he received. That was the instruction that he received. Now let me ask you this: “At that moment, what else could be more important than what he had been told to do?” Nothing else could be more important. We are talking about his life here. He had been expressly told, “Guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life.” So, his priority at that moment must be to keep that man at all cost, even at the cost of his life. That is because if the man was missing, he would lose his life anyway.

But guess what? The man said, “While I was busy here and there, the man disappeared.” It is funny, right? But many of us do similar things every day. We are busy here and there doing those things that are unimportant. Yes, we get upset when people challenge us that we are not moving forward or making progress. We want them to pay attention to the fact that we are busy and also commend us for it. We see similar things in workplaces. People get offended when their employers or bosses are saying to them, “I cannot see what you have been doing all this time,” and say to themselves, “Are you blind? Can’t you see that I have been busy since, moving here and there?”

But what have you been moving here and there doing? It is not about moving here and there; rather, it is about moving here and there to do what is important, relevant and profitable. If you do not give yourself to doing what is important and profitable, you are busy doing nothing. You are just wasting your energy. Also, you are wasting your time and whatever resources you have committed to doing whatever you are doing.

Well, this is a call to getting your priorities right. Ask yourself, “What are those things that are important? What are those things that are not important? What are those things that I need to be busy doing with my time, energy and resources? And how important and urgent are they?” This is not something that someone else will do for you. This is what you will do for yourself. If you have come of age, it is what you must do for yourself.

This is applicable to every one of us. If you are a student, it is applicable to you too. What are you busy doing as a student? What are you busy doing with your time, energy and resources? You are coming up all the time with very terrible results. What is wrong? Is the problem with your brain or with your not getting your priorities right? There are many students that act as if they were brainless. But they are not brainless. The problem is that they are not getting their priorities right. They focus on the wrong thing all the time. We too can be focusing on the wrong thing in our family or in our business. And the results may surely be disastrous.

Now the word of God is very clear about the need for us to get our priorities right. So, the Scriptures I will be giving us next are to make us see this. And I may just comment briefly on each of them because of the amount of time I have left. To begin with, let us look at Saint Matthew’s gospel, chapter 6, from verse 31:

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:31-33NIV)

What is the Lord Jesus speaking about here? He is talking about the need for us to prioritise in life. And He is saying we are to prioritise with the kingdom of God first. You can spend all your time worrying about what you will eat or drink or wear. But you are just wasting your time on the wrong thing. Sometimes, the amount of time some of us spend on worrying is enough to turn things around for our good. I am saying that if we should begin to quantify the amount of time we spend on doing nothing but get anxious, we will be amazed at how much it is and what profitable things we could have done with it.

Well, the Lord is saying you don’t need to waste your time or life in that manner. Instead, you first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then all other things you need will be given to you as well. That is getting your priorities right. God must always come first. And if you prioritise Him and His kingdom first, He will help you deal with other things. In short, He will bring order into your life.

So, one main way to get your priorities straight in life is to put the kingdom of God first in everything. Yes, put your relationship with God first in everything. That is similar to what Solomon says in Proverbs 3, verse 5 through 6, which reads:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6NIV)

What is that? Getting your priorities right! Put God first. Put your faith in Him first. It is the first thing you need to get straight. Get your relationship with God right. Be sure it is what it is meant to be. Then He will order your steps.

There is another passage of the bible that is showing us something of the need to get our priorities right. This is in Saint Lukes’ gospel, chapter 10, from verse 30. And it reads:

“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”” (Luke 10:38-42NIV)

What is this passage dealing with? It is dealing with the need to get our priorities straight. And as I said, this is something that we must get right each passing moment. There may have been days in which Martha, one of the women mentioned in this passage, got her priorities right. There may also have been moments or occasions in which she got our priorities right. But on this particular occasion, she did not get her priorities right.

Evidently, what she was doing at that moment was important. But it was the wrong thing. She wanted to take care of the Lord and His disciples that had come to visit her family. And she decided to prepare all kinds of things for them. But at that moment, her sister was listening to the Lord Jesus. Why was she doing that? Did she not think that the Lord was supposed to eat something? She must have thought so too. But as far as she was concerned, that was not the main thing to be done at the time. For her, that was not a time to be cooking but one to be listening to the word of God. And that was what she was doing. Of course, what she was doing at that moment upset her sister. But how did that matter? She was doing the right thing, anyway.

Now similar things often happen in many of our Christian programmes where some brethren are saddled with the responsibility of cooking. And while the programmes are on, they will be cooking. They will not be a part of the prayer sessions. They will not be a part of the word sessions. All they will be doing the entire time is cooking. Some of them will even pride themselves in the fact that they have used all the time of their meetings to cook. But they are doing the wrong thing. And that is why, from Day 1 of this assembly, I forbade the whole idea. There is no programme we are going to have in which people will be cooking while it is on. They had better not cook or eat anything at all. That is because we will not be getting our priorities right, if we are doing that.

On that occasion, at any rate, the Lord Jesus said that Mary had chosen the better thing. That means what she did that day and that moment would make her better in life that Martha; it would put her ahead of her. So, getting your priorities right in just one situation can be the difference between success and failure in your entire lifetime. That is why you have to be investing your time in the right thing. Yes, invest your energy and resources in the right thing. See, the reason some people are poor is that all along they have been investing their resources in the wrong thing. And if you are one of such, you need to set your priorities straight.

Furthermore, in Proverbs, chapter 24, verse 27, Solomon says this:

“Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.” (NIV)

Look at that very carefully. It is saying that you are to get your priorities right. You are to deal with your outdoor work or fields first. After that, you may build your house. Why? You need money to build your house. Where, then, will the money come from? From your work! From your business! So, put your business in order first before you start building your house. That is what will ensure that you have a constant flow of resources to build that house.

An English version of the bible says, “Develop your business first. Then build your house.” That is getting your priorities straight. This is not just about building a physical structure; it is also about building a home. You need something to sustain your home, right? The home will not sustain itself. Something will sustain it. And you need to give that thing the right amount of attention. Then you can begin to build your home.

Again, that is telling you to get your priorities straight. Some want to get married and yet do not have any job. They don’t have any business they are handling. They don’t have any skill. How do they want to maintain their home?

I am not saying that you can have all the money you need to maintain your home at once. But you need to have something that you are doing through which God can continue to make money available to you. And are you doing anything? Even if you are preacher, a preacher is already working. So, he can expect God to supply His needs. But what exactly are you doing? That is why Solomon says that you should take care of your business or career first. After that, you can build your home.

So, being prosperous in life goes beyond having lofty dreams. What are you doing to make those dreams happen? I was watching a girl during the week that ended talk about how she had the highest score in the recent JAMB examination. And she was talking about how she got that score. I can’t remember the exact score. But it was three hundred and seventy something, if I remember correctly.

Well, she said that she learnt through someone that success is not merely about dreaming; it is more about doing the hard work involved. Anybody can dream big. But are they willing to do the hard work involved? For her, she had told herself that she would not spend any time dreaming about scoring something very high; instead, she would give herself to the hard work of studying and getting ready for the examination. And she did that. According to her, she already set the time for her to begin reading, after every other person had left the house in the morning. That girl should be between 16 and 17. But she got her priorities straight.

You can see why I have been saying that this is not what anybody will do for you; this is something you will have to do for yourself. Remember we are talking about the little foxes that ruin the vineyards. Yes, we are talking about those little things that we usually don’t pay attention to but which are making life difficult and painful for us, which are making success far from us. Those are the things we are talking about. They are not obvious sins that we can easily place our fingers on. Yet they are hurting us. And we are saying that one of them has to do with not getting our priorities straight.

So then, begin to get your priorities straight. Begin to place your fingers on those things that are not important that you have committed yourself to, so that you can do the needful about them. These are irrelevancies or non-essentials. And you need to separate yourself from them. Some are things that you spend too much time on. They are important indeed. But the amount of time you spend on them is too much. You need to deal with them. Some things don’t deserve the amount of energy or resources you invest in them. You also need to do the needful about them. Otherwise, there are several important things you will not be able to do for yourself. That is because you have been spending your money and energy on irrelevancies, on things that you can do without.

In closing, let me read to you from 2 Kings 5. It is actually a familiar passage. But it does add some colour to what we are looking at. We have a little episode there involving Naaman, Elisha and Gehazi. Naaman was the Syrian general that had come to Elisha for healing. And he got what he wanted. Then he came back with lots of good things to appreciate the man of God. But he would not take anything from him. And though he urged him to take something, he would not. Instead, he told him to go home in peace and let people know how good the Lord had been to him. He was to let people know that God healed him without taking a dime from him.

Now that, of course, must have baffled Naaman. Before that time, he must have spent a lot of money and even time looking for a cure for his leprosy. But he was healed by God without paying anything. So, he must have been on his way home that day joyful, joyful not just because he was cured of his leprosy but also because he did not pay a thing for the cure.

But then, Gehazi, the man of God’s servant, was upset about the whole thing. Now he was not the one that healed Naaman. He was not the one that gave the word for his cure. He was just a spectator. Yet he said, “My master was too lenient with this man. Why would he not collect anything from him?” Why? He saw the gifts that Naaman had brought. And if you don’t’ check history to see how things were valued at the time, you may not appreciate the enormousness of what Naaman had brought as gifts to Elisha.

In any case, Gehazi went behind his master to meet Naaman for some of the gifts. And he had to tell him a lie in order to succeed. He told him that his master sent him to get some gifts from him because certain unexpected guests had shown up in his house. Therefore, Naaman gave him what he asked for. In fact, he urged him to take more, which he did.

Now what did he ask for? He asked for a talent of silver and two sets of clothes. I checked this online and found out that a talent of silver at the time would be estimated at around thirty-two thousand and eight hundred dollars. And he took two talents from Naaman. Imagine how much that would be in Naira today. So, if you don’t check history, you may not get a clean idea of what the man took from Naaman. What he took from him was a lot.

Well, when he was back, here is what happened:

“When he went in and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” “Your servant didn’t go anywhere,” Gehazi answered. But Elisha said to him, “Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money or to accept clothes—or olive groves and vineyards, or flocks and herds, or male and female slaves? Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever.” Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s presence and his skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.” (2 Kings 5:25-27NIV)

What was the problem with Gehazi? He did not get his priorities right. Now Elisha was not averse to collecting appreciation gifts from people. Naaman really wanted to appreciate him. He was not trying to pay for his healing. But the man of God had his priorities right. That was not the right time to be collecting things from anybody. And that was what he said to Gehazi: Is this the right time to be collecting things from people? So, the man became leprous.

Now if you don’t have your priorities right, similar things can happen to you. You will begin to take things from those you are not supposed to take anything from. Or you will find yourself making friends with those you ae not supposed to make friends with. Or you may be visiting people that you have no business visiting. You will be spending your time, resources and energy on the wrong things. That will be because your priorities are not right. And where will that lead you? A place of destruction! Or it could really be nowhere.

Well, the Spirit of God is calling us this morning to the need to begin to get our priorities right. If you have not been paying attention to this, you need to start doing so. You need to start watching what you are spending your time, energy and resources on. This will determine whether God’s purpose will ultimately be fulfilled in your life or not. It will determine whether you will be where He wants you to be or not.

Let us pray.

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By: Johnson O. Lawal
Date: May 31, 2026
Series: Little foxes

The other time I began to share with us on ‘Little foxes’. Our text is from Song of Songs, that is, Song of Solomon, chapter 2, verse 15. And it says:

“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.” (NIV)

We are looking at how this is applicable to life. Clearly, Solomon speaks of the little foxes that ruin vineyards here. And these little foxes are able to cause terrible damage to vineyards. That is because people will not pay much attention to them because they are little. They are not like large animals that people can easily see and deal with appropriately. They are little. And they move around causing damage here and there in vineyards. Yes, it may look like what these little foxes are doing is not significant. But in the final analysis of things, you will realise that they have caused a lot of damage to the vineyard. So, this man says, “Let us catch them. Let us quickly pay attention to them and deal with them before they cause untold damage to our vineyards.”

Now your life is your vineyard. And I am saying there may be little foxes in your life that are already causing damage to it. But because these things that are causing damage to your life are little, you may not give them the right kind of attention. But at some point, when you begin to look at your life to see how far you have gone, you may realise that these little things that you have not paid attention to or have refused to pay attention to have hindered you or limited you in unspeakable ways.

So, we are looking at what these little things are. Though we may not be able to place our fingers on all of them, we will look at some of them to see what sort of damage they have been causing in our lives and also see what we can do to deal with them. The last one we looked at was ‘Procrastination’. Now I want us to look at ‘Inability to prioritise’. It is also a little fox. It is so little that one may not give it attention at all. In fact, one may go through his entire life and not give it attention at all. Yet it will be damaging the person’s life. It will be limiting the person. It will be ruining the person’s life.

What am I talking about? I am talking about ‘Inability to prioritise’. See, there is a need for each of us to get our priorities right. The word of God tells us that there is time for everything. And that is true. But knowing that there is time for everything is not sufficient. It is also important that you know what to do with your time each passing moment.

Besides, there are other things that we have been given by God as gifts and that we will be given by Him as gifts, as we progress in life. We must also know what to do with each of these things each passing moment. I am saying you need to know what to do with your time each passing moment. You need to know what to do with your energy each passing moment. You need to know what to do with your resources each passing moment. Then you need to know what to do with your relationships each passing moment. That is why you need to get your priorities right.

Somebody has said that the main thing is that we make the main thing main. And to a very large extent that is correct. We need to make what is major ‘major’ and what is minor ‘minor’. There are all kinds of things in this life that will vie for our attention. People will vie for our attention. Situations will vie for our attention. Circumstances will vie for our attention. But it is not everything we can give our attention to. And even in giving our attention to people or things, we must know what degree of attention we are to give them. Otherwise, we will not be getting our priorities right. And that may be limiting us to a great extent. It can even expose us to problems that are not meant to be ours in life.

We are not talking about management principles here in the sense that managers and administrators in secular organisations will talk about them. But we do find management principles in Scriptures. And it will be okay for us to pay attention to them so that we can apply them to our various lives and situations.

Well, in life, you must know what is important and what is not important. And in life, you must know what is urgent and what is not urgent. Your knowledge of these things will help you in knowing those things that really matter that you need to give your attention to and those things you can take as irrelevancies or non-essentials. There are things you can do without in this life. There are things that nothing will happen if you do without them – you will not be hurt a bit. On the contrary, you may find yourself moving higher, moving faster and being free to be the person God wants you to be and do the things He wants you to do.

Now I need to quickly say this in advance, so that you don’t miss my point: There are things that are given to us by God for the refreshing of our lives. These things need to be used by us in moderation. For instance, sleep is given to us by God for the refreshing of our lives. And we must sleep, if we want to live long. But we must know how to use sleep. Otherwise, it will take charge of us and begin to use us.

In like manner, God wants us to eat, to drink and to have some recreation to settle down to reflect on life. But we must understand that these things must be taken in moderation. Otherwise, they will take charge of us and our lives will begin to go in the wrong direction. In fact, our lives can be reduced to fun, so much so that the only thing we will be thinking about is recreation or novelty.

Well, I want to give you some Scriptures this morning to ponder upon. These are talking about the need for us to prioritise in life. They are talking about the need for us to identify those things that we need to commit ourselves to and the degree to which we need to commit ourselves to them.

As I said before, there are all kinds of things that will be vying for our attention. And if we commit ourselves to everything that wants our attention, we will be torn in different ways. Though you may be busy, in the long run, it will be as though you were busy doing nothing. That is because though you are busy, you are not making progress.

It is okay to be busy. God wants us to be busy. But He wants us to be busy doing the right thing. You can be busy doing the wrong thing. You can be busy doing that which is not profitable for you or those around you. People will see that you are busy. People will know that you are busy. But in the long run, what will you have to show yourself or God or men for your busyness?

In this country, for instance, there are a lot of people that are busy. They are described in Psalm 127 by Solomon as people who rise up very early and sleep late in vain. That is not a reference to everybody but to a class of people. These wake up very early and sleep late. Yet it is all in vain. Why? It may just be that they are busy doing the wrong thing. It may just be that all their activities are focussed on things that are not profitable. So, being busy or busier is not the issue here; rather, the issue is being busy doing the right thing.

Recently, many people in our country are talking about the need to look out for how to earn more money because of the economy. And indeed, if you look at what you are earning and it is clear that it is not enough to take care of your bills, you will want to see how to access more resources. This may lead you to want to become busier. You will be asking yourself, “What other things can I do to earn more money?” We will call that side-hustle. And it tends towards your becoming busier, right?

But will becoming busier in that manner surely lead you to having more resources? Will it surely give you a better life? So, it is not just about becoming busier; rather, it is about being busy doing the right thing. That is part of getting your priorities right.

Now as it is in the natural so also it is in the spiritual. That means when we are talking about getting our priorities right, it has to be viewed in a wholistic way. We have to look at it in its totality, as it concerns the totality of our lives. You need to be asking yourself, “Have I been devoted to doing the right things? Is my time devoted to doing the right things? Are my resources devoted to doing the right things? Are my resources being channelled towards the right things? Is my energy channelled towards doing the right things?” Otherwise, you will wake up everyday and commit yourself to all kinds of things, without asking yourself, “Am I getting my priorities right? Are the things I am committed to the right things for me? Is the amount of time I spend doing this is the right amount of time to be spent doing it? Is this thing worth the resources and energy I have invested into it?”

In Isaiah 55 is a counsel to us not to spend our money on what is not food and our labour on what does not bring satisfaction. And it is indeed possible to spend your money on what is not food. You want to get food, but what you eventually get with your money is not food. Or you are labouring for satisfaction in life. But what you are labouring on is not what will bring you satisfaction. Why will that happen? One main reason is that your priorities are not right. Your focus is on the wrong thing. And this is a call to focus on the right thing each passing moment.

Now let us look at 1 Kings, chapter 20. But let me first give you a background to what we want to look at. There was an ongoing war between the nation of Israel and the nation of Syria at the time. Benhadad was king of Syria at the time. And Ahab was king over Israel at the time. Benhadad came to besiege Samaria at the time. But Ahab was able to defeat his mighty army by the word of the Lord.

Afterwards, however, Benhadad’s generals told him to attack the land of Israel again with as much military force as the initial one. They also told him to replace all the kings he used as commanders before with military officers. Their thought was that the reason Israel was able to defeat them was that their God was a God of the mountains. In other words, if they should draw them to the plain, they would be able to defeat them.

Therefore, God sent the prophet He had initially sent to Ahab to him again to say to him, “Because the Syrians are saying that I am only a God of the mountains and not of the plains, I will hand them over to you.” And it was so. The Israelites defeated them the second time. That, of course, led Benhadad to ask for terms of peace. Sadly, Ahab obliged him, without consulting God. So, God sent another prophet to tell him that because he spared a man that was destined to die, it would be his life for his.

But then, what I want us to look at is the way the prophet sent to Ahab by God phrased his message. Look at it from verse 38, 1 Kings 20:

“Then the prophet went and stood by the road waiting for the king. He disguised himself with his headband down over his eyes. As the king passed by, the prophet called out to him, “Your servant went into the thick of the battle, and someone came to me with a captive and said, ‘Guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life, or you must pay a talent of silver.’ While your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared.” “That is your sentence,” the king of Israel said. “You have pronounced it yourself.”” (1 Kings 20:38-40NIV)

Look at that man. While on the battle ground, someone came to him and said, “Guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life.” That was the order that he received. That was the instruction that he received. Now let me ask you this: “At that moment, what else could be more important than what he had been told to do?” Nothing else could be more important. We are talking about his life here. He had been expressly told, “Guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life.” So, his priority at that moment must be to keep that man at all cost, even at the cost of his life. That is because if the man was missing, he would lose his life anyway.

But guess what? The man said, “While I was busy here and there, the man disappeared.” It is funny, right? But many of us do similar things every day. We are busy here and there doing those things that are unimportant. Yes, we get upset when people challenge us that we are not moving forward or making progress. We want them to pay attention to the fact that we are busy and also commend us for it. We see similar things in workplaces. People get offended when their employers or bosses are saying to them, “I cannot see what you have been doing all this time,” and say to themselves, “Are you blind? Can’t you see that I have been busy since, moving here and there?”

But what have you been moving here and there doing? It is not about moving here and there; rather, it is about moving here and there to do what is important, relevant and profitable. If you do not give yourself to doing what is important and profitable, you are busy doing nothing. You are just wasting your energy. Also, you are wasting your time and whatever resources you have committed to doing whatever you are doing.

Well, this is a call to getting your priorities right. Ask yourself, “What are those things that are important? What are those things that are not important? What are those things that I need to be busy doing with my time, energy and resources? And how important and urgent are they?” This is not something that someone else will do for you. This is what you will do for yourself. If you have come of age, it is what you must do for yourself.

This is applicable to every one of us. If you are a student, it is applicable to you too. What are you busy doing as a student? What are you busy doing with your time, energy and resources? You are coming up all the time with very terrible results. What is wrong? Is the problem with your brain or with your not getting your priorities right? There are many students that act as if they were brainless. But they are not brainless. The problem is that they are not getting their priorities right. They focus on the wrong thing all the time. We too can be focusing on the wrong thing in our family or in our business. And the results may surely be disastrous.

Now the word of God is very clear about the need for us to get our priorities right. So, the Scriptures I will be giving us next are to make us see this. And I may just comment briefly on each of them because of the amount of time I have left. To begin with, let us look at Saint Matthew’s gospel, chapter 6, from verse 31:

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:31-33NIV)

What is the Lord Jesus speaking about here? He is talking about the need for us to prioritise in life. And He is saying we are to prioritise with the kingdom of God first. You can spend all your time worrying about what you will eat or drink or wear. But you are just wasting your time on the wrong thing. Sometimes, the amount of time some of us spend on worrying is enough to turn things around for our good. I am saying that if we should begin to quantify the amount of time we spend on doing nothing but get anxious, we will be amazed at how much it is and what profitable things we could have done with it.

Well, the Lord is saying you don’t need to waste your time or life in that manner. Instead, you first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then all other things you need will be given to you as well. That is getting your priorities right. God must always come first. And if you prioritise Him and His kingdom first, He will help you deal with other things. In short, He will bring order into your life.

So, one main way to get your priorities straight in life is to put the kingdom of God first in everything. Yes, put your relationship with God first in everything. That is similar to what Solomon says in Proverbs 3, verse 5 through 6, which reads:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6NIV)

What is that? Getting your priorities right! Put God first. Put your faith in Him first. It is the first thing you need to get straight. Get your relationship with God right. Be sure it is what it is meant to be. Then He will order your steps.

There is another passage of the bible that is showing us something of the need to get our priorities right. This is in Saint Lukes’ gospel, chapter 10, from verse 30. And it reads:

“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”” (Luke 10:38-42NIV)

What is this passage dealing with? It is dealing with the need to get our priorities straight. And as I said, this is something that we must get right each passing moment. There may have been days in which Martha, one of the women mentioned in this passage, got her priorities right. There may also have been moments or occasions in which she got our priorities right. But on this particular occasion, she did not get her priorities right.

Evidently, what she was doing at that moment was important. But it was the wrong thing. She wanted to take care of the Lord and His disciples that had come to visit her family. And she decided to prepare all kinds of things for them. But at that moment, her sister was listening to the Lord Jesus. Why was she doing that? Did she not think that the Lord was supposed to eat something? She must have thought so too. But as far as she was concerned, that was not the main thing to be done at the time. For her, that was not a time to be cooking but one to be listening to the word of God. And that was what she was doing. Of course, what she was doing at that moment upset her sister. But how did that matter? She was doing the right thing, anyway.

Now similar things often happen in many of our Christian programmes where some brethren are saddled with the responsibility of cooking. And while the programmes are on, they will be cooking. They will not be a part of the prayer sessions. They will not be a part of the word sessions. All they will be doing the entire time is cooking. Some of them will even pride themselves in the fact that they have used all the time of their meetings to cook. But they are doing the wrong thing. And that is why, from Day 1 of this assembly, I forbade the whole idea. There is no programme we are going to have in which people will be cooking while it is on. They had better not cook or eat anything at all. That is because we will not be getting our priorities right, if we are doing that.

On that occasion, at any rate, the Lord Jesus said that Mary had chosen the better thing. That means what she did that day and that moment would make her better in life that Martha; it would put her ahead of her. So, getting your priorities right in just one situation can be the difference between success and failure in your entire lifetime. That is why you have to be investing your time in the right thing. Yes, invest your energy and resources in the right thing. See, the reason some people are poor is that all along they have been investing their resources in the wrong thing. And if you are one of such, you need to set your priorities straight.

Furthermore, in Proverbs, chapter 24, verse 27, Solomon says this:

“Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.” (NIV)

Look at that very carefully. It is saying that you are to get your priorities right. You are to deal with your outdoor work or fields first. After that, you may build your house. Why? You need money to build your house. Where, then, will the money come from? From your work! From your business! So, put your business in order first before you start building your house. That is what will ensure that you have a constant flow of resources to build that house.

An English version of the bible says, “Develop your business first. Then build your house.” That is getting your priorities straight. This is not just about building a physical structure; it is also about building a home. You need something to sustain your home, right? The home will not sustain itself. Something will sustain it. And you need to give that thing the right amount of attention. Then you can begin to build your home.

Again, that is telling you to get your priorities straight. Some want to get married and yet do not have any job. They don’t have any business they are handling. They don’t have any skill. How do they want to maintain their home?

I am not saying that you can have all the money you need to maintain your home at once. But you need to have something that you are doing through which God can continue to make money available to you. And are you doing anything? Even if you are preacher, a preacher is already working. So, he can expect God to supply His needs. But what exactly are you doing? That is why Solomon says that you should take care of your business or career first. After that, you can build your home.

So, being prosperous in life goes beyond having lofty dreams. What are you doing to make those dreams happen? I was watching a girl during the week that ended talk about how she had the highest score in the recent JAMB examination. And she was talking about how she got that score. I can’t remember the exact score. But it was three hundred and seventy something, if I remember correctly.

Well, she said that she learnt through someone that success is not merely about dreaming; it is more about doing the hard work involved. Anybody can dream big. But are they willing to do the hard work involved? For her, she had told herself that she would not spend any time dreaming about scoring something very high; instead, she would give herself to the hard work of studying and getting ready for the examination. And she did that. According to her, she already set the time for her to begin reading, after every other person had left the house in the morning. That girl should be between 16 and 17. But she got her priorities straight.

You can see why I have been saying that this is not what anybody will do for you; this is something you will have to do for yourself. Remember we are talking about the little foxes that ruin the vineyards. Yes, we are talking about those little things that we usually don’t pay attention to but which are making life difficult and painful for us, which are making success far from us. Those are the things we are talking about. They are not obvious sins that we can easily place our fingers on. Yet they are hurting us. And we are saying that one of them has to do with not getting our priorities straight.

So then, begin to get your priorities straight. Begin to place your fingers on those things that are not important that you have committed yourself to, so that you can do the needful about them. These are irrelevancies or non-essentials. And you need to separate yourself from them. Some are things that you spend too much time on. They are important indeed. But the amount of time you spend on them is too much. You need to deal with them. Some things don’t deserve the amount of energy or resources you invest in them. You also need to do the needful about them. Otherwise, there are several important things you will not be able to do for yourself. That is because you have been spending your money and energy on irrelevancies, on things that you can do without.

In closing, let me read to you from 2 Kings 5. It is actually a familiar passage. But it does add some colour to what we are looking at. We have a little episode there involving Naaman, Elisha and Gehazi. Naaman was the Syrian general that had come to Elisha for healing. And he got what he wanted. Then he came back with lots of good things to appreciate the man of God. But he would not take anything from him. And though he urged him to take something, he would not. Instead, he told him to go home in peace and let people know how good the Lord had been to him. He was to let people know that God healed him without taking a dime from him.

Now that, of course, must have baffled Naaman. Before that time, he must have spent a lot of money and even time looking for a cure for his leprosy. But he was healed by God without paying anything. So, he must have been on his way home that day joyful, joyful not just because he was cured of his leprosy but also because he did not pay a thing for the cure.

But then, Gehazi, the man of God’s servant, was upset about the whole thing. Now he was not the one that healed Naaman. He was not the one that gave the word for his cure. He was just a spectator. Yet he said, “My master was too lenient with this man. Why would he not collect anything from him?” Why? He saw the gifts that Naaman had brought. And if you don’t’ check history to see how things were valued at the time, you may not appreciate the enormousness of what Naaman had brought as gifts to Elisha.

In any case, Gehazi went behind his master to meet Naaman for some of the gifts. And he had to tell him a lie in order to succeed. He told him that his master sent him to get some gifts from him because certain unexpected guests had shown up in his house. Therefore, Naaman gave him what he asked for. In fact, he urged him to take more, which he did.

Now what did he ask for? He asked for a talent of silver and two sets of clothes. I checked this online and found out that a talent of silver at the time would be estimated at around thirty-two thousand and eight hundred dollars. And he took two talents from Naaman. Imagine how much that would be in Naira today. So, if you don’t check history, you may not get a clean idea of what the man took from Naaman. What he took from him was a lot.

Well, when he was back, here is what happened:

“When he went in and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” “Your servant didn’t go anywhere,” Gehazi answered. But Elisha said to him, “Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money or to accept clothes—or olive groves and vineyards, or flocks and herds, or male and female slaves? Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever.” Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s presence and his skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.” (2 Kings 5:25-27NIV)

What was the problem with Gehazi? He did not get his priorities right. Now Elisha was not averse to collecting appreciation gifts from people. Naaman really wanted to appreciate him. He was not trying to pay for his healing. But the man of God had his priorities right. That was not the right time to be collecting things from anybody. And that was what he said to Gehazi: Is this the right time to be collecting things from people? So, the man became leprous.

Now if you don’t have your priorities right, similar things can happen to you. You will begin to take things from those you are not supposed to take anything from. Or you will find yourself making friends with those you ae not supposed to make friends with. Or you may be visiting people that you have no business visiting. You will be spending your time, resources and energy on the wrong things. That will be because your priorities are not right. And where will that lead you? A place of destruction! Or it could really be nowhere.

Well, the Spirit of God is calling us this morning to the need to begin to get our priorities right. If you have not been paying attention to this, you need to start doing so. You need to start watching what you are spending your time, energy and resources on. This will determine whether God’s purpose will ultimately be fulfilled in your life or not. It will determine whether you will be where He wants you to be or not.

Let us pray.

Copyright © 2026 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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By: Johnson O. Lawal
Series: Little foxes

This morning I want to begin to share with us on ‘The little foxes.’ And my main text is from Song of Solomon, chapter 2, verse 15, which reads:

“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.” (NIV)

This man is speaking to his lover and saying, “Let us catch the foxes, the little foxes that are ruining our vineyards.” I do not want to say much about this in literal terms. What I want to do is focus on the application of what is said. But then, you can read about the kind of damage that little foxes can do to vineyards. Because they are little, you may not readily give attention to the damage they are causing. They are not like large animals that you can easily tell the sort of damage they can do to your vineyards. Rather, they are little animals that move in the vineyards and working slowing and destroying the vines.

Initially, it may not look like they are doing much damage. But in the final analysis of things, they will have caused you much trouble. So, they have to be dealt with in time. Otherwise, slowly and gradually they will cause you pains; they will cause you labour loss. That is why Solomon says let us catch them; let us deal with them in time before they cause us irreparable damage.

Now how is this applicable to life? It is applicable in the sense that there are seemingly insignificant things that slowly damage our lives, ruin our relationships and limit us in life. The word of God refers to them as little foxes, which need to be caught. In other words, we need to give them the right attention and deal with them before they slowly and gradually destroy us.

As we all know, we give attention to acts that are obviously sinful, and rightly so. Talk about adultery, for instance, we give attention to it. We do not want to be caught in its snare. That is because we know what sort of damage it could do to our lives, homes and relationships.

Also, talk about theft, it is obviously sinful. So, we don’t want to be caught in its snare, whether in our workplace, neighbourhood, school or anywhere else. That is because we know what sort of damage it could do to our lives and reputation.

What about drunkenness, anger, rage, idolatry? These things are obviously sinful. Because they are obviously sinful, we take steps to avoid them. We don’t want our lives to be associated with them, and rightly so.

But you know there are things that have to do with our attitudes towards life and behavioural patterns. These things may appear insignificant or unimportant. But they are destroying our lives slowly. They are preventing us from moving forward. They are preventing us from enjoying our lives, relationships and homes. They prevent us from enjoying the goodness of God that have been freely and graciously bestowed on us. They are referred to as little foxes. And we need to catch them. We need to deal with them. Otherwise, they will be the reason we do not become the people God wants us to be, the reason we don’t end up doing the things God wants us to do.

Now I will pick some of these things for you, things that you can refer to as little foxes in your life that you need to catch, that you need to deal with. As I said before, these are not obvious sins. If you are jealous, for instance, that is something obvious for you to deal with. In fact, people can place their fingers on the fact that you are jealous and need to do something about it.

In like manner, if you are a bitter person, you can’t forever hide it. That is because it will show in the way you talk. It may even show on your face that you are overflowing with bitterness. And unless you do not want to tell yourself the truth about it, you will know that it is there and needs to be dealt with.

But the things that we are dealing with now are so seemingly insignificant that we hardly pay attention to them. For example, nonchalance or indifference is a little fox. And it is something that can slowly and gradually destroy your life or relationships. It will put you where should not be in life. It will hinder your experience of God’s favour, your advancement and your elevation in life. And until you deal with it, it will keep you stagnant in life.

Now what is nonchalance? It is indifference. You are confronted with something important, but your attitude towards it is that of indifference. Regardless of how important a matter is, regardless of what people say about it, you are nonchalant. You may tell yourself that you are just someone that does not like to worry. But there is a big difference between anxiety and nonchalance.

Yes, we can have an anxious person, someone that is anxious about a lot of things, what he wants to do or sort out. And the word of God already warns us against anxiety. That is because anxiety will not solve any problem. It will only weaken you.

But there is nonchalance. And it is worse than anxiety. Here is something important that you need to do. And someone is drawing your attention to the fact that you need to deal with it. But you are indifferent towards it. Or you are doing something wrong and someone is drawing your attention to it. But you say, “The deed has been done. Why, then, are you still talking about it? Just let it rest. I have heard you.” What is the problem? You are probably nonchalant. And because you are nonchalant, you will not take any step to deal with the matter concerned until everything will blow up in your face.

Now your nonchalance can be towards natural things or towards spiritual things. For instance, Esau was nonchalant towards spiritual things. He was indifferent towards them. Look at what is said about him in Genesis, chapter 25, from verse 29:

“Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom. ) Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.” (Genesis 25:29-34NIV)

What was the problem with Esau? Nonchalance! He indeed came home hungry that day. But he brought himself home. He did not die on the way. So, he could have waited for another thirty minutes or one hour to cook for himself. But he would not.

Then, of all the things that Jacob could have asked him to give to him for his stew, he asked for his birthright. He did not ask for money. He did not ask for gold. He did not ask for some of the meat he had brought home. Instead, he asked for his birthright. And for what? For a plate of stew! It was not for silver or gold or a landed property somewhere. Rather, it was for a plate of soup. How indifferent could Esau get?

The man said, “What is birthright? I am about to die here. What good, then, is the birthright to me? Give me a plate of soup!” So, Jacob said, “You have to swear it.” And he too went on to swear an oath, transferring his birthright to him. That means, from that day, Jacob became the elder brother and he became the younger brother.

Now what did Esau do to become the elder brother? Nothing! That position was given to him as a gift from God. Nobody does anything to become the firstborn. It is just a gift. Yet, back then and even today, if they will share a parent’s inheritance, they will naturally want to give the eldest child a larger portion than the others. And what has he done to be treated like that? Nothing! It is a product of God’s gift.

But Esau sold his own birthright. The bible says that he sat down, ate, got up and then left. He left like that and did not feel anything. It did not occur to him that he had mortgaged his future and that of his descendants. It did not occur to him that he had sold the inheritance of his descendants through his nonchalance. No wonder the bible refers to him as godless in Hebrews 12.

Sadly, someone like that may say, “It is just that I do not like to worry about life.” But you need to differentiate between being anxious and being nonchalant. They are two different things. You need to be serious with life, which is the point I am making. You need to be serious with whatever you are doing. You must not be nonchalant about your life. You must not be nonchalant about your work, trade or education.

Why are some students failing in life? The reason is that they are nonchalant. The results are out. But where are you? The lowest of credits or pass! Then you look at your results and say, “Well, man will not die. What can I do or say? Life continues!” So, you walk away, not moved, not shaken, not remorseful. You don’t go to your room to sit down and ask yourself, “What did I miss? Did I travel to study here only to fail?” That is different from being anxious. That is facing your reality.

I am not talking about crying or weeping here. This will not change anything. This is telling yourself the truth. This is telling yourself, “How did I make this mess? How did I get here? What is wrong with me? What must I do not to make this kind of mess again?” But a nonchalant person will not reason like that. Instead, he will freely go and play with his friends, saying, “Life must go on.” He is nonchalant. See him the future, he will be a failure. You can take that for granted.

So, don’t be nonchalant. If your business is not working, fix it and don’t be nonchalant about it. If you have problems with your relationship with your parent, deal with them. Don’t treat them as non-important. Some will have health issues that are slowly killing or destroying them. But they will not deal with them. They may simply say, “I just don’t want to worry about them.” That is the way of a nonchalant person.

Now, of course, an anxious person will simply be anxious about their health issues. That is not to say that he is taking any serious and objective step about them. But a serious person will take steps to fix them, while a nonchalant person will not do a thing about them until they destroy them.

See, a nonchalant person can easily destroy a relationship. That is because you will be the one pushing them. You will be the one doing their worrying for them. You will be the one telling them what to do and what not to do. You will be the one saying, “This thing is killing you and you need to do something about it.” Yet all they will say is, “Don’t worry. Let us leave it like that. It won’t get me into trouble.” But all the circumstances around are saying that the problem at them will get them into trouble. Yet they will say, “Let us leave things as they are.” They are nonchalant.

Well, as I said before, it does not matter whether your nonchalance is towards spiritual things or natural things, it is a little fox that will destroy you slowly and gradually. You may not notice the damage that it is doing to your life right away. But it is already destroying your life. And the day you will find out what degree of damage it has done to you, it may be too late.

It is just like cancer. It destroys people’s bodies slowly and gradually. That is the problem with cancer. It is something that destroys people’s bodies slowly and gradually. When it first appears, it may look like there is no cause for worry. It may not inhibit you in any way or prevent you from doing your normal activities. But gradually and slowly it is killing you. And before you know it, it will have rendered you completely useless; it will have rendered you immobile. To fix it, then, may take your entire life’s fortune.

So, if you are nonchalant, you need to deal with it. We may not easily see this in ourselves. But if you observe that when people draw your attention to something important that you need to handle in your life and you will not handle it, you are nonchalant. It is as simple as that. Or maybe someone says, “You talk too much and need to do something about it,” but you won’t even look at what they say. You are nonchalant and need to change. You need to take life seriously.

God wants you to take life seriously. He does not want you to be unserious about it. That is why Jesus, for example, says that you should settle any issue you have with your opponent before he takes you to court. Otherwise, when you get there, you may have to use your entire fortunes to solve the problem, which may not even be solved. Is it not better, then, to have the issue resolved before you are taken to court? That is teaching you not to be nonchalant about anything that is important to your life. (Cf. Matthew 5:25-26)

Furthermore, in the church, people are taught all the time to give attention to the word of God and to prayer. And though they hear of the necessity of committing themselves to these things that will build up their faith, what is their attitude towards what they hear? It is that of nonchalance. Some will even say, “We have heard that before. Must someone talk about it again?” You are simply slowing down your own progress. You are slowing down your own advancement. You are weakening yourself.

See, there is no part of the Scripture in which we are encouraged to be nonchalant. On the contrary, we are encouraged in all of them to take life seriously. Paul, in Ephesians 6, tells us to put on the full armour of God so that we can take our stand in the evil day. What is that saying to us? It is saying that we are to take life seriously. The evil day is coming. You may not know when it will come. But you are to make yourself ready for it.

Sadly, you can be nonchalant about that. And you are weakening yourself, if you are like that. You are ruining yourself, you are making yourself vulnerable because you are nonchalant about what is important to your life. Then, at some point, you begin to wonder why others have left you behind, why your life is stagnant, why things are not working for you as they ought to. You have been nonchalant.

Well, the point I making is that if there is anything you need to give attention to in your life, give it the right measure of attention. Don’t sweep it under the carpet. Don’t wave it off. Instead, deal with it. Nonchalance is a little fox. It may not look like it is destroying you. But you will later see that it has been slowly and gradually damaging your life.

There are homes that have been utterly ruined through nonchalance. Someone is continually complaining about something. And the other party will not address it. In the beginning, it may not look like anything serious. But at some point, it may ruin everything.

Also, there are people that have been sacked in their workplaces because of nonchalance. They have been warned severally about attitudes or behaviours that they need to drop. But they will not pay attention. They may say, “But this is not a serious thing.” Then, at some point, when their organisations could not condone their nonsense again, they laid them off. They may go out there and begin to say that they were treated unfairly. But the truth is that it was their nonchalance that ruined them. They did not give attention to what they needed to give attention to.

So, let there be nothing in your life that you are supposed to pay attention to that you will not pay attention to. Let there be nothing in your life that you need to readily fix that you will not fix. Important things should be important to you. Anything that is important should be made important to you. If something is important and you are treating it as insignificant, you are nonchalant. And that thing will slowly destroy you. It will be clear to you someday that that thing has been destroying you all along. It is just that you have not been paying attention.

Now another little fox is procrastination. It may not look like a weakness. But it is. It may not look like something that can take a lot from you. But it can take a lot from you. It has, in fact, taken a lot from many people. And here we are talking about a deferring of what needs to be done. You just keep pushing to the future what needs to be done now.

Why do you have to push to the future what needs to be done now? What do you want to do with that time? This should be done now. This should be addressed now. Yet you want to push it to the future. But you don’t even know what that future holds. That is the problem. Yes, you are going to do it later. But what is going to happen later? Do you know? You only know of what has happened and what is readily happening. But you don’t know what will happen in the future.

Talking about the future, that is one hour’s time. I hope you know that. The future is today’s evening. That is what I am talking about. I am not talking about two or three years from now. Three years from now is, of course, the future. Ten years from now is the future. But one hour from now is the future as well. It is my future. It is your future. And do you know what will happen then?

Two hours from now, go and read the news, and you will be amazed at the sort of things that will have happened in the world. I am speaking now in Nigeria. This is few minutes to nine in the morning. And I am saying that you should read the news in the next two hours. You will be amazed at the nature of events that will have taken place in the world.

Well, my point is that to know the future takes divine revelations. That is one of the things Solomon is very clear about in Ecclesiastes. So, if you have the moment, why do you push what you need to do now to the future? Why procrastinate? Even in helping people, Solomon says that if you have what they need with you right away, don’t ask them to come for it tomorrow. Why? You do not know what can happen between now and tomorrow. Why don’t you do what you have to do now? Why do you have to push it to the future? This is why some people end up doing nothing significant for themselves all through their lives. (Cf. Proverbs 3:28)

Why do students often get worked up during their examinations? That is because they keep pushing the studying of their books to the future. You learn something today. Instead of going over it today, making sure you master everything you have been taught today, you will leave it till tomorrow. But more knowledge will be added tomorrow. That is how you will keep piling up knowledge without considering how much of it you really understand and are able to reproduce. Then, when it is clear that examinations are coming, he will try to go over everything he has been learning in months in few hours. And he expects to do well with that. It will not happen?

Why do some artisans keep making excuses to their clients? Often, the reason is procrastination. They keep piling up jobs that they are supposed to readily work on. They may say, “This will be ready in two weeks.” But as long as they keep piling up jobs, will anything be ready? No!

But I am asking, “What do you do with that time, the time you are supposed to use in working?” Why do you have to push what you are supposed to do now to the future? What do you want to do with that time? Often, that time is used for pleasure, to do something unimportant, something irrelevant? Maybe you want to spend more time with your friends or you want to spend more time watching a movie. Or you want to spend more time on the social media.

Now because of insignificant things you are pushing what is important to the future. What are you doing? You are limiting yourself. You are weakening yourself. This will affect your fruitfulness in life. It will affect your usefulness. You must understand that you don’t have all the time to do whatever you are meant to do.

Solomon says that there is time for everything. So, you do not have the luxury of procrastinating. Anything you are supposed to do now must be done now. As this is in the realm of the natural so it is in the realm of the spirit. Why, for instance, do many Christians end up not praying every day? Procrastination! They will say, “I will pray in the afternoon.” But they don’t know how busy they will be in the afternoon. Then when all kinds of things start coming up in the afternoon, they will end up not praying. So, they will tell themselves that they will do so in the evening. And in the evening, unexpected visitors may show up at home. Then they end up not praying that day.

The same thing is applicable to studying the word of God. They keep pushing it to the future. They do not know that, for most people, if they do not study the word of God in the morning, they may not get the chance to study it that day again. It does not matter how hard you labour to study it, you may not just be able to do so. That is because all kinds of things will start showing up that will make it impossible for you to do so. That is how days will turn to weeks, weeks will turn to months and months may turn to years, without any serious studying the word of God for yourself, for your own life and not for preaching purposes. And you wonder why you are not growing in the things of God. You wonder words are still caustic. You wonder why your life is not getting better. The reason is that you are not committing yourself to the things you are supposed to commit yourself to. And it is not that you cannot commit yourself to these things. It is just that you have a culture of procrastinating.

In Saint John’s gospel, chapter 9, verse 4, we are told this:

“As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” (John 9:4NIV)

This is the Lord talking, saying that He must do the works of the one that sent Him while it is day. Why? According to Him, the reason is that night is coming when no one can work. In other words, there is no room for procrastination. So, whatever I need to do now has to be done now.

Why is it difficult for many young people to do many things at the same time? Procrastination! They will not do the things they are supposed to do readily when they should be done. So, you cannot saddle them with several tasks. That is because they keep pushing things to the future. And by doing so, they are continually making themselves irresponsible.

In any case, my point is that you should make it your culture to do now whatever you are supposed to do now. Yes, whatever you are supposed to readily do, do it readily. Do not procrastinate. Don’t use the time you are supposed to work for pleasure. Last week, we read from Proverbs 6 where Solomon tells us to learn from the ant. And one of the things to learn from the ant is that it does not procrastinate. If there are crumbs of food to pick somewhere, the ant will pick them readily. It won’t waste time about it or push its doing to the future.

In that same Proverbs 6, Solomon speaks of ‘a little sleep’, ‘a little slumber’ and ‘a little folding of the arms to rest’. That means you are not supposed to be sleeping or resting when you are supposed to be working, if you are not sick. Don’t say, “I am going to do it later,” when you are supposed to study. Don’t say, “I am going to do it later,” when there are calls or decisions you are supposed to make. Whatever you are supposed to do now, do it now. Otherwise, you are going to overwhelm yourself. Then you will find yourself breaking down, when you should be standing tall.

Some will say, “The work is just too much for me.” How did the work become too much for you? How? If you have been doing everything you are supposed to do when you are supposed to do it, will the work ever become too much for you?

What are we talking about? We are talking about the little foxes that ruin the vineyards. We are talking about those little things, those seemingly insignificant things that are limiting our usefulness, fruitfulness and advancement in life. Those are the things we are talking about. We are saying that we should begin to pay attention to them, so that we can deal with them. And we have looked at two of them this morning. The first is nonchalance. The second is procrastination, which will lead us to looking at ‘inability to prioritise’. We will not look at that this morning. But you need to deal with the ones that we have looked at. Otherwise, they can make you continually increase in uselessness. You will find yourself to be useless to yourself, useless to your world. And if you are useless in that manner, how can be useful to God?

Let us pray.

Copyright © 2026 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)

By: Johnson O. Lawal

Series: Single sermons

This morning, as we know, we will be reviewing our ‘House of prayer’ bulletin. So, I will just share with you briefly from the Scriptures and we will start the review. Now I want to share with you about the need for you to take charge of your life. This, of course, may sound somehow in the ears. But God wants you to take charge of your life. He is, indeed, your creator and the overseer of your life. That, however, does not mean that you are a machine or a robot. You are not a machine or a robot. Therefore, you cannot be waiting for God to operate you. You have to take charge of your life. God created you to take charge of your life.

Now we see this revealed to us from the very beginning. In the book of Genesis, we see that man was created to take charge. Man was created to have dominion over the things God has created. But for him to exercise dominion over what God has created, he must first exercise dominion over himself – he must rule himself. Of course, he is not rule himself apart from God; rather, he is to rule himself on the basis of God’s provisions for him. But he must rule himself. He must exercise dominion or control over himself. Otherwise, he cannot exercise control over the things God has placed under his care.

Mind you, the bible speaks about the gift or the fruit of self-control. What is the point of God giving humanity the ability to exercise self-control, if He does not want them to control or take charge of themselves? The essence of self-control is that we might take charge of ourselves or possess ourselves. Until we possess ourselves, we cannot possess the situations of our lives. We cannot handle them as God expects us to do.

Well, I am saying to you this morning that God expects you to handle the situations of your life. He expects you to take charge of the circumstances of your life, so that they will begin to run in your favour and not against you. Since the fall of man, life has become unfair. So, you are not to expect the circumstances of life to readily work in your favour. They may never readily work in your favour. The situations of your life may never readily work in your favour. That is because the world has changed. The world is no longer what it used to be when God created and formed it.

Nevertheless, God wants us to become the persons He has made us to be. And He wants us to do the things He has made us to do. That means, regardless of the circumstances of our lives, regardless of the things we are faced with in life, God wants us to be the people He wants us to be and to do the things we are supposed to do. Let me show you what Paul says to us in Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 14:

“This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”” (Ephesians 5:14NIV)

Who is this addressed to? Believers! Who is the command to wake up coming to? The believer! It is coming to us. We are the ones to wake up. If you have been sleeping, wake up. Evidently, Paul is not talking about the normal sleep we have at night or when we are tired physically. Rather, he is talking about something spiritual. He is talking about a situation in which your life is sleeping. And he is saying you need to wake up and rise from the dead. Then Christ will shine on you.

Now he goes on from verse 15 to say this:

“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15-16NIV)

A lot is said to us in these two verses. First, Paul says be very careful, then, how you live. That means watch how you live. Watch how you conduct yourself, not as unwise but as wise. God wants you to live as a wise person and not as a foolish person. That is why He says take care how you live. This is something you are to do for yourself, not what someone else will do for you. I am the one to watch how I am living my life. I am the one to see to it that I am not living like a foolish person. That is because I can live like a foolish person. Any of us can live as a foolish person.

There are many in the world today that are living like foolish persons. The steps they are taking are foolish steps. The decisions they are making for themselves are foolish decisions. They are decisions that will lead their lives to ruin. So, you have a job, which is to watch yourself, to watch how you conduct your life, seeing to it that you are not living like a foolish person but like a wise person.

Furthermore, Paul says you are to make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. There is a declaration to us here that the days are evil. Paul does not say that the days are good; rather, he says that the days in which we are living are evil days. That, of course, is not to say that there is no good in any day. But we are not told that any day is a good day. What we are told is that every day is a bad day. Every day is an evil day. You may not witness much of the evil of a day. That does not mean that evil is not happening. Evil is happening everywhere in the world.

Yes, you should be thanking God that not much of the evil of each day is coming to you. Remember that even our Lord Jesus says that every day is loaded with evil. That is why He tells us not to worry about tomorrow. We are not to worry about it because every day has enough evil of its own. You, then, don’t need to import tomorrow’s evil into today. Today’s evil is enough for it. (Cf. Matthew 6:34)

Nevertheless, we are told that each evil day is also a day of opportunities. Each day also has its own measure of God’s goodness and favour. And we are commanded in the Scriptures to make the most of the opportunities of each evil day. Whose job is that? It is my job. It is your job. That is why we must take charge.

Everyday is a day of opportunity for you to come closer to your dreams. It is a day of opportunity for you to become the person God wants you to be. Each day will present you with opportunities to do the will of God, opportunities to become a better person, opportunities to rise and shine. But you have to know that it is your job to recognise these opportunities and make the most of them.

So, do not think that the circumstances of every day you come into will be readily favourable. They may not be readily favourable. I would not know how favourable the circumstances of your life may be at the moment. But the word of God says that regardless of those circumstances, regardless of the evils that may be present in the days in which you are living, you can still be the person He wants you to be and do the things He wants you to do. What do you need for that to happen? You need to take charge. You need to recognise that there are opportunities in each day for you to be the person God wants you to be and to do the things He wants you to do.

Well then, first, you must know what to do with your life every passing moment. The most important day of your life is today, not yesterday, not tomorrow. And the most important moment you have is now. What you do now is what will determine what you will be or where you will be, even this evening, not to talk about tomorrow? It is this moment that you can seize. You may not be able to seize the whole day. You may not be able to seize the week. You may not be able to seize the month. But if you do well with each passing moment, you will do well with the whole of your life. If you are messing up each passing moment, what will happen at the end of your life? You will have messed up.

So, you must know what to do with your life each passing moment. And you must be willing to do whatever you must do with your life to make the most of each passing moment. This is your job, not God’s job. Yes, there is a place for divine revelations in all this. But it is first of all your job to seek divine revelations to know what to do each passing moment. There is also a place for divine provisions in all this. But then, again, it is also on you to seek divine provisions each passing moment, for your life to be what it is meant to be and where it is meant to be.

Let me also share something with you from Proverbs, chapter 6, from verse 6:

“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” (Proverbs 6:6-8NIV)

Remember that Paul tells us to watch how we live our lives, not as fools but as wise people, making the most of every moment. And here we are told to go and learn from the ant and be wise. What are we to learn from the ant in order to be wise? It is that fact that it is in charge of its life. That is what you are to learn from the ant.

Now look at the ant. It has no commander, no overseer or ruler. In other words, there is no one dictating to the ant what to do. The ant is waiting for nobody to tell it what to do. That is what you are to learn from it and be wise. Truly, it has no commander, overseer or ruler. Yet it is in charge of its life. Yet it is running its own affairs.

The ant has enough sense to store its provisions and gathers its food at harvest. Nobody teaches the ant when or where to look for food. Nobody teaches the ant to save for the raining day. Even though it has no commander, ruler or overseer, it is in charge of its life. The ant is always seizing opportunities. If crumbs of bread fall off your table, the ant will be there to pick them up. Is it going to eat everything all at once? No!

But the ant has no brain. It is a creature of instinct. It does all that it does instinctively. But you have something better than instinct – you have brains. You can think. You can evaluate things. You can consider and judge things. Who, then, should be wiser, the ant or you? Who should be wise, the ant or me? I should be wiser. I have been created to be naturally wiser. But I may not act wiser than the ant. I will not readily act wiser than the ant, if I will not drive myself.

Therefore, the word of God says that you need to drive yourself. You need to master your life. You are not to wait for anybody to master it for you, if you have come of age. Children may need people to guide them, to tell them when to take their bath, to tell them when to brush their mouths, to tell them when to read or eat, to tell them all kinds of things. But if you have come of age, you don’t need that. Instead, you need to take charge of your life. Don’t wait for anybody to tell you what to do before you know what to do and begin to do it. It is your job to find out what to do. It is your job to find out what to do each passing moment.

Of course, you cannot do this alone – you need divine revelations, as I said before. And divine revelations are available, if you will seek them. If you will give yourself to the word of God, you will get divine revelations. If you will give yourself to prayer, you will get divine revelations.

But you cannot wait for anyone to drive you along that path. You have to do it yourself. This is what you are made for. You are made to take charge. As I told you before, in Genesis 1 we see that man was made to take charge. So, you cannot be making excuses about the circumstances of your life that are not favourable. That is because the word of God already tells us that those circumstances may not be favourable. His word already tells us that in spite of the circumstances, we are to live like wise people.

Therefore, you cannot be using your life’s circumstances that are unfavourable as your excuse for failing, as your excuse for not becoming the person God wants you to be. Unfavourable circumstances may keep piling up against you. Yet you cannot use them as your excuse for failing. What God expects you to do is to take charge and tell yourself, “In spite of these circumstances, I am winning. In spite of these circumstances, I am victorious, I will become the persons God wants me to be and do the things He wants me to do. Nothing will stop me. Nothing will hinder me. I refuse to recognise obstacles or challenges or hindrances. I am going to subdue them.”

What did God tell us in the beginning? He told us to subdue the earth. Truly, He put all kinds of beautiful things here on earth for us. But did He bring them out for us? No! Who is to find them out? We are to find them out? When we did not discover electricity, did God bring it out? No! When we did not invent the GSM, did God invent it for us? No! But when decided to work on these things, did He stop us? No!

So, He is not going to stop you from taking charge of your life, if you are going to do so. What He will not accept is your taking charge without Him. You cannot master the circumstances of your life without Him. But He expects you to master them.

Do you know what is said about the men of Issachar that came to David? It is said that they understood the times and knew what Israel ought to be doing. Those were men of understanding. And this is intentionally placed in Scriptures for us, so that we too will know that we need to understand the times, that we need to understand what to be doing with our lives each passing moment. (Cf. 1 Chronicles 12:32)

Well, I have been telling you to master your life and see to it that you become the person God wants you to be and also do the things He wants you to do, in spite of your circumstances. How do you do that? First, you must want to be the person God wants you to be. You must want nothing less. You must tell yourself, “I am not going for anything less than what God wants for me.”

Then you need to know what God wants you to be. How do you know that? Give yourself to the word of God! Someone may say, “Why is he talking about that again?” Well, the reason is that it is just the way to go about it. You have to give yourself to His word. His word will guide you into what is best for you. His word will open your eyes to see the things you need to see. His word will make you adequate for life. The bible says His word is able to make man thoroughly furnished for every good work. So, give yourself to the word of God. (Cf. 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Also, give yourself to prayer. You want to continually receive divine revelations of God’s plans for you, of God’s provisions for you, give yourself to prayer. This is what you must do, not what someone else will do for you. Yes, you may have people praying for you. But their prayers cannot take the place of the prayers you offer for yourself. In fact, nobody can pray for you better than you can pray for yourself. That is because no one apart from God knows you better than yourself.

In addition, be willing to work. The word of God says that whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might. It is not enough to know what to do. It is not enough to know where God’s provisions for you are. You need to be willing to work, to seize the moment. So, you must put laziness aside; you must put slothfulness aside. Be willing to do that which you know is right for you to do. The bible says that the one who knows what to do but doesn’t do it sins. It is a sin, then, for you to be lazy. It is a sin for you to know the right thing to do and not do it. So, you must be willing to work; you must be willing to drive yourself. (Cf. Ecclesiastes 9:10; James 4:17)

Finally, keep the right company. In Proverbs 13, verse 20, Solomon says walk with the wise and you will be wise; a companion of fools will suffer ruin. So, keep the right company. If you are walking with those who are continually making excuses, before long you too will be making excuses. If you keep as your friends lazy people, it won’t be long before you too may begin to act like a lazy person. If you keep as your companions those who don’t want to drive themselves but who are always waiting for someone to drive them, it won’t be long before you become like them.

Remember the parable of the man that gave his servants talents. What was the problem of the third servant? It was that of waiting for someone to tell him what to do. He had the same amount of time as others. He did not have the same amount of money. But he had the same amount of time. And what did he do with his time? We would not know. But we do know that he waited until his master came to tell him what he should have done. (Cf. Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:12-27)

Now the man had said that the reason he did nothing with the talent that he was given was that he was afraid of losing it. But did he even know what to do with it? He did not know what to do with the money. It was his master that later told him what he could have done with it. He said you could have given it to the bankers and would have had it back with interests. So, he wasted the time he had. He wasted the opportunity he had. He wasted the money he had.

But did he have to fail like that? No! Evidently, he did not stay in the company of the other two servants. All three of them were servants of the same master. And the first servant went, worked the five talents he had been given and multiplied the money. The second person did the same. If he had asked them, “How are you going about this? How are you able to multiply the money you were given?” they would have taught him things that would help him. But he did not walk with the wise. Who, then, was he walking with? Fools like himself!

So, choose the right companions for yourself. Don’t choose lazy or slothful people as your companions. Don’t choose people who will not use their heads as your companions. Instead, choose people who are wise. And before long you will start manifesting wisdom in taking charge of your life.

In any case, the word of God to you this morning is take charge of your life – don’t let your life sleep. Don’t let your life become redundant or stagnant. And if it has been sleeping, wake it up. The word says, “Wake up, oh sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Let us pray.

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By: Johnson O. Lawal

Series: Has your love grown cold?

For a while we have been looking at ‘Has your love grown cold?’ We have actually looked at a number of things on it and I believe it is about time we brought everything to a close. But then, let me remind us of some of the things we have said to ourselves. We began by looking at what Jesus says in Saint Matthew’s gospel, chapter 24, from verse 12, which says:

“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:12-13NIV)

That is Jesus talking to us and telling us the possibility of our love for God growing cold in the last days. He says because there will be increase of wickedness in the world, there is a tendency that our love for God will grow cold. Then we looked at signs of love that has grown cold. And don’t assume that your love cannot grow cold. We must not assume that this is not applicable to us. We have to continually check ourselves to see if our love for God is increasing or is growing cold. If our love for God is not increasing, then, it is growing cold or has grown cold. So, we have to be certain of that. Otherwise, someday we will find ourselves where we never thought we could be.

Today, we see some who used to be very serious Christians but who are no longer so. We see individuals who were once pastors but who now speak against everything they stood for. We may feel sorry for them. We may even get angry with them. But the point is that it can happen to any of us. The reason this has probably not happened to us is that we are enjoying the grace of God. But it is important that we position ourselves in our walk with God where our love for Him will not grow cold but continually increase.

Well, we spoke about signs of love that has grown cold. The first is loss of interest in the word of God. If you have lost interest in the word of God, if you have lost interest in your personal commitment to His word, your love for God is growing cold or has grown cold. If you have also lost interest in prayer, if you are no longer excited about praying by yourself or about joining others to pray, then, something has already gone wrong with your love for God. You may still be attending church meetings. But as long as you are no longer interested in praying to your source, to your maker, something is wrong with your love for Him.

The third thing we spoke about is the loss of interest in the practice of righteousness. When you are no longer interested in the practice of righteousness, when you no longer believe in the practice of righteousness, when you think it is robbing you of something, then, something is wrong with your love for God. And I used some meetings to explain to you why people may lose interest in the practice of righteousness. I talked about the prosperity of the wicked, a delay in the judgment of the wicked and the love of the world.

Now, if you can still remember, I also spent time to talk to you about what the love of the world means. The Spirit of God just led me to share those things with you on the love of the world. You know we often quote this Scripture: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” But the truth is that many of us don’t even know what the love of the world means. And until we know what the love of the world means, we cannot tell whether the love of the world is in us or not. Therefore, I began to break down for us what the love of the world means or represents. I talked about the love of self. I talked about the love of things. I also talked about the love of pleasure. Do you remember these things?

Now the question we have been asking ourselves is ‘Has your love grown cold?’ It is a question for me to answer. It is a question for you to answer. How do I know if my love for God has grown cold? I will have to examine my life in the light of those things I have shared with us. What I am saying is that if you want to know whether your love for God has grown cold or not, you will have to examine your life in the light of the world of God. If you want to know the truth about your life in any way, you need to examine it in the light of the world of God.

See, you cannot tell whether your life is going in the right direction or not by merely observing or just by comparing it with what is going on in the lives of others. The only way to know whether your life is going in the right direction or not is to examine it in the light of the word of God. In like manner, if you want to know whether your love for God has grown cold or is increasing, you will need to examine it in the light of the world.

So, I shared those things with us that we may use them to examine our lives. By using them to examine our lives, we can tell whether our love for God has grown cold or not. I did not share those things with us so that we may just know them. I did not share them with us for informative purposes alone. Yes, it is important that we know them. But we shouldn’t just know them but we should apply them to our situations. In other words, we are to use these things to evaluate our walk with God and to tell whether our love for Him is increasing or growing cold.

Therefore, ask yourself the following: Am I losing interest in the word of God or am I becoming more interested in His word? Am I losing interest in prayer or am I becoming more interested in praying? What about my interest in the practice of righteousness? Am I showing more interest in doing the will of God or am I slowing down or withdrawing from doing His will? Have I come to the point in which I now love the things I used to hate? Or am I expressing indifference to towards what is wrong?

You know that you can come to a point where you express indifference towards the things that are wrong. I am talking about a situation in which you are no longer able to freely say, “Oh, this is wrong.” Before you used to say that certain things were wrong. But now you are not confident again to say that they are wrong. What has changed in you?

The truth is that everyday the happenings in the world are affecting us. And as I told you before, don’t deceive yourself by thinking that the things happening in the world are not affecting you. The news you hear, the things you see, the things you experience, all of them are affecting you. To what extent they affect you is another thing entirely. But they are affecting you. What will determine the extent to which they affect you, however, is your devotion to God.

Remember the 23rd Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul…” Do you know what it means to have your soul restored? It means the Lord keeps bringing you back. That is what it means. There is no day in which your soul does not want to stray. There is no day that your soul does not want to go in the wrong direction, perhaps because of something you see or hear or happening around you. But your soul is restored by the Lord; you are brought back from that wrong direction that you want to follow.

Well, I am making a point here, which is that we need to use the things I have been talking about to examine ourselves and see to what extent the things happening in our world are affecting us, so that we will not surprise ourselves someday. So, you need to examine yourself in the light of the word of God to see whether your love for God has grown cold or not. It is only by examining ourselves in the light of His word that we can tell whether we are going in the right direction or not. The only way to tell whether we will eventually reach the goal of our faith is to continually examine ourselves in the light of the world of God. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 5, Paul says this:

“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5NIV)

What is the instruction here? It is that we are to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. Observe that Paul does not say we are to examine ourselves to see whether we are still in the faith. Rather, he says that we are to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. Are you in the faith at all? Are you where you think you are? Are you who you think you are? Do you even have a relationship with God or are you deceiving yourself all along?

It is possible for someone to be deceiving himself or to have been deceiving himself all along. And if you have been deceiving yourself, a time is coming when it will show that you have been deceiving yourself all along. It will become clear to you and, of course, to everyone around you at that time that you have been deceiving yourself all along. Then you will become eventually tired, tired of lying to yourself, tired of living a hypocritical life, tired of giving everybody the impression that you are a child of God when you are not. When you come to that point, you will show yourself for who you are. You will remove all the façade. You will remove all the cosmetics. And everyone will see you for who you are.

Some have already done that. They have shown that they have never been believers. Before they were pretending that they were children of God. But at some point, they got tired of pretending. They came out in the open to show themselves as unbelievers, to show that they have never belonged to God at all.

Well, here, we are told to test ourselves to see whether we are in the faith, to see where we are standing. And as I said, it is the same thing we need to do, if we want to know whether our love for God has grown cold or not. We need to test ourselves with the word of God. And having tested yourself with the word of God, you need to embrace the truth that the word of God is telling you about yourself.

A lot of times, it is difficult for us to embrace the truth that we are being confronted with, not even by others but by ourselves. If you can embrace the truth that you are confronting yourself with, it will probably not be hard for you to embrace the truth others confront you with. But if you often find it difficult to embrace the truth that you are confronting yourself with, it will be hard for you to embrace the truth others may confront you with.

So, if your life has grown cold, you need to accept the truth about it. If you have lost interest, for example, in the word of God, you need to tell yourself the truth about it. If listening to the word of God bores you, you need to tell yourself the truth about it. This is how to redeem yourself, if I may say that.

See, one of the main reasons people totally forsake God or the Christian faith is that they will not tell themselves the truth about what they are experiencing or facing. Does listening to the word of God bore you? Do you see listening to His word, reading the word of God or listening to sermons as a necessary evil or as something that will build your life?

Moses, while speaking to the children of Israel before they entered the Promised Land, said, “These words I am sharing with you are not some idle words; they are your life.” The word of God is your life. The word of God is my life. His word is our life. We have no life apart from the word of God. That is why Jesus says, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” The word of God is our life. It is more important that the air we bring in. (Cf. Deuteronomy 32:47; Matthew 4:4)

We often say that air is life. But there is something greater than air. That is the word of God. That is because that word created the air we breathe in. No wonder Job says, “I cherish your word more than my daily food.” That ought to be your attitude to the word of God. If that is not your attitude towards His word, something is wrong, then, with your attitude to His word. It is indicative that your love for Him is diminishing. (Cf. Job 23:12)

When what being a Christian means dawns on you, among the first things that will happen is that your hunger for the word of God will increase. You will want to consume His word. You will want to take in as much of His word as possible. But if at this moment that hunger is no longer there, if your devotion to studying His word, to reading the word of God and to meditating on His word is no longer as it used to be or is now reserved for only those times that it is convenient for you to do or does not excite you again, then, something is wrong with your love for Him. And you need to admit it. You need to tell yourself the truth about it. You need to tell yourself that something is wrong with your love for Him and the situation needs to be arrested. Otherwise, your hunger for His word will continue to decrease until there is no hunger for His word in you again. That, of course, is when Satan will eventually get you where he can completely ruin you.

See, the most important thing that Satan wants to steal from you is the word of God. Satan is a thief. But stealing your money or health or relationships or any other thing from you is not as important to him as stealing the word of God from you. That is because he knows that the word of God is your life and that once he steals the word of God from you, he has already stolen your life.

Remember the parable of the sower that Jesus shares. He speaks about the seed that fell along the path and how the birds of the air came and ate it up. Then, in explaining the parable, He says that when someone hears the word of God and doesn’t understand it, Satan comes and steals it from the person. Why is Satan interested in stealing the word of God? Why should he be interested in stealing the word of God? The reason is that he knows that if the word of God settles in you, it will bear fruit and make you the kind of person God wants you to be. And if you become the kind of person God wants you to be, you will be able to fix or handle him, any day and any time.

So, if Satan will continue to have an edge over you, if he must continue to exercise dominion over you, he must take away from you as much of the word of God as he can. How do you resist the devil? With what do you resist the devil? Is it not with the word of God? You, then, need to deal with that.

In like manner, if you have lost interest in praying, if it has become boring to you, you need to tell yourself the truth about it. If prayer has become a necessary evil to you, you need to tell yourself the truth about it. You wake up in the morning to pray but can’t pray. You try to pray at night, but it won’t work. Or you pray for like five minutes and sleep off. Then you try to pray in the middle of the night. But can’t handle it. Once you pray for like three minutes, you are sleeping.

Furthermore, you come for a church meeting to pray but cannot even focus. Something just has to distract you. Actually, if I want to tell whether someone has been a person of prayer or not, I will just watch their attitude during congregation prayer meetings. I will watch their degree of concentration. Some people just have to find an assignment for themselves during prayer meetings, so that they will not participate.

Of course, once in a while, we may need to step out of a prayer meeting to attend to something else. But if it is something legitimate we are attending to, everyone will see it for what it is. However, if it is has become a culture for you to excuse yourself from prayer meetings or to excuse yourself from a prayer moment to do something else, then, something is wrong with your love for God.

I often tell myself that I don’t have any other source but God. He is the source of everything that I need and that I have. Why, then, will I not want to pray to Him? If my life is going in the right direction, I want to pray to Him, so that it won’t go in the wrong direction. And if my life is going in the wrong direction, He is still the one I want to pray to, so that it can be led back in the right direction. If all things are going well for me, I pray and thank Him. That is because what is good can become bad. And if I don’t want that, I have to keep praying to the one with the power to keep the good things in my life from becoming bad.

Good things can become bad. And bad things can become good or worse. If what is bad is not treated, it will grow worse. It will not become better by itself. So, I have to pray to the one that can make what is bad good for me and what is good better for me. And since I don’t have any other source, I have to keep on praying to Him. But I wouldn’t know about you. I cannot not pray, for I don’t have any other source apart from God.

The bible says that the eyes of God run to and fro the earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him (2 Chronicles 16:9). Think about that. He wants to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully, not partially, devoted to Him. In other words, He wants to prove Himself strong on behalf of those who don’t see any other source but Him in their lives. If such people have problems, they turn to God. If things are good for them, they also turn to Him in thanksgiving. So, He sees it as His obligation to make His power known to them.

But if your interest in prayer is no longer strong and if, for any reason, you will excuse yourself from a prayer meeting or a prayer moment, then, something is wrong with your love for God. You don’t need to lie about it to yourself. And this is not just about church prayer meetings but also about the prayer periods you have set for yourself. Don’t give yourself any excuse for not being consistent in observing them. Sadly, some people will excuse themselves from the prayer moments they have scheduled for themselves for any reason and every reason. Then they will tell themselves that God will understand. And truly, God will understand. There is nothing that God does not understand. If a life is messed up, God understands how it has become messed up. But that life is messed up already.

Furthermore, if you have lost interest in the practice of righteousness, you need to deal with it. Yes, you need to tell yourself the truth about it. One of the things that kept Lot in Sodom was that he would not tell himself the truth about what was happening to him there. And Peter tells us in his second epistle, chapter 2, that this man’s soul was daily tortured in Sodom. That was because of the things he heard and saw there. The things he saw tortured him. The things he heard tortured him.

You must have known something of this kind of torture. You heard something in the news and your soul was tortured by it. So, you asked, “How can something like this be happening in a place where there is a government?” Don’t you know something of this kind of torture?

Well, Lot’s soul was tortured everyday in Sodom. But he would not leave there. Why? The reason was that he would not tell himself the truth about what Sodom was doing to him and his family. Sodom was destroying him. Yet even on the day that the angels of the Lord wanted to save him, he was hesitant about leaving Sodom. That is how bad it can be for us. These angels wanted to save him. In fact, they told him to save himself by running out of Sodom. But he was hesitant. So, they had to literally drag him, his wife and his daughters out of the place in order to save them. They dragged them out of that place that was already marked for destruction. And according to the bible, that happened because God was being merciful to them. May He be merciful to you too. May He drag you out of the wrong place. We really can be persistent in staying in the wrong place. We can stubbornly want to stay where our lives will be utterly ruined or messed up. (Cf. Genesis 19)

Well, you need to tell yourself the truth, if your love for God is growing cold or has grown cold. Until you tell yourself the truth about it, there can’t be recovery – you cannot recover. In Revelation, chapter 2, we are told this:

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.” (Revelation 2:1-3NIV)

The Lord commends the church in Ephesus for being steadfast, for persevering, for holding on to the truth and for working hard. So, if you are working hard in the kingdom of God, the Lord will commend you. He sees what each of us is doing. If you are faithful, He can see it. If you are not faithful, He can see it. There is nothing you are up to that He does not see. He knows my works. He knows your works. Nothing you are doing is hidden from Him.

Well, as we can see in this text, the Lord commends this church through their pastor. The word translated ‘angel’ in the passage can also be translated as ‘messenger’. So, the Lord is not addressing an angelic being here but a human messenger or leader of the church in Ephesus. And the church is first commended by Him for their hard work and other beautiful things they are doing.

But then, He goes on from verse 4 of the same chapter of the book of Revelation to say:

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (Revelation 2:4-5NIV)

Look at the way the Lord addresses this church. First, He commends them – He praises them. So, if you are doing well in any area of your life, He will commend you. Even if you have some wrong things in your life, the Lord will not condemn you altogether because of them. Instead, He will first praise you for the things you are doing right before placing His fingers on what you are doing that is wrong. He will not condemn you totally, for that is not how to encourage people. No wonder the Lord is the greatest encourager.

Well, the church in Ephesus is a hardworking and persevering church. Yet the Lord says that it has forsaken her first love. And because of that this church is said to have fallen by the Lord. It may not look like this church has fallen, judging by her hard work and other things. But the Lord says that she has fallen and must begin to do the things she did at first.

What, then, is the remedy to recovering our love for God? It is a doing of the things we were doing when we first started our journey with Him. The Lord said that this church should go back to the beginning and start doing the things they were doing before. So, if you have forsaken the word of God, you need to go back to it. Has something gone wrong with your devotion to prayer, go back to it again? Have you lost your love for righteousness? Then go back to your devotion to it? Go back and start doing again the things you were doing before. Otherwise, the Lord may destroy your relevance.

You know that He says in the text that He will take away the lampstand of this assembly, if they will not repent and begin to do the things they were doing before. That means He will take away their relevance where they were. When you have a lampstand where it should be in the house, it will give light to everyone and be considered relevant. But once you take it away and it is no longer able to shine its light to anybody, its relevance disappears with it. That is why this church must begin to do the things she was once doing again.

In any case, our point is that if your love has grown cold for the Lord, you need to pick things up again. Start doing again the things you stopped doing. This will call for wholesome thinking on your part. It will call for a need to seriously examine your life and what you are doing with it. You need to ask yourself if there was any good thing you were doing before that you are no longer doing. That way, you can return to doing it.

As Christians, there are times that we stop doing some good things because some individuals in the church are complaining or not supportive. But who is going to lose? We are the ones that will lose. We are the ones that will lose our relevance in the kingdom of God. Why? Those good things that we were doing before were being done because of our love for God and not because of any man. Why, then, should we stop doing them? And if you have already stopped doing any good thing, you need to go back and start doing it again.

Now perhaps you are saying that you cannot just pick up your hunger for the word of God, prayer or righteousness. Yes, you want to do so. You may even tell yourself that you need to start praying and studying the word of God again, just as you used to do some years ago, when you would wake up in the middle of the night to pray for some hours or to listen to sermons. But you cannot find sufficient hunger to drive you to begin to do so. So, you are asking, “What happened to me? I need to go back.”

Well, though you have been telling yourself that you need to go back and start doing the things you were doing before, you have not gone back. What do you need to do? You need to pray that God will restore your hunger and thirst for Him. Why? Hunger is a gift from God. Thirst is also a gift from God. So, if you don’t have them, talk to Him.

Remember if you don’t have enough appetite for food or drink, there are pills you can use to wake it up. But there are no pills to revive your spiritual appetite, if it is gone. The only pill to doing so is to talk to God. He is the only one that can revive your spiritual hunger and thirst for Him, for His word, for prayer and for righteousness. So, what should you do? Talk to Him. And will you do that this morning?

Copyright © 2026 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)

By: Johnson O. Lawal

Series: Has your love grown cold?

We want to continue from where we left off on ‘Has your love grown cold?’ In our last lesson we began to look at ‘The love of popularity’. And I shared some things with us then as to where true popularity comes from. As I pointed out, the one who makes people popular in every true sense of things is God. God is the one that gives people great names. And He has reasons for doing so. One of them is that He may be glorified. When you see a nobody that He has made great, and you can tell that the person has not become great because of any special ability or skill that he possesses, you can glorify God who has made them great.

Then, as I also said, it is not everyone that God has chosen to have a great name in this world. All of us can be great, for there are different measures of greatness. Among your family members, you may be considered a great person because of your behaviour. Your friends may consider you to be a great person. In your workplace you may be considered as a great person because of the way you conduct yourself. So, greatness is in different measures.

But when we are talking about having a great name, a name that is known the world over, that is a gift from God. Of course, people, out of their love for popularity, may do all kinds of things to have great names. But in the long run, they will realise that they have destroyed themselves. That is why we are warning ourselves from Scriptures to be careful of the love of popularity or fame.

Before I rounded off in the last lesson, I said there are certain things we must take note about popularity. That is because if we don’t take note of those things, we may find ourselves being driven by the love of popularity, which may eventually get us into trouble. It is not everyone that is driven by the love of popularity. That is because people often lose their passion for popularity at some point in their lives.

Growing up, as I equally pointed out last week, most of us desired to be great. And if you are a child, growing up in a real world, listening to news and seeing people around you rise to greatness, you will most likely have all kinds of dreams. Among them may be the dream of becoming great, becoming someone that is well known. But as you grow older and come in contact with life’s realities, you may drop that desire and just become content with living fine. You may tell yourself, “Let me just live my life in quietness. And as long as I can take care of my family and business and my children can attend good schools, I will be fine. I don’t want any loud life.” That can happen. And there are many people that it has happened to.

But then, there are people who want to be great and are not ready to drop that passion. If such people are not careful, their love for popularity may destroy them. And when we are talking about the love of popularity, we are saying that you are ready to do just about anything to become popular. At that point, you don’t care what you do to become famous. You just want to become famous. God may not have chosen a great name for you. But you don’t care.

I said last week that it is not everyone that God has chosen a great name for. And there are reasons for that. I will give you some of them this morning, while you may have to look for others yourself in the bible. Well, I said God may not have chosen a great name for you in the sense of having your name being known the world over. And if you decide to do just anything to make yourself famous, you are bound to ruin yourself, unless you are shown mercy.

It was said about Michael Jackson (and I am not saying this to put him down) that, at the beginning of his career as a singer, he was not well-received. He knew that he had the thing. He knew that he could sing well and that he had abilities that could take him round the world with his songs. He knew that he had the potential to become a household name. But his colour became a limitation to him in the clime in which he grew up. And as far as he was concerned, he could not see how he could break through that limitation that his colour had placed on him.

What, then, did he do? He decided to go for plastic surgery. So, he became a fully white person. And did it work? It worked. You can do something destructive to your soul, and it will work. You can do something that will destroy your faith, and it will work, at least, in the eyes of men.

Well, Michael Jackson’s name went on to become a household name. In fact, his name became known all over the world. But how did he end his life? In the first place, he began to have health issues because of the surgery he had done. And some of them were badly managed. Then he began to have all kinds of lawsuits. He eventually went bankrupt. So, he died a sorrowful man. Someone that had been known all over the world died a very sad person.

So, while nothing is wrong with having a great name, a name that is known the world over, let it be that the one who gives you a great name is God Himself. For He is the one that chooses people for greatness. Greatness is difficult to manage, if you must know. Having a great name is not something that is easy to manage. And if you do not know that, as a child of God, even if you are asking God to make you a great person, you may just be asking for something destructive – you may be asking for a stone for food instead of bread.

Last week, I told you that one of the things you must keep in mind about popularity is that it is bound to fade. It is natural for popularity to fade. It does not matter how popular you are, it is bound to fade. So, you don’t need to ruin your life because of popularity. That is because it will fade. And that can even be in your lifetime. I am not talking about when you are gone – I am talking about what can happen during your lifetime. I am saying that your popularity can wane during your lifetime. It can fade.

People may talk about you for ten years or twenty years. But at some point, they will find something else to talk about. Human beings are just like that. People often want to go for what is current. And if what you are doing is no longer current in their eyes, they may abandon you. Human beings are like that. So, you don’t need to allow yourself to be destroyed because of something that is bound to fade. Keep that in mind.

Then I began to talk about something else in the last lesson about popularity, which I really could not dwell on for insufficient time. And it is the fact that popularity makes you responsible for people’s actions in ways that you may never be able to imagine. In other words, your popularity can make you influence people in ways beyond your imaginations or expectations. So, if God has made you popular, you need to be careful of what you do. He has made you popular so that you can bring Him glory. He has made you popular so that people can through you trust Him to lift them up in life.

Now because you are popular, people will be paying attention to your every word and your every move. Because you are popular, people will love you, people will want to imitate you, those that you know and those that you do not know. So, to some extent, you are going to become responsible for how some people act. Then when you stand before God, you will not be able to excuse yourself from taking responsibility for whatever people have done, good or bad, as a result of the way you have led your life.

What I am saying is that consciously or unconsciously people will follow a popular person. Consciously or unconsciously, people will want to dress like a popular person. Look at the word of fashion today. People follow popular people in the way they dress and in the way they make their hair. Men, for instance, will look at some famous people, footballers, athletes, basketballers and so forth and imitate their hairstyles. Do they ask for their permission to do those things? No! So, there are people that may go to hell because they are following a popular person. There are people whose lives will be ruined because they are following some popular persons.

Today in Nigeria, for instance, single parenting is becoming popular. But it was something that the society frowned at before. Also, having baby mamas and baby daddies is becoming more and more popular today. But twenty or thirty years ago, it was not so. Rather, it was something that the society frowned at.

But why are these things becoming popular? The reason is that certain popular people are making them popular. When a movie artist, for instance, that is a single parent is bragging all the time about the fact that she is a single mother and can take care of her children by herself, some young fellows are going to listen to that. Then they will begin to tell themselves that if they too get married and the man is misbehaving, they will just leave their marriages and become single mothers, without even making any effort to work things out. That means they will act just like the person they are following. Can you relate to that?

Now those who have acted like that, did they take permission from the people they were following to do so? No! Nevertheless, when we stand before God on the day of judgment, He is going to hold such popular fellows responsible for the mess those following in their steps have made of their lives, to some degree. And I am not saying that He will hold them responsible for all the terrible things that happened in the lives of those who followed them. Rather, I am saying that He is going to hold them responsible for the roles they played, even unconsciously, in the mess that happened in the lives of those following them.

In like manner, He is going to praise a popular person who has led his life well for positively influencing the lives of those who are following him. So you need to understand that even if God lifts you up and gives you a great name, everything you do must bring Him glory. In fact, having been blessed with a great name, you must focus your attention more on living a life that bring God glory than on anything else. That is because a lot of people are going to be watching you and paying attention to what you are doing. These ones may love and adore you. And they may naturally assume that everything you do is right.

So, consciously or unconsciously, you are going to influence them. In fact, our Lord Jesus warns us about this. He says it is better to be thrown in the sea with a millstone around your neck than to mislead anyone or to be responsible for their fall or failure (Luke 17:1-2).

Another thing about popularity is that it is difficult to manage because it can erode your privacy. It is just like freedom, which is also difficult to manage. That is one of the reasons God may not choose popularity for some individuals because He knows that they will not be able to manage it. Well, Popularity is able to erode your privacy. That is because once you become popular, you may not be able to walk around as freely as you will want to. Our Lord Jesus, for instance, had to deal with that. His privacy was constantly eroded. But it was not every time that He wanted to minister to people. And you need to understand that.

Look at what we have written about Him and His disciples in Saint Mark’s gospel, chapter 6, verse 30:

“The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teaching them many things.” (Mark 6:30-34NIV)

Now this is giving us what a day looked like in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. I mean that Mark is showing us here what a normal day looked like in the life of Jesus. And on this very day, His disciples had just come back from a missionary trip and were reporting to him all that they had done. Then we are told that because so many people were coming and going, they did not have a chance to eat. These people just travelled back from an evangelistic trip. So, they were supposed to settle down and rest. But people would not even allow them to eat. They just kept coming in and going out.

Therefore, at some point, Jesus said, “Let us get out of this place and find a solitary place to go, where you can rest.” Then they left. Yet some people recognised them. And they were like, ‘Isn’t that Jesus?” That is one of the challenges of popularity. It will make people take notice of you where you just want to stay quiet.

Well, because they recognised Jesus, all the people ran on foot ahead of them and got to where they were going before them. So, when Jesus landed, they were the ones He was seeing. And the bible says that He looked at them, had compassion on them and began to teach them many things.

You can see why I said popularity is difficult to manage. How many popular people have gotten into trouble because of similar situations? How many popular people have misbehaved because their privacy was eroded? Here is someone that is probably trying to have a quiet meal in a restaurant. Then a fellow walks in and says, “Oh my God! That is James! I can’t believe my eyes!” Then he walks up to James and says, “Can I have an autograph?” But James, in annoyance, says, “Away with you! Can’t someone just have their meal in peace?” And before you know what is going on, that is already all over the social media. Then people start talking about how James is so proud and selfish. And the man is just trying to have a quiet meal. Yet his career and popularity may just disappear like that. Can he handle popularity? No!

Mind you, maybe you are not a popular person. Maybe you are just someone sitting down in your office but powerful enough for some people to need your assistance. Then, someday, while you are trying to eat, someone comes into your office and says, “Please, I need your help.” And how do you respond to that? Your response is, “Did I ask you to come in? Can’t someone just have their meal in peace? Get out!” But you are not yet popular. Can you, then, handle popularity?

So, you can see that what we are talking about goes beyond being popular; it also involves being able to handle popularity. And God, then, before He will give you a great name will consider your ability to handle it. That is because it can mess you up. That great name can soon be soiled. It can soon be turned into nothing.

As I told you before, human beings are fickle and can’t be trusted. Today they are praising you. Tomorrow, if a little scandal is associated with you, they just change their mind about you. And you are finished for life. Just with a little scandal, you may be finished for life. That is the issue with popularity.

Someone that is unknown or that is not popular will impregnate a girl and the matter will be sorted out at the family level. And nobody gets to know anything about it. But let a popular person do the same thing. Let someone that is just a little popular do the same thing. Then even the story can be twisted. And you will begin to hear things like, “Maybe he raped her.”

Recently, a popular singer was dragged online because of some comment she made a number of years ago. I would not say that what she said at the time was said carelessly. Of course, there is a lesson in that as well, which is that it is not everything that comes to your mind that you have to put on the social media. Well, she made a comment about ten years ago on the social media, when she was not popular or when she did not think that she would become as popular as she has now become. And it was about how a little boy in her mom’s daycare often came around her, trying to play with her and kiss her and so forth.

Unfortunately, people twisted the story and began to say that she must have abused the boy. They, in fact, said that she had to be investigated by the government. She was seriously dragged. Some of you may know who I am talking about. And if you don’t, start reading the dailies.

Well, my point is that your privacy may go for your popularity. And God, who wants you to maintain your peace of mind all the days of your life, may decide that you don’t need some measure of popularity, for you won’t be able to manage it. You can see, then, that if God does not give you a great name, He is just helping you. This is why you need to watch your desire for popularity. Once you are in love with popularity, you will not pay attention to the challenges that come with it and to the dangers of becoming popular.

Furthermore, popularity can make people to begin to think more highly of you than they are expected to. It can make them begin to have an exaggerated opinion of you. Then they may begin to say about you things that they are not warranted to say. That way, they can get you into trouble.

Look at David, for instance. By the power of the Spirit of God, he went ahead and slaughtered Goliath. Nobody knew this young man. He just came from a village in Israel, from Bethlehem of Judah. But once he showed up at the battle front, when Israel was fighting the Philistines. Then he asked, “Who is this person that is defying the armies of God?” And he was told, “That is Goliath of Gath. He is a giant. And he has been a warrior from his youth.” “Notwithstanding,” said David, “he should not be talking like that, defying the armies of God. Can nobody fix him?” “Well,” the soldiers replied him, “No one can fix him. Everyone has been quiet for forty days.” And David said, “What? You mean all of you have just been looking at him for forty days?”

Sadly, that was actually the situation. All of them were just looking at Goliath all those forty days that he was coming out to torment them. They were searching their hearts for courage. But none of them could find it, not even in forty days. Yet David, less than twenty years of age, said that he was going to fix him. They told him that he couldn’t. But he said that he had dealt with lions and bears in the field in the past and that dealiing with Goliath was going to be nothing. And he went ahead and fixed him.

Now the moment he fixed Goliath, everything about his life changed. That day, everything about his life changed. That day, he became popular. He became the talk of everybody. His name became a household name in Israel. So, before they came back from the campaign, everybody had already known of a champion from Bethlehem called David. Most of the people had not met him, mind you. So, they did not know what he looked like. But news about him travelled round the country. And some may have said that he was taller than most people. Some others may have said that he was very handsome, perhaps the most handsome in Israel. But they had not seen him.

Remember that, back in those days, there used to be jesters in the land, especially in market squares. Those must have dramatised for the people how David slaughtered Goliath. So, the people already had all kinds of weird ideas of who David was. Then, when they came back from the campaign into the country, certain women came out and began to sing and to dance, saying, “Saul has killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands.” (Cf. 1Samuel 18:6-7)

But then, that was David’s first battle. Saul had been fighting for them for years. He had given them liberty before this time. He had made them independent of the nations around them. But they totally forgot about all that he had done for them. Who were they talking about, instead? David! And they were saying things about him that they were not warranted to say. So, when Saul heard that refrain, as we are shown in the bible, he said, “What is more? They will soon be asking him to become their king.” His attitude towards David, then, changed from that day on. (Cf. 1Samuel 18:8-9)

Now David was a boy that Saul had loved very much before this time. Yet he changed his mind about him when he heard what those women were saying about him. And that is one of the problems with popularity. It can make people to begin to say about you things that they are not warranted to say and so get you into trouble. Who, then, will save you, if that should happen?

If David had not been made great by God, he would have been on his own in that situation? He would not have had God’s protection. So, if you make yourself great by yourself, you are on your own. You can use witchcraft to become great. You can use treachery to become great. You can use trick or manipulation to become great. But know that you are on your own, if you do that and so get into trouble.

In Robert Green’s popular book, ’48 Laws of power’, he suggested that people should do anything, whatever it may be, however crazy that thing may be, to gain popularity. And people do crazy things to become popular, nasty things to become popular. Most of the celebrated singers or musicians in the world today, what do they know? What do they have? Listen to their songs. Most of them make no sense. Just listen to the contents. They communicate nothing but trash. Yet people listen to them. Why? The crazy things that accompany their singing! Some of them will put sexually explicit contents in their videos. That is because they know that sex sells.

So, someone will do a song video with nothing inspiring in it but sexually explicit scenes here and there. And it is such a song that people will listen to. It is such a song that people will learn and memorise.

In any case, my point is that if you follow any road to become popular, you are on your own. When the problems that are associated with popularity begin to show up, who will save you? Who will help you? If God has lifted you up, and people are trying to pull you down, He knows how to save you from them. But if you have lifted yourself up or given yourself a popular name, then, you will be on your own when your troubles start showing up.

Now let me say this: If God does not protect the name that He has given you, there is nothing you do that will work in protecting it. I am saying that if God does not protect your name, it cannot be protected. How many people are in the prison today for crimes they knew nothing about? How many people have been sacked for offences they did not commit? Yet their names have been messed up. Or do you think it is everyone that is known for something bad that has actually done something bad?

I cannot at the moment remember the name of a man of God that some lady dropped a baby in a basked in front of his house and put a notice, saying, “This is the produce of the union between us.” The man of God did not even know who the person that dropped the baby was. It was some crazy woman that just wanted to get rid of her baby that did so. She did that because she believed that by framing a man of God with it, he would not be able to do without taking responsibility for the child.

Well, it became the talk of the town that the man of God actually impregnated somebody. And the man just took the baby to care for him and did not even bother about what people were saying about him. But for a while his name was messed up, even though he was a man of God.

Also, it was written about the founder of Foursquare churches, Aimee Semple McPherson, that she disappeared for six months, having gone out to the beach someday to pray. What happened? She was kidnapped. And having waited for her for six months, it was concluded that she was dead – perhaps she got drowned in the sea – and a funeral service was held for her.

However, to everyone’s surprise, she showed up on the evening of the day her funeral service was held and said that she had been kidnapped. But the story was twisted to say that she had run away with an unwanted pregnancy. In other words, she went somewhere else to quietly give birth to the baby before coming back.

Now if she was not a popular person, no one would treat the matter like that. All that people would have been saying was, “Thank God you are back!” But because she was a popular person, there could be different narratives to what had happened to her. That is why I said the only one that can make you great is God. And He is also the only one that can preserve your name. If He does not preserve your name, it doesn’t matter what you do to preserve it, it would not work. That name will be soiled or messed up.

Then through popularity you too can have an exaggerated opinion of yourself. In other words, you can begin to think of yourself more highly than you ought to. You can begin to see yourself as being able to do things that you cannot do. See, when people become popular, they start having funning ideas about themselves. But that you are popular doesn’t mean that you are good at everything.

For instance, how many popular people have been killed in car or automobile accidents? I am not saying this to put anyone down or to make light of the loss of such people. But as a popular person, you may begin to think that you are a professional in car racing. So, you enter your car and think you are free to drive as fast as you can. You remember ‘Fast and Furious’, right? But you can get yourself killed in that manner.

In Acts of the Apostles, chapter 12, something is said about the Herod that jailed Peter, which illustrates the point I am making. One day, he was meeting with some people and giving a speech. Then his audience began to applaud him on and on and to say, “This is the voice of a god, not that of a man.” And as they were applauding him, he too was enjoying it and perhaps making gestures that they should keep it going. You know that some popular people used to do that when they are being applauded. They will be making gestures with their hands that their audience should keep the applause coming. (Cf. Acts 12:19-23)

In any case, right there and then, as the people kept on applauding Herod, an angel struck him. And he died. Why? It was because he did not give the glory to God. So, if you become popular, who should you give the glory to? God! There are, of course, popular people who will not give glory to God for their popularity and who are yet being spared because of His mercy. Herod’s case was just to show us how God can handle people for not giving glory to Him. He can kill you right away for not giving glory to Him.

But my point is that if you become popular, will you even remember God? Will you see Him in the equation at all? Often, in interviewing popular people for the secrets of their success, how many them will first name God as the secret to their success? How many them have you heard saying that their success is all about God? Instead, they will talk about their hard work and their determination. And they will say that you too must be determined and not recognize obstacles. They will tell you that you must not take ‘No’ for an answer. But will they talk about God? No!

However, when they start having some problems in their lives that are beyond them, they will not be able to use their hard work or determination to solve them. How come they can’t use their hard work or determination to solve their health challenges? How come their hard work or determination can’t solve their marital problems? How come they are not determined to make their homes work the same way they were determined to be successful or famous in life?

See, it is not about hard work or determination. Every right-thinking popular person will know that there are people that are more determined than they are that are not popular. Every right-thinking person will know that there people more skillful than them that are not popular at all? Every right-thinking popular person will know that it is just the grace of God that puts people in the right place at the right time.

I watched one of the talent hunts shows in which a man stood up in the audience to speak up to the judges. According to him, he had been coming to the show for twenty years without being able to feature his songs on the stage. But that day, he found himself sitting just some meters away from the judges. And as he discussed his situation with some of the people sitting around him, they encouraged him to speak up. So, he spoke up and told the judges of his desire to sing on their stage and showcase his talent.

Now did they permit him to sing? Yes, they did, having ascertained that there was no foul play from those in charge of the venue. And by the time he was done singing, he was awarded a gold ovation. What worked for him that day? It was just God’s grace. It was grace that put him in the right place at the right time. When he set out that morning, he did not know that he would be sitting only some meters away from the judges of the event. If he, then, went home and began to say, “Things happened that way because I was determined and kept on going for the event for twenty years,” would he be making sense? No!

Well, here is the point I have been making all along. The one who makes people great is God Himself. But greatness has its own challenges. And if you are not prepared to handle those challenges, God may not just take you to greatness. So, even if you are praying to God to make you great, don’t let your focus simply be on becoming great and famous. Rather, let it also be on how to manage greatness. In other words, in praying to God along these lines, you should also be asking Him to build you up to become great. That way, when He eventually makes you great, greatness will not harm or destroy you.

Let us pray.

Copyright © 2026 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)

By: Johnson O. Lawal

Series: Has your love grown cold?

Let us look further on what we have been dealing with, which is ‘Has your love grown cold?’ In the last lesson, I shared with you about the love of power or position and how we need to deal with whatever form of it that is in our lives. Don’t forget that something led us to that. And it is the fact that Jesus says to us that in the last days the love of most people for God will grow cold because of increase in wickedness (Matthew 24:12). That, of course, led us to looking at those things that could make our love grow cold. If we do not know the things that could make our love grow cold, we may find our love growing cold. And we won’t even know it. But if we know the things that could make our love grow cold, we can protect ourselves against them.

Now we don’t want to assume that we know these things. But as we look into Scriptures, our eyes can be opened to see what the things are that can make our love grow cold. Then we can work towards protecting ourselves against them. And we are doing this by considering the signs or those things that can show that the love of someone has grown cold. We talked about loss of interest in the word of God, loss of interest in prayer and loss of interest in the practice of righteousness.

Then we began to look at why people may lose interest in the practice of righteousness. We began to do that because if you lose interest in the practice of righteousness, you may ultimately find yourself in hell. In fact, you may just be showing that you have never been born again, if you lose interest in the practice of righteousness. Yes, we have promises in the Scriptures that God is able to keep us to the very end. But if someone loses interest in the practice of righteousness, we may not be too sure that the person has ever belonged to the Lord in the first place. So, we are looking at why people may lose interest in the practice of righteousness.

And why? First, we talked about the prosperity of the wicked. Second, we talked about the delay of the judgment of the wicked. Third, we talked about the love of the world. Now we are spending time looking at the love of the world. That is because that is a huge topic in itself, for there are many facets of the love of the world. And we must not assume that we know what the bible means when it speaks of the love of the world. So, we need to look at Scriptures carefully to see what they say of the love of the world. That way, it won’t be present in us while we think it is not there.

Now, if you have not forgotten, we also categorized the love of the world. First, we talked about the love of self. Then we talked about the love of things, which may manifest itself in the love of money, the love of power or position or the love of popularity or fame. And what I want to quickly talk to you about this morning has to do with the love of popularity. Again, I don’t want you to lose sight of why we are looking at the things. We are looking at them because they are able to affect our love for God. Remember that John tells us that if any man is in love with the world, the love of the Father is not in Him (1John 2:15). So, if we are in love with the world in any way, something is already wrong with our love for God. It will be okay, then, for us, if we are serious at all about our relationship with God, to protect ourselves against any form of the love of the world.

Well, I am saying there is the love of popularity or fame, which is a manifestation of the love of the world. And it can rob us of the love of God or cause His love in us to grow cold. Now the first thing I will say to us about popularity is that it is essentially a gift of God. You may not be comfortable with fame or popularity. But popularity essentially is a gift of God. People, of course, out of love for popularity, can do all kinds of things to gain it. But essentially, from what we see in Scriptures, popularity is a gift of God.

What I am saying is that it is God that makes people’s names great. And it is not something that He has prepared everyone in the world for. Or let me say it is not something that He wishes for everyone. So, if you do not have a great name, don’t bother or try to get yourself killed in order to have one.

Yes, I know that growing up as kids, we all desired to have great names. But it is not something that God has chosen everyone for. As I share further with you, you will understand why I said so and why I said you may not want to bother yourself about having a great name. Once you begin to bother yourself about having a great name, you may just be showing that you are in love with popularity.

In Genesis chapter 12, from verse 1, we are told this:

“The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”” (Genesis 12:1-3NIV)

Those were the words God said to Abraham when He first called him out of his father’s household. And observe that He took responsibility for his prosperity and greatness. God said, “If you obey me, I will do this and that for you.” Among the things that He said that He would do for him was to give him a great name. He said, “I will make your name great.” So, the only one that can truly make anyone great in life is God. The only person that can give someone a great name is God. Why do we keep talking about Abraham today? The reason is that God made His name great. He made His name popular. He made His name influential.

Let me give you another example from the Scripture. This has to do with what God said to David after he had made his intention of building Him a temple known. Look at from verse 8 of 2 Samuel, chapter 7:

“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth.” (2 Samuel 7:8-9NIV)

Who is talking here? God! Who is He talking to? David! He was reminding him of where He had brought him from. He had brought him from being a shepherd boy and made him a ruler over His people. And because the man declared his intention to build Him a temple, He said to him, “Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth.” Who, then, gave David a great name? God! Who made him popular? God! Who made him influential? God!

We talk about Solomon today. But who gave him a great name? God! Who made him influential? It was God. So, when we are talking about popularity or fame, it is a gift from God. It is only He that can make people popular or famous. And He has reasons for doing this. One of them is to bring glory to Himself.

God does not make people great for the fun of it. Yes, it is He that makes people popular or gives them great names. But He does not give people great names for the fun of it. He gives them great names to bring glory to Himself. That is why in Scriptures we see things that depict God as one with power to take a nobody and make him great. And part of what He said to David in the passage we just read goes like this: “I took you from being a shepherd and made you the ruler of my people Israel.”

Now who would have heard or known about David, if God had not done that for him? Nobody! No one would have known about him or heard anything about him. He was just a village boy. So, God actually took him from the village and brought him to lead a nation. And when you read David’s own testimony in the same passage, you will see that he said to God, “Who am I? And what is my father’s household, that you have brought me this far?”

Well, my point is that God makes people great to bring glory to Himself. He does it so that no one can boast about anything before Him. What I am saying is that if God makes your name great, you won’t be able to boast about your contribution to your greatness. You will know that it is not because of your effort or background that you have become great; rather, it is because God has chosen to favour you.

Look at what Paul says along this line in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, from verse 26:

“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” (1Corinthians 1:26-29NIV)

Do you see why God does these things? He chooses to make people great so that no one may boast before Him. So, He is going to take a nobody, someone that people may never hear about, and bring him to limelight. Then everyone begins to talk about the person.

Now if that person will be wise, what will he do? He will give all the glory to God. Yes, every time people are talking about his greatness, he will give all the glory to God. He will let them know that it is not because of anything special that he has but because of God’s favour that he has become great.

I was reading Bill Clinton’s autobiography or biography, if I remember correctly, some years ago. And he was talking in it about his days as a young man, the schools he attended, the classes he was in and the people that he met. One thing he made clear was that he was not the brightest in those schools or classes – there were a lot of people that were brighter than him. He even spoke or mentioned names of certain people that helped him in class and so forth in those days. He did that to show that he was just a normal and ordinary person.

Yet this man would later become the president of one of the most powerful nations of the world. He became the president of the United States at some point in his life. And when he talked in those days, you would think it was an angel that was talking. Yet he himself said that he was just a normal and ordinary person. So, out of millions of people, God brought him out and put him on the stage.

Why does God do such things? He does them so that no one would boast before Him. If your name has become great because of certain abilities you have, you may want to boast about those abilities, forgetting that there are people with greater abilities who are not known by anybody. If your name has become great because of your education, you will want to boast about it, forgetting that there are people that are better educated but who are not known. But there are people that are professors today that will tell you how they came from nowhere. Then you will know that it is only God that could have brought them as far as they have come in life. Therefore, when we are talking about being popular, it is a gift from God.

When Jesus came upon Peter, Andrew James and John, He said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” These men were nobodies. They were village or country people, fishermen that were known by nobody. Yet Jesus said that they should follow Him and that He would make them fishers of men. And when He said that, they probably did not understand what He was talking about. But they followed Him. (Cf. Mark 1:16-18)

Now today people are still talking about these men and the exploits that they did. In their time, their names were mentioned everywhere. But they did not ask for popularity. They probably did not grow up with the thought of being popular. How, then, did they become popular? God made them popular. God made their names great. So, they could not be talking about their origins or birth circumstances or the families they came from as their reasons for becoming great. Or how many of them talked about these things? None of them.

Could someone like Paul, for instance, have been talking about his family background as his reason for becoming popular? No! That was nothing. His family background could not have brought him to that level of operation or popularity. The only one that could have brought someone to operate at the level that man operated was God. He was the one that made his name great.

But then, of course, there are different measures of greatness, different degrees of greatness. So, you don’t have to be popular for you to be great. You don’t have to be popular for the people present in your life to think of you as a great person. But when we are talking about being known the world over, that is a gift from God. And if He has not given you that gift, don’t try to take it by force. If you do so, you will be showing that you are in love with popularity. And that can ruin you.

As I said before, growing up, many of us would love to be popular or famous. I am yet to come in contact with someone that would say, “Growing up, I never wanted to be a great person.” There may be such individuals. But I have never come in contact with any. That is because children can dream. That is one of the beautiful things about being a child. You can dream big, even bigger than your brain. But as we grow up, we kill that feature in us. Then we are left stranded and hardly aspire to greatness again.

But a child can sit down and begin to dream of how he will become the president of this nation and how people will be running around to serve him. He can dream like that without even knowing how to become a president or what being a president means. Has anyone here ever dreamt to be the president of this country? It is a beautiful thing to dream.

There is, of course, day-dreaming. That is when you are loading yourself with fantasies and wasting your life. But real dreamers build the world. So, dream of fantastic things. Dream of things that are realistic and profitable. At least, you have the advantage of dreaming in that manner over children that just dream of anything.

Mind you, most of the beautiful things we enjoy in the world today are products of some people’s dreams. For example, years ago when we saw movies of people speaking to themselves through video calls, we thought it was an impossibility. But today, the impossible has been made possible. I mean that those seemingly impossible things of those years have become our reality today.

So, if you see a movie today that show people using some special footwears to fly from place to place, don’t brush it aside as impossible. Don’t say, “This is another Disney wonderland’s movie.” That is because, if Jesus tarries, that may just become our reality in the next few years.

Well, the point I am making is that popularity is a gift from God. So, you don’t need to work yourself out trying to be popular. If God wants you to be popular, He will make you popular. But you must also understand that popularity has its own challenges. Yes, it is God that makes people popular. And He makes them popular to bring glory to Himself. He also makes them popular to draw people to Himself.

At least, by considering the popularity of someone who used to be a nobody, you can have faith in God and say, “If He could make David, who was nothing but a shepherd boy great, He can make me great too.” I mean that if you have seen the wonder God has made of some individuals lives, people who would probably have lived and died as nobodies, you can have faith that He can make something beautiful and grand of your life too.

But I am saying that when you think of popularity or fame, you must equally understand that it is something that fades. So, you can be popular today, but nobody may be talking about you tomorrow. That may not be because you are dead but because you are no longer relevant in their minds again. In Isaiah, chapter 40, from verse 6, we are told this:

“A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8NIV)

Notice how people are described here. They are depicted as grass. Then, though my version of the Englis bible refers to the faithfulness of men, some other versions speak of the glory or beauty of men. So, people are like grass and their glory is like the flowers of the field. Now grass withers and flowers fade, but the word of God stands forever.

Therefore, regardless of how popular or famous you are, you must understand that fame is something that fades. This is why you must not allow the love of fame to ruin you. It is built into it to fade. Do you know that at some point the popularity of our Lord Jesus began to wane, that is, when He was here on earth? I am not talking about now. God has already given Him the name that is above all names. So, even Jesus was given a great name by God. And the most popular name in the world today is His name, the name of Jesus. You don’t need to debate that.

But I am saying that while He was here on earth, His fame began to wane at some point. Only John speaks of this in his gospel, the sixth chapter. There He tells us that many of His disciples left Him towards the end of His ministry. Yes, when He began to preach, to heal the sick and to do all kinds of beautiful things, crowds of people followed Him everywhere He went. But those crowds did not follow Him till the end of His ministry. Sadly, many of us have failed to notice that the Scripture says so. And why did they stop following Him? They said that His words were too hard to bear. So, they left Him. (Cf. John 6:60-66)

Now that means Jesus had become somewhat unpopular towards the end of His ministry. I said ‘unpopular’ because I did not want to use the word ‘notorious’. But Jesus had actually become notorious to the leaders of the Jews. So, they would rather have a murderer freed than have Him freed.

In like manner, think of those who have been popular here on earth. Think of some of those people that you grew up to know as popular. How many of them are still popular today? How many of the musicians that were popular some years ago are still popular today? How many of the rich people that were known for their wealth all over the world some years ago are still popular today?

In our country, people will talk about Awolowo and how famous he was as a great leader. But it is only the people of his time that could relate to that. Those that did not grow up during his time cannot relate. So, it does not matter how highly you praised him, those that did not grow up to know him will not be moved. They may even say to themselves, “How does his name put food on my table?” That is because they cannot relate. But he was popular in his own time. His name was great then. But what has become of that name today? It is gone.

So, if God makes your name great, you need to understand that your popularity can only last for a while. At some point, people will forget about it. Yes, they may still make reference to you and what you represent. But they will surely forget about you at some point.

If God, then, has made your name great, you need to know why. One of the reasons is that you can bring glory to Him. Also, He has made your name great so that you can positively influence people. And we will stop here this morning.

Let us pray.

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Series: Has your love grown cold?

By: Johnson o. Lawal

We are still looking at ‘Has your love grown cold?’ We are looking at this on the basis of what our Lord Jesus says to us about one of the signs of the end times. And it is that there will be increase in wickedness. This increase in wickedness, according to our Lord Jesus Christ, will cause the love of most people for Him to grow cold. But He tells us that the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. So, we must labour to take advantage of the grace of God to stand firm to the end. (Cf. Matthew 24:12-13)

However, we also need to be knowledgeable about those things that can cause our love for Him to become cold. And in doing that, we began to look at signs or symptoms of love that has grown cold for the Lord. We mentioned loss of interest in the word of God, loss of interest in prayer and loss of interest in the practice of righteousness as signs of love that has grown cold for the Lord. Then we began to examine those things that could cause people to lose interest in practising righteousness. First, we mentioned ‘the prosperity of the wicked’. We also looked at ‘delay in the judgment of the wicked’. Finally, we looked at ‘love of the world.’

Now while I was talking about ‘love of the world’, I said it manifests itself in three ways, which are ‘love of self’, ‘love of things’ and ‘love of pleasure’. And in our last teaching on this we spent time looking at the love of self. As I pointed out to you, the love of self is a basis for any kind of evil we may find among men. I know that the bible says that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1Timothy 6:10). But it is not only the love of money that is a root of all kinds of evil. The love of self also is a root of all kinds of evil.

The love of self is the exaltation of self above God and everything else. When you exalt yourself above God and above others, you are in love with yourself. And once you are in love with yourself, the love of God cannot be in you. These things cannot coexist in us – the love of God and the love of the world. They are mutually exclusive. If the one is present, the other is absent. It is as simple as that. If the love of God is present in you, the love of the world will be absent. If the love of the world is present in you, the love of God will be absent or is absent. That is what the word of God tells us. We may not agree with the word of God. But we cannot say that the word of God has not told us these things.

Well, if you are in love with yourself, you will only be focused on doing those things that make you happy and will not care how the doing of those things that make you happy will affect others. That is selfishness. When we speak about selfishness, we think of it as something that other people have but which we do not have. I mean it is easy to see selfishness in other people but not in ourselves.

But if we settle down and begin to look at the reasons we do the things we do, we can only agree with God that we have been selfish in many ways. We get married for selfish reasons. We look for jobs for selfish reasons. We give birth to children for selfish reasons. We raise our children for selfish reasons. And most of the relationships we have, we have and keep them for selfish reasons. We are continually thinking of how our relationships can benefit us. We hardly think of how we can be of benefit to those we are relating it. That is selfishness.

Furthermore, we even serve God for selfish reasons. And it does not matter whether it is to make money or to gain some satisfaction for ourselves, it is selfishness. There are people, for example, who claim not to be preaching for money but for self-satisfaction. To them, when they preach, they are satisfied and feel fulfilled. What is that? It is still selfishness. That is because it is all about what makes you feel fulfilled. It is not about what pleases God. Yes, you feel fulfilled when you preach. But does God feel fulfilled? So, it is still about you. It is selfishness.

Now the only thing that drives selfishness out of people is the love of God. That is why it is important that we retain the love of God in our hearts. Of course, we cannot retain His love in our hearts by ourselves. It takes His power to retain His love in our hearts. But we need to know that we must allow the love of God to rule our lives. Otherwise, selfishness or the love of self will take over and begin to manifest in ways that are destructive to us and to others as well.

Well, let me move away from that to look at another way the love of the world manifests itself, which is the love of things. Now the love of things can be categorized into three, which are ‘the love of money’, ‘the love position or power’ and ‘the love of popularity or fame’. But to begin with, we must not miss the mind of God about the use of things. Things are meant to be used; they are not meant to use us. Things are meant to be had or possessed; they are not to possess us.

But when we fall in love with things, they will possess us. And when they possess us, they will begin to drive and use us. The only one that possesses the right to possess us is God. That is because He paid the price for our lives; He paid the price for our souls. First, by right of creation, we belong to Him. Second, by right of redemption, we belong to Him, for He paid the price for our souls.

People may not agree that God created them. But that will not change the fact that He created them. People also may not agree that God paid the price for their redemption. It will not change the fact that He did so. God did not pay the price for the redemption of the Christians alone; He paid the price for the redemption of the whole human race. We are called Christians because we accepted the payment that He made for our redemption. So, we all belong to God. He possesses. He owns us. We are not our own. (Cf. 1Corinthians 6:19-20)

We like to live as though we belonged to ourselves, as though we owned our lives. But we do not own our lives. And the earlier we come to terms with this the better for us. That will stop us from trying to run our lives. If we run our lives by ourselves, we are going to destroy them. I am sure of that. If you lead yourself, you will lead yourself to destruction. That is certain.

I said all of that to draw our attention to the fact that things are not meant to own us; we are meant to own them. Then things are not meant to use us; we are meant to use things. That is why God is not against our possession of things. He, in fact, created things for us. So, He wants us to have things. 1Timothy, chapter 6, verse 17, Paul tells us that God gives us all things for our enjoyment. Also, in Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 18, we are told that it is God who gives us the ability to make wealth. Why will God give us the ability to make wealth, if He does not want us to have wealth? He wants us to have wealth. He wants us to have money. He wants us to have things.

But He also wants us to remember that the ability to possess things comes from Him. Since the ability to possess things comes from Him, then, He is bigger than us and bigger than things. And we have to relate to Him as such. If we are relating to Him as such, we will not be possessed by things. Unfortunately, there are many that are possessed by things, that are owned by things.

Well, from what I am saying, you can see that it is not against the will of God for us to have money. He wants us to have money. But we can fall in love with money. In 1Timothy, chapter 6, the bible speaks of the love of money. It also refers to it as eagerness for money. In other words, you want to have money at all cost, at any cost. That is the description of the love of money. When you are willing to do anything to have money, it means you are in love with money. That means you don’t care what you do to have money. You just want to have it.

Now that does not mean that you are going to have money. There are many people that are in love with money and who are yet poor. And there are some that are not in love with money but are rich. You can be rich and not be in love with money. And you can be poor and be in love with money. But the love of money is going to destroy you. The only love that does not destroy is the love of God. The love of self, the love of things and the love of pleasure will ruin us, ultimately. In the final analysis of things, it will ruin you. It may not look like it is destructive, to begin with. Even in the middle of your life, it may not look like it is destructive. But in the final analysis of things, you will realise that it has destroyed you.

Let us look at that Scripture, 1Timothy, chapter 6, from verse 6:

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1Timothy 6:6-10NIV)

I won’t comment on everything said here because it is self-explanatory. But the point is clear, which is that if you are eager for money, you will ruin yourself. Once you fall in love with money, the love of God has already been supplanted in you. I told you before that the love of God and the love of money cannot co-exist. So, once the love of money takes root in your heart, know that the love of God has already been supplanted. All you will, then, begin to think about is money.

Sadly, there are many people like that. All they think about is money. They see money in everything. They see money in every relationship. If they are coming close to you, it is because of what they want to get from you. If they are showing interest in you, it is because of what they want to get from you. They have seen you as an opportunity to make some money.

Why do people engage in kidnapping, for instance? The reason is not poverty. The reason is the love of money. And it this same love that drives people to engage in prostitution, armed-robbery, theft, money rituals, internet fraud and so forth. People can say that poverty is the reason they engage in these things. But the word of God doesn’t tell us that. On the contrary, the word of God tells us that it is the love of money that drives people to do such things.

So, any time you find yourself willing to do anything just to make some money, know that the love of God has already departed or is already departing from your heart. If you are not in love with money, you will look up to God for whatever you need. Remember that the word of God says, “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” So, the one who supplies all our needs is God. The one we are to look up to for the supply of everything we need is God.

But once you find yourself willing to do just about anything to make money, you need to know that the love of God has already left your heart. That is the reason you run after what those of this world run after. You want to be like them. You want to enjoy the kind of life they are enjoying. And you know that you need money to do these things. So, you run after money and are eager to do anything to have it. You will surely sell your soul for peanuts, if you continue like that.

Why do people collect money as little as two thousand naira to vote for certain individuals during elections? Why do they sell themselves as cheap as that? Why? It is the love of money. Do you know that people fight over as little money as one hundred naira? Perhaps you have once quarreled with a commercial motorcyclist over money that was as little as that. The reason was the love of money.

Now you may say the reason you did that was that you did not want to be cheated. But the word of God says that it is the love of money that drives people to do such things. Once you find yourself ready to fight, ready to insult people because of such things, you are in love with money.

But then, don’t miss my point. I am not saying that it is okay to allow anybody to cheat you. I am not saying that you should not place your fingers on the fact that someone is trying to cheat you or steal from you. But sometimes we find ourselves raining curses on people because of money as little as fifty naira. What is that? It is the love of money.

We really don’t want to find that we have overpaid somebody. But you can deliberately overpay people at times. You do that to encourage them or compensate them for their extra effort on pleasing us. But we don’t want to do such things. And it is indicative of the fact that the love of money is somehow rooted in us. It is just that we are not conscious of it. So, you can flog yourself for hours for overpaying someone with as little as a hundred naira. Yet you claim that you are not in love with money. You are. It is just that you have not yet found someone to tell you. And God has sent me to tell you this morning.

Well, we are talking about what happens when the love of God has left someone’s heart. It will make us callous. It will start introducing different sorts of wickedness to our hearts. You may not be obviously wicked as a result of this. But you will to some degree be harsh and cruel. And that may look like you are just trying to maintain your rights. However, something is already at work in you at such times, which is the love of money.

Now let me move to another thing that I mentioned before about how the love of things manifests itself, which is the love of power or position. But let me quickly say this in advance: the one who elevates people in life is God. The bible says there is no authority anywhere except that which God has established. So, whatever position of authority you are occupying in life is a privilege given to you by God.

What did you do, for instance, to come into this world as a man? You know that one day you may get married as a man and become the head of your home, right? But what did you do to come into the world as a man? Nothing! It was just a privilege given to you by God.

Also, if you are the first child in your home, you are occupying a position of leadership. But what did you do to occupy that position? Did you pay God to be there? Did you offer some sacrifices to Him to make it happen? Or did you have a meeting with Him in which you decided to be the first of the children that would come to your parents? No, you did not do a thing for that to happen. God just gave that position to you.

Interestingly, as trivial as occupying the position of the first child of a family can be, God takes it seriously. Why? He is the one that puts people there Why was God angry with Esau? The reason was that he sold his right as the first child of his family. And God said, “You have no right to do that. I gave you that position as a gift. You show that you are godless by doing that.”

Well, my point is that every position in life is a gift from God. That is why you must allow God to lift you. You must allow God to promote you. How? It is by humbling yourself. If you humble yourself, God will exalt you. The bible says that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Then it also says that the one who exalts himself will be humbled but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. How was Jesus Himself exalted by God to possess the name that is above all names? It was by humbling Himself before God. (Cf. Luke 14:11; Philippians 2:5-11; James 4:6; 1Peter 5:5)

But then, you must understand the essence of position or power. God doesn’t just put people in positions of power for the sake of just putting someone there. Even if your position in life is that of the first born of your family, you are not put there by God to merely occupy space. You are put there by Him for a reason, which is to make life better for those who are under you. That is why it will be wrong for you to seek to be in any position in life just for the sake of being there.

Sadly, many people today want to occupy positions of power for the mere sake of being in those positions. Then there are also those who are merely after the privileges and opportunities that being in some positions provide. But they are not concerned about God’s reasons for putting people in positions of power. That is why whether they have abilities or not, whether they have adequacies or not, they just want to occupy positions; they just want to have power. But will they do with it? We will continue from here next week.

Let us pray.

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By: Johnson O. Lawal

We bless your name, Heavenly Father. Thank you because you’re right here with us. Thank you for your Spirit is going to speak to us this morning, and you will fill our hearts with understanding, as we listen to your word. You will also fill us with the strength to act on your word. For in Jesus’ precious name we have prayed. Amen.

I want to further share with you this morning on ‘Has your love grown cold?” We have been looking at signs of love that has grown cold for God. And we are looking at these things in the light of what Jesus says in St. Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 24, from verse 12, which reads:

“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:12-13NIV)

The Lord says because of increase in wickedness in the world, the love of most people for Him will grow cold. And once our love for God grows cold, our love for humanity will also grow cold. We’ll become cold-blooded. We’ll begin to act like beasts, like animals. You only need to look around in the world, and you see that many people are actually acting like animals, like beasts.

But we are not even dealing with unbelievers here; we are dealing with believers, people who have once professed their love for God. They are the ones that their love for Him can grow cold. Those who have never professed their love for God don’t have any kind of love for Him that will grow cold, for they’ve never professed their love for Him. They have never been in love with Him. It is those who have been in love with Him, it is those who have professed their love for Him that their love for him and for one another can grow cold.

Well, as I said before, we have been looking at those things that will show us if our love for God has grown cold or not. First, we mentioned a loss of interest in the word of God. Second, we talked about a loss of interest in prayer. Third, we spoke of a loss of interest in the practice of righteousness. Then we began to also look at why people, believers, may turn away from practising righteousness.

Usually, a loss of interest in the word of God and in prayer will result in a loss of interest in the practice of righteousness. That’s why, in the beginning, I said people don’t fall away from the faith suddenly; it is often gradual. And this is why we are told to pay attention to our lives. I know these instructions in scriptures are directly mostly to leaders of God’s people. But they are also applicable to those who are not leaders. Leaders are told to first pay attention to their own lives and to the word of God that they are preaching. That way, they will be able to save themselves and their hearers. (Cf. 1Timothy 4:16)

Now we can focus more on others than on ourselves. And that will be to our own disadvantage. You must pay a closer attention to your own life than to the lives of others. It’s easy to see the error in other people’s lives. Or let me say it’s easier to see the error in other people’s lives than it is to see the error in our own lives. So, it is important that you first of all pay attention to your own life, to deal with whatever it is that is out of place in your life. That way, you can continue to stand as a blessing to others that are around you. But if you will not pay attention to what is going on in your own life and you focus your attention solely on what is going on in other people’s lives, you may just someday realize that you are off, that you are gone. And that’s because you have not been paying attention to what is going on in your life.

Well, I was talking about why people may forsake righteousness or give up on the practice of righteousness. And the first thing I mentioned has to do with the prosperity of the wicked. When believers begin to pay attention to the prosperity of the wicked, they may not know when they will be swept away; they may not know when they will give up on the practice of righteousness.

Second, I talked about delay in the judgment of wickedness. One of the things that encourages us to keep on practising righteousness is the consciousness that God at some point will judge wickedness, that the wicked will not go scot-free. But you know, we can keep on waiting for God to judge the wicked around us and not see Him judge them, according to our own schedule, according to our own reasoning. And this may affect us. This, of course, is why I am saying it’s important to pay attention to ourselves, to continually check ourselves in the light of God’s word, to constantly examine yourself in the light of God, to examine your thoughts, to examine your actions, to examine what is going on in you, to examine what the various things happening around you – things that you see and things that you hear – are doing to you.

Don’t assume that none of these things is affecting you No, don’t assume that the wickedness in your world is not affecting you. Don’t assume that the news you hear every day is not affecting you. Don’t assume that the misbehavior of those around you, in your workplace, in your neighborhood, in your family, is not affecting you. The things that we see, the things that we hear, they have ways of settling down in us. They are like seed. You plant a seed and it stays there in the soil. It may not germinate in a while. It doesn’t mean it’s not there. It’s just waiting for the right conditions to germinate.

Therefore, if you’re not cleansing yourself with the word of God, the various kinds of seeds being deposited in you will germinate, when you find yourself in a place where the conditions are right for them to germinate. And you may find yourself misbehaving, even though you never thought you could misbehave. You may find yourself doing certain things that you never thought you would do. And it’s not because you want to be bad. It’s not because you want to be terrible or you want to deliberately go contrary to the will of God. It’s just that certain seeds have been deposited in you that you did not take care of in time. You didn’t uproot them in time. You didn’t allow the word of God to uproot those seeds from your life. So, when the conditions are right, they begin to germinate. And if they are not taken care of in time, they will start to bring forth fruit at some point.

This, of course, is why we must continually go to the word of God, to study it, to listen to it, to meditate on it so that we can wash ourselves with it. Jesus says to His disciples, “You are clean because of the words that I have spoken to you.” The word of God cleanses. Paul also speaks of the washing of water by the word of God. The word of God washes people, the way you use water to wash things. You may not know that as you are listening to the word of God right now, you are being washed. You may not know the things that are leaving your lives, as a result of the things that you are listening to right now. Each time you present yourself to listen to the word of God, each time you give yourself to listen to the word of God, to study the word of God, it may not look like anything is happening to you, but things are happening to you. Because the word of God itself is a seed. (Cf. John 15:3; Ephesians 5:26)

Now, as it’s coming into your life, it’s depositing in you the character of God. And as long as the conditions are right, it will germinate and bring forth fruit in your life. So, you must continually yield yourself to the word of God so that it can cleanse you. You must also give yourself to prayer so that you can receive sufficient strength, sufficient wisdom or whatever it is that you need to walk in victory in this life, to stay focused, to stand firm to the end. Jesus says the one who stands firm to the very end will be saved. It is the one that stands firm to the end that will be saved. That means there are those who will not stand firm to the end. And these will be swept off.

I’ve already given you two points on why people may forsake the practice of righteousness. Let me repeat them again. First, there is the prosperity of the wicked. So, don’t pay attention to the prosperity of the wicked. The second is delay in the judgment of wickedness. God will definitely judge wickedness in his own time. Even if those who He has appointed to judge wickedness will not judge wickedness, God will surely judge wickedness.

So, do not lose heart because the wicked around you seem to be prosperous and are not being hindered. It looks like nothing is checking them. It looks like no one is checking them. And you may think, “Oh, if I also give myself to wickedness, nothing is going to check me.” No, don’t do that. God will surely judge wickedness in His own time. In fact, the consistent position of the scriptures is that God is judging wickedness every day. So, it may not be the turn of the wicked around you yet. It doesn’t mean that it won’t be their turn at some point.

By the way, it’s not every time that God judges people that He announces His judgment on them. It’s not every time that God judges people that it is obvious that God is judging them. There are wicked people around us that are being judged already. They are suffering for their sins already. But you wouldn’t know. And you may not know because they still look fine. They still look handsome. They still look beautiful. They are still living large. But in their private lives, they know that they are being judged; they know that they are suffering. They will, however, not come out and announce to you that they are suffering.

Look at some of these people that people follow on the social media. They look like they are living fine, that they are living large. And they keep talking all the time and giving people all kinds of funny insights and so forth. You may think that they are fine. And there were those that we thought were fine until they killed themselves. We thought that they were doing well until they committed suicide. Everybody thought that they were doing well. Yet at some point, they committed suicide. Some have been through several marriages. Are they fine? Are they really fine?

So, God has various ways He judges people. It’s not every time that He brings a sledgehammer and rams it on people’s heads. No, it’s not every time that God sends plagues to people. It’s not every time that God sends calamities to people in judgment. Leaving some people to ruin themselves is judgment in itself. So, you must pay attention to that.

See, the forsaking of righteousness is the reason people will go to hell. You must understand that. That’s why I’m dwelling on this. The need for us to give attention to the word of God and to prayer is to aid us to stand firm. The essence of giving ourselves to the word of God and giving ourselves to prayer is that we may stand firm. You understand? So, standing firm is the main thing. Standing firm is the focus. Not abandoning our love for God is the focus.

When you are doing anything, you must know the results that you want to accomplish by doing it. You must know what the doing of whatever it is that you are doing is meant to accomplish. Otherwise, you will not give it the seriousness you are supposed to give it. I am saying this because a lot of times when we talk about the need for people to give themselves to the Word of God, they don’t even understand what that is meant to accomplish in their lives. Or we talk about the need for people to pray without ceasing. They don’t understand what that is meant to accomplish in their lives.

Therefore, they tell themselves, “We have heard that before. Why don’t you just move on to something else? Why must you talk about the need for me to devote myself to the Word of God and prayer in every meeting? Have I not heard that before? Why must I hear it again?” Why will anyone talk like that? The reason is that he doesn’t understand the relevance of what we are saying. He doesn’t understand what the doing of these things is meant to accomplish in his life.

Well, if you are told to do something in Scriptures or if the word of God is coming to you and is instructing you to do something, you must seek to know what the doing of that thing will accomplish in your life. Otherwise, you will not take it seriously. If a doctor gives you some prescriptions or drugs to take, you want to know what those drugs are meant to accomplish in your body. Why do you devote yourself to taking those drugs when you are supposed to take them? Because you want the drugs to accomplish in your body the results that they are meant to accomplish. And if you approach the word of God that same way, you will surely reap its benefits in your life.

The third thing or the third reason people give up on the practice of righteousness is the love of the world. I don’t know how much of this I’ll be able to take this morning. But let me just quickly give you some verses of the Scripture to begin with. From verse 9 of 2Timothy, chapter 4, Paul says:

“Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.” (2Timothy 4:9-10NIV)

Paul is talking to Timothy here about one of his ministry associates whose name is Demas. He says, “Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me.” Why has Demas deserted Paul? It was because of the love of the world. That is really shocking. It’s not only Demas’ name that he mentions here in the text. He mentions the names of other people too. He mentions Crescens’ name. He mentions Titus’ name. And he tells Timothy where these individuals have gone to. But he adds something to what he says about Demas. He tells Timothy the reason Demas has gone where he has gone. He says it’s because of the love of the world.

Now we will not know whether Demas eventually came back to his senses. But at the time that Paul was writing this letter to Timothy, Demas had already deserted him because of the love of the world. Also, we know that Paul and his associates were given to the practice of righteousness. If Demas, and of course Demas, deserted them, it would mean that he forsook the practice of righteousness.

But why did he forsake the practice of righteousness? The love of the word! And there are many in the world today who were once known as serious believers but who are no longer known as believers at all because of the love of the word.

Let me quickly say this: God is not against our enjoyment of life. You must keep that in mind. Because one of the problems believers often have in dealing with God is the thought that God does not want them to enjoy their lives. And you know there are also people who will not come to accept Jesus as their Lord because they think that will be the end of the enjoyment of their lives. The natural man wants to enjoy his life. The natural man wants to enjoy himself. And somehow Satan has succeeded in making many of us think that God is against our enjoyment, that he doesn’t want us to enjoy our lives, that he does not want us to prosper, that God is not progressive.

That, however, is contrary to what we are shown in Scriptures about God. God is progressive. God wants us to enjoy our lives. In 1 Timothy 6, verse 17, we are told that God freely gives us all things for our enjoyment. Why will He freely give us all things for our enjoyment, if He does not want us to enjoy our lives? He wants us to enjoy our lives.

In Ecclesiastes, the book of Solomon, he says a number of things there about God’s commitment to making people enjoy their lives. In chapter 2, he tells us that nobody can eat or drink or enjoy their lives apart from God. What does that mean? It means that God is the source of all forms of true enjoyment.

Then, in chapter 6, he tells us that it is God that gives people the power to enjoy their lives. Also, in Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 18, Moses says God gives people the ability to make wealth, to produce wealth. But why would God be doing all of these things, if He doesn’t want us to enjoy our lives? Why would God allow you to have brains that are working, so that you can study something and understand it? You can master a business and understand it. You can do addition. You can do multiplication. You can do subtraction. Even those who can be referred to as illiterates can still do simple additions and subtractions. That’s how they get along in handling their businesses. And some of them have made millions in doing their businesses, right?

Who is it that gives people the ability to understand things, to understand life, to understand how business works? Is it not God? Why, then, will He give us these abilities, if He does not want us to enjoy our lives? God wants us to enjoy our lives. God wants us to move forward in life. God wants us to be progressive.

However, God does not want us to destroy ourselves in our attempt to enjoy our lives. So, He will tell us, “If you do this you will prosper. But if you do that you will destroy yourself you.” In the Garden of Eden, God told Adam and Eve that they could eat all the fruits of the trees in the garden but one. He says, “All the other fruits, you can eat them. You can do whatever you want to do with all the fruits and all the plants that are in this garden. But there is one tree that you must not eat from its fruits, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is because on the day that you eat from it, you will die.” (Cf. Genesis 2:15-17)

Just one out of all the trees there. Just one out of all the plants there. Why, then, were they particular about eating from that one? He gave them all the others. But He said, “This one, don’t touch this. This one doesn’t belong to you. This one is not for you to consume.” Why? To protect them! He did not want them to destroy themselves.

It’s the same thing in all of life. God tells you, “You can do this. You can enjoy this. But you cannot do that.” And to say the fact, how many things really has God forbidden us not to do? Few things actually! Yet it’s those few things that we want to do, those few things that will destroy us. They are the ones that we want to do.

Now I said all of that to just bring you to one point. And that’s the fact that if you allow the love of the world in you, at some point you will forsake the practice of righteousness. The one who drove Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit that God said they must not eat from was the devil. He enticed them with it. And in that hour, they forsook their love for God and followed the devil.

Today, it’s also the devil that is causing people to lose their love for God, to abandon their love for God, to abandon the practice of righteousness. But he hardly does it directly. He does so mostly indirectly. He is the one that entices people with the love of the world. It’s the devil. But he will not come to you directly. If Satan shows up before you and tells you to love the world, you will not listen to him. I mean that if you know that it’s the devil that is standing before you and telling you to do something, whatever it is that’s coming out of his mouth, you will not want to listen to it. But he will come to you indirectly to entice you, using the world.

Now the Bible says this to us about the love of the world from verse 15 of 1John, chapter 2:

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” (1John 2:15-17NIV)

What is the instruction here? Do not love the world! That’s the instruction. Evidently, John is not saying that we should not love the world of people. That’s not what he is saying. When you read Scriptures, you must read them in the light of other Scriptures. Why would God tell us not to love the world? God Himself so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten son. Isn’t that what the Bible says?

Why, then, is it right for God to love the world and it’s wrong for us to love the world? So, you need to understand what he’s talking about. You need to understand the focus here when he says do not love the world. He’s not saying that we should not love people. That’s not what he’s saying. Rather, he is saying that we should not love the ways of the world.

Well, John says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.” In other words, the moment you give your love to the world, the love of God in you is gone. Love for God and love for the world cannot coexist in you. It’s either you love God or you do not love Him at all. If you love God, you cannot love the world. If you love the world, you cannot love God. They don’t coexist.

Now John goes on to tell us what he is really talking about, when he tells not to love the world. He says that everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, are not of the Father but of the world. His point is that the moment you allow the love of these things in you, know that your love for God is already gone.

Again, remember that Jesus says, “Because of increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.” And we are looking at how love grows cold, how love for God grows cold. We are saying that the moment you begin to fall in love with the world, what will become of your love for God? It will start growing cold. Then, one day, it may just be said of you, and may it never be said of you, that you have deserted the faith because you loved the world.

I’m going to break this down. Just permit me to share a few things with you this morning. Then, next time when I show up here, I will conclude whatever it is that I need to conclude with you on this subject. We are talking about love for the world. And it manifests in three ways. First, it manifests in the love of self. Second, it manifests in the love of things. Third, it manifests in the love of pleasure.

Now I’m going to explain them to you one after the other. First, I said that love for the world manifests in the love of self. In other words, you exalt yourself above God and above every other thing. When we’re talking about selfishness, that’s what we’re talking about. We’re talking about the exaltation of self above God, above people and above things. That’s one of the ways the love of the world manifests itself. You fall in love with yourself. And so, you begin to place yourself above God, above others. You think only about yourself.

Now don’t miss my point. We are not told in scriptures not to think about ourselves. That’s another extreme that we can go to. There are motivational speakers and, of course, bible preachers too who give us the impression that it is wrong to think about ourselves. For them, thinking about ourselves is selfishness on its own. But that’s not true. You must think about yourself. There are Scriptures that point to the fact that we must think about ourselves. There are Scriptures that point to the fact that we must pay attention to ourselves. If you don’t think right about yourself, you can’t think right about others.

The command that says, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” is drawing attention to the fact that we must pay attention to ourselves. No, you’re not commanded to love your neighbor more than yourself. You’re commanded to love your neighbor as yourself. So, you have to love yourself, right? You have to love yourself. You have to care about yourself. If you don’t care about yourself, you can’t care about others as you should care about them. The one that cannot take care of himself cannot take care of others. And that’s why some people will continue to be poor parents. They don’t know how to take care of themselves. So, they can’t take care of others. Some people also will continue to be poor leaders. Because they don’t know how to take care of themselves they cannot take care of others.

So, you must think about yourself. You must love yourself. You must care for yourself. But you must be careful not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to. And that’s what we are warned not to do in scriptures. In Romans chapter 12, verse 3, Paul says, “Don’t think of yourself more highly than you are. But think of yourself with sober judgment.” How do you think of yourself with sober judgment? Only in the light of the word of God! It’s when you think of yourself in the light of the word of God that you think of yourself with sober judgment, that you see yourself the way you are, that you see yourself the way God sees you. You are not looking down on yourself. And you are not having an exaggerated opinion of yourself. You’re not having a picture of yourself that does not exist. So, nothing is wrong with thinking of ourselves.

Then some will say, “You are to think of others first.” There are no scriptures that suggest that you think of others first. No! You think of yourself first. You must think of yourself first. However, in thinking of yourself, you must think about others as well. But if you have already exalted yourself above God, then, you will only think of yourself. You only think of what is good for you, without considering how it will affect others. You will only think of what is good for you, without considering what God thinks about what you think is good for you. That’s the exaltation of self.

Now that is the foundation for most of the problems that we have in the world today. The love of self! It is the motivation for theft. You want to take what belongs to another without considering how it will affect him. That’s the love of self. It is the reason people embezzle public money. It is the love of self. You take all the money that belongs to millions of people and put it in your own account. What are you thinking of? Just yourself! You’re thinking about the houses you want to build for yourself. You’re thinking about the businesses you want to build for yourself. You’re thinking about the future of your children, your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren. At what cost? At the cost of the livelihood of millions of people! What is that? Love of self!

The love of self, in short, is the motivation for most of the acts of wickedness that we find in the world today. Think of rapists. Why would somebody rape another? It is the love of self. At that time, he or she is thinking only about the enjoyment that she wants to have. At what cost? The ruining of another person’s life! That’s the love of self.

Now when the love of self takes over you, you will forget about God. You will no longer think about what God is saying. You will no longer want to listen to Him. All that you will thinking of is how you are going to make yourself happy. All you will be thinking about is how you are going to satisfy yourself. So, you have become your own God. That’s it.

Why do you want to become your own God? The reason is the things in the world that you want to possess. That’s why I’m saying that the love of the word manifests first in the love of self. You are looking at all the things in the world that you may possess for yourself. You are looking at the things in the world that you may enjoy. And then you begin to think, “Okay, I can do this. I can do that.” But you are not considering how the doing of whatever it is that you want to do will affect other people. It’s the love of self.

Why do people lie? Why do people tell horrible lies to advance themselves? In our workplaces, people will tell horrible lies to advance themselves. In our workplaces, people will set up others to advance themselves. What is that? It’s the love of self.

Now the word of God says once that love is in you, the love of God is no longer in you. Love of God and love of the world are mutually exclusive. They can’t exist together. You understand what I’m talking about? So, it is either you hold on to love for God or you hold on to love for the world? You can’t have both.

Let me close with this. In James, chapter 4, verse 4, we are told this:

“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4NIV)

Did you see that? When you choose to love the world, you have made yourself an enemy of God. There is no middle ground. So, if you permit the love of self in you, you have become an enemy of God. And it’s not only yourself that you will ruin; you will ruin others around you too.

Why are many homes breaking today? It’s the love of self. The man wants what he wants without considering how what he wants will affect the wife. The wife also wants what she wants without considering how what she wants will affect the husband. What will happen? That home will break. It’s only a matter of time.

If love of self has already occupied your heart, you have no business getting married to anybody. That is because all that you are going to be pursuing are your advantages. All that you are going to be after are those things that will benefit you. And think about it. Even today, when people want to get married, what are they looking for? They are looking for somebody that is going to satisfy them, right? Yes, they are thinking about what the person can do for them. What can he do for me? What can she do for me? They don’t ask, “What can I do for this person? What will my coming into this person’s life, do for him? What will my coming into her life, do for her? Will my coming into her life make her progressive? Will my coming into his life make him progressive?”

I’m yet to come across somebody that will say, “Look, I just thought about it that if I should go into this person’s life, I will not do them much good. I will simply destroy their life. Because of that, I’m not going to marry them.” I’m yet to come in contact with that person. Maybe before the close of the day, I will find somebody like that. Mind you, don’t come and meet me at the end of the meeting and tell me that that’s your thought now.

Well, when we are sharing the word of God with ourselves, we don’t often get into these things. That is why many of us have not yet been renewed in our minds. You want to work in a place. The only thing you think of is what that office can do for you. How much can you get from the office? How much are they paying? Or what’s often the first question? How much do they pay? That’s the motivation for applying there. But you are not even asking yourself, okay, “What will I bring to the table? What am I bringing to them?”

That’s why, you know, if you go for some interviews, they will ask you, “Okay, so what are you bringing to the table? What are you offering us? What do you think you can offer us that others cannot offer us? How will you be different from other employees that we already have or others that are applying that we want to take? How will you be different?” And then people will start stammering because they never thought about it. All that we think about is what we can gain from others.

In like manner, if you’re starting a friendship, if you’re getting close to somebody, why? Is it not just about what you can get from the person? That’s the love of self. You don’t move near people because of what you think you can do to make their lives better. It’s not that you just look at the person and say, “If I go close to this person, I’ll be able to help him in this area of his life,” or “This person is too sluggish. If I move close to her, I’ll be able to help her to be a little fast,” or “This person is disorderly. If I move into his life, I will help him to organize himself,” or “This person has talents, but he’s not organized. Let me move closer so that I can help him.” We hardly think about such things.

So, even among those of us who are Christians, the love of self is still deeply rooted. And it will take the word of God to uproot it, to flush it out. I’m sure this is why this is coming to us. Once there is love of self in you, the love of God in you is growing cold or has already grown cold. It’s just that you have not been paying attention. But I want you to pray this morning that as the word of God has come to us, everything that has to do with the love of self will be flushed out by the Spirit of God in you.

Copyright © 2026 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)

By: Johnson O. Lawal

I was talking to us last Sunday on ‘Has your love grown cold?’ And I mentioned another sign that may indicate that a believer’s love for God has grown cold. Now remember that we are looking at these things in the light of the words of our Lord Jesus which say, “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.” And He said that, referring to the last days. The last days are days in which wickedness will increase in the world. Because of this the love of most people will grow cold.

So, we are looking at those things that may indicate that our love for God has grown cold. We already mentioned a loss of interest in the word of God and a loss of interest in prayer. Now we are looking at a loss of interest in the practice of righteousness. Then, last week, I said people may lose interest in the practice of righteousness because they are envious of the prosperity of the wicked. When you’re looking at how prosperous the wicked around you are, you may begin to think that it is a waste of time to devote yourself to practicing righteousness. But from what we see in the word of God, it pays to practice righteousness; it pays to devote ourselves to practicing righteousness. The reward for that goes beyond this age. The reward is eternal. That’s why we are told to train ourselves to be godly. In 1 Timothy chapter 4, Paul counsels Timothy to train himself to be godly. Because the value of godliness goes beyond this world. It’s something eternal. You can’t even measure it.

In any case, what I’m saying is that you should not envy the prosperity of the wicked. If you become envious of the prosperity of the wicked, before you know it, you may lose interest in the practice of righteousness. And where that will lead you only God can tell. So, mind yourself.

Well, we are still looking at why people may lose interest in practising righteousness. Another reason is delay in the judgment of wickedness. When there is a delay in the judgment of wickedness, those who have given themselves to practicing righteousness may become discouraged and may themselves begin to act wicked.

Now you read in Scriptures that God will surely judge wickedness. And in fact, one of the reasons we give ourselves to practising righteousness and not wickedness is that we believe that God will judge wickedness. When you function with that consciousness, you don’t want to join those who are stealing to steal. That is because you know that at some point God is going to judge theft.

Also, because of your belief in that, you don’t want to join people in practising immorality. Why? You believe that at some point God is going to judge the immoral. So, in a sense, your faith in God’s ability and willingness to judge wickedness will surely promote your practice of righteousness. That’s one of the things that promote the practice of righteousness in the believer. But the moment you lose your confidence in God’s ability to judge wickedness or in His willingness to judge wickedness, you may give up on practising righteousness. And before you know it, you may find yourself doing what you never thought you would do.

Before, you used to speak against these things. Before, you used to condemn those doing these things. But at some point, you may find yourself doing exactly the same things. Why? You may know individuals who used to be devoted to practising righteousness, who used to love the Lord with all their hearts. But now, they are no longer interested in the practice of righteousness. Now they are condemning the same things they once obeyed and are promoting the same things they once denounced. You may feel sorry for them. And it may be okay to feel sorry for them. But beyond feeling sorry for them, you may want to pray for them. That is because any of us may find ourselves in that situation. The reason you probably have not found yourself there is that the grace of God is upholding you. But the moment you let go of the grace of God, you will find yourself where you never expect to be, unless you show mercy. In Ecclesiastes, chapter 8, verse 11, Solomon says:

“When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong.” (Ecclesiastes 8:11NIV)

Is that in your own Bible? How do you read it? Well, it says when descendants for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong. In other words, when wickedness is not judged in time, there are people who will lose faith in the practice of righteousness and give themselves up to doing wrong things. I mean that if you if you stay long enough in a place where people are doing all kinds of crazy things and wicked things and there are no consequences, what do you think may happen to you? At some point, you may also give yourself to doing the same things. And that’s how evil becomes widespread in societies.

There are, of course, people appointed by God in various communities, in various societies to judge wickedness. If they will not judge wickedness, if they allow it to run freely in their societies, at some point, people’s hearts will be filled with schemes to do evil. People will just conclude that there are no consequences for doing wicked things. And that’s how societies become terribly insane. That’s how the rule of law is completely eroded in societies.

Look at our country, for instance. People do all kinds of crazy things. Why are people free to do all kinds of crazy things? Because their acts of wickedness are not being judged immediately or at all. People do things that are contrary even to the laws of the country. Yet nothing happens to them. And so, at some point, it becomes a norm to do certain wrong things in the country.

How does the taking of bribes in many of our government institutions become a norm? It becomes a norm when people after people take it and there are no consequences. There are people that have probably been taking bribes all their lives, and nobody has judged them.

Again, how do government officials, for instance, become free to embezzle public funds? Why do they think they are free to embezzle public funds? Today, in this country, it’s not something hidden that most of those who go into politics go into politics to steal money. And they may say, okay, “Bring your proofs. That’s subject to debate.” But we all know that most of those who go into politics go into politics because of money. They go into politics because they believe that it will give them an opportunity to take some money from the national cake or from the national treasury for themselves.

Now, year after year, election after election, the same things are repeated. From one administration to another administration, the same things are repeated. Then it’s years later that you will hear that so-and-so embezzled as much as this. But even though there are many who have been taken to the court, even in this country, for embezzling public funds, how many of them have been jailed? How many of those cases have been closed?

Well, when you function with the mindset that, in the long run, nothing is going to happen, you may feel free to begin to steal yourself. You might say, “I will take the money. I will take enough so that even if I’m taken to the court, I will have enough to fight back.” That is a satanic philosophy. But it’s fully in operation in the world. And it is that if you want to steal, steal enough. Don’t stay peanuts. Then they will throw you in the jail and you won’t even have money to bail yourself out.

But you know, there are climes where people have been blacklisted, where their families have been blacklisted for embezzling public funds. In such places, if you steal, your entire family, your entire generation is blacklisted. So, you know that you have ruined your entire generation. You don’t want to do that. There are things you don’t want to do in some places. Where rapists, for instance, are incarcerated for life, you don’t want to rape anybody there.

Well, the wisdom of God says, “When a sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are loaded with schemes to do evil.” Now that is talking about the judgment of wickedness or crimes among ourselves as humans. And as I said before, there are people God has appointed to judge wickedness in the world. That is why it may look like He is slow in judging wickedness. We look unto God all the time and only for the judgment of wickedness. But we are wrong to do that.

Now don’t miss my point. I’m not saying we should not look to God at all for the judgment of wickedness. We should look to God. We should expect God to judge wickedness. And the truth is that every day God is judging wickedness. That’s what we are told in scriptures. In the book of Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 5, we are told that every day God judges wickedness; every day God’s justice is going forth into the world. You may not know it because it hasn’t come to your doorsteps.

However, God doesn’t expect us to look to Him alone, to look to Him alone for the judgment of wickedness. And that is because there are people that He has appointed to judge wickedness in the world. Everyone in a leadership position is appointed by God and expected by God to judge wickedness in his own realm. If you are a father, for instance, you are expected to judge wickedness, any kind of wickedness, in your own home. Because if you don’t judge wickedness in your home, it will spread from your home into the world.

Wickedness is actually spreading from homes into the world. Yes, we say wickedness is rooted in the society. But the truth is that wickedness is rooted in the home. And it is spreading from the home to the society. If parents judge wickedness in their home, it will not spread into their society.

Also, as a leader in your workplace, you are expected to judge wickedness in your workplace, any kind of wickedness that shows up. Yes, you may not expect wickedness to show up. But sometimes wickedness may show up. If it should show up, it’s on you to judge it. That’s where God has placed you. That’s one of the reasons God has placed you there.

In any case, every leader is expected by God to judge wickedness in his own realm. And it’s when he fails to judge wickedness in his own realm that God steps in to judge it after a while. This is one of the reasons it may look like God is slow to judge wickedness, as I pointed out before. We look to Him alone for the judgment of wickedness. But He doesn’t expect us to look to Him alone for the judgment of wickedness. That is because He is not the only one responsible for judging wickedness. There are all kinds of people all over the world that are responsible for judging wickedness. They may not judge it. It doesn’t change the fact that God is not the only responsible for judging wickedness.

Now if the Christian does not have this understanding, and all the time he looks to God alone for the judgment of wickedness, he may think that God is inactive as far as the judgment of wickedness is concerned. And the moment he begins to have that feeling that God is inactive as far as the judgment of wickedness is concerned or he begins to think that maybe God will never judge wickedness, what do you think will happen to him? He may begin to give himself to doing wickedness.

I want to show you some of the things God says to the people of Judah through Malachi. In chapter 2, verse 17, we are told this:

“You have wearied the Lord with your words. “How have we wearied him?” you ask. By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?” (Malachi 2:17NIV)

Now whatever question you may be asking in your heart about God’s justice would not be a new question. Somebody somewhere has asked it before. The people of the days of Malachi were saying these things among themselves. They had been saying among themselves, “Where is the God of justice? Why has He not judged so and so?” Has that ever come to your mind? Have you ever thought like that before? You looked at the devotion of some people to wickedness and you were asking yourself, “If there is a God of justice indeed, why hasn’t this person been judged?”

Even in this country, there are people with that opinion. To them, if God were in existence indeed, why has He left this country to be like this? Some will even ask, “If there is a God indeed, why has He left this world in this kind of mess? All the wickedness going on in the world, why is He not judging it? Yet you keep saying He’s a God of justice. Why is He not judging the rapists? Why is He not judging the pedophiles? Why is he not judging those who are embezzling public funds? Why hasn’t He judged the terrorists? Why hasn’t He judged the kidnappers?”

By the way, when you consider the kidnapping cases in this country alone, don’t you get furious? Has anybody here ever wished he had a gun to go and deal with the terrorists in the land? You just wish that you had something to go and deal with them where they are to flush all of them out. Why did you, if you ever felt like that, feel like that? A sense of justice! You wanted justice. And you felt that it wasn’t coming at all.

Now you may not blame God for that. But some people blame God for that. These people, these Jews, for instance, were saying, “Where is the God of justice? All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord. He is certainly pleased with them. Otherwise, where is the God of justice?”

Then, in chapter 3 of the same book, Malachi, from verse 13, we are told:

“You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the Lord. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’ “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’” (Malachi 3:13-15NIV)

What am I showing you? I’m trying to show you why Christians may forsake the practice of righteousness and give themselves utterly to practising wickedness. You may see a believer give himself utterly to wickedness and you wonder what’s going on with him. You may not know what has been going on in his mind. You may not know all the circumstances that led him to that point where he forsook the practice of righteousness and gave himself completely to practising wickedness.

Well, God was responding to the questions, to the thoughts going on in the minds of His people here. He wanted them to know that, all along, He had been paying attention to their discussions; He had been paying attention to the things that they were thinking. So, you may not know that God is paying attention to what you’re thinking. But He’s paying attention. He’s paying attention to our conversations, the things we are saying among ourselves about what is going on in our land and how we are responding to the things going on in our land.

Now what we will want is for God to judge wickedness immediately. What we will want is for God to eradicate the wicked immediately. But it doesn’t always work like that. I already gave you one of the reasons it doesn’t work like that. There are people appointed by God to judge wickedness. And He will not micromanage them. He will want them to judge wickedness. He will leave them to judge bitterness. He will not immediately step in to do their job for them, if they will not do it. He will give them time. It’s when they fail to judge it in time that He will step in and judge it Himself. And then when it begins to judge it Himself, everybody will start shouting; everybody will start crying. Because He will make it awesome.

Again, these people are saying, “Even evil dwellers are getting away with it. So, what do we gain by practising righteousness?” Have you been asking yourself that too? Have you been asking, “What do I gain by not being a yahoo boy?” And there are young people in this country that are asking themselves today, “What do I gain by not being a fraudster? What do I gain by not giving myself to prostitution? What do I gain? I go for all the church meetings. I pray. I fast. I study the word of God. How has that helped my life?”

Well, the word of God is coming to you this morning. Look at it. Look at what it’s saying from the next verse, verse 16:

“Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” (Malachi 3:16-18NIV)

God is speaking here. He is saying, “I’m going to definitely make a distinction between those who practice righteousness and those who do not on the day that I act.” But will you wait for that day? That’s the point. You may think God is not going to judge wickedness. But He’s going to judge it. You may think God is not going to judge evil doers. But He’s going to judge them. He will judge them at the time that He has set to judge them. And He’s saying, “You’re going to see that distinction.”

But will you wait for that day, when God will make the distinction between those who are serving Him and those who are not serving Him? Will you wait for that day, when He will show those around you that it pays to practise righteousness? Will you wait for that day, when He will show those in your workplace that it pays not to steal, it pays not to embezzle public funds? Will you wait for that day?

It may look like those who are involved in money rituals in this country are making it today, right? The so-called yahoo boys, it may look like their way is the right way to go and that nothing will ever go wrong with them. Because there are so many of them spread across the country now. And they now have camps in which they train people. People now pay to get trained to be fraudsters. So, you may be asking, “Will God ever deal these people? Will He ever deal with the kidnappers in the country? Will He ever deal with those who are involved in prostitution?”

But He says, “A day is coming when I’m going to judge them.” I wouldn’t know how near that day is, when it will no longer be popular to be a Yahoo boy or girl in this country. But that day will come, if Jesus tarries. That day will come when the phrase ‘Yahoo boy’ will become a curse. And you won’t want to associate yourself with anything called internet scam in that day. That day is coming. A day is coming when it will no longer be a fanciful thing to be around fraudsters. When the judgment begins, everybody will see it. But will you wait for that day?

The wickedness in Sodom and Gomorrah was hot. It was horrible. It was like a landslide. It filled everywhere. It looked like nothing would be able to arrest it. And Lot was there, as we are told in Scriptures, tormented every day. Yes, Lot was in Sodom, tortured every day. The Bible says he was tortured by both what he saw and had. You know something of that torture? I know something of that torture, to be tortured on the basis of what you see, what you hear.

Well, Lot was tortured every day. His wife was tortured every day. His children were tortured every day. Guess what? They did not give themselves to the practice of wickedness. They also were probably waiting for a day when God was going to step in and deal with the situation. Yes, it is sad to know that when God eventually stepped in, they were reluctant to leave Sodom. But did God judge Sodom and Gomorrah or not? He did. Who were the people that were saved there? The righteous there! God saved them. He brought them out safely.

Now He’s still judging wickedness in the world. He will still judge whatever wickedness you’re seeing around you. He will judge it in His own time. You just need to wait for Him to judge it. However, while you’re waiting, don’t give yourself to wickedness. Don’t let your love for Him grow cold. Because the wickedness you see around you will be judged. The evil you see around you will be judged. The thieves will be judged. Those embezzling public funds will be judged. Those involved in money rituals will be judged. The kidnappers will be judged. The terrorists will be judged. Their wings will be broken. Their strength will be broken. But when God begins to do that, will you be separated from them? Or will you be judged along with them?

Let’s spend some time to pray this one.

Copyright © 2026 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)

By: Johnson O. Lawal

I will be very quick in sharing with you further on ‘Has your love grown cold?’ We’re looking at what our Lord Jesus Christ says to us in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 24, verse 12 which reads:

“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12NIV)

We see here that one of the things that will mark the last days is increase of wickedness. And the Lord is telling us that because there will be increase of wickedness, the love of most people for God will grow cold. If your love grows cold in this way – we’re talking about your love for God – definitely your love for mankind will also grow cold.

Then I’ve been showing us some of the signs of or some of the signs that will show that the believer’s love has gone cold. First, I said you will lose interest in the word of God. Second, there will be a loss of interest in prayer. The third point I want to speak to you about along the same line has to do with a loss of interest in the practice of righteousness. What I am saying is that when your love for God begins to grow cold or has grown cold, you will also begin to lose interest in the practice of righteousness.

What keeps us devoted to practicing righteousness is love for God. When you love God, you will love righteousness and hate wickedness. One of the things said about our Lord Jesus Christ in Hebrews chapter 1 is that He loves righteousness and hates wickedness. There is no way you will love God and not love righteousness. That is because God is righteous. Then there is no way you will love Him and not hate wickedness. That is because God hates wickedness.

Now, of course, you may not have perfected your ways of walking in righteousness yet. But you will know in your heart that walking in righteousness is the right thing for you to do and be labouring to walk in righteousness. You will also know in your heart that without God enabling you, you cannot walk in righteousness. So, you will put your trust in Him to walk in righteousness.

However, the moment your love for the Lord begins to grow cold, you also begin to lose interest in the practice of righteousness. Why? First, the prosperity of the wicked! When you begin to pay attention to the prosperity of the wicked, there is every tendency that you will lose interest at some point in the practice of righteousness. When you look around you, and you see those who are not devoted to the practice of righteousness flourishing in their wickedness, you may begin to ask yourself if the practice of righteousness is worth it. Yes, you may begin to ask yourself, “What do I gain by devoting myself to the practice of righteousness? What do I gain by not stealing? What do I gain by not embezzling public funds? What do I gain by not giving myself to immorality? What do I gain by not telling lies? What do I gain by doing good to others?” You really can start asking yourself whether practising righteousness is really worth it.

I won’t be able to share all that I have in mind with you this morning because of the amount of time I have to do this. But I will endeavor to stir you up to wholesome thinking, so that you may go ahead and begin to meditate on these things. Let me show you something from Psalm 73. This is a Psalm of Asaph by the way, and I’ll read to you from verse 1:

“Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.” (Psalm 73:1NIV)

Did you see that? Surely God is good to those who are pure in heart. That is a sure thing. If you are pure in heart, if you are committed to righteousness, you will find God to be good to you. Of course, it’s not only those who are pure in heart that God is good to. He is good to everybody. But then, those who are pure in heart, those who are devoted to righteousness, can expect to always experience the goodness of God as a sure thing, regardless of the circumstances that they are faced with in life

But then, it’s not every time that it looks like we are experiencing the goodness of God. When there is chaos around us, when there is confusion all around us, when things are not moving as we expect them to move, we don’t think we are experiencing the goodness of God. When our business is not going as we expect it to go, when the steps you are taking yielding the kind of results you expect them to heed, you may begin to doubt the goodness of God to you.

But God is always good to His people. Even in times of hardship, He is good to them. And because He is good to them, He will not allow any kind of hardship to consume them. Things may look hard to you. But they would have been harder, if God had not been good to you. Things may look difficult for you now. But they would have been more difficult, if God had not been good to you. It is the goodness of God that limits the presence of evil or the activity of evil in our lives and around us. It is the goodness of God that restrains the power of evil in our world.

Evil is not winning. You must understand that. If evil were to be winning, everyone would be dead already. Evil is just trying to play catch up. It is the goodness of God that is filling the earth. You must keep this in mind. There is wickedness in the world, granted. The word of God doesn’t deny that. But the goodness of God is also in the world. The Bible tells us that the whole earth is filled with God’s glory (Isaiah 6:3).

Now you have to see that glory. And if you want to see that glory, you will see it. But you may pay so much attention to the evil in the world that you miss the glory of God that is in the world. The glory of God, however, fills the whole earth. That’s what the Bible says. So, see the glory. Don’t see only the wickedness. See, the goodness of God as well. Because the goodness of God is all around us.

Then, from verse 2 of this Psalm, Asaph begins to say,

“But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills. Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity; their evil imaginations have no limits. They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. They say, “How would God know? Does the Most High know anything?” This is what the wicked are like— always free of care, they go on amassing wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments. If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children.” (Psalm 73:2-15NIV)

Look at that. This psalmist says that his feet almost slipped, he almost lost his way when they considered the prosperity of the wicked. That means as he began to pay attention to the prosperity of those who did not care about God, he began to have doubts within him. He began to ask himself if it was not in vain that he gave himself to walking in righteousness.

And look at the world in which we’re living today. Look at our country, for instance. You would expect that maybe the wicked will not be doing well in her. But there are many wicked people that are doing well, right? Those who are involved in internet scams, they are making it. Are they not making it? Are they not building houses? Houses are becoming more and more expensive because of them. They are willing to pay anything to rent a small apartment. And here you are, struggling, struggling with a dying business or struggling in school.

When you look at such things, don’t feel like it is a waste of time walking in righteousness? You don’t need to deceive yourself as a child of God. Don’t try to act as though the things you see and hear were not affecting you. Be truthful to yourself, so that you can liberate yourself with the word of God.

Well, I am saying there are people around you that don’t care about God. Yet they are doing better financially. Don’t assume that it is not affecting you. Don’t think that it is not touching you. Otherwise, one day you will surprise yourself.

Or you see those who are involved in prostitution and who seem to be moving ahead in life. Or it may be those who are cheating in your office. They may be moving ahead in life. What about those who embezzle public money? Are they not in control billions of naira? What of those who are doing money rituals? Are they not living extravagant lifestyles? But you are working hard. You are probably working harder than many people around you. But what has been your profit?

Now are there no moments in which you think about that? Are there no moments in which you look at the people you know and think they have gone ahead of your life? You may be seeing those who found it hard to do well in class when you were in school now riding big cars and living in luxury. How does it make you feel? Don’t you sometimes feel that God is cheating you? Don’t you sometimes feel that God is not really concerned about you? Don’t you sometimes feel that maybe all this so-called practice of righteousness is a ruse? Don’t you sometimes think that maybe this is all a charade, nothing to it at all?

You may feel like that. That is exactly what this man, Asaph, is describing here in the text. He is describing a situation in which he found himself, where he began to envy the prosperity of the wicked. And he says, “Because of that my feet almost slipped.”

Well, I’m saying something, which is that you can lose interest in the practice of righteousness, if you ponder long enough on the prosperity of the wicked. If you ponder long enough on the prosperity of the wicked, you may begin to think that you are behind in life. You may begin to think that God is not good to you.

But you need to know that God is good to you. That’s where to start from because that’s where this man starts from. He says, “Surely God is good to those who are pure in heart.” So, you need to settle it in your mind that God is good to you, regardless. He is kind to you, regardless. So, there is no need for you to lose interest in walking with Him. There is no need for you, no legitimate reason for you to lose interest in practicing righteousness.

It pays to practice righteousness. It may not look like that today. The circumstances of your life may not give you the impression that it pays to practice righteousness. But the word of God tells us that it pays to practice righteousness. You may consider the prosperity of the wicked and think that it doesn’t pay to practice righteousness, that it is a waste of time to practice righteousness. But the word of God says it pays to practice righteousness. So, don’t turn away from God because you are not as materially prosperous as those of this world.

Prosperity goes beyond a possession of material things. Jesus says the life of a man does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15). Don’t measure your life, then, on the basis of what you have or do not have. Don’t ever measure your life on the basis of the things you have or do not have. Your life will always be more important than things. So don’t ever compare your life with things.

What are things? They will perish. They will disappear. What is fame? It will vanish. It will disappear. What is even beauty? It will vanish. It will disappear. What is position? At some point, you will leave it or it will leave you. So, you can’t measure your life on the basis of any of these things. Measure your life, rather, on the basis of the value that God has placed on it. God so much valued your life that He gave His only Son to die to redeem you. That’s the value He has placed on your life. If He was willing to give His son to die for you, that means He considered your life as important as the life of His Son, Jesus Christ. Otherwise, He would not have given Him to die for you.

Now that’s how you should view your life. Regardless of what you have or you do not have, remind yourself that God loves you. He loves me. He cares about me. The creator of the world loves me. The creator of the world cares about me. The creator of the world is my Father. The owner of everything, the possessor of heaven and earth is my Father. He cares about me. He loves me. And that’s all that matters. That’s all that should matter to you.

You may not have most of the beautiful things that those of this world have. It doesn’t mean you are behind in life. You may not have attained certain positions that some people have attained in life. It does not mean that you are behind in life.

See, you don’t need to measure your life on the basis of what is going on in the life of another person. You are here for different reasons. You are here for different purposes. You are not going to the same places. You are not going to the same destinations. God has not appointed the same destination for you. He has not appointed the same purpose for you. What is important, then, is that you fulfill your own purpose and also let the other man or woman fulfill their own purpose. That is your business.

So, your mates may seem to have gone ahead of you. What does it matter? Have they really gone ahead of you? Are you going to the same place? How do you know that they have gone ahead of you, if you are not going to the same place? Why would you conclude that somebody has gone ahead of you and say, “Oh, he has gone far?” What are you talking about? Are you going to the same place?

Focus on where you’re going. Do you even know where you’re going? That’s the problem. Do you even know where God is taking you? Do you even know His purpose for your life? That’s what you should busy yourself with, not with what is going on in the lives of others. So, stop wasting your time finding out what is going on in the lives of others. I know that’s the business of the day, to go online and be perusing the lives of others and be finding out what is latest in their lives. That’s a waste of your time. You are wasting your life that way. Don’t waste your life in that manner.

God has not sent you on that kind of errand. Focus on your own life. Focus on being the person God wants you to be. Focus on experiencing the fulfillment of His purpose in your life or for your life. That’s what you should focus on. That’s your own business. That’s the order of the day. If you focus on that, you will not have time to envy the wicked or to consider the prosperity of the wicked. You’ll be too busy with God to have time to know what is going on in their lives. Have I said something to somebody this morning?

Let’s bow our heads and spend some time to pray.

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By: Johnson O. Lawal

Last week, I began to share some thoughts with us from St. Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 24, verse 12. And I’m going to read to you from there again this morning. It says:

“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12NIV)

Here, our Lord Jesus Christ is warning us ahead of what we all are going to witness in the last days. He tells us that there will be increase of wickedness in the last days. That, of course, is telling us that there will be increase in demonic activities in the last days. As a result of that, the love of most people will grow cold. And He’s talking here about people’s love for God. He’s saying that their love for God will grow cold. So, we are asking ourselves if our love for Him has not grown cold, or if it is not growing cold.

Now you can simply say, “No, my love for the Lord has not grown cold.” But it goes beyond words of mouth. There are signs, signs to look out for if you want to know whether your love for the Lord has grown cold or not. One of them, as I pointed out last week, is loss of interest in the Word of God. If you have lost interest in the Word of God, then, your love for the Lord is growing cold or has gone cold. And you need to deal with it before you find yourself where you don’t expect to find yourself.

As I equally pointed out last week, this is often gradual; it’s hardly instant. People’s love for the Lord hardly grows cold instantly. It is often gradual. So, you may not immediately pay attention to it. You may not pay attention to the fact that the things that you are witnessing in the world are affecting your love for God or your devotion to Him. And if you are not paying attention like that, at some point, you may just realize that you are where you never thought you would be. This is why it is important for us to daily pay attention to our walk with the Lord. We may have a lot of things we want to fix in our lives, a lot of things that we want God to deal with in our lives. That’s fine as long as we have not taken our eyes off Him. That’s fine as long as our devotion is still to Him. But the moment we take our eyes away from Him to other things, if we are not immediately drawn back, or if we are not drawn back to Him in time, a day may come when we will only be telling stories about our Christian life. It will have become history.

This is why what I’m sharing with you is important and I want you to give it your utmost attention. I already mentioned the fact that if you observe that you’re losing interest in the Word of God, you need to wake up because something is already going wrong with you. If people have to prod you to listen to the Word of God, to read your bible or study it, then, something is already going wrong with you. And if you do not give that thing your immediate attention so that you can call yourself back, it won’t be long before you realize that you are far away from the Lord. I want to keep that in mind.

Another sign to watch out for if you want to know whether your love for the Lord has grown cold or not or is growing cold or not is your attitude towards prayer. If you have lost interest in praying to God, then, your love for Him is growing cold or has already grown cold. And you need to tell yourself the truth about it so that you can deal with it. The problem with us often as believers is that we don’t like to tell ourselves the truth about our spiritual state. We may not even have or give sufficient time to examine ourselves, so that we can from time to time tell what our spiritual condition is.

People will tell us that it’s fine to regularly go to doctors for medical checkups, so that you can at least know that you have a clean bill of health. That’s fine. But if you are doing that for your physical health but are not doing the same for your spiritual health, you are endangering yourself. It’s important as a child of God that you regularly check yourself in the light of the word of God to see where you stand in the faith. Now Paul speaks about that to the Corinthians. In 2Corinthians, chapter 13, he says, “Examine yourselves. Test yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.” That’s something you’re going to do for yourself. That’s not what somebody has to do for you. And it is as you test yourself that you will know where you need cleansing. It is as you test yourself that you will know where you need to work on your hunger for God or your eagerness for Him. It is as you test yourself that you will know whether you are behind in Christian service or not. If you are not testing yourself, you will just keep on living, thinking that you’re doing the right thing. Then, a day will come and you’ll be faced with certain challenges that will highlight where you have been all along.

You know, there are challenges of life that highlight where a believer is or that can highlight where a believer has been all along, as far as his walk with God is concerned. And it’s not a question of whether those challenges will come or not. It’s a question of when they will come, because they will actually come.

Now each challenge that comes to us comes to us to highlight our spiritual condition. That’s one of the reasons challenges come to us. I am saying that apart from the fact that challenges come to us because we are human beings, they also come to us because they want to show what we weigh, they want to show where we stand. Yes, they are going to highlight exactly where we stand in life, whether we are with God or not. And even if you are with God, challenges will show how well are we standing with Him.

You, then, don’t need to wait until they come before you make sure of your position. That’s why Paul says, “Put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand when the evil day comes.” The evil day will surely come. There’s no doubt about that. Every day will not be a day that you can refer to as an evil day. But there are days that you will refer to as evil days. If you look back, there may be days, in fact, you’ll be able to place your fingers on certain days that you may want to refer to as evil days in your life. Those days are in the past. But if you will describe them, you’ll describe them as evil days because of the things that characterized them, the things that accompanied them. But those days may not be evil days for some other people. They were evil days for you, however. And some others will come in the future. That’s not a curse. That’s a reality. That’s what the word of God says. (Cf. Ephesians 6:10-13)

But you can be ready for them. If you are ready for them, they will not destroy you. If you are ready for them, they will highlight the genuineness of your faith. But if you are not ready for them, they will highlight your weakness. Can you relate what I’m talking about?

So what? I’m saying something, which is that if you have lost interest in praying to God, then, your love for Him has grown cold or is growing cold. And you need to quickly deal with it. You know, the Lord is speaking about increase in wickedness. And He is telling us that increase in wickedness in the world will affect people, not just unbelievers but believers as well. Since the Lord has said that it will affect us, we need to watch ourselves. We need to watch ourselves so that it does not take us away from where God has planted us.

The challenges of life, the trials of life, none of us is exempted from them. In our workplaces, we come in contact with them. In our neighborhoods, we come in contact with them. In our schools, we come in contact with them. Among our family members, we come in contact with them. We see things that shock us. We see things that amaze us. We see things that surprise us. We also hear of things that surprise us, that amaze us. We witness betrayals. We witness unfaithfulness. We all are exposed to these things. And the way they will affect one man may be different from the way they will affect another man. But all of us are exposed to these things. And we are saying that we must not allow them to ruin our relationship with God. That’s what we are talking about.

Remember that the Lord says the love of most people will grow cold. And as I pointed out to you last week, when He says ‘Most people’, He is referring to majority of us, right? Yes! And since He says the love of most people will be affected, I need to ask myself, “Hope I’m not already among?”

Now the fact that I’m coming around for church meetings and preaching all the time doesn’t mean that something has not gone wrong with my love for the Lord. If I do not begin to examine myself to see my attitude towards some of these things that I’m mentioning, in the next couple of years, in the next couple of months, I may just find myself where I don’t expect to ever see myself. That’s the point we’re making. Why is it that we have people who used to be staunch believers, people who used to be rugged believers, and who are no longer anywhere to be found? They no longer take the things of God seriously. Some of them have even renounced their faith. Why?

You may say, “No, that will never happen to me.” No, don’t say that. Don’t say that. That’s because you have probably not been confronted with what those people have been confronted with. Only when you’re confronted with what someone has been confronted with and you’re still standing that you can say such things. But if you have actually been confronted with what that person has been confronted with and you’re standing, you will not be quick to criticize the person. Because you’ll be able to tell that it was God’s mercy that rescued you. So, you won’t be quick to criticize the person.

Well, back to the point I was making. And it is that people will begin to lose interest in praying to God, if their love for Him is growing cold. Why? First, they will make no time to pray. They are too occupied to have time to pray to God. You can become so occupied that to leave out some time to pray to God will become a problem. I’m not talking about unbelievers now. I’m talking about believers. The only time some believers get to pray is when they come for a congregational prayer meeting. On their own, they don’t pray much. They may not say more than a minute prayer in the morning. They may not say more than two minutes prayer throughout the day. Why? They are busy.

Now you can tell when you come for a congregational meeting and are praying who has really been praying and who has not been praying, just by looking at people’s attitude towards prayer. The one who has lost interest in praying, when he comes to a prayer meeting, you will need to prod him to pray. You will need to say all kinds of exciting things to get them to pray. Or you may even want to frighten to pray. And even at that, if it is not a prayer point that is directly related to him, he may take it seriously.

Then, when you are taking much time on a prayer point, he is already upset. And he is saying to himself, “This is getting too long. Why don’t we move to another prayer point?” Why? It is because he is losing interest. You know, getting some people to pray for 30 minutes straight is a problem. How can you just be praying like that, with no singing? You have to put some songs.

Why do you think those leading prayers in church meetings often spice them up with songs? It is to motivate people to pray. Because they know that some people will just lose interest, if the prayer meeting is getting long and all they are doing is pray. To such people, how can you just be praying like that for one hour? You are just moving from one prayer point to another prayer point, without any break for them to sing or to clap.

Mind you, most of those things are physical exercises. I’m sure you know. They are no spiritual matters at all. The clapping is just a physical exercise. It’s not a spiritual exercise. Yes, you can clap when you are singing. You clap so that the song can at least sound better in the ears. That’s fine. But the kind of clapping that accompanies praying, the kind in which people are just clapping and clapping and clapping and clapping and sometimes they are not saying anything is completely out of place. People are just clapping. They say that they are praying, but they are just clapping. At some point, everybody stops saying something. All they do is just clap, clap, clap, clap. They face themselves and they clap, clap, clap, clap. Oh yeah, clap, clap, clap. Everybody is clapping. Everybody is shaking. Everybody is clapping. What are they saying? Nothing. They are just clapping. What is that? Physical exercise!

But you know, they know they can’t sustain the people to pray for long, if they do not do that to them. And that’s the problem. It is indicative of the fact that the love of those involved for the Lord has grown cold. So, there is no delight in praying. There is no interest in praying.

Now I’m not saying that every time you pray, you smile. No. But when you understand the essence of praying, there’s a kind of attitude that you adopt when you are handling it, even if you are tired. even if you’re sorrowful. Why do we pray? Why do we talk to God? First, it is an expression of our dependence on Him. That’s the first basic reason we pray. We pray to God because we are depending on Him. He is our source. He is the source of everything we need in life. He is the source of our very lives. So, apart from him, we have no life. Apart from him, we can’t exist. We can’t breathe. We can’t do anything.

So, when we pray, we pray because the one we are praying to is our source. Other reasons for which we pray are secondary. For instance, we pray to receive from God. But that is secondary. Our main reason for praying to Him is that He is our source.

Now if you don’t know that the main reason you pray to God is that He is your source, if you pray to him for certain things and you do not receive them, then, you get discouraged. You get discouraged and, at some point, you may find yourself looking for alternatives to God. If your love for Him is intact, if your love for Him is increasing, you will never look for alternatives to Him. And your love for Him is meant to be increasing. That is because if it is not increasing, at some point, it will start growing cold. If your passion for the Lord is not increasing, then, it can only be declining. It cannot be static.

Love is never static. It is either increasing or decreasing. Can you relate what I’m talking about? Love is never static. There is nothing like static love. Love is always in motion. Love is always active. If it is true love, it is always active. If it is not active, then, it is passive. And at some point, it is going to die. So, if you find yourself too occupied to pray, then, something is already wrong with your love for God.

The Word of God illustrates our relationship with God using the marriage relationship, the relationship between the husband and his wife. Now, if in a marriage, to just use this analogy, the husband gets so occupied with what he’s doing that he doesn’t have time to talk to the wife again, what do you think is becoming of their love? It is dying. If you love someone, you want to talk to the person all the time, even though it’s impossible for you to talk to the person all the time. But you want to talk to the person at any given opportunity. Regardless of how busy you are, you will find ways to talk to the person.

But the moment something is wrong with your love for the person, you start finding excuses not to talk to them. Now, of course, initially you may not think something is going wrong with your love. The man may not think that that’s what is happening to him. The woman may not think that that’s what is happening to her. But it’s already happening, for they are not making any effort to communicate. Everybody goes to work and gets occupied with their business and they don’t get to remember each other. They don’t get to call each other: Oh, how are you doing? I just have to put the call through. Hope your work is going well. All of that is saying something about their love.

If I can, in the middle of my busyness, can still make a call to my wife and say, “Look, I just want to find out how you are doing. How is your work going? Is it going fine?” then our love may still be intact. I am saying that in a minute or two minutes, you should be able to say something to each other during the day; you should be able to tabs on each other. And that is making personal effort to sustain your love.

So then, when you come home, you don’t bring your work home. Alright? You don’t bring your work home so that you can have time to communicate. You have been away for a whole day. So, when you come home, you should want to talk about how the day has been. Also, you should want to talk about other matters of the family that need to be attended to. But if the man comes home, and the wife wants to talk, and he says, “Look, I have a lot of things on mind. Can this wait? Can this be discussed later?” and the later becomes later, what is happening to their love? Something is going wrong with it. It is growing cold. And when their love is growing cold, the communication gap begins to widen.

It’s the same thing with our relationship with God. When our love for Him is growing cold, the communication gap begins to widen. Then you don’t see talking to God as something basic again. It becomes something secondary. So, you want to talk to God only when there’s a crisis. If there’s no crisis, you may altogether forget about it. Because you’re not busy. And since there’s no crisis, there’s no challenge that is seeking to take your life or seeking to take something from you, it may not occur to you that you need to talk to him.

Moses said to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 18, “Remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to become wealthy.” Now why does he say, “Remember the Lord your God?” He says remember the Lord your God because you can forget Him. God is invisible. So, it is easiest to forget him. Because we can forget those that we can see. I mean that you can see someone living with you as a total stranger, not talking to the person, not saying anything to the person. You just get yourself occupied with whatever it is that you want to occupy yourself with. If you can do that, and you can do that with somebody that you can see, how much more someone that you can’t see?

Well, Moses said, “Look, when all things begin to go well for you and you’re settled in the promised land and your businesses are moving on fine, your farms are doing well and everybody is busy, remember the Lord your God.” God is not upset with us that we are busy. You’re busy because you’re alive and well, right? You’re busy because things are going well for you. But don’t forget the one responsible for your being busy, the one that has made it possible for you to be busy. If it’s only when there’s a crisis that you pray to him, then, something is wrong.

I’m talking about the signs, those things that reveal that someone’s love for the Lord has grown cold. And I am saying loss of interest in prayer, which arises out of being busy, out of being occupied with all kinds of things you need to do, is one of them. So, you need watch it.

Jesus was busy. When you read the gospel, you see that Jesus was busy. People were always around to have Him teach them, to have Him preach to them, to have Him lay hands on them. Yet, we are told that Jesus was regularly going to remote places to pray, moving away from the people to pray. Why? He knew that the Son could do nothing apart from the Father. (Cf. Luke 5:16; John 5:19)

Now if there was somebody that did not need to pray at all, it was Jesus Christ. Yet, He prayed more than any one of us would probably be able to pray. Prayer was like food for him. And it has to be like that for us too, because He tells us men ought to always pray and not faint (Luke 18:1).

Then you can lose interest in prayer because you think it’s not working. Don’t miss my point. I already mentioned those who lose interest in prayer because they are busy. When they probably did not have certain jobs to do, they had time to pray. Maybe that is your situation. When you did not have this job that you are now doing, when you probably did not have as many customers as you do now, you had time to pray. You had time to talk to God, to pray about your life, to pray about your future, to pray about many things.

But as God began to answer your prayers and money was coming in, customers were increasing, doors of opportunities were opening for you to do all kinds of things, you no longer could make a time to pray to the one that has made everything possible. Who is cheating who? You’re cheating yourself. Because at some point, maybe a crisis of life will drive you back to him. And that’s often one of the things that characterize the lives of some believers. It is crises of life that drive them back to God. Should it be like that? No!

If you see God as your source, you stay with Him; you stay connected to Him. But what do you do? You move away from Him until certain crises will drive you back to Him. That’s why you keep saying, “I will run to God.” Why do you have to run to Him? It may sound good in the ear, when I say, “I will run to God in my time of need.” But why do you have to run to him? Why are you not with him? Why haven’t you been with him? Why must somebody pursue you? Because if you are running to God, that means something is chasing you, right? If you are with Him, will something chase you? Will something pursue you? But the fact that you are going to Him means that you have been away from Him. So, something has to drive you back to him.

But at least something has driven you back to him. Because some people will not even come back to him. Why? They don’t think talking to Him works. They don’t think praying to God works. Challenges of life can put so much pressure on us that we begin to think that it’s useless to pray. And we’ll probably think it is useless to pray, if we have not maintained our fellowship with Him. If you have maintained your fellowship with Him, regardless of what you see, regardless of what is happening around you, you will never think that it is useless to pray. You may not have yet seen manifestations of answers to certain prayers you have offered, but you will never think it is useless to pray.

The truth, in any case, is that there are many believers today who think it is useless to pray, especially in certain situations. And I’ve been saying that challenges of life can make things look like that. Have you been praying about the same matter for more than a year? Will it not come to you at some point that it useless to be praying about the matter? Is God actually listening? Or is this just a mere waste of time? Can anybody relate to what I’m talking about?

You have been taught to pray. And you are praying. You have been told to add fasting, and you are fasting. Yet the problems are not going away. They are probably getting worse. Could you not at some point think it’s utterly useless to pray? Why are those who have been believers going for alternatives to God? Why would someone who has been a believer go and visit a witch doctor? Why would someone who has been a believer opt for money rituals? Why would someone who has been a believer accept just any solution to their health problems? Yes, this person has some health challenges. That’s when he is praying. Perhaps other people have also offered prayers for him. Yet the health challenges are not disappearing. At some point, if people suggest anything, if they suggest anything, he may just go for it, if his love for the Lord has grown cold.

Now the person may think, “It’s because my problems are so enormous that I have to look for an alternative to God.” But that is not the reason. The reason is that your love for God has gone cold. That’s the reason. If your love for Him has not gone cold, if your love for Him is increasing, you will never see an alternative to Him. You will rather die there. I mean, you will tell yourself, “I would rather die here than look for an alternative to Him. And when I see Him face to face, I will ask Him, why didn’t you answer my prayers? Why?” But an alternative to him, you will know that is not an option. It’s not on the list. It’s not on the menu.

I really don’t have much time to pursue this with you this morning. But I’ll show you something about King Saul before I close. There were two incidents actually in the life of King Saul that illustrate two incidents that illustrate what I’ve been talking about. I won’t be reading the first incident to you. I will only read the second incident. But the first incident occurred in the early years of his reign. They were still having serious issues with the Philistines at the time. And the men he had with him were mostly farmers. They were not warriors. Also, there were no blacksmiths in the land at the time to make weapons for them. So, their situation was really critical. (Cf. 1Sam 13-14)

Well, it was about that time that Jonathan, who was a man of faith, by the way, attacked an outpost of the Philistines. He attacked an outpost of the Philistines with his armor bearer, only with his armor bearer. And because he was a man of faith, he struck so much fear in the Philistines that they started killing themselves. They did not know what struck them. They did not know what came upon them. They just started killing themselves. And that was when Saul, where he was with his men, woke up to see that he needed to do something.

But before he moved on, he asked the priest that was with him, “Bring the Ark of the Covenant. Let’s inquire of the Lord.” And as the man was about to inquire of the Lord, Saul saw that the confusion in the camp of the Philistines had increased. So, he told the man, “Stop! We don’t have time to inquire of the Lord again. Let’s go.” That’s in 1Samuel, chapter 14. It’s shocking, actually. But he actually said, “Stop! We don’t have time for this again. Let’s go.” So, they went ahead and began fighting. And they had a great victory that day, of course. But it was not because of him; it was because of Jonathan.

Now, at the close of that same day, they wanted to make a move again. And the priest said, “Look, this time around, let’s inquire of the Lord.” So, he said, “Okay, let’s inquire of the Lord.” But the Lord did not answer him. Why would He answer him? In the first place, he neglected Him. He was just too busy to consult Him. Should He, then, answer him on that occasion?

You too may be used to saying, “I don’t have time to pray in the morning because I’m so busy.” Why don’t you wake up earlier to say some things to God about your day? Why? Why are you doing this to yourself? But then, you will expect Him to answer you when there is an emergency. Why are you like this?

See, people don’t understand how God operates. They don’t understand why God may not answer them in certain situations. All along you have been neglecting Him. And now you want a quick fix from Him. You want a quick answer from Him. And you think you can use God like that? Who do you think God is? Your servant?

You know, when we pray to God, sometimes we pray to Him with the mindset that He’s our servant, an errand boy. He is not your errand boy. But that is how many of us view Him. We view Him as someone to send up and down to do things for us. So, we don’t pray to Him with respect. That is because we think of Him as our errand boy. But He is not your errand boy, for your information. He is your God. He is your maker. Treat Him, therefore, with the respect that He deserves.

Well, let us look at the second occasion in King’s Saul life that I want use in illustrating what I have been sharing with you. From 1Samuel, chapter 28, verse 3, we are told:

“Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land. The Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunem, while Saul gathered all Israel and set up camp at Gilboa. When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets. Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.” “There is one in Endor,” they said.”” (1Samuel 28:3-7NIV)

This is typical of a man whose love for God has grown cold. This incident, of course, occurred in a moment of distress anyway. But then, what did Saul do? He actually inquired of the Lord. Or did he not talk to God? He did. And did God answer him? No! Did he, then, find out why God was not answering him? Did he make any effort to find out why God was not answering him? No! Or did he abandon himself where he was, praying? No! No!

What did he do? Well, he looked for an alternative to God. So let me tell you, if your love for God has gone cold or is going cold, a day may come when you will look for an alternative to Him. And that will be because you think it’s useless to talk to Him, useless to pray to him. That may not be your reality at the moment. That is because you are still praying once in a while. You are still counting on congregational prayer meetings. You are still depending on those. But you don’t have your own personal prayer life. You don’t have your own personal relationship with God. You are not building on it. You are not working on it.

Now how long do you think those congregational prayer meetings will sustain you? At some point, they won’t be able to sustain you. Your pastor’s prayers at some point may not be able to sustain you. Your parents’ prayers at some point may not be able to sustain you. Your spouse’s prayers for you may not be able to sustain you at some point. You will need to do your own praying. And if you have already lost interest in talking to God, because you think prayers don’t get answered or because you think it’s useless to pray, you will find an alternative to Him someday.

Nobody ever thought that Saul, God’s anointed man, would ever find an alternative to God. But, at some point in his life, what did he do? He looked for an alternative to God. And that sealed his fate. I pray for you that you never find yourself in that kind of situation. But if you are not interested in prayer, then, you need to watch yourself. It doesn’t matter how old you are. It doesn’t matter how young you are. You need to take praying to God seriously, except you have another god. If this God that we serve is your God actually, then, you must be praying to him. In fact, praying to him should not be a problem.

Yes, prayer can be a burden on his own. Prayer indeed is a burden. Prayer is hard work. I’m not saying prayer is simple. Prayer is hard work. But you will want to do that hard work because of your love for him. You will want to do the hard work because you know He’s your source and you know you have no other person to turn to; you have no alternative to Him. So regardless of what is happening, who do you turn to? God!

But I’m also saying you’re not to wait for crises to happen before you take praying seriously. Instead, you make it your daily business to pray. Let’s stop here this morning. And shall we spend some time to pray?

Copyright © 2026 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)

By: Johnson O. Lawal

This morning we are going to be reviewing our ‘House of prayer’ bulletin for the first month of this year, the year 2026. But before we do that, I want to share some thoughts with you from St. Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 24, verse 12, which reads:

“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.” (NIV)

This is Lord Jesus Christ speaking to us. And He’s speaking to us about the last days. What point, then, is He making? First, it is that in the last days there will be increase in wickedness. There’s always been wickedness in the world. But in the last days it will increase rapidly. It will increase in an alarming way, in a frightening way.

Now when you read the scriptures and you consider times in which God had to judge humanity, you will see that one of the things that marked the coming of His judgment was increase in wickedness. In the days of Noah, for instance, wickedness increased on the face of the earth in an alarming way. In fact, God said that the thoughts of men were continually evil. So, His judgment came upon them. (Cf. Genesis 6)

Also, when Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities surrounding them were destroyed, one of the things that were evident was increase in wickedness. The people gave themselves completely to wickedness. And they didn’t care. So, as we approach the last days, we are going to witness the same thing: increase in wickedness. People will give themselves more and more to wickedness. And they will do so in an unrestrained manner. (Cf. Genesis 19)

Now, as a result of that, Jesus says, “The love of most people will grow cold.” In other words, the increase in wickedness that they are experiencing or witnessing will affect them. They may not immediately realize that it is affecting them. But, at some point, it will become evident that what they are witnessing has affected them in ways that they themselves may not be able to comprehend.

It’s just like Lot in Sodom. Initially, it did not look like the wickedness going on in Sodom was affecting Lot. It did not look like the wickedness going on in Sodom was affecting his family. And that was because they were still composed. They still had a handle on themselves. They would not participate in the wickedness going on there. They would not be a part of the lying, of the theft, of the murder, of the rape, of the adultery, of the immorality, of the injustice and of all other kinds of wicked things going on in Sodom. So, they felt that they were fine.

But they were not fine. The Word of God tells us that every day Lot’s soul was tormented. You know what it means to have your soul tormented, not because somebody is deliberately harassing you. If someone is deliberately harassing you, maybe in your neighborhood or in your workplace, you can identify the source of your torment. And you can do whatever is within your capability to avoid it or to end the torment. But when you are being tormented secretly because of the happenings around you, what do you do? When you find yourself living on the edge of sin, and you know that you must not be a part of it, but you are continually living on its edge, what do you do? That means if God doesn’t step into the situation and keep you from being unduly pressured into doing what you don’t want to do, before you know it, you will find yourself doing what you do not want to do.

Well, Lot was being tormented. His family members were being tormented. It did not look like they were being tormented when they just got there. But as wickedness was increasing in Sodom, they also were being severely affected. And so, on the day that Sodom and Gomorrah would be destroyed, we see a reluctance in them to leave, even though they knew that trouble was coming. There was a reluctance in all of them, including Lot himself, who was referred to in Scriptures as a righteous man, to leave Sodom. But here was a place where they were being tormented, spiritually, yet they did not want to leave.

That’s how somebody’s love for God becomes cold. Their love for Him becomes secondary. Other things will take the place of God in your life. You may not pay attention to it. You may not think that is how it is. But when it comes down to the basics, you will see that that is how it is. Because of their wealth in Sodom, because of the relationships that they had built in Sodom, because of their connections in Sodom, they did not want to leave. They were reluctant. The angels had to literally drag them out of Sodom just to save them. And you know, it may have to be like that for some people. God may have to drag them out just to save them, drag them out of where they are. Otherwise, they will not be saved. He will have to snatch them out of the fire. Otherwise, they will be consumed.

Nevertheless, Lot’s wife turned back. Or did she make it? No, she didn’t make it. What about Lot’s daughters? It was after they had left Sodom that it became clear that Sodom was already living in them. So, we must understand the nature of the times in which we are living. Otherwise, someday we may surprise ourselves. Someday, everything we have believed in may become a history, that is, in practice.

And so, here Jesus is giving us a warning ahead of what we are to look out for in the last days. Those days will be marked by increase in wickedness. Therefore, the love of most people will grow cold. Observe that Jesus says, “…most people…” I like you to pay attention to that. Because when certain words or phrases are used in scriptures, you need to pay attention to them. Otherwise, you may not include yourself. You may not think what is said is applicable to you.

Now, if He says, and He actually says, “The love of most people will grow cold,” it means that there will be a lot of those people that will be affected by this. That’s why He uses the phrase ‘most people’. That means most people will be affected by the increase in wickedness in the world. And if we want to tell ourselves the truth, we will admit that wickedness is increasing every day.

We thank God for the restraining power of the Spirit of God working in the world, restraining evil, because He is the restrainer of evil. But wickedness, nevertheless, is increasing in the world. And the question is, to what extent is this affecting me? Or to what extent has this affected me? That’s the question I need to ask myself. That’s the question you too need to ask yourself, especially as we start a new year. Hasn’t my love for the Lord grown cold already?

Now, here is the thing: the growing cold of one’s love for the Lord hardly happens instantly. Rather, it’s something that happens gradually. It’s something that will take a while. In some people, it will take months. In some people, it will take years. Gradually, their love will grow cold through their exposure to the wickedness going on in the world.
And there is none of us that is not exposed to the wickedness going on in the world. Yes, by reason of the places in which we live or work, the degree of wickedness we are exposed to may not be as much as the degree of wickedness that certain individuals are exposed to. But all of us are daily exposed to some measure of the wickedness in the world.

For instance, if you are not living in Sodom – I’m using Sodom figuratively now – there are certain degrees of wickedness that you may not be exposed to. But if you are living in Sodom, evidently, there are certain acts of wickedness, outrageous acts of wickedness that you will find yourself exposed to.

To make my point clearer, if you do not have an internet-enabled cell phone, for instance, there are some degrees of wickedness that you may not be exposed to. Did you know that? But if you do have one, and many people today do have personal cell phones that are internet-enabled, there are some degrees of wickedness that you will naturally be exposed to. And you need to be truthful to yourself about this in order to find out to what extent the measure of wickedness you are exposed to in your world has affected you or is affecting you. Otherwise, someday, you’ll find yourself standing somewhere you have never believed you will stand.

I won’t be able to share all the thoughts I have in my mind with you this morning because of some other things that we want to do. But let me just give you some thoughts that will help you in knowing whether your love for the Lord is growing cold already or not. I told you it’s something that happens gradually most of the time. It’s only occasionally that it’s instant. In most cases, it is gradual.

Now, first, you will find yourself losing interest in the Word of God. So, one of the signs of love that has already grown cold is a loss of interest in the Word of God. Don’t miss my point here. I’m not talking about a situation in which you do not read the Word of God again at all. And I’m not talking about a situation in which you do not listen to sermons again at all. That will eventually happen, okay? That will eventually happen, if you are not arrested along the line by God’s mercy.

But to begin with, you’ll find yourself losing interest in the Word of God. So, even though you are reading it, you’re simply reading it to fulfill all righteousness. You’re not reading it to learn. You are not reading it to apply what you are reading. You’re just reading it because it’s probably something that has become habitual for you. So, though you are reading it every day, it is not working in your life, it is not producing any results in your life. Yes, you will read it every day because it’s a habit. That, however, does not mean that what you are reading is making sense to you or that what you are reading is working in your life, producing in your life the results that it is meant to be producing.

I’ll give you an example. The man, the Ethiopian eunuch that God sent Philip to go and preach to, was found by Philip reading the scripture. He was reading a certain portion of the book of Isaiah. And when Philip came to him, he asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He said, “No! How can I understand it unless somebody explains it to me?” Yet he was reading it. Why was he reading it? It was his habit. It was a culture for him. And it’s a culture for many people to read the word of God. But they are not reading it for the purpose that the word itself says we should read it. (Cf. Acts 8:26-31)

Well, I’m saying something, which is that one of the ways you know whether your love for the Lord has grown cold or is growing cold is that you are losing interest in the word of God. Even if you are reading it, you are just reading it to fulfill all righteousness. You are not reading it to see it work in your life. If you are listening to a sermon, as all of us are sitting down this morning to listen to it, it ought to be because you believe that by listening to the word of God, your life will be changed by it. It should not be because you just want to fulfil all righteousness.

If it just to fulfil all righteousness, then, you may not be particularly interested in working with what you are listening to. You will just be listening to it. And guess what? The devil will be standing right by you to steal the word from you. Yes, he will be standing right by you to steal the word from you. Because your heart is not particularly focused on it, because you have no intention of working with it.

Therefore, it’s possible at the end of the meeting for somebody to ask you, what did you learn? And you will have nothing to say. Does it not appear ridiculous that at the end of a meeting, a 30-minute message or a 20-minute message, you have nothing to say, which you have learnt? It does. Now someone may say, “Oh, it’s because I’m shy and I’m not…” That’s nonsense. In 15 minutes, a message is reviewed for you, and somebody asks, “What have you learnt from what has been reviewed?” And you are looking and can’t say anything. You can blame that on shyness. But it’s nonsense. You can say that you were distracted when they were saying whatever they were saying. That’s still nonsense. Why were you distracted? Are you supposed to be distracted? If you know what the Word of God will do for you, will you be distracted when it is coming to you?

Job says, “I cherish your Word more than my daily bread. I cherish your Word more than my necessary food.” That’s what Job says. Your Word is more important to me than the food that I eat. And it has to be like that for someone whose love for the Lord will not grow cold. You must continually have delight in the Word of God. (Cf. Job 23:12)

Isn’t that what it said anyway about the man that is blessed in the first psalm? It says, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, who does not sit among sinners or among mockers. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and he meditates on it day and night.” So, if you don’t have delight in the Word of God, there is no way you can say confidently that your love for Him is not growing cold or hasn’t gone cold. Because if your love for Him is burning, you will daily go for His Word.

Think about it. If you love someone, you want to hear their voice. Am I correct? If you truly love someone, you want to hear their voice. If you can keep them around you for as long as you can keep them around you, you will keep them around you, just to keep on listening to their voice, just to keep on hearing what they have to say to you.

In like manner, if you truly love the Lord, and your love for Him is increasing, because that’s what the word of God says, you will want to continually hear His voice. Paul, in His first letter to the Thessalonians, talks about their love for the Lord. Then, in his second letter to them, he says that love is increasing. And as you get to know the Lord better and better, your love for Him is expected to increase. The more you know Him, the more your love for Him will increase. If that love is not increasing, then, something is wrong.

Now I’m saying that one of the ways you will know whether your love for Him is increasing or declining is your attitude towards His word. If you are no longer excited about His word, if you are not excited to listen to His word, if you are not excited to read or study His word, if you are not excited to meditate on His word, then, your love for Him is already growing cold or has gone cold. You don’t need to lie to yourself about this. Deal with it. That is your reality. And if you want to recover from that situation, you will have to deal with it.

Is your heart on His word? The instruction we have is to meditate on His word day and night. Do you meditate on His word day and night? Because meditating on the word of Godday and night is hard work. I know that because I do it.
But if you are truly interested in doing the will of God, if your delight is in Him, if your love for Him is increasing and you want to become all that He wants you to be, that is what you will be willing to give yourself to. That is besides the fact that you cannot keep yourself pure in this world without giving yourself to the word of God. You can’t escape being polluted, being corrupted, being ruined by the wickedness going on in this world without giving yourself to the word of God. You stand no chance to do that, if you will not give yourself to the word of God.

As I said before, all of us are constantly exposed to the wickedness going on in the world. And what purifies us, what cleanses us is the word of God. If you, then, are not given to it, how can you be cleansed? How can you be purified? How can you be sanctified? Jesus says, “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth.” (Cf. John 17:17)

How do you get yourself separated from all the things that are attacking you, all the wrong things that are seeking to attach themselves to your life? That is our reality. There is none of us that is not living in this realm. We are all living in this realm. And all of us are daily exposed to all kinds of negative things that want to attach themselves to our lives. The preacher is not exempt from this. No church leader is excused from this. Church leaders may act as though they are excused from these things, but they are not excused from them. All of us have wars that we fight every day.

Peter talks about those things that make war against our souls (1Peter 2:11). And the only way to stand secure, to stay secure, is for us to continually give ourselves to the word of God. But we are not going to continually give ourselves to his word if we have no delight in it, if we are not excited about it.

Well, here is the point I’m going to make as I close: If, at the moment, people still need to prod you to take the word of God seriously, your love for the Lord has already gone cold. So, deal with it. And you are to take the word of God seriously, not because you want to be a pastor or a preacher but because it is the right for you to do.

Often, when we are talking to people about taking the word of God seriously, they think we are trying to get them to become pastors or to become church leaders. That is not the point. Personally, when the Lord began to lead my heart to study His word, I did not begin to study His word because I wanted to become a pastor. So, most of the scriptures I know today, I did not learn them because I wanted to become a pastor; I learnt them because it came upon me that the word of God was my life and that I had no life apart from His Word. So, at some point, I even told myself that before I would eat any food in the morning, I must first of all eat the Word of God.

That is why if I wake up in the middle of the night, I wake up to His Word. I have to think of something that His Word says to me and that I must say to myself, that I must remind myself. It has become a culture for me. I have not gotten to where I would love to get to, but I know that I’m working at that. That’s how our lives get transformed. That’s how our lives get established in the will of God.

But I’m saying that if somebody has to prod you to study the Word of God, to listen to the Word of God, if somebody has to continually encourage you to listen to the Word of God, something is wrong with your love for the Lord. The wickedness in this world is already getting at you. And you need to deal with it before it is too late. Otherwise, someday you will stand somewhere, as I said before, that you never thought you could stand. You’ll find yourself doing things that you never thought you could do. And you will have no answer to what is happening to you. Is my point clear this morning?

Let’s spend some time to talk to God.

Copyright © 2026 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)

By: Johnson O. Lawal
Series: Fruit bearing

I want to quickly finish up with what we were dealing with last year on fruit bearing. Actually, I have a number of things that the Spirit of God has laid on my heart to share with us, as we begin this new year. But so that we do not lose track of what we have been learning on fruit bearing, I consider it wise to just conclude the things we have been learning on that note. Then we can progress to looking at other things that God will want us to bear in mind as we begin the new year.

Now the last thing I want to quickly talk to us about on fruit bearing has to do with the consequences of not bearing fruit. We have looked at various aspects of fruit bearing. We have looked at the need for us to be fruitful in the sight of God. We have looked also at the things we must give ourselves to in order to be fruitful. And we have equally looked at the pruning of God. Yes, we looked at the pruning of God, the things that God does in our lives to enable us to be more fruitful.

But then, God can be doing all of these things to make us fruitful and yet we may not be fruitful. I mean that it’s possible for God to be working in our lives so that we can be fruitful and productive. Yet we may not be as fruitful and productive as He expects. All kinds of things may be responsible for that. One of them may be our own unwillingness to be fruitful and productive.

As I pointed out to us before, God cannot force us to be fruitful and productive. God cannot force us to be anything that we do not want to be. He cannot force us to have anything that we do not want to have. We must want to have what He wants us to have. And we must want to be what He wants us to be. Otherwise, His purpose for our lives will not be fulfilled.

It is clear from Scriptures that God is at work in the believer to will and to act according to His good purpose (Philippians 2:13). But the believer has to cooperate with God so that what He is doing in his life will become a reality. If he will not cooperate with God, then God’s purpose for his life may not come to fruition. If His purpose in the life of that kind of believer will have to materialize, then, God may need to wound him. He may need to injure him. And there have been people that have been injured by God for their own good. He injured them so that His purpose may be realized in their lives. And He had to injure them because they were not cooperating. He loves them. He knows that they love Him too. That’s one of the reasons He will not let them be — He knows that they love Him. However, even though they love Him, they will still not cooperate with Him.

You know that we can be very funny as believers. A lot of times we appear to be cooperative. We appear to be cooperating with God, but we are not. When it comes down to the basis, one will realize that we are actually not cooperating with Him. That’s because we keep doing things our own way.

We act the same way sometimes in dealing with one another. We appear to be cooperative. When we say that we are going to do such and such, we appear to be cooperative. Everybody will smile, everybody will act as though they were in agreement and that they will go ahead and do exactly what they have agreed to do. But then when it comes to acting, you realize that those who appear to be cooperative are actually not cooperative. They are not doing what they have agreed to do.

Now how do you make that kind of relationship work? You will have to injure someone. You have to say things to people that they probably do not want to hear. You have two options, actually:

1. Just let them be, and let them do things their own way, and you focus on doing what you want to do.

2. If you love them much and you don’t want to let them be, what will you do? You will need to injure them a little. Right? You need to say to them things that they don’t want to hear. And you are not going to be looking at their faces, when you are doing that. You are not going to be looking at how they are going to be reacting. You will just tell them what they need to hear, so that you may perhaps be able to get them to move in the right direction.
Well, the point I’m making is that even though God is working in the life of the believer, and God is working in the life of every believer, he may still not be bearing the kind of fruit God wants him to bear. That will be because he is not cooperating with God. He is not allowing God to fully accomplish His will in his life.

Now that is dangerous. And I want to give us some scriptures very quickly this morning to show us that it is dangerous for us not to be bearing the kind of fruit God wants us to bear. Remember that in order for us to bear fruit, God has made Himself available to us. Also, He is making available to us everything we need for fruit bearing. He would then expect us to take advantage of the things that He is making available for us to bear fruit, so that we can actually bear fruit. But if we are not taking advantage of these things, to bear the kind of fruit He wants us to bear, it will mean that we are wasting His grace.

But then, the word of God warns us not to waste the grace of God. Look at what it says in 2Corinthians 6, verse 1 says: “As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.” (NIV) God’s grace is available to us, but we can waste it. It can amount to nothing in our lives. The word of God we are listening to is a revelation of God’s grace to us, for example. But you know that it can amount to nothing in our lives. Prayers that have been offered for us are also revelations of God’s grace to us. But they can amount to nothing in our lives. God’s goodness to us is a revelation of His grace to us. The protection we enjoy, the peace we enjoy, the joy that fills our hearts with — these are manifestations of His grace to us. But we can take all of these things in vain.

Even the forgiveness that we receive when we sin or if we sin is a manifestation of God’s grace to us. Yet it can be wasted. All of this can amount to nothing in our lives. All these things are given to enable us to bear fruit abundantly.
And when we are talking about bearing fruit in this sense, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. We are talking about the fruit of joy, of peace, of faithfulness, of meekness, of gentleness, of self-control and other things that are mentioned in Scriptures about the fruit of the Spirit. And we are saying that we can take all the things that God has provided for us to bear this fruit in vain.

That, of course, is not going to be to our advantage. That’s why we have to take the bearing of fruit very seriously. Look at Isaiah chapter 5, from verse 1:

“I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.” (Isaiah 5:1-7NIV)

I will comment very briefly on this. God, here, is talking about His vineyard and the trees or the vines that He planted in it. He shares with us here how He took care of this vineyard, how He protected it, how He made sure that everything in the vineyard was fruitful and productive. Unfortunately, His labour on the vineyard appeared to be in vain. That was because what He was expecting was not what He was getting. He was expecting His vineyard to produce fruit of righteousness. But what He was getting was fruit of wickedness.

Then, in talking about his vineyard, He says the vineyard of the Lord is what? The nation of Israel! So, He is talking about people. God is the one that has planted all of us here in the world. I’m sure you know that. He planted us in this world as you would plant a tree in your farmland. And He planted us here so that we can bring forth fruit of righteousness.

But if you are not bringing forth the kind of fruit He expects us to bring forth, at some point, He will have to take very drastic steps against us. Why? We are wasting His goodness. We are wasting His labour on us. You must function with a consciousness of the fact that God is labouring on you. He is labouring over your life. And many of us walk through life thinking that all that is coming to us is a function of our own activities. For us, yes, here and there, God may show favor, God may show kindness. But we are the ones doing the main jobs.

The truth of the matter, however, is that every day God is labouring over us, providing us with all the things we need to excel in life, providing us with all the things we need to be safe in life. He never stops working for our good. The bible says in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, of those who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). So, while we are sleeping, God is still working for our good. He is still labouring over us. What, then, will become of His labour over us? That’s the question.

If we are bringing forth the kind of fruit He wants us to bring forth, that means He is not labouring in vain over us. Then He is encouraged to want to do more. But if we are not bringing forth the kind of fruit He expects us to bring forth, that means we are wasting his labour; we are wasting His provisions. And at some point, He will have to do something. And as He mentions here in His message to the people of Judah through Isaiah and the people of Israel as well, because they are not bringing forth the kind of fruit He expects them to bring forth, He is going to take away their protection.

Now that’s one of the consequences of not bringing forth fruit. God can take away our protection. The only reason we are safe is that God keeps us safe. Why does He keep us safe? He keeps us safe so that we can live lives that are worthy of Him. We belong to him. He planted us in this world so that we can live for His glory, so that we can live for His pleasure. So, when He protects us, He protects us so that we will be safe to do His will, safe to bring Him joy and delight with the way we live our lives.

But if we are using His protection to spread wickedness in the world, don’t you think He has a right to take away that protection? Or does He not have a right to take away that protection? He does! Why should God be protecting you to live in wickedness? Think about it. Why should God be protecting anybody to be hurting others, to be destroying other people’s lives, to be filling the world with pains? Why should God protect anybody to do wickedness? He may do that for a while. But at some point, He will want to withdraw His protection.

Even those of us who are human will want to do the same thing. We don’t want to offer anybody protection to be carrying out wickedness. That is why we get upset when we find out that leaders of our government are trying to protect wicked people. Don’t we? Don’t we get upset? We get upset. And we get upset because they are using our resources to protect them; they are using the positions that we have given to them to protect them. We get upset because we don’t expect anybody to use his power to protect the wicked.

In like manner, if we are bearing fruit of wickedness, we shouldn’t expect God to continue to use His power to protect us. In fact, we are living in a dangerous place. That is because, at some point, God may withdraw His protection from us. You need to put that in mind.

Furthermore, in Hebrews, chapter 6, we are told this:

“Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.” (Hebrews 6:7-8NIV)

Here, the man of God is speaking to us about the danger of unfruitfulness. First, he says that any land that is enjoying God’s provision of rain and sunshine and is taking advantage of these to produce good crops will receive the blessing of God. So, even God is paying attention to how every piece of land functions. Think about that. That is one of the things we read in Scriptures that should fill our hearts with wisdom about how God operates.

To make my point clearer, when God was taking the children of Israel into the Promised Land, Moses told them that the land God was taking them into was one that He cared for from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. That means God’s eyes were continually on that land to care for it. And he was talking about the land of Canaan. (Cf. Deuteronomy 11:10-12)

Now if God’s eyes are constantly on a portion of land to care for it, what about a human being? Is there any portion of land more important to God than people? No! People were not created for the earth; rather, the earth was created for people. So, people are more important than the earth itself. People are created to live on the ground or to live on the land, not the other way around. The land was created for us for our good. Every portion of land was created for our good. So, there is no portion of land that is more important than people. We are always more important in the sight of God than any other thing that He has created.

Well, I am saying that if God is concerned about how a piece of land performs, don’t you think He will be more concerned about how every individual performs? He will? So, the writer of the book of Hebrews is telling us that if a piece of land is not performing, it is in danger of being cursed by God. In fact, he goes on to say that such a land will be burnt eventually. It explains why some lands are totally barren, totally useless for farming. Because they have been wasting the grace of God. It’s right there in the scriptures.

Remember that Jesus placed a curse on a fig tree. Why? It was fruitless. It wasn’t out of place for Jesus to place a curse on that fig tree. And Jesus wasn’t testing His power. No! He was just carrying out God’s judgment on that tree. He could have overlooked it. He could have overlooked the fruitlessness of that tree in that hour. But He chose not to overlook it. He could have been merciful, but He chose not to be merciful. Instead, He placed a curse on it. (Cf. Mark 11:12-14)

By the way, mercy is at the prerogative of the one that is giving it. Mercy is never an entitlement. That’s why it is called mercy. It’s not something that you deserve. So, it can be shown to the one and not shown to the other. And the other has no right to complain because it is mercy. It’s not an entitlement.

Well, Jesus cursed that tree to show those with Him that any tree that is fruitless is in danger of being cursed. The same thing is applicable to any life that is fruitless. It is in danger of being cursed. That means it can become utterly barren. By choosing to be fruitless, you can become utterly barren, utterly useless. And there are many people’s lives that have become utterly useless. You just look at them and see that they are getting worse. So, you say, “But you were not as bad as this before. How come you are getting worse? How come your life is not even getting any better?”

That’s the problem with fruitlessness. If your life is fruitless in certain areas or in certain ways, and you are making no effort to become fruitful there, and you are not talking to God about becoming fruitful there, you are not talking to God about dealing with whatever it is that is making you fruitless in those areas of your life so that you can be fruitful there, fruitlessness will multiply. It will spread into other areas of your life. At some point, you may become utterly fruitless, utterly useless.

You may know certain people who started out in faith but who have now become utterly useless. In fact, if they tell you that a certain person was once born again or was once a pastor, you may ask, “Are you sure? How did he become like this?”

In any case, we are saying all these things so that we will not see fruitlessness as something good, so that we will begin to take seriously the need for us to be fruitful in every area of our lives. We have been told in scriptures that God wants us to become fruitful. In fact, what He wants is that we will daily increase in fruitfulness. And He has not left us alone at this. He is taking care of us. He is working in us. He is pruning us, so that we can become as fruitful as He wants us to be. But we too must delight in fruitfulness. And ff we can see that we are fruitless in any area of our lives or that we are not bearing sufficient fruit in any area of our lives, we must take it up with God. Yes, we must start talking to God about it, saying, “I’m not as fruitful as I should be in this area of my life. I want you to step in and do the needful. What is preventing me from being fruitful there? I want you to deal with it.”

You know, fruitfulness is something that comes from God. It’s not something that comes from man. That’s why Jesus says, “Abide in me. Unless you abide in me, you cannot do anything.” You cannot be fruitful, if you do not abide in Him. The only way to be fruitful is to abide in Him. And abiding in Him has to do with drawing from Him, drawing from Him what you need to be fruitful.

But the point I’m making is that all of us have to be paying attention to our lives, to see that our lives are as fruitful as God wants them to be. And if we are lacking in any fruit of the Spirit, we must begin to deal with it. We must not make any excuse for it. Instead, we must begin to talk to God about it, so that He will rid our lives of whatever it is that is causing us to be lacking in that fruit of the Spirit. Otherwise, fruitlessness will spread into every other area of our lives. Then, sooner or later, we’ll come to a point where we’ll become utterly useless.

Now when someone has become utterly useless to God in this life, what do you think is going to happen to that person? Death is waiting! Yes, that person belongs to God. But they are also utterly useless. And because they are utterly useless, why should God keep them alive?

Here, we are looking at why a Christian may not live long. It’s never in the will of God for any of us not to live long. Yes, believers may die as a result of persecutions. Believers may die young as a result of persecutions. The Scriptures are clear about that. And if a believer dies as a result of persecutions, so be it. That’s not a loss to that believer. That’s profit. Paul says, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is profit, gain.” So, a believer that dies in that manner will be rewarded for giving his life for the Lord. So, that’s okay. (Cf. Philippians 1:21)

But for a believer to just die, to just die without any notice, to just disappear in death, at what age? At 30? At 40? At 50? Even at 60? Even at 70? Is that the will of God for us? No! He says, “I will give you a full life span.” That’s what the Word of God says. Don’t you want that, to have a full life span? I want that. I’ve received that from Him. I will have a full life span, in the name of Jesus. I don’t know about you. But I’m going to have a full life span. My life will not be cut short. God Himself will see to it that my life is not cut short. (Cf. Exodus 23:25)

But I’m saying that when somebody becomes utterly useless to God, why should the person still be alive? What would the person be doing, here or on earth, if he is useless to God? The right thing for God to do would be to take the person out of the way. But then, He’s a merciful God, He’s not always in a hurry to take people out of the way because they are fruitless. Instead, He continues to give them more opportunities to bring forth fruit. And He continues to show them more of His kindness, in the hope that that will help them to become fruitful. But at some point, He will have to do what He has to do, if they continue to waste His grace.

Now that will take me to the last Scripture I want to read to you this morning. In Luke’s Gospel, chapter 13, from verse 1, we are told this:

“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”” (Luke 13:1-5NIV)

As we see in this passage, some people came to Jesus to tell Him about the wickedness of Pilate, how he killed some people and mixed their blood with the blood of their sacrifices. And they were expecting Jesus Christ to condemn the act. As we know, today, if an act of violence happens somewhere, we expect our leaders to immediately condemn it. We expect religious leaders as well to condemn it. And if a religious leader will not condemn an act of violence, people will crucify him, right? So, once there’s an act of violence, government leaders will condemn it, and religious leaders also will come out to speak against it.

Well, on this occasion, an act of violence had happened. But Jesus did not even condemn the act of violence. Do you see Him condemn Pilate here? No! He didn’t even condemn what Pilate did. That’s not to say that He agreed with Pilate. But He did not condemn what he did. Why? He wanted to draw the attention of the people to something more serious than what Pilate did. And it was the fact that those people that died in that manner were not the worst of the sinners in the land.

See, when God is judging wickedness, He will judge it according to His own timing. And sometimes people with less sins may be judged earlier than those with more sins. That’s something that’s baffling in the way God operates. Now you would expect God to judge first the one with more sins and then to judge next the one with less sins. But God doesn’t always operate like that. He may judge the one with fewer sins earlier than the one with more sins, for various reasons. I can’t go into details about that this morning. But these reasons are all are highlighted in Scriptures for us.

So then, the Lord told those who came to report what Pilate had done to Him, “Don’t think those people that died were the worst sinners in the land. They were not. And if you too do not repent, you also will perish”. That means when a sinner dies around another sinner, that sinner should watch himself. That is because he may just be the next. That’s what Jesus Christ is saying. He could have condemned what Pilate did. But He did not condemn what he did, even though He couldn’t have agreed with it. Instead, He drew the attention of the people to the need for them to pay attention to what was going on in their own lives. Otherwise, God’s judgment may come upon them too suddenly.

Then the Lord goes on to talk about an accident that happened. And some people, eighteen people actually died in that accident. Ye the Lord says those 18 people that died in that accident were not the worst of sinners in the land. Instead, they died because their own time came.

So, God’s judgment could come anytime. And it could come in form of an accident for some people. It’s not a new thing, then, for accidents to happen. Even in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ, accidents happened, accidents that took people’s lives. And Jesus mentions one here: a tower fell on people. Why that tower fell, we would not know. But buildings fall on people for various reasons.

For example, recently there was a fire outbreak somewhere in the Great Insurance Building in Lagos and some people lost their lives there. Those people who lost their lives there, were they the worst sinners in the country? They may not be. There may even be some righteous people among those who lost their lives there. There may be some children of God among those who lost their lives there. And those people may be better individuals than all of us here, people better in character, people better in conduct. Yet they lost their lives.

So, if people are losing their lives around you, don’t think they are losing their lives because you are better than them or because they are worse than you. No. Instead, let that cause you to pay attention to what is going on in your life. Let that remind you that you too may lose your life, if you are not living that life for God.

Now the Lord goes on to share a parable in that respect. Look at the parable from verse 6:

“Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”” (Luke 13:6-9NIV)

We are looking at the consequences of fruitlessness, right? And one of them, which is the last one I’m talking to you about, is death. God may just take a fruitless person out of the way. God may say, “Your time is up. You have wasted my grace enough. Now get out of this place. You have wasted my goodness enough. Get out of this place. Let somebody else enjoy what you have been wasting.” Does He not have the right to do that? He does.

Now that was the case with the fig tree that is mentioned in the parable that the Lord shares here. For three years, the owner was coming to look for fruit on it, but he didn’t find any. So he got tired of coming around to look for fruit on it and told the husbandman, the man taking care of the vineyard, “I want you to cut down this tree. It’s using up the soil.” In other words, it’s wasting resources. It’s wasting the care that we are giving to it.

I pray for you this morning that you will not waste God’s care this year. I pray that you will not waste His goodness this year. You will not waste His favour that He is lavishing on your life, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This fig tree was wasting the care being lavished on it. So, the owner said, “Cut it down. Why should it use up the soil?” But then, the man taking care of it interceded for it. “Please, let’s give it one more year. I’m going to dig around it. I’m going to fertilize it. And let’s see whether it will bring forth fruit.”

Now that shows that the reason some of us are still alive is the intercession of others. Some people are living on the basis of other people’s intercession or living on borrowed time. They are living on borrowed time because the moment those who are interceding for them stop interceding for them, they are gone.

People will pride themselves in the fact that even though they do not take God seriously, life is sweet for them. They are foolish. The fact that life is sweet for you, even though you do not take God seriously, doesn’t mean that life will naturally be sweet for you, if certain individuals are not interceding for you.

As we pray for people in different parts of the country, as we pray for different groups of people in our meetings. God is showing them mercy. And you can’t tell how many people are enjoying the mercy of God as a result of the prayers that we offer for various groups of people. You can’t tell how many people are alive today as a result of the prayers we are offering for various groups of people. So, we will not stop praying, interceding for others. Because that may just be their only chance to live one more day so that the will of God can be realized in their lives.

Well, I’m sharing all this to let us know that it is dangerous to be fruitless. God wants us to be fruitful. God is doing all that He can and all that He should to make us fruitful. And we have to cooperate with Him, so that we can be fruitful. If we will not cooperate with Him so that we can be as fruitful as He wants us to be, at some point, He will have to step in to judge our fruitlessness.

God as a righteous judge and must judge fruitlessness. You must understand that. Yes, he’s a merciful God. But as a righteous judge, at some point, He must judge fruitlessness. In fact, Satan will draw his attention to the need to judge fruitlessness. You don’t know that? You should know that because we have Scriptures that point to the fact that Satan is the accuser of God’s people. You saw what he did in Job’s case. He was the one that moved God to deal with Job. God said that you moved me to hurt him. So, Satan can move God to judge us if we are fruitless. He can draw God’s attention to the fact that all along we have been wasting His grace and that He has left us alone. His question, then, will be, “Why has He not dealt with us?” Satan can do that. And Satan does that.

You may not know why certain things that you went through came upon you. You may not know that it’s a result of the accusation of the devil. You may not know that. But the point is this, do not be fruitless. Don’t allow fruitlessness in your life. You have access to the grace of God to be fruitful and productive. Then take advantage of it. I pray that the Spirit of God will strengthen all of us to take these words seriously and to act on them, in Jesus’ name.

Let’s spend some time to talk to God.

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