PENTECOST BAPTIST CHURCH INTERNATIONAL, PORTSMOUTH.

Sunday 29 July 2012

God’s royal reservists. I Kings 19:1-18

God’s royal reservists. I Kings 19:1-18
Do you think you are alone in the Christian worship? Do you think you are alone in the family? Do you think you are alone in your church? Do you think you are alone in your country? Elijah thought like that at a time. He even told God he was alone and that those who did not believe in his God were trying to eliminate him. He was surprised to hear that not only was he not alone but that the number of other people worshipping God at that critical moment were seven thousand.
1Kings 19:17 And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. 18 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
You might not be the only true passionate Christian. You might even be just one out of one billion. Where one person thinks and says he or she will not worship God, millions, multitude, uncountable number of people are doing it already everywhere, every day with their holy hands lifted.
1Timothy 2:8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
Revelation 7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; 10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, 12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
 
I think pressure, persecution and moments of discouragement made Elijah voice out his seeming loneliness and even prayed to die. God nevertheless showed his absolute goodness by encouraging Elijah. He sent an angel to feed him twice. He made the angel speak to him kindly and even allowed him to sleep and have a rest. He told him there is still a lot to do for God. Wherever you are and whatever you think, there is still a lot to do for God. He will encourage you and come through to you. He understands human situation very perfectly.
1Co 10:13
Hebrews 2:18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Isaiah 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
God directed Elijah to Horeb the mount of God. May be you also need to go to Horeb and meet with God. To Elijah, Horeb is a place of meeting with God. Have ever encountered God anywhere before? In a church, a fellowship, in the campus, on the mission or evangelism field? You might need the place again. A point or place of contact and divine encounter. Every person is likely to have one. Moses had one. Abraham had his own. Jacob was sent back to Bethel. David remembered the water of Bethlehem. Saul of Tarsus cannot forget the road to Damascus.
If Elijah look back today to the episode under review, he would say volumes about how to tackle discouragement and depression. And by the power that is behind this word of God, I destroy discouragement and depression in your life today in the name of Jesus Christ. One thing very glaring is that if you are tired of seeing your shadow, then you need to turn around and face the sun.
Another one is that you need company. You need people, fellowship of like minds. Do you have such group? Or have you left them behind like Elijah did?
Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
By the way have you enlisted in Gods royal reservists? Not too late. All you need to do is ask Jesus to come into your heart. Ask him to teach you how to be faithful to him as his royal reservist. Now is the best time to do this.
Hebrews 3:7
God bless you
Shall we pray?
 
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) 12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
 
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
INAUGURATION! INAUGURATION!! INAUGURATION!!!
YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO THE INAUGURATION OF OUR CHURCH, PENTECOST BAPTIST CHURCH, PORTMOUTH.
DATE: SATURDAY 18/08/2012. @ 12.00 PM. VENUE: HAVELOCK COMMUNITY CENTER,
324 FAWCETT ROAD. SOUTHSEA. PO4 0LQ
GOD BLESS YOU

Sunday 22 July 2012

Knowledge will increase. (Daniel 12:1-13

Knowledge will increase. (Daniel 12:1-13
This extra relevant, extra sophisticated prophesy was muted by a primitive Jewish prophet enslaved in exile 500 years before Christ and more than two thousand years before the Enlightenment. This prophecy is more fulfilling today than any other time. Shame to those who denigrate the bible and the God of the bible.
More than anytime in history the world is witnessing the uncontrollable increase in knowledge through science, technology and philosophy. All kinds of knowledge are increasing. Thank God knowledge about God is increasing as well.
Ecclesiastes 7:29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Apparently this is an offshoot of the fruit of good and evil that Adam and Eve ate in the garden of Eden. So it started with the fruit of good and evil. The serpent told Eve, you will be like the gods knowing good and evil. The only thing the serpent did not tell them was whether they will have the power to choose the good over the evil.
Gen 3:1Humans will be like gods, knowing good and evil. Has this knowledge helped humans to chose the good over the evil in the world today?
Let’s look at few examples from the choice available to humans from the increase of knowledge. Much as medical science is striving hard to make people live longer, well and healthier, the discovery of and investment in weapons of mass destruction in the world in short-changing lives by the second. Scarcely does anyone know this started from the knowledge of pressing the trigger. With the look of things in regards to knowledge of battle tricks armaments and nuclear weapon, the world might actually voluntarily destroy itself without God lifting a finger against it.
What about the prevalent lifestyle everywhere? People are actually on the part of self annihilation through knowledge. Even our young ones are taught from the cradle to engage in self affliction and destruction. One simply need to take a cursory look at the school syllabus, glance on the culture on our street and stay five minutes with the popular television programmes and films and your conclusion might not be wrong.
So what is biblical counsel in regards to all these things?
Know what God requires and do it.
Micah 6:8
Acts 4:12
Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Seek godly knowledge, wisdom and understanding.
Pro 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. 11 For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased. 12 If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.
Psa 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
Pro 4:5
And finally the golden rule.
Mat 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. 6 Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. 7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. 8 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. 9 She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
INAUGURATION! INAUGURATION!! INAUGURATION!!!
YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO THE INAUGURATION OF OUR CHURCH, PENTECOST BAPTIST CHURCH, PORTMOUTH.
DATE: SATURDAY 18/08/2012. @ 12.00 PM. VENUE: HAVELOCK COMMUNITY CENTER,
324 FAWCETT ROAD. SOUTHSEA. PO4 0LQ
GOD BLESS YOU
 
 
 

Saturday 14 July 2012

Learning how to pray from Daniel. (Daniel 9:1-21)

PENTECOST BAPTIST CHURCH
HAVELOCK COMMUNITY CENTER, 324 FAWCETT ROAD, SOUTHSEA. PORTSMOUTH. PO4 0LQ
SUNDAY 15/7/2012 5.00 PM
Learning how to pray from Daniel. (Daniel 10:1-21
Daniel was a good example of people who persisted in prayer. For 21 days he had only one prayer request and he never stoped until he got his answer. All he was asking for was the intrepretation of a bible prophecy. Jeremiah 25:11
Jer 25:10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. 13 And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations. 14 For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands. But why would a person stay on one prayer topic for that long? Probably he felt that was more important to him than any other thing or could it be that he had no other need? Could it be that he was convinced that his request was God's will for him and his people? 1John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.He was not discouraged and he got his answer even with an explanatin of any delay to the answer. Is there anything you have been asking God for a long time? Is there any promise that has tarried for too long? If you would be willing to re-open the case file and persist like Daniel, may be the answer is just round the corner. Habakuk 2:1More than just persisting on one prayer point, I think also that Daniel knew the secret of praying for result. He knew God as well.Daniel 11:32Let's take his praying attitude for example.
(1) He decided that he would not defile himself with careless eating and drinking, instead he gave more time and priority to spiritual things.
Daniel 1:8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. (2) He took it for granted that his God answers prayers.Hebrews 11:6(3) He asked for God's revelation.
2Corinthians 12:1(4) He prayed to God even when it was against popular opinion to do so. He ignore jesting, bullying and unrighteous pressure from any body. Mic 7:8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me. 9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. 10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.(5) He prayed with the bible.
Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. (6) He prayed with people of like mind. In other words, he had time for fellowship. Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (7) He persisted in prayer. He never took no for an answer to his prayer. No wonder God answered him with an apology for any delay. Another person consistent in importunity prayer is the widow in Luke 18.

May the Lord have respect unto your persistent prayer. Let us pray.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
INAUGURATION! INAUGURATION!! INAUGURATION!!!
YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO THE INAUGURATION OF OUR CHURCH, PENTECOST BAPTIST CHURCH, PORTMOUTH.
DATE: SATURDAY 18/08/2012. @ 12.00 PM. VENUE: HAVELOCK COMMUNITY CENTER,
324 FAWCETT ROAD. SOUTHSEA. PO4 0LQ
GOD BLESS YOU
Luke 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. 2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.