Looking_unto_Jesus_pt2_18-02-24

It's a light in the darkness, it's a light in the darkness, O Jesus, light in the darkness You were never there, but here you are, coming as we think of you, O Jesus, I believe in you I believe in you Amen Father in the name of Jesus Thank you Father because I depend upon you We depend the entirety of three of our lives upon you Thank you because you said your word that everyone who put their trust in you will not be able to shake Thank you Lord because we will not be disappointed We give you the glory in the name of Jesus Thank you Lord for all you have been helping us and upholding us at this time Thank you because we are not able to work things out in our own wisdom For you have been the one that has been helping us to get solutions to all our challenges We appreciate you in the name of Jesus In this brief moment I will be looking to your word I pray Lord that you speak to us in the name of Jesus The words that the heart of everyone of us desires and yearns for That we speak them to our hearts this morning in the name of Jesus And at the end of the day let your name alone be glorified Thank you Lord for answering our prayers In Jesus mighty name we have prayed Praise the Lord Praise the living Jesus The Lord has been good to us His mercy has been sufficient in our lives It is a wonderful thing to be called children of the Lord Because there are two families Emmanuel can belong to in this world That of the kingdom of darkness and that of God And it is not easy to be a member of the kingdom of God Because all hell will break loose against that individual But for us to be children of God and to see the children of God in this moment We give him the glory and may his name alone be praised in Jesus name Today we will be looking at the topic looking unto Jesus pastor Looking unto Jesus pastor Last week we started that topic looking unto Jesus When I was preparing for this Sunday It was impressed on my mind to continue with that same topic Because this is the period we need to focus our gaze and attention And put our trust in the Lord Jesus We don't know how many that have been blessed through this word So we need to obey and comply to the move and the leading of the Holy Spirit So we are looking unto Jesus pastor As we continue it is expedient that we consider some questions That the devil has been using to knock out faith in the heart of people Or to divert the attention of people away from God These are silent questions but they are rational questions But they are carnal questions And any side of God that is not strong or need for our peace Can be swayed off by these questions There are a lot of questions but I only picked a few of them And as we consider these questions Let us bear in mind that God is sovereign And He is in control of all things and every people So God is sovereign, He does as He pleases We may have questions, we may want to question God But we cannot challenge Him So He does as He pleases We may have these questions in our mind There are no people who ask such questions But one fact remains that God is sovereign We cannot advise Him on what to do or what not to do So as the only true God and creator of all life His authority and decisions are final So we cannot challenge Him In Romans 9, 20 as I put in the notes It says, But in this, O man, who are you to reply against God? When the things come, say to him who formed it Why have you made me like this? This is a very good question that is asked in the scriptures It says, O man, who are you to reply against God? What is our loss that the Lord God has apportioned us in this world? What is our sinning? What are we going through right now? Some people are given birth to by rich men in the world Somebody is a child of the president of America Or president of any great nation in the world There are people who are children of the jungle state There are people who are presidents of rich men in this nation Even in this state Why are we where we are? I don't know how many of us have very important and influential parents But I know it's not many of us that are here But whoever asks, Why did God put me in this family? Or why did He even put me in Nigeria that is suffering at this time? These are good questions we can ask But we have to also be very careful as we ask these questions Because as Romans chapter 9 verse 26 Who are we to reply against God? Can the things pumped, say to the one who pumped it Why have you made me like this? Can the food you cook in the house, question you Why did you put so much margarine or so much pepper? It cannot, it will come unto whatever you have prepared, praise the Lord And that is the same expectation of God from us We have to come unto how God has planned us Through our flesh we struggle against it So therefore let us look at these questions The first question I put here is Why did God create the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Why did God create the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? We all know that the problem of the world started from that tree If that tree of the knowledge of good and evil that Adam ate And it became a falling man If that tree has not been located and positioned in the garden of Eden It is possible that man will be living like the angels of God right now No sin, no sickness, no poverty, no calamity, no issues of life Everything will be smooth and steady, praise the Lord But why did God place that tree in that garden? This is a good question that a reasonable man will want to ask Why did God even allow these problems to befall us in the first place? The object of temptation leading to the fall of man is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil And if it was not created our life would have been better So we cannot explicitly state any reason for this Other than to say that it is the sovereign will of God to create that tree We cannot give any reason why God made that tree there Or made that tree to be in existence But we can just say that it is the sovereign will He decided that He wants to make it like that And He did so, praise the Lord In Isaiah chapter 45, let's open our Bible to Isaiah 45 And we read from verse 6 and 7 Isaiah chapter 45, 6 and 7 It says that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none beside me I am the Lord and there is no other This is God speaking It says I am the Lord and there is no other Verse 7, I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create calamity I the Lord do all these things Praise God God says I am the one who created light I am the one who also made darkness He says I make peace and I also create calamity I the Lord do all these things So what are the issues that we go through in life? As I said last week, that the problem we are going through in Nigeria That we are going through in Nigeria Could have the hand of God underneath God may be the one that permitted this situation to get to this level For reasons best known to Him But from the scriptures we know that one of the reasons He allows things like this to happen Is to call people to others The otherliness is running away from God Looking away from God And to bring people back to others Means to call people back to focus their attention and gaze on Jesus Praise the Lord So this is one of the reasons that the Lord brings issues like this So He said He made this And one of the reasons He made this Is that He will prove to everyone that I am the Lord and there is no other Praise God The second question I also put here is If God knew that Adam would fall If He had the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Why did He allow Adam to be tempted? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was in the garden God has made it, we cannot question that He made it from His own sovereign will But Adam has been living a good life at least for seven years Without touching that tree So it's possible that Adam will continue to live Without even thinking about that tree Maybe by the time Adam has grown and is in wisdom To be able to invent something like a cutlass or an axe He would have cut down the tree If the devil or Satan had not come The tempter had not come to tempt him It is possible that he would not have touched that fruit So why did God allow Adam to be tempted Knowing fully well that he is able to fall to temptation So the answer I gave here is that God made man not as he derives He made man as he derives his being And also as he chooses creation That is God made man to make decisions He made man to be able to decide his life The way things should go about his life So He gave man the capacity to choose his own destiny And also a platform to express the same God is the one that made man with that capacity To decide how he wants his life to be Many of us that are in school We decided that the course we want to do That we are doing now is what we want to do Those of us that have graduated and are working We decide that we want to do the work we are doing When at a point in time we make decisions in our life It is because God has made us to be a being that chooses And if He has made us a being that chooses Then He needs to make a platform for us to exercise That grace of choosing that He has given If He has not given us that platform Then it will not be just on His side It will not be justified That God gave us an ability And no privilege or platform to express that ability Can you just imagine the great footballers that we know around They have the skill of football in them God gave it to them But He did not create any activity of football So that means they are carrying a gift in them But there is no place to express it The scientists that are inventing innovative things They have that idea, that tendency in them But if God has not given them the platform to be able to experiment And bring those things out to reality If we don't take in them In us And it will not be just on the side of God For Him to give man such ability And not give him the platform to express itself So that is the same reason He allowed Adam to be tempted Because He has put two churches before Adam In the garden there is a tree of life And also there is a tree of the knowledge of good and evil Praise the Lord Now, if Adam has been given the capacity to choose Then he needs to make a decision And this is the reason In Deuteronomy 13 verse 19 it says I call heaven and earth as witness today against you That I have set before you life and death Blessing and cursing That both you and your descendants may live That is the option God presents to every man Even to us today We still have the same option standing right in front of us We all have to make a decision We all have to choose Praise the Lord So if we have to choose Then God may have to put something before us to choose from He said I have put before you life and death Blessing and cursing, choose one In the case of Adam He chose the curse But which one are you choosing? Because the same opportunity is also presented to you Praise the Lord So the last question we consider is Why did God allow evil on earth And yet bring nothing about it? Why did God? I have heard people in movies, in real life Asking these questions That if God is there And He is in everything that is happening in the world right now Why is He not doing anything about it? Are you also raising that question in your mind? That why is God not doing anything about the calamity And the issues that is happening in the world? There is one good question answered over here God is not the reason for the evil He is not the one that brought about the evil The evil came as a consequence of man's decision He gave man choices Choose one And man chose curses He chose evil And evil has now come upon man I said here that there is no middle ground on earth No sitting on the fence If by the exercise of our free will We show disobedience to God Then evil is imminent Why? Obedience will lead to good If we obey God Good will come to us Praise the Lord But if we yield to disobedience Then it will be evil And disobedience is what Adam chose And the consequence of this decision Or his choice Is the calamity that we see in the world today So God is not the one causing calamity But He did not sit in heaven Looking at the things happening on earth And allowing it to go like that The Lord is doing something about it Praise the Lord So God is the one Not allowing or bringing Condemnation, I mean Calamity upon man But He is the one that is helping man to get out of it The calamity has come as a result of our own decision and choice But God now is helping us to get out of it I said God has the remedy to the corruption That is eating up the world God did not create the corrupt man When He made man, He made man And He said it is good So Adam in his unfolding state Was a perfect man Was a man without corruption Was a man without sin And the world was imperfectly subdued But after the fall of man The world became corrupt And even the man that is in it, Adam himself And every offspring of Adam They became corrupt So the disobedience of Adam Brought corruption upon all mankind And if man will continue to live in this corruption The inevitable end of it The result of it is destruction If man continues to live in the life of sin If man continues to live the life of corruption that he has fallen into Then it is inevitable Destruction is inevitable Praise the Lord If a man that was born And decided that he wants to become a drug addict What choice do you think he has made? He has made a choice for a life that will be meaningless And that will be cut short abruptly That is his choice It is not God that will bring sickness Of the addiction of that drug upon him It is not God that will make his life to be cut short abruptly It is the consequence of his decision But God on His throne in His mercy Will begin to bring things about To make this man realize the decision he has made And also to help him to get out of it So that at the end of the day He will not fall into the consequences of his decision Praise God So I said That In the Garden of Eden The Lord has revealed His plan to redeem man In the Garden of Eden when man fell into sin When corruption entered into the world God from that place has revealed His plan That even though man has made his choice Yet I will still help man He said in Genesis 3 verse 15 He said and I will put enmity between you and the woman And between your seed and her seed It shall bruise your head That is the serpent referring to the serpent And you shall bruise his heel So in other words the serpent is the one That threw all the angels at them to fall into temptation So that serpent is the symbol of corruption And God said He is going to give the woman a seed That will break the head of the serpent That is the plan of God for redemption So there is a seed that has been promised by God That will come And when Abel came The devil thought because Abel was the righteous man And came was unrighteous He thought that Abel would be that seed That is going to break his head Therefore he pushed him to destroy Abel Praise the Lord But Abel was not that seed Because when the Lord makes promises He does not reveal to us how He is going to fulfill them Praise God Our own is just to wait for the time of fulfillment Ever since then the Lord has been working out the realization Of the redemption of mankind So man began to come Man began to increase on earth Noah came, flood came and destroyed mankind But the family of Noah was preserved And from the family of Noah The earth was also filled with mankind again And now it was time for God to begin to bring to realization His plan to redeem man from the consequences of the flood Then he called Abraham And called Abraham out And he said to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 He said I will make you a great nation I will bless you and make you great And make your name great And you shall be a blessing Verse 3 I will bless those who bless you And I will curse he who curses you And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed That is a promise That was given in the garden of Eden That a seed will come That will come across the edge of the earth's surface And when he was speaking to Abraham He said through Abraham that seed will come Because that seed will bring blessings to the nation of the world So he shows Abraham As a man through whom his promises will be fulfilled He also shows the nation of Israel Which are the descendants of Abraham When they were lost and in bondage in Egypt He called them out again Abraham was called out of his father's house Israel was called out of Egypt And he called out in Israel And said I will make you a peculiar nation A nation separated unto me Because a seed that is coming to destroy the corruption That is happening in the world Is going to come through this nation Let's see Exodus chapter 19 verse 5 Exodus 19 verse 5 it says Now therefore I if you will indeed obey my voice And keep my covenant Then you shall be a special treasure to me Above all people For all the earth is mine Verse 6 And you shall be to me a kingdom of peace And a holy nation These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel God called Israel as a nation And said you nation of Israel I am going to separate you So that my promise to redeem man and bring man out of calamity Will come to realization through you Do we say that God is working out his promises In the nation of Israel God shows out another man called David And said through the dynasty of David That he is going to bring the Messiah To sit upon his throne The Messiah is that seed That will deliver man from the calamity and corruption And he said through David Through his offspring He is going to bring the seed that will sit upon his throne Do we see the progress The progression that God does always He called Abraham The offspring of Abraham from the nation of Israel He called Israel The king of Israel is David Then he shows David He said through you The seed we call Praise the Lord We can read that Because of our time We can read that in 2nd Samuel chapter 7 Verse 12 and 14 2nd Samuel chapter 7 Verse 12 to 14 Let me just take verse 12 Is it when your days are fulfilled And you rest with your fathers I will set up your seed after you Who will come from your body And I will establish his kingdom Praise the Lord So according to the election of grace In the line of David God chose a woman A lady Called Mary To be the mother of that Savior To be the mother of the Messiah That is going to deliver the world Whose name is to be Jesus In Luke chapter 1 I am going to read that It is a long passage but we need to read it In Luke chapter 1 verse 26 It says Now in the season of months The indeliberate was sent by God Indeliberate was sent by God Because the time of the fulfillment has arrived He sent an angel to Mary He said To the city of Galilee Named Nazareth To invite and be treated to a man Whose name was Joseph Of the house of David Joseph was of the house of David Even Mary herself was of the house of David So the virgin's name was Mary Verse 28 And having come in The angel said to her Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice 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