₦sermon 12
(A Sermon Preached by Rev. Fortune Emerence Chinemerem Nwaiwu)
“Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth? Says the LORD”— Jer. 23:24.
There was a village, and it came one certain day that one vital item was stolen. Everybody was asked who might have stolen it and nobody was able to tell the truth. One day, the elders of the community assembled in their play-ground to plan how the unknown notorious criminal would be fished out. They came up with one idea that pieces of sticks would be distributed to every member in the village and anybody whose stick springs up and becomes taller in the following morning would be declared as the thief. This message was delivered to everybody in that community. And the man who stole the vital item became afraid and went and cut off a little from his own stick so that in the morning when it grows up nobody would easily notice it. In the following morning, every member of the community assembled in their playground bringing out their own sticks and it was discovered that none of the sticks grew overnight except that of the man who cut off a bit from his own and his own stick became the shortest among the individual members’. Now among the crowd who do you think is the real thief?
Conspicuously, our judgment would be the man whose stick became shorter. That is right! Moses said to his people: “Be sure your sin will find you out”— Numbers 32:23.
Whatever you do and think that nobody is seeing you remember that there is God who sees in the darkest and open places. He searches human heart and discovers both its good and evil motives. You may think that nobody is seeing you; your pastor is not seeing you, your mother or father is not seeing those of your secret sins, but know it plainly today that God is watching you. Christ says: whatever you whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the house top for all to hear— Luke 12:3. Let us consider the following:
Firstly, what people say and do in secret will be heard and known in the broad day: Some people are friends today because of the evil they do. After all, armed robbers do have friends because they have one common motive. They gather in some secret places to make their evil plans, “for they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall” — Proverbs: 4:16 KJV. Micah says, “Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it because it is in the power of their hand”— Micah 2:1 KJV.
Micah by using the word “woe” implies in this context as the fate of those that plan evils and commit secret sins. They will be doomed on the day God will cause everything done in the secret to be heard and known in a broad day. There are some ladies that have secretly damaged their wombs by abortion. They have done the first, second and even the third abortion thinking that nobody is seeing them. How does their sin find them out? By the time they get married, the issue of having a child will become a problem because their wombs have been severely damaged by the drugs they took. Really, we are not saying that every childless woman is doomed by the abortion she committed. There’re some women who did not commit abortion and yet they are drastically affected of childlessness. In this case anything you say about them, the childless women, will be made known one day. There are some people that say because of the sins he/she committed at her youthful age that is why he/she is facing such challenges in life. Mind what you say because you are not their God.
Secondly, Professing pretenders who claim tenaciously that they are more righteous than others: These kind of people talk about other people’s sins, gossip and even mock them and pour scorns on them but keep their secret sins from the eyes of men. Apostle Paul warns the Corinthian brethren not to judge people’s sins that God will reveal our secret motives— 1 Cor. 4:5. Such pretenders can never prosper in life because they repented not and did not confess their sins to God. Proverbs 28:13 says: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whosoever confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy”. We begin to wonder why some Christians are not spiritually prospering while others are making it. This is because sin is a reproach to a nation. It causes the spiritual being to be weak and there by the sinful man could not have the spiritual power to command things to happen in his favour. Not even a single evil spirit could obey him because he’s just like sinful disobedient angels. So, no one could obey each other because they’re all in the same level of authority and power. Obedience works perfectly when one is more powerful than others.
You can’t run away from God
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, they tried to hide themselves from God and God found them out and Adam said: “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked”— Genesis 3:10.
Brethren, we should know this that when sin was not found in the lives of the couples, they had never hidden themselves from God. They used to interact with God but the moment they began to interact with the Devil and ate what God asked them not to eat, they became guilty and tried to hide themselves from God because they are now naked. This means that sins bare us from God’s protection. Sins make us to run from one place to another looking for a hiding place. But will this solve our problems? When a man is completely fortified and protected with the spiritual armor of God, what uncovers him to nakedness is his sin. Thus, sin makes us to be vulnerable to the dangers of the world. The only thing we could do is to come to Christ and repent from our sins.
One thing in the lives of the disobedient couples— Adam and Eve is that they never admitted their fault. They did not confess or say that they did wrong, instead, they began to accuse each other thereby trying to say they did not sin willfully. When God asked Eve what she has done, she says: “The serpent deceived me, that is why I ate it”— Genesis 3:13 NLT. And God asked Adam what he has done and he said: it was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it”— Genesis 3:12 NLT
From the above heated debate, did any of the couples admit that he/she is at fault? No! Eve was somehow plain to say the serpent deceived her but what about the man? Adam said to God that it was the woman he gave him. This however could mean that when Adam was alone in the Garden of the Eden, he was carefully obeying God but the moment a helper had been created for him, things began to crumble down. Adam would implies that without the woman God gave to him nothing would have caused him to disobey his God and therefore, it was the woman that God gave him that made him to sin against his God. None of them admitted their fault. But what we should know is that things that cause sins exist and we should be very circumspect about them and avoid them. Adam would have stayed at a place with his wife as to guard her in the Garden to avoid being tempted to eat the forbidden fruit but he left her and nobody knows where he went to. He abandoned his duty to guard his wife and as a result his better half sinned unto God by listening to Satan.
Had it been that he was there with his wife, the serpent would not have easily deceived Eve his wife. That is most of the problems men have in their families. Husbands were created to be watchmen over their wives. If men failed to discharge their duty effectively to guard their wives to the path of righteousness, the women will be predisposed to dangers of this world. That is why some people call them weaker vessels. They are weak and need to be strengthened by their husband. Some men will leave their families in the name that they are working in the office and some pastors like Adam would go out for programmes without going along with their wives. They are creating a room for a serpent to devour their families. A woman will now look for another man that would do the duty of a husband in the night while the husband is away. Probably, the man would look for another woman that would perform the function of his wife while he is out for official assignment as he may call it. The question is what was Adam looking for to leave his wife behind? A man that leaves his family for a complete five weeks is giving a serpent an invitation card into his family. Thus, what you do when your husband/wife is away from family will be exposed. The message about the sin Adam and his wife committed is crystal clear that we should not allow any part of our body, relations, friends and or things that we see to cause us to sin. Remember that among the three parties that were involved in such a notorious sin, they all went away from God with a curse.
(I) God cursed the serpent that deceived Eve: “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all days of thy life: and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” Genesis 3:14-15 KJV. Whoever that deceives his/her neighbour to sin is under a curse. Ahithophel who was King David’s counselors deceitfully advised Absalom to take King David’s harem — 2 Samuel 15:12; 16:21. He further asked Absalom to run after his father and kill him as to take over the throne, but Absalom could not listen to this instead he listened to that of Hushai who advised him not to pursue his father. Ahithophel sensed that his advice did not work out, and then, he committed suicide — 2 Samuel 17:23.
(II) God multiplied the sorrow of Eve: Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Many women deliver babes in pains. Some have bleeding in the course of delivering a child. All these are the result of the sin committed in the Garden of Eden. Today we see women trying to rule over their husbands and God says, though the woman will desire to rule her husband but the husband will rule over her. Apostle Paul says: wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord”— Col. 3:18.
(III) God cursed the ground for the sake of Adam: And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorn also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” Genesis 3:17-19 KJV. At this point, we’re told that a man is formed from dust. Among all the creatures, it was man that was told the kind of the thing used to form him because of sin. Who knows what God used to form water, trees and other things? Nobody knows because, those things did not sin against God. Glory be to God who sent his only son, Jesus Christ to bear our curses on the cross.
———————Meditation Point———————————
LORD, be merciful unto me, forgive me and wash away all my sins that I may be acceptable unto you, in Jesus name I pray, amen!
(A Sermon Preached by Rev. Fortune Emerence Chinemerem Nwaiwu)
“Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth? Says the LORD”— Jer. 23:24.
There was a village, and it came one certain day that one vital item was stolen. Everybody was asked who might have stolen it and nobody was able to tell the truth. One day, the elders of the community assembled in their play-ground to plan how the unknown notorious criminal would be fished out. They came up with one idea that pieces of sticks would be distributed to every member in the village and anybody whose stick springs up and becomes taller in the following morning would be declared as the thief. This message was delivered to everybody in that community. And the man who stole the vital item became afraid and went and cut off a little from his own stick so that in the morning when it grows up nobody would easily notice it. In the following morning, every member of the community assembled in their playground bringing out their own sticks and it was discovered that none of the sticks grew overnight except that of the man who cut off a bit from his own and his own stick became the shortest among the individual members’. Now among the crowd who do you think is the real thief?
Conspicuously, our judgment would be the man whose stick became shorter. That is right! Moses said to his people: “Be sure your sin will find you out”— Numbers 32:23.
Whatever you do and think that nobody is seeing you remember that there is God who sees in the darkest and open places. He searches human heart and discovers both its good and evil motives. You may think that nobody is seeing you; your pastor is not seeing you, your mother or father is not seeing those of your secret sins, but know it plainly today that God is watching you. Christ says: whatever you whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the house top for all to hear— Luke 12:3. Let us consider the following:
Firstly, what people say and do in secret will be heard and known in the broad day: Some people are friends today because of the evil they do. After all, armed robbers do have friends because they have one common motive. They gather in some secret places to make their evil plans, “for they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall” — Proverbs: 4:16 KJV. Micah says, “Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it because it is in the power of their hand”— Micah 2:1 KJV.
Micah by using the word “woe” implies in this context as the fate of those that plan evils and commit secret sins. They will be doomed on the day God will cause everything done in the secret to be heard and known in a broad day. There are some ladies that have secretly damaged their wombs by abortion. They have done the first, second and even the third abortion thinking that nobody is seeing them. How does their sin find them out? By the time they get married, the issue of having a child will become a problem because their wombs have been severely damaged by the drugs they took. Really, we are not saying that every childless woman is doomed by the abortion she committed. There’re some women who did not commit abortion and yet they are drastically affected of childlessness. In this case anything you say about them, the childless women, will be made known one day. There are some people that say because of the sins he/she committed at her youthful age that is why he/she is facing such challenges in life. Mind what you say because you are not their God.
Secondly, Professing pretenders who claim tenaciously that they are more righteous than others: These kind of people talk about other people’s sins, gossip and even mock them and pour scorns on them but keep their secret sins from the eyes of men. Apostle Paul warns the Corinthian brethren not to judge people’s sins that God will reveal our secret motives— 1 Cor. 4:5. Such pretenders can never prosper in life because they repented not and did not confess their sins to God. Proverbs 28:13 says: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whosoever confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy”. We begin to wonder why some Christians are not spiritually prospering while others are making it. This is because sin is a reproach to a nation. It causes the spiritual being to be weak and there by the sinful man could not have the spiritual power to command things to happen in his favour. Not even a single evil spirit could obey him because he’s just like sinful disobedient angels. So, no one could obey each other because they’re all in the same level of authority and power. Obedience works perfectly when one is more powerful than others.
You can’t run away from God
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, they tried to hide themselves from God and God found them out and Adam said: “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked”— Genesis 3:10.
Brethren, we should know this that when sin was not found in the lives of the couples, they had never hidden themselves from God. They used to interact with God but the moment they began to interact with the Devil and ate what God asked them not to eat, they became guilty and tried to hide themselves from God because they are now naked. This means that sins bare us from God’s protection. Sins make us to run from one place to another looking for a hiding place. But will this solve our problems? When a man is completely fortified and protected with the spiritual armor of God, what uncovers him to nakedness is his sin. Thus, sin makes us to be vulnerable to the dangers of the world. The only thing we could do is to come to Christ and repent from our sins.
One thing in the lives of the disobedient couples— Adam and Eve is that they never admitted their fault. They did not confess or say that they did wrong, instead, they began to accuse each other thereby trying to say they did not sin willfully. When God asked Eve what she has done, she says: “The serpent deceived me, that is why I ate it”— Genesis 3:13 NLT. And God asked Adam what he has done and he said: it was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it”— Genesis 3:12 NLT
From the above heated debate, did any of the couples admit that he/she is at fault? No! Eve was somehow plain to say the serpent deceived her but what about the man? Adam said to God that it was the woman he gave him. This however could mean that when Adam was alone in the Garden of the Eden, he was carefully obeying God but the moment a helper had been created for him, things began to crumble down. Adam would implies that without the woman God gave to him nothing would have caused him to disobey his God and therefore, it was the woman that God gave him that made him to sin against his God. None of them admitted their fault. But what we should know is that things that cause sins exist and we should be very circumspect about them and avoid them. Adam would have stayed at a place with his wife as to guard her in the Garden to avoid being tempted to eat the forbidden fruit but he left her and nobody knows where he went to. He abandoned his duty to guard his wife and as a result his better half sinned unto God by listening to Satan.
Had it been that he was there with his wife, the serpent would not have easily deceived Eve his wife. That is most of the problems men have in their families. Husbands were created to be watchmen over their wives. If men failed to discharge their duty effectively to guard their wives to the path of righteousness, the women will be predisposed to dangers of this world. That is why some people call them weaker vessels. They are weak and need to be strengthened by their husband. Some men will leave their families in the name that they are working in the office and some pastors like Adam would go out for programmes without going along with their wives. They are creating a room for a serpent to devour their families. A woman will now look for another man that would do the duty of a husband in the night while the husband is away. Probably, the man would look for another woman that would perform the function of his wife while he is out for official assignment as he may call it. The question is what was Adam looking for to leave his wife behind? A man that leaves his family for a complete five weeks is giving a serpent an invitation card into his family. Thus, what you do when your husband/wife is away from family will be exposed. The message about the sin Adam and his wife committed is crystal clear that we should not allow any part of our body, relations, friends and or things that we see to cause us to sin. Remember that among the three parties that were involved in such a notorious sin, they all went away from God with a curse.
(I) God cursed the serpent that deceived Eve: “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all days of thy life: and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” Genesis 3:14-15 KJV. Whoever that deceives his/her neighbour to sin is under a curse. Ahithophel who was King David’s counselors deceitfully advised Absalom to take King David’s harem — 2 Samuel 15:12; 16:21. He further asked Absalom to run after his father and kill him as to take over the throne, but Absalom could not listen to this instead he listened to that of Hushai who advised him not to pursue his father. Ahithophel sensed that his advice did not work out, and then, he committed suicide — 2 Samuel 17:23.
(II) God multiplied the sorrow of Eve: Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Many women deliver babes in pains. Some have bleeding in the course of delivering a child. All these are the result of the sin committed in the Garden of Eden. Today we see women trying to rule over their husbands and God says, though the woman will desire to rule her husband but the husband will rule over her. Apostle Paul says: wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord”— Col. 3:18.
(III) God cursed the ground for the sake of Adam: And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorn also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” Genesis 3:17-19 KJV. At this point, we’re told that a man is formed from dust. Among all the creatures, it was man that was told the kind of the thing used to form him because of sin. Who knows what God used to form water, trees and other things? Nobody knows because, those things did not sin against God. Glory be to God who sent his only son, Jesus Christ to bear our curses on the cross.
———————Meditation Point———————————
LORD, be merciful unto me, forgive me and wash away all my sins that I may be acceptable unto you, in Jesus name I pray, amen!
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