Power Of Service 7.0 - Pastor Itoro Nehemiah

The Book of Acts introduces us to the inception of the first church and its organization. On the strength of unified expectation and prayers, the promised Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost. After Apostle Peter's inaugural sermon, three thousand people were added to the church, and at another gathering, four thousand more joined. Amidst the vivid depiction of the church's growth, one of the portraits of the early church is the power of community.

The bible, in First John, highlights that the assembly of believers shouldn’t be merely viewed as a gathering of people; a social meeting, all fun and vibes (my emphasis), but Apostle John clearly articulated the deeper purpose of such fellowship with him as a fellowship with God and with His Christ.

..What we have seen and heard we also proclaim to you, so that you too may have fellowship [as partners] with us. And indeed our fellowship [which is a distinguishing mark of born-again believers] is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3 AMP

Said in another way, it's a collective meeting and a communal encounter with the Lord, the dividends of such meeting being change and transformation, spiritual growth and increasing strength.

We see littered through the Epistles, the Apostles’ repeated emphasis on the necessity of the church to transcend the mere ordinariness of gathering to genuine fellowship. There's a difference and that difference is in the concept of discerning the body.

Discerning the body doesn't only happen when we gather around the table of communion, it also happens in the act of Christian fellowship. Communion is fellowship as they both draw from the original word koinonia which is fellowship. Christ is present at communion because He is present when believers gather. To discern the body is to keep in view the sacredness of Jesus's presence among the saints and in the saints when we gather. The remembrance of Christ should be central to every Christian gathering.

One can say, “Well, why are you talking to me about it? Isn't that the pulpit’s responsibility?” Well, not at all. It's a shared responsibility of the pews and the pulpit.

If we cut back to Acts 2, we see that it is to the extent that everyone in the upper room was plugged into a unified frequency in expectation that there was a collective experience of visitation. It's not just about what you take away, it's the quality of what you bring with you. In fact, the quality of what you bring with you determines what you take away. I am not speaking about your makeup bag, spare change to buy snacks after service, your spare pair of slippers so you can come down from your high heels, excitement to continue your gist with your church buddy from where you left off last week, or new wares that you are eager to sell to your faithful church customers. Beyond that, what you must bring is an expectation, a psalm, a spiritual song, a question. While those things can be prosecuted in a community of believers, don't be satisfied with going home having made a few thousands of naira but instead that there was also a weakness that was exchanged for strength and there was a new level of growth and strength that you have permanently and intentionally stepped into.

The book of Acts and Corinthians provide two vivid examples of this principle in action, we see two live examples of how this played out.

The first is the story of Ananias and Sapphira, who misinterpreted the act of giving as a competitive platform for self-glorification. They thought they were deceiving a man. They dropped the funds at Peter's feet but Peter told them they had lied to the Holy Ghost. Their failure to discern the body led to their demise, serving as a stark warning to a community that was beginning to lose its sacred perspective. Following that incident, the Bible records a renewed and heightened reverence for the body of Christ with signs and wonders following.

In today's message, Pastor Dami made us understand that the word of God is the carrier of the Spirit and the Spirit is the potency of the word of God. The word of God and the Spirit can never be separated as the Spirit makes it a quickening word in our hearts and not just a letter.

Pastor explained that man is a co-creator creation and as such has the same ability with God to call things that be not to be. Most times, we don't see 'the be not' happening because of condemnation which has weakened our words. Condemnation is not just a feeling that forms an action but precedes the action. We must allow the righteousness of Christ we have received to be our consciousness always; as righteousness consciousness, sponsors the prophetic in our lives and makes our words to be established powerfully. God's blessings upon our lives have no variableness and we must stand in faith, not wavering, to receive all the good and perfect gifts God has released to us already.

The Power of Service 6.0 - Pastor Olayinka Adebayo

A day after my birthday, I had an unpleasant experience. The previous year, the birthday was the exact day for the unpleasant experience. Somewhere in my mind, I had that “well, I kinda was expecting it” thought, about this year’s not so good experience. Trust me, this is very much nothing about negative cycles, and I was in my feelings when I had that thought. So…. This unpleasant experience isn’t one of those ones that could be undone, I’m not even exaggerating. Well, unless you have a time-travel machine of some sort.

I’ll give you a hint. It has something to do with losing memories and now, irreplaceable files and discussions. Ring a bell?

I cried. About this experience I had. I mean, I didn’t plan my day to go that way. I ought to be revelling in the euphoria of a new year; particularly because the previous year was a good one, with changes in areas I had truly desired. So, I actually cried. Quite some thick tears. Sincere tears if you may. But some things now stand out whenever I look back on that particular day. Some of the original thoughts and other ones that ministered to me afterwards are the things I’d be sharing. I hope it blesses your heart.

Psalms 142: 1-3a KJV

“I cried unto the Lord with my voice; with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me”

Psalms 3: 4 “I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill.”

1. I sought comfort. I got so overwhelmed within me that I began to cry. I didn’t even think I had it in me to cry that much. I don’t know if anyone has ever been in that situation where your reaction to things shocks you so much that it feels like you’re watching yourself from outside your body. In that moment of overwhelming emotions, I summoned strength and sought comfort in God. I kept asking for help as I lay on the floor crying, my emotions got welled up and it seemed like the time I even cried more, but I stayed there. As ironic as it may sound, I enjoyed sharing that beautiful moment of pain with the Lord. It seemed like a precious and intimate moment that no one else should have witnessed really.

I was really surprised at that moment as I kind of watched myself cry. It was just a technical glitch, God wasn’t going to fix it because he doesn’t relate with phones and gadgets, but asking for help and strength at that moment was just enough. I stood up from that spot lighter than I was initially. There are things that only God can truly do. My chest was still contracting from hurting, but there was peace and I loved it. Afterwards, I sought encouragement from the brethren, and it was easy to embrace it because the actual comforting I needed had been received. This leads me to my second point.

2. Seeking comfort from the Lord will require sincerity and vulnerability. David proves this in some of his writings in the book of Psalms. I sincerely wonder how he was able to put his specific emotions into words. Being sincere really just helps you pour out your heart. It’s no longer a strange term at the Tribe, the idea of sincerity. It also shouldn’t be news that God is interested in the minutest detail about our lives, but we will have to be sincere and vulnerable with him, so we can receive the fullness of that comfort. This part involves our emotions. Pastor had mentioned on Thursday, during the July edition of physical Bible study that emotions aren’t to be tossed aside. They are there to be felt and experienced and God doesn’t think any less of you when you express them. He’s a good father and he’ll find joy in your sharing that moment with Him. Receiving God’s comfort isn’t complete if you won’t be emotional with him.

In today's service, Pastor Dami taught us how to meditate on the word of God.

We looked at the concept of Spiritual Poverty, looking through several scriptures (Matt 5:1-3, Mark 1:5, Luke 4:18, etc.) to understand what it means to be spiritually poor.

We understood from scripture that God's only need is for us to need us and his expectation is that we always come empty before him so he can always feel us.

Pastor also answered several questions such as the parable of the unjust stewards, Job and his fears, What happens to people before Christ showed up, etc.

The Cocktail Of Service (The Power Of Service. 5.0) - Pastor Dami Oguntunde

Read your Bible, pray every day, pray everyday, pray everyday, Read your Bible, pray every day, pray everyday, pray everyday, if you want to grow. 🎶

How long have we recited that song as kids growing up? A lot of us might have just chanted it without much thought to it, but in it lies great wisdom.

As christians, we are called to live a holy life, a life after Christ, but many of us fall short. Be it peer pressure, contents we watch on all media platforms, books we read, the list goes on, but the truth is we have been given the power to live a holy life.

'Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. '

Now, I’m sure a number of you may be asking, how do I live a holy life? or how do I live above sin? Here are a few tips you can apply daily to answer those questions.

This may sound obvious but “Read your Bible & Pray everyday”. If a number of us take a look at our routine just within the last few weeks / months, you would observe a pattern. If you are in the category of people that read their bible and pray daily, you would find yourself either having more restraint whenever sin comes crawling or not even being in the space where sin can exist.

If you happen to be on the other side of the divide, you most likely would have trouble controlling yourself.

'Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. '

The daily act of reading your bible and Praying (doesn’t have to be a long 10 hour prayer, as simple as committing your day to God’s hand) goes a long way in reshaping your  orientation to a lot of things. 

As human beings, we all have emotional triggers, these are words, events, persons or experiences that when faced causes an emotional reaction. The same applies to our spiritual lives. There are various triggers in our life that we know would cause us to sin, and as such, we need to eliminate them.

A lot of us live our lives knowing well those triggers and feel that “I can always come back” or “I can always ask God for forgiveness”, but why do that?

The road to living a holy life is a long one and we keep advancing to that point, but if you are constantly rolling around in sin, it’s like you starting and stopping your car engine every few minutes whilst going on a Twelve (12) hours  journey, 

Here’s a quick example to help you understand.

We were in Sin, Point A, now as believers, we are in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), baptized in him (Gal. 3:27) and clothed with Him (Rom. 13:14) and  are heading towards Christ as we behold his glory (2 Cor. 3:18) and Christ is being formed in you (Gal 4:19)  by living a holy life, Point B. Your journey starts when you give your life to  Christ. The longer you spend in Christ, read your bible and pray daily, the more your momentum towards him and in turn, you lay aside every weight, and the sin which by default so easily beset you, and then you can run with patience the race that is set before you.  Eventually, you start to forget your old nature and begin to embrace your Christ-like nature. The goal is to get so much momentum built up that if you do slip up, you are able to quickly recover and go back to God, which leads me to tip 3

One lie the devil tries to use is that “you are the only one going through whatever you are going through” - THAT”S A BIG LIE.

Today, Pastor Nonso showed us Habakkuk as one of the men who God took on a journey of Faith. The book of Habakkuk opened with Habakkuk accusing God of being too slow and unconcerned by the reign of evil in his time. He called God out and took an argumentative stand against him. Pastor showed us how God responded to Habakkuk and took him on a journey. When we question God, in his Mercy, he takes us on a journey. At the end of the journey, Habakkuk understood the mercy of God and changed his perspectives about the wrath of God

Cups, Baptisms & Seats (The Power Of Service 4.0) - Pastor Dami Oguntunde