Faith To Refuse - Pt.1 || A Message by Pastor Mensa Otabil

[Music] today i will consider another important aspect of faith which i have called faith to refuse faith to refuse or if you want to be more dramatic faith to reject faith to re refuse and i would do it in two parts so this is part one of faith to refuse when i talk about faith to refuse it is the ability to reject wrong labels on your life it is the ability to reject being stuck in a place that god has not purposed for you and it is the kind of faith that moses exercised in order for him to fulfill his destiny and our text will be taken from the book of hebrews chapter 11 verses 24 hebrews chapter 11 verse 24 to 26. now if you are familiar with the book of hebrews chapter 11 is what is called the faith hall of fame because the whole of chapter 11 of the book of hebrews is about faith it defines faith and then it shows us examples of faith from both the old testament uh from mainly from the old testament running through the lives of people who lived by faith so hebrews chapter 11 verses 26 24 to 26 and let us hear the reading of god's word by faith moses when he became of age refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of god than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin esteeming the reproach of christ greater riches than the treasures of egypt for he looked to the reward i would want you to note three words each occurring in each of the three verses that i read in verse 24 note the word refused refused and you can underline it in your bible verse 25 choosing choosing underlying choosing or highlighted and in verse 26 esteeming underlying all highlighted if you're using different translations of the bible they may have different words but carrying the same idea refuse choose esteem in the bible there is an account of egypt and that's where moses was and there is a real egypt a real historical egypt however many times throughout the bible as students of the bible see egypt also as a symbol of oppression or a symbol of the world system so in my message today i want you to see egypt in that sense as a world system or as an oppressive system that is what egypt was to moses moses was born into egypt a nation that oppressed his people and you and i are born into an oppressive world system that also wants to keep us down but we are here to refuse and to reject being kept down so our passage today deals with moses and how he refused something that was supposed to be a blessing for him by faith moses refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter to refuse simply means to say no to something many of us know how to say yes and have never learned how to say no but there are certain things in life that we must learn to say no to and by faith moses was able to say no to pharaoh's daughter and the passage says that moses was able to say no when moses became of age by faith moses when he became of age refused to be called the son of pharaoh's the phrase became of age is very important because this became of age for moses happened when he was 40 years old that is when he became fully aware of himself the phrase became of age means to reach maturity when he got to maturity when he left childishness or childhood and came to maturity he became of age interestingly when you read the original language the phrase became of age also means to discover your greatness to discover your greatness so when moses became of age he discovered his greatness he found that his life was far bigger than just becoming a son of pharaoh's daughter and no matter how great your parents are you must discover your greatness beyond your parentage at some point in our lives each one of us must seek an identity greater than just being the child of soul and soul your father may have achieved greatness your mother may have achieved greatness but when you become of age you must seek your own greatness and that's what moses i was born into he was born into a uh or he grew up in a very prestigious environment but when he became of age he discovered his own greatness may god help you to discover your greatness and the book of acts gives us some clarity as to how that happened acts chapters 7 verse 23 says now when he was 40 years old it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of israel it came into his heart that phrase is another way of saying it dawned on him or he became aware or something burned in his heart when moses reached this age something kicked inside him and told him you are bigger than that moses you are better than that moses you are greater than that moses you you he something touched him and he knew that he had something to do with his life and there are moments in our lives when each one of us must come of age and realize the purpose of our lives now if you know the story of moses when moses was a child there was a decree that was made by the pharaoh of egypt at that time that every male child should be killed that was not a decision moses made it was made by pharaoh and his parents made a decision for him that he was a good boy he was a handsome boy and he would not die so the bible says they hid him for a long time and prevented him from being destroyed this was not a decision of moses this was a decision of his parents then when it was impossible to hide him his parents took him to a place where he would be discovered by pharah's daughter they knew where pharah's daughter went to have her birth and they took moses put him in the river and waited to see what was how what would happen and moses was discovered by pharaoh's daughter so the parents made the decision for him a good one then pharaoh's daughter discovered moses and made the decision that he would not allow this boy to be killed but she would raise the boy as a prince of egypt so she made a decision also for moses so far good decisions are being made for him his parents have made a good decision for him pharaoh's daughter has made a good decision for him then when moses came of age he had to decide for himself no matter what decision has been made for you there comes a time when you must make your own decision and he came of age and moses had grown with a label and the label was prince of egypt that's his label that's his title prince of egypt if you lived in those times i'm sure that there will be sevens walking around him and call him prince mr prince prince of egypt prince of egypt and probably there were umbrellas on top of him all the if he was in ghana people would be carrying him in a palanquin he was a privileged boy that was his label that was his title but his mission was not prince of egypt his mission was deliverer of israel so he has a label that says you are a prince but his mission was deliverer there are times when your label doesn't fit your mission what you are called doesn't fit what you have been called to do how people see you doesn't fit how god sees you and there are times when a label you have inherited does not fit you for moses the label seemed to be a good label but some of us have grown up with wrong labels that does not fit our mission and today i came to tell you you can refuse the wrong label so for everyone with a self-limiting label something people say about you something that has been imposed on you they may have done it with good intention but it is a limitation to your mission may god set you free in the bible you find many people who inherited a wrong label but the omission was greater if you are jeffter the label on your life says hallot's son or prostitute son if you'll be blunt but the mission on your life says the lord's warrior so life says you are a halal son god says you are a mighty warrior the lord's warrior if you are jebus the label on your life says you are a child of pain but the mission on your life says possessor of enlarged territories so you have to choose the label or the mission if you are paul the label on your life says persecutor of the church but the mission of your life says planter of churches if you are david the label on your life says conceived in iniquity but the mission of your life says the man after god's heart if you are esther the label on your life says orphaned slave girl but the mission of your lives is queen and a national influencer if you are a gideon the label on your life says timid farmer but the mission of your life says mighty man of valor i don't know about you if there is a label upon your life that does not fit your mission you have to reject it somebody say i reject it and there are people who have been wrongly labeled maybe you made a mistake once in your lifetime and people have determined that is who you are for your lifetime maybe you made a mistake in secondary school and people want to make it your lifetime mission but you have to reject it it was a mistake in the past but it was not destiny god has an assignment for you god has a destiny for you and you will fulfill it when you grow up as an african you inherit a liberal third world but your mission is not third world my mission is no third world my mission is a world changer my mission is a global influencer that is your mission the world may call you third but you are first on god's mind so moses had a label praise of egypt seemed like a pretty good one but the mission was greater than prince of egypt in fact if he had remained prince of egypt we would never have heard of him but he took on the mission liberator of god's people in israel and thousands of years after that we still talk about moses because he moved from the label to the mission so what did moses do when he became of age there are three things three main things he did first he refused the wrong label he refused the wrong label by faith moses when he became of age refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter he did it by faith he refused to be called by a label that was not his mission he stopped living by his childhoods fear fear had been part of moses's life it was fear that landed him in the palace of pharaoh it was the fear of his parents that dictated all the choices they made for him and there are adults who are still living by their childhood fear the fear of your parents have limited your potential the fear of your past has limited your potential there are decisions that parents make for children out of fear don't do that don't dream that don't aspire to do that the world is dangerous there are witches there are wizards our family is hard things are tough be careful be careful be careful and that imposes a burden on you the fear of your childhood has become a limitation of your future i came to announce to somebody it's time to reject the fear of your childhood in the midst of witches you will prosper you can't live your life looking behind you to see which auntie is coming after you which uncle is coming after you what system is coming after you you have to live your life looking at the vision that god has for you the mission ahead of you and fulfilling destiny somebody say i refuse the wrong label he stopped living by his childhood fear and he stopped living a lie it's a lie moses's life was alive for 40 years he was called an egyptian but he was a hebrew there was a time that that pretense probably saved his life but at this point it had no point and there are people who have continued to live a lie you boast of a school you didn't attend you pride yourself in grades you didn't have you pride yourself to have past tests that you failed you point to houses that are not yours you point to relatives that you are not related to all to boost your self-esteem but a time has come when you are of age you have to come out as you are i am not an egyptian moses says i'm a hebrew it may have helped you to deal with issues in your past but it's not helping you now because you cannot live a lie you cannot continue pretending to be whom you are not you cannot continue running away from the mission that god has given to you because it seems dangerous for you moses refused the wrong label and there are people who must refuse the wrong label somebody just saw you once and determine this is how far you will go your teacher just marked one paper of yours and told you you were not smart maybe he might give him 10 papers and told you you were not smart you cannot achieve much you don't have the brains you don't have the intelligence somebody saw you fails in one area and said be careful of that area that's not your ability and you imprison yourself in the wrong label when god has called you for a mission greater than the label of your fears and the label of your limitations may god set you free may you stop living a lie may god give you the victory somebody say i refuse every wrong label moses did not only refuse a label but he chose god's mission verse 25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of god for moses it was a very tough choice because the label he was rejecting and what he was choosing it seemed like he was moving away from something good to something hard but moses accepted his divine calling and he acted in line with god's mission he actually started doing something about it people didn't accept it he tried to act like a liberator not like a pampered prince when god has a mission for you it will always conflict with the label that has been put on your life the label of my life when i was growing up is not the mission i'm living out now if i had lived by the label of my life i would be nowhere near a pulpit i'd be nowhere near preaching because when i was young i was not brilliant i wasn't a smart student i was borderline you know what borderline is line i i remember in in one class one year of my school you know when in in at that time in our school when you feel you are either repeated or thrown away and my name was just on top of the red line just the red line and missile table right there if somebody had just had one more mark i will go beyond the red line but you see my mission is not based on how i am assessed in the classroom because my destiny is bigger than my report card my report card may say borderline average you can do much but my mission is greater than that and i had to choose god's mission for my life i had to choose and it's amazing what happens when you choose god's way all of a sudden you become intelligent all of a sudden you you become capable all of a sudden the fear that made you underperform is gone and you are performing and over performing why because you refuse a wrong label and you have chosen the mission of god may god help you may god help you may god help you moses chose god's mission for his life how could moses do that how could he make such a choice that's the third point because the bible says he esteemed the reproach of christ greater riches than the treasures of egypt he esteemed god's mission as better he saw god's mission as more significant he compared the mission that god had for him with the label that egypt had given to him and he said what god has for me is better and he expected his reward from god there are people living in their 40s in their 50s in their 60s i dare say their 70s and 80s and the life they are living as adults is based on a label that was put on them when they were a child when they were a child they were told bad boy you were a bad boy you were a criminal because maybe they went behind their house and smoked some little something and all of a sudden everybody say he's a bad boy he's a bad boy because he smoked something oh he's a bad girl because he went to do something with somebody caught with a boy behind the house under a tree just caught with a boy a silly boy anyway and all of a sudden everybody says you are a bad girl you are a bad girl you are a bad girl and the sad thing is you grow up saying ambado and you've accepted a label based on one tiny mistake as a child and everybody says you are a sex addict you are a drug addict you are a drunkard you are weak because of some label some mistake of your childhood and there you are struggling at 40 struggling at 50 struggling at 60 because you cannot shake this label off you today i came to announce deliverance to every captive by faith you will refuse the wrong label for some of you the label has been small boy small girl i remember when i started working i was quite young but i was working and there was one of the staff members a senior who just decided he has to call me small boy and for whatever reason i mean i said i'm not competing with you i think i was better than him but you know that shouldn't make you call me small boy and every time you call me small boy small boy small boy and one day i mastered the courage and said sir i'm not a small boy i'm working at the same office with you i don't like you calling me small boy he says you're a small boy i mean he didn't he didn't change him small boy small boy small but called me small boy and then years later years later i want to preach somewhere in the united states and he was there and he came to see me after oh sir oh my boss said my brother when the small boy become my boss but you know there are people who want to belittle you they will call you names even when you reject it they will call you because they want you to accept your littleness your weakness your inability your incapacity they want to put you under your feet under their feet but i came to announce to somebody god has a mission for your life and you will refuse it pharaoh's daughter says i found you in a river moses i saved you without me you are nothing without me you are going nowhere you are my boy you belong to egypt you belong to me this is your future moses says thank you for all you did for me i appreciate it but my destiny is not limited to where you want me to be i refuse to stay in your shadow and by faith moses chose something better an esteemed creator if you are an adult living in the shadow of your youth i came to announce liberation to you if you are living a life based on a label that was put on you when you were 12 years old 12 years old what what did you know you didn't know any better so you were a nice girl and the area boy kissed you he didn't even know how to kiss and then your big brother caught you and then everybody now in the area says you're a bad girl and they use the word i don't want to use it doesn't befit you and you are an adult at 36 that's 40 at 50 and you still think i am unclean i am not worthy i cannot be used by god i cannot do anything great because somebody labeled me in my youth may god deliver you may god delivered you or maybe you start in class and repeated the class and repeated it twice and repeated it three times but you finally scraped through after repetitions and repetitions so it's become a label on your head you're not smart you're not smart you can't do much you are nothing i came to announce that label can be rejected and you can be somebody and you can do something for god and for yourself or maybe you went through a stage in your life you served you were a houseboy you were a house girl you you just saved people and somebody has decided you cannot progress beyond that this is this is who you are for life because you served because you clean somebody's home for him or or serve somebody and help them and and they feel you cannot go beyond that i came to announce to you there was a moment when you were a child but when you come of age when you become like moses moses refused and he chose a better way today god wants you to choose a better way and if you want to exercise your faith to refuse you have ever right to refuse it you refuse small boy you refuse third world if there is a label that we must refuse as africans as black people is third world nation third world nation underdeveloped people treat us as if we can't help ourselves they have to come and help us before things will happen for us if they don't help africa africa is dead africa cannot survive africa is a is the burden of the world we refuse that label and if anything god has shown us during this pandemic that the label of the world does not stick on us they said we're going to die like flies the world was perplexed how are we going to handle africa how are we going to handle those people who can help themselves they can help themselves what kind of medicine there is no cure all africa or africa who is standing who is standing and the people who said they can handle themselves they had the first wave of the virus they couldn't handle it second wave they can handle it and they're watching what happened to those people it is called a sign god gave us a sign to say africa the days of wearing the label of third world of weak you can't do it you can't make it somebody must help you if they don't help you or die god says africa that day is over we have come of age and we choose the mission of god we are the redeemers of the world we are the top of the world we are the head and not the tale we are above and not be beneath because like moses we reject the wrong label and we choose the mission of god lift up your hands with me for everyone struggling with the wrong label i don't know what label you are struggling with i don't know what you did that has trapped you but for today i speak into your spirit man your spirit man i speak deliverance i speak release i speak freedom into your spirit into your mind into your heart i go back into your history into your youth your youth in primary school in secondary school in university and i declare that every label upon your life in your neighborhood in your family that has limited you is broken today in the name of jesus and may god set you free and may you like moses rise up to fulfill your god-given mission in jesus name and everybody say amen and amen and let me give you an assignment from now onwards when anybody repeats the wrong label even if you cannot tell them boldly in their face under your breath say i reject it i refuse it i reject it i ref you have to reject it and you have to choose a better way in jesus name amen and amen and amen [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] you

Channel: Christ Temple

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Keywords: mensa otabil, otabil sermon, central gospel church, icgc, international central gospel church, greater works, central university

Id: -HAc8zZfcv8

Length: 34min 37sec (2077 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 18 2020