House On the Rock Live Stream | Sunday Service | 23-Jan-22

[Music] uh i don't think i don't tell him oh [Music] i don't know [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] uh so [Music] um [Music] um oh [Music] so [Music] so so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] and [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] our strength comes from zion if that is your testimony this morning then just go ahead and just thank our lord our strength our hope our salvation our king god has been good to you if he has been go ahead this morning just celebrate him for his faithfulness his kindness his goodness to you in the land of the living hallelujah it's great to be in god's house this sunday morning please make somebody around you feel very welcome let them know they are loved and appreciated our father we thank you whatever is committed into your hands you are able to keep unto the perfect day therefore we commit this service into your hands we ask that the abundance of your presence will rest mightily upon this service and every single person ministering from the beginning until the very end thereof that to the sick healing will be ministered to the weak strength to those in despair encouragement to those who lack in wisdom direction but rather by the time we live here we will be full of light full of strength full of wisdom full of joy full of peace to this end we thank you for everything will be done according to your will this morning we give you praise we give you glory for we have prayed in the matchless name of jesus if you know that it's your testimony then go ahead put those hands together let's make welcome lmgc for praise and worship [Applause] if you're grateful to god that you have the advantage and you want to show him you are in his house this morning lift your hands wave it to god and shout with the voice of triumph his goodness looks good on us hey [Music] as we worship and behold your face the light of your container shines on us and we ragged your love as we worshiping beyond your face the light of your container shines on us and we ragged your love hey as we worship and behold your face the light of your content shines on us [Music] [Music] your goodness looks good enough your goodness looks good on us and we wear your glory this morning and we wear your glory [Music] hey your goodness looks good enough [Music] everybody live as is your goodness looks [Applause] [Music] hey everybody this morning one more time [Music] jesus christ is your glory [Music] everybody thank you [Music] is [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] your goodness [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Music] somebody celebrate jesus in the house this morning oh clap your hands and give him worship if he woke you up this morning throw your hands up and bless his name hallelujah [Music] sing it worthy is the lamb say you are lift your voice [Music] [Music] [Music] oh are you [Music] [Applause] is all the creations say holy lift your hands to the one who sits on the throne [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] lift your hands is worship him the bible says day and night the song never stops angels and the creatures around the throne crying holy holy is the lord god almighty the whole earth is full [Music] [Music] friends thank god we're at the start before the beginning of time [Music] [Music] as you see is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] as you speak [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] you don't hallelujah [Music] and as you see [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] creation is [Music] oh [Music] 100 billion galaxies is [Music] come on don't stop your worship if you can train the holy ghost i need you to open your mouth somebody release the sound in the room open your mouth is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i needed to scream how big is your god he is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] jesus jesus jesus jesus [Music] every day [Music] open your mouth oh if you believe there is healing in the name i wanted to begin to celebrate the name of jesus oh [Music] chains are broken [Music] jesus you are the spoken word of god made flesh the perfect image of the god that we serve you are the firstborn amongst all creation the perfected one the one we honor and we praise your name is beautiful for every situation and for every circumstance you are the perfected representation of our salvation the perfect representation of our redemption the perfect representation of our restoration you are the allah the god that can reach for the outsider you are the system changer the god who is beautiful you are good you are the good shepherd the leader of our procession the captain of our salvation the bread of life we worship you this morning we worship you this morning our great advocate blessed be your name forever we join the 420 elders this morning giving a worthy praise to you alone giving a worthy applause to you alone giving a worthy shout to you alone you are beautiful thank you father thank you jesus blessed be your name forever in jesus name we have prayed amen i think we can give a better applause he is good our congregation on him for this morning as i ask you to please keep standing for a little while longer is often attributed as one of the best modern examples of storytelling conveying the power of the gospel in christ alone was co-written by keith getty and stored thousand what resulted from the newfound collaboration was a strong song that epitomizes the praise and worship covering the attributes of god actions of god and our response for all christ has done this oneness congregation on him is titled in christ alone look to the multimedia screen so you can sing along god bless you as you do [Applause] [Music] wow is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] please [Music] [Applause] [Music] the is [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] this is [Music] jesus commands my death [Music] [Applause] now [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] so [Applause] it's okay to clap some more [Applause] that songwriter says that no power of hell no scheme of any man can ever pluck you from the hand of christ if you are excited about that go ahead and give glory to jesus christ and for the foregrounds of this wonderful service please turn your attention to the multimedia screen for rock news coming to you live from our media studios god bless you [Applause] [Music] hello good morning and welcome to church now if you're joining us for the first time here at house on the road or online we bid you a warm welcome this is rock news and my name is or titular song now we've come to the final day of the annual woman to women 21 days of fasting and prayer to start the year which commenced on monday january 3rd 2022 church in the home retreat is scheduled to hold this saturday the 29th of january 2022 at the prayer chapel at 9am pont it's exactly 21 548 days ago or you could say 378 weeks or perhaps if you prefer it's exactly 707 months ago that god sent forth his son our papa the metropolitan paul adiulluadi pharasi to the world we'll be celebrating this gift of god in him next week sunday 30th of january 2022 please do note that his birthday is on tuesday 25th of january 2022 ensure you shower him with love online and offline still on metropolitan paul adi farasi we are glad to inform you that our papa was featured in the latest edition of forbes magazine the electronic version was launched on friday 21st of january 2022 please visit the link on your screen like share and feel free to post a comment and that's our package on rock news for today make sure you join us again on sunday for our super celebration service and again on wednesday at 6 pm for our online midweek service and remember to catch up on our flagship tv program something is about to happen on the tv channels on your screen until we bring you rock news once again my name as always is detail with nissan make sure you enjoy the rest of the service [Music] thank you rock news until further take us deeper into the presence of this same jesus christ please make welcome lmgc [Applause] [Music] you did not create me to worry you did not create me to see [Music] but you created me to worship daily so imma leave it all right help me [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] me [Applause] [Music] because i surrender [Applause] oh [Music] because i surrendered is oh [Music] he promised he would never leave me alone [Music] [Music] [Music] no matter what comes i will trust you [Music] [Music] no [Applause] [Music] you did not create me to worry [Music] [Applause] it appears but if you know that god i don't even know how to describe it but let me use papa's words sit down anybody knows how to rest in god anybody really knows just you know what an awesome god we serve and it's great to be here in church this sunday morning and so if you're glad that you're alive you're well and you're able to make it just look to the person on your left on your right give them a smile a wave and just wish them a blessed sunday morning as we welcome all of you who are joining us online for the first time each members and online viewers welcome to church this sunday morning we're excited to be able to worship with you in the presence of the lord amen i think i'm gonna well i'll just go with the flow 21 days today and we made it through for all of you who were a part of it and you were blessed just bless the name of the lord thank god for his grace and his empowerment and for who we have become just by staying in his presence amen hallelujah i actually must say i think i enjoyed i feel like i belong to some special community out there and i must say i'm gonna miss you until next year amen hallelujah this week is a special week because um we've got some special like you already had some special celebrations coming starting with tomorrow which happens to be the 20th wedding anniversary to our administrative administrative coordinator pastor kola and irie hola de moya it's 20 years of being in holy matrimony just bless god for them and we just pray that truly the wine will be you know it will get better with age the best is yet ahead of you and the purpose for your marriage will be established you will enjoy the fruit of all that comes with being married in the name of jesus christ amen hallelujah needless to say that on tuesday will be a special day for me amen hallelujah i'm sure pastor paul would probably you know normally he's not around at this time of the year where we get to be able to just look pre love on him but the bible does say in first timothy chapter 5 and verse 17 that let the elders that rule well be be counted worthy of double honor not just those who rule you know but those who rule well so that means those who rule there is a there is an honor you give them but those who rule well there's a double honor especially those who labor in the word and doctrine i dare say you are you are evidenced as i am of the testimony of god's grace upon his life pastor paul is one that is given to laboring in this word of god and in the doctrine to ensure that we have the right understanding and we can be all that god has called us to be and do and so prepare your hearts i mean it's just the opportunity if i can say i think we have heaven's approval to honor him with double honor as god has already you know singled him out so um the appreciation day the senior pastors appreciation day will not hold this coming um sunday which is the 30th i believe but rather it will hold the upper sunday which is the 6th of february so please make note of that but in the meantime i'm just gonna ask you you have heaven's permission to make our pastor feel honored to give him the double honor that is worthy him to just thank god in whatever way you choose to honor the lord for him go ahead and honor god seven as we receive our pastor pastor paula de team for the furtherance of today's service [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you came to church i came to work and my late dad was a great guy he was really a great guy he appeared meek and mild but he was so mighty that if you went to the league of nations it's a society of red cross and red crescent nations you would see people from over 200 nations countries and territories and a bald black man sitting in the middle of that because he was the first ever black man african and the only one still to become the president of the world red cross and red crescent nations that's a humanitarian it was something that he did as a hobby because his full-time job was as an oracle of the law to interpret constitution constitutional law and everything else that embodied the rule of law in our country heads of state heads of government feared men like him men like jic taylor because when you came to their court they appropriated justice it's lacking today but he was also a great father i wish i had more time with him and the first thing he did for me apart from plant me in my mother's womb by mistake because they were done with the first four and i was [Music] not planned i was just their love the first thing he did for me after i came to be is he gave me two names the first was the name of a great sage by the name of paul because i was born on saint paul's day and the second name you might know ardeolua because around that time god gave him a promotion and raised him to the senior bench as if i was bringing my provision with me but you know he was a terminal father which means he had an expiration date but we have a greater father than that even when he died in christ it was just really a pause for three days and i wonder if there's anybody here that knows that even if parents pass you have an even more powerful more diligent more conscientious more capable parent in the everlasting father whose wings whose umbrella whose arms whose glory his pre-planned wisdom his foreknowledge his anticipation and ability to keep anticipating what you'll need was already a settled deal before he birthed an earth or a world how much more before he birthed and if you're glad that he's not only everlasting father but wonderful counselor mighty god prince of peace the king of the ages then go ahead this morning and celebrate the one who loves you more than anybody else did he knows you better than anybody else does and yet in spite of all he knows he still walks with you talks with you and still tells you that you are his own if that's all you have i think we might send you to masala instead but if you're glad that when you come to the house of god you're coming together with people who know him who love him who want to seize the opportunity of worshiping together to draw his presence into our consciousness in a way like we've never seen it before go ahead church one more time clap your hands all ye people and shout on to your god with the voice of victory before you rush to your seat one more time i'd like you to uh celebrate my birthday mate we were born on the same day i'm he's igbo because he was born that night i was born in the light mr daughter akiola you shift your hand up sir um and so rock media and everybody who's doing it just incorporate him into that sense because he must get really jealous of me so i want to just take some of that shine and throw it there whilst you greeted through a few more people this morning celebrate them let them know how glad you are to be seated beside such a powerhouse um and that because they're beside you you know that you are going to be blessed that's your way of telling them don't worry on monroe's face don't choke my anointing just tell them you are blessed today and i'm blessed to be seated beside you and if they smell nice tell them they smell nice if they look nice tell them that too glory to god acknowledge the presence of ambassador jerry bocuy it's good to see you sir you're most welcome glory to god and by the way the gentleman sitting beside you sir across the aisle he shares your surname i'm not sure if you are related but he's also an igbo and a senior advocate of nigeria god is awesome listen to some quick announcements first mention uh contrary to what rock media announced uh spad senior pastor's appreciation day it's one of my most difficult days i'm not used to receiving um will not hold this sunday but it will hold up a sunday which will be the 6th of february now listen to some testimonies and i'm racing through them uh toju dottie testifies dear papa i've been trusting god for a new job and i have been actively searching since 2017. in 2021 i was sick and tired of being sick and tired over my job situation and so i decided to walk in faith that god will make all things work out together for my good i left my place of employment in september 2021 i had worked there for over 13 years with no viability of a better earning i kept declaring that as jesus is in heaven so am i on earth therefore i am blessed and highly favored at the prayer vigil in october 2021 papa mentioned someone that was worried about exhausting funds saved and that entering the month of november 2021 god will make a way and take me through the necessary interview process and i will get the job that will bring a significant increase i like the way that he said will take me he personalized the word of knowledge he also papa also mentioned psalms 118 verse 22 and 23 this was the same scripture that was impressed on my heart to pray with a few days within a few days prior so i immediately knew it was for me and thanked god for confirming his word in november an old colleague reached out to me out of the blues and informed me that an establishment was looking for my expertise and i quickly sent my curriculum vitia and in a few days the company called me and scheduled the chat i attended the chat virtually and the interview was successful in two weeks let me just say this to somebody they are not going to call you for an interview they just want to get acquainted with you to help situate you appropriately so they're going to call it a chat who is that person just take it i believe it belongs to somebody here i attended the chat virtually and the interview was successful in two weeks they offered me the role but offered to pay me less based on my previous salary i counter offered and asked for 1 000 more than was offered based on my experience and the value i was bringing to the organization on the 24th of december 2021 my request was considered and an even higher salary than the thousand percent i asked for was offered i start or i have started in january 2022. i want to thank master jesus for all he has done for me and thank you to my papa and mama for always preparing and serving me hot meals from the presence of god that allows me partner with god to bring about a manifestation of his will in my life if you believe that and you know that god is going to make you a thousand times more as the bible says in uh in the year 2022 then i want you to stand up to your feet and say this is for me i will be a thousand times more in the year 2022 mr briggs continues to testify this is another one and he says good morning pastor paul in the year 2000 and sars my office was burgled to point zero i was on a bank loan and the goods were the guarantee literally everything was gone but the word kept me i want to pause for a moment if the world is keeping you the living word of the almighty god that you sometimes don't know how you're going to make it but you come into the house of god or you go to fellowship or you're reading the word or you're listening to a video and it holds you together so that you don't lose your mind when you couldn't keep your mind the word kept you because he's keeping you for a day of appointment when he's going to turn everything around i want you to just shout father your word is keeping me the bible says we are kept by the word of god the scripture declares that he upholds all things by the word of his power so literally everything was gone but the word of god kept me god favored me and i got another bank loan from access bank on zero interest as well as other assistance i've never heard of that in nigeria before from a bank there were specific words in church about rising above our difficult times praying praying or rather paying your debt ital indeed god brought me through and provided businesses and resources to service the previous and the present loan again last month the christmas weekend the same place was burgled again despite all this god is faithful and i am assured of his promises over my life i am indeed grateful for the cover of the house over me god bless our pastors paul and ephi put your hands together for god who supplies need even when everything else has caved in uluwa toby ojo testifies good morning pastor thank you for all you do and for preaching the word to us incessantly i applied for an internal role earlier in december in the firm i work for it's a role to head the department as my previous line manager had resigned and relocated to another country i was interviewed with other external candidates who in all honesty had more years of experience and probably more industry knowledge than i did after both interview sessions i felt like if i was on the interview panel i probably won't even have chosen myself for the role but i thank god because he clothed me with the robe of favor i recall who he clothed me with a robe of favor that's something you can't see with the eye that's faith that's faith does anybody have faith here how many of you are wearing the robe of global failure favor sorry and you know that it's going to first take you through your jerusalem then your judea then to your samaria and then to the uppermost parts of the world with a click of a button who am i talking to somebody somewhere in the world is going to click a button and guess whose face they're going to see it's going to be your face it's going to be your email it's going to be your correspondence and the door will open wide for the earth is the lord's and the fullness thereof the worlds and all those who dwell their aid and because you are an ear of god and a joint heir with a king of creation the door is open for you who is that person i want to hear your loudest shout [Applause] [Music] i recall your recent teachings on joseph and how he was chosen because he was favored by god and i'm grateful because god favored me when my managing director was going to give me the interview feedback and break the news to me he said the external subject matter expert was brought into the interview was brought in to interview the candidates had insisted that i was the right person for the role there had been other voices on the panel who raised concerns about my years of experience but the external subject matter expert insisted that out of all the candidates i was the right person for the job i am currently the head of my department and this is a role that would probably have taken me another four or five years to attain i don't know who this is for but i understand that god advertises what he wants everybody to get by picking up a first fruit and displaying his glory in that person's life first thing i want to say is there may be detractors on the panel of of conference that concerns your destiny but god will raise a stronger voice that will speak on your behalf the way that boaz spoke to his team about ruth and it changed her life number two i believe that what god wants to do in your life that could take five years under normal circumstances or ten he's going to condense the time and accelerate the movement of time in your miracle process so that what would take 10 years will take 10 months for others of you what would take five years it will take five weeks can you hear this one there's somebody what would take you a lifetime god is going to do it in five days five one two three four five it's the number of grace and you'll see it happen again about five weeks or months later you will see multiple layers of grace manifold layers of grace in your life if you love the grace of god and you know that he's building a platform for you with grace that no man could do but grace that only belongs to the power of his finished work go ahead and shout with your loudest voice grace grace that did not sound like believers in the grace of our god [Music] [Applause] i want to deal with witches because witches like to operate in churches and they often wear the garb of religion so you won't hear me do this often but witches often come with spells different types of spells so i want you to know mrs witch or mr witch if you're in this building and you have a plan against anybody here from head to toe die die die i want everybody in the house to say your biggest amen if you are not a witch i declare over your life every spell is broken the curse and its yoke have been destroyed removed from your neck and ground to powder whatever they have said who is it that brings a thing to pass when god has not commanded it he is the one who frustrates the tokens of divineness he makes witches warlocks run mad but he confirms the word of his servant and he brings to pass the council of his messengers whether the witch is your in-law your sister your friend your brother your mother your doctor your pastor your associate or your colleague or your colleague's wife i said die finish finish i said finish [Music] first time visitors do please stand we're not an aggressive church like that it's just sometimes we see the invisible so we deal with it if it's your first time working at the household please do stand for a few moments we'd like to specially acknowledge your presence and extend you the warm hand of christian fellowship and deep love i know you're not witches so it's your first sunday please stand hallelujah we're glad you came asha's have this card please fill it out and please don't sit down yet i have a few things i'd like to say to you my name is paula de faraci on behalf of this wonderful church family we're truly glad very excited that you're able to make it here this sunday morning and we're we're glad that you came we recognize you're not here by chance or happenstance but by a sovereign summons of the spirit of god we believe that it was god who brought you here this particular sunday to hear a word from him and to encounter the throng of god's people worshiping him that create a cathedral a seat for god's presence his power his glory to sit down in your life to proceed with the definite watershed moment transformational work in your life and that's why we really want you to really pray and say god where is that place you designed me for and designed for me because when you find that place you will flourish and blossom like you can nowhere else the the space for your growth was predetermined before the foundation of the earth you were designed for it it was designed for you and there are many great churches in the city of lagos where you would do well should the lord lead you there we collaborate together with them to build one church and one kingdom for our god and for his christ and i'm happy to recommend them to you because we are partners they include the guiding light assembly the fountain of life church the daystar christian center the redeemed evangelical mission known as fram the redeemed christian church of god the salem church next door and many more god should lead you to any of those particular places i believe that god will do a phenomenal work in your life but as you prayerfully consider i would like to further recommend to you the house on the rock because when you join hearts and faith and a sense of purpose collaboratively with the people of this house it interlocks you with a whole compendium of gift sets and skill sets that together i believe can shake africa take nigeria back and place it back in the in the grand creator of the universe's hands so that he can do with it what he always intended to do with the vast bay of minerals resources human talent and the purpose and the power of his right hand to make this country great for his namesake so that people would not complain about how wicked god is because god is not in charge of the earth he put you in charge if there's anything wrong with yours it's not his fault it's our fault and we take responsibility we don't preach civil rights we should but we preach civil responsibility national responsibility here because we believe that the first testimony of a church that is vigorous um strong and on point is a nation that works because she is there we are the light of the world the salt of the earth i've said too much already we're glad you came our doors are always wide open it's with eager anticipation we look forward to having you back as a part of the house on the rock family and i have a little secret that i'd like to share with you if you promise not to tell anybody i really want to be your pastor i really think we can do things together and i don't do the pastoral work here on my own there's an incredible team of pastors and presbyters teachers deacons leaders hods they are family to us and this is perhaps our most important family and we believe in family here and so we look forward to having you back and you chose a great sunday to be here we're going to ask you to sit back relax open your heart wide god has a word in which to bless you you may be seated in god's wonderful presence church if you're glad they came please show them with your loudest applause is that all you have if you have a bible please take it and turn with me to luke's gospel the 19th chapter and the first verse when you find it please signify that you're ready for hearing the spoken word by standing to your feet luke's gospel chapter 19 i'm reading 10 verses beginning at the first verse we give to all our online viewers we're glad you came and do me a favor send a text to about 10 more people and ask him hey the word is up i can feel like something is about to happen and jesus entered and passed through jericho and behold there was a man named zacchaeus which was the chief among the publicans and he was rich and he sought to see jesus who he was and could not because of the press not the media the crowd it includes the media loudmouths gossips broadcasters because he was a little of stature in other words short petite and he ran ahead or ran before and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see jesus for he was to pass that way and when jesus came to the place he looked up and and he saw him and said unto him zacchaeus make haste and come down for this day somebody shout this day is my day this day i must abide or another translation says stay another translation says overnight at thy house and he made haste and came down and received him joyfully i want to read it from the new living translation the sixth verse zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took jesus to his house in great excitement and joy just take it that's somebody's and verse 7 when they saw it they all murmured say he has gone to beget with a man that is a sinner and zacchaeus stood when he had gotten home to his house and said unto the lord behold lord the half of my goods i know i'm a bad guy i give to the poor and i've been a trickster and a con man and if i have taken anything from any man by false accusation i restore him full full and then jesus said unto him this day is saterria that's the full and total package of eternal and earthly salvation with all its benefits are pertinent this day is salvation come unto this house for so much as he also he's not speaking to zacchaeus he's speaking to the crowd as much as he also is a son of faith son of abraham it was his right for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost there's a term i want to bring to your attention this morning and it's a term called the way the way in early christianity across the book of acts in many of the writings of paul is the nomenclature used to describe the church the way jesus himself also said i am the way the truth and the life none comes to the father except through me so help me this morning look for about four people give them a warm elbow not a cold elbow and tell them make sure you get in the way of god tell another person make sure you get in the way of god get in god's way getting god's way father bless what is already blessed press it down shake it together and cause the power of the living word to overflow delivery devil every solicitor from the region of darkness that has sought to find agreement with anybody here we say let that plan crumble in the name of jesus christ we declare deliverance healing restoration divine direction upliftment we declare salvation from the glory of god's right hand will come visiting all the homes that are in this room this morning in jesus name and everybody who believes say a big amen communication is a very important thing because it helps to articulate sentiment reason purpose and anything that is of any value and any virtue so that the person who receives the correspondence or the communication has an understanding of what the person giving it has given understanding is important so that the scripture tells us that when you dwell with your spouse you should do so with knowledge with understanding however when we come to the pages of scripture we only see them in black and white letters and if you have the privilege in red letter where christ spoke and it doesn't give us the full dimension in its narrative of the episode that it narrates and so you must be able to use your biblically based imagination to see the context of the text otherwise you might miss the appropriation of the value of the context in how you biblically interpret the text so that's why some preachers are great because they understand the context historically environmentally sociologically psychologically they understand what it was like to be the protagonist in the text the antagonist in the text they see what others do not see because they see further than just black and white letters or black letters on white paper and what i want to start out with is to declare this morning that this was one of the most difficult weeks if not the most difficult week in the life of jesus christ it was challenging for him he was very pressured it was stressful for him because by the end of the week he would be hanging on a cross just prior to that he'd be in agony agony agonizing with anguish to the point where his his sweat was dripping blood because the real purpose for which he came was not to work miracles it was not to raise the dead or to open blind eyes or to make the lane to leap whilst he did that to attest his divinity the real reason why he came was to take your place on a cross and to die your death and take the full load and weight of the judgmental wrath of god upon his being his body his emotions his spirit on your behalf to keep you from going to hell so that you could go to heaven to keep you from from going to the grave so he went to the grave for you you can't go to the grave your body will but you won't and it's an interesting story because he's pressured he's going through a really tough time he doesn't want to go to the cross but at the same time he doesn't want to disobey the will of his father the cross was shameful it was painful it was going through the most agonizing moment not merely because of the physical pain but because of the separation between himself and his father but it was what the father ordered and whilst he hated the cross he loved to obey the will of his father the other evangelist did not reckon it necessary to include this episode in their own accounting but luke believed that it was important and so he's the only one of the four gospels that records the zakir story a careful study of the text and the context reveals that jesus is navigating his own pains his own challenges and his own future at this particular time in our text not very long from now he will be on gethsemane's uh in gethsemane's garden in the throes of pain and dying on calvary within just a week he too is wrestling in between his own humanity and his divinity he's caught in the trust between divinity on one side and the dictates of humanity on the other most perspectives of him are simply that that he was only totally divine but the truth be told our master was 100 god but he was also 100 men that means he felt everything you feel he knows all your temptations your trials your tests he was tempted in all points and there were only three points just as you are just as you were but without sin the challenge there for my friends is that because we tend to only see him as god and disregard his humanity we often fail to see his humanity and we do the same for other people who have a lot of divinity in their expression and we expect so much of them because of their divinity their anointing but we forget that the man of god is first a man that the deacon is not a demon but a man but the teacher is not a tormentor but a man mentor so when we encounter persons who are anointed we forget that they too are human persons also we get so lost in their person their power their public image and their titles and because we see their power we we forget that they are human persons it is wrong for people to dismiss your humanity and you may ask why so because when they do dismiss your humanity they feel that your power and persona are licensed for them to judge you based on the divine dimension of your personhood only and they forget that you tussle between humanity and divinity be careful when you are anointed because they raise the bar for you when they really should lower it one of the people perceives you not to be human they feel no guilt for anything uh uh untoward that they do against you for the simple reason that they feel you are you have so much divinity they take license by their perception of you as non-human and therefore they berate you slander you malign you misuse you and abuse you when you are short but they shall hosanna when you are tall but they say crucify him when you are short please tell somebody beside you the one who was to be crucified has already been crucified leave me alone and he died so that you wouldn't have legitimacy every time you criticize me because all of my flaws my shorts my butts were crucified on the cross and if he can see them then why should you in the church be the one who decides to see my humanity only and not my divinity or my divinity only and not my humanity and you say that you go to a church of grace you don't understand the grace of god the problem is that the church is so busy trying to prove christ's divinity as god that we often fail to see that he also was human because in order to redeem me he had to become me because i cannot be redeemed by anybody who is not kin and kith to me that's why he became kin to me so that he could be my kin's man redeemer certainly had the power to redeem me but he didn't have the legitimacy because in order to redeem me he had to become me so that he could redeem me he had to be touched with the feeling of my infirmities no one was like to be tempted with the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of the life which john the revelator described as all that is in the world everything wrong with your life has to do with only those three things and yet in all boys more severely than you because he's a head honcho he was tested and yet without sin just to prove to you that as a human as i was you too can do it and for when you fail i've already covered you and i never counted against you because i counted it all against me on the cross you hear that he was so much man that he could be touched with the feeling of what it was to be weak by this flesh weakened by this flesh because the real you is not your flesh the real you is your born again human spirit he was man enough to weep at the tomb in the home of martha and mary the brother the sisters of lazarus but he was good enough to say roll away the stone and shouted in one breath of syntax lazarus come forth and dead body riga mortis ridden orifice ingested by worms and maggots had to become the house of lazarus again and instantaneously though there were a thousand lazaruses perhaps the right one knew he was the one that was called and he appeared back in his body his body was healed of the disease that killed him and up leaping and bounding heroes from the grave so that his family would know that his master was not merely a healer or a physician or an eye opener an air opener or the one who makes the lame to bound and the the the paralyzed leap but that he was also the resurrection and the life good enough but man enough not enough to empathize sympathize understand everything you're dealing with everything you're going through on the human level of your experience but also good enough to fix it so that his example was for you to see that if i can do it as man then you can do it as son of god because though you are a man you are also the sons of god he was not just a good man he was also god's man not that only but if you only see him as god it licenses you to excuse yourself from following his example because he's god only he can do that but he was also 100 man divested of his omnipowers his omnipotence his omnipresence and his omniscience and if he was going to access his omnipowers he would only be able to do it as a man in fellowship with his father through worship through prayer and through diligent compliance it licenses you if you only see him as god to excuse yourself from following his example yes it was difficult for him only because he was also a man he became flesh without obeying the carnal pleasure or lusting of the flesh he too would have to deal with challenges and he did so successfully in an exemplary way to leave a pathway and a pattern for you he also had to deal with humanity his humanity and then he had to deal with your humanity too if you could deal with human life my suggestion to you my friends or my exhortation to you is that you can too he did not have less pain than you did he had the same pain he did not have to deal with less human jealousy from others than you do he had the same human jealousy to contend with he did not uh uh uh uh have to walk through life without having to deal with the envy of others he had to deal with that too he had to deal with haters and the hateful and hatred he had to deal with betrayal because friends you cannot live in this world without having to deal with your own judas too you can never live in this world and not have to deal with detroit betrayal betrayals against jesus were an opportunity for you to learn how to deal with your judas judas is often right beside you it's challenging and it's humbling to watch jesus and how he dealt with his judas it's intimidating because he did it exactly the way i wouldn't want to do with it i'd want to take out my beretta 38 and put put it off safety and put my barrel to the point right in the middle of his or her two eyes and pull the trigger and say you needed it go to heaven but he challenges us and instead at the passover he's passing bread to his judas and feeding his judas and to pass the bread to him he must have been either on the left hand on the right hand he's letting him sit beside him at the table he trusts him with all the money and he knows who he is then he washes judas's feet and gives him a quality divine standard pedicure no not only jesus if he can you and i can too but don't criticize me so fast when i don't live up to that standard because he's still working on me maybe about two years later i might learn how to deal with jesus his way and unlike many of us he didn't block judas he didn't alienate judas he didn't stop talking to do this he didn't take judas off the team he didn't uh stop relating to her or to him because there's also judah s he fed him he nurtured him with word and with meat with bread and with bread of life he expects us to do the same it's intimidating and humbling isn't it dilly felix isn't it humbling it is into this sociological context that as jesus goes towards gethsemane and calvary because of judas that this text is situated and right here by pure default zacchaeus leaps to the pages of scripture from nowhere into this context and into this narrative he has nothing to do with the context and he is the son of abraham in other words he's the son of faith he's a descendant of abraham's lineage he comes from one of the 12 tribes the 12 sons of jacob the grandson of abraham but he has long since moved away from the value system into which he was born the pedigree that had showered him and nurtured him with value judgments in his prosperity he has forsaken his pedigree in his opportunities he has forsaken his origin proverbs 22 and verse 6 says train up a child in the way that he should go on when he is old he shall not depart from it see children do depart and if you read the hebrew carefully it's not it's not really will not depart it means that if they depart they will come back to what they were taught so you've got to give them in their impressionable years the opportunity to understand your value judgments to feel and sense the presence and the power of god and to understand that when you were in trouble as their parents they knew where you turned to like david when my heart was overwhelmed uh i lead me to the rock that is higher than i and and it's one thing for them to come and see one thing in church and then to go home and see something else and they don't really believe what you do in church until they see church in the house that you're not one thing in church and another thing at home that's training training takes place by example more so than it does by verbiage and so thank god for parents who gave us values they may not have had christ the way we do but at least they gave us principles even though many of us got the principles without the prince if you're thankful for your parents who taught you the way of the lord so that when you were old and had started following your peer pressure and your peer groups something kept snagging you by the colors they go back go back to the way go back to the way go back to the way so zacchaeus is the son of abraham but he is disliked by his enstrange national kit and kin and their values why because he's a publican and not just the republican a chief of the publicans uh and you need to understand what a republican is republican is the chief tax collector in a jurisdiction of many towns and providence provinces and the last time i checked nobody i know likes the irs whether you call it l-i-r-s or f-i-r-s nobody i know especially rich vogue do not like i r s i've never seen people throw parties for the irs or for the lirs or the firs the tax collector's the guy you don't like he's the fellow you somewhat despise and you don't tell each other the truth he tries to overtax you you try to underpay him and we're not sure what happens to your tax naira or your tax dollar and that's why many people refrain from paying their taxes because you can't see where the tax is going but are you not glad for a church where you can see where your money goes into your building into running it into the facilities because god even though he asks you to give him his 10 percent he also stretches your 90 to do more than the ten percent you think you gave him because really it was not yours to give you didn't come into this earth as a dive and when he dies just your body that's gonna go with none of your acquisitions because they were only on loan to you for lifetime men who collect taxes ought to do what is right with it that's why one day we will see the likes of a fella durotoye in leadership the level that transforms society transforms adherence to the rule of law till it is impeccable and the justice system can deliver on justice and progress uh chief of the publicans and it wasn't just that he was the tax master he was the head the problem was that he was not a roman and the tax was being remitted to rome the problem was that he was a jew and he was collecting money from the jews to give to their oppressors the rich oppressive imperial state of rome and wrong was not poor and here they were extracting and extorting money from poor people and he was the chief so the bible says that he was rich from of course his commission and his proceeds let's not talk about nigeria let's talk about the alphabet the bible says that he was very rich or he was rich zacchaeus lived and worked within an environment that was painfully hostile to him when they don't like you even though you might not hear them say you can feel it and if you are really anointed your anointing instigates hatred in some loving others and everywhere he went in town they didn't have cars in those days they were always sniggering scuffing behind his back he was hated brought up as a jew but the people who were to introduce him to god hated him at the pedestrian level and at the level of the pharisaic and sadistic sanhedrin council members level so even when he wanted god because his conscience pricked him he had nowhere to go to find god because the pharisees would not go into god they would stand at the door and not go in and they would forbid others from coming how much more an outsider to their community on ostracized because of his taxation system his fraud his alphabetic order of extortion why are you laughing but he starts hearing about this man who resembled god and this god who they say has taken the form of a man was opening blind eyes on stopping their fears and seemed to have a pension for outsiders people who were ostracized by society outside of the faith community and and he kept healing them and helping lepers to find their solace and their sucker and their deliverance helping women with issues of blood helping the dead to come back to life and he recognized that this man seems to like people like me and he seems to give us a chance over the members of the house that's how come often outsiders come in and they take the miracle that was underneath your nose before you because familiarity breeds contempt there he was he kept hearing and then the next thing he hears is that the master is headed to town let's pause for a moment and look a little backward at the text just before the master heads into jericho at the gate of jericho there's a blind man the son of an important man called timaeus dimas apparently must have been of some pedigree otherwise a name would not have been associated with him in the scriptures but his son has become a beggar because of his problem his plight his predicament and he happens to be in god's way sorry in the way of god the man and he hears a commotion as christ makes his entry into to jericho and he says what is this and they tell him it's jesus of nazareth and immediately he throws away everything that identifies him as a beggar because before you get your breakthrough you must identify with it and having done that he clears his throat and shouts on a loud hollow in a loud holler jesus son of david have mercy on me see friend when jesus is in the way and you are in his way that's not the time to be quiet that's not the time to hold your peace that's the time to let him know you will not pass me by without giving me what i need you for i don't know who i'm talking to but i wonder if there's anybody here who can recognize the presence of the anointed one and his anointing and you're not going to let your inhibitions or the person beside you whose presence might intimidate you to stop you from getting his attention and you are going to wait for the pastor to ask you to holler but you're going to wait for your knee to say i'm not going to let this opportunity pass me by who are those people who you have a waiting holler on the inside of you there's a shout down inside your belly and you're waiting for the right moment to say god i need you this is not just perfunctory this is not pentecostal religion i need you i've got to have you i want you to intervene in my circumstance in my very situation in my home in my family in my finances who is that person you have 30 seconds to show god that you need him that you're not going to let him pass by without taking from him what he's carrying for you is that all you have is that all you have all right so sit down i'm gonna get you ready i'm gonna get you ready it is this zacchaeus who has to deal with this hostility all the time that has heard much about christ but now has heard that he is approaching an inside jericho and that he's not far away from town from the center of town i should say intending to pass through his town look at how big and small zacchaeus is he's the chief of the publicans ways up here but he's also short of stature he has affluence influence he has connections they were afraid of zacchaeus because they never talked to his face they talked behind his back because he could use his connections to get rome to come against you but at the same time he is short he's short of stature he has influence he has connections he has power he has prominence and he has money the bible said he was rich when the bible says you're rich you are rich and you know money is a defense the bible says bible also says that money answers all things that means if it's a thing money can answer it that's why it's important to have money when you have a lot of things to deal with so the issue is that zacchaeus has a problem that his power his affluence his connections and his influence cannot fix he is short not just in physical stature but he has a problem that all he has cannot fix he's got it going on but he is short he's got to go down but he has a problem he's got it going on but he has a butt god always allows us to have butts for a reason but i don't mean to be obscene or rude but ask somebody around you do you have a butt because she looks so perfect everybody in here has a butt beautiful people in here especially how they come radiant and resplendent on sunday have a bird rich folk in here and there are many they have a birth clerics the ones on the pulpit in the pew the one speaking the ones sitting down there nicely and dandeli the ones who are deacons and pastors they all have a bishops they're very reverends have general overseers they are called they have but the pope and the popes have a book may i suggest to you that you two have a bird i don't speak of the anatomy at least not of your porkitude but the anatomy of your circumstance zacchaeus was not wrestling with his power his money his influence or his affluence he was enjoying that but he was struggling with his butt his butt kept pulling back at him snagging him when he was enjoying his acquisitions and his luxuries and his attainments will you give me a few moments so that we can talk about the problems that you have that i have that just won't go away i'm talking about the places where we keep coming up short what i mean to say is that you can create wealth friend you're good at it but you don't know how to manage it all that you you're good at finding fiancees but you're not good at keeping them so you never get to the altar and if you did within a few years it's gone and you ask why why me it's often because of junk in the trunk or loot in the boot oh she's dropped that gorgeous but she's as rude as a serpent cockatrice viper or rattlesnake that the beauty all of a sudden becomes ugly because of how lashing her tongue can be rude to your mother root to your friends root to you when you give her a chance there's always a butt somewhere somewhere can i get a witness somewhere in your life there's a but it doesn't care how much power you have there's about it doesn't care what you drove up into church or to the office in it's about doesn't care whether you live in malibu or maitama victoria island or banana island there's a bird it doesn't matter the size of your bank account on how many zeros line up behind the one or the two or the three to tell you who you are monetarily still have a but in other words there's some area somewhere that you come short and the worst thing about being short you can't buy height when you're short when you're fully grown 21 but still short you can't replace it with height you can't buy that for money only if you're still a child and still have opportunity to grow otherwise short it's something that isn't going to go away wear a platform but by the time you get home you're going to take them off wear high heels but your calves are gonna hurt and your shins too and your toes will pinch so that today you're a successful banker mded agm but you can't keep your family power woman winning in business but because you were raped as a seven year old you don't know how to handle the men on the board five fiances but the sixth one is about to leave and you can't seem to figure out why they keep believing but will make you look for jesus buts will make you call on god but will make you plead the blood of the lamb but will make you humble yourself and introduce you to something precious as a virtue that attracts god to you called humility but will show you your need for the almighty god but i'll make you humble yourself say please take me to your church i hear god is doing things there that's why friends you must never criticize anybody for the level of passion with which they enormously worship and praise their god because you don't know anything about their butts because most butts are often first very private before they become public and when you have that kind of trouble that kind of history that kind of pain that doesn't seem to go away hey friends it's not easy to sit still and be quiet when jesus is passing by in the worship service that's why people shouldn't criticize her or him or them or that crowd over there that like to holler and shout because they insist that jesus will not pass by here without me getting his attention now understand that this is a dignified man this is a member of the aristocracy this is a very rich personality this man has wealth he has money he has power and normally rich men don't run i've never seen a rich man run except it was in his gym on his treadmill getting some exercise rich men don't climb trees they cut the tree down and ask them to bring the tree to them in their house for their christmas decorations rich men don't do what zachary zach and zachariah sorry zacchaeus did rich men just order because they have money to send somebody else to climb the tree for them somebody else to run to the tree for them but nobody else can take your blessing for you you have to go and take it yourself so you will need a dose of humility so that god can connect you to himself and to his original purpose for your life and that's why friend you have a butt now everybody who doesn't have a butt the rest of this service does not apply to you have my permission to take a benediction and leave but if you know you have a butt and you're asking god god how are you going to take this butt from me how are you going to make this blood clear out of my life and makes pays for your interventions your miraculous interference in my situation how are you going to do it if you believe it go to five people right now and tell them i have to confess to you i have a box and then go back to at least two of them and tell them i know you two have a butt zacchaeus like all of us was struggling with his butt he was short how do you fix shorts can we talk about those problems that won't go away i'm talking about the places where we keep coming short in our finances short in our relationships short in our emotional condition short in our circumstantial position because friend uh short is is is not a good thing those kind of folk when they see christ passing by they shout real loud you remember the syrophoenician woman he was somewhere nearby her and looked like he was going to keep on moving and she was not going to let her possibility walk past her without her seizing it and she shouts like bartimaeus jesus son of david have mercy on me and the master ignored her the bible said and answered her not a word bubble intends to show us that she cried out the more and his disciples came and said this woman cries out after us as if they as if she was looking for them as if this was a problem that the bishop could fix or the g.o could fix or the pope could fix friend buts are normally not things that your preacher your cleric your prelate or your reverend can't fix otherwise it wouldn't be a but you would already have fixed it but bots are normally things that only god can fix that coming to church won't fix unless god is perceptible to your senses when you're in church so you can't be the kind that comes to church to show off your new dress your new cloak your new cloth your new fragrance or your new cross you're the type who comes to church because you know that god has a habit of showing up in church somehow somewhere to somebody who's really looking for him and the result is that she hollers and eventually he tries to turn her away and calls her a dog she says no you're told the truth i am a dog but even the dogs that sit at the master's table eat the crumbs that your children despise that your children waste that your children spit out and the master was astonished and he paid attention to the hollering woman and said go your way your daughter is healed from this very hour i don't know who you are but if you have a holler in you that acknowledges first of all that i have about and jesus you're the only one that can fix it i want you on the count of three to shout your loudest jesus in jesus name one two three [Music] now i want you to add have mercy on me [Applause] say it again jesus have mercy on me one two three go you see i can tell all the folk who don't have a butt because it's a struggle to say those words because they're more concerned about what you think of them than what he thinks of you let me try again to give you some courage forget about what anybody else thinks it's not important because if you do think it's important you might go home back to your trouble but if you don't think what they think is important but what god thinks is important you might get home today and find that your trouble has left your house one two three [Applause] say it like you really mean it like you don't care about what anybody thinks [Applause] bartimaeus could not hear sorry he could not see he could only hear he could only sense and he could not see christ but he wanted to see christ and he heard that he was passing by and he asked somebody to tell him what is this that's happening what is all this commotion about and they told him it's jesus of nazareth and he recognized that this guy who i've been hearing about all these years who does these wonderful things and works all these miracles and has a liking for people like me i'm going to get his attention i heard and i heard well i may not have ears or rather i may not have eyes but i have ears and everything i've heard about him it feels like it's all presently here i can sense a breakthrough anointing i can sense an anointing that changes lives i can sense an anointing that crushes but i can sense an anointing that makes up the difference for people who are short and he cleared his throat threw away his garments and said jesus son of david have mercy on me and the master stopped they had a little conversation and by time the conversation was over uh bartimaeus's butt was gone the crowd now gets thicker and stronger and becomes significantly jubilant and that produces more anointing every time god sends a miracle he's sending more anointing every time god gives you a breakthrough he's calling more people to praise his name to create more capacity for more miracles because he doesn't only bless one he sends one as a first fruit so that there can be a harvest of miracles i don't know who i'm talking to one person's faith is gonna cause commotion in the kingdom of darkness and open up the doors for breakthroughs to happen in somebody else's life so when you see one person praising god friend don't look at them funny join them and the crowd begins to amass and they now come through the gate of jericho and the testimony is there for all to see bartimaeus who every time you walked into jericho was blind now is sighted now he can see and everybody knows him so the crowd is moving and zacchaeus hears from forerunners that jesus is here he's nearby he is tired of his butt he's fed up with his butt and the only hope in his lifetime is that this man is here and he understands that opportunities of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity he comes out of his house and he runs toward the crowd when he gets there he has a problem he's too short i love him because you can see his heart he's he's animated in searching for christ because he's desperate he's not putting on a show for anybody he wants to connect with jesus but as much as he wants one as much as he has these royal robes and everybody knows him because he collects their money by extortion he doesn't care what they think he's looking for the guy who's causing problems and fixing problems but he just cannot get to see him isn't it a travesty and a tragedy that you come to church and you miss out on seeing christ because he's not the type that you can see with eyes you can only see him with faith you can only see what he has and what he can do by faith zacchaeus tries and tries and he just cannot get to the master because he is short he's short he can't tiptoe over folks shoulders and over their heads because he's not just short he's real short you know those guys who sell your videos at the intersection the traffic light that's what zacchaeus was like he was short zacchaeus was short you smell nice but short drove up in the mercedes bentley rolls royce but short dress beautifully but short have a nice job great career to go to on monday but short handsome husband but terrible family life nice family but a failure on the job and can't pay the bills zacchaeus hasn't come to christ because he is rich he hasn't come to christ because he's influential and influential now zacchaeus has come to christ because he has a but in his life some people go to church because of community some people go to church because they want security sociologically friends hear me and hear me carefully it's not the things that are working for me that are my problem it's the things that are not working for me that are my problem but here the good news your power is in your problem your problem is your power that's where your power has been hidden in the midst of your problem but he's living with conflicts and anytime you're really anointed or really privileged or really blessed you will have to learn how to live between the polarities of conflicts and contradictions on one side and the power of god's call on your life on the other navigating between two extremes your humanity on one side the divinity in you on the other side and when it's real divinity and real humanity it is conflict paul called it the tussle inside of your soul that they're warring factions the god side and the human side in one person or perhaps i'm the only one that has that war living between the conflicts and the contradictions of life the worst thing is that the higher you rise the more difficult it is to handle your lows because when the baby crawls because that's all it can do and it falls it's not really a fall it's falling from one foot high when you rise to 125 floors and you fall everything crashes and burns it's over kaput finish unless god was there to catch you am i talking to you i can feel your silence shouting at me because now you're not thinking about the next person you're thinking about yourself look at somebody telling me too but my friends the conflict and the contradiction is that yes you have great success that's public but you suffer private failure at home or you have private success in the family but you're failing terribly in your career public success [Music] but failure in your human relationships iconic externally a failure at parenting i understand that so did moses so did david so did many more in the scriptures but you still have to learn how to live between extremes you have to learn how to live well between your breakdown and your breakthrough you have to learn to live well between your setbacks which you must also interpret as setups for god you have to learn to live between extreme polarities i have to do it every sunday because in the service i climb to the crescendo of god's glory but when i go home the anointing sometimes is not there because of a problem snatches the joy of his presence but sometimes i want to come and put my bed here and my living room here where the anointing shows up every sunday but jesus did not say that i am come that you might have church he said i am come that you may have monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday office car in all of your space 24 7 365 that you might have my glory in your life not just in church in a two-hour encounter but i want my glory all over your life i want optimal fulfillment in every moment and every minute of your existence so you have to live between these polarizing polarities for to whom much is given much is expected when you have a big crown a big throne a big chair a big this a big that a lot is expected from you these polarities these buts introduce humility to the state of greatness so when you are great you have to be humble your butt is left with you because if you're great and you're not humble whatever you have to give it's ugly because greatness demands of you humility so that you don't become condescending and harsh so that you're not severe and a tormentor instead of a mentor so that you have enough humility to be great god is attracted to people who can be humble bible says he resists the proud but he gives grace to people who have a but something that doesn't allow you to be proud anymore whilst you're carrying a lot of anointing there's a pain in your butt that refrains you from arrogance that whenever you minister you do so with grace seasoned with salt because you know that had it not been for the lord who was on my side my butt would have swallowed me up but in spite of my butt he still gives me the grace to serve where about so that others who have about don't feel excluded by those who are great without a butt because real greatness always has a but i dare you to challenge the scriptures and find it to be so [Music] zacchaeus has a bot that nobody nor his money has been able to fix yet but he's heard about jesus and how he's healed so many outsiders and delivered them from their bus and zacchaeus moves to get in jesus pathway this is important to speak to and you may ask me why i'll tell you why because everyone in this age is trying to get god to bless what they are doing while god wants to get you to bless what he is doing by your subscription because what he's doing is already blessed and you're trying to get him to bless your pathway and he says no i've got a pathway for you that i am on and if you get into my plan my path my way for your life you won't struggle because it's already blessed big case in point for me i was trying hard to go back to my parish in the united kingdom where i was pastoring 29 or so years ago and i came back to lagos about 28 years ago and i went to the high commission with my papers it was meant to be a walk in the park but they kept saying deferred deferred we're investigating deferred deferred deferred and i thought it was man at work because uh there was no reason why i shouldn't have gotten my papers to go back but when god decides a thing you will learn quickly that man proposes but god disposes and when god has called you to an assignment there's nothing that you can do that will work except what god has planned and so i kept praying and binding and losing him boy did i know how to pray ways back then but the more i bound the more the doors shut tighter the more the padlocks went over the gates the more brazen and iron-like the gates became so i stopped asking god to open up the door i said what is your wheel what is your plan for my life immediately god flooded me with understanding that he had given me a mighty church in this city i said where is it because i thought the board was going to come and hire me to start a church or to continue a church and he said no the church is in your heart voila fast forward 25 or 27 years later house on the rock you know why house on the rock was already his plan long before my mother met my father he had already set up the pathway and i'm busy creating another pathway that doesn't have his investment or his blessing on it but once i found the correct pathway everything necessary was added including you the right pathway will draw all your assets everything that you need and will bring them to you it will bring their assets too so it drags salahullubi but it also brings his wife to be it drugs but it also brings his wife to be attracts everybody and everything else that they need because of a plan look at someone telling you got to find the path look at some of us you tell me you've got to find the way don't make your own way god has already made a way oh you're not helping me this morning find out what god is doing and then get into that you'll be more more blessed in his way than you will be on your way look at something you tell them get in god's way shout at two more people even if they have to spin for a moment and shout at them don't tell them tell them get in god's way because the human tendency is to always have our own agenda which which which is is our plan it's our myth it's our own agenda and we say god bless my plan but but that's back to front because before you got to earth before your mother met your father god already had a plan for your life you were made for his glory and it wasn't him that was made for your glory it's what i'm surely trying to say in order to be truly and optimally fulfilled in life you have to find your way into god's way into god's pathway to god's plan for your life in christendom uh the book of acts bears this out and many of the writs of paul also say the same thing that christendom was called the way jesus said it in john 14 and verse 6 i am the way the truth and the life none comes to the father except through me it occasions an opportunity now for us to pray a very dangerous prayer it was the prayer i prayed when i was at the junction of trying to keep going back down a dead-end road to london and i said instead of saying god bless me to go back to london i said god show me where i'm blessed show me your plan for my life and that's why i want you to stand and lift your right hand like somebody in the dark and say this prayer with me and i'm not going to tell you what it is because i want to take you by stone and say god i want to get into your way now say like you really mean it god i really want to get in your way and no matter what i think i give you permission right now push me if you have to prompt me if you have to but what i want from you is i want to get in your way and if i am out move me shake me push me plant me but get me into your way do you really mean that then look for three people and tell them get into the way get into the way get into the way do you not know that all the recipients of the breakthroughs that god gave you may be seated in the new testament they only got the breakthroughs because they got in the way the woman with the issue of blood if she was four streets over she would not have gotten her breakthrough if she was just one block over she would have missed it but to me as if he was not in the way that the lord was passing he would have missed it the woman with the issue of blood she would have missed it hallelujah the leper ten of them or the singular leper they would have missed it all of them that got their breakthroughs they got them because they got in the way you got to know where god is moving and get in his way i need tim tim come for a moment and stand right there right there tim and i need a lady christopher please allow me to borrow you this morning and i need you right here and here's jerius he sees his daughter dying she's fairly ill and she's ebbing away the life is leaving her body and he leaves the house and comes looking for the master keep coming tim and as he's coming she sees him and she feels something that in this conversation as jerius says come to my house master i need you to heal my daughter she's not dead yet but she's dying you need to come quickly and something in him is stirred and as it's stirring here it's stirring in her heart she has an issue of blood 12 years he's in the middle of the road on the way to her house come and as he's going the miracle is stirring in his heart as if she sensed it and all she wants is to touch the hem of his garment and she does and instantly she feels health and wholeness in her body and she starts running away she starts going away completely whole his will was not involved but the master senses virtue has gone out of him you know the story so i'm not going to labor it and he calls her back because he doesn't want her to only have healing he wants her whole and what does he call her the same thing he called zacchaeus daughter of abraham go your way your faith has made you whole so she goes back not a broken woman but a wholesome woman her dignity is fully restored her identity as a woman of faith as a child of abraham is fully restored she has reassimilation assimilation into society on a higher level because she has endorsement accreditation from the master and what she took from him did not deplete him so that by the time he comes to darius's house he shuts the door and says talitha kumar and the girl comes back to life what did she do she got in his way to a miracle and she took what might have been heading there but jesus still had much more left thank you lady and thank you gentlemen don't put me to sleep don't put me asleep i'm coming i ain't there yet hear me somebody or barabbas barabbas got in the way his name is exactly the same as the master's name ba abba it means son of the father bar abba bartomeus son of times bar jonah son of jonah bar abba son of the father and you know the story of the two rams they had to be identical i believe that barabbas was identical to christ but he was the bad guy jesus was the good guy and because he got in jesus way this was a man on his way to hell he was on his way to the gallows or to the cross but jesus took his place and barabbas walks away from the same place where he got in jesus way not even of his own will it was arranged by the people of israel and he goes away knowing that somebody else is dying my death i was already sent tensed but he took my place hear this zacchaeus was short he was so short the david says something that gets me he says in psalm 27 verse 11 psalm 27 verse 11 please put it on the screen he said lead me in a plain path because of my enemies david had enemies because of what was on his head he had all kinds of remaining tests trials tempters everything was working against him but he said lead me in a plain path because of my enemies i looked at the word enemy in the greek it means observer that's somebody who's constantly watching you waiting for you to slip stumble fail fall so that they can pounce on you and aggressively deal with you because they're looking for something that they can find to pull you down it comes with the territory of greatness but he said lead me in the plain path look at what he said teach me thy way o jehovah leave me in the plain path because of my enemies maybe some of you don't have enemies so that doesn't mean much to you an enemy is somebody who's watching you waiting for you to miss it so it brings me to my main points shorts paul of tarsus by the way he was short too but he had a purpose he had a plan god had a plan for his life that when he's done with his life he says i fought a good fight i kept the faith and he says finally i've finished my course in other words my part of the runway i've taken care of and i was little for me a crown of righteousness in other words he knew the way zacchaeus was a man who knew that if he could just get in the way everything else going on in his life would be sorted out completely so he ran ahead looking for a tree because every attempt to see christ was made opaque to him because of the height of everyone around him he was miserably short because friends when you are short i want you to know that god will always leave you a tree uh people who keep coming up short in life who keep coming up short in their roles who keep coming up short in their finances who keep coming up shop in their possibilities and their prophecies and their businesses i want to tell you that god will always leave a tree for you somewhere in his pathway toward your life so you might be short but i want you to know that god has already planted something called a tree a long time before your mother met your father so that he could make up the difference between your shortfalls and your destination who am i talking to this sunday morning you come short as a parent you've come short as a spouse you've come short as a leader you've come short in your finances you've come short in your business you've come short in your relationships but everything hell has tried to do to you by making you short god sent me here to tell you i'm going to make up the difference so that what you could not reach because you were short i'll give you a platform i'll give you something that if you get to it and get on it it'll complete the distance and the differential between what you could not reach and what you now can reach because i'm going to give you a tree a tree becomes a very important thing to the children of israel because that tree my friend is important the first tree got adam into trouble god sent another tree and that tree got adam out of trouble and yet he has a third tree for those of you who still have trouble so you can make up the difference in all your shortfalls your shortcomings and your falling shorts hear me somebody and look at the neighbor and tell them god has got a tree waiting for you he's got a tree waiting for you it's time now for you to climb your tree can i talk to you about trees for a moment the particular type of tree here is the sycamore tree and the sycamore tree in the north americas that grows anywhere from 600 years and can outlast that many generations but in less harsh climates like israel in the palestine in the fertile crescent as it's called they grow up to 2000 years in fact uh botany tells us that there's a particular tree uh in jericho in the same vicinity where zacchaeus tree was and that new tree is also called zacchaeus tree they tested it and it is well over 2 000 years old that means the tree was there before your father before your grandfather before your great grandfather before your great great great great great great great grandfathers and was planted there ways back then by a god who knew that you would need a tree to make up your shortfalls so that he could make up the differential in your life who am i preaching to right now do you not know that god has already planted solutions for your suffering he's planted solutions for your situation he's already planted solutions for your circumstances and if you get my drift i want you to look for two neighbors and tell them you've got to find your tree you've got to find your tree you've got to find your tree here and zacchaeus the bible tells us knew which way jesus would go i'm not sure that anybody told him but somehow he had intuition that gave him a hint as to which way jesus would take and zacchaeus knowing that with my shortness i can't reach him so instead of running in the way he runs away from the master to position himself where he knew that the master was going to take i feel god and not just is he running he gets to the tree and he starts climbing the tree zacchaeus was wearing robes he must have been done as a wealthy aristocrat that he was but when you are really in need because you have a pressing butt and you're always coming short you don't really care what anybody thinks because when you're desperate for deliverance what people think doesn't matter you throw inhibition to the wind and he starts climbing the tree this is like aliko climbing the tree here this is like bill gates uh climbing the tree this is like jeff bezos uh climbing the tree the last time i checked i don't have any multi-million dollar ears in house on the rock so if they could climb the tree then why won't you shout at somebody with every single amount of vitamins that you have and tell your neighbor climb your tree but before you climb a tree you have to find a tree a tree is that which makes up the difference between you and alico it's that which makes the difference between you and bezos it's that which makes a difference between you and the woman who had an issue of blood but now has no issues with blood look at them again and tell them find your tree zacchaeus found his tree and he didn't stand there he started climbing the sycamore tree he was climbing something that was now establishment this thing had been there a while it had been planted long before he got there and he climbs the tree till now he has advantage he has the vantage of being able to see christ afar of and he sees the crowd coming and it keeps coming can i talk about climbing for a few moments is there anybody here who wants to know how to climb their tree where are you because if you don't holler at me i ain't going to do it short but he's climbing a tree later but climbing a tree here broke but climb your tree here broken down but climb your tree limping but climb your tree anywhere hate it but crying your tree talking about you with gossip and rumor and murmuring but climb your tree anyway sycamore trees take a long time to grow and this tree had spent a long time growing but now it was a grown tree which meant its branches were strong his branches were big his branches could carry your weight look at somebody again and tell them you got to find your tree look at god god grew the tree because he knew that zacchaeus would come up short when he would come up short and that this tree was going to make up the difference for zacchaeus and before you got there god already planted the tree for you your tree is waiting for you somebody oh you ain't helping me this sunday morning do you not know that the person standing in front of you is a tree i came in here as a boy preacher as a young lad on fire for god didn't have much wisdom but over the last three decades i've grown and i'm shelter her for for god's people into whom he has planted virtue so that when you come you get nurture you get strength you get vision you get opportunity i don't know who i'm talking to but here is a boy by the name of john and he's in prison he's incarcerated on the isle of patmos and god wants to show him what's going to happen in the future and he says to john he says come up higher so that i can show you the things that are to come meaning that john you can't see it from the level that you're on you have to come up to my level then you'll be able to see that your problem is not really a problem it's a platform you have to come up to where i am otherwise you'll feel like your plight is going to kill you but if you come to where i am you'll see your plight as my plan to facilitate you to your palace i don't know if you hear what i'm saying but shout at somebody and tell them come up higher come up higher because you're looking at the situation from the level of your problem and that's why you can't see the future that's why you have no faith for the future that's why you're crumbling and crippling in the midst of your problem but if you can just come up for a moment you'll see your possibility and you'll see your possibility maker your destiny helper and so what now happens uh zacchaeus has climbed his tree so you say pastor what does climbing mean climbing is worship climbing is prayer climbing is that which allows you to see beyond your problem because you step out of the problem into the possibilities of grace into the possibilities of faith and if you keep complaining about your problems because you're in your problem but if you start praying you'll see beyond your problem from your mountaintop that's what martin luther king did he said i have a dream because he wasn't looking at the pain of the plight or the presence of the predicament he was looking at the possibility of tomorrow who am i talking to this sunday shout out somebody tell him climb your tree climb your tree climb your tree climb your tree and then tell another neighbor god loved me enough to pre-plant my tree so you ask what is a tree a tree could be a person it could be a person that's planted the bible calls us oak trees of righteousness and the thing about a tree is you might meet the tree when it's a seed and if you understand that seeds become trees because you have full knowledge of what that seed will be you befriend the tree early because you know its future there are people i cannot trust today because when i was a seed they despised me they disdained me they mistreated me so when they come today i don't have much time for them i'll bless them i love them but i can't really commit much to them because they didn't believe in me when i was nothing and now i think they only want me for what they can get from me but when you were there for me from the beginning you believed in me when i did not believe in myself you knew one day this treeling will become a mighty tree i have time for you have time for you and you have to recognize that that some of the biggest breakthroughs in my life i met them when they were seeds that's all they were sub lieutenants in the military now they're two-star admirals two-star generals one of them is going to become c-o-s cns or cas sooner or later it's got to happen came in as clerks came in as nobody's at the bottom of the totem pole in the entrepreneurial world today they're md ceos we grew together so i can count on you you can count on me because if you meet a tree after it's become a tree then it's not really going to be your platform but i promise you zacchaeus knew that tree amen he didn't know its value he didn't know his purpose until he had a butt and then the butt showed him that i can't even see christ i need a tree he knew where the tree was and the tree happened to be in christ's pathway out of jericho and he ran to the tree in this matter of getting in god's way you don't have time to waste you have to do it quickly in other words there must be speed and flight of foot to your pace you've got to go fast and then whilst he climbed the tree he could have fallen but zacchaeus was willing to take a risk i bet you every time one hand was loose the other hand gripped the branch strong he would not let one foot be free without the other foot being properly planted and he got to a point where he was high enough to see the future people come to service and they don't really climb they just come to occupy space they just come to say was it a good message or not a good message but the other people who when they come to the worship service they climb all the way up into the height of the anointing to the point where in that level of anointing they can see the future clearly they see possibility they see dreams becoming true they see what man cannot do because to manage is impossible they see that's possible to that level of anointing into which they have climbed and now my friends the next thing that happens is the throne keeps coming closer and closer and closer he has the best seat in the house as short as he is he is the highest man in the audience in fact he thinks he's in the audience he does not know he's the protagonist of the story he's the beneficiary in the cast director's scheme he's the one that god he only wanted to get a glimpse of jesus that was going to be enough miracle for him but god had greater plans for him than a glimpse i feel god i feel god so when you're desperate you'll run when you're hungry and thirsty you're wrong when you're humble enough you don't care what people are saying isn't that the li-irs guy isn't that politician social swan so climbing a tree zacchaeus didn't care he wanted his breakthrough if anybody was going to give me a breakthrough it would be citing that man he felt something in him that connecting with this man was going to change his life i wonder if anybody feels like that right now i feel god it's hard to admit that my money cannot do it for me it's hard to admit that my affluence my influence my connections with rome cannot do what i need or done it's hard to admit that with all i have i can't fix my own problem god show me my tree pride cannot find the tree and if it finds it it will not climb the tree it's humility that finds the tree and it's humility that climbs the tree short connected but short broke broke in his heart but short wealthy but short influential but short gifted but short blessed but short the conflicts and the extremes of life please don't allow pride to make you conflicted between giftedness and height don't let your pride confuse you about the difference between gifted and giftedness and height because you can be gifted and be short that's why it will take humility to find your tree that makes up the difference so that you can become both gifted and blessed tall not short and tall is a relative term come felix there's another guy called balalata i don't know if he's in church he's like six seven when i look at felix i have to look up because how tall are you six four i have to look up so i feel tall as i can see here akachi come quickly if i'm going on a walk with akachi down the corridor i feel tall because he's blessed god is with him always you know what i'm saying look at this swagger but i feel tall here because he's short you get it but but but as tall as i feel right now because kachi is with me come catchy when i get to felix i can't brag about my height because everybody gets mastered if i if i'm talking with my domestic hands and house help i can feel rich but but i i met aliko the other day at an airport hangar and and i saw what he arrived in and he came to say hello to me and i looked at his bird i looked at him i looked at me and i said alicia have anointed [Applause] and even though i didn't own a bird i was about to get on one of the best birds in the country to go with my bishop to go and preach in in acquire bomb so i didn't feel so bad but i knew that though i was rich to my house help i was poor compared to aliko because everybody get master you understand what i'm saying so you can feel tall when you're with short folk and you can feel short when you're with taller folk it all depends you can feel rich depending on who you're with and you can feel poor depending on who you're rich so riches cannot be the important thing it is fulfillment that is much more important because i'll show you exceptionally wealthy persons who are broke busted and disgusted they're empty and hapless and i'll show you a poor man who sleeps eight hours ten hours every day on the toronto floor walks with your sleep well mattress you ain't captain but two hours of sleep because your stuff is not in your acquisitions it's in fulfillment who is fully filling you your money or your god the thing is to be content in whatever state you find yourself that you know how to abound and you also know how to abase and your sense of success is not based on what you have it's based on who you have so thanks gentlemen so here's zacchaeus he's climbed the tree and doesn't care what anybody thinks and christ is 200 meters away with a crowd perhaps as big as the population of this church and i read revelation chapter 1 verse 10 and very quickly on the back of verse 10 i want to read revelation 4 and verse 12. and he says i was in the spirit on the lord's day revelation 1 verse 10. i was in the spirit on the lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet next verse verse 11 saying i am alpha and omega the first and the last and what you see write it in a book send it to the seven churches which in asia unto ephesus and on to sumana and onto etc etc etc yeah revelation four verse one and two so he was in the spirit and after this i looked and behold a door was opened in the heavens revelations four and verse one revelation four verse one after this i looked and behold the door was opened in heaven and the first verse which i heard back in verse 10 of chapter one as well but trump were talking with me which said up to me come up hither i will show you things which are to be here after do you know that whilst zacchaeus was up in the tree in other words up in the heights of the spirit he could see what was to come he could witness as something i don't know how to describe it something the enemy cannot defy it something i don't know how to define it but something is getting ready to happen in my life before he knows it he's in marvel and the master is now 100 meters away he can hear the raw and he can see a man who he knew was blind walking without his cane and now they're 50 meters away and then he's looking and saying my goodness i've seen the master he could pick him out as the one who was glowing with glory and before he knows it he's 10 meters away and his space is slowing and then he's two meters away from the trunk of the tree and then he's underneath the branch where zacchaeus is sitting on and the bible said jesus looked up and he saw zacchaeus i don't know who you are but by the time the master gets to the place and looks up you had better make sure that you are in position make sure that by the time he gets there you are in the spirit in your high place in the anointing zacchaeus was in a place where he would see very god a very god in human form face to face you need a face to face with the almighty god that's where zacchaeus was because all the things you see with your five senses they cannot help in fact they will deter you but here he is the master looked up and he saw zacchaeus zacchaeus wasn't can you imagine if he got there and zacchaeus was not there that's why i don't want to miss any one service wherever any two or three of you are gathered together in my name there i am in the midst of you that means he's as much with us as he was physically with them what did he say to zacchaeus put that on the screen for me and when jesus came to the place he looked up and saw him and said to him zacchaeus you see the way you ran to the tree and you scurried up the tree said make haste and come down for today see somebody got it without me even having to emphasize it this day i must abide in your house you know some folk come to church and when everybody's climbing to the heights of the worship service which is a tree by the way they're busy looking at your shoes or looking for a chick or looking for who they're going to make a business partnership with but others are looking for god and they've climbed to the hide and after having gone all the way up the master stands there and says make haste and come down in other words the tree has already served its purpose the tree was just to get you in position to make not a connection with rome i've seen caesar but i need jesus but to make a connection with the divine and once the divine showed up what does he say he says hurry up come down here because i must stay at your house so many people come to church august and after all the anointing is done by the time they get to the car the anointing is gone they don't know how to take the anointing home and if they can't get it home how will they get the anointing to the office on monday where a bus is trying to harass you and pull you down how you take the anointing to not react instead respond to god when you can't even get the anointing hope because you already have a plan for what you're going to do after service and it does not resemble what you're experiencing in the service right now am i talking to somebody said what you are experiencing is going home with you today because there's some operations i will not engage in a surgery in your life in public when you go to the surgeon it does not operate on you in the reception room nor does he operate on you in the stadium he operates on you in your house where your anointing matters the most because i'm going home with you i'm going home with you but most people by the time they get home they're completely unconscious to the presence of god that they enjoyed in the service they don't know how to take him home the bible said he rushed down give me the scripture he rushed down he quickly climbed down and took jesus to his house in great excitement and joy this is a guy who is being accepted as a religious leader by a religious leader and the new religious leader not your typical religious leader to the scorn of the religious leadership and as he went to the house look at what they said in the next verse they saw it that's the leadership pharisees sadducees they all murmured now they're focusing on christ that he was gone to be a guest with a man that is a sinner now i gotta tell you something tori zakir says pad must have been bad sorry i mean phenomenal it must have had all the accessories of wealth everywhere in every room and look at what zacchaeus does he opens his heart opens his wallet opens his kitchen opens his his pantry opens up everything to the master and the master from what i read has stayed overnight he went to lodge there on his way to gethsemane i don't know about the love of this kind of god that he loved me so much that on his way to die he still found a whole day for me that on his way through his anguish and his agony he still found time to be ministry virtue and value to me that's how important i was everybody else hated me the whole land all these people hated me because to them i was a traitor extracting from them to give to oppressive imperial rome and in their face the master is still willing to walk with me [Music] he's still willing to walk with me he doesn't care what they're all saying still got his anointing on my head he's still talking to me walking with me and telling me i am his own he walks with me the songwriter said he talks with me and he tells me i am his own that's why what people think and what people say it just doesn't matter what matters is who's with you is god with you that's what matters let them say let them talk if it doesn't matter to him it don't matter to me let them say whatever they want to say say how bad i am that how come he doesn't know how bad i am so what they knew what you did last summer do you think he doesn't know and yet he's still walking with you that's what matters do you get what i'm saying still walking with him they're talking he can hear them he can also hit him but they're walking after a while you learn not to pay any attention to what they're saying and that who is saying you know why they talk about me all the time when a young person say pastor they're talking about me so i said so what that's your that's your authentication they don't talk about nobodies they ain't doing anything they ain't gonna talk about you if you ain't making impact they're not going to talk about you and the only people who talk about you when you're making impact are people who wish they were you so whether you realize it or not they are praising you positively exactly to your credit that they say what they say about you because they wish they were you if you were nobody and you fell down they wouldn't be talking about you okay and by the way he's told zacchaeus come down from the tree quickly you know why because i got to go up the tree i'm about to take your place on the tree so i don't need you on the tree anymore i'm trading places with you the tree has served its purpose in your life and now i'm delivering you from the tree because i will take on the tree and just in case you didn't know it i'm a tree on a tree do you see the three trees when the law came the purpose for the law was to show israel their sin but as he was giving the law he also gave the tabernacle what was the tabernacle grace it's a tree grace was mercy so that what the lord showed you that it was going to judge me grace would come and say no judge me and whilst it's being judged by the law grace is also helping you to find your way up the whole tabernacle is the tree of grace everything in the tabernacle do you get it i hope you do and he goes thank you pastor joe he goes to zacchaeus's house and if i was jesus and i see all the i've been to some rich homes by the way none of you have any rich homes i've been to some of your homes even the richest of you but i've also been to some homes that had almost wanted to tempt me to say i would be rich too i've been to some homes oh god i've been to some homes i went to one home it was on 50 acres and had three or four houses she went with me and of course we both came out of there thinking man it must be good to be rich but if you ain't rich if you ain't rich at least go somewhere so you can experience it and you know how people get on your case when you you hang with some rich folk he said what are you doing with that guy don't you know he's a sinner don't you go to work that's my job i'm to seek and to save the lost whether they are rich or poor and i do both you hear what i'm saying and jesus chill i mean he is relaxed in zacchaeuses i mean this is how jesus was he wanted zacchaeus to know i'm relaxed with you i know everything about you but i'm cool with you i'm so cool and i believe that the power of my love is going to fix what's wrong in your house what's wrong in your life he was so chill he wasn't judging him he wasn't looking at him with the eye of the law without you're so wrong he identified with the one who nobody wanted to identify with this was his way that was his manner what's wrong with you christians why are you going back to moses when you should be in abraham after all abraham was before moses and abraham still is because the new covenant is a continuation of abraham's covenant abraham's covenant is called promise the new testament is promised too you don't have to work for anything in the new testament you work because you got something not because you want something and so he's so chilled and he makes zacchaeus comfortable telling him who he really is do you get it zacchaeus opens up remember in the previous chapter there's a rich young ruler who comes to christ and says good master what must i do to inherit the kingdom of heaven he says nobody is good but god why are you calling me good just to check him at first he says all right you should know everything after all you're a rich lawyer you're a pharisee they ensued even further in their argument and jesus said what you need to do is keep the law and he lifts listed five for him all these i keep from my youth and that was false because the first one he was flawed in he was short but he didn't know it the worst kind of shortness is the shortness you have and you don't know you have it [Music] and jesus then checked him and said go and sell all you have give it to the poor and then come and follow me the bible said the man went away very sad because he had plenty of money in other words law number one he had failed that's why i have no other god beside me money was his god but zacchaeus who had more money than this pharisee without being dealt with by the law because when jesus met lawyers how he dealt with them was he would give them the full weight of the law and use it to show them their shorts when he met outsiders he didn't deal with outsiders by the law because they didn't really understand the law what he did was he showed them his grace and he showed them the fullness of his love according to the truth do you get it and after having experienced christ like that full acceptance before he had done anything zacchaeus received salvation and then he says if i have extorted anything from any man what the rich young ruler will not do i would give it back four times over and half of all i have left i will give to the poor and he was already with christ what the lawyer would not do with the law and forced upon him because the law is weak according to the flesh zacchaeus did because he experienced christ and his grace do you get it you go home today you're going to be going home with a strong anointing the only reason why you might not be sensitive to it is because of the cares of this world and other things take your anointing home the anointing wants to go and work with you at home the anointing wants to be comfortable in your house but i want to ask you a question is the anointing going to be comfortable in your house or will you be comfortable with the anointing in your house or do you have to send the text home to somebody that's in your house please leave there now quickly go go and get a hotel room or do you have to call the house help and say close all those things in the cupboard take all that booze all that this and that i hide it somewhere all those magazines go and push them somewhere please tidy up everywhere don't let anything that noodle says that will the anointing be comfortable in your jesus didn't care about that stuff because he'll take care of you and then you'll take yourself besides what is in your house how did he concede from where he is and yet he still wants you yet he still wants you look at somebody tell him god still wants you because zacchaeus the thing that made you very bad is the same thing that in god's hands will make you very good i can bet i haven't studied it but zacchaeus in churches he must have become somebody very great in the kingdom of heaven like many of the miracles you see in the bible in the new testament the recipients became great leaders of the christian church they had a real testimony so take what you get home i want to deal briefly with the chatter and then we're going to pray the chatter stops so many of us because you're too worried about what they're saying and what they're thinking that you lose focus become distracted from the one who is with you and who says i'm going with you to your house today this is a prophetic promise to somebody under the sound of my voice even though you can't see me god says i'm going home to deal with things that you cannot deal with in public so that i can strip you completely naked to your basic common denominator which in simplicity as it concerns your humanity is earth it's dirt and i want to fix your clay pot and i want to clean it out because i want to inhabit that clay pot with you with perfection till everything in your life squares up to where you are fully filled and totally complete in who you are in christ i don't know who i'm talking to but everywhere you have been short whether it's in your finances your business your sense of vocation calling and career whether it's in your relationships your marriage your home whether it's in your work your work whether it's in your reputation god says i've already given you the tree but the tree has served its purpose and its purpose was to bring you to my grace and now my grace is available to you as an anointing and that anointing wants to permeate every nook crevice crevice and cranny in your world till everything in your life is touched by my power i'm in your life he says to make a difference who am i talking to this sunday afternoon look at two people and tell them god is going home with you today don't let the distractors take you out of your course don't let anybody subvert you in your pathway your whole purpose today is to step into god's way and god says this is the way that i'm going you shouldn't be caught there there or anywhere else you need to be on his way and once he connected with jesus they stayed together i understand till the following day when jesus would then go on to gethsemane because he had done what he needed to do in the context of his passion week with the life of zacchaeus zacchaeus by the way means pure and jericho actually means city or place of fragrance so in a place that is beautiful zacchaeus had a horrible situation but when god who is his salvation shows up in his life he takes what was a nasty ugly thing in a beautiful place and makes it a beautiful thing in a beautiful place the days when your life would be an ugly thing in a beautiful place are over god's going to beautify your life he's going to give you technical a high definition high resolution a three-dimensional god is about to do something in your life that's going to make everything perfect on every frontier every aspect of your life your endeavor and your world if that's not for you say nothing but if that is you i want you to act like blind bartemaeus and give god the loudest shout of your life if that's you then i want you to holler like the syrophoenician woman lose your pride and your dignity and complain before god and let him know that god i need you i need you otherwise i'm always going to be short in some place some area of my life god i'm desperate for you otherwise i'm gonna forever be beneath the mark and short of your glory god i want you so much that i don't care what anybody says about me or thinks about me and things that i've i'm so high up but really the truth you know is that i'm so low down i'm a scoundrel i'm unscrupulous and i need you to make up the difference for me lift those two hands before god and i want you to call on him this morning let him know i want you to deal with my butt i need you to take this butt out of my way i can't put my clothes on correctly because of my butt i can't walk normally in life because of the butt i'm coming short in my business i'm coming short in my finances uh this covet 19 episode of two years has exposed my butt it's made me naked in front of the whole world i'm like a naked king dancing in the street oh god i need your help oh god i need you to show me something and god says there's the tree for some of you you haven't found your tree yet before you leave this building you've got to climb your tree in these last moments of the service you've got to make your way to the tree and climb it make sure the touch of god is upon your life make sure the fragrance of god is perceptible to your spiritual sense make sure that the scale of god's ability capacity and competence is well known to your understanding so that when god tells you that the impossible is what i'm going to do in your life you can say yes lord do it when he tells you come down from the tree i'm going home in all of my almightiness as the el shaddai the adonai the sick canoe the jehovah mcallister jehovah shallow the jehovah's faker that you will know that i'm not a man to lie but when i come out of your house by the dawn of tomorrow your whole life is going to be turned around i want you to call on him and if you're the person who's already climbed the tree and the master is at the base of your tree saying come down quickly then friend that means you need to come down because the anointing you were looking for wants to now take you by the hand and walk you to your problem when jesus came to bethany he told martha and mary don't just talk me to where uh lazarus was buried don't just talk me to where you stop believing walk me there take me there he wants you to take him to where your problem lives he wants you to take him to show him what your problem is because unless the anointing makes contact with the problem the the problem will forever remain he wants you to walk with him now so those of you who are on the tree make haze and come down with this mind that i'm going home with the anointing i'm going home with the anointing i'm not gonna go home by myself i'm not going to let the pharisees talk me out of jesus i'm going to get in the way i'm going to get in the truth and i'm going to get into eternal life those of you who are already on the way with him you're already walking home with him to your house and he's made a sacrifice to stay with you in his most difficult week to be a blessing to you nobody knew what was going to happen except him in the ensuing seven days but he wanted to leave you something go home there's such a strong oil here bartimaeus was there and probably went to the house with him and because of jesus people who would never want to go to zacchaeus's house must have ended up in the house and the first thing he says is i know i'm a bad guy he opened up and he told jesus who he was this is the moment seize it the conversation begins now tell him who you are i look at the beautiful thing dr austin give me verse nine give me verse nine and jesus said unto him this day a salvation come to this house for so much as he also is what a son of abraham when he finds you it reminds me of adam where are you adam where are you adam was hiding in a different personality he had lost his identity as the god of this world he had given the goddess of this world to another called lucifer called satan he's hiding behind fig leaves the same kind of tree the sycamore tree and the victory are from the same family where are you adam was not lost adam lost his identity zacchaeus was not lost he lost his identity he was originally a son of abraham jesus restores him to sonship when he says was it not right for me that salvation should go to the house of the son of abraham in other words he had moved away from who he was christ brought him back to be a son of abraham that's who you are abraham's blessings are yours when zacchaeus learned that jesus was on the tree he would have come to understanding of what happened in his house seven days earlier don't kill the service abraham's daughters are here abraham's sons are here i have a few meetings five minutes each after that i'm going home i'm going to shut the door on myself and i want to spend time in the anointing the objective of every service is not to close down the anointing when the benediction is said but it's to open up the anointing for you to take home the service is like a tree you're meant to come in ready to climb we used to get our clothes ready on friday and saturday have them pressed so that nothing would get in the way of us getting to church we'd be prayed up on saturday prayed up on sunday morning so that we could go to church it was the high point of our week still is and we're not coming to get an anointing we're coming to contribute to the corporate learning so that we all go back with much more than we can because to us the anointing is everything it's everything and for the areas where we come short the anointing is what makes up the difference the anointing is our tree and that's what the service is about to experience the presence of god not with your five senses but say because they cannot perceive god but with your faith it's in services like this that you climb the heights but don't don't don't leave the heights except the one who is the height says come down take him by the hand let him take you by the hand and go home together there are things he will tell you that will break yokes that will remove your burdens they will shatter your brass and glass ceilings they will open doors for you and you hear the master say to you come up heather i want to show you what is to come that's what services are i prepare my best messages on sunday afternoon and i go home under this kind of oil that's when the book comes so alive and i hear what he's saying about you and for you and what he's saying to me to say to you and i get the privilege of being first partaker that's how it works i hope you heard not me or what god was saying through this voice piece i hope you heard it some of you think you're rich but are you enjoying your money is the butt getting in the way that it doesn't allow you some of you are already successful but you don't even know it because of your butt you can have so much pain and so much power at the same time that your pain doesn't allow you to enjoy your power you can have so much prosperity but so much predicament that your predicament doesn't allow you to enjoy your prosperity god wants to deal with all your negatives he wants to put a vertical in the midst so it turns your negative into a positive that's what the cross of calvary is about it's your plus side that's why i'm careful who comes to the pulpit after me so i want to make sure that whilst we do something mundane you don't lose your consciousness of the divine because the most important thing is not that you encounter god here is that you can take the god you encounter home from here and that you're conscious of him all through the week because he did not come so you could have great church he came so you could have great life and have it more abundantly felix get ready lift two hands three or four simple prayers first one god show me my tree if you haven't found it already and you're not only gonna have one tree you have a tree for specific areas of your life my bishop is one of my trees from the vast knowledge of his experience i can see my tomorrow in his today if i can see my tomorrow in his yesterday so he can tell me what's coming that's why i don't joke with the persons who mentor and pastor me i don't let anybody talk skits about my pastor you've been lucky to get away with me not shooting you if you talk rubbish about my pastor thank god you don't show me my tree help me to position myself correctly ahead of time zacchaeus ran ahead of jesus if zacchaeus got to the tree after jesus had left the tree he would have missed the moment if i give you experience passes now they don't mean anything to you this experience is gone show me my tree and help me to be there right on time in fact ahead of time and then help me to be able to come down to recognize that a greater than the tree is here his name is jesus the anointed one number two help me to take the anointing back home then the master gets to his home and is open with him he's chilled there he's abiding there jesus doesn't stay where he's not welcome and zacchaeus is open and tells him obviously by what he was saying if i've extorted he confessed to extortion confess to him let him know what your issues are he can't fix what you don't show him open up to him zacchaeus was excited at the prospect of what was going to happen in his home and then it happens and he tells on himself and he does something amazing he exchanges money as his god for jesus as his god it happens right there in the text money used to be his god that he was willing to take it from wherever he could get it from even from his own kitthinkin but by the time god is done with him he's left money and he's followed god bring down every idol and let god know that by tomorrow morning i don't want any more idols in my life and contemporary idols don't look the same as ancient idols contemporary idols generally are the things that money can buy there's nothing wrong with having the car there's something wrong with the car having you so wrong with you having the nice house but there's a problem when the nice house has you and then we want to pray that dangerous prayer and then i'm closing felix get ready lift your right hand father i want to be exactly in your way right now search my heart and see if i really mean it and if i do you have my permission to push me into the way to plant me in the way wherever you are that's where i want to be wherever you go i will go your people will be my people and you are my god forever all those token gods those things that pose to be able to do what only you can do i declare they are crushed dismantled and removed from the pedestal in my life that belongs only to you be enthroned in both my heart and my faith in jesus name and i commit to you to give my new life now that i have it to all that you are and all that you represent all i own is for you and your purposes and i thank you that i can never out give you because from you comes everything thank you for my deliverance that it will exceed zacchaeus's deliverance thank you for salvation in my house in my family in my businesses in my enterprise in my relationships in my endeavor in all that i am and in all that i steward on your behalf i give you honor and glory and i thank you for this day is your first day on a new level in my life i will never going back to being a son of rome again or a daughter of rome anymore i am forevermore a son of abraham in christ jesus so let it be our men and our men and i leave you with these notes glory is in your house today soteria the full package of deliverance healing wholeness wealth prosperity increase is going home with somebody today the glory of god is in your life it's all over your face and god has blessed you please acknowledge this morning the esteemable honors ariel and her album launch which was launched yesterday it's not my fault it wasn't given to me we'll do it next sunday yeah leslie needs she needs the glory of god lecture has put them together and welcome pastor felix as he comes pastor felix please please don't sit down if you are really blessed by that word please i need you to help me and appreciate the king of kings the lord of lords and i appreciate our teacher in the house our pastor papa we love you we appreciate you and we're excited the word you give to us this morning please help me you can do better than that hallelujah so it's now time for tithe and offering like our papa said you cannot outgive god you can't outgive god it doesn't matter what you think you're given you can never out give what god has already given to you and what he gave is eternal so this morning i need you to package a good offering unto god and let him know that you love him please kindly pay attention to the multimedia screen as you look you see the the bank account and if you're you need an envelope kindly lift up your hands usha will give you an envelope please there's somebody and this envelope here so if you're set with your offering kindly stand to your feet and let's pray our father we thank you for we cannot outgive you thank you because you are also the one who gives seed to the sower you are the god who give bread to the eater thank you for the word that you have blessed us with this morning money cannot buy that word but we give back to you in appreciation oh god for all that you have done in this service father we thank you because it will come back to us in healings it will come back in promotions it will come back in open doors it will come back oh god in ideas it will come back in divine favor and father to you alone will be all the glory thank you for receiving our offerings this morning in jesus mighty name we pray so please as you leave the auditorium if you have envelopes kindly drop your offering as you leave the auditorium and if you want to make transfers the account details is on the screen god bless you so all men are kindly requested to wait please kindly wait after service because there are crucial matters that we did not discuss last week we want to deal with them after service this morning please if you're a man please kindly wait behind after service let us pray our father we thank you for the word that you have released into our lives today thank you oh god for us we leave oh god we're not living your presence we are going home with that presence father we ask that you will tabernacle with us that your presence oh god will take over every area of our lives that even as we go into the week further into our offices we also go with your presence heavenly father because we are your children and we know that this week is already blessed that as your man has already released the word father almighty your presence is not just going with us your presence have gone ahead of us to make every crooked way straight oh god that this week king of glory we will enjoy on you your favors that as we come back next week sunday we're coming back full of testimonies we give you thanks we give you praise bless that be your name o god in jesus mighty name we pray and may we share the grace may the grace of our lord of the holy spirit rest about with us now forevermore and look at your neighbor and say surely god's goodness and mercies god bless you so a quick reminder to ask all men to please come forward to sit and wait for this brief meeting it will not take long wives sisters friends who are in company of men we ask that you please expedite the process of exit in the hall we will return your husband brother friend to you shortly and in good condition please please please give us the room once more all men please make your way into the hall for those of you who are upstairs the men upstairs please join us downstairs at the front take up a seat ladies please excuse us we will return the men to you shortly we would like to have the room thank you

Channel: House On The Rock

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Length: 208min 53sec (12533 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 23 2022