FOLLOWING THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR: PASTOR AJAYI ADENIRAN, RCCG AYC 2020
RCCG NATIONAL YOUNG ADULT AND YOUTH AFFAIRS (YAYA) VIRTUAL CONVENTION 2020
THEME: THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR
MINISTERING TALK 1: PASTOR AJAYI ADENIRAN
TOPIC (DAY 2 EVENING SESSION TALK 1): FOLLOWING THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR
DATE: 29TH SEPTEMBER, 2020.
BIBLE TEXT: REVELATION 22:16
Somebody shout Hallelujah – Hallelujah!!!!
OPENING PRAYER
Thank You Father.
Thank You Jesus for the Privilege to be alive, even to be Part of this Year Conference – The Convention of the Young Adults and Youth Ministry of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).
We want to celebrate You.
We want to Thank You against all odds that we are here. The enemy thought that he had locked us down but we are not locked down, we are up standing.
We celebrate You our Father.
As we continue in this Conference, I Pray that Lord Your Hands will rest upon us and there will be a Manifestation of Your Spirit that will turn things around in our lives, individually and severally.
I want to Thank God for all that He has done thus far and for all that He is yet to do because I know that better days are ahead and the Glory of God will be seen in the life of everyone watching across the Globe in the Name of Jesus Christ – Amen.
APPRECIATION
I want to use this opportunity to thank God for my father in the Lord and my Mother in Israel – The General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor E.A Adeboye and Pastor (Mrs) Folu Adeboye; for this rare honour, for this Privilege.
And I want to thank my Great Leader; one of the AGO (Assistant General Overseer), the one in Charge of our Youth Adults and Youth Ministry – Who is one of our Mentors in this Great Ministry.
We celebrate you sir, Pastor Ona Peter Amenkhienan.
Thank you because as you guys are leading us, we are following and we believed that God will take all of us to Heaven by the Special Grace of God.
The Topic before me is: FOLLOWING THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR
In the Book of Revelation 22:16 the Bible says:
- I Jesus have sent my Angel to testify to you these things for the Churches. I am the root and the descendant of David the Bright Morning Star.
Peter also in one of his Epistles in 2 Peter 1:19 made it clear and it says:
- And we have the Prophetic Word more fully confirmed which you will do well to Pay attention as to learn Shining in a dark Place until the day dawns and the Morning Star rises in your heart.
The truth of the matter is that we are in a very sensitive time.
If there is anytime we want the Light of God to shine brighter, this is the time.
I have checked the Scriptures and I discovered that there are about three (3) Dispensations that we are Passing through:
- The first (1st) one is at the Creation – When God created the Heavens and the Earth in Genesis 1.
The Bible recorded that the enemy came (Satan came) to attack that which God has done with darkness – And that is in Genesis 1: 1-5.
But the answer God gave Satan is to release His Light.
He said Let there be Light and there was Light.
And that is why God could be able to create everything that we see today because the Light of God exposes the work of the devil.
And also as the Old Testament is coming to the end in the Book of Malachi we discovered that the enemy came with darkness again and the Theologian has made us to know that they are about four hundred years (400 years) of Silence, Dark Age.
But what happened as we look into the Book of Malachi 4:2; the Bible recorded again that Light came, the Son of righteousness arise with Healings in His Wings and go forth to break forth.
And looking also, the Book of Matthew 4:12-17 – Precisely I will just take verse 16 – 17.
- The People which sat in darkness saw great light and to them which sat in the region and shadows of death light is sprung up.
- From that time Jesus began to Preach and to say repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
So, God has to attack the darkness of that time with the Light by bringing Jesus the Son of the Living God to come and change the course of event on Earth.
And in the Passage where the Theme of this Great Conference has been taken – Which is from Revelation 22, we discovered that the Bright and Morning Star. Revelation 22:16 (ESV), let me quickly read that:
- I Jesus have sent my Angel to testify to you these things for the Churches; I am the root and the descendant of David the Bright Morning Star.
So the Bible made it clear that the End Time also will be disastrous – There will be darkness according to the Word of God in 2 Timothy 3:1
That in the last day’s Perilous Time shall come – All kinds of things will be happening; evil will be on the increase and nobody can change that.
And if there is anytime that is happening; it is now – We see evil on the increase.
We are just Passing through one right now, Covid-19.
But God has the answers to devil every time he raises his ugly head – Glory be to God in the Highest!
In creation; He had answers for him; in the Middle of Age, He had answers (In the Old Testament/New Testament).
Now in our Time; when everything is almost coming to an End; He also has answers.
And that is why in the Book of Micah 4:1 and Isaiah 2:1-2 is saying the same thing.
He says: In the Last days, the Mountain of the Lord shall be established up the Hills and be exalted and People shall flow into it.
Why? – Because that is where the answer will be coming.
You can listen to the audio here: Following The Bright Morning Star
Even though darkness will be on the increase, evil will be on the increase but the darker the darkness the Brighter the Light.
So, God has answers to every insults of the Devil – So that in the Last day the darkness that will come, I will exhort my Church because the Light of God will be resident in my Church.
And who are the Carrier of this Light?
Joel 2:26-28 made it clear: “Precisely it said in the Last days, He will Pour His Spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and daughter (I am Paraphrasing it) will Prophesy and the Old men will dream dreams.
So, God have answers to every insults of the devil.
There will be Darkness in the Last days and also there will be Spirit of God moving in the life of his People.
And who are the People that God wants to use these End Time?
They are the Young ones – You and I; Young Adults. The People that are ready.
And that’s why this Topic is so Paramount.
For example: If you are a Shepherd, you are real animals – God will come with the Parable that has to do with animals.
So, when He met Moses at the back of the desert in Exodus 3:14; He introduce Himself as: I Am that I Am.
And you remembered the rod that was in the hands of Moses which is for the Shepard – He asked him to throw it on the floor.
And what happened? – It turned to snake.
And He said pick it up – It is by this rod that you will rule over Pharaoh!
So, God has a way of relating to us the best way we can understand.
So, when He says: He is the Bright and Morning Star; He is talking about what He is going to do in the Last days.
Brightness means something that comes with illumination to expose all the darkness around.
And when you talk about “Morning Star”; it is a Star that gives Hope for the day, for a New day; a New Beginning.
So, Bright and Morning Star means illumination that is coming to give birth to a New day, a New Beginning.
And if there is any day that I believed God is set to start a New Beginning; it is this day because you are in this meeting I am in this meeting or reading now on the Label of DMC – So God is going to start something New in your life, in my life in the Name of Jesus – Amen.
So when we talk about: “Following”, the word “Following” is a continuous tense.
It is not just “Follow” in Verb, it is a Continuous Tense.
That means it is not one time thing. It is a continuous thing – You have to keep doing it.
So, “Follow” means: “To Submit” to another Person’s Leadership or Authority.
“To Follow” means to take step in accordance to one that is leading you in the direction of the one that is leading you.
“To Follow” means to focus on somebody that is ahead of you; that is leading you.
It is also important for us to know that we cannot follow somebody Faithfully if we don’t really know that Person.
And it is dangerous to follow somebody you don’t know.
So, it starts with knowing the Person.
… You must know the Person you want to follow.
This is very important or else you will fall into the wrong hand.
And the Bible made it clear – Jesus himself said: I know My Sheep, my Sheep knows Me and they hear My Voice, they will not follow Strangers and they will not hear the voice of a Stranger.
So, the first and most important thing about following the Bright and Morning Star is to know the Bright and Morning Star which is the Lord Jesus as in that Scriptures.
That is the first thing.
So, if you have not known Him, then you cannot follow Him.
And not just following Him, you must follow Him intimately because it is possible for you to be distracted and to be carried away and lose focus if you are not following him intimately.
If Elisha had not follow Elijah intimately; he would have lost focus and he would have missed his blessing.
So, Intimacy is important, Intimacy is non-negotiable in following not just following because many people follow and they don’t follow through.
So, it is to follow through that will make us to get the Rewards.
And I Pray for you and I Pray for myself and for as many that have laid their hands upon the Plough, anything that will want you to look back from following Him; the Lord will deal with it in your life in this Service or as you read now on the Label of DMC in the Name of Jesus – Amen.
And you must focus on the Person you are following; and you must serve the Person you are following because it is in the Service that the Spirit of the Person you are following will imbibe in you; will rub on you.
Nothing comes free – Nothing Good in Particular comes free.
Elisha could not have received the “Double Portion” of the Anointing of Elijah if he had not served him while Joshua too served Moses.
That is the way it works!
So, it is not just following carelessly, you have to follow dedicatedly – This is very important.
… You must serve the Person you are following.
And when we talk about following we mean to be a Servant – You must become a Servant.
You can read John 10:1-5.
To be a Servant or Disciple of the Person you are following; it also means an Imitator of the Person.
Just like 1 Corinthians 11:1 put it.
He said: Imitate me as I imitate Christ.
This is very important!
That means just as 2 Corinthians 3:18; I believed, that says:
“As we behold ourselves in the mirror of the Word of God (I am Paraphrasing this), we are changed from glyory to Glory”.
You become like Him – Just like they said concerning the Disciples in Antioch that these are Christians because they are following Him through and they began to see the Nature of Christ in them; the Virtues of Christ in them because they are following Him intimately.
I Pray for you and I Pray for myself – Even as Young People, everything that is fighting us, that is challenging us, that is battling us, causing us to be distracted from following Him intimately; Jehovah God will deal with it right now in the Name of Jesus – Amen.
I Pray that as we come out of this Encounter or after reading this on the Label of DMC, there will be a Great move of God and wherever we find ourselves we will not be ordinary anymore – Amen.
Jehovah God will begin to move Mightily in each life and every facets of our lives in the Name of Jesus – Amen.
So we have talked about the word “Follow” or “Following”; and we talked about the Bright and Morning Star who is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I want to quickly talk about how we should follow – How should we follow this Bright and Morning Star?
We must follow Him willingly and with His Will be our desire not our own Will because following Him is not going to be easy because He Himself is a Disciplinarian.
He is the Master of the Universe and He does not take nonsense.
He is a man that is focus.
He said my Father work and I must work. He said I must do the work of my Father when it Pleases Him because Night comes that nobody will be able to work.
So, He is a man of Discipline.
And because He is a man of discipline, we must also be disciplined because we can’t even be His follower, His Disciples if we are not discipline.
So, we must let His Will be our Will – Not our own Will.
Even as Young Adults and Youths; we must not follow Him with “Permissive Will”; we must follow Him with His Will.
That is what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane – Because what happened to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane will happen to each and every one of us.
In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus was face-to-face with His Destiny – His Destiny was tried because that was the Original Purpose, that is the main reason why He came to die on the Cross.
And in that Garden of Gethsemane, His immediate friends, His Inner Circle that suppose to be there for Him at the right time He needed them most; they disappointed Him – They were fast asleep because Jesus’ Problem is not their Problem.
… And this is very important – Jesus Problem is not their Problem. They see it as Jesus Problem.
And until we come out of that Mentality even as Young Adults and Youths; and begin to see Jesus’ Problem as our Problem, Jesus’ Challenges as our Challenges, Jesus Needs as our Needs; we will not be able to evangelize the whole world and we will not be able to do what is Needful in our various areas of assignments.
God has raised us in this Generation – Pouring His Spirit upon us in every areas we find ourselves: In our Secular work, in our Professional circles; God has put us there to be His Ambassador, to be his Representative, to let His Light shine through us.
The Bright and Morning Star wants to reveal Himself through us in every areas we find ourselves.
And that is why we must submit to His Will – That is how to follow Him.
We must Love Him – We must love what He loves and hate what He hates.
That is the only way we can follow him.
That is how it happened to the Apostles of Old, to the Christians of Old.
If you look into the Book of Hebrews Chapter 11 from Verse 1 through to the end – The record of the Great men and women of God that lived to fulfill God’s Purpose in their time.
They followed God with love – With love for God, love for themselves and love also for the Brethren.
When that is settled, they also love the entire Population.
… They love God, they love themselves, they love the Brethren and they love even the Unbeliever because the Unbelievers are the ones they are sent to.
Just even in our own time too, the first thing we must do is to love God:
- When you love God, you obey Him.
- When you love God, you serve Him.
- When you love God, you don’t want to offend Him; you don’t want to hurt Him.
Somebody you love, you don’t want to hurt that Person. You want to treat that Person like an egg.
With love, with care you want to cherish that Person.
And we have to follow Him bearing His burden like I have said earlier.
The Bible recorded concerning Elisha and Elijah – He (Elisha) pour water in the hands of Elijah.
The same thing Joshua did for Moses. The same thing Ruth did for Naomi.
And we know all these People if we look at their life, they have the rewards because nothing Good comes free.
God will not ask us to do anything that He will not reward us for.
And He will not ask us to do anything He has not done before.
Jesus followed God and that is why He is asking us to follow Him – He said by bearing His burdens and forgiving one another.
Time will not Permit us, Colossian 3:13 says: Forgiving one another.
Because one of the things that is affecting our Generation is Majorly Unforgiveness.
And this is very important; we cannot really make or great move if Unforgiveness is still dominating our life.
We have to follow Him in our Giving – We have to follow Him because He is a Giver.
He said what else can I not give to a friend? – I lay down my life for you.
What else can I not give?
So, every Young Adults, Youths, everyone listening, every child of God and everyone reading now on the Label of DMC; your focus, your Purpose, your Passion must be: Let me give my all.
Your talent is there for you to Give; your Treasure is there for you to Give to serve God and your time.
Oh, I want to marry first – No!
Who tell you that Jesus will not come before you get married?
Anything can happen anytime. You only have the time now you have, you don’t know what is going to happen next.
So, that is why you must maximize the moment.
Your Talent is God’s Own Gift that He gave you. Your Treasures is God’s Own Gift that he gave you. Your time is God’s Own Gift that He gave you.
You must also follow Sacrificially – Not just wishy-washy, not just the lackadaisical way of serving. It must be with sacrifice.
You must deny yourselves as Young People.
This is the time you have to really serve God with all your Strength – When you become family man, family woman with a lot of responsibilities; there may be a little slowing down.
But now that you still have everything, you can move around, you can fly around; put your best into it because it will be waiting for you in the future as a reward.
You must follow also Obediently – Absolute Obedience, Total Obedience not half Obedience.
Half Obedience is not Obedience.
Righteousness is not negotiable when it comes to following him.
He told Abraham – He said: Walk before me and be thou Perfect.
You must follow Him in Humility because 2 Timothy 3:1, you will read down – Perilous time shall come.
What the Bible made clear in one of the evils of the last days is UNTHANKFULNESS.
People will become ungrateful and they will be full of ego as if it’s my Knowledge, it’s my Wisdom – it’s this, it’s that, that is making me to who I am.
No, it is all about God.
Humility is very important – Jesus humbles Himself to the very Point of death.
He humbles Himself and that is why He could get the Name that is above every other names.
You want to outshoot your colleagues, you want to outshine them, you want to stand out among the standard – It is in Humility.
When you Humble yourself at the very Hand of God, He will exalt you.
Your righteous is a form of exaltation – It Promotes a Nation; it lifts up a Nation.
And if it lifts up a Nation, it lifts up the People.
But unrighteousness brings down – So righteousness is not negotiable.
What about Loyalty?
Loyalty is not negotiable.
To be Loyal is to fully believe and serve without any reservation in the Person you are following regardless of the negatives of his weakness as you have made up your mind to follow, you follow through.
And in Jesus there is no weakness, there is no negative – It is all about Positive.
So, hindrances in following the Bright and Morning Star:
One of the things I have seen in our Generation, the Young Adults and Youths is that our Dreams, our Visions, our Goals are now occupying our heart more than God – Matthew 4:19.
And this is very dangerous because anything that will stand in-between you and God, God can take care of that because God becomes Jealous over that thing.
That is why Matthew 6:33 says: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you”.
So, if it is your wife, if it is your son, if it is your daughter; whatever,
If it is your carrier that want to stands between you and God; not to do what God has called you to do God can take care of it.
And that is why it is very important that: All our Dreams, all our Vision must be embedded in God’s fulfillment of our Destiny and the Purpose He has raised us.
EXCUSES:
Matthew 8:22; I have mentioned it briefly – I want to get married, I want to finish my carrier, I want to do this, I want to do that.
These are lame excuses that have no Ground, no Stand.
LIFE CHALLENGES:
I have seen again and again when we are in the Social world, you see on the Internet – People that don’t have two (2) hands, they don’t have two (2) legs, and they don’t have anything; they still serve God. They still give their life to serve God.
There are thousands of millions of People that you are better off; so don’t give any excuse and don’t allow any challenge in your life to stop you.
Ruth follows Naomi – She said: Your God will be my God, your People will be my People.
Her husband just died – No husband, no children and she didn’t know where she is going but she follows because she saw a God.
It is about the God that is in the life of Naomi not about the husband that she is going to get married to.
But offer went back and that was the end.
Earthly pursuit is one of the challenges – Last day syndromes that I have talked about that in 2 Timothy 3:1.
What are the benefits?
Of course the benefits are numerous but the time will not Permit me.
But the Truth of the matter is that when you follow Him you will not lack any Good Thing – He will be there for you. He will honour you.
Matthew 19:29, Matthew 19:28 – These are the Passages you can read at your own time.
Matthew 4:19 says: He will honour you.
John 12:26 says: If any man serve Me, let Him follow Me. And where I am, there shall also My Servant be; If any man serve Me, him will My Father honour
Look at that: “Honour” – Honour in every areas.
Eternity with Him is Guaranteed.
Sitting with Him in Glory is Guaranteed.
Needs are met.
And the crown of Glory.
Dangers of turning away from following Him:
That is very important – That is where I am closing.
Hebrews 10:38-39 says:
- Now the Just shall live by Faith: but if any man drawback, my Soul shall have no Pleasure in him.
- But we are not of them who draw back unto Perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the Soul
So, if we refused to follow Him – That individual is heading towards Perdition, towards destruction.
That will not be your Portion, that will not be my Portion in the Name of Jesus Christ – Amen.
ALTAR CALL
And I believe as many that are making that decision that I will follow Him today; God will begin to move you in the right direction because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
He cannot mislead you – He knows where He is going. He knows what He will do.
This is the Portion of somebody. Maybe you are confused, you are in the State of dilemma, all you need to do is to declare for Him today.
You have not given your life to Jesus, that is the first place to start.
Just follow me by saying: Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I am sorry for my mistake, for my sins. I ask that you forgive me. I repent of all my sins. I accept you as my Lord and Saviour today and never to go back – Amen.
If you have said that you are saved – Hallelujah!
CLOSING PRAYER
I Prophesy Goodness and Mercy to be upon you; to follow you all the days of your life.
And everyone that is watching, listening and reading now on the Label of DMC – And on the Last day, when the Roll is Called beyond yonder; all of us will be Present to reign with our Master (The Bright and Morning Star) in Jesus Name – Amen.
God Bless You – Hallelujah!
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