BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY: PASTOR CHARLES CHUKWUEDUM ACHONWA – RCCG 71ST ANNUAL CONVENTION, 7TH AUGUST, 2023.

RCCG 71ST ANNUAL CONVENTION 2023 (DAY 1: MORNING SESSION – BIBLE COLLEGE GRADUATION SERVICE)

THEME: BEYOND EXPECTATIONS

MINISTERING: PASTOR CHARLES CHUKWUEDUM ACHONWA (THE GENERAL OVERSEER OF BOULOS MINISTRIES, LAGOS)

TOPIC: BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY

DATE: 7TH AUGUST 2023

BIBLE TEXT: PHILIPPIANS 2:5

Somebody shout Hallelujah – Hallelujah!

You will make it in Jesus Name – Amen!

He that is in you, is Greater than He that is in the world – Therefore, you will make it in Jesus Name (Amen).

I want to Congratulate all those who are Graduating today and I want to just remind you that it is a Very Special Privilege to be exposed to the Word of God, to Study the Word of God – It is a very, very Special Privilege!

And also the fact that it is the Word that can Change you, that can Change your situation!

If you Study the Word of God and that Word does not Change your Life, it is not likely that, that Word is going to Change your situation.

But the Word of God is the Power that created Heaven and Earth and has the Capacity to do all things!

When we believed the Word of God, all things are Possible!

But we have to start by believing God’s Word in a way that we are Sanctified that God made us Whole and then the Word can work in our circumstances.

I’m supposed to speak on: “BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY”.

And the real burden in my Heart – I want to illustrate certain things because as long as I was Praying, it is as if I will take this short time to differentiate between “Usual Christianity” and “Normal Christianity”.

“Usual Christianity” is what is common to many of us today!

The kind of Christianity many of us Practices is not the Normal one – It is just the Usual one.

But when we go and Study God’s Words – Just like you have done; we expect that those coming out of such Intensive Expousure to the Word of God, should come to a Point where the Word of God works in them in such a way that their Christian lives becomes Normal.

… That is “Normal Christianity”, rather than “Usual Christianity”.

And in “Normal Christianity”; we expect a Manifestation of the Nature of God, the Power of God, the Wisdom of God and the Glory of God to cover the Person!

And so, I will like us to Pray together before I read a Bible Text to you and then explain three (3) basic things to us concerning “Normal Christianity” which many of us today will feel is: “Beyond The Call of Duty” – Wherreas, it is just the Normal thing that God expects of us.

But because many People are not Practicing them, it now looks as if it is “Beyond the Call of Duty”.

And as I Pray, it is like the “Key Thing” that can help us, to actually help us to live a Normal Christian Life as found in Ephesians 3:16.

It is here in Ephesians 3:16 that God Prayed that we might be Strengthened with Might by God’s Spirit in our Inner Mind.

That is not our Bible Text, but that is where the Strength comes from; the Grace is released from – That God by His Spirit will Strengthen your Spirit and your Inner Mind so that you will be able to understand the Love of Christ which Passes all Knowledge and be filled with all the Fullness of God.

So that as stated in Verse 20 (Ephesians 3:20); He will do for you – Exceedingly Abundantly Above all that you ask or think, according to the Power that is at work in you.

According to that Strengthening that His Spirit has Strengthened in your Spirit Mind!

I will like us to rise and Pray together!

OPENING PRAYER

Father, we ask that according to Your Mercy and Your Grace, that You will Help us this Morning and touch everyone of us.

Direct us Oh Lord that we may walk in “Normal Christianity”; that we will go beyond the Standards that has been Set for us by Man and Follow the Commission that You have given to us as our Father.

That in everything, we will Glorify Your Name and exalt You about just the Sight. Oh God, that we will serve You and serve You just like Jesus Christ did.

That we will exalt You in all we do – Father Strengthen us at this moment by Your Spirit in our Inner Mind.

Strengthen us and Uphold us by the Right Hand of Your Righteousness and be Glorified in our lives.

In Jesus Mighty Name we have Prayed – Amen!

Praise the Lord – Hallelujah!

You may Please be seated.

You see, the Normal Christian Life is “Extra Plus Ordinary”.

Because that Extra Force is at work – The Extra Force of the Power of the Holy Spirit that energises us in the Inner Mind. It makes it Extraordinary!

Many People who are living the Usual Christian Life, are living as a Natural Man.

But anyone who understands how God operates, and what is the Normal Life; knows that the Normal Christian Life is not just Natural but it is Supernatural!

And what brings that “Super Dimension” to the Natural, is the Spirit of God Strengthening you in your Inner Mind.

So, I Pray for us again – That God in His Mercy and Grace, will Strengthen us in the Inner Mind by His Spirit in the Name of Jesus (Amen)!

The Lord Jesus Christ is our Perfect Example!

Philippians 2:5 says: Let this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Taking the Lord Jesus Christ as an Example of Someone who went “Beyond The Call of Duty”.

And so we all remembered that when He went to John The Baptist to be Baptised.

And John said: No, You are the One to Baptised me. Why did You come to me for Baptism? And He said: Let it be so now – We must fulfill all Righteousness (DMC NOTES: Matthew 3: 13-15).

In everything that the Lord Jesus Christ did, He went beyond the Call of Duty – Normal Standard Call of Duty.

But three (3) Examples came to my Heart – Of People that we may say: Jesus Christ is the Son of God and so whatever He did is beyond us.

But there are some Examples I want to use to Point out three (3) Dimensions that the Holy Spirit put in my Heart for us.

CASE STUDY 1 – ABRAHAM

We say that Blood is thicker than water and that is true.

But Spirit is Stronger than Blood!

And Incidentally, many Christians do not even appreciate this as deeply as some of the Witches do

The Witches understand that Spirit is Stronger than Blood – I will give you one very bad Example for instance.

There was a woman who gave birth to eleven (11) children – The mothers are usually to be more attached to their children.

But in the Witchcrafft Coven, they kept on demanding for these children for the extension of her Life. And the children kept on going one by one, until she was 95 years old when the 11th one died.

After the 11th one died, and Nobody to give again – That is she loved and Obey the Spirit in her Coven more than her own Blood children.

DMC NOTES: The word ‘Coven’ is derived from Old French and in the 1500s meant for a “Meeting, Gathering, Assembly”. Around 1660 it also came to mean “A Gathering of Witches”.

Christians don’t even have that kind of Attachment – I mean Christians who don’t have a Revelation!

When you have a Revelation then you will know that Spirit is Stronger than Blood!

That your Brother in Christ, who is truly your Brother is likely to even be Closer to you than a number of your Blood Relatives.

Abraham understands this – He made a Statement that touch my Heart.

He (Abraham) says that: “But we are Brethren”.

Abraham took Lot as his Nephew – Come along with me Lot, I will train you, I will teach you Business and you will Prosper because of me.

And God Prospered Lot basically because of Abraham and he became Big also.

And Lot’s Servants and Abraham’s Servants began to quarrel. And Abraham said, No this is not supposed to happen.

Abraham showed a Christian Heart – A Heart of Faith.

Abraham said that I know that you are Younger than me, I know that I have Trained you and I know that I have helped you. But forget about all that; what I want you to do is to take any Direction:

• If you go to the Left, I will go to the Right.
• If you go Forward, I will go Backward,

Anywhere you take, I will go in the Opposite Direction.

But we are Brethren – Let’s not allow ourselves to quarrel. Let our Servants not quarrel and let’s not allow our Servants knock our heads together! (DMC NOTES: Read Genesis 13: 1-9).

I wish this will sink into us as Graduands from the Bible College today:

• That Brotherhood is more Important than Promotion at work!
• That Brotherhood is more important than Struggling for Positions (Even Church Positions).

It is quite unfortunate that in certain Places – And I’m talking about inside Church o; some Pastors cannot leave their food and come back and eat it again.

All depending on who is there because they are afraid that the other Pastor might do something to their food to Poison them.

We are Brethren – We need to consider that and consider it very Strongly!

Let’s go beyond the Call of Duty and exercise our Faith and show one another that the Bible says that we should do Good to All Men especially to those who are of the Household of Faith. (DMC NOTES: Galatians 6:10).

Oppression is not supposed to come among us as God’s Children – We are Brethren!

CASE STUDY 2 – DAVID

And I was Medidating over this David’s issue and the Call of Duty.

The father gave him a job to look after the Sheep.

But God gave David a Commission – Look after the Sheep.

The Commission from God supercedes the Commission from the Earthly father.

I will explain – He was there and a Lion came one day and took a Lamb (A Lamb is “Little Sheep”).

A Lion came, took the Lamb and in David’s Mind, he said: What? Mr Lion, what are you doing here? Who sent you here? God Commissioned me to look after all the Sheep, He did not ask me to look after the Big ones and leave the Small ones. Mr Lion you must drop that Lamb.

He hit the Lion and the Lion dropped the Lamb and turned against him.

And of course, he held it – And in my imagination, when he grabbed the Lion by the beard, he wanted to check the mouth of the Lion to make sure that there was no bone of the Lamb inside the mouth. And he killed the Lion.

DMC NOTES: This Story is in 1 Samuel 17: 34-37

Let me ask you a Question – If David went home and I told the father: Hey daddy, the Sheep you told me to look after. One Lion came right in my Presence and took the Lamb and walked away.

Please, what do you think David’s father will do on Sunday? – Thanksgiving!

That was the Call of Duty! That was why David said: Lion, I will not let you go.

A Bear come and he did the same thing!

And because he has developed that kind of Culture – Of looking beyond the Call of Duty; when it was the Call of Duty and Goliath was abusing the entire of Army of Israel.

The Call of Duty made the others to know that if they went there, Goliath will kill them but David was seeing beyond that – He has a Commission to destroy this Uncircumcised Philistines that is insulting the God of the Army of Israel.

A number of us as we are Graduating; all we are looking for is to be Posted to one Comfortable Place where we have one godfather.

Are we Politicians? And you are not making Impacts.

When God talked to Isaiah – He says: Who shall I send and who will go for us?

Isaiah did not say – Here I am, send my Brother or Sister. But he said: Send me (DMC NOTES: Isaiah 6:8).

CASE STUDY 3 – THE GOOD SAMARITAN

The Question is: Who is my Neighbour?

And the Lord Jesus Christ said Someone was going from Jerusalem down to Jericho and thieves met him and beat him and stole his raiment and left him half-dead (DMC NOTES Luke 10:30).

And a Pastor came around – And when he saw Someone lying down at one side, he quickly went to the other side (DMC NOTES: Luke 10:31).

It is Possible that:

• He was Praying in Tongues.
• Maybe he was going for a Prayer Meeting.
• Maybe he has fixed a Holy Communion Service Meeting.

But he saw Someone half-dead, who has been beaten by Robbers and injured so badly but just went through the other side.

He was going to share Holy Communion to others, with no Compassion in his bowels, with no Mercy in his bowels, with no Tender Kindness in his bowels.

Is he that Man’s Neighbour?

Then after him came a Levite/Deacon/Minister.

In his own case, maybe he has a little more time than the Pastor.

He even went and looked at the guy – Ha, “O ma se” (DMC NOTES: Meaning – It’s such a Pity).

The Bible says that He went to the other side too.

DMC NOTES: Luke 10:32

Brethren, may God help us to add Compassion to our Ministering – Amen!

I know that there are lots of 419.

But you know that there is an African Proverb that says that you can close your eyes because Bad People are Passing. But when Good Peoole Pass, you will not know!

That means that we have to be Watchful!

God wants us to add Compassion to Ministry!

There are cases when it is obvious that this Person needs Help – God wants us to add Compassion to Ministry.

And then the Lord Jesus Christ said – Let this Mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus – Philippians 2:5.

He did not just go the “Extra Mile”; He went the “Absolute Mile”.

I. His Equality with God, He drops that.

II. His Reputation, He dropped that – Just because He wanted to come and save us.

III. And then the insults of taking “The Likeness of a Man” – He took that.

IV. Then He took further insult of taking the “Form of a Servant” – He took it.

If Jesus Christ is coming as a Man, He should have come as a King or an Emperor of the whole world.

But He came – He was born in a Manger in the midst of a Sheep because there was no Room in the Inn (Hotel).

V. And the Lord Jesus Christ because of us made Himself of no Reputation and took the form of a Servant – And then went further to allow Himself to die.

Infact, that was an insult that shouldn’t even be imagined by anybody!

VI. But the Bible tells us that – It is not just that, He Submitted to Death.

Death could not take Him, He had to Submit Himself to Death – If not, He could not die!

VII. And not just “Ordinary Death”; but to the Death of a Criminal.

Some Version of the Bible put it as: “The Death on the Cross” (DMC NOTES: Philippians 2:8)

That was the Maximum Punishment given to a Criminal!

He did all this all because of us!

And what is the Bible saying – Let this Mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5).

If you have the Word of God in you without the Mind of Christ in you, then it is “The Letters” that you have.

And you know what “The Letter” does?

• “The Letter” Kill some People every Sunday as they Preach. Because there is no Spirit in “The Letter” that you are Delivering.

I want us to Pray – And our Prayer is Simple.

That God will Strengthen you in Might by His Spirit in your Inner Mind:

• So that Brotherhood will mean more to you than Money!
• So that you will be Fearless where God sent you.
• And so that your bowels will be filled with Compassion all because of the Mentality, the Attitude and the Mind of the Lord Jesus Christ is what is riding in your Life.

Let us rise on our feet and Pray with all our Heart!

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