THE PRINCIPLE OF GATHERING – PART 1: PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL – SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE, 10TH SEPTEMBER, 2023.

SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE WITH PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER, INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) CHRIST TEMPLE, ACCRA GHANA)

TOPIC: THE PRINCIPLE OF GATHERING – PART 1 (GETTING THINGS OUT OF THE WAY)

DATE: 10TH SEPTEMBER 2023

BIBLE TEXT: GENESIS 1:9-12

Let us rise up together as we make our “DECLARATION OF GATHERING” in this “YEAR OF GATHERING”.

Are you ready? Say with me:

I Proclaim Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. The Lord is the Shepherd of my Soul, my Shelter by Day, my Light by Night.

In His Name, we Plough our fields, by His Spirit we gather the Harvest, in His Light we seek and find.

In this Year of Gathering, the Lord of the Harvest has commanded: Launch Out into the Deep. At His Words, we cast our Nets, we gather in Souls and Substance for God’s Kingdom.

The Lord is our Reward; in this Season I received God’s Portion set aside for me: Full Measure, Pressed down, Shaking together and running over.

Nothing is Lost and Nothing is wasted in Jesus Name – Amen!

I am going to start a Series – I think it’s going to be four (4) weeks, how I Plan it to be.

And the Theme is going to be: THE PRINCIPLE OF GATHERING.

This is Part 1 of the Principle of Gathering; and my Sub-Title would be: Getting Things out of the Way.

Sometimes all we need to do to see Growth in our lives is to gather some things out of our lives and get them out of the way. Because Life can some times be full of so much stuff; so many things happening, that they become a hindrance to us.

And so today we are going to look at that Principle of Gathering – Of taking some things out of the way.

Because there are some things in your Life, in my Life, that must be taken out of the way! And if we allow them where they are, they would be a hindrance to us; they will obscure God’s Blessings over our lives.

Somebody say: I am going to take some Stuffs out of the way!

Are you really going to do that? – Sure!

Alright! Let’s go to the Bible Text in Genesis 1:9-12 (NKJV).

9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

In the Passage, we see a conflict going on – It’s a conflict between two (2) forces; and these two (2) forces are antagonistic to each other or they are not helping each other.

And so when you look into this Passage, there are two (2) forces that are described there:

1. The first force that is described there, the Bible calls it “The waters”.

And this description of waters, normally is a description that talks about flood, turbulence, chaos – It talks about instability.

The waters here are not “Still waters” – It’s not the kind of waters that you go and drink from.

This is turbulent waters.

So the whole Earth is full of turbulent waters, flood waters – The floods are moving all over the Earth. And as a result, nothing is happening. All that you see is waters.

Water is usually good but when it floods you, it’s not good at all.

Many of us during the Rainy Season, we have encountered floods. Sometimes it comes into our homes, it goes into the Streets, it goes into the roads, pull cars along.

Sometimes it causes a lot of damage.

And in other parts of the world, waters can be very destructive; especially in Asia, etc.

This is the type of water the Passage is talking about – Like the days of Noah, it gulfed the whole Earth. The whole Earth is full of water, flood overwhelming the Earth.

And this water symbolises Powerful events that take over everything in our lives.

A flood is so Powerful that when it hits you, it moves everything along with it.

The flood the Bible is talking about here is not just water you can drink, water you can use to water your Garden; but this is something that is overwhelming, it’s all over the Place.

So I want you for a moment to think about events in our lives that sometimes act like flood – It comes into your Life and it just moves everything out of the way, and it occupies your whole Life.

I. It could be a Failure:

Maybe you failed at something – You failed at an Examination, you failed at your Marriage. Something is not working and all of a sudden it occupies your whole Life.

II. Sometimes it can be Betrayals:

Somebody betrays you – A Painful experience happens and it takes over your Life.

… That is what we are talking about – a Flood!

And when your Life is taken over by events, and they flood you, you will realised that nothing is happening; you will realised that your whole Life has been taken over by one thing.

And some of us here today inclusive those reading now on the Label of DMC, our lives have been flooded by Pains, Disappointments, Betrayals; sometimes by Financial Problems. And it has taken over your Life – You think about it, talk about it, you sleep with it, you wake up with it, you Dream it! That’s a Flood, and it has taken over your Life.

So that’s the first event we see – Waters: Powerful, events that take over everything in our lives.

2. But there is a second force that the Bible talks about: it talks about Land – Dry Land, Order, Stability.

So in the midst of the waters there is Land!

You know today, when we think of the Earth, we think of the Earth as Solid Ground.

That’s how we think of the Earth.

But there was a time there was no Solid Ground, it was all Instability – Everything is covered.

But the Bible says in the midst of the waters, there’s still Earth. But it is hidden by the waters. It is hidden by the flood.

So the Land there talks about your Undiscovered Strength that is hidden from view.

Two (2) Things are happening – A Flood is taking Place on top, but underneath is Solid Ground. There’s flood on top, but there is something underneath.

And you have to Picture your Life always that way – That no matter what is flooding your Life, there is something Stable, sitting underneath your Life. You may not see it, you may not feel it, you may not even think it’s there; but it is there!

In the midst of the flood, in the midst of the Pain and Disappointment, in the midst of your fears; there is something Solid deep down sitting.

And that’s how the Earth works – There’s water up, Solid Ground underneath.

Of course none of us was there, but if you were there and you cast your eyes, all you will see would be water. You would never see Solid Ground.

What do we do when we find that our lives have been flooded by trouble?

There are some of you sitting here inclusive those reading now on the Label of DMC, and your whole Life is controlled by Painful Memories – Maybe somebody you loved disappointed you, somebody hit you so badly and you wonder, how can Human Being be so wicked?

Whether you wonder or not, People are very, very unpredictable.

And when I say People, I mean you!

People is not them, People is us.

When we say, “you can’t trust People”; who are the People? We are all humans, and we all hurt, deny and betray People.

Jesus was denied and betrayed by His loved ones. It’s going to happen to you one way or the other. And sometimes it can flood you.

Sometimes you can be flooded by Financial Problems, and all kinds of things.

So how do we deal with the Floods of Life? The waters of Life that have taken over our lives, ruling our lives; every conversation comes up with it.

Every time you pick up the Phone, by the third sentence you are going to talk about something bad in your Life. And Pretty soon, Nobody wants to talk to you on the Phone again. Because you are so Predictable, your Life is flooded.

How do we deal with that? And that is what we are going to look at.

There are Three (3) Things that we are going to look at, on how to deal with that:

Now, in the midst of all these troubles; God issued Instructions. And each of these Instructions begins with the word “Let”.

And there are Three (3) “Let” in the Passage:

Let means: “Be, allow, Permit, make happen, become’.

So God is going to solve the Problem of the Life on Earth that is overwhelmed by waters; and He issues Three (3) commands:

1. The First one: “Let the waters be gathered into one Place.”

The thing about water is that it can sometimes be a blessing – Unless it’s a flood. And it is a flood when it is all over the Place.

So God says, if I am going to fix this Problem of an ‘Overwhelmed Earth”, then the first thing I am going to do is that I have to gather all the waters.

Instead of them being all over the Place, I have to gather them and put them in Specific Places.

“Let them be gathered into one Place.” – Gather them, organise them, confine it. But don’t let it be all over the Place.

And what is the Lesson that we learn from it? What’s the action that we can take from it?

It is that when I am overwhelmed, I must confine my experiences to where they belong.

We must not allow our experiences to run all over the Place – My past belongs to my past. My past does not belong to my future.

Don’t allow past Pain to determine Future Relationships.

Because somebody might have failed you, it doesn’t mean the next Person will also fail you.

Your past must be gathered and put where it belongs; your Pain must be gathered and put where it belongs.

Somebody failed you, it doesn’t mean all the People are failures.

The Problem with Life is that one Person fails us, we think everybody is a failure.

That’s a Flood! We have let the waters cover everything..

God says, don’t let it cover everything – Take the waters, put them where they belong.

The one who failed you is not the whole Earth; the one who failed you is your husband. And he is only one man, of four billion People on the Earth.

Only one man failed you – Don’t let it flood your Life. Because there is another man who is coming: and if you don’t clear this flood, you are not going to see the future that God has for you.

One Person betrayed you, but not all Human Beings betrayed you.

You cannot say, don’t trust People – That is allowing the waters to cover the whole Earth.

God says, put it where it belongs.

It was that friend from Secondary School who betrayed you, not everyone.

You have to Compartmentalize Problems – Domestic Problems stay at home, they don’t go to the Office. You don’t go to the Office complaining about what has happened at home.

That’s not what your Customers are there for! They are there to receive a Service from you, not to solve your Domestic Problems of Homework and Lunch box.

Don’t let the waters cover everything – Keep them where they belong.

Past issues stay in the past; because if you don’t, the past would ruin your Present and your future.

Many of us are fighting battles because we have allowed things to run over all the Place – We are talking about it all the time, we are complaining about it all the time.

Office Problem belongs to the Office!

You have a Problem with your Boss, don’t take it on your wife. She is not your Boss.

Let the waters be gathered and put where they are. Are you following me?

Because if you don’t learn that Principle, your Life would be flooded by little, little issues. And you will spread it everywhere.

Sometimes somebody hurts you and then you also ignore your best friend. You don’t take it to your best friend again.

People who would Strengthened you, you have abandoned them because Ignorant Person hurt you.

Let the water be gathered and put them where they belong – I must confine my experiences to where they belong.

If they belong to my past, they stay in my past. If only one Person did it, then don’t say, “I am not going to Church again because the Church is full of Hypocrites”.

How many Church Members have you known, for you to even come to the Conclusion that it is full of Hypocrites?

It cannot be the whole Church! Don’t let the waters flood the Earth.

God says, don’t do that.

Take the waters, put them where they belong. Because if you don’t know how to gather Problems and put them where they belong, little one Problem would totally ruin your Life.

… That’s the first Instruction!

2. Second Instruction God gave: Let the Dry Land Appear”.

The Dry Land was there all the time – The only thing is that it was underneath: it was covered by forces.

He moved the waters from their Place, he called the Seas, and then the Dry Land appeared – Isn’t it amazing?

I like how the Bible puts it – It talks about waters (water is wet); and then it talks about Dry Land.

And in the midst of all these waters, the Earth underneath was not affected by the waters – It was not wet Earth, it was Dry Land.

So there are aspects of your Life: in the midst of all the mess, they have not been touched! And God says that you must allow those things to appear.

What is my Action? What must I do? I must discovered the reality of God’s Strength that is available to me.

In the midst of my Pain, there is Strength – There is Dry Earth.

I. Listen to me Ladies who have been disappointed; there are still good men – And a lot of them are in the Church.

II. Listen to me men who have been disappointed, there are a lot of good women – And a lot of them are in the Church.

Maybe the one who hurt you is also in the Church but the one who would bring healing to you is also in the Church.

So what do you do?

You clear the waters so that the Dry Land would appear.

God says, if you Compartmentalize the Problems, you would begin to see New Opportunities, New Environments, New People, New Relationships – They would appear.

Because sometimes, you can sit in the midst of Abundance and all you could see would be Poverty.

You will never see Opportunity when all you talk about is Problem. But if you clear the Problem all out of the way, you begin to see Opportunities.

One of the reasons why People who travel to other Places do well is because they go to those Places with a different Mindset – An African who would never drive a Taxi in Africa would go to New York and drive a Taxi.

Because in Africa, Taxi driving may be seen as a mark of failure. But there, he doesn’t see it as failure. So he goes to start as a Taxi driver and works his way up.

Because sometimes the familiar Places, comes with Negative talks. When you go to other Places where Nobody complains about what you wear and don’t wear, you find all of a sudden you take advantage of New Opportunities.

The Question is: Do you have to travel to do that? No! You can have the same Attitude wherever you are.

If you move the waters away, the Dry Land would appear!

There are things that God wants to do in our lives; there are things that God wants to bring to us; but He can’t get through to us because the waters are all over the Place – You are too Negative.

Some of us are too bitter, too angry.

There is Dry Land but it can’t come up because you are angry.

Somebody meets you for the first time, you pour fifty (50) years of anger on them. And they just met you, but they get the anger (laughter)!

So the Dry Land never appears, it never shows up.

All you have is instability, choas, waters.

But there is a dry land – It’s unaffected, it’s still dry. There’s water on top but it’s dry underneath.

And God says, if you repackage your Problems and move them out of the way, I would show you something New about yourself that you never knew.

3. And the Third Instruction God gave: “Let the Earth Bring Forth”.

Three (3) “Let”:

• Let the waters be gathered,
• Let the Dry Land appear,
• Let the Earth bring forth.

Earth could not bring forth as long as the Dry Land had not appeared and the waters were overwhelming – “Let the Earth bring forth”.

If you know the Book of Genesis very well; you will noticed, this is the first time something Life is emerging from the Earth.

From Genesis 1:1, this is the first time. “Let the Earth bring forth” – The Earth brought forth Plants.

The Bible says that God saw that it was good.

• It is good to move the waters out of the way;
• It is good to allow the Dry Land to appear.
• And it is good for you to allow God do New Things with your Life.

What should be our Action?

I must allow God to bring forth New Things from my Life.

Listen to me: No matter how turbulent your Life has been, there is still a Part of you that will survive the flood.

No matter what the experience has been, there’s still a Part of you that is still Stable, and Untouched that God can use.

There’s a Part of you that God wants to use, but it’s beign hidden for too long. And we must allow God to bring forth New Things out of our lives.

This is the first time the Colour Green appeared – Green Plants and flowers, and red and purple and orange. And all of them are coming up because the waters were moved out of the way, the Dry Land appeared, and now something Productive can take Place.

When we talk about “The Principle is Gathering”, it’s not just about gathering the Pieces and the fragments; sometimes it’s gathering some things and moving them out of the way.

And there are some Memories we have to gather and throw them out, and say, I am not going to remember this again.

Everybody has a bad Memory – Believe you me, everybody has been treated bad sometime in their lives.

From Childhood we have bad Memories – From your parents, from your older siblings, younger siblings, from neighbours. Somebody messed your Life up!

All of us have it – Bad Teachers, wicked Teachers.

I had one wicked Teacher when I was in Class 5 -;Wicked!

Some of these People have Mental Problem and we put them in Classrooms and they beat children.

And this Teacher beat me, traumatized me. And for a very long time, I hated School because of him.

Everybody has a bad Memory; everybody has had a bad experience; everybody has been treated badly by somebody; but God says, don’t let it flood your Life. because in the midst of all of that there is still Dry Land – And it must appear!

Don’t let your past take over your future.

Don’t let your Pain take over your Promise.

Don’t let your experience yesterday destroy everything God wants to do today in your Life.

Don’t let the People who failed you make you stop those who would help you.

Because there are still good People in this Earth; there are still Destiny Helpers; there are People who would not take advantage of you; there are People who would stand with you and help you and Sipport you till you become who you are.

• Don’t let those who failed you dictate the pace.
• Don’t be so cynical and skeptical and so doubtful that you don’t trust anybody again.
• Don’t say, “Me I don’t trust People”.

When you say that, the waters are on the Land – Dry Land has not appeared.

Because God wants to do something New with your Life!

And this morning or as you read on now on the Label of DMC; I just came to announce to you:

There is water on the Earth, there are things flooding your Life; but put them in their Right Place.

Because there is still Land, there is still Opportunity, there are still New Things that God wants to bring into your Life. And don’t stop Him from bringing it into your Life – Amen!

Hallelujah!

I think we need to Pray. Because many of us need to gather some things in our Prayer.

Say Lord, from this Day, I take this experience out of my Life. I am not going to talk about it again, I put it out so that the New Thing You want to do will emerge in my Life.

Lift up your hands to God!

It’s time to Surrender, time to gather, time to throw away – It didn’t work yesterday, it doesn’t mean it won’t work tomorrow.

Thank You Lord!

Just talk to the Lord about your Life – The New Opportunities, New People, New Experiences that God is bringing our way. New Things are coming our way.

CLOSING PRAYER

We Thank You Father this Morning.

Thank You Lord that You bring New Things out of our lives.

And today Lord, we learn from You to let the waters be gathered.

And so Lord, we come to take our Pain, our Disappointments, our Fears and Anxieties out of the way.

We gather them out of the way so that they will not obscure what you want to do with our lives.

And Father, let Solid Earth; let Stability emerge out of our lives.

Show us something New; Do New Things with our lives.

Let us experience New Joy, New Happiness, New Favour, New Relationships, New Life.

Thank You Lord, that You will not let the floods overwhelm us; but You will cause New Things to emerge out of our lives.

In Jesus’ Name we Pray – Amen!

Thank you so much for staying all through to read.

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