FOR WHOM THE HEAVENS OPEN – PART 58 – RCCG ONLINE SUNDAY SERVICE – PASTOR E.A ADEBOYE

SPECIAL RCCG ONLINE SUNDAY SERVICE

TOPIC: FOR WHOM THE HEAVENS OPEN – PART 58 (AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE)

MINISTERING: PASTOR E.A ADEBOYE

DATE: 10TH NOVEMBER 2024

BIBLE TEXT: JOSHUA 24: 14-15

Let Us Pray!

SONG

We give all the Glory to Jesus
And tell of His Love
His Wonderful Love
We give all the Glory to Jesus
And tell of His Wonderful Love

OPENING PRAYER

Father, we give You all the Glory, we give You all the Honour, we give You all the Adoration.

We Thank You for Your Faithfulness – Alpha and Omega, we Worship You.

We Thank You for starting this Series on Joshua with us; we Thank You because today You are about to Close this Series.

We Thank You for Your Faithfulness Oh Lord, we Thank You for all the Lessons that we have learnt.

We Thank You for all the Changes in our lives that has been brought about as a result of the Study.

Please, accept our Thanks in Jesus Name.

Father, You always reserve the Best till the Last; we Pray that You will give us the Best today.

In Jesus Mighty Name we have Prayed – Amen!

Praise the Lord – Hallelujah!

Well, finally we have come to Part 58 in our Series: “For Whom The Heavens Open”.

Will you greet one (1) or two (2) People around you and say: “You will end well”.

And then, you may Please be seated.

Today, we just want to take one more look at Joshua 24: 14-15.

Joshua 24: 14-15:

14. Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in Sincerity and in Truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. 
15. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

This Particular Passage has a Very Great Significance for me as an Individual.

You may not know it, but when I gave my Life to Jesus Christ in 1973; and I came to Sunday School for the first time, this Joshua 24:15 was the Memory Verse that Sunday – Choose you who you want to serve. But as for me and my Household, we will serve the Lord.

And Thank God that God was looking into my Future and He arranged for me to start off my Journey in Christianity with this Passage.

1. The first Lesson we learnt from this Passage is: “AS FOR ME”.

When it comes to things of God, “Self First” is not Selfishness – You need to take Note of that!

Because Matthew 19:19, the Bible says that you are to love your Neighbour as yourself.

Meaning what?

You must first of all love yourself and then use that measure of Love to love your Neighbour – If you don’t love yourself, you can’t love your Neighbour.

The Elders has a saying – They said that the one who will gladly step on her dress, will gladly tear the dresls of others.

Ask the Elders, they will tell you that the reason why Witches are so terrible is
because they can kill their own children.

And if Somebody can kill her own Child, then your Child is not safe with her.

When it comes to things of God – Things deeply Spiritual, Self first is not Selfishness!

The Bible made it clear in Romans 14:12 that everyone will give an Account of himself – We will Stand before the Judgement Throne of God one by one.

You will never find two People born at the same time, the same day – Even a Set of Twins must come out before the other.

Genesis 25: 19-26 told us about a Set of Twins comimg out of the same Womb – Esau come first.

Jacob was in an hurry to come and so grab Esau leg but Esau still came out first.

You have to come to this world one by one and when it is time to go, we will go one by one.

When the Day of Judgement comes, we will Stand before God one by one.

You say: Ha, if God is going to Judge all the People of the world and He is taking them one at a time, won’t that take long?

Over there, there is no Night!

In Matthew 24: 40-41; the Bible says that two People will be on the same bed when the Lord returns – One will be taken and another will be left behind.

It is a matter of an Individual situation.

If the husband belongs to God and the wife says that, No I’m not following God; when the Rapture comes, no matter how much they say they love each other, they will go one by one – One may go and the other may be left behind.

In Revelation 22:12, Jesus Christ said: Behold I come quickly – I am here to give to every Man according to how his works shall be.

When it is time to reward you, the Reward of the husband will not be given to the wife and vice versa.

In Revelation 3:20; Jesus Christ said that: Behold I Stand by the door and I knock. If any Man will hear my voice – Only one Fellow.

And if that Fellow open the door to me, then I will come in unto him – Individual Salvation!

In Revelation 3:11; the Bible says: Hey, hold fast that which you have – You as an Individual.

Let no Man take your Crown – You have a Crown as a Child of God; hold it fast.

It didn’t say, don’t let anyone take “Our Crown” but ^Your Crown”.

So, consider David as a very Good Example:

You will find out that whenever David is talking about something serious about God, he uses Individual – Singular.

I. Psalms 23:1 – He said that: The Lord is “My” Shepherd – not “Our” Shepherd.

II. He said that: “I” shall not want.

III. He said: When “I” walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, “I” shall fear no evil.

IV. Thou Preparest a Table before “Me” – Not before “Us”.

V. Oh there are some People – When they want to finish a Service, they will say let us share the Grace:

Psalm 23:6 – Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow “Us”.

I say that is not in the Bible – David didn’t say Goodness and Mercy shall follow “Us”.

He said: Surely, Goodness and Mercy shall follow “Me”.

VI. That’s why you hear him say in Psalms 34:1 – “I” will bless the Lord at all times, His Praise shall continually be in “My” mouth.

VII. In Psalms 18: 1-3 he said: “I” will love thee my Lord.

And then he began to talk about what God is to him:

☆ My Lord and my Strength – He didn’t say: Our Lord, our Strength.

He said that I know where I got my Strength from – He said: My Rock – Not our Rock.

He said: My Fortress – I know where I go to hide in the time of trouble.

He knows that the Bible says that: The Name of the Lord is a Strong Tower; the Righteous runs into it and he is safe.

He said that: He is the Horn of my Salvation – My Salvation comes from Him.

He says that: He is my High Tower.

DMC NOTES: All the above found in Psalms 18:2

The Relationship between him and God was so Personal that when he made a terrible blunder and God sent Prophet Nathan to go and tell him: Look at what you have done, he said that I am downfall – Oh God I mess up.

God said okay, I won’t let you die – We are too close for that and we are too Intimate for that but I will Punish you.

DMC NOTES: In one of the darkest hours of his Life, King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband, Uriah, killed. God sent therophet Nathan to tell David a Parable of a rich man who passed over his own flock and took a poor man’s beloved pet lamb to feed his guests – You can read this Story in 2 Samuel 12: 1-25

You must make up your Mind that as for me; I am going to serve the LORD!

He is saying that the rest of you can take your own Decision – You can choose what you want to do, but my own Choice is Settled.

He said in Psalms 108:1 – He said that my Heart is fixed with me; I will bless the Lord.

You know that the word “Fixed” there is like Concrete.

When you are building a house, laying the Foundation and you pour concrete; they said that wait till it is fixed, wait till it is Solid.

And once it becomes Solid, there is Nothing you can do about it anymore – It is fixed.

When they are building a Bridge and they have laid all the irons et cetera; then they put Concrete and wait till it is fixed.

There is Nothing that anybody can do to you if your Heart is Fixed on Jesus Christ!

There is Nothing that can happen that can cause you to even think of Backsliding.

But it is an Individual Decision.

Please go over your Choice today – Is your Heart fixed on serving the Lord?

2. And then he went on to say: “As for me and my House”.

After you have Settled the issue of your own Salvation, the very next thing that you must do is to settle the Salvation of your Household – It is very, very crucial.

If there is any Member of your family that is not yet saved, you still have a lot of work to do.

I. Look at Rehab – She was an Harlot. You can read her Story in Joshua 2: 1-21.

Some Spies were sent to go and spy Jericho when the Children of Israel was about to take over.

And since there was no Place that they can stay in, they stayed in the house of an Harlot – Harlot House is open to anybody.

And so, they stayed there.

As soon as they get in, she knew that these are Israelis – They have come.

And when the People in the Town heard that some Strangers has come to the house of the Harlot, they came looking for them.

Before they came, she had already hid them.

They came to search – Have you seen such and such People?

She said: Yes they are here but they have already gone.

And so, she sent the People away to go and search for the People – And they were still hidden with her.

After the People who are to Pursue them left, she spoke to them and said: Now, you have seen what I have done for you.

We have heard about you and we have heard about your God. Your fear is already upon the Land and we know that you are going to take over this Place.

But Please, do something for me in return – Spare me and my father’s house.

Even an Harlot knew that her Salvation alone is not enough – Her Household also must be saved!

You know the rest of the Story – When Jericho finally fell, both herself and every Members of her family were spared.

II. When you consider the Story in Luke 16: 19-31:

It tells us the Story of a rich Man who was always enjoying himself everyday – Everyday was like Christmas.

And there was this Lazarus who was a Beggar – Sitting down by his table, picking up crumbs. Dogs will come and lick his wounds and so on and so forth.

And then the rich Man died and Lazarus died too.

And when both of them died, the rich Man went to Hell and Lazarus went to the Bossom of Abraham.

The rich Man lifted up his eyes and saw Lazarus at the Bossom of Abraham.

And he cried out to Father Abraham: Help me, I’m tormented in this Place. Ask that Young Man to come and give me some water to drink.

Ask him – I never chased him away when I was in the world, I never attacked him. Let him come and help me now!

Father Abraham said: Sorry he can’t come as there is a Gap between us.

What was the next thing that the rich Man said – He said: Please, I have Members that are still in the world. I don’t want them to come where I am.

I’m telling you Brethren – Hell is not a Place that you want any Member of your family to go to.

The Man was so desperate that he said: Please send Somebody from the dead to go and warn my People so that they won’t come here.

But he was denied!

If you die and you go to Heaven and you looked down from the Threshold of Heaven and you see Members of your family in Hell – God forbids; it is going to create a Problem for you.

You must wake up today to a very, very urgent Assignment – The Salvation of your family.

III. When you read Acts 16: 25-34; Paul and Silas were in Jail and the Jailers was there watching over them to make sure that they won’t escape.

The moment the Jailer saw the Power of God and he gave his Life to Jesus Christ; the next thing he did was to gather his family Members together so that all of them can taste Salvation at the same time.

The Jailer didn’t wait till the second day.

Let me tell you one thing: Prison is not a Place for Soft People Particularly in those days – Soft Hearted People can’t be a Jailer. Jailers in those days are Tough People – People with Heart of Stone.

But when this Man found Salvation, the first thing he thought of is his family.

And many of you listening to me now or reading now on the Label of DMC; God knows how long ago you have been Born Again and only God knows how many Members of your family are still far from God.

You know fully well that if any Man dies without Christ, he is going to Hell.

You are Thanking God that you have escaped Hell because you have received Jesus Christ; what about Members of your family?

Wake Up today!

I know that several of us has already won Souls for Christ and you are still winning Souls for Christ in your Place of work or on your way to work et cetera.

What about your own People? Charity should begin at home.

IV. In Acts 10: 1-end, all the Good works of Cornelius were rewarded by Salvation for himself.

And when God sent an Angel to him to say: I send Somebody who will show you the way of Salvation; he did not wait for Peter alone; as soon as he knew that Peter was coming, he gathered together every Members of his family.

If you are saved and you ignored the Salvation of just one of your Children, they can destroy every Promises of God for you.

In 1 Samuel 2: 12-36; Eli was a High Priest of God.

God said to him: I said to you that indeed you and your father’s house will Stand before me forever, but now I say God forbid.

Why? Because his Children were not following in his footsteps.

You can’t afford for any Member of your Household not to be saved!

But just one Person in your Household that is not saved can destroy the future of the Household.

It takes only one Sinner to destroy the Destiny of the entire family.

When you read 2 Kings 5: 20-27; it was Gehazi alone that sinned. But when the Prophet was Pronouncing a Judgement on him, He said that the Leprosy of Naaman will cleave on him and unto his Seeds forever.

He (Gehazi) became Patron-Saint of Lepers!

Medicine is just discovering what has been there all along – That there are certain diseases that are Genetical.

If there is a Curse in the Genes of your Parents, it will affect you.

That is why the Bible says that: If you are in Christ, you become a New Creature.

You have to be created anew so that the Genes of those People coming before you might not have a Negative Effect on you.

That’s why He said you become a New Creature, that Old Things are Passed away, all things has become New.

It is not you alone that must be saved, your family Members also must be saved.

I’m crying to you – Those of you listening to me now or reading now on the Label of DMC; who are already Born Again, go and begin serious work on every Members of your family.

So that you will be able to say that: As for me and my Household, we will serve the Lord.

ALTAR CALL

As for those of you who have not given your Life to Jesus Christ, I’m appealing to you – You may be the first Person in your family to be saved and then through your efforts bring your entire family to God.

So, if you want to give your Life to Jesus Christ, Please bow your head now in Prayers:

Cry to Him to save your Soul, to forgive you your sins and Promise Him that you will serve Him for the rest of your Life.

Call on Him now and I will Pray for you!

PRAYER FOR SALVATION AND CLOSING PRAYER

My Father and my God, once again I want to say Thank You for Your Words.

I want to Thank You for these People who has made up their Minds that from now on, they want to Surrender their lives to You.

Father, Please receive them, save their Souls, let Your Blood wash away every sins in their lives, receive them into the Family of God and just let it be well with them.

And for those of us Lord God Almighty that are Born Again, and there are Members of our families yet to be Born Again; Please have Mercy on us, give us the Grace that from now on, to rigourously Pursue the Salvation of our Family Members so that our Joy may be full.

In Jesus Mighty Name we have Prayed – Amen!

Well, I rejoice with those of you who has given your Life to Jesus Christ.

I want to Promise you that from now on by the Grace of God, I will be Praying for you.

But Please go to the nearest Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) to you – Tell the Pastor there that I sent you and he will tell you what to do next.

Very soon, I will be hearing your Testimonies!

God Bless You.

Praise the Lord – Hallelujah!!!

Thank you so much for staying all through to read.

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