NUGGETS FROM REVEREND SAM ADEYEMI’S TEACHING: DIRECTION AND REST – PART 1

We begin a New Series – This Month, our focus is on “DIRECTION AND REST”.

So, we are going to read Psalms 23 – Which we all know and familiar with.

Psalms 23:1-6:

1. The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
2. He makes me to lie down in Green Pasture, He leads me beside the Still Water.
3. He restores my Soul; He leads me in the Paths of Righteousness for His names sake.
4. Yea, though I walk in the Valley of the Shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.
5. You Prepare a table before me in the Presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over.
6. Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Direction and Rest is the title of our discussion today.

Okay, this is the time of lightened Anxiety, time of Uncertainty, a time of Decision Making.

For many of us, we have to make decisions – Some Simple decisions, some Complex decisions, some easy decisions, some difficult decisions.

I want to remind us that before we started this year, God gave us one word and the word is REST.

How could we all know that we would be compelled to stay at home? That Aircraft will be grounded, Airport grounded; that cars have to rest, that the road too have to rest.

Matthew 11:28-30 says:

28. Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on Religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you will recover your life. I will show you how to take a Real Rest.
29. Walk with me and work with me, watch how I do it. Learn the unforced Ryhthms of gyrace. Don’t lay anything heavy or I’ll – lifting on you.
30. Keep company with me and you will learn to live freely and lightly. (MSG Bible).

I Prophesy in the Name of Jesus Christ: This Year will turn out to be the “Best” you have lived until now – Amen.

We emphasized from the beginning of the Year that we enter into that “State of Rest” – “God’s Rest”, when we find alignment with the Plans and Purposes of God for our lives and for this world.

Remember Romans 8:28 that says: “And we know that all things work together for Good to those who love God, to those who are the Called according to his Purpose”.

So, we can quickly conclude that Divine Direction is the basic requirement for Rest.

… Divine Guidance, enjoying the Guidance of God, the Direction of God in our Decision Making – This is what guides us into the “State of Rest”.

Hear what Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30 – He says: Come to Me, I will show you how to take a real Rest.

Learn the Unforced Rhythms of Grace – We struggle too much. Divine Direction is the basic requirement for this Rest.

To enjoy God’s Guidance in life, we must acknowledge Him as our Shepherd – Our Ultimate Guide, our Ultimate Helper.

Nobody knows you as intimately as God does:

1. Nobody knows your Future.
2. Nobody knows your Past.
3. Nobody knows the Potential that has been invested in you to deal with the circumstances of your life to fulfill God’s Plans and Purposes for your life.
4. Nobody knows all of those intricacies details like God does.

So, no one can really guide you into making the best Decision and making the best Investment of your Resources in life like God.

So, you have got to recognised His Voice – How is He leading you, how is He guiding you in the midst of everything going on in the world right now, in the midst of the noise.

In the midst of cacophony, God’s Voice is still there speaking to you, Providing Guidance’s for you.

Hear what Jesus said in John 10: 27-29 from the New Living Translation:

27. My sheep listens to my voice; I know them and they follow me.
28. I give them Eternal Life and they will never Perish. No one can snatch them away from me.
29. For my father had given them to me and He is more Powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.

So, to recognise God’s Voice, we need to know Him intimately.

He says that the People that belongs to Him knows Him and recognises His Voice.

So many voices speaking in our world right now everywhere but we have got to be able to recognise the Voice of our Shepherd.

In the mouth of the one that wrote Psalms 23, he recognised God’s Voice.

David cultivate an “Intimate Relationship” with God and that was why the Psalms affect us deeply until today – They help us to express the emotions, the feelings, the thoughts that many of us could not even articulate clearly.

It is the richness of the Relationship that David had with God that appears to us, that Pulls us into this Psalms that he wrote.

When you look at the circumstances of the life of this Young Man, they are not almost desirable.

How would it be that God will send Samuel the Prophet to the house of Jesse – David’s father; to anoint one (1) of his sons to be King.

Samuel would asked Jesse to bring out all his sons and Jesse would not bring David out.

How come he Presented David’s brother and one (1) by one (1) as they came to Samuel, God would say to Samuel not this one, not this one, till the last one.

And then Samuel would then say to Jesse: Do you have another son because I came here to anoint one of your sons to be King and God says it is not any of these?

So, you must have another one.

Before Jesse would open up and say: There is another one (1) boy – He is with the Sheep.

Doesn’t that tells you something?

I don’t know; People have suggested various reasons but at least if they ask you for your sons and most of them were Present and one is not, you should say that from the beginning not when you are now compelled to do so.

But this is what I want to Point out – That this Young Man David turns what is supposed to be a disadvantage to him to an advantage.

So, he is not here in the City, he is not at home to be with everybody else, he is out with the Sheep – He leverages his disadvantage to cultivate an “Intimate Relationship” with God.

… That is where I’m going.

The current situation we are going through in the world – This being locked in the house, stay away from other People, we must find some advantage to it.

If we cannot socialize with Human Being, why don’t we hang out with God?

That was what David did.

And then you find out that Human Being sometimes are the greatest sources of distraction.

As David grow Intimately with God, he enjoyed God’s Love,

God spoke to him, he developed the sense of Identity that only God would have developed. He got to see himself through God’s eye.

That is the “Greatest Gift” anybody can get on this Planet – Getting your sense of Identity from God because the truest things you will ever know about yourself are the things that God will tell you.

Of course, you know that as we grow, as we develop on this Planet; we are busy looking at Other People to find out what they think about us and then we form an image of ourselves from what People tells us they see of us.

That is where something begin to go wrong!

When you allowed Human Beings to label you in this Planet, they will “Mislabel you” and “Misdirect you”.

Once you get it wrong with your Identity; you have gotten it wrong.

Our time with God is not supposed to be a distraction from the important issues of life.

What are these important issues of life that are more important than staying in the Presence of the King of kings and the Lord of Lords?

That is what David discovered.

That is why he said: I longed for you, I thirst for this, I want you, I’m a God’s chaser.

I was reading recently the Story of Job and how Job would complain and complain believing it was God that was out to make his life uncomfortable because he knew that he was living right.

You need to know that challenges comes to Good People too sometimes.

But Job didn’t know it was God that was bragging on him even before Satan

But God would not allow a trial to come if it is not going to use it to create Promotion for you.

That is important.

So, learn how to be Intimate with God no matter the circumstances that comes your way.

One other thing I’m going to say is: Beware of Legalism because I think that is what is running People into trouble in a scenario like this.

We are not in the Old Testament where you have to obey all the commandments before you could enjoy all the blessings.

No – Jesus Christ Paid fully for your sins.

So, anybody that comes with any Rule and now making you feel Guilty and Unqualified before God; is giving you unnecessary loads and you have to drop those loads.

That was what Jesus Christ was talking about.

… I’m serious that is exactly what Jesus Christ was talking about.

When you go back to Matthew 11:28-30; Jesus Christ said: Are you burned out in Religion?

Drop this “Religious Load”.

Oh, because you didn’t Pray up to one (1) hour in the morning – Oh God cannot accept you.

Throw all that away.

Oh, because you did not fast, Oh because you didn’t do this and that – Just ask yourself: Is it in the Bible? Why will God not accept you now?

If Satan tells you God is focussing on your sin, tell him that Jesus Christ has Paid for your sins with His Blood.

And as long as God is looking at the Blood of Jesus Christ; all your sins has been forgiven.

Believe that God is your daddy: Approach Him, He loves you – Just believe it.

So, what I realised today is that: Many People knows Psalms 23 – The Lord is my Shepherd, but they don’t know the Shepherd.

It is time for us to know the Shepherd.

Use this Pandemic as an opportunity to get close to your daddy.

Please, bow down you head in Prayer now.

And say: Lord, I want you to be the Shepherd of my Soul, I want you to be the Shepherd of my life.

Your sheep knows Your Voice: I want to know Your Voice. I don’t want to follow the voice of a stranger and the stranger is Satan.

I want to know Your Voice, I want to be Close, I want to be Intimate with You.

I want to know You Intimately – Reveal Yourself to me.

I know you love me and I love you too.

Thank you Lord!

In Jesus Name – Amen.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Reverend Sam ADEYEMI is the Senior Pastor, Daystar Christian Centre.

He is also the President of Success Power International, an NGO that among others things specializes in Organizing Financial, Leadership and Motivational Seminars and is President of Daystar Leadership Academy, a leadership School for Business Owners and Ministers of the Gospel.

DISCOVERY MEDIA CREW, REACHING OUT TO THE WORLD THROUGH THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL!

Yours Always,

MOSES DURODOLA, TITILAYOMI AJAYI AND AYODELE OLALEYE.
© DMC 2020.