Some weeks ago, we look through the Kingdom Experience, from part one to part eight and I think it was a glorious experience. For some of us, we may need to go back to the series and read them again. In this piece, we want to examine: Looking unto Jesus. This is also going to be a series, however, the length of it would be determined by the Holy Spirit. I want us to commence by reading the book of Hebrews chapter 12:1, perhaps, to verse 11. From verse one, the Bible says:
Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us [which so easily traps us, which so easily imprisons us, which so easily keep us in captivity, or keeps us in bondage]. And let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us. Looking on to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Now, if you want to look again from that verse 1, the Bible says, “We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses” we are surrounded, we are not alone. Whatever we are into now, we are not likely going to be the first to be into it. Whatever experiences that we're having right now, we are not going to be the only ones having those experiences — we are surrounded. He said, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us…” that keeps us back; that keeps us from moving forward; that prevents us from attaining the purpose of God for our lives; that prevents us from becoming the celebrity that God has destined us to be; that prevents us from becoming the great man, the great woman that God had ordained us. There is something that traps us.
You know, sometimes, it's possible for a Christian or a believer to live a life of rising and falling and rising and falling. So, it doesn't matter that the believer is rising. The devil is not angry because the devil knows the believer will descend. So, even though we could spend 30 years in the church, 30 years following Jesus, if it is all about rising and falling, rising and falling, then there is no big deal with our lives. So, every moment that we fall from the beginning till now, these are the moment when we've been trapped. The Bible says, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us.” My life must not follow a wrong pattern of rising today and falling tomorrow; ignited today but quenched tomorrow. Excited today, sad tomorrow, I must not, like they say, “Having mood swings”. I must not be a man given to mood swings. Don't come to me today, I'm on the wrong side of my life — come tomorrow, it mustn't be like that.
We mustn’t be a people that are full of faith at one point, but then, we are completely drained of faith at another point. We mustn’t be a people that confess so much, “I'm going to be great”, and later on, when they come to you, you say, “Nothing good can ever come from your Nazareth”. That is a man rising and falling, something, a weight, is ensnaring you. A weight is trapping you. Imagine that when we look at our lives today, every good thing that we can think of is a result of the good confessions of our mouths. Do we now think we confess good every day of our lives? Are there no days we make negative confessions? If there are days, then we can conclude that anything that is not good in your life today and in my life today is a product of our negative confessions.
So, when you were high, you were confessing positively, when you were low, you were confessing negatively. However, both the positive and the negative have impacts on your life. So, the moment of your negative confessions is the moment that you have been ensnared. I just don't like somebody talking to me like that, it gets me off, those moments of your off-ness. The words you say in those moments, you will still reap it. So, the Bible says, “Let us lay it aside.” The Bible says, “Let us run with endurance,” I wonder why endurance is required in this race. The race is long, difficult, and sometimes lonely. So, the Bible says, “Run this race with endurance.” If you will not be having moments of “on” and “off”, then, you will require endurance.
That period that you were trapped you were ensnared. Let's say, that moment you could not endure; that moment, you could not handle it. You could not tolerate it; you could not persevere. You could not hold on; you could not continue doing good. You just felt like giving up. I've been labouring, what do I have to show? I've been sacrificing, what do I have to show? I've been praying, you know that song that says, “We being praying, we being sowing, now we are asking heaven for the rain.” They say, “We are asking the heaven for the rain.” Imagine you have been sowing, you have been doing everything and you can’t show something — nothing to take home. So, you could give up. That moment that you choose to give up, you could no longer endure it.
You know, the Bible says, “At the later times people will no longer be able to endure sound doctrines.” That means they've tolerated it to a point; they can’t endure it again. The truth is killing us. This truth is keeping us away from enjoying life. What my mates are going through, I can't go through it, this truth is keeping me. Let me join them, if I cannot beat them. So, you could no longer endure it. So, if we are going to run this race to the end, this race that we are surrounded in, this race that has inherent capacity in it to weigh us or to trap us due to our lack of endurance or tiredness, the Bible says, we must run this race with endurance.
Now, to help us have a better perspective, verse 2, “Looking unto Jesus…” you're not going to look at your church, you will not look at the fathers of faith. You will not even look at the mothers of faith, this is not the time to look at the brothers and sisters of faith. You will not look at your country, you will not look at your friends, you will not look at your bank accounts. You will not look about lack of friends or presence of friends. You will not look at the number of followers you have on your social media. You will not look at those things, what do you do? You look onto Jesus. And the reason is simple: If you look at the other things, you could run to a degree; you could try. But there will come a time when that your tryingness will become exhausted, and you will no longer be able to endure. So that you don't claim, after all, I got to a good degree because of where my money could take me, I just couldn't go farther because I didn't have enough money. It is not going to be a progress by money. It must be a progress by Jesus.
You will not go as far as your money can take you, as far as your friends can take you; as far as goodwill, people's appreciation, of you can take you; you will go as far as Jesus can take you. Looking unto Jesus, the author [the initiator, starter], and the finisher [the concluder, the ender] of our faith.” You know, my Bible puts our faith, especially the “our”, in italics, putting emphasis there. But I also want to emphasize faith has more than the “our.” So, I would like to join the two of them together: our faith. Jesus has to be the subject and object of our focus because what we call our faith, He was the one that started it. What we call our faith, He was the one that finished it. He began it, He ended it. All we will ever be will be within Him. You can't out-perform, out-progress, out-do, out-think, out-work this faith than Jesus. So, you can't say no, there's something I'm trying to prove. I want to show Jesus that I can do what He could not do.
You know, I just want to prove a point. Because if you live your life trying to prove to Jesus that you can do what He couldn’t do, a time is coming, you will no longer be able to endure even the things that Jesus endured. So, the Bible didn't say, “Look unto Jesus so you can break His record, the Bible says, “Look unto Him”. There's a place in Isaiah when God Himself said, “Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah for I called him alone”. So, when God is telling you to look unto Jesus, God is trying to tell you to pattern your life after Him. Let Him be your model. Another word is follow Him. So, the series that we're starting is a series that brings us into that consciousness, that Jesus is not a name we should just mention, Jesus is the One to become; He is the One to follow; He is the One to pattern after.
So, when life brings challenges at your doorposts; when the challenges of life knock on the door of your heart, you will not respond as your father has taught you, or your uncles have taught you, you will respond as Jesus is teaching you. You will not respond and say, “People of my culture, this is how they deal with this kind of matter.” You know, there is this comedy series, My Flat-mate on DSTV. There is a man they call Chief, anytime he wants to say something, he will say, “My people say,” and you know, some people will also say, “the elders say.” “My people say, when you see a fly that is flying, and it has passed the place it has to land, it means the fly has…” he will just say something like that. So, even though he says oftentimes rubbish, he gives the impression that it is possible for a man to be in Lagos and his life to be governed by what my people in the village are saying. So, you could be living somewhere else, and the things you do, the clothes you wear, the way you dress, the way you talk, the way you carry yourself, and the things you eat is informed by what your people do, what they dress and how they behave. It doesn't matter the location.
Myself and my wife, we were watching a particular video about the culture of Yoruba and how it has spread all over the world, especially in the Caribbeans, Brazil, Cuba, you know, through the slave trade. How they migrated many Yoruba people. Now, even though they were slaves in Cuba, and in those places, and they have to be speaking Spanish and Portuguese; they went there with their religion. So, they were not in their houses, they were not in their places of birth, they were not in their ancestral places, but yet, they were doing the things that their people were doing, even though they were thousands of miles away. So, if they would do anything there, they would ask themselves, what do our people do? What is the manner of our people? How do they do in situations like this? How do they do marriage, or get married? How do they do this? How do they do that? When they give birth to a child, what do they do? They will not say, what does Jesus say? They will say, what do our people do? They normally do like this; they always do like that.
Now, if you don't want to continue to live your life on a lower level, the Bible says, “You look unto Jesus.” You know, by the way, these people that are traditionalist, they look unto men that have lived thousands of years. Some of their gods are people like them that have lived, right! And so, they still pattern their lives after those people who had issues in their lives. But the Bible says don't pattern your life after those who have issues in their lives. “You, look unto Jesus.” Let Him be your model. When Jesus was teaching, He says, “When they slap you in one place, turn the other one”. Now, if they slap you on a good day; in a place where you don’t know anybody, will you turn the other side of your chic? It is a serious challenge.
Even though Jesus could have admonished, the question is what does your culture admonish? Imagine if the person that slapped you is a young lady. Matter has now gotten worse, right? So, when we react; when we treat people; when we relate with people, do we relate based on what our culture teaches us or on what Jesus teaches us? There's a Scripture in Titus that says: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ has appeared to all men, teaching us.” The grace of God that the Bible was talking about is the person of Jesus. The grace of God has appeared to all men teaching us. So, what does Jesus teach you? The way you treat your wife or the way you treat your husband is that the way Jesus teaches you? The way you conduct yourself in your neighborhood, in your street, is that the way Jesus teaches you, or the way you think people of your family behave?
“Looking onto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.” See, that our faith, just call it our life. And you remember Jesus has a different life promise, He said, “The thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy, but I have come that you may have life and have it in abundance.” That abundant life is our faith. And if you want to pattern your life after that kind of life, then you cannot rely on your tradition. You can't even rely on your brain or intelligence. You can’t even rely on your stimuli, the things that are stimulating within you. You can’t rely on your hormonal dictations. Your hormone says do like this; you do like that. You cannot limit your life to that. Because there is a higher life in Christ Jesus, that you must learn from Jesus to be perfect in that life. And if what this piece this day can do to you is to challenge you to remember that there is a life that is more than this life and you can only live that life in Jesus. I think that will be good.
Look at it, “Who for the joy that was set before Him…” the Bible says, “He endure the cross, despising the shame, and had sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” I don't know anybody here that God has given a Word aforetime and the Word looks beautiful. That Word is like the joy that is set ahead of you. God says, “Don't worry, although your beginning may be small, but your latter end will be greatly increased.” And now you don't even have money to buy the things you need; you don't have food; you don't have clothes, that is, the joy that is set before you versus the cross.
You know, the word cross has two meanings for me here: cross number one is that thing that they hanged Jesus on. The second thing about the cross is the action word ‘to cross’. Like, let us cross to the other side. Between who you are and who you must be there is a cross. Let me not call it a bridge, but let's call it a cross. Between where you are and where you are going in life, there is a cross. The man you are; the man you must be there is a cross. The people we are and the people we must be, there is a cross. “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross.” He endured the process. Between now and then, the future, there is a process. Having fully satisfied the conditions, what happens to us? We get into the joy. We get into the promised land; we get into the promised experience. That thing that God promised us, we get into it. The child that God promised you, you give birth to the child. The house that God promised you, you get into the house. The business that God promised you, you get into the business. The ministry that God promised you, you step into the ministry. The land that God promised to you, you step into the land.
How do you get there? You have to pass through the cross. And what did Jesus do with respect to the cross? The Bible says, “He endured it, He despised the shame thereof”. So, what are we going through now that looks endurance-demanding or shame-prone? The Bible says what should you do is to endure it. Endure it like one who has a Father in heaven. You see, when an orphan is struggling, going through a difficult situation, and a man that has a father is going through the same situation, the man that has a father knows he has a father, and he knows who the father is. There are two different things. One is a bit hopeless, while one has hope.
When you were in university, let's use a hypothetical example. Let us look at Mr. A and Mr. B. Let's say when Mr. A was in the University, his daddy was sending money to him. And when Mr. B was in the University, there was no daddy to send money to him. When the month gets to the 15th day of the month, and Mr. A and Mr. B don't have money to eat, who will have hope between the two of them that money will come? It is definitely the one who has a father. Do you understand? But not an irresponsible father. Why? You believe your father will show up. So, when you are enduring, please, don't endure like an orphan. Jesus said, I don't want you to have the mindset of orphans, a people who have no father, No! “I will not leave you as orphans,” so don't think you are.
The Holy Spirit is a Father figure in your life and destiny. He said, “I will give you another helper…” He is your father, your helper. You have Him. So, when you are passing through that difficult situation in your life now, pass it with the consciousness that you have a Father who is responsible and after you have suffered for a while, what will He do? He will perfect you. That's what we have in 1 Peter 5:10. He will establish you, He will strengthen you, He will settle you, why? You have gone through that suffering for a while. So, if you omit the suffering for a while, forget the establishment; forget the strength; forget the settlement. Your God is not unfaithful, do you get it? But imagine a man who has no labour of love, even though your God has a good memory, He doesn't forget, there is nothing to remember.
Our God is not unfaithful. When you labour in love, He will reward you. But what about when you don't labour? That endurance is like you labouring. The Bible says, “In all labour there is profit”. If you labour where God has asked you to labour; labour on what God has asked you to labour; labour over what God asked you to labour, there is a profit. And when you are labouring, don't labour as an orphan, I'm saying this again and again, labour as one who has a responsible Father. You know, when they pray a prayer in Psalm: “The abundance of the heavens above and the fatness of the earth below it.” There's so much fatness on the earth, but there is something else from above, what is it? The abundance. Everything that comes from above is above. When water is coming from above is beyond what we have here. If God should decide to rain gold, you will be wondering is this gold or diamond? And God will still tell you, it is gold but this is a different gold — heavenly gold.
Whatever comes from above is better; is different and is higher. So, when you know that you have a Father in heaven, you should understand that you are connected to a supply that is abundant. So, you are not suffering because there is no hope, you are suffering in hope that tomorrow will be all right. Don’t suffer and every time you are suffering, you are making everybody to be getting angry with God. If God is a responsible God, He shouldn't allow you to suffer. So, God is not even taking glory in your suffering. God is brought to shame in your suffering. So, how do you expect Him to help you? But you are suffering, people know that your father is a rich man, and they know you are suffering. They know there is a message that your father wants to pass across with this experience. Go and read the Bible, you will see instances where God made people to go through things not because He doesn't have the power to save them, but because He wanted to pass a message across.
Hebrews chapter 12 and let’s read from verse 7 so that we can connect to what I said last.
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit [in all labour there is profit], that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful.
Do you remember that place we read earlier “For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross”? Here, the Bible says, “No chastening seems to be joyful.” But there is a joy ahead. But the chastening is not joyful. So, let's not forget it.
He says, “Joyful for the present, but painful”. So, are you going through pain right now? Are you reading this and you're going through pains right now? It is understandable. Nevertheless, afterwards, this pain is not supposed to be forever, it is supposed to be for a time. Afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. So, this your cross; this your suffering; this your pain, the Bible calls it, “You are being trained”. You're trained by who? Your Father and if you are not a bastard, what does the Bible say? You must be chastened. So, what did you say, Sir? You must enjoy the process; you must be chastened.
If you look at your life now for the last three years, you have never gone through anything that looks challenging, you should start asking yourself. You know, the Bible says concerning Jesus, “Although, He was the Son, yet, He learned obedience. He learnt submission, by the things He suffered.” So, skip the suffering, where will He learn from? So, are we going through hard times or we're going through harder times? The Bible says God is training us. Hebrews 12:6 says: “For whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son…” Not minding the age, the colour, the complexion of that son, “He scourges every son He receives…”
So, has God receives you, then He will scourge you. That is what the Bible says. And this is a man that has had experiences with God. So, when you are being scourged, when you're going through that cross, when you are going through that thing that you need endurance for, don't say, “I'm going through this because I'm an unbeliever because I'm unfaithful because God doesn’t love me because God doesn't have a plan for me.” In reality, you are going through it because you are important to God. There is something that your life must birth. The Bible calls it a peaceable fruit of righteousness. You know, today myself and my wife were also listening to a message where Dr. Myles Munroe said, “There are two priorities in life as far as God is concerned for us. It is the kingdom and the righteousness of God. He says, “Seek first the kingdom and His righteousness….” not it, His; God's righteousness.
So, the fruits of righteousness connote anything you can produce in the righteousness of God. Anything that you produce in your alignment with God, in you following the will of God for your life, is the fruit of righteousness. And that will not come if you never cross or carry your cross. So, while you are carrying your cross, if you will not faint and fail, then you must endure, it will not be easy, it will not be rosy, nobody will celebrate you, you must endure. You must endure. Today we say “Jesus”, sometimes something wants to fall on our legs, we say “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”, how many times did they say Jesus in the days of Jesus? Many of us, we sometimes envy Jesus, but if they put you in the shoes of Jesus, you will want to run away.
In a dry land… Now we are riding cars. In His days, there was no car to ride. Apart from the time He entered the temple on the donkey, He was always trekking. Imagine trekking from here, Abuja, to Lokoja. Or trekking from here to Abaji. For those in Lagos, trekking from Oshodi to Ojota.
There was a time I left my university to buy a computer in Lagos, Ikeja. So, my transport money got finished in Oshodi when I was coming back, I was carrying a monitor on my head. You know, those monitors that look like TV and has pointed backs. So, the money I had, if at all I want to use it to transport, can only get me to Ibadan, and I was going to Ife. So, there was no opportunity to ride any, so I was looking for a cheap alternative. So, I have to trek from Oshodi to Ojota — I was just trekking. There was #5 on me, I just said, let me just buy pure water. As soon as I collected a pure water, I finished the entire pure water instantly. And I was carrying the monitor. I went through an experience that day. That was the last time I made that foolish mistake. You know when you are in Ikeja, computer village, you will be buying things that you don't even have money for. So, since then, anytime I go to Lagos, I will keep to and fro money in another pocket; I don't touch it. So, when I was in that experience too, in Ojota, maybe, I must have endured it. So, now I have been trained by it.
God will take us through experiences. The son that the father loves, he chastens. God will expose you. You know, there was a time we were learning about shining as light, a lamp, when you light a lamp, don't put it under, put it up. It is not easy. When you start shining, people will be angry with your brightness, is it the only one that can shine? (Na only you waka come.)
You know, people will say all manner of things. It will bring your life on the spot. People will hate you; people will afflict you; people will want to do anything against you. Yet God has exposed you, but God who exposed you will not leave you alone. Whatever your life needs to go through, while becoming the man that you must become, God would allow you to pass through it. For the joy that He set ahead of you.
It is that joy that warrants all your suffering. If your life has no future joy, you will not suffer now. So, those yahoo boys that are making millions, you know, they are driving big cars, and they're smoking weed. And then when they drink a bottle, a bottle is like some people's salary, a bottle. And then, after a few years, you just hear that the guy, maybe, he went, you know, this crime is a network. You start with cheating on the computer before you know it, you start stopping people on the road, you start to rob people in their houses, and from there, they get killed. So, he enjoyed briefly. There was no joy ahead of him. The joy was for him at the present.
So, don't be eager. Don't be desperate for instant joy. This specialized joy that God has packaged for you that is ahead of you is not any lesser than the present joy of other people. Your own joy because, it's delayed, does it mean it is less, it doesn't mean it's inferior, your joy is great joy — greater joy awaits you, greater joy lies ahead of you, you that you are laughing last you could be the one laughing best. So don't feel any less. Those who are rising today, they may be no more tomorrow. So, stick with God, learn along the way, endure the process so that you come out having been trained with the peaceable fruit of righteousness. May the Lord help us in the name of Jesus.
Amen!
