04. Sacrifice - Reasons Why You Must Sacrifice

Welcome to Track of the Road to Calvary. Father, thank you for the opportunity once again, in Jesus name, Amen. All right, you may be seated. Are you glad to be here? All right, turn with me to Matthew 16. Matthew chapter 16. Are you there? Verse 24? And he says, Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Amen. For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake will find it. Amen. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Amen. Now the concept of sacrifice. Are you there the concept of sacrifice? I want to just give you a few points so that you can have some points with you. Amen. Right now, the first thing that I want you to note is that sacrifice or the concept of making a sacrifice is a basic Christian theme. All right? Is a basic Christian theme it's a biblical doctrine very basic all right and so you need to sacrifice to be able to follow Jesus, Amen, Amen so the first point that you must write is that it's a basic biblical doctrine Amen. Because through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, anybody who was serving the Lord, Cain and Abel, you can read a few pages of the Bible without seeing some kind of sacrifice somewhere. Amen. Whether you start in the Old Testament or you come to the New Testament, you will sense a sacrificial or a sacrifice somewhere. Are you listening to me somewhere? There is some sacrifice of some sort. So it cannot be. And it is not the case that sacrifice is like a special doctrine. Rather, we as a church have gone far from the Lord. Do you understand? And we are just like the Pharisees who in the time of Christ were so sure of our doctrines and of the things we are doing and practicing. Do you understand? Whereas in reality, we are far from God because sacrificing. Abraham made sacrifice, Cain and Abel made sacrifices, Abraham made sacrifices, Isaac made sacrifices, Jacob made sacrifice. You see all these places that they mentioned, Bethel and so on, there were places where they made a sacrifice. That's right. So for us to serve God, I want you to understand that it's a basic component of our service to God and not the other way round. That is some few people who are specially called to make a sacrifice. And if you call yourself a minister of the gospel, it means you are climbing into even higher sacrifices for the Lord. Amen. And when you talk about suffering, what does it mean? What are you going to suffer? What are you going to sacrifice? Tell me me to Galatians chapter 3, and I just want to read just one verse there It says Galatians chapter 3, verse three. It says, are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you now made perfect by the flesh? Then it says, Have you suffered so many things in vain? If it be yet in vain, So what? What do you suffer when you make a sacrifice for God? You suffer. There are many things you can sacrifice and many things you can suffer for. And the Bible is saying here, have you suffered so many things? There are many ways of suffering and many ways of sacrificing. And so he's saying, have you suffered so many things in vain? So if you look at somebody, let's say you look at my life because I was a medical doctor or I am a medical doctor and I do not, I gave up following that. Don't look at that and say to yourself, oh, if I was also a doctor, then I can know what to sacrifice now. So since I am not, I don't know what to sacrifice. It's not true. In your circumstances, have you suffered so many things? For some of us, the suffering will be different. That's why you see in the Bible the different things. You can suffer. I said you suffer shame, you suffer reproach, you suffer the loss of things, you suffer persecution. And that's why I said you suffer many things. Give us suffering. That's why you see somebody who is married and the person who say I am suffering. You meet somebody in the president. The president says I am suffering. You meet somebody in the hospital, the president says I am suffering. You meet somebody in America, you say I am suffering. And then you you say, what are you suffering? You don't know. You don't know what I'm experiencing. So. Suffering is different. Depending on who it is, but there's all kinds of agony and suffering and you must accept that. It is basic and as ministers your mind should. Be that I am going to lose. Look, when I became a pastor, I thought to myself I would never travel abroad again because I I didn't know how I would ever travel abroad. I thought I would never have a house. I didn't know how I ever have a house. My vision was if the Lord would bless me with a snit flat, the Dansoman snit flat. That was my dream, that if I get one of those snow snit flats, to be in just two rooms, myself and my wife, as that was my dream. Do you understand? Yeah, because I, I so in my heart, I'd given up Ron Cannoli before he became famous. He decided I would never sing secular music again. Because look abroad, if you were, if you sing even one song, you know, or even you write a song, you get a lot of money. The brother whose son, if you can use anything, Lord, you can use me. I was with him in America and he was telling me he always received checks. If you sing his song, then you will pay. If you sing his song, then you pay and you pay. The writer of the song. Yeah, you don't just sing the song freely like that. Yeah, you see, So it is. It is a marvelous thing, I tell you. But he took that decision, you see, and so in reality he has put all the money and all the things he would have gained by singing the circle. I has put it on the altar, lighted his matches and bent it in one prayer. It happens. Then the Lord, the power of God comes, and then the peasant's ministry is now pumped. When they made that album, Lift Him Up, they couldn't keep up the production of the videos and that music. If you listen to it initially, when you listen, it's not nice, let him up. When you listen to it, first of all, it's not, it's not melodious, but it's anointed. Then as you listen to it and you listen to it, you begin to see that it is very powerful and it's a very nice whatever. But the first time I heard it, I don't know what is this person trying to force a song that is not really working out and is forcing to make an album. But in the end, it became the world's best selling ever. Christian, you know, I don't know if it's the world's ever best selling ever, but at least it was a very, very famous thing. And they get a lot of money. So in one prayer you can lay down houses, cars, land, whatever in your heart. God sees what you are doing. And it is God who needs to see. Nobody else needs to see. And through that you will enter into many things that you are supposed to enter. So he said, have you suffered so many things? Because there are many things you suffer and can suffer and will suffer when you are serving the Lord. So don't have a get everything attitude, have a lose something attitude and then you can do better for the Lord Jesus. Hallelujah #2 sacrifice. To qualify as a Christian, just as an ordinary Christian, you need to call Luke 1427. He says, If any man will come unto me. And he hate. Not his father and his mother and his brothers and sisters and his wife and his children. Yeah, and his own life also. He cannot be my disciple. Not a pastor, a disciple. He cannot be my disciple. This is not Islam. It's Christianity. You cannot be the disciple of Christ without even hating your own life. Do pastors hate their own lives? When you see us, we like our lives. We. Really like our lives. We protect our lives. Is that not so? We protect our lives. We guard our lives. We do everything in our lives to make our lives better, never to lose anything, never to be disadvantaged anyhow. And that is why some of us would not like to be full time, and that is why some of us are in full time depending on who you are. But God should look at our heart, and as the Lord looks on our hearts, we are. Able to come to the realization of what He has for us. Until we start to become exactly what the Lord has prepared us to be, we are not going to be what He wants us to be. The next one is you must sacrifice to be a minister, a minister of the gospel, Hallelujah, a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Amen. If you are going to be a minister of the gospel, all right, you have to be a sacrificial person. You must be a sacrificial person. The disciples said to Jesus, we have left all, and that is the way the disciples and the apostles went. They left something, I tell you, maybe I could have been in Chicago as a cardiothoracic surgeon. Maybe you could have been in Accra, but you've forsaken Accra and gone to a certain town to go and be there for the rest of your life. Perhaps your sacrifice will be greater than my sacrifice. Perhaps you would have been in Accra, but you've decided to be in Kumasi. Or you could have been in Kumasi, but you decided to be in the choir. You could have been in somewhere, but you decide to be somewhere depending on where the law tells. But because we don't have that mind, we cannot hear any such. I mean a mess, even if it's loud and God is shouting in your ear, go here, you can't hear such a go. If I did an altar call and I said that I, I sense the Spirit of the Lord is leading me to minister to some of you to leave your churches because God has led me to take 21 people to America for the ministry. Do you know that I will get more than 100 people who will respond to that now? Do you know that? But if I have, if I do this thing to for a front place or for Washington or for somewhere dawa dawa #1 and two up there and fill it where there's no light, do you know that you will not? Hear the spirits here and I will not I I don't think I will get even even 5 or even one person to hear such a voice by the same anointing. So you can see that we are selectively tuned selectively. Tuned to the voice so he can't speak. Or if he speaks, there are some things we hear and there are some things we don't hear. Yeah, look, it's not a time for us to stay on our old ways, but it's a time for us to be honest so that God can take us to the next level. The next reason why you must be sacrifice, you must sacrifice is so that you can get near to the anointing. Benihin's famous message on the anointing. Benihin teaches about the anointing. I never understood what he was teaching for years. I would watch him preaching and I said what are these? He had the message called 7 steps to the anointing. He said offering gold, purple, this dark Tabernacle, something Candlestick, this five pillars, what I said, what does this have to do with the anointing? I never understood it for years. I was listening. But you see the treasures are for only the treasure hunters. It's not for casual browsers. One day I understood what he was talking about and I realized that the anointing is in the Holy of Holies and so the seven steps he was talking about were how you advance from outside the Tabernacle step by step till you get to the inside. I couldn't understand what he was saying till you finally get to the Holy of Holies where the Shekinah Glory and anointing is. And so he was given all these steps and he said he got the first step from Catherine Kuhlman and then all the other 6 steps the Lord showed them to him. So these 6 steps or service steps are actually a progression through the Tabernacle. In fact, he has even made a video, like a simulated video as if he's going through the Tabernacle and you can see him going through the going through the Tabernacle right up to the Shekinah glory. And the 1st step there, or one of the first steps is when you enter the Tabernacle, is the altar on which sacrifice is made. That's the first thing you see. You sacrifice first, you don't go to holy Place. Without sacrifice, you don't go to holy. Place without sacrifice. The first thing that happens in the court when you enter, you come in, you make a sacrifice. Without it, you are moving away. And the next thing that comes after that is a liver. When you wash your hand, liver is like a big frying pan and you wash your hands with water. You are supposed to wash the blood off. But what is the use of that liver when there's no blood on your hands? There's no blood, there's no sprinkling, there's nothing. It doesn't apply to you. That's why much of the scriptures don't apply to you. Look, as I was talking here, when my brother, the brother I was talking about who was in London, he called from Jamaica, he's in Jamaica. He said I now understand he doesn't know what we are talking about here. He was just telling us, I now understand what you are talking about, the sufferings of Christ and how it makes you bear foot. That's what he was saying. He said he stood up in the bus and feed. The people were annoyed and he witnessed somewhere the person said do you know me? The person said do you know me? Then he asked him a question that do you know, people die in Jamaica because people they are killed all the time. If a pastor Robert was there, one of my pastors, he was there, the one who was in Trinidad, he was into Jamaica. He told me he came in let's say this morning and he was living the next. He said by the time he was living the next day, they have killed, they have killed 8 or 14 people in the town. I mean madness. It's like it's the something that they kill. It's the town of killing. So the guy asked him. Do you know? Do you? Know I said I I. Don't know who you are, but I'm just telling you about Christ. He said that when he finished talking to the guy, the guy apologized. I wouldn't apologize and give his life to Christ or because. He was, actually. Giving him a death threat, he said. I now understand it. You see most of the Scriptures you wouldn't. It doesn't apply to you and you can't preach it. I dare you. Take Matthew 1626 and when preach it, take off your cross and follow. You see, you can't preach it when you when you don't have any. Examples. Yeah. You don't have any examples. You have examples about giving, offering. When I gave this money, then the Lord blessed me. Then my auntie came and I saw and I went into my suit and I saw some money there and this. Those are the examples. But you don't have any example of sacrifice. So most of us. We are entering the Tabernacle, we say we are going to the holy place. We come and when we see the altar, we go around it. We come to the liver to watch. It doesn't apply to you. The watching of the water of the web applies not to you because you don't have blood, no sacrifice, nothing. Then you are going to go to the holy place. You are not that type. That gets anointed. Oh yeah, yeah, no, the type that gets anointed. Real anointing. Look, don't make any mistake. Falling down does not mean that you are anointed at all. If that's what you are using to say that you are anointed, it doesn't show that you are anointed. At all. No, it doesn't show anything. It doesn't show anything. You see, I don't want to. I don't want to say certain things because I don't want you to get the impression that we are against such things because we believe in such things. But don't deceive yourself into making yourself follow things that are not real. It's time for us to have real things, real anointing, real Katherine Kuhlman, who work in her dress, would be blowing in the wind like that. She's coming to, People are coming towards her. You see the wind blowing the dress by window. Anointing that has become in the form of wind in the church. And the person cannot walk. She said you don't know what it has cost me to be here because she gave up her husband and a woman, you know, women somehow they quarrel the fire, but they still love their husbands or they don't want to lose them. You see, she's one time the one who was interviewing her for the, her, her programme for her book. He asked her and she, he asked her and she said something said when she talked about that thing, you know how she had to walk away from that man, You know, he said that she couldn't stand in the room. You see, there is a price everybody pays and without it, you never really see that you have scriptures, words and others. You are, you are just, you are just nothing. Look in the ministry and all of us are nothing. One of the ways you can see that if are nothing is. I'll show you two ways. If you die and you wake up, you will see that your place has been taken, and then you will also see that it almost didn't make much difference in the world when you because almost immediately you are replaced. I'm telling you, imagine that you are dead now, a year from now, to be as though you didn't it. People will be saying all things well together for good. They will be quoting Romans 828 upon your death, that it was good that you died at the time. That God has used all these things to establish certain things and to make a way. Sometimes Moses has to die for Joshua to come on the scene. Yeah, if you like you. You watch it, you'll be surprised that everything. Work without you. That's that's one thing that should show you that there is nothing about you. It's just the grace of God. It's just the grace of the Lord that is upon us in the ministry. And it is his grace and it is his anointing that makes a difference. Another way when you can see that you are nothing is if you watch oranges, people who are very high passed up when they are in somebody's church and then they are cast out or they are sacked or they, they, they, they, they step aside to do certain things, rebelling and so on. You find out that most of these people don't tend or amount to match. But when they are in the chairs, they look very big. But what they don't know is that they are riding on something. Most people don't know what they are riding on. To be where you are. If you are, if you are kicked out of that or you step out of it, you'll be very surprised that actually all alone, you are really nothing. So ladies and gentlemen, I tell you, you must understand that it's just by His grace and by His anointing. And therefore we need to value and desire His anointing and we need to put down whatever He wants us to put down. Hallelujah. The next is you have to sacrifice to become fruitful, fruitful, Amen. John chapter 12, verse 24, the Bible says except a seed fall into the ground and die, it cannot bear fruit. You need to fall into the ground and die. Amen. You need to be rejected. Don't worry if nobody sees you. Don't worry if people don't know you. Nobody has to know you. Nobody has to see you. God has to see you. God has to know what you are doing. Nobody has to know who you are. Amen. Nobody is anything I said. Nobody is anything. Nobody needs to know any of these things. Just except when God forced you into the ground. I tell you when I started the church in 1987880, everybody rejected me. The places I used to go to, there was a pastor from one of these big churches. He used to come and hold all nights for us here on campus every Friday he used to come preach. He preached very powerful sermons. So when we. Started the church. I went to invite him and I said, pastor, can you please come and preach to encourage us in a new church? So I sent my assistant, you know the message that he sent back. He sent a message that I no longer sow amongst tones. I don't sow seed among tones. I was rejected. You can't. We don't want you. Then I had them mentioning medical students who are whatever in church and so on preaching. I was rejected. I went to another big church. I told the pastor, I said pastor, I'm studying a church. I've studied a church. Then immediately started you see some of you small boys and so on you get. Up. You go, don't go to Bible school. You need to be properly ordained and this and that. You need to go to school. Whatever. Hey, I was out again because I don't qualify. I'm a medical student. I don't qualify. I was out, rejected. I was rejected by my classmates. My classmates found me. Crazy. They took up a demonstration. They went to the medical school, the head of the medical school and told the medical school that we are Mickey are disturbing the school we are we have come here to study and this boy is carrying drums across every day. They are playing pram, they are singing, they are shouting, It's disturbing us in the hostel and they came to see the principal of the school of hygiene and the principal of the school of hygiene said as long as I am the head of this school, there will always be church here on Sunday. So we were not kicked out of the school of hygiene. Then he then they went to the medical school to try to quench us some three students or whatever group, they went there and then the Dean of the medical, just around that time somebody committed suicide. And he said, you see, we need the church and other things to help in situations and so on, so on how things were working together. The church is helpful. It's helping the students, it's helping the students. Nobody wanted us, no. There was no grown up in the church. Everybody in the church was a student. Nobody had a car. A car to the church, Nobody had a car. I used to work on the and pray, Lord, 10 people in this church have got cars. I declare it and confess it. I proclaimed that 10 people in my church have cars. I confess it. You see, I was a. Seed that has fallen into it called a book ground out of sight. One of my classmates, he came and he said this guy, he was my mate and he said this guy is Jim Jones. Do you know Jim Jones? Yeah. Jim Jones, a cult leader. I was rejected by my school boy. I. Said I would say accept a seed. Falling to the ground and die, you will be. Alone, but if you are going to bear. Fruit you will be thrown away somewhere. Then I was having my wedding and we went to see the lecturer, the, the, the, the, the head of the church at that time it was a church in one of the distinguished churches in the city. And it happened that the head there was somebody who was also, you know, a lecturer who also knew me and so on. And when he went, my father-in-law and my mother-in-law went to see them that we want to use this place as a church venue for our son's wedding. Then my, this person who was the head of this distinguished church told my father-in-law and my mother-in-law that this boy is Jim Jones. You see, he, there's only one person that he looks like and it's Jim Jones and so on and so forth. And that he would allow us to use that distinguished church in town on one condition that that church that I have started at the canteen should be closed down. That's the condition. So in the end, my wedding could not be held over there. I was rejected. These are family, even family friends. Then my sister-in-law came and saw my father-in-law and told them that this church I have started is a can of a cult, is an occultic type of group. Hey, we're talking about a seed that is thrown away because of what you have decided to do. You are such an outcast. A branch that is thrown away. I'm telling you, no approval from anywhere, my father. Was stayed in his hotel room 14 and I was there for someone he said that you now you say you are a pastor you say you are whatever then he decides that I wouldn't pay the electricity bill again in the in the place. So the whole place, the whole hotel, the electricity if I should be there if I say that I'm staying there, he wants me to go away and I say that I'm a pastor. I say that I'm saving God. I tell you, do you know the electricity bill of a hotel? I myself found my way out of that place. But you see, it says for it, Behold, that Christ must suffer these things, and be rejected by men. That's the scripture. There is no way you are going to become what God wants. And you see, the more you walk and you follow Christ there, you won't know how, you may not know how, you may not know when, but you will experience the, the, the, the sufferings and the if you are following the Lord, if you are following something else, you won't see it. Amen. All right, then the next is that Satan is very frightened by the idea of you sacrificing anything. Satan does not want you to sacrifice. Remember when Jesus started to speak about going to sacrifice? Huh. Yeah, in Matthew 16 he said in one vest, Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you. Do you remember? Are you there? Then in the next moment, what did he say? The Lord said to him, I am going to stuff as soon as he said it. Then he said Jesus thought that Peter was now mature, so he could now talk to him about sacrifice. The reason why the Lord is speaking to you about sacrifice is because he feels that you are mature, so he said. I'm going to suffer and I'm going to die not knowing that Peter was not mature. So Peter returned to his camality and said never once we are here, we will fight. It we will deal with it. You see, our big man can never go down that way. And Jesus said to him, Satan. Satan, Satan, get thee behind me. Who was the one who was trying to prevent him from laying down his life? No one else but Satan and Jesus knew who it was. And Jesus knew that it was Satan who was. Trying to prevent him from laying. That's why when somebody wants to lay down his life, I don't oppose that. I don't give the person so-called good advice, good advice. You see your economic whatever over your house or you see your education or your days or your dad. I cannot turn myself into Satan. That advice is Satan. Sometimes somebody wants to give something their wife would turn into Satan and say. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's not wise. It's not good. Satan, get deep behind me, Mercy. It sounds like good advice, but it's not good advice. It sounds very wise, you know, hold back something, at least keep a few security, you know, tomorrow not. Every church works out well. You know the. Ministry is a dangerous place. Be very careful. You see what happened to this and what happened to this and what happened to this. You get it. Very dangerous. You know, Good advice. I don't blame you, but the Bible says Jesus said Satan, Satan, come on, come on, get. Out get. Out I will die. Suffering will never make sense. Only eternity will reveal that it's sensible. Hallelujah. The next point, Sacrifice, Amen. To occupy your room of ministry. Amen. You see, everybody has a room. The Lord told Elijah. Go and anoint Elijah to be prophet in thy room. Everybody has a room. I have my room. You have your room. She has her room. He has his room. Everybody has a room. A room of ministry. Amen. And when the Lord called Elijah and threw the cloak upon him. Pazzalas, can you come forward? Where's the cloak? Can somebody give me a cloak? OK. Can I use your cloak? When the Lord called him. And threw the cloak on him like this. Immediately Elijah lifted up his head, lifted up your Elijah. And Elijah knew what it meant. What does it mean that he turned and saw his oxen, His business? Neither His business is over. Neither. The business is over. That is what it. Means you don't have to go for counselling to know what it means. People want to pretend that we don't understand what the message is. And you understand what the message is. Why don't you understand it? Elijah immediately knew And he said, allow me to go and say bye bye to my parents. And Elijah said, what have I done to you? What have I done? I've changed your whole life. The Bible says he cut his oxen divide and boiled it. So that he could never come back and use it for business again. And he turned away from it and he followed Elijah. Elijah, be careful Security. You need to have certain things in place. Do you think Elijah started his ministry that way? If Elijah had been in your situation, do you think he would have killed all his oxygen by now? Be very careful, Elijah. But not so. Elijah knew what it meant, and he just, he just knew. Listen, if God has called you to a ministry, the greater the calling, the greater you will be asked to put things down. You want to go to the holy place, You're going to pass the sacrifice first. It's the first place to go. No blood, no sacrifice, no progress. The word will never apply to you. No water is needed. Nothing can work. Most scriptures don't look large. Sections of the word will not apply to you. Some of us our. Sufferings are going to have to be to be under a difficult leader without rebelling against him. Suffer under him like David suffered under soul. They were twin javelins at him. Every day's pierced the dodgy. Now he has become friends. He came as a happist, but now he became a Dodger. A. Dodger Hallelujah. So lift your right hand and say I take my room. I sacrifice to take my room. How many want your room? You want your room your. Room is there, if you pay the price you can go for it. Every hotel room has a price. The rooms are there, you pay the price, you go and sleep in the room. You don't pay the price, you stay outside. They are beautiful and the nicer the room. The more you pay. Your room. I went to a hotel once. I say the cost of the room $5000 a night. I don't know how much our room was costing, about two $3000 a night and with there for about a week a lot of people were being hosted in a conference and I just wonder if I had to let me go and see how much the rooms are costing Japan expensive rooms. If you want a good room, you want a good room, you want a good room, you want a good room, a beautiful room with more space for more operations. You got to pay more. You want an old room that is smelling of alcohol and urine to go up. We weed on the carpet and vomited on the carpet. I went to a hotel. I remember I stayed there. When I go in the bed, I don't move my arm or my I just stay straight. I couldn't do anything in the room. If you're going back, you wouldn't like your your your hand to touch anywhere. And there was the don't touch me. So all right, the next thing is you've got to sacrifice to have power in your ministry. Power, power. First Corinthians 118, the preaching of the cross. To us it is power, power. Listen, even the Wizards and the witches and the occult, when they are invoking power, they make sacrifices. It's something that is known and Islam, a lot of power has been released into Islam by September 11th, whatever they are very bold. They are doing all sorts of things and all over the world. It's almost as though a light has been lighted in the Islamic religion and it has come alive and it's spreading and it's growing. Because some people, I had a picture, I don't know if it's a real picture. You see the plane coming to the World Trade Center and I heard the guys voice on the radio. Everybody, everybody sit down. If if anybody moved, there would be a danger to the aircraft and to the people. Everybody sit. Down every our passenger, Mohammed Atta. Mohammed Atta, he was piloting the first plane to go and kill themselves direct. I know I'm going to die in 5 minutes. That's what I want to. I want to die. I'm glad I'm going straight to my death. And you see the photograph the day before they were in the shopping mall. They were just going through, just holding some things. They were just walking in the shopping mall. You see them the night before they boarded the plane and then early in the morning, 7:00, they went to the, what do you call it? And you see them. I have a friend his his church member's son was on the plane and he said the girlfriend went to see them off at the airport and the guy is from Indonesia so he looks Arabic. So when the hijackers were going on the plane, just as you get into the place where you say bye bye, that one of the hijackers came to the guy because he looks Indonesia and he was now kissing his girlfriend bye bye in Washington. And he told the guy don't get on this plane. And then he turned around and he went in. So the guy told his girlfriend, Ah, what do you mean by I shouldn't get on this plane? Why shouldn't I get on this plane? So he kissed his girlfriend, Papa, and he also went on the plane. That was it. People are not afraid. Of that. And look at us like mice. We are afraid of death. We are afraid of everything. Do you understand? There's no power. I tell you, tree speaking Ghanaians, we are afraid of tree speaking areas and the white man when he came to this country, even if he can't preach, I said if he can't preach, let's say when they came in 1843 and so on, they came here, they couldn't speak it. They couldn't speak tree. Ghana was not an English speaking nation. And they came here and they came to Aburi and was there, Tifi and Manpun and so on. And they died after three months, six months. You can go to Agropun and see their names there. All of them died, but you see the shedding of the blood of those 20 people converted a whole nation, although there was not much. Preaching. Some of them wrote 3 proverbs. One of them wrote 6003 Proverbs translated the Bible in into tree into. Gun and tried their best. How much do you? Think was done almost nothing. How long will it take you to learn tree when there's no interpreter, no electricity, no water, no chloroquine, no e-mail, no fax, no mobile phone, no Rd. From here to Abri there was no Rd. And now there's no Rd. Not much Rd. How much more in 1843? How do you think they go to that mountain? My father built a house at the airport. My mother was telling me she remembers when they were going to the land, that whole airport area was a Bush. She remains that. She's still sitting. I remember we were going there with the surveyor. From here to here, this Bush, from here to here, the airport residential area. It was a forest in 1970 something. How much more in 18? Whatever. How do you move from the sea through all these bushes if in 1972 it was a Bush? What was it like in 1950 and 1940193019201900 and 18901880187018501843 And they came and walked through the. Forest like that Whiteman Whiteman 25 years old 26 That is why an old nation. You see, Ghana is a Christian country. It's not by accident. That's why we should never criticize Catholics. Anglicans met on this Presbyterian President First Church in Ghana. Don't bring yourself at all Presbyterian First Church in Ghana. How will your church be like when it's 100 and. 50 years old, will it even exist? Such power is released, he said. The preacher of the cross is the power of God. But rather, we have become an army of thieves. 419 pastors and churches do. You know, 419 any method to get my God shall apply all my needs. You are using Philippians 419. You say my God shall apply all my needs. No, no, no, no, no. It's not the gospel. No matter how fast it looks and how fast it seems to be going, it's not the gospel. And one day it will explode. You just make a note of that. It's not the gospel. We are powerless in the face of spreading Islam, spreading religions. The church is just powerless. Powerless. You are powerless to even raise funds. They are powerless to raise funds. You are afraid to speak real mess you. You feel people run away from from your church. That's how you go when you see their hungry faces. You say today I'm teaching you 25 principles of success, 34 steps to eternal, 34 steps to divine prosperity without sweat, 14 reasons why Christians must experience domination. And one brother told me he put on the television. The pastor came on. He said my message today is entitled money. Come to me now. Money, come to me now. It's a good message. Money, come to me now. Now. Money, come to me now. You see, brothers and sisters, I'm telling you something. We will do better and better and better. Oh, as we sacrifice, You see, instead of us sending our people towards the rich places, I am sending the people towards the poor places. Oh yeah, I'm sending our people towards the poor places. And I'm trusting the Lord. And the Lord is providing. Oh yeah. Now, if somebody says what to start a church in Germany or Denmark or this, I don't know, but I don't have much interest in all these places. But if you tell me that we should go and start a church in Nigeria, or you tell me we should go and start a church in Benin or Togo, or we should go to the north of Ghana, we should go to there, I begin to come alive. Jesus moved towards the poor. Let me tell you, it takes a higher anointing to preach to poor people. It's difficult to believe he's in, Jesus said the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to the poor. Let me tell you a secret. Everywhere where you do a judging, a pastor can succeed and a pastor can live. And anywhere I'm telling you, you may not think so. Any town. Any town, you would think there's nothing there, but every town, if God has sent you and you start a church and God is with you, you can live there and God can bless you there. You become like a king over there. People don't know. People don't know people don't know by God is going to do it again. This message, the cross is going to become very popular. So those who are not seeing it early will be left behind into a new era that is coming of a different type of Christian and we are going to flow in the things of God, the power of God. I said the power of God, the power of God. Rick Joyner, listen, you know Rick Joyner, there's a book you should read. It's called The Final Quest. Now he said he was with the Lord in heaven, and then he met Paul, Apostle Paul. And Paul said to him, he said, apart from a few places on earth, I cannot recognize the ministry. Or the message that is being preached today, apart from a few places in the earth, I cannot recognize the ministry or the message. Then he said there was something that we, the early church, attained, which the church lost. Very. Quickly. And he said it was the message of the sacrifice and the message of the cross, and the Church lost it quickly. And he said, so he asked Paul, what is the message that you don't see and what is that ministry? He said the message is the message of the cross and of the greatest sacrifice that was made. It has vanished from the church, but it will be restored in the last days. Hallelujah. And that's what Paul said he can't recognize. Can your church be recognized by Bible standards? Can my ministry be recognized by Bible standards when the Lord looks upon it from above? Can he recognize my preaching? What am I talking about? What are you saying? Jesus said don't lay up treasures on that. All our messages are about laying up of treasures. How to learn more steps to lay more treasures? How to expand your treasure based on earth. 25 keys to establishing treasures. How to multiply treasures. Empowering the black man to have more treasures on earth. Consolidating treasures of the African Christian. How to guard your treasures? I'm telling you. Can the Lord recognize our message? Can He recognize what we are talking about? He, Paul said I cannot, I cannot recognize what they are talking about. I don't know what they are saying. I cannot recognize what they are talking about. One day I was listening to somebody preaching and he opened to some, some some too. And he talked about ask of me, and I'll give the nations ask of me, and I'll give the nation some heritage. So I was. When you said that, this is a good message. ASA was listening to the message. As of men, I'll give you the nation. You know what it means. As of men, I'll give you the money of the nations, the wealth of the nations, the money and the gold of the nations, and I'll give the hidden as an inheritance. The hidden as an inheritance means you know the promotion and the positions, the positions in less than the banks and the corporate world and so on. I'll give you the the heathen as an inheritance. Ask of me and I'll give you the nations. And I said, wow, it's a new interpretation. That I've not yet seen. It's a good message, but I don't know. Look everything the Bible. Can be read and then it's like once we've read the Bible, you have closed the minds of the simple minded. Then we start to say whatever we want to. So I want to talk about money and how you should get more positions in the church. And sometimes we as pastors, we want our members to conquer so that they will bring more money to us. Actually, we are concerned about ourselves. We are not really concerned about them. We want to have money. We want certain people to be in our churches. We want rich people to be in our churches. No reverence. I can remember some rich people we followed up. Huh. No, it's normal. You. You see a rich person, or I mean a prosperous looking. Person I remember. Some time ago, I mean we have hardly any prosperous looking person then one prosperous. Looking person came to ice our follow up anointing came only we. Started visitation, Visitation, visitation. We visited them in their workplace, in their house, this and that. Oh, they came 1:00 to 1:00 to 1:00 to 2:00. In fact, because of those people, this days when I see to myself, you say you are in the church, you are welcome. I don't have time for you at all. Because Jesus didn't have time for you, see? Don't be afraid for money. You are not you see. I sense that. And there's a fear. How will you? Survive. How will this thing work? God will take care of you. God will take care of you, I said. God will take care of you. How can a minister make it? How can he do well or will take care of you? And I'm preaching a very good message. I'm preaching a good message, a Christian message in a church. This is a message. Have faith in God. That's what God says. Trust him, trust and obey. Trust him and see if he cannot take care of you, if he cannot look after you. There are many variables and we cannot walk by fear. If you walk by fear, you will lose your greatest ministry, the message, Paul said. The message and the ministry are lost. I don't I don't know what they are talking about. Is it normal if your teacher comes and you are talking they say write an essay or? Give a speech on something and you start to talk and your teacher comes. I don't know what he's saying. I don't know what he's talking about. If you, if you do not sacrifice, you are going to lose your greatest ministry. Amen. Are you there now? You may take your seat for a moment. Tell somebody no sacrifice, no power. Yeah. Do you know that in the secular world, when people make sacrifices, it releases power? Have you ever? Wondered why somebody like President Rawlings, You know in America when you have been a president before, you always call president. President Clinton. You know who is ex President Clinton? You are president. Do you have you wondered why President Rowlings, right had people following him, huh? Yeah, he gave. He he he, he sacrificed himself. You may not be an NDC supporter. I'm just saying that for you to understand. I'm just one, but I'm using. You see, You can learn. You see, you can learn from anywhere if only you are honest. Some of us, when you don't like somebody or you don't want something, you black out and you can't see anything good. The difference between President Rowlings and most of the other people who are campaigning is that he gave himself ready to die. Oh, yeah, And the people could see it if you read his speech. I've written a new book called Take Up Your Cross. I've produced President Rowland's speech when he was being tried in the book. It's called Take Up Your Cross. When you come out, you see the speech that he was keeping. I mean, you, it's like, you see, when they catch somebody, you're going to kill you. Rather be quiet and say this and that. I'm not. No, no. He said, let the people go. It's me. Let these boys go. All of them. They were all lying up there. Me they said you people have taken the blood of the nation. You have drunk like vampires, you have drunk the blood of the he was talking to these generals fearlessly and then when he spoke all the army of the people said it's like he said some point champion that is there who is challenging. So they came out on June 4th. That's why when he came out of prison, he what he said, he said the ranks have taken over the country, not him, the ranks. He was in prison and the ranks came out and took over and sat in fear and he came to make his speech. And he have had a lot of people following him genuinely when he's speaking, he doesn't read speeches. In fact, if he's reading a speech, we are all waiting for him to put a speech so that he could say the one that is on his heart so that we hear. Is it not true? Because that 1 is really interesting. Say your heart, say your heart pitch from your heart so that we know the truth, what you are really thinking about. So it looked more power and it caused people to follow him, whether they were following him rightly or wrongly. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not saying whether it's good or bad, but I'm just showing you. That whether is Islam, whether it is al Qaeda, whether it is the secular world. When you see somebody's sacrifice, it releases power and causes a following. And there is no following in your church. You are just you and some few. There will be more people. I tell you, a man of sacrifice, he is a great inspiration. Have you wondered? Why? We are following Christ, no questions asked. We are ready to die for him. We want to follow Him. We haven't seen him before. 2000 years passed since he came and he died. Still, only when we read his story, we say I want to also take up my cross and follow him. We just have to read his story and and what he did, Not even his preaching but what he did. Have you noticed that it's what he did that inspires us and not what he teaches. It's what he did that makes us cry, that makes us have emotions, that makes us feel like following. That's what he said. His creature wasn't like that, emotional or whatever, but it was what he did for us. What he suffered, that is. I preached once a message. He won my heart. When he died on Calvary, he won my heart. He won your heart. Did he not win your heart by what he did? By what he did, not by his preaching. Then after he whizzed out that we start to analyze what he teaches. Then we see that he was also very wise. How do you win the hearts of people when they can see that you've laid down your life for them? I'll tell you one thing. I'll tell you one of the turning points in my ministry. You see, when I finished medical school 1989, tenth of March, I had my house job to do and I had a little group in the canteen. We were having church services and he was like, as soon as we finish, everybody goes to America. I was also planning to go to. America. Then the time came and I decided I will not go to America again. I will stay here. As my church watched me to me, I noticed. That when they saw that I wasn't going anywhere. And that I was going to stay with them. It cost a 10 in the whole church from that point onwards, because the people saw that I will stay with them. Even if I am also going down or however I am doing it, I will stay with them. And that is a turning point. What's a turning point? In my ministry. I said crossing. It has power and that is why I'm teaching you what I'm talking about, because it is what will bring again power into our powerless sermons and our powerless churches and our powerless. We are powerless in the face of advancing false religions and all kinds of things. That God is bringing back power when the people see you, that you don't have anything, and that the church. Has got an offering of this. You understand and that offering that instead of using it to make your life better, you understand you are using it to let the church work and they can see that, look, I don't have any money, That's not a problem. I want the church rather to go for. You see, it inspires something in the people and the people want to follow you. It believes is power, it releases power, but when we are only grasping money grabbing. So now that the offering has come, it's enough for the new car that I wanted to buy. People will follow you for a while. But after a while you begin to see that you are with your new car moving around and so on. But they don't have anything. That's why I believe that a church should, the pastor should. Build the church first. Before you build your house, Before you buy all those cars. Build the church first. Build it for the people. Let the people see that they've got something. Let them know you tell them. It's for your wedding, it's for your outdoor, it's for your whatever. When you die, it's for you. It's not for me. It's for it's for the people. It's for you. When the people can see that you are giving up something for them, there is power release for them to follow you. Hallelujah. The cross releases power. It is the power to change. The power to change. Open your heart and believe. I'm telling you that is what we need to, I tell you, ask yourself, look, one day I was lying down in my office and waiting. I was about to go and preach and I fell asleep. Then there was something that was going to be done for me. Then as I, it was like I fell into a little trance and then an Angel came into the room and brought a little lamp that had been killed and skinned. Not skinned or I don't know, they'd move it or white, you know, like a chicken that has they've removed the feather. White. And red before whatever. So the Angel knelt down and presented the lamb to me. And I looked at the lamb and it was 1/2 teacher. Either I will eat it or I will give it to be bent as an offering. And when I saw it, I said, I cannot eat it. I must not eat it, I must give it up because the weed had been prepared. And so the Lord showed me in that vision, don't eat it, give it. And I did it. I never took what I was supposed to take. I, I, I bent it up. Let me tell you many, many times God will speak to you to give up things for His Kingdom. When I became a pastor, my sound system was the Ted instruments. We bought the instrument with our with our money. Our car, my car was the Ted bus. How many more cars has the Lord given to me? I cannot even use the cars He has given to me. My house was the church office, my room was the church office. R1O four and then my my doctor's flat. N 47 was the doctors, was the church office and where I lived. Were the church meeting places. We met there, we prayed there in our home. I got married, I had two children in one room 1 hotel room with house help and all of us were there for three years we were there. I really want to be a bedding and bring a bedding to the church, but most of us, we don't want to lose anything like I have to have this up. If I was to make the mistake of employing some of you to not be good for me at all, how you will face me and you see? Listen to the certain things that are good. I remember one guy came from. Sakrabi or somewhere and he came, he brought a change here. He has seen the Bishop's salary. He went into the office and he saw a check on the thing that is for the and he said this. How much the man is being given and do you know how much we are getting? The guy is getting and coming, talking all about it, you see, because you feel you are the same, you see, but Jesus didn't think he was the same. He thought He thought of himself as no, having no reputation, and he thought himself, he thought himself not to be robbed, thought it not robbery. But all of us we. Always think we are being. Cheated. Somebody is cheating me. They are cheating me. Now I stand up on my right. You see, I was CDC or what do they call that thing Committee for defense of the CDRCDR and so on. Cdr in the church. We now go sit down. You have to have everything. You don't have to have put it aside, put yourself 2nd and 3rd and sacrifice your life. That is what Christianity is about. That's what ministry. There is no sacrifice. Or you just have words. And you think shouting is anointing? Am I shouting? I'll be here with you for hours, you will see. We are here for hours. Anointing is no shouting. If I put you here and I say start to preach, we, most of us will fall asleep. Now shouting is not anointing. Shouting is not anointing. Shouting does not get anything done. No, anointing is different from shouting. If anointing was shouting then the Bible would have said it's not by my, it's not by power. Bye, bye, you're shouting. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm telling you that that thing, that thing, what is my due? So when am I going to get this? So when when? So when am I getting my whatever. So so so so it's his game. So mine is coming when? OK, give me the date. The date is what? That is the timer. Why are you in the bank? Open your heart to lay down your life for the Lord. Amen. All right, so sacrifice is powerful. Amen. The next one is sacrificed to bring the glory that your church would change the glory. Do you remember when Solomon sacrificed? Bible says when they opened the temple he sacrificed so many lamb and then the glory of God came into the temple to the point where they could not stand. Do you know what we use for that? Most of that we say the. Trumpeters were as one, but before you see that they. Sacrificed thousands of sheep and goats and when they finish the sacrifice then the glory of God keeps in. I tell you, the sacrifice induces and provokes the anointing and the glory of God. Let's do it. Sacrifice your name, sacrifice your shame. Bible says we suffer. Shame. Some of us, we are afraid to do certain things. We don't want to be ashamed. What about if it doesn't work? What about if I'm ashamed in the end? Hallelujah. So I believe that the glory of the Lord is here. Stand to your feet, everybody. Amen. Father, we thank you so much for your blessing. Thank you so much for the blessing that you give to us to serve you and to sacrifice for your Kingdom and for your name. Bless us, Lord, and help us to move on in all that you have for us in the name of Jesus, Amen. All right, now you may be seated.