13. Bishop Ogoe Why Suffering Is Good For You Recap

Welcome to track #13 of Mission South Africa. Pray Lord. Let nothing pass me by. I believe that. This. Session we are about to have. It's somebody S turning point. This is the moment somebody has been waiting for. It's your turning point and you want to pray, Lord, let me not miss my moments. Let me not miss my moments. Father, we thank you in Jesus name, Amen. Please be seated. Let's take our notes. We want to go through the very powerful points we were taught this morning. What an awesome session we had this morning. Clap your hands for this morning. I tell you, it was as if I had not been to a camp before and I believe that that is really the point. You see, this morning's session was a foundation laying for all of us. Amen. As we launch out to start churches, some of you are launching out to step into the Bible school in Accra and all of us are changing into better ministers with the whole of South Africa in mind. It is very important that the next phase begins with a good foundation. Amen. And there is no better foundation for your ministry than the foundation of dying and suffering. I tell you, if you are a minister, even a shepherd, and you do not have dying and suffering at the base of your ministry, it means you are not prepared to go far. Real ministry, the ministry that makes an impact, the ministry that goes far, the ministry that goes all the way is a ministry founded on what Christ's ministry was founded on. And that was blood, pain, suffering. If you ever want to see glory, you must be at home with the concept of suffering. Amen. And the verse Bishop shared with us at the beginning was John 12 and verse 24. Jesus speaking said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die. It abideth alone. I'm sure you are aware that from this camp you should not be alone. Hello. From this camp you cannot be alone. You must give death. To members, believers, Christians, churches, anything you must give them. And the scripture says that except a cone of which fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. So if you want to be alone, which many of you have been since you became Christians for the past seven years, five years, there is nobody you can point to and say that this person owes his existence in the church to my efforts. You can't. You've been in church for three years. There's nobody who can point to you and say, had it not been for this sister, had it not been for this brother, I would have left the church. I wouldn't have even been in church at all. That testimony. If nobody. Gives. It about you. Then there's something wrong with your Christian life. Amen. And so we are starting the journey of affecting lives through church planting, through scattering churches all over, and except you fall into the ground and die. You will be alone. But if it die. It bringeth forth much fruits. Amen. Is that not what church planting is all about? So I can't hear you, I said. Is that not what planting of churches? Is that not what mission South Africa is all about? It's not about starting banks. Schools. Universities day care centres. Mission South Africa is about planting of churches, Amen. And that is the fruit God is looking for. And Bishop said with us that it is very it is almost impossible to die without suffering. He went through the different types of death. That even if you avoid the physical suffering that is normally associated with death, you will go through. Some psychological suffering, and that is also suffering. So to to welcome death and to embrace death without suffering as a part of it. It's not real. You cannot die. Without embracing suffering, anybody you see who has borne fruits has suffered. Anybody you see who has amounted to much in the ministry has suffered. And that is the foundation. Did you know that you can be a shepherd, a pastor without suffering? You can, I mean you can. You can decide not to suffer. Jesus could have decided not to suffer. The reason that all the suffering Jesus went through, he chose to go through it. First of all, turning around and facing Jerusalem was his choice. He could have turned around and faced Morocco. He chose to go where pastors killed God servants even in Gethsemane. Oh. He could have escaped. Remember when Peter threw the knife, he said, put it away. I am capable of calling my father right now. And he will send legions of angels to deal with these fully soldiers. He had power. He had power enough not to go to the cross, but he understood that you have an everlasting ministry. You need suffering at the base of it, and that is what. Peter was trying to prevent him from doing Peter. Do you know Peter? Yes. He said that it will never happen for as long as I'm here. That you will suffer. No, no, no. We, we will take care of you. We will protect you. Look at my knife. And Jesus called Peter Satan because Jesus was was prepared to embrace pain. He was not ready to run away. All I'm saying is that Jesus had the option to run away from pain. That's all. And that Peter who was trying to prevent him and even promising him security. And I'm telling you, one Peter is your security guard. You are safe. Yeah, I mean the precision with which the guy cut 1. Ear. I mean, look, if I give you a knife and I say just just slice an ear off, you can easily cut the person's face, remove an eye. I mean, I've been able to slice the ear. The guy is great. It is great. He is the he is the he is the security man of anybody's dreams. But Jesus said you are Satan. Anybody who tries to prevent you from suffering is Satan. And rather Judas who directed the soldiers to go and arrest him was rather referred to as friend. The one who was sent to prevent Jesus was called Satan. And the one who brought the pain was was described as friend when Jesus saw himself. What have you come to look for here, friend? Friend. Judas was friend and Peter was Satan. I will say it again. I said Judas was friend was called friend by Jesus and Peter was called Satan by Jesus. If you want to do the ministry the way Jesus did it, then they prepare to call anybody who tries to prevent you from suffering as Satan. Yes, and I'm saying that as many of you are already. I don't. Even need to say it because many of you are even. Practicing it already being accepted without suffering. Some of you wouldn't have didn't come to this camp if there was no feedbacks bringing you here, if somebody hadn't put you in his car. You are not prepared to go through any suffering and that that is incompatible with ministry. It will be compatible with with teaching in the school or being a lawyer or being a doctor or being a driver. But to be a servant of Christ, to be accepted, to be a church planter? The first foundation you need is the foundation of suffering. And you see, my greatest joy is that all of us. Receive this foundation today, and it is my prayer that you will embrace it properly as a part of your Christian life, because today's Christianity. Does not admit suffering. Today's Christianity is a Christianity of joy and happiness and and and and prosperity and blessing, which is true. But the way to that end is suffering. The way to that end is suffering. So there are many shepherds and even pastors who have built their ministries without a foundation. I'm telling you. See, I was surprised that Jesus Christ taught some form of architecture that I never thought existed. He thought that and I never knew it. I saw it in the Bible that you can actually build without a foundation. I mean, I thought you need a foundation to build anybody building. Has a found mass lay a foundation? But Jesus said in Luke chapter 6 verse 49 that he that heareth the word and do what it not his life unto a man that without a foundation builded an house without a foundation you see a house is there a ministry is sitting there, a pastor's works. He has built a large church, a finished house with glass and roof and doors and and a lawn everything air conditioners, lights, fans, furniture, completed house, but without a foundation. This I, I, I didn't know that, but Jesus said it is possible to build a church without the foundation. It is possible to build a ministry without a foundation. It is possible to be accepted for 10 years without having laid the foundation. And the foundation is the foundation of suffering and pain and losing. So all of us who are here, young boys and girls, young men and women, as we are rooting for churches and planting of churches and going to Bible school and serving God, be at home with the reality that you will suffer. It's not a metaphor. Yes, it's not like a like we are looking for proper sentences and we lack grammar. No, you will suffer. There is suffering and if you refuse it, if you reject it, you are not ready to be a pastor and your ministry will fail. You will have a barren ministry. There are many pastors with a ministry that is barren. Barren. We have some in lighthouse, We have some outside lighthouse. We have some all over the world. Because Jesus says that you can build without a foundation. Yes. You can have a ministry. A check, a branch which is just there is just there waiting for a takeover, waiting for the right person to come and take over, a person who has suffered and has got oil. Even to be anointed you need suffering. You can't be anointed without. Suffering. So there are there are many dry shepherds, dry shepherds, dry Pastas drive. Dry everything because to be to be anointed, I mean think about the problems even Elijah went through. To be an anointed church planter you must embrace suffering and let suffering be your foundation as you go on. You go through problems, you ask God, God, what is this? You will pray and say, Lord Jesus remove me from this problem and God will hear your prayer and will not remove you from the problem because it is a necessary part of your ministry as his laborer in the vineyard. He will not remove you. Paul even pray such prayers. Those of us who are used to. Saying a prayer. And your pain goes away, confessing some words of faith, and then your suffering is taken away. You won't suffer. You will suffer. You will have problems that are only in your life because you chose to be a pastor, because there are many problems in life. I mean, you don't need to be a pastor to suffer. You don't need to be a minister to suffer. Everybody is suffering. Well, for information, the fact that you are sitting behind the console doesn't mean water can come there. How many of you are ready to suffer? Be careful as you are raising your hand. If you are not sure you can put your hand down tomorrow, you'll be sure. Don't force yourself. But you see, I'm happy you've raised your hand. Let me see your hand again. I'm happy you raised your hand because that is what will make you the minister, the cutting edge minister that God has for the the New South African mission we are going to see will be spearheaded by young boys, pasting thousands of members, young boys, young girls, because it's not by might, it's not by power, it is by the oil, it is by the Spirit, it is by the anointing. Amen. And Bishop took us through reasons why we must suffer, do you remember? And what are the reasons he gives us? He gave us the first reason why we must suffer is that it makes God happy. It makes what it makes God happy. How many of you want to make God happy? God wants to be happy with you. He'll be happy with you when he sees you suffering. Amen. Anybody who wants to obey God and enter the ministry must understand that what makes God happy. Isaiah 53 verse 10. He says that for it, please. God to what? Bruise him? Hey, it please God. I mean, God has joy. You see, it's not just your holiness that gives God joy, your righteousness, your upright living. But it also pleases God to bruise you. It pleases God to make you suffer. Anybody who has taught you that God only comes into our lives to remove suffering from us has not finished reading his Bible. At least he hasn't gotten to Isaiah 53. It pleases God somehow. God is happy to see that we are suffering. Because it is. Through the suffering that we become everything that He wants us to become. That is his way. If he did not remove Jesus Christ from suffering, he will also not remove you from suffering. Yet if he really was watching. Jesus Christ on the cross. And Jesus was asking My Father, my Father, why have you forsaken me? Then one day expect to also ask my Father, my Father, why have you forsaken me? There will be a day in the ministry you would even wish you were not a pastor, but you are a pastor. But it pleases God, it pleases God to see that you are suffering. Almost all all those who worked with God in a certain way spoke very highly of suffering. They didn't damn God, Unlike Job's wife who said trust God and die. Job's response was that if we receive good, is it? Is it not right for us to also receive evil? Job's response was that even in the same flesh that worms are eating, that is the same place where I will see God, in that flesh will I see God. You cannot see God. You can't experience God's presence with with with a problem free ministry, avoiding problems anywhere there's confrontation you avoid, anywhere there's pain, possible areas of faith so you live your life without having. Been. Tempered and mastered. And there are many, many ministers who are not correct, whose ministers don't please God. Because when God comes into your things, he must see suffering. That's why 1 senior minister said. It is not by what you have done, it is by what have you suffered, what have you been through? This is this is not a script in the Bible. This is a senior father advising a younger pastor that in the ministry is not by the suit you wear. It's not, it's not, it's not even by how powerful your Britain is. When you print, people stand up. When you print, people clap. It's not like that. It is, It is by what have you suffered? And, and today it's also my question, what have you suffered? And those of us who are doing the ministry with avoidance, reflexes avoidance, any time there is pain, there is complication, you want to, you want to move away, you will not make God happy with you because God's way is the way of pain. That is His way. He has always done it without pain, without suffering. Some of you, your family members will reject you just because you want to be a pastor. A certain guy who has promised to marry you will not marry you because you have. Chosen to be a lady pastor. You watch it and see. You watch it as the guy has written poems, sent chocolates, roses, and so on that one day in your discussion, you say that you want to be a pastor and save God. That's the last. Day you hear from him, you will suffer. You will suffer. You will suffer even even to be a pastor. You must live your life in a certain way. And one of the ways to live your life as a pastor is that a life of holiness. Is she to be holy and to please God? You will have pain. You will suffer. Joseph suffered. When, When? When he ran away from Potiphar's wife. From there, he went straight to prison. Anybody who has obeyed God has had to suffer, and you will not be exempted. No, no, no, no, unless you don't want to obey God. So. So today let us make up our minds that the type of ministry you are going to do is a ministry that will make God happy, because it is not every ministry that makes God happy. Ministry without pain does not make God happy. That is why the camp we can sit on our buttocks for six hours. You are being initiated into sufferings. That is why your breakfast can be sitting there. But you are you are you are at the camp as if you don't have breakfast. But prepare for higher grades and higher. Degrees of suffering so that God will be pleased with you, yes. He said this is my son, this is my daughter, in whom I am wealthy. May we begin to speak highly of suffering? Yeah. Next time you are suffering, listen, I said that there is some suffering you will have only because you are a pastor. If you were not a pastor, you would not face those problems just because you have decided to go to Accra. You watch and see. I promise you, suffering not not in Ghana, suffering here. Before you even leave, some of you, when you say you want to go to Accra, your father will slap you. He will ask you where did such ideas come from? Who gave you such bad ideas? But remember when the slap came? When the first slap comes, remember that a certain pastor stood on the state and said that you should expect slap if Jesus Christ was slapped. You too, You'll be slapped. Yes, some money you have been enjoying from your mother, your brothers, your whatever. Some of you those inflows will be cut off. You say you want to be a. What a pastor, All right, do LSE be be a pastor LSE. Suddenly your spending power is diminished. Meanwhile, if you are chosen not to be a pastor, all these problems would it have come. Then, then, then you begin to say, oh small God, we are serving to why so many but God is not small. It is not a small God. Expect that you will suffer and it is the suffering that pleases God. David said it is good. It is good that I have been afflicted. Let us speak that language. Today's church doesn't. Say such things. Today's Christianity doesn't have such language that. It is good. Rather we see it. I mean, if, if, if, if Jesus were to be today's average pastor, he would have called Peter his best friend and he would have caused Judas and cares his soul then and cares his soul then soul then. Today, we don't hear about these things. But I'm saying that you forget about those two. If you want to be a a church planter, prepare somebody that would have even been your employee. That's because you are looking for a place to meet, a place for your church to meet. He will speak to you anyhow. When you look at yourself and you look at who is speaking to you because of a meeting place, you just let your eyes to heaven and say Father. I am. I am happy to be counted. Worthy of insults. Because you look at that thing that is insulting. You. Now had did not been for church work that that you are going to look for a place for your 20 members to meet, somebody wouldn't have spoken to you with such with such vile works, but it is part of it. If our master was called Belzebub, expect to be called Belzebub. That's why the apostles, they understood it. So even when they were beaten and they were silenced, they went back to their own company and they praised God that they were counted worthy. Paul. If you saw Paul's sufferings that he listed in the Bible, you would think that Paul was an armed robber. Beatings, lashes, stripes, shipwrecks, betrayals, nakedness. What type of ministry is this? But I'm not surprised that Paul is the one who eventually will write most of the content of the New Testament. Yet a man who was not with Jesus, a man who never sat with the 12. If he went, they were having Jesus was moving. I'm sure he was the one who was. Of course, he was the one who was who supervised the killing of Stephen. Paul wasn't there, but he wrote things about Jesus that even Matthew didn't write, that John didn't write. He had revelations because if you want to be a Captain Edge minister, you must have the you must have the resume and the credentials that Paul had. Surprise some of you, you have there's a lady in Accra. She was going to she had, she was in her branch and the branch pasta was going to start another branch. You had sent them to start another branch. And this lady? Is not a pasta. She just wanted to help her pasta so she joined her pasta every Sunday to go to this other. Place to go and start the church. One Sunday she was and she always took a motorbike. She sat at the back to the new church. One Sunday, she was sitting on the bike. Going to chat to the new branch she could have sat comfortably in her own branch and just. Been happy she joined the people. As they were going, the motorbike toppled over. There was a very a freak accident. At the end of the day, this beautiful young lady lost three of her toes when she's done without toes. So you have the big toe. And the little toe three are not as I speak right now, we can't find the toes. Ask me what was she doing? What? What is it that that led to the absence of the toes? She was planting a church. I don't care if you clap or you don't clap. I'm telling you that expect expect some pain. So expect it and know that it is God's way. Everybody says it is God's way. It is God's way. Some of you husband and wife living romantically. You cannot even eat food without your your your spouse sitting. There and looking at your face. Like your your your wife is an appetizer. You start church work. You see that that normal life, that normal life, family life on Sunday afternoon. Since you were born, it's been a family time. Sunday afternoon, you, your wife, your two children and your cat lying around. Ideal picture of an of an ideal marriage. Drinking holics. Watching catch Sunday afternoon ideal ideal you start planting church you will arrive at 11:00 PM and your wife will arrive at four Let me tell you there are some quarrels that they will come only because you are doing church work I. Promise you quarrels. Take it or limit. Ask pastors. If they will be. Honest, a lot of the Pharaohs in the in the in in the marriages of pastors. If they had removed themselves from church work and have been one of the many normal Christians also going to heaven, they would have they wouldn't have seen those problems. But somehow, somehow. God wants to see when God visits your ministry and he looks inside you, why all happiness and money and prospect, all useless. Then he comes and sees pain, sufferings, crimes, rejection, perfectly. He says, this is the one in whom I am well pleased. May God be pleased with the ministry you are about to do #2 #2 the second suffering is good for you, because it makes you what it makes you what Perfect and mature Hebrews Akatru by sin turned to it, for it became Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things? In bringing many sons unto glory to make. The captain of their salvation. Perfect through prosperity, sorry Perfect through riches perfect through joy Perfect through what? Perfect through what? So the word is mature another another meaning of the word perfect is. To be complete, complete. That is if you are a pastor, if you are a church planter and there is no suffering in your life, you are incomplete. You are, you are spiritually incomplete. It's like, excuse me to say, somebody who has an accident and loses A limb, a leg, it's, it's sad, but once you lose your leg, once you lose your hand, your arm. Once you lose your. Eye. You are incomplete. Many of us, in the Spirit, are like amputees. And that is why you can't also go far and fast. You can't be hopping around with one leg, neither can you be clapping with one arm in the spirit. What makes you complete is suffering. It's here. Perfect. Perfect doesn't mean that you don't sin. That's what you don't sin. You don't have bad thoughts, you don't get angry. No, that's what perfect means. Complete, Mature. Mature. What makes you mature? The difference between a 2 year old girl and a 30 year old woman, it's maturity. That is why the two year old girl, she, she has everything. If you if you, if you look into her body, she has everything inside her body, there is nothing. New. About to be formed inside her body. Nothing new. Everything that 30 year old woman has, she also has it. But the difference is that, see, the 2 year old girl is not mature. You can be a 2 year old minister. And of course, a 2 year old cannot get pregnant. A 2 year old cannot give birth. It is true maturity that we give birth. There is a certain age. When you are of age, then you can give birth. And ministry is about giving birth. You are giving birth to souls, giving birth to stable Christians. You are giving birth to established Christians, You are giving birth to branches and churches. And for us to give birth, we must be mature, please, to be able to produce a church and to grow the church. To be able to produce stable Christians, you must be a mature person. And you see in the Spirit, in the ministry, maturity is not. By age. That is why I have great hope in the young. Yes, maturity has never been, is not, and will never be determined by how many years you have been in lighthouse, of how many years you have been born again. There are many people who gave their life to Christ 30 years ago but are useless Christians. Some of you must thank God you came. To. Missions, Missions South Africa camp. Because before this camp you were useless. Useless. You have been born again. You have started the attack. Three years. Five years. Listen, Maturity. Maturity is not that. I have been here for a long time. We don't use that one. Anybody who uses you have been. Here for a long time. Hasn't understood. The ministry. There is a time in the ministry when we are choosing certain people. We go by how long they have accompanied with us since the days of John the Baptist. Those ones are there. But when we are talking about somebody who is capable of bearing fruits, it's not by by how many years as in the physical that we need 20 years or 15 years or 13 years or 18 years in the spirit. We don't use 15 years in the spirit. We don't use five years in the spirit. Maturity comes by what you have suffered. So if even if you are one year old and you have suffered a lot of things, God can use you to give birth to souls, to give birth to a church, to give birth to branches, to give birth to the praise of God versus if you have been around for 20, even even some of you, but for this camp even to attend church. During the week, weekday. Service some of you are here it is. It is a problem. Meanwhile you have. Been in the branch for seven years and you want God to use you because you are a founding member. It's not like that. The writer of Hebrews chapter 5 in chapter 5 defines maturity as use having used your senses by reason of use. Strong meat belongs to those who by reason of use that even in the one year you have been a Christian, you have done a lot of soul winning. People have insulted you. You have done a lot of Bible study. You have done a lot of praying just by reason of use. You are you are now somebody who is capable of strong meat. So please where we are going from here? Those of you who have got 10 years up your sleeve, five years? You've been in your check for how many years? Get ready to see young ones being used by God mightily. Yeah. Young ones who are prepared to suffer, Young ones who are. Prepared to do what? God wants them to do, Yes. Anybody with anybody who attempted to do what God wanted them to do suffered any instruction that God gives. If there's no suffering at us, find out. Again, perhaps you didn't hear from God. Anybody God said he should do something suffered. There is always any time. You see, sometimes the very nature of the instruction will make you suffer like Abraham. Leave your country, leave your family. Suffering comes with it. And very soon expect that as you obey God in an area, you are going to experience suffering. So suffering is good because it makes you mature. Yes, break up with that foolish boy and be and be and be and be broke and suffer a life without money in order to be a shepherd, in order to be a chest planter. There is suffering waiting for you and I pray that you will not avoid it because. Suffering will make you perfect and complete #3 #31GO, oh, I can't hear you. Suffering, that's what. Wow. When you suffer, that will say that he learnt obedience. Not so, though He were a son, yet lend he obedience by the things which he suffered. Amen, Amen and. If God will bring suffering into your life to get you to obey Him, embrace it. Amen. That is the the the scripture in Luke Chapter 9, hearing the word of God and obeying it. The man who built his house on a rock and the one who built his house on sand. The difference between the two is the doing, the doing, doing say doing. Hearing doesn't mean much, it is good to hear, but anytime you hear it will introduce a need to obey. And obedience is what gives you a solid foundation. And the Bible is saying that when you suffer you will learn to obey. But you see, let me tell you that try also as a Christian not to suffer, not to wait for sufferings before you obey. Amen. Believe God that. When God says, like some of us, you, you came forward to be a church blanker, when you go out, obey, obey, simply obey. Otherwise God will also bring some problems into your life. Have you heard of people who have gone to jail to to prison? And when they came out, they were reverend ministers? I've, I've seen how many of you know of anybody who went to jail and came out and was a pastor? Oh, you've not seen a lot of it? People go to jail and in prison they receive Jesus. In prison they meet. Christ in prison. They experience the call and they become pastors. It means God wanted them to be pastors. But you don't need to go to prison to be a pastor. But if you have to go to prison after coming to stand here to be a church planter, you go back to your friends, go back to your fornication, go back to your wilderness. And if God still wanted to be a pastor, whatever He will do, He will make you suffer so that you obey him. But don't wait for that. As you have come, Bishop Gruffy has met you. Just go out and obey. But if you want suffering, God is very good at that. He is very good at using suffering. To make you. Obey. He is very good at using suffering to make you a pastor. He is very good at using suffering to make you live the holy life. There are people who now have HIV and they don't want to have sex again. If you must have HIV not to have sex, God is a specialist. I pray that suffering. Will bring us close and into the call that God has for us that one day when you are a pastor, a great pastor of 500 members, 40 members, 100 members, 20 members. When we come into your life we will ask what? When they ask you what have you been through, what have you survived, you can. Less 10 things you have suffered. Because of which you are able to stand and call yourself a pastor. Clap your hands for Jesus. Keep clapping your hands. Don't stop clapping.