SERMON INSIGHTS

The Burden of the Father and the Gospel of the Kingdom

What we are discussing today had been on the heart of God long before all of us were born. As we discussed this morning, the Lord was saying that since Jesus Christ left, He had not found anybody who was willing to introduce the Father to creation. You can imagine the burden of Christ and God the Father to let creation get to know the Creator. While Jesus was speaking on earth, He was always referring to the Father, telling Philip that if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. If we know who Jesus is, then we know that He is the Father of creation, because out of Him the word creation came.

We are discussing a subject, the Kingdom of God and His Christ, which is a very delicate issue to the Most High God. When I was praying at the university campus at Kumasi, the Lord told me that the church had derailed from the message of the gospel of the Kingdom 400 years ago, and He wants us to bring the church back. The only message Jesus preached was the Kingdom; He didn’t preach salvation, healing, deliverance, or a contract, but the Kingdom of God. In Matthew 24, He reminded the church that the gospel of the Kingdom should be preached to all nations, for only then will God have reached every creation.

The Mission: Knowing the Only True God

We must look at the holy orders of church mission and the end goal. John 17:3 says, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”. This is a highly loaded subject. The eternal life Jesus came to preach is that creation, the church, the world, and the nations might know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

When God founded Israel, He spoke through Moses to remind them: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord“. The importance of creation knowing there is only one God is the very basis of the Christian faith. After the flood, God did not want to destroy everyone again, so He founded Israel through one man, Abraham, to build nations. When they were going to possess the promised land, the lesson was to let there be no other god, to make no image, and to serve no god whether of the sun, moon, or star.

This is the critical question for humanity and creation today: Who is the true and only God? The church founded by Christ has a mission to witness of Christ, leading to the knowledge that the Father sent Him. The Father is looking for a generation that seeks Him, yet this is a generation that wants bread, shelter, and cars, but does not care to know God. If a nation knows Him, they will serve no other god, and it will be the end of idolatry and making Satan or men into gods.

The Rebellion: Satan, Man, and the Church’s Compromise

We are dealing with the core issue where Lucifer wanted to be God and was cast out, and man wanted to be God and was cast out. These two cast-out beings want to take control of this earth and serve as gods. In Matthew 4, the devil told Jesus that the kingdoms of this world and their glory were under him, and he offered to give them to Jesus if He would worship him. Satan knew Jesus came for the Kingdom.

Satan tempted Jesus with food (telling Him to turn stones to bread), and with the glory of the world. Today, we see this in the church where people fight to be Bishops, Archbishops, and Popes; they give bribes and even kill to obtain these positions. There are Apostles who go and consult the devil so that they shall be made heads of churches. In Sierra Leone, Pastors of occultist churches told me that pastors of mainline churches come to them for power to be elected heads of churches. We are spending time and money as pastors to know and serve other gods, yet our task is to witness of Christ so people can escape eternal damnation.

If we do a true witnessing of Christ, Christ will give us to the Father, and we will build a relationship where the Father calls us His friend. The Father is yearning to get back His creation. Consider a teacher who labors to bring up a child who becomes a graduate; if that child refuses to respect the teacher because they now have a degree, it is a display of human pride. God created us, and even if we have eternal life, we are still creation and must submit to the Creator.

The Falsehood of Other Faiths

Today, there are churches that believe other faiths like Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism are also ways to God. There are Christian pastors and theologians who will not accept that Jesus is the only way because they believe these other gods are also of God. At best, they say Jesus is just a prophet whose time has passed. If the church cannot preach that there is only one God, it is not fit to be the church. There is no other mediator, not Mary, not Buddha, not Muhammad, not an angel. Christianity is not just a religion; it is the faith that takes you home to the Father.

Redemption of Creation and Nations

The mission of the church includes the reconciliation, salvation, redemption, and restoration of glory to man and creation. This redemption is not confined to man; rivers, seas, lagoons, forests, and trees must also be redeemed from the control of Satan. In Ashanti, they pour libation to the river Antoa; in Accra, they offer sacrifices to the sea because spirits have taken the sea as their own. In Ejisu, a fetish priestess claimed ownership of the fish in the river because of an agreement with a spirit.

We have churches that allow their members to honor these gods, claiming it is culture but these “gods” are beggarly elements; they are idols, not true gods. I heard of a road construction in the Volta region where they could not pull down a tree until the government gave money to pour libation. This is darkness. If we are to build the Kingdom, all these structures of religious and cultural arrangements must be abandoned.

Church mission also includes nation-building. You cannot be a responsible church without a vision for the nation. We are here to stop the nation from worshiping idols and making human sacrifices. The Kingdom of God mission pertains to the restoration and establishment of the full, undivided control, reign, and rule of Jehovah God over His creation on earth. We pray “Thy Kingdom come” so that the condition that prevails in heaven where there is no dissenting voice and no alternative god will be established on earth.

The Five-Fold Kingdom Building Task

To build the Kingdom of God, we must engage in specific tasks:

1. Preach, Teach, and Disciple: We must preach the gospel of the Kingdom to people, tribes, and nations. We must be wary of false redeemers or prophets who propose redemption without the Kingdom of God.
2. Engage in Warfare: We must engage in warfare to reconcile, deliver, and redeem people and nations from captivity and satanic dominion. This involves intensive prayer that releases nations from the control of powers.
3. Overthrow Dominions: Building the Kingdom implies overthrowing Satan-man dominion, kingdoms, and thrones. These systems must be overthrown so Christ shall be exalted as God and King. We must partner with the “triumvirate”, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Church to do this.
4. Transformation and New Order: There must be a transformation of the old order, social, political, spiritual, religious, and cultural. This opens the door for raising a new spiritual and social order where political and cultural arrangements honor the Creator. This is how divine glory will come to rest upon the nation.
5. Crown Jesus as King: Finally, we must crown Jesus Christ as King, Lord, and Governor of the peoples and nations.

The Vision for Ghana and the World

In Isaiah 2, the vision is that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall rise above all other mountains. The church has forsaken her duty to society and compromised with darkness under the guise of “Sankofa” and cultural identity. These cultural memories were formed when nations were in confusion, meeting spirits in forests and rivers but the House of Jacob must walk in the light.

God bless you.