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Here's a powerful message from our lead pastor, Pastor Nathan Lee Wine and Sannabi. Let your heart be open, your spirit be stirred, and your hope be renewed. This is IPC Hope Temple, your place of divine encounter.

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For me, one of the most remarkable preachings on grace. Reverend Peter has done such an amazing job. He gave me a lot of trouble preparing for today's sermon. He did such a good job. On the first week, he took us through grace that transforms. And he made us understand that grace is not just a favor that we undeserving favor that we get from God, but it has the ability to transform who we are. And then last week he took us through the grace that performs. He told us that grace is also not just a passive word, but it's a word that causes us to be able to do. And I said, if we are not careful, even though we've said to ourselves, this year is our year of grace, many of us are going to go through this year without enjoying the grace. Amen. Let me put it this way: if you were here on 31st, we had explained that basically there are two types of grace that are in operation. There is the grace that we call the common grace. The common grace we see from scripture, which says that the Lord causes the rain and the sun to be available for both the good and the evil. In other words, God is gracious for whether you are saved or not. Saved, there are certain graces that is available to us. Whether you're an unbeliever or a believer, you go to sleep and you wake up, the Lord sustained you. When you have food to eat, the Lord sustained you. In fact, the Bible says He sustains this universe by the power of His word. So for life to subsist, it is God's grace. We call that common grace. We call that general grace. It is the reason why an ungodly, well, let me not say an ungodly, not a non-Christian country can still prosper. It is the reason why Western countries are moving far away from godliness and still prospering. Prosperity is not a measure of your faith in Christ. Let me just lay it there. It is common grace. And if you apply yourself to certain kinds of wisdom and principles, certain things will happen for you. 70%, 71% Christians in Ghana, according to statistics, if we do not kill corruption, we will continue to be poor. We can pray and shout and roll and tumble and do all the things, it won't change anything. So common grace comes along with common wisdom. So there's time for sowing and there's time for reaping. If you let your sowing period pass and you start sowing when it's time for reaping and nothing happens, don't blame God for it. Alright? Are we together? Okay. So there's something called common grace. But then there's something we call special grace. That special grace is not common. That special grace is for those who are redeemed, those who are God's children. So you remember our text when Moses said, Do not bid us to go any further if you do not go with us. He says, Don't let us go anymore. We know there's a promised land, but we do not want to go to this promised land without you. And the reason Moses gave was how would people know that we're different if you're not with us? The special grace is the kind of grace that has God present in your life. That when people see you, all they can say is that he has been with the Lord. She has been with the Lord. You're not the same person. There's something unique about you. A guy called Saul was looking for his father's donkey, ends up among people who were named as prophets. And he comes out, and the Bible says he was another man. It's called special grace. However, I have noticed that you can be a believer, according to Paul, the text I'm going to read, that even the special grace, if you're not careful, might elude you as a Christian. It will not depart from you, but you might not enjoy it. And so let's take a text from the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, and I read from the verse 16. There's not a text I'm going to preach on, there's just a prelude to that. The part I'm going to preach on is in verse 1 of chapter 6. So he goes on to say, as God's co-workers, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. There's something according to Paul called receiving grace in vain. That is grace which does not come with an impact. It is grace that comes and makes no difference in your life. Paul describes that grace as receiving it but in vain. It is not the grace that is incapable of being effective, but it is the recipient who is incapable of enjoying it. So what I'm going to pay attention to is to speak on the subject. Are we moral because we are godly? Or are we godly because we are moral? Let me repeat it again. Are we godly because we are moral? Or are we moral because we are godly? Let me break it down. Do we consider ourselves as godly people because we do the right things? Or do we consider that we do the right things because we are godly? Now I would think, but they are the one and the same. They actually are not. It's more like the famous question of is it the chicken or the egg or the egg before the chicken? Which one comes first? It's it looks very complicated. It's it's a difficult one to think through. Are we godly? Do I say I'm a godly person because I do moral things? Or do I say I do moral things because I'm a godly person? Now I like the stern faces that you're giving me, and that tells me you're thinking. But trust me, it is not really complicated. It is complicated if you do not have a very stronghold of your own faith and the doctrines around your faith. To the Muslim, this would have a different response. To the Christian, it has a different response. To the secularist, this means nothing at all because the secularist doesn't want even to be described as godly. Because what it means to be a secularist is to say there is no God, or there is no influence in our lives by God. If you belong to any other faith, the way you come to this is different. But I'm not going to bore you by going through all the other faith and how do we respond to this. I am going to give you a Christian point of view. And the Christian point of view is literally this. And here's the surprise. We are first godly before we are moral. That's a shock. How is it that we are first godly before we become moral? To be moral in order to become godly is to work for your salvation, is to use deeds to earn God's favor, is to use activities to please God. It will make salvation look like this. I don't want to have anything to do with God. But after going round and round and searching around and doing my own research and coming to the conclusion that all the other things don't work, God now I think you make more sense in my life than any other way of living. And especially after reading about Jesus Christ, I think Jesus makes a lot of sense. So now I have decided to give my life to you. And then God is going to call all the angels. You know, there's something on social media that's like, come, come, come look at this, come look at this. You know, it's like, come and let's see. And then the angels are like, Wow, that guy's impressive. He did all his research right, and now he sees Jesus makes sense. Let's applaud him. Like, and then they write you a certificate of salvation, and then you earn it. But the Christian way doesn't look at it that way. The Christian story basically is this God is literally running after us, begging us, and what we're constantly doing is that we're constantly running away from him. The Christian story is that God in the Garden of Eden comes to visit the only two people he has created after they have sinned against him, didn't run to God to say, God, we are sorry, but they hid from him and became creative in their own ways by covering themselves. Salvation does not come to make us good people. The text we just read. Salvation does not come to you and say, Hey Nathan, I see that you're trying to please God. You're almost there. Last two years you were 60%. Last three years you made progress, you're 70%. Last year was your most brilliant time with God. You've hit 80 mark. Now you can't please God, and therefore we're going to add up to the 20, to the 80 with Jesus' 20 to make it 100. And now you've made the mark, you've passed to be a Christian. That is not what Christianity says. Paul says, if anyone be in Christ, he's not a refurbished person, he's not worked on, he's not tuned, he is not, you don't change parts. When David came to that one crucial moment and he needed to pray a sincere prayer to God, he did not say, and revive my heart, he did not say, Can you please mend my heart? He says, Create in me, create in me a clean heart. Paul says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. As if to say his audience would not understand him. He went further to clarify what he meant by that. He says, The old goes away. Now the new is here. The new is here. I'm not in transition. I died, and I rose. The one who died is not the same who rose. I was buried with Christ. And Paul says, the life that I live now, it is not I who lives, but it is Christ who lives in me. And so Paul goes ahead to say, for me to live is Christ. The challenge of Christianity today is not that many Christians are walking in unholiness. It is because we have set Christianity at par with the world. Christianity claims to be manufacturing good people. They tell you when you come to Christ, you will be a good person. And so the world is challenging us based on who is good. So here's the problem. If I can find my own set of rules outside the framework of Christianity, and I can be moral, then why do I need Christ? And so I have a lot of friends that I talk to who say, These days I don't want to go to church. Church is filled with hypocrites. Too many people who pretend in church. Outside here, people are real to themselves. And then I have friends who say, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't womanize, I don't do all the other things. And I give them props because I wish some of my church members can be that proud. Amen. Can I move on?

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All right.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

And I look at them in amazement. I'm like, well, not my church members. I wish I could be that proud and say, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't remanize, I don't lie, I don't cheat, I don't do anything. I'm such a holy person. I wish I had that gods. And I looked at them like, whoa, there's something, something really amazing about these people. They don't do any of these things. And as a pastor, you live your life counseling people to be like them. And so, why do they need church? They have found a way to fix their problems, they have found a way to fix their challenges, which we call sin. They found a way to fix, so why would they come to church? They won't come to church because we're saying that come, we want to be moral people, we want to be moral people, want to be moral people. And and why do you need you know there's a there's a story in Matthew chapter 19. The Bible says a young man walked up to Jesus and he said, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit the kingdom of God? And Jesus said, Obey the commandments of God. Before he said, Why do you call me good? There's only one good who is God. Then he says, Follow the commandments, and I can I can feel the arrogance, but subtle arrogance in that young man. He said, Tell me which of the commandments you're referring to. There's this uh series on on Netflix. Uh it's about legal stuff. What's this? There's this young, smart guy suit, and he goes to court with a fat document and he presents it in court, and and the the um the defendant or the prosecutor on the other side, who I don't know, I've forgotten the story, uh, makes a comment like, these lawyers don't care about the people they are defending. And then the young man told the judge, you have a fat document in front of you. Open to any page, and I will quote what is written there. And the judge flips the page and mentions, and the guy continues what is there and quotes verbatimly. And the judge goes like, hmm. Okay, let us continue with the case. And I feel this young man was just like this young lawyer. He said, Jesus, flip any of the pages of the Ten Commandments. And Jesus went ahead and flipped the pages, and he said, Well, do not commit murder, do not do that, do not do that. And the young man looks at Jesus and said, All these I've done since I was a young man. Listen, you know, sometimes we read too quickly through the Bible. The most difficult time to be godly is when you're a young man or a young woman. The guy could have just said, All these I have obeyed. And he wanted Jesus to know in the most crucial moment of my upbringing, when all my hormones are up in the sky, when all my ambitions are unstoppable and anything, I still kept the Ten Commandments. And then Jesus said to him, Well, then go sell everything you have, give to the poor, and follow me. And the Bible said, Upon hearing that, a young man leaves and was broken and was sad, and it begs to ask the most theological question here. This young man is one of the most diligent, righteous, holy people, at least according to his testimony. Because Jesus never took him on and said, No, you did 50%, you have to do the rest. No, he he didn't challenge him. I would assume that there was certain truth about this guy's claim and still did not qualify to go to heaven. But the one thing that broke him was what Jesus told him to do. And here is what it means to be moral and what it means to be godly. To be moral is to work with a set of rules that either the society has generated or you are comfortable living by. Now listen, there are people who say, I am not, who say I'm not a believer, I'm not Christian, I don't belong to any religion, but I believe that murder is wrong. Is that not biblical? They believe that fornication is wrong. Is that not biblical? They believe that lies. Is wrong, it's not biblical. They believe that stealing is wrong, it's not no biblical. They follow all these things and they set their own rules. The only thing they do not do is that if there's something they believe is right, but contradicts what the Lord says, they will go with what they believe in. And let me give you a typical example. I believe nobody should commit murder. I believe stealing is bad. I believe telling lies are wrong. But you know, other thing I believe in? I believe in everybody having his human rights intact. And so I believe in the LGBTQ plus minus multiplication. And then you're like, how? Well, what I believe simply tells me that everybody needs to be treated equally. But what does the Bible say about that? I don't care about that, I just believe in this. But you just told me you don't believe in murder. Yes, I don't believe in murder. But the Bible says so, yeah, but I it's my own principle. That is what the problem is. Godly people are not rule followers. Godly people only are obedient children. What differentiates a moralist from a godly person is that the godly person says, This is what God says, and I believe it, and I respect it, and I honor it. The moral person says, As long as I am in tune with it and I agree with it, I will do it. So this young man, Jesus says, Go sell, has conflict, has conflict. Very different from what happened to Peter. The Bible said, when Peter realized how sinful he was, he said, Depart from me, I'm sinful. And the Bible said he abandoned everything and followed him. That's a godly person. That's not a good person. Today I'm confusing you a lot, right? He's a godly person, not a good person. How is Peter not a good person? Well, he betrayed Jesus three times. Oh, but Pastor, that was only one time in his life. Okay. When Jesus died, the one who abandoned all his ship and everything went back to the ship and everything. When Jesus died and was crucified, he went back to fishing. Peter went back to fishing. Is that a good person? A person who betrays you when you need him most? And a person who betrays you when you tell him I'll come back, but oh he hasn't seen you yet and goes away. That's not good. But is he godly? He is godly. You know how I know he's godly? When Jesus showed up and was walking on the water after resurrection, this is very funny. I'm going to preach on this one day as to how we dress to God. The Bible said Peter was in the canon, saw Jesus on the water coming. When he saw Jesus, he dressed up properly because he was in his working gear when he saw Jesus. Does it make sense to you? He was dressed for work and saw Jesus coming and regarded himself not properly dressed to meet him until he dressed appropriately and then jumped into the water. Who does that? If you've dressed as a fisherman, you dress because you want to be able to jump into water. But then you go and wear your nice suit and then come back and jump into water so you can meet Jesus. Godly people know how to meet their God. They have reverence not for rules, but reverence for the one who gives the rules. And so, because of that union with that person, they respect the rules. If you take the God out of the rules, they have no value for the rules. They have no value for the rules. And the way grace works is that God shows us favor so that we be reconciled to Him. And when we are reconciled to God, then we can live and obey God's laws. So here's the thing. If I ever tell you that I don't lie, I don't want you to take it from the point of view that I'm so, so, so disciplined. I'm not. Given the room, I'll be the worst of all sinners. But if I told you that, consider it this way. It is God who works in me both to will and to do for his good pleasure. Now listen, the point I'm making here is it is better not to steal because you love God than not to steal because you think you'll be jailed. Because then what happens if preaching the God's word will cause you to be jailed? Because your focus is to avoid jail, and therefore anything that will put you in jail then becomes a problem for you. We call that firefighting Christianity or Christian insurance policy. I want to avoid going to hell because everything I've said I've heard about hell is terrible. Therefore, Lord, I would obey you. A lot of Christianity is like that. I don't want to go to hell. The hellfire is too much. I even in Ghana when the sun is on, I have people come to church with all their AC on and still finding themselves, and they're like, Wow, wait till you get to hell. Zero degrees is hot. And people say, I don't want to go to hell. Because of that, I want to give my life to Christ. The Bible doesn't teach that. The reason we come to Christ is not to avoid hell, but to recognize our shortcoming in our relationship with God. And then we realize our weakness, and then we say to Him, Lord, we see you trying to reconcile us to yourself. In fact, let me say this to you. If your theology from Sunday school was not properly addressed, let me help you this morning. God has not saved you from Satan or hell. No. No, you give too much credit to Satan. He himself needs salvation. Unfortunately, he won't get it. Two people God saved you from. He saved you from himself, and then he saved you from yourself. He saved you from his anger, and then he saved you from your desires that draw you away. The wrath of God is what brings about the issue of hell. There's argument about whether there's truly a place where it is it's it's ablaze with fire and and all of that. Is it just um um what is the word? Um what is the word for an expression that stands for something? Is it a metaphor or is it real? I'm not gonna get into that argument, but one thing is clear anywhere the Lord absorbs himself from, where the Lord decides not to be part of, that place will not be conducive for the people he created. So whether there will be fire or no fire, know that hell will be a place where God will not be. And if you think that will be enjoyable, I'm sorry it won't be. We have preached and said God is not in the nightclubs, God is not in the brotels. That's not true, he is, he's not having fellowship there, but he is the day he will not be there, those people will not enjoy those places anymore. They will cry out for God, and he's there not because he's encouraging them, but he's there because of his common grace, he's there because of his common grace. So, what Jesus has done for us, and I'm just going to wrap this up for you, is that through grace, what really happened to us, in order for us not to receive it in vain, we do not build our own set of rules and follow them. Bible describes that as having a form of godliness, but lacking the power therein. A form of godliness is to have a set of rules that you follow that makes you look good in front of everybody, but you lack power, you lack the transformative power that Reverend Peter preached about, you lack the performance power that you that grace brings about. And so the kind of Christianity I believe the Bible advocates for is the believer who does not depend on personality, but depends on grace. In 1 Corinthians 15, 10, Paul makes this statement, and I want to use it to clarify something. When I say don't depend on personality, but depend on grace, I don't want you to commit the same error that my colleagues used to commit when we were in secondary schools and we were on fire for the Lord. Now, secondary school scripture union leaders especially are the worst performing students in school, not because they are dull in their minds, but for some reason, their passion for God told them that during prep time, hide and read your Bible. And when people are having secret study time, go to the prayer corner in the school and pray for hours. And when it is exam time, the Lord will reveal to you. What they forget is that Jesus said, When the Holy Spirit comes, he will remind you of everything that I taught you. Now, if there's nothing to be reminded of, you will have nothing to work with. And so we go through exams and these people bomb what we say bomb, you don't understand. They have the worst grace. That is wrong. That is not what Christianity teaches when it says depend on grace. This is how Paul puts grace at work. He says, By the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain. Now listen, I worked harder than all of them. Pastor, you said don't depend on personality, depend on grace. But Paul is saying, I worked harder. But listen to what he said. Not me. Listen to Paul. He said, Yet, let's speak it in Ghana English. Even though I worked hard, even though I know I put my skills there, even though I'm consciously awake about my environment. When I'm driving and my car is not equipped with autopilot or auto drive, I do not close my eyes and start praying in tongues because the Holy Spirit, Jesus, take the wheel. I know that I can successfully sing that song, but I may not get to church successfully. Because there's a reason why the certificate for driving or the license was not issued to the Holy Spirit. It was issued to me based on the skills that I proved that I have. And so when I am driving and I get to church, Paul says I drove effectively and I was careful and I obeyed all the rules because in Ghana we are right hand drive. I didn't drive on the left hand side, I did all the right things. But he says, even though I did all the things right and got to church, not I, but it is Christ who works in me. So the issue when I say don't depend on the personality, I'm not saying don't depend on your skill. But know that your skill and everything you've achieved is borrowed, it is given. Paul says, What do we have that we did not receive? He goes ahead to say, if we received it, why then do we boast? Too many of us these days, and it's it's a thing of the culture, internet teaches us to say I. Oh, I bought myself a car, I built a new house, oh, I did that, and you wonder why marriages have problems because we've been taught to be I. When Paul would say it is not I, but it's Christ. Now, today we've got a couple we're gonna bless. I want to say this to you if you married him because you think he's a good guy, I'm sorry. In the next few months, you'll be coming back for counseling. If you married her, oh, and I know Thara, and you think she's an amazing good woman, you're a man, we usually like to pocket our troubles, but find the courage to come to me because I'll soon tell you she's not a good woman. But if you married him because you think he is a godly man, you have a chance. Because what makes him godly is that he has a point of reference, and so when he's veering away from it, you call his attention and says that's not godly, and then he's going to say, You're right, you are right. Yes, I went after my desires. You are right. If she is godly and she's walking away from being godly, you need to refer her back to what made her godly, and she's going to look back and say, You're right. I'm not a good man, but I'm happy to say I'm godly. I'm not making a proud statement, I'm rather making a very humble statement because I depend on God for grace, and we need to depend on Him for grace. The subtle Christian arrogance is what has created a lot of people outside of the church calling themselves Christians, but they are not. Because for some reason, they think they can survive on their own, they think they can live this Christian by setting their own rules of following, picking and choosing what rule in the Bible fits them. But no. Paul's advice is be careful that you do not receive God's grace in vain. I'm gonna read my last scripture to end. I think this might make sense to you. This I believe would make a lot of sense to you. Let me just read it out. I want to read it out, I don't want you to. Let's go to Proverbs 3, 5 to 6. Proverbs 3, 5 to 6. The world says, believe in yourself, the world says, believe in your dreams, the world says, believe in your capabilities, but the Bible says, trust in the Lord, not with part of your heart, not as and when you can, not when it's convenient, but trust in the Lord with all your heart. Sometimes, let me edit this Bible. I don't like the way it's written. Sometimes it is good to trust in the Lord with all your heart. Say amen. No, you shouldn't say amen on this one. It's my own edit, it makes more modern sense. This is an old text, it doesn't apply in the 21st century. So allow me to edit edit this a little bit to suit her so you can clap for me. Amen. So let's say, trust in the Lord with all your heart sometimes when it's convenient. And lean on your own understanding unless you start feeling weak. Can you continue? I'm reading the Bible. Huh? It's not in the Bible. I'm the pastor. You guys don't read your Bible. Okay, just for convenience sake, let's read what you think is the Bible. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't ever lean on your own understanding. Oh, okay. We hear you, Mr. Wise Man. Can you just leave us there? No, I'm not done. In some of your ways. No. When you go to church, office is a different place. In your relationship, that is not part. It is only when Pastor is around. When Pastor is around, acknowledge him. He says, In all your ways, in every way, when you're sleeping, eating, crying, in school, at work, in your relationship, in your moments of thinking, even through your depressions and your moment of excitement, in all your ways, acknowledge Him. Do you know what it means to acknowledge God? Let me tell you what it means not to acknowledge God. God, I prayed to you and didn't come through for me. That's not acknowledging God, that's acknowledging yourself and being upset with God. Acknowledging God is God. I went through this, I prayed, I didn't see any result. But I still trust you. That's what Job said. I still trust you. In all your ways, acknowledge him. And the Bible says, He shall direct your path. I've told you the story, but I'll end with it. As spiritual that I like to be known when I was in school, university, I was following the scripture. In all your ways, acknowledge him. So when I decided to enter into my first ever relationship, I had met this lady, my heart was gone 200 miles, conquered love, decided on the lady, everything was clean. But I remembered that I haven't acknowledged the Lord. So I remember I went behind the bomb library and went to pray to the Lord. And I said, Lord, show me a sign. If it's from you, show me a sign. If it's from you, show me a sign. Trust me. If there's any time I ever lied to God and I didn't realize. I was lying to him. It was on that day. I didn't care what he was going to say. I was just waiting, and here's the truth. When I was done praying, I went to my room. That's a lie. I went straight to the lady and I went to propose to her. And the sign the Lord gave was she accepted. And I married her. That's a lie. I didn't marry her. Because in all of my ways, I did acknowledge God. But when He gave me the direction, I was too busy with mine. And that is why I'm telling you, no, no, no, I'm now let's get serious. Plain religious, having a set of rules, acknowledging God does not make you godly. What makes you godly is when he gives you a direction, would you comply? And he says, by their fruit, you will know them. If you want to know a godly person, see if he or she obeys God. That is what Christianity is about. Raising godly people, not good people. Godly. So that the world can say they are good. We will not challenge them. We will say we are godly because we follow our God. Be godly. Look out for the things that God wants you to do. And if there's any suggestion I want to make, I want to join Ralph's prayer topic. Be humble and pray. Because it is in prayer that we hear God speak. Be humble and read his word. It is in reading his word that we have his directions. My favorite quote about prayer, you know that it's not in the Bible. See us Louise. He said, Lord, when I pray, they laugh at me. Because they said there's only one person whose voice is heard. And then he pondered over it and said, Yes, they are right. The only problem with them is it's not my voice, but it's your voice that I hear. In prayer, it is not about us blabbing and talking, it's about hearing God speak to us after we've spoken. Godly people know how to pray. Or they learn how to pray, and they learn how to read the word. Please pack that your modern Christian life, which tells you you are sufficient and you're enough and you're good. And start learning to be godly. The more godly you become, the more insufficient you see yourself being. And then that is the only time you can speak like Paul. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 47:06

Thanks for tuning in. We hope this message spoke to you. Be sure to subscribe, share, and stay connected with us. Until next time, God bless and take care. IPC Raising Heroes.