#4th anniversary Celebrations of 77 D.O.Gs – Sept 23rd
In Matthew chapter 24, the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, what would be some of the signs that will occur before His return? I think, we all know that we are living in the days of the return of Jesus Christ. And I want us to focus on verse 10 where Jesus made this statement: “And then many will be offended,...” The Greek word for ‘many’ literally means ‘majority’. So we are not talking about a small number here. We are talking about over 50%. “…they will betray one another, and will hate one another.” Now this is a progression. An offended person will eventually betray and if betrayal is not dealt with, it will lead to hatred. You could ask me, where do I get this from? Proverbs 18:19 says, A brother offended [is harder to win] than a strong city. In the days of Solomon who wrote the book of Proverbs, a strong city was surrounded by walls. And those walls were built for protection.
This is what an offended Christian does; when they are hurt by somebody, they begin to build walls. Now these walls are not physical walls like in those cities, but these walls are called strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10:3 says, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. We are in a war zone. Verse 4 says, For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Now what are those strongholds? He goes ahead to say what they are in verse 5: “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Now all these three things he talks about, what are they? These are walls of thought processes, reasoning that we develop deep in our souls that are contrary to the will of God. The will of God or the word of God is revealed in His nature. What is the nature of God? LOVE. He doesn’t have hate in Him. He is love. He is the very essence of love. So, love always wants to give and to give.
However, an offended person, someone who has been hurt begins to build these walls in their mind and emotions. The focus is no longer to give but rather it’s me to protect and protect. This makes you a perfect candidate for betrayal. A lot of people don’t understand what betrayal is. They think of Judas, but let me give you its definition. A betrayal is when I seek my protection, my interests at the expense of whom I have a relationship with. In other words, I have been hurt and I am going to protect myself even at the expense of him whom I have a relationship with because my thoughts are towards that; to protect and protect and protect. Betrayal is an ultimate abandonment of a relationship and if it’s not dealt with, it can lead to hatred.
A lot of Christians don’t understand what hatred is. They see hatred as being really angry. You can hate someone and have no emotions at all because the Greek word for hate is the Greek word which means love less. It’s a vacuum with no love residing in there. So when you look to the bible, Absalom hated Amnon and he did no evil to him [2 Samuel 13:33]. Hatred is a complete vacuum with no love in it. Hatred is very serious because the bible says, if you hate your brother, you are a murderer. Jesus talks to Christians that if you hate your brother, don’t think that you have an eternal life and my love doesn’t abide in you.
Jesus talks to His disciples that in the last days, “many will be offended, they will betray one another, and will hate one another.” Then He gives an alarming sign in Matthew 24:11, many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Now who are the ‘many’ that these false prophets are going to deceive? The many that were offended. “An offended heart is the breeding ground for deception.” There is one major problem with deception and it’s deceiving. The person who is deceived believes with all their heart that they are right yet in reality they are wrong. So, Jesus said these false prophets are going to deceive many who are offended but listen to this; Jesus in the gospels calls these false prophets wolves. Wolves travel in packs and what they do is to isolate the sheep from the herd [where its protection is]. That’s why it’s so important that we don’t forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
Proverbs 18:1 says, A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment. Why? Because we are now target for the wolves pack. In verse 12 of Matthew 24, Jesus says, And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. The Greek word for lawlessness is anomia, which simply means, you are not submitted to the authority of God’s word. So what is lawlessness thinking? Is when I think contrary to the word of God. Lawlessness thinking is created by offence. You have your walls to protect, protect and protect. Lawlessness abounds in our society today and it’s in the four corners of the church. Jesus said, “the love of many will grow cold.” The world doesn’t have agape which is the love of God and Jesus said, the world cannot receive it.
So, Jesus says, because lawlessness will abound, the agape love of many is going to grow cold. How do I know this is true? Because of verse 13: Jesus said, But he who endures to the end shall be saved [Matthew 24:13]. When you look at the last person and tell them that if you endure to the end, you shall be saved. The last person hasn’t even started the race. When He says, “he who endures”, He is talking to the believers. So, what Jesus is saying is that in the last days, offence will create betrayals, strongholds and it will cause the love of God to grow cold and deception will be rampant. That’s why this message is so important.
David made a statement: he said, it was not an enemy that offended me, it was you my brother. We went into the house of God together. We heard the word of God together, and it’s you who started me wrong [Psalms 55:12-13]. The person who can hurt us the deepest is the person who is the closet to us. A lot of Christians say, the world treats them better than some Christians. Why do they say that? Because our expectations to the world is zero. We have expectation levels on the believers and we have higher expectations on our spouses, and we really have a higher expectations on our pastors, and if they don’t meet those expectations, we set up ourselves for an offence. We position ourselves for an offence by having wrong expectations.
If you want to categorize the offended people, you can put them in two categories. Category 1 are those who have been genuinely mistreated. Category 2 are those who think that they have been mistreated. Category 2, maybe they got wrong information or they got right information but they discerned inaccurately. Okay, let me say, you have been genuinely mistreated, do you have the right to be offended? If you want to go to hell, God will protect you to do it because He gave you a free will. If you’re to walk in fellowship with God, you don’t have the right to be offended. Many people say, wait a minute, you don’t even know what they did to me? A person who says that, doesn’t know how much they were forgiven. Think about this statement: the person (Christian) who cannot forgive, is the person who has forgotten or not realized what they have been forgiven of. If you look at what we deserved when Adam sinned against God and chose to obey Satan’s word over God’s word; God the Father would have looked at Jesus and said, they chose devil over us, let them all go to all and burn forever and let’s create another universe with someone who really loves us. If He had done that, it would be JUST compared to what we had done to hurt Him; the way we offended Him.
I find one of the problems in church is that we categorize sin. We have the big sins like murder, stealing, adultery, witchcraft, and the other sins we call them weaknesses like unforgiveness, strife, gossip. Let me make this statement: in Proverbs 6:16, These six [things] the LORD hates, Yes, seven [are] an abomination to Him. You know what is amazing, adultery is not on the list and I am not supporting adultery. The seventh thing which God says is an abomination is “Gossip.” So, treat gossip as you treat adultery, and you will probably get free. Treat unforgiveness the way you treat murder and probably you will end up forgiving. The problem is that we categorize sin, yet sin is sin. Anybody who truly loves God has no desire to sin. Anybody who loves God doesn’t say, oh grace covers me, let me go and shoot this guy, Jesus will forgive me. Nobody who has God’s nature has that desire. Categorizing sin has set us up to fall into sin because we see it as a weakness not realizing that it put Jesus on the cross.
If you look at the very foundation that put Jesus on the cross at Calvary is forgiveness. Why would Peter look at Jesus and say, my brother sinned against me seven times and that’s enough to forgive. But Jesus said, no, its 7*7 in one day. I don’t know of anyone who can sin 490 times in a day. Jesus tells us that our forgiveness must be like that of our heavenly Father. Jesus in the parable of the unforgiving servant, Matthew 18:21-35 reveals to us when a Christian doesn’t forgive, they are turned to the tormentors. When you don’t forgive, you live a tormenting life, and instead of ministry becoming a passion, it becomes an occupation.
Paul says in Acts 24:16, And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and [toward] men. The key word is exercise. There are certain offences that are treated as though they are wounds to us and wounds don’t heal overnight. Wounds if not properly dealt with, they never heal. There are people who are not reading the word, not praying in the spirit, they are vulnerable to be easily wounded. Psalms says, great peace have they that love your word, nothing can offend them [Psalms 119:165]. If we are strong enough, we are beyond the capability of being wounded. The reason why people are easily wounded is because they don’t spend time in the word of God and praying in the spirit. We as Christians must exercise if we are to be healed from our wounds. Matthew 5:44 says, But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Jesus never told you to pray for your mother, but He said, pray for the person who mistreats and abuses you.
David said in Psalms 35:11-12 says, I was paid evil for good. Sometimes you need to pray whatever you need in your life for the person who hurt you. You pray the truth and not what you feel it’s good. Jesus tells you, when a brother sins against you, go to him and reconcile. There’s a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation if you look at it from the cross. Jesus forgave us when He hung on the cross and said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” [Luke 23:34]. He wasn’t just speaking to the soldiers or Pharisees, He was speaking to the next and next generation. Jesus forgave us before we ever said, “I am sorry.” And when were we reconciled to God? When we repented; when we said, “Lord, am sorry please forgive me.” And what leads us to reconciliation is the goodness and mercies of God. When Jesus says, go to your brother, it means “Go and create an atmosphere of goodness and mercy.”
Friends, if you have never given your life to Jesus and you want to make Him first in your life, just say this simple prayer: “Lord Jesus, I ask you to be the Lord of my life; forgive me of all my sins; cleanse me; I believe You died on the cross for me and You rose from the dead. I ask you to be first in my life. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit; make me a new person and I believe in You in Jesus’ name.” You are Now a born again.
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To watch a rebroadcast of this message, click on this link ? https://youtu.be/mnjK1yYYLWw
The 77 Days of Glory, 4th anniversary celebration services are LIVE on Channel 44 TV and at the Robert Kayanja Ministries media platforms from 7PM [EAT] daily. Remember, we are still fasting in these ten days [The Daniel Fast] till Sept-28th, the Day of Atonement. And don’t miss TONIGHT [Friday, Sept -25th], Dr. Paul Enenche will be ministering.
©Robert Kayanja Ministries – Missions Department
