WHEN YOU ARE BORN AGAIN YOU COME UNDER A NEW MANAGEMENT AND GET A NEW ACCOMMODATION – THE KINGDOM OF THE DEAR SON OF GOD
SALVATION CONFERS ON YOU A BRAND NEW BEGINNING; IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW TERRIBLE YOUR PAST HAS BEEN, THAT IS GONE
SALVATION GIVES YOU SEVERAL OTHER WONDERFUL THINGS LIKE IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO THE MIGHTY ARMS OF GOD
SANCTIFICATION MEANS THAT THE ABILITY TO SIN HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM YOU
SOME OF US ARE BORN AGAIN AND EATING BISCUITS WHEN THE ALMIGHTY GOD HAS PREPARED A BUFFET FOR YOU
AFTER SALVATION YOU HAVE ACCESS TO GOD’S ARMS AND EARS MEANING ACCESS TO ANSWERED PRAYERS
THE FIRST TIME I VISITED THE HEAD OF A STATE I CAME BACK THANKING GOD THAT IT IS EASIER TO SEE JESUS THAN TO SEE THE PRESIDENT
MANY OF YOU ARE ALIVE TODAY BECAUSE THE BLOOD PROTECTED YOU FROM CORONAVIRUS
THE MOMENT YOU ARE BORN AGAIN, YOU HAVE ACCESS TO PROTECTION FROM DEATH AND GAIN ACCESS TO BLOOD OF JESUS
WHEN YOU HEAR SOMEBODY SAY, “I CAN DO WHATEVER I LIKE WITH MY BODY,” KNOW THAT FELLOW IS NOT BORN AGAIN
THE SACRIFICE THAT BROUGHT ME INTO THE REALMS OF ‘UNUSUAL BLESSINGS’
MY SALVATION EXPERIENCE TAUGHT ME THAT ONLY THOSE THE FATHER DRAWS TO JESUS CHRIST CAN BE SAVED
YOU ARE SAVED BY GRACE NOT BY YOUR OWN WORK BUT GOD DOES NOT EXPECT YOU TO ABUSE THAT GRACE
THE ALMIGHTY GOD EXPECTS YOU AS A CHILD OF GOD TO REDEEM TIME BECAUSE THE DAYS ARE EVIL
GOD EXPECTS YOU FROM THE MOMENT YOU ARE BORN AGAIN, TO SHINE YOUR LIGHT
GOD EXPECTS YOU TO BE THE SALT OF THE EARTH – THE DESTROYER OF CORRUPTION IN YOUR PLACE OF WORK
GOD EXPECTS A LIFE OF SPOTLESS HOLINESS; KEEP YOUR BODY PURE AND HOLY
– Pastor E. A. Adeboye on “BEYOND SALVATION” at RCCG September 10th 2023 || Special Sunday Service
Tonight I will be speaking to you very briefly on BEYOND SALVATION. My text will be Hebrews 10:19-23. When we want to talk about Beyond Salvation, we could visit it from two different angles. We could say well salvation is step 1, then after that comes sanctification. Salvation means your sins have been washed away. Your files have been cleared of all queries. Church Gist. Everything is clean. Sanctification means that the ability to sin has been removed from you. Your heart of stone will be replaced with the heart of flesh so that you now have the ability to live in such a manner that there will never be another query in your file. Then we can move on and say after sanctification comes baptism in the Holy Ghost and then go on to dedication and on and on and on.
I would rather look at the topic from another perspective. That when you are born again, you expect certain things. Number One of course is that you miss hell and you gain heaven. John 3:16. Then, Salvation confers on you several other wonderful things. 2 Corinthians 5:17. Church Gist. Salvation confers on you a brand new beginning. When you are saved, it doesn’t matter how terrible your past has been, that is gone. When you have a new beginning old things are passed away and all things become new. You can get a new name written down in glory. John 1:11-12. When you are saved, you get a new name. You used to be called a son of the devil, but now you are a child of God – A new name.
When you are born again you get a new accommodation, Colossians 1:12-14. Salvation gives you the privilege of being translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of the dear Son of God. Church Gist. You move from out of darkness into light.
Salvation brings you under a new management. You were under the management of Satan but now you are under the management of Jesus Christ. Matthew 11:28-30. Church Gist. You come under a new management.
There are other benefits far beyond ordinary expectations. Because you are saved by the Blood of Jesus according to 1 John 1:7, the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sins. Church Gist. Because all of your sins have been cleansed during salvation, you immediately have access to the mighty arms of God. Isaiah 59:1.
You have immediate access to the ears of God. Psalms 59:1-2. But the problem has been your sin. Now your sins are gone, washed away by the blood, so immediately after Salvation you have access to His arms, you have access to His ears which means you have access to answered prayers. Psalms 65:2. The moment you are born again, the moment that blood washes away your sin, you have unlimited access to answered prayers. But that’s not all because of that blood, immediately that blood washes you clean – You have victory over satan. Revelation 12:10-11, that blood that conquers satan becomes available to you. The moment you are born again, you have access to protection from death. Exodus 12:1-23. In Exodus 12:21, the Almighty God has given an assurance that when death is passing by, when he sees the blood he will pass over you.
Many of you are alive today because the blood protected you from Coronavirus and I have the assurance, it doesn’t matter what else is coming, that blood will keep on protecting you. But then there is something even bigger in Hebrew 10:19, the Bible tells us that because of the blood, that blood that gives you Salvation you have access to the Holiest. You know? If you ask those who know the Bible very well, they will tell you, there is a place called the Holiest in the Temple of God. Only the High Priest can go there once a year. Church Gist. When he is going there he will be going with the blood of an animal that has been sacrificed. When he is going in there, they tie a chain round his leg and bells round his feet so that as he is walking about in the Holiest, if he makes the slightest mistake he will die immediately. So when they don’t hear the jingling of the bell anymore, they use the chain to pull him out. So the Holiest is a very sacred place; you don’t just go there unless you are the High Priest! Once a year! But the Bible now said: ‘If you are saved, washed by the blood you can walk into the Holiest’.
In case you don’t fully get the importance of that, let me give you a little illustration: By the grace of God, I have gained access to many Heads of States all over the world. When you want to visit a Head of State and he wants to grant you a private audience whether you are the one who requested for it or he is the one who invited you to come, you have to pass through many gates: Gate 1, they want to check whether your name is there – somewhere that you are expected. Gate 2, gate 3, gate 4, gate 5 maybe by the time you get to gate 6 by then they would have taken your telephone, everything! They usher you to a room and you find some other people who have been there before you, who have been waiting maybe for one hour or two and you think: ‘Well, I’m almost there’ but then there will still be gates. The first time I visited the Head of a State, I came back thanking God that it is easier to see Jesus than to see the President. I don’t need to go through any gates. If I need help, the moment I say, ‘Jesus’ I’m in the presence of the Most High.
Imagine, that you are traveling on the highway, top speed and suddenly one of the tyres of your car burst and the car begins to summersault and you have to pass through gate 1, gate 2, gate 3 before help will come. The moment the car begins to summersault, what do you shout? Jesus! Immediately, help comes!
The moment you’re born again, washed in the Blood, you gain access to the Holiest and you gain access to the name because you’re saved by the Blood of the one whose name is Jesus. Church Gist. Matthew 1:21. You have access to a name that means ‘Saviour’ and because you have access to the name, you have access to dominion. Philippians 2:9-11. The moment you’re saved, you get recognition in hell. Acts 19:11-17. Church Gist. God started doing some special miracles in the life of Paul, he’s going to do special miracles in the life of somebody during this convention. Some people tried to copy him and they said, “in the name of Jesus Christ that Paul preaches, devil come out of this man”. Church Gist. The devil said, “Jesus, I know, Paul also, I know but who are you?” You may not know it but the moment you’re born again, hell knows, witches and wizards they know. Church Gist. They know you’re different now, they recognize you.
The moment you’re born again, you have access to a great prayer partner who is called the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:26.
– During this convention, you’re going to pray correctly!
Part one of my discussion is going to lead to one very special prayer when the time comes, very soon. Church Gist. Those of us who are already born again, sure that the Blood has washed us clean and that prayer would be an apology to God. An apology that you have been living below expectations, that you have not made use of all the privileges available to you, that you have been wasting the powers, abilities, that salvation has made available to you. Church Gist. Your story will be like the story of somebody that they said bought a ticket to travel by sea to a foreign land. He bought the ticket, got on the boat. When he was boarding the boat, he took a lot of biscuit with himself and every time throughout the journey, he was just eating biscuit and drinking water until somebody found him. “What’s going on? We have not been seeing you in the dining hall?” He said, “I don’t have money to buy food in the dining hall”. They said, “Haa, the food there is free. It’s included in the ticket.” Church Gist. Some of us are born again and eating biscuits when the Almighty God has prepared a buffet for you. We are going to need to apologize to God that we have been wasting a lot of blessings that belong to us, as a result of which we will go angrily after all those benefits and in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, we will get them all back. That’s part one. There’s part two.
I’ve told you again and again that if the Bible teaches anything at all from all the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is that nothing goes for nothing. “Oh, salvation is free”, it’s because Jesus paid for it with His Blood. Church Gist. Now, you’re born again, what are the expectations of God from you? Because we have come waiting to receive from God, miracles beyond expectations, but He’s also expecting certain things from us. Church Gist. 1 Peter 1:18-19. You’re a very expensive commodity in the Hand of the Most High. You’re bought, not with silver and gold but with the Blood. God expects you to glorify Him with your body. The moment you’re born again, you’re no longer your own, you have been bought, not with silver and gold but with the Blood of the Lamb. Church Gist. Your body is not your own, God expects from you that you don’t use your body just anyhow. So, when you hear somebody say, “I can do whatever I like with my body”, you’ll know that fellow is not born again because your body is not your own, you’re bought with the Precious Blood of the Lamb. Church Gist. So, God expects from you according to 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, from the moment you’re born again, you flee every form of sexual immorality because it’s not your body, you can’t do what you like with your body anymore because it belongs now to the One who has paid your dowry – the Lord Jesus Christ.
He expects you from the moment you are born again, translated out of darkness into light, he expects your light to shine. Matthew 5:14-16. He expects you through your action, words, Evangelism, to shine. The moment you are born again it says you are no longer ordinary, you are now the salt of the Earth and amongst so many things that salt does is that it destroys corruption. Church Gist. Salt is what you use when you don’t have fridge and you want to preserve fresh meat – you rub salt on it to keep flies away – to keep corruption away. Salt is a fertilizer – can be used as fertilizer to cause growth. Salt of course, is to make things sweet. The Word of God says the white of an egg has no taste until you add salt to it. He expects you to be the Salt of the Earth, to be the destroyer of corruption in your place of work.
When I was younger, everywhere we go, those who want to do evil they hate us because they know that our presence will not allow them to operate freely. We were the Salt. Thank God some of us still are. You either do the work of salt or you are thrown away. Ephesians 2:8-9. God out of his infinite mercy chose you for salvation. Don’t let me ever hear you say, “When I found Christ…” Church Gist. Christ was not lost, you are the one who he found where you were lost. Don’t let me hear you say, “I chose to give my life to Jesus.” No no no, it’s out of his mercy. He said it clearly, “nobody can come to me except my Father draws him.” You will be surprised tonight now, that in spite of all the benefits that I said are available to those who are born again, when I make the altar call, not everybody who needs Salvation will come. Those who come are those that the Father in Heaven will draw to Jesus Christ.
We were many the day I gave my life to Jesus Christ. We heard the same sermon. Something pushed me forward because when I joined the Redeemed Christian Church of God, I had a problem and I wanted the problem solved. They told me, if you get to this Church, their prayer is fire. So I came, ready to pay for their prayer and they kept on telling me, “Surrender your life to Jesus Christ, forsake your way of sin, etc.” I was saying, “what’s wrong with these people?” Church Gist. Most of the people then were not highly educated and I was a University lecturer. I was saying, what do they know about sin? You want to call having fun sin? What do they know about philosophy and so on? But a day came and the preaching was on and something deep down within me said, “You said these people are not educated, they don’t know philosophy, they don’t know psychology, look at their faces, they have peace. Have you? with your Ph.D?” Something within me said, “Look at them, they are not asking you to surrender to them, they are asking you to surrender to your maker – the one who controls your future.” If God does not push you forward you won’t come. That night when they gave the altar call, I ran and today I am grateful to God that I ran because somebody pulled me.
So you are saved by grace not by your own work. But God does not expect you to abuse that grace. Galatians 2:20-21. I know you must have heard all manners of preachers say, “Oh, once you are born again, grace will cover any other thing. Church Gist. You can do whatever you like after that.” The Word of God is clear: you cannot continue in sin and expect grace to abound. God forbid! God does not expect you to frustrate the grace.
God says in his Word that once upon a time you were like a dog. I am not the one who said so. Matthew 15:21-28. Two categories of people: children and dogs. But the day you gave your life to Jesus Christ, the day Jesus saved your soul, you became a son. You were a dog, now you are a son. He therefore does not expect you to go back to your old ways. 2 Peter 2:20-22. God expects from you that once you have been washed in the blood, once grace has brought you to the Lord Jesus Christ, once you have said, ‘old things are passed away that all things have become new,’ you will never go back. Church Gist. To go back to any of those things that you said bye bye to, that means your dog has gone back to its vomit. You know what he says will happen? It does not matter who is the Professor who has been telling you all kinds of things, how you should live after you are born again. God says, you return back to your vomit, you will be kept out of his kingdom. Revelation 22:15.
The Almighty God expects you as a child of God to redeem time. The time that you have wasted. Ephesians 5:14-16. May be you didn’t understand the drama that the children presented, the drama shows you one problem after another problem, after another problem, until Jesus returns. Church Gist. The days are evil. It is going to get worse before it gets better. That’s when the Lord returns. When he returns then there will be peace because he is the Prince of Peace. When he returns that is when all problems will be gone and those of us who belong to him of course, will reign with him forever and ever. But he wants you to act quickly. Why?
Revelation 22:12; Revelation 2:1-5. He wants you to act speedily. I know some of you are not expecting this kind of preaching tonight but if we don’t lay the foundation, you will miss the blessings of this week and I don’t want you to miss any of them. If I don’t tell you the truth, who else is going to? You are my children and when I get to heaven, I want to see all of you there. Church Gist. Act quickly; days are going. Remember what the Bible says in Joshua 13:1. Before God draws the curtain, before he says ‘no more, there’s nothing more you can do,’ he wants you to wake up. I am talking to those of us who are sure of our salvation. God expects a life of spotless holiness from you. He expects that you keep your body pure and holy because you are precious to him, bought with the blood of the Lamb.
I told you I was praying towards one Congress and all of a sudden I heard God say, “Son, give me your 2 cars.” Well, I had 2 cars there. One was a Lincoln Town Car, the other was a Lexus Jeep. I was feeling good. If I want to travel rough roads, I take Jeep; smooth roads, I take the Town Car. “Son, give me your 2 cars.” I know his voice but I said, God that can’t be you. I began to tell him what is written. “What your Word says is that if I have 2 coats I’m to give one out. I have 2 cars you asked me to give both of them.” Church Gist. He told me something that I have never told anybody before, I am telling you now: do you want your blessings to remain usual or do you want to go to the unusual? Do you want to stay within expectations or you want to go beyond expectations?” You know the result. I don’t want my life to be ordinary – you know we’ve been talking about that. I don’t want to be an ordinary pastor, ordinary Christian. I don’t want the natural when I can have the supernatural. I don’t want the ordinary when I can have the extraordinary. Church Gist. What about you? When it is time to pray you are going to cry to God and tell him, “from this night onward, let everything about me be beyond expectations.”
Salvation Call:
#PastorEAAdeboye
#SupersonicSunday
#SpecialSundayService
#10September2023
#DoublePortion
#RCCG
#ChurchGist
