EASTER CELEBRATION WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE PASSION SHOWN BY JESUS CHRIST.
THE PURPOSE OF EASTER IS NOT FOR WEARING CLOTHES.
THE REASON WHY YOU CAN MESS UP AND STILL SHOW UP IS BECAUSE JESUS PAID THE PRICE.
NEVER CELEBRATE JESUS CHRIST WHENEVER HE IS NOT PRESENT IN YOUR LIFE.
SOME OF US KNOW HOW TO SING HYMNS BUT WE DON’T KNOW HIM.
MONEY SHOULD NOT FORM THE BASIS OF YOUR PASSION.
IT IS RISKY FOR A PASSIONATE MAN TO MARRY A WOMAN WHO IS NOT PASSIONATE ABOUT THE SAME THING.
SOME PEOPLE COME LATE TO CHURCH BECAUSE THEIR CONVICTION IS NOT IN PLACE.
YOU CAN NEVER MAKE A MAN PASSIONATE IF HE IS NOT CONVINCED.
IT IS AT THE POINT OF CONVICTION THAT PASSION IS DELIVERED.
WHEN YOU HAVE PASSION, YOU DON’T LIVE THE WAY OTHERS LIVE.
REAL REPENTANCE MUST BE ON THE FOUNDATION OF CRUCIFIXION.
REAL CHRISTIANITY HAS AN ELEMENT OF SUFFERING.
CONSECRATE YOURSELF AND YOUR HEART FOR GOD!
-Bishop Wisdom Irabor on ‘THE POWER OF PASSION’ at Annual Easter Encounter || Answers Assembly, Warri || 9th April, 2023 || First Service.
The reason why you can mess up and still show up is because Jesus paid the price, His death abolished every law that should fight you. Formerly, when you sin against God you can’t go near the Temple but after He shed His blood, He became the ransom for our sins. Church Gist. Are you not glad that you are in a better Covenant and not in the old covenant? Celebrate Jesus!
Halleluyah! We don’t understand the purpose of so many things that we do and that’s why we misbehave when some seasons come. When Christmas and Easter season comes, people misbehave, they go on a three-month vacation because they don’t understand the purpose of His birth and death. Never celebrate Him whenever He is missing or not present in your life. Church Gist. Some of us know how to sing hymns but we don’t know Him, you can sing about Him without knowing Him and if you know Him, you will be at rest. Easter is not for wearing clothes- Some marriages will break because one woman believes that they should buy her Easter clothes, she doesn’t know the purpose of Easter. If you understand the purpose of Easter, you don’t need anyone to buy you clothes, Easter will buy you clothes.
-The power of His resurrection will ensure that nothing is dead around your life! I pray that the purpose of Easter shall not be defeated in your life.
This morning in celebration of Easter, we will begin to consider the Man who showed us the greatest passion on earth to the point where there is a documentary of His life, ‘The Passion of Christ’. So we will be looking at ‘THE POWER OF PASSION’. Easter celebration was made possible by passion shown by Jesus Christ, without passion there wouldn’t have been any crucifixion. He was crucified because He was passionate about the will of His Father John 4:34. Christ is the most passionate Man who ever lived, He was so passionate that He died for the people who killed Him. How many of you can die for those who want to kill?- Christ showed us that kind of passion. The average man will avoid anyone who is not living the way He wants the person to live.
I told them in Port-Harcourt, ‘Don’t pray for your Pastor to be like Jesus’! Because if he becomes like Jesus, you will leave the Church. Jesus was the one that went to the Temple and flogged people buying and selling. You know that many people come to Church not because they want to serve God but because they want to sell perfumes or other goods. Church Gist. If your Pastor is Jesus, He will flog you with your goods and drive you out of the Church. Just accept your Pastor the way he is because if he becomes Jesus, you will leave the Church, but the ultimate goal is for every Pastor to become like Jesus.
You know Jesus? The one that said, ‘I healed ten people, where are the other nine people? I won’t accept this’! And since the nine people refused to come, He gave the complete healing to the one person who came for Thanksgiving and those who did not come got a partial healing. Church Gist. If na you, you go say, ‘How can Pastor behave that way? Because he did not come for Thanksgiving, the Pastor took away all the blessings! Jesus is the greatest!
You know Jesus? When it was time to pay taxes. He said to Peter, ‘Go to the river, you will find money in the mouth of the first fish that comes to you’! But you will just hear the Pastor tell somebody to bathe with the blood of Jesus and you will wonder, ‘Which kind of Church is this? What will you do if Jesus is your Pastor? You know Jesus? ‘Your friend Lazarus is sick’. Church Gist. And he refused to go until the man died. But if your Pastor misses your call, you are already angry. Jesus can’t pastor you oo just allow your Pastor to pastor you- Jesus is in another realm! And everybody is shouting that Men of God should be like Jesus, how many of you can stand Jesus?
You know Jesus? The one who came as a human being and was never married. So if your Pastor said, ‘God said that I should not marry but die single’! Can you survive? You will say, ‘That Church where em Pastor no marry, how em dey take dey catch fun? Church Gist. Jesus came as a man, sometimes He was hungry, thirsty and angry. Only Jesus can be Jesus! Celebrate Jesus again! He is in a realm of perfection- We can’t attain such a realm.
-I pray that the passion of Christ will come upon us heavily in Jesus’ Name.
Three things to note about Passion:
1. Passion is a product of one’s decision based on personal conviction 2 Chronicles 15:12. You can never make a man passionate if he is not convinced. Church Gist. You can preach from today till tomorrow and some people will still come late to Church, not because the preaching is not right but because their conviction is not in place. It is at the point of conviction that passion is delivered- ‘Nobody can make me come late to Church’, it’s a personal decision.
2. Passion is a force within that keeps one going in season and out of season. 2 Timothy 4:1-2. Never base your passion on what anybody can do for you because the day they don’t do it, you will not be passionate anymore. If you see God, tell Him that I said that I am not serving Him because of anything He can do for me. You know what it means to enter America twice and return after ten days? Church Gist. And that’s the same American that everybody is praying to enter. Can I compare Warri to America? Most of my friends who have an edge over me have relocated to America. For some of you here, your ultimate goal is an American visa.
I have three childhood friends who are billionaires in their class. One of those my friends bought a house for his Spiritual Father in America and the other one has over twenty buildings in Lagos State and more than thirty of them in Port-Harcourt. They have been telling me to leave the Ministry but when you have passion, you don’t live the way others live both in season and out of season. Church Gist. It is risky for a passionate man or woman to marry a man or woman who is not passionate about the same thing. Never marry a person alone, marry his or her passion because you will not just live with the person but with the passion that he carries. Imagine me trying to make my wife happy and begging her to join me at the Church on Sundays.
After staying with Papa Ibiyeomie on Wednesday, I went to preach where I was invited in Port-Harcourt. As soon as I left, the Pastor sent his honorarium and called to say, ‘Please Sir, help us to manage it’! I said, ‘I enjoyed myself! And for the kind of testimonies and miracles that happened within these three days, one million naira cannot buy it’! Church Gist. My happiness is in the miracles not on the alert- That alert is like the poorest that I have seen in the last five years but I was very happy and when I got to Warri, I called to tell him that I had arrived and also missed everyone.
If you don’t understand the passion, your money level will frustrate you. The day that there is money, you will be passionate and the day that there is no money, you will not be passionate. Church Gist. When you read the Bible don’t think that it is just a storybook. Jesus came to a point where they needed money and He sent His disciples to the river to get some money. At the end of the day, all of us will die and you will not be buried with any money.
3. Passion is the energy to serve even when things are not working the way they should work. Church Gist. I know that you are prepared to go and do Easter with your boyfriend (Your sin partner), but they will now give you disease in the name of Easter. Easter came to cure diseases, but you will carry disease in the name of Easter.
-Father, baptize me with the energy to be passionate!
——-PRAYER——–
If you are no longer serving in God’s House then you are no more passionate. Just because your brother and sister died, you refuse to serve God. The Jesus that we are serving, died at 33 years old. If you were Jesus, all your family would not serve God again. What shall separate you from the love of God, is it death? I’m not tired of sharing this story about how my sister died in 2010, I heard the news during the First Service at Winners Chapel and still returned to continue the Second Service. Church Gist. After the burial on that particular Tuesday, I still went ahead to attend a three-day program. Some people would have left the Church saying, ‘Where is the God of Bishop Oyedepo, so He cannot protect my family?
When it comes to Christianity, it must be from cross (Pain) to crown (Glory) and maybe from crown to cross so that you will not misbehave. If you are to carry the crown alone without a cross, you will backslide, become carnal and wayward. Only a miscarriage that you had, you stopped going to Church. What if you are Reverend Uma Ukpai who lost all his children on his way to a crusade? Church Gist. Also, I still checked on Facebook to see if Dag Heward-Mills, the Founder of Lighthouse Chapel International will still do his Good Friday Crusade after he lost his 31 years old son who is a medical doctor and I found out that it was still going on.
If you are not passionate about the cross then you have not crossed from hell to Heaven. The people who paid the price for this Bible that you are carrying did that with their blood! Painful moments. Some of you are too weak and comfortable to be a Christian and a Church worker- Your business goes down and you automatically disconnect from the Church. Church Gist. A muslim whose business is down and still goes to the mosque is better than you. If you got born again in a breakthrough Church where all you know is prosperity, go and repent again because your repentance can’t stand the test of time. Real repentance must be on the foundation of crucifixion- If it is not on that foundation, forget about it, the foundation is wrong.
That’s why when your boyfriend leaves and disappoints you, you will leave the Church. If you understand God and the cross you carry, there are some men you can’t marry- Some disappointments should be a Thanksgiving service, ‘Father, thank you for stopping me from marrying this man that will be smoking cocaine’! I lived with my uncle many years ago, he was a Yahoo man in the early 1980s. Church Gist. There was a time he got a call and the caller needed a different voice to confirm that he was in Ghana so that he can be paid. I said, ‘Ghana? We are in Lagos’! And he drove me out of his house. What have you suffered for Christ? Real Christianity has an element of suffering. I had a choice to lie and if the trumpet sounds, forget it! But can I shock you? As wretched as I am, I am richer than him- The devil does not have anything that lasts. So passion is the energy to serve even when things are not working as expected Romans 8:35-38.
Three Proofs of Passion
1. Church attendance Hebrew 10:25
Even on Easter Sunday, some people are celebrating with the devil- They’ve lost their passion. As the Last days are approaching, ensure that you don’t get so busy with your business to the point where you have no business with God’s business. Church Gist. I saw a Pastor who is a billionaire dancing on Facebook yesterday to the point where he became radical for Christ- He started rolling on the ground while praising God, ‘Ah! A Billionaire’!
Now, you have some poor people who can’t afford their next house rent and they cannot praise God, complaining up and down. ‘As a rich man, go and buy drums and put everything in place and see if the choir cannot sing well’. If a billionaire can roll on the ground to praise God, you wey dey buy akara on credit, you no fit dance! There will never be a time in this life when I will outgrow Church. Church Gist. Dangote still prays five times a day as a muslim. Folorunsho Alakija, the richest woman in Africa still dey do night vigil and a weekly Fellowship in her house. Which money have you seen?
2. Passion for souls 1 Corinthians 9:16
Woe unto me if I don’t win souls. I can come this morning and prophesy to you about the progress of your next level, but hear me, that is not Christianity. The real Christianity is that, ‘Even if I cannot trace Him, yet will I trust Him’! Church Gist. Talk to people about Christ and share the Good News! Always ask yourself, who have I brought to Christ? You will be happy anytime you bring somebody who is serving God dedicatedly as a member- That’s the proof of your stewardship as a person.
Some people have been in Church for years and we can’t trace one person that they have brought to Church. For some of you even if you try to bring a person, we will need to advise the person to focus on the altar say na wrong person em follow enter Church. Church Gist. A member met me and said, ‘Papa, the person that brought me is misbehaving and I’m a new member, na me dey call am come Church’! One person met Christ the other met Church! Did you meet Christ or Church?
-May you receive the grace to win souls.
Some ordained Pastors don’t understand the importance of soul-winning. The person who is not ordained, but understands the importance of soul-winning is more useful to God than the one who carries the Oil without understanding soul-winning. The Protocol Officer that carried me in a fine, sweet tear rubber car during the program that I attended in Port-Harcourt said to me, ‘I told God that if He blesses me I will serve at the altar’! Church Gist. I said, ‘But you were receiving some calls and it showed that your wife needs your attention and some people are also looking for you at home. And he said, ‘They can wait because if God didn’t bless me, they would not need my attention’. These are people who are passionate about the things of God.
3. Zeal for the things of God John 2:17, Psalms 69:9. When you are zealous for God, there are things that you don’t see. If you see everything, you are not zealous. ‘This person did not greet me and I greeted him but he did not answer’- You are supposed to be too zealous to see unserious matters! I always pray that God should help me not to put people without zeal as leaders to manage people with zeal, because they will kill their zeal. One of the things that I want to see in this Church is to speak the truth anytime that I would need to speak concerning the zeal of any of my members. Some of us have lost our zeal because of the things of this world Romans 8:35-38. Some of you are serving God because of your marriage and if your marriage breaks you will backslide. Any service to God that is tied to things (earthly possessions) will not last long.
Are you passing through tribulation? One of my sons and Pastors said, ‘Daddy, my sister gave birth to twins and both the twins and the mother died’! He still came first to Church the following Sunday and even conducted prayers for other Pastors. That was a good reason to say, ‘Let me go to the village and console my in-laws’. Church Gist. That is a true son! If you can’t serve God with pain, you are a disappointment to the Cross. If it were to be some of you, you would throw away the Cross and run. Are you not seeing how they are flogging ‘Jesus’ on some Facebook video clips of His crucifixion? (Laughing) That’s how some of us are flogging Jesus without clinging to the Old Rugged Cross.
We have passed this level of keeping malice and offence. You and that person should remain at your malice level; the Church has passed that level. Are you not tired of complaints? It’s either you understand somebody or you just disconnect from them. Church Gist. Everybody in this Church has offended me at one time or another but I will continue to tolerate you until your real person manifests- You are my assignments! ‘They are persecuting me in this Church’! That is the proof that you are in the right place, they are testing your love for Christ.
Shall famine separate you from the love of God? Romans 8:35. For one year in 1997, I ate Communion bread and wine. If I eventually have another food to eat, it will be beans which are put in water so that it will be eaten by the five Pastors occupying a single room. We were allowed to enjoy the Communion bread in those days at Winners Chapel every Tuesday and Thursday because of our position as Communion Steward- But I didn’t backslide, that was where I met God, contacted grace and knew the Scriptures. Church Gist. I met it under famine! In that same 1997, I wore one suit for one year during my Bible School days. What have you suffered that can be compared to the suffering of Christ for you? You are more than a conqueror because of the things that couldn’t conquer your Salvation and soul Romans 35:36-39. When the devil knows that nothing will make you leave God, he won’t waste his temptations on you. Consecrate yourself and your heart for God!
——-ALTAR CALL——–
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