The Word of God is food for the spirit and health to the body.
Through the spirit of revelation, we are guided into the wisdom and deep mysteries in His
Word that make our lives vibrant and productive.
Welcome to the Mercure Focals with Church podcast.
As you're listening, the glory of God will be quickened and activated in your life.
Now, the Word.
We've been looking at a series connected to the covenant of God.
This morning I want us to meditate upon something that is connected to walking in covenant with
God.
That is, we were created for His glory.
We are fashioned, we are alive today to glorify God.
We are alive, we have a purpose of manifesting the glory of God through our lives.
I want us to establish this first of all by looking at a few foundational scriptures in
the Bible.
Let's look at Colossians chapter 1 verse 16.
This is by way of introduction.
I want to lay foundation to what the Lord has for us this morning.
Colossians chapter 1 verse 16 says, For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven
and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers.
All things were created by Him and for Him, for Him.
What is important in life is not just for us to seek our happiness, our comfort, and
our well-being.
What is foremost is that we glorify Him first.
Our needs come second.
Our comfort, our happiness comes second.
The number one thing that we are here for is for Him to manifest His glory.
If you can get that, that is the message for you this morning.
You and I are created for the glory of God.
In Colossians chapter 1 verse 37, To whom God would make known, what is the riches of
the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
God's glory, God's riches of His glory are manifold.
We as Christians are a telescope.
A telescope does not create what is seen through a telescope.
The telescope manifests what is there.
The telescope magnifies what is there.
With your naked eye, you can't see the galaxy.
It is beautiful.
They use a telescope called the Hubble Telescope.
It is an instrument that NASA, an agency owned by the US that is involved in exploring the
space.
This powerful telescope looks into the sky and they get those images.
Now, you may not see them now, but they're there.
But when you use the telescope, you're able to manifest this magnificent world out there.
There are so many stars, so many planets.
Some of the pictures there are awesome.
They're so beautiful.
But you can't see them using your naked eye.
You need a telescope.
That is why we are here on Earth.
The God may use us to manifest the riches of His glory.
We are created by Him for Him that God may use your life.
He may use your circumstances.
He may use your enemies.
He may use your challenges.
He may use your needs to manifest His glory.
You see, people can't see God unless He's working through you.
That's why the Bible tells us in Philippians chapter 2 that we've been given a name above
every other name.
At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.
As a church, we are called to use that name and cause situations to bow.
That the riches of the glory of God may be manifest through us.
Hallelujah.
Of things in heaven, things in the earth, things under the earth.
And that every tongue, hallelujah, every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory
of God the Father.
Isn't that wonderful?
That God has put you on Earth to use your circumstances, to use your challenges, to
use your life to manifest His glory.
He has given you a name when you use that name and you cause every knee to bow.
You cause every tongue to confess that Jesus is Lord, riches of His glory are made manifest.
It's like that telescope.
People are able to see the power of God, the glory of God.
Now let's look at the scriptures and see this in action.
In John chapter 9, I want us to read from verse 1 to verse 5.
John chapter 9.
Okay, the Bible says, John chapter 9 verse 1 says, and as Jesus passed by, he saw a man
which was blind from his birth.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents?
That he was born blind.
Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God
of the glory of God should be made manifest in him.
Hallelujah.
I must work the works of him that set me.
For it is day, the night cometh when no man can work.
Jesus is walking and as He's walking, He's intrigued by a situation.
He fastens his gaze and looks at a man.
He takes interest in this man.
And because he's fixated with this man, the disciples look and see what has captured his
interest and they see, oh, they probably knew the beggar.
They probably knew him.
And they knew his situation.
They said, Lord, who's sinned, this poor man who's sinned?
Is it this man or his parents?
He was born blind.
It is a terrible, terrible experience to come out from your mother's womb blind.
You've never seen your mother's face.
You've never seen your hand.
You've never seen your face.
You were born blind.
It's a horrible, horrible experience.
This man is probably about maybe in his 40s, he's an adult.
Maybe 40s, he's a mature man.
But he's blind.
And because of his condition, his parents for some time tried to take care of him.
But after a while, they got tired.
They said, no, you go and fend yourself.
We are tired of taking care of you.
So the man began to live on the streets to beg for food.
He became a beggar.
He was disowned by his parents and friends.
And Jesus as he walked by, he's so human.
And the Cypher says, what is the cause of this situation?
Jesus changed the emphasis from the cause to the purpose of the condition.
He said, some things you waste your time to look for the cause.
Some situations in your life, you may never know why they are there.
Why you were born in Katanga.
Why you were born blind.
Why you were born crippled.
Why you were born in a poor family.
Why?
Sometimes you waste time looking for the reason why.
The better way of approaching these things is look at the purpose.
Some things are set up by God to use them to manifest his glory.
As simple as that.
You don't waste time asking questions, but why?
Some of the things we don't know exactly why.
But we know in this life, the worse things are, the better for God to manifest his glory.
When odds are up against you, when your enemies are more than you can count, when your enemies
are stronger than you, when you are at your weakest time, that is the best time for God
to manifest his glory.
He will use your situation.
He will use your condition.
Jesus said, ah, let's not go there.
This is an opportunity to manifest the good Lord of God.
There are people here this morning that are battling with situations, and you're fighting
enemies that are numerous and strong, and they're giving you sleepless nights.
You say, but why?
Why is it me?
Why is it that I am the one, you know, all the time having to face these things?
You may spend all of your life asking the question why.
But this morning, change your focus.
Look at it as an opportunity that God will use to manifest his glory through you.
Because that is his agenda.
We are made by him and for him.
The Bible says in Romans that he is the porter with the clay.
Romans, Paul says, doesn't the porter have power over the clay?
Of course he does.
The porter can squash the clay in any shape.
He can form the clay in any way he wants.
Paul says he makes some for honor, some for dishonor.
And don't ask why.
The clay can't ask the porter, but why have you made me like this?
You, why have you made me like this?
The clay can't ask the owner, the porter those questions.
Because the porter has power over the clay.
And he can do with it whatever he wants.
However, whatever he wants, because we're made by him and for him.
That is the eternal purpose of God, that he may be glorified in the earth.
Hallelujah.
Oh, I love it.
Let me, let's look at this text a little bit more.
Oh my goodness.
He says, I must walk the walks of him that sent me while it is day.
Jesus gives us a wonderful example of a life of a believer.
You've been sent to walk the walks of God, that is to manifest the glory of God in your
life.
You are sent, you are not here at co-existence, you have a mission, you have a purpose.
I have a mission to use my life, use my family, use everything I have for the glory of God.
I look at life, I look at opportunities as a way of manifesting the glory of God.
I have realigned my thinking.
The car, everything I have, my health must be used for his glory.
I have been sent to do the walks of God.
Our walks include manifesting the manifold riches of his glory.
We don't live for ourselves, we live to glorify him.
You might be here, you're saying, pastor, I want to have a wife, I want to have a husband,
yes, but bottom line, why do you want a husband?
Why do you want a wife?
Why do you want to have children?
Why do you want to have a good job?
Bottom line, what is the motive?
I'll tell you what should be.
The bottom line should be that God may be glorified.
That is the bottom line.
We must score in that goal post.
Everything we do, everything we try to do in this life must score in the goal post of
glorifying God.
He says, I have been sent to do the walks of God.
Then he says, while it is a day, there is a period given to every man and woman, Jesus
says, I've been given a day.
He's describing his life figuratively in a day, in 12 hours.
All of us have got a day to manifest the glory of God.
You are not here to stay here permanently.
Your time has been set by the maker.
You have a day to serve the Lord.
You have a day to manifest the glory.
You have a day to do the works of God in this life.
Night comes when no one can walk.
There will come a period when your time expires and however much you want, you can't come
back.
You can't.
But while it is a day, do the works of God.
Manifest glory.
Walk in obedience.
Live a life that glorifies God.
Whatever you do, the overarching motivation, the overarching factor should be how is God
glorifying this?
If I want to become a doctor or a teacher, if I want to become a businessman, why do
I want to become a businessman?
I hope from now on the answer will be because I seek to glorify God throughout my career.
It's not that I just become rich and wealthy.
I own houses.
I become famous.
I become another Sudan.
No, no, no, no.
That's not why you are mad.
You are mad.
You are not here for yourself.
You are made by him and for him.
For him, Jesus said, this man has been blind for 40 years on purpose that on this day I
will use this situation to manifest the glory of God.
When God gives us a day, we all have a day.
I'm speaking figuratively.
Those 12 hours, those 12 hours are enough for you to fulfill all your assignments.
You don't have to live that long.
If God says, yeah, fine.
But even if it is 30 years like Jesus or 33 years, whatever day God has given us, you have
enough time to fulfill the purpose of God in your life.
You've been given enough time to do the works of God in your life.
Some of us have been called to work in hospitals.
When we're there, we manifest the glory of God through love and mercy.
Some of us have been called to serve as under school teachers.
That is our calling.
We've been sent to do the works of God in our day.
You have a day.
Those 12 hours, when there's light, there will come a time when you can't see.
You won't be able to do the works of God.
So don't waste time.
Amen?
Don't waste time.
Serve the Lord.
You don't have all life, all time, all eternity.
No, no, no.
You've been given a day.
All of us have a day, a fixed period of 12 hours.
I'm speaking symbolically.
Even Jesus, God in the flesh, had only 12 hours to do the works of God.
Don't waste time.
Get to work.
Wherever God has blessed you, manifest the glory of God.
Be a different person.
Work with integrity.
Work with honesty.
Work in holiness.
I know you are at the university, and there's a lot of sin there.
A lot of evil goes on there.
But choose to be different and manifest the glory of God.
Do the works of God, wherever you are.
You work in URA.
Only collect tax which is mandated.
Don't take bribes.
Manifest the glory of God in the tax body where you are employed.
You have a day to do the works of God.
Praise the Lord.
If you have a pen, write this down.
God cannot be exceptionally revealed in your life if you only fight ordinary battles, ordinary
enemies, and you face ordinary circumstances.
Let me say this one more time.
God cannot be exceptionally revealed in your life if you only fight ordinary enemies, ordinary
battles, and you face ordinary circumstances.
God needs the Pharaoh sometimes to manifest his glory.
God needs the Red Sea sometimes to show his glory.
God needs the River Jordan overflowing at the backs.
You are forced to cross the river in a rain season.
God needs something formidable to bring out the riches of his glory.
He needs the Pharaoh.
That's why he made the Pharaoh to show the Egyptians that, I am God.
All those gods you have, they are fake.
I am God.
The Bible says God judged the gods of Egypt.
By the time Moses left Egypt, those gods were in Tartus.
Even Pharaoh, by the time Moses left, died.
He died in the Red Sea.
You know that Pharaoh was also a god to the Egyptians.
The Egyptians actually worshiped Pharaoh.
But by the time Israel left Egypt, all those nations of Banang, these people have got a
different god.
By the time they came to Jericho, their knees were knocking.
They said, how did they cross the Red Sea on foot?
God needs sometimes exceptional enemies in your life to reveal his glory.
This man was blind from birth.
He's abandoned, his parents became tired of feeding him.
They sent him away from home.
And when Jesus is coming, he does not make any effort.
Many times when people would hear that Christ is coming, they cry and say, oh son of David,
have mercy on me, son of David.
You know, they will reach out to him for healing.
This man just sat there, totally depressed.
He didn't even stop begging.
He was quiet.
The Forte asked, Forte V, maybe, a line from the day he came from his mother's womb.
Sabbath says, but God, who, who, who's sin?
This is terrible.
He said, don't waste time with those questions.
This is so that I may have an opportunity to reveal the glory of God.
In the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 1 verse 6, the Bible speaks about Hannah.
Hannah was a barren.
Now you know, I think that if, if it was not for Penina, Hannah would have remained happy
and content without having a child.
He would not have been so worked up.
But Penina, because the husband loved Hannah.
So Conor loved his, his wife.
He loved, he loved, he loved Hannah with or without a child.
He loved her and should have been contented living in a home without a child.
God raised up an adversary.
God raised up an enemy.
It is said in verse 1, chapter 1 verse 6, and her adversary also provoked her so for
to make her fret because the Lord had shut up her womb.
I told you that sometimes God needs something exceptional to bring out his best again.
Sometimes there's something exceptional to bring out his best again.
He said that this adversary provoked her day after day, day after day.
She would have been happy just to be married.
But you know, if it was not for Penina, the prophet in our world would not have been born.
There was a prophet in our world.
Yeah.
And God needed someone like Penina to push.
She made our life so miserable.
There was a prophet in our world.
That prophet to be born, they had to be an enemy.
Sometimes God raises up powerful enemies in your life to bring forth something great in
your life, to give birth something you never even expected.
Enemy would not have been born if it was not for Penina.
Penina was the tool, was the adversary that God used.
She would make her life so difficult and make almost trying to tell her, leave the whole
goal.
You have no place here.
You have no place.
You don't belong here.
So sometimes there is something in your life that needs adverse circumstance.
There is something that must come and sit in your life.
And as you cry out to God, God moves miraculously and something exceptional is born through
you.
Hallelujah.
A great prophet was born because there was a great adversary in the life of this woman,
Hannah.
Now I want to show you one more text in John chapter 11 verse 7, John 11.
It says, then after that say three disciples, let us go into, in fact, let's begin from
verse 1.
This is also a very interesting incident.
John chapter 11 from verse 1.
Now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary, and her sister,
Martha.
It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair,
whose brother Lazarus was sick.
Mary's sister sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom the love is sick.
When Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death.
By the way, understand this, not all sickness will cause you a death, even if it is HIV.
People get healed from HIV.
Not all sickness, not all sickness in God's plan for your life can kill you.
While others died of COVID, you survived.
But hear this, there is a sickness that will take your life.
Bible says that Elisha had a sickness that led to his death.
After the man who raised the dead, a four miracles, there is a sickness that one day
you and I will take us home.
Even if you go to any hospital in the world, you may never get cured.
But not every disease, even if it's cancer, can take your life.
There is a particular one in God's time that may take you home.
So the Bible says this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the
Son of God might be glorified there by.
He was told that Lazarus is sick, very sick.
He did not bother to respond.
He could have healed Lazarus from a distance.
He didn't have to come back.
He could have spoken the word where he was and healed him.
He didn't.
He spent a few days ignoring the problem.
Then we read in verse 5.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abhorred two days still in the same place
where he was.
And after that, said he to the disciples, Let us go into Judea.
The disciples said unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee and goeth thy
feet again.
Verse 9, I love this.
Jesus said, I have there not twelve hours in the day.
Remember the day?
We all have a day.
I have there twelve hours in the day.
If any man walk in the day, if you walk in your day, you will not stumble because he
sees the light of this world.
Now Judea had become very hot for Jesus.
They tried several times to kill him.
I did not kill him.
Now his ten disciples, Let's go back to Judea because Lazarus is dead.
The disciples said, Don't go back there.
They tried to stone you.
They tried to kill you.
Don't go back there.
He says, No, no, no, I have twelve hours.
Hallelujah.
I have a day assigned to me.
If I walk in that day until I fulfill my assignment, no one can kill me.
Now I'm paraphrasing, but that's what he meant.
I must walk the walks of him that sent me in my day.
I have twelve hours.
My time is running out.
I need to fulfill my course.
I'm here to tell you until you fulfill the assignment, you will not die.
You will not die.
Walk within your day.
Understand your assignment.
Walk within your assignment.
Discover the will of God for your life.
Walk in it.
Even if you are walking in Sudan, now where there's a civil war, if you're there on God's
assignment, you will not die.
No, you will not die.
No.
He says, No, I have my twelve hours.
He said, No, no, no, don't go there.
No, no, no, I have twelve hours.
I don't want to waste time.
I must walk the walks of him who sent me.
Now John 11 verse 40, Jesus said unto her, said, I know unto thee that if thou wouldst
believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God.
This miracle was so powerful that the Bible says many Jews believed on the Lord.
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, that miracle is one of the greatest miracles in
the entire Bible.
In my opinion, there's no miracle greater than that.
How do you raise someone from the dead who has been buried for four days?
If someone dies and within an hour you pray for them, yeah, it's a miracle.
But when you have been buried for four days and the flesh begins to fall off from the
bones and all that is there is just a mess, that miracle, apart from the miracle of Christ
rising from the dead, there is no miracle like that in the Bible.
Bible says when that happened, many Jews believed on him.
In fact, there was so many people who came to Christ that the Jews got concerned and
they said, we have to kill this man, the Pharisees, the leader, the religious leader said, the
whole world is following him and Caiaphas, the high priest Caiaphas said, don't you know
it's expected that one man die to save a nation.
From that day they began to plot seriously to kill Jesus because that miracle touched
the nation.
But many Jews believed on him.
In John chapter 12, it is said that Jews began to plan to kill both Jesus and Lazarus because
wherever Lazarus walked, it was a walking miracle.
This man was, it was three, four days in the grave, look at him, he's walking.
Everywhere he went, he was preaching the gospel.
He was manifesting the glory of God.
Hallelujah.
It's amazing.
The primary goal of God in this life is that he wants to receive maximum glory.
Hallelujah.
Maximum glory.
Oh, bless the Lord.
Let me read one more text and then we're going to pray.
First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 27, verse Corinthians 10, verse 27.
If a November belief be due to a feast and you be disposed to go, whatever is said before
you eat, asking no question for conscious sake.
And if any man say unto you, this is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake
that showed it, for conscious sake, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
Conscious, I say, not their own, but of the other.
For why is my liberty judged over another man's conscious?
Now listen, for if I by grace be a partaker, why am I even spoken of for that which I give
thanks?
Whether therefore you eat or you drink, whatsoever you do, do all for what?
To the glory of God.
Whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.
Paul begins that text by showing us that sometimes we choose not to eat or to eat based on how
we can glorify God.
Sometimes if you're invited to someone's home and the person says, yeah, you're welcome,
please enjoy the meal.
Even if the home is the home of a Muslim or whatever, pray for the food, sight, fight,
eat.
But if the person says that chicken was first offered to God, or Mokassa, or Uruvalli, for
his sake, don't eat.
So sometimes we don't eat because we seek to glorify God.
Sometimes we eat because we glorify God.
Whatever you do, whether eating or not eating, drinking or not drinking, whatever you do,
do all for the glory of God.
Whatever decisions to take a job or not take a job, the bottom line is, is God glorified?
Someone may offer a job for you, a good job, but insists, I must have sex with you.
Sometimes you turn your back to a good job because you seek to glorify God.
You may take a job which pays less, you earn less money.
It's below your qualification, but you're seeking to glorify God.
Everything we do, bottom line, is God glorified?
Am I glorifying God in this?
If you take your children to certain school, why do you take them to that school?
Are you just prioritizing the academic standards?
Don't you know some schools have an agenda?
There are schools that are promoting homosexuality.
Yes, some of these powerful international schools where you have many foreigners, Europeans,
some of them they have a curriculum that promotes homosexuality.
Now you want to have a child in an international school where they speak very good English,
people because they are rich and you want to fit in also, but you're risking the future
of your child.
I'd rather you take your child to a lesser school because that child will have a chance
to keep the faith and by that you'll glorify God.
So in life, as we make decisions, the most important thing to consider is how is God
glorified?
Is God glorified in this?
If I choose to leave Uganda and work in Dubai, where are you going to Dubai?
Is the bottom line you're seeking to glorify God or you're just looking for money?
See, everything you will do should be for the glory of God, everything, everything,
everything.
You want to get married, why you want to get married?
Just to be among the people who are married, they call themselves the honorables, honorable.
You want to also be honorable.
Is that all you want?
Or you plan to use your home to serve the Lord?
You want to use this chance of being a wife for a husband to glorify God.
If that is your motive, then you're on the right track.
Thank you for listening.
We hope that you've been strengthened with his might and fortified by the word of God.
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pages at FullBospoMap.
Goodbye.