My People Are Destroyed: Rejecting Knowledge

Cleaned from the live recording. Lightly edited for reading.

Do I have any believers in the house?

The name of Jesus is always higher. Do I have any believers in the house?

Some of you, when you make certain statements in church and you hear the response, it helps you to diagnose the type of life the believers are living. Whether it's victorious, or whether you're just there, or whether you're being beaten down by the enemy.

Why I say this? The Bible says we overcome the devil. How? By the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (Revelation 12:11). If you don't even know how you overcome the enemy, it will be difficult to overcome him. Because the scripture says, my people are destroyed. Why? Lack of knowledge.

Interestingly, when you read that particular verse, that's not all that verse says. How many of you have read that verse for yourself before? Give me a wave. How many of you have quoted it before? Some of you never read it. Some of you never quoted it.

Let's go to Hosea 4:6. Come, Jonathan, you'll help me preach today. You're looking sharp. When I saw him walking in today, I said, I need to give him a couple of minutes.

You don't have context

I was listening to a preacher during the week saying many Christians don't walk with the Bible, don't read the message for themselves. And sometimes you listen to preachers quote a scripture and you don't know if it's quoted wrongly. You don't have context, because you didn't read the verse before or the verse after. So however we twist it, it suits. I know some of you are looking at this verse for the first time and saying, wow, there's all that in it.

Many times you hear people quote it: my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge, and we finish there. But you don't have context. When you understand that scripture, you look at it a little differently.

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you, the priestly nation, have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to me. Seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children." (Hosea 4:6)

When I quoted just the first part, it sounded like the reason you're destroyed is because you're not reading the Bible. But look at what it says. How many of you knew there was more to that verse than what was quoted earlier? Give me a wave.

The destruction comes from rejecting

It's not just, my people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge. Look at where the lack came from. How the scarcity occurred. Why there was a lack. It's not because God wasn't speaking. It's not because the word is not available. It's because it was rejected.

He said, I will also reject you. So the destruction doesn't come about just because you lack knowledge. The destruction comes about when you refuse or reject the knowledge. The destruction comes about because God rejects those that reject his word.

We must understand these things, because some of you just read, my people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge, and leave it that way. And then you run to your Bible and try to read a few verses and say, at least let me try to read the Bible. But you're reading the Bible and you have no intention of obeying what it says.

So you can quote, you can know a lot of scriptures, and still be an atheist. The destruction doesn't come because you don't know scriptures. It comes when you reject what scripture tells you to do.

I was saying to somebody earlier in the week, I know the days when I'm reading my Bible and I come across some verses and I skip them. I don't want to read them. I don't want to see them, because they're speaking directly to some issues in my life that I did not want to change. That's what we're talking about. Rejecting it. I knew exactly what it said, but I did not want to obey it.

It doesn't come about because you forgot a scripture you read yesterday, or a great preaching that was done last week. It comes about when you decide in your heart you're not going to embrace what it says. You're not going to live what it says. You're going to go about your life the same way.

God says he magnifies his word above his name (Psalm 138:2). Heaven and earth will pass away, but not one jot or one tittle (Matthew 5:18). Do you know what a tittle is? A tittle is that dot above the small i. Every time you write your name and there's an i in it and you put that little dot, you put a tittle. Plenty of tittles you see every day, but you never knew that's what it was.

Selah means pause and consider

When you read in the Psalms and you see Selah, what does it mean? Pause. Very good, but not entirely correct. She said exactly what a lot of Christians do when they read the Bible. They pause and check it back a few days after.

It means to pause and consider what was written. It's not, pause and check it out later. This thing is so powerful. It's so important. There's so much depth and so many layers of revelation in it that need to be peeled away. So take a pause. Don't run ahead and miss what was written. Pause and meditate. Let it sink in. Let it become a part of you.

When Jesus cursed the fig tree (Mark 11:12-14), what did you think it was? When I was young and used to read the Bible, I didn't know sweet fig in those days. I thought it was a banana tree that wasn't bearing. I'm doing this to show us: my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.

Ten out of ten lashes

I told you the analogy the last time. Christians read their Bibles like how some of our children do revision. They don't do any.

Let me share with you. When I was very young, I played a lot. We were living at and, you know, marbles. I'd play the whole day. Catch fish, go swimming. I loved those things. Loved having fun. School work wasn't a thing. I was doing well at, but when Mommy went up there to join Daddy, things went downhill.

Every day the teacher would give us spelling words in our book, and we had to come back the next day and spell the words. And I used to prepare every day for ten lashes. Ten out of ten.

But one day I only got eight lashes out of ten, and it dawned on me that morning. If I can get two right, I can get some more right. I don't have to take these lashes every morning. There's got to be a way these other children are getting this thing right.

So that evening I decided I'm going into this book and look at these words. And I went back and got four right. Only six lashes. I said to myself, this thing is improving. This has got to be what these other students are doing. And then I started getting two out of ten lashes, which means I started getting eight right.

And then it dawned on me: these children aren't all that bright, and I'm not all that dull. It's just that they're going home and putting in the work. They're going home and studying, memorizing. You don't have to have some magic brain. I thought it was magic. But they weren't remembering these words just like that. They were going home and practising. And then my brain started to change. You realize you can't be playing all the time.

Why am I saying this? I would say to my children, I don't have a problem if you get something wrong in school. But you have no right getting it wrong when it shows up again. If you go home, close your book, forget about it, and it shows up again and you get it wrong, then I have a problem with you. You could argue you didn't know how to answer the question before. But you had two days, three days, five months, and you did not check to see how to correct it.

When we read our Bible, we rush through a chapter, a few verses, and we don't stop.

I was rejecting knowledge

I'm sure sometimes the teacher used to watch me and say, I'm wasting my strength and my energy on this child. Ten spelling words, and every morning he gets ten out of ten lashes.

I was ignorant. I lacked the understanding that these words don't get into your memory by magic. I lacked the understanding that some people aren't all that bright. They're not magicians. It's just that they did not reject knowledge. I was rejecting it. I put other things in place of it.

Now we understand how we can reject the knowledge of the word by putting other things in its place. I put enjoyment, fun, the friends. I had three sisters. From the time I woke up in the morning, all I was looking for was an avenue to escape this house and this yard. As soon as her back turned, I knew I couldn't go through the front gate, she'd see me. So I scaled the side fence and played with the boys the whole day. Then I knew I needed to go home at a certain time, because she'd be overly worried and waiting. I already knew licks were coming, so I psyched myself for it. I go home, I take my licks, today and tomorrow. You look back now and feel sorry for parents.

I was rejecting knowledge and filling it with what I considered to be fun. Entertainment, games.

Sometimes when we talk about rejecting knowledge you say, pastor, I'm not a bad person. I would never read God's word and say, I'm not going to do it. But I'm trying to show you, rejection of something doesn't have to be because you're bad. It can be because you've placed other things higher. You've given other things greater priority in your life.

The next episode

You wake up and the Lord places a verse in your heart, a scripture in your heart. And you say, I'm going to read that later. And then the Lord reminds you in the afternoon. And you say, oh, I was waiting for this particular episode of a series to come out. The last episode left us on a cliffhanger, and you've waited the whole week for the new episode, and you want to see it before your friend calls, because you don't want him to spoil the story. You want to get the story first hand. You must be the one spoiling it for them.

And you put that episode in front of the word. Then you show up at church and the pastor calls you and says, come share with the people what the Lord said to you. And you say, pastor, you gave me short notice. You didn't give me time to prepare. But the pastor knew God gave you something. Then you go and tell your friends, I don't like how pastor does call you suddenly to share something.

I ask people to come and share with the church what the Lord is saying to them. Preach for fifteen minutes, half an hour. And people say to me they don't have a message. It's too short notice.

God gave you a scripture two weeks before. He woke you up, he placed it in your spirit, and he gave you a song to sing with it. You woke up and you sang the song. You even went on YouTube and played it and sang it. But you never went to the Bible to find the scripture. And then you say you don't have anything.

That's like me showing up at school. I'm at a disadvantage because there's something the other students had that I did not. They had the same twenty-four hours. They had the same time in the evening. But I chose to think about where I could find an old vehicle with a bearing I could unscrew and have an everlasting marble. Whose yard am I going to raid next? That fruit is out of season, we need to check somewhere else. Where are we going to catch fish?

And the others were home with a book, repeating, memorizing. And then I showed up in the morning and I'm vexed with the teacher. Why she has to lash me so hard? Why can't she feel sorry for me this morning? Not knowing she was trying to stimulate me, get me to think about my actions.

What should I do to you?

If God is your teacher and he's been giving you homework, how should he respond to you if you're not doing it? Just think about it for a moment.

Parents, let me talk to you. When your children are not performing, they're not heeding instructions, you start to come up with a plan to correct that. God is our Father. And if he's giving you instructions, he's asking a question this morning, like how you'd ask your children. What should I do to you? Tell me, what punishment should I give you for this deviant behaviour?

You pray to me, you want to win souls. And then I place somebody in your mind and say, go and share the gospel with him. But you place your feelings above my instructions.

The scripture says, he that wins souls is wise (Proverbs 11:30). And you've been praying for wisdom. Lord, give me wisdom. And God says, okay, you want wisdom? Go around by your cousin Jenny. You see how she's living? Go and share the gospel. And the first thing that comes to your mind is, Jenny does curse every time I say Jesus. And you put your feelings above the instructions.

God is asking his children, what kind of discipline should I plan for you? How should I correct this behaviour? In this scripture, look at God's course of action. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you. God as a Father always plans how to nurture his children, and correction is part of it. Scan your life for a minute. See the areas that need correction, and ask yourself how you should respond to God.

"You have an anger issue"

It made me remember a bishop, very eloquent, a very powerful preacher, sharing at an international conference. The Lord told him he had an issue, and he said, no Lord. The Lord said yes. He said no, Lord. But he said he'd learned his lesson, so when the Lord asked him, do you want me to correct it or will you correct it yourself, he said, I'll correct it.

He learned that lesson some time before, when the Lord told him he had an anger issue. He said, no Lord. And the Lord said, yes, you have an anger issue. And he said, no Lord. And the Lord left it that way.

He drove to a supermarket, I think, and when he positioned himself to back into a parking space, somebody drove into it. He jumped out of his vehicle, rushed up to the car, and was about to open his mouth, and the window went down and the lady said, good morning, pastor. He was about to give whoever was inside that vehicle a piece of his mind. And he remembered, I told you, you have an anger issue.

He said he didn't want to wait until he's on a pulpit in front of a large gathering for the Lord to expose that issue. So you learn, when the Lord says there's an issue, to say, yes Lord, I'll deal with it.

Sorry, with no intention of changing

So how should the Lord respond to you? You've been praying for mercy. You've been telling him sorry over and over again.

Miss, don't give me all those lashes this morning. I'm going to work on it. Miss, you gave me ten lashes yesterday. Only give me eight today. Give me five today. Miss, my hand is paining. But then I wake up, play, go to school, come home, play. Next day I tell the teacher, I'm sorry, with no intention of correcting my actions.

Somebody bold enough to tell me, what is your response to the Lord this morning? Something he told you to do and you've been putting it off. Playing Adam with him, hiding from him.

He told you four times, go and apologize to that person. But you've been making excuses. The scripture says, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us (Matthew 6:12). You're asking the Lord to forgive you, but you're not forgiving people. And the Lord said, go and make it right. But you're hiding from him. He wants to know what he should do to you this morning.

The two sons

It's time for us to stop rejecting. I always love a parable Jesus spoke. A father went to his son and said, go and work in the field. And the son said, yes father, I will go. But he did not. Then he said to another, go and do this. And this son said, no, I'm not going to do it. But afterwards he went and did it. Which one of them did the will of the father (Matthew 21:28-31)? The one that did it.

Too many of us say, Lord, we'll do this and this, and when he asks us, we say yes right away, and don't do it. And there are others we consider rude. They're talking back to God. Look at the rebellious ones. But they're soft inside, and they go and do exactly what the Lord asked them to do.

When I ask you questions in church like this, it's like the father asking the sons. When you go out into your home, your workspaces, it's left up to you to do what you said you'll do. How many of us sitting in church are lying to ourselves? The Bible says we can't lie to God. If we decide to lie to him, we're just deceiving ourselves.

I know this was definitely not the message I planned to preach this morning.

Why prophetic words don't come to pass

God responded. God said, I have a course of action. You've made up your mind what you're going to do, and I'm going to respond. You've rejected knowledge. You've rejected my word. I am going to reject you. And the high place of esteem and position I have for you, you will no longer occupy it.

This is a very good teaching also on why prophetic words do not come to pass. Why prophetic promises do not come to pass. The prophet came and prophesied. He told you your mother's name, your grandmother's name, all kinds of things, your telephone number, how much money is in your bank account. And you said, wow, this is a powerful prophet. And he gave you a powerful message from God concerning your future.

And like typical Christians, we love to fast and pray. That's good. But we don't like to obey.

The hardest word to say

Your husband did something and the Lord says, go and say sorry. I believe if that was what got you into heaven, most women would go to hell. That sounds harsh, right? Husbands, look at your wife. When last did you hear her say sorry? Actually say the word?

I believe you're sorry inside. We see it by actions. I'm not saying there's no remorse. You cook food, you wash clothes, you do everything to let him know there's remorse. But to get the actual words out of your mouth is a whole different bargain.

It's like men. You want to get a man to rebel, just force him to do something. The more you force him, the more he rebels. That's why smart women find ways to go around to get him to do what they want, because if you argue and try to force him, men don't like anybody forcing them to do things. Am I wrong? The men are quiet in here. Anyhow, let me leave that. This is not a marriage seminar.

Rejecting and forgetting

Seeing you have forgotten the law of your God. There's a rejection, and there's a forgetting.

It's like calling your father or your mother, your sister, your brother, some cousin, and saying, I'm sorry. The way we left things the last time, it was never my intention. I really want to make this up. I really want us to fix this. This is not how family should live. And you put it off and you put it off, and then what happens? You forget it.

Here is what the Lord is saying. I will also forget who? Read it. I will also forget your children. We need to be very careful what we do.

Put shame and feelings to the side

Let's go to Hebrews 12. I'm going to wrap up with this.

"Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses who have borne testimony to the truth, let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance, unnecessary weight, and that sin which so readily, deftly and cleverly clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us. Looking away from all that will distract to Jesus, who is the Leader and the Source of our faith, and is also its Finisher, bringing it to maturity and perfection. He, for the joy of obtaining the prize that was set before him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame." (Hebrews 12:1-2, AMPC)

Hold on. To serve Jesus, you have to learn how to put shame and saving face to the side. Look at your neighbour and tell them, put feelings to the side of you, to the back of you. Christians catch too many feelings. Something always bothering you. Somebody's spirit you can't take, not knowing they can't take you too. We need to put feelings aside.

The gospel of the cross

Endured the cross. This is something you don't hear a lot. One verse could take two, three sessions preaching on it.

Christians get so accustomed to the gospel of grace that we forget the gospel of the cross. Carrying it. Sometimes things don't go right. Not all the time things go right. But you still come to church.

Sometimes when you decide to come in your favourite jacket, the button bursts loose. Your favourite shoe, the heel breaks. You don't stay home. You put on your flats and you come to church. Sometimes you don't have the right wig, and the natural hair looks like it has its own mind. You comb it, you plait it, it never stays in position. You still come to church.

Sometimes you call the taxi and the taxi shows up blasting music and you get vexed. I'm a Christian, and this godly Sunday morning he comes playing all this? Go away, I don't want you. And you stay home, not knowing God just gave you an opportunity to share the gospel.

We still need to learn how to endure the cross. I gave my tithes yesterday and this kitchen is tough. I have to figure it out now. I'm looking for some butter, but there's no butter, we'll use the margarine. I see something red, I see something green, this pepper and this shallot can really flavour this rice. You go to the tray and say, at least let me put some eggs in it, and you see one. All right, this one egg is going to flavour this rice for the entire house. Sacrifice.

Many times God takes us through certain things to show us what's in our heart. From the time things get tough, you forget Jesus. God will understand why I need this overtime. We don't see you in church for two months. And the Seventh-day Adventist says, you can keep your overtime, I'm keeping my Sabbath.

You love Jesus and Jesus is saying to you, pray, and you're giving excuses. And another man will take his mat, roll it out five times a day, and pray wherever he finds himself. But we come to church and sing that we'd cross the highest sea and climb the highest mountain. As soon as things get hot, as soon as people start watching you, you can't even pray for your meal in KFC. Wendy's is the going thing now. The Lord said you should thank him for this meal, and you pray in your mind. You are ashamed of him.

Such opposition from sinners

"Just think of him who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against himself." (Hebrews 12:3, AMPC)

Hold on. I can't read past that. Don't tell me you have family problems. You talk about family problems.

When I was going to get married, I was even helping with the wedding plans, and an aunt was going to give me a gift,, saying I was too young to marry. Maybe she wanted me to marry somebody else. But I knew what God wanted, and we forged ahead.

And people who were not your family would say in church, do you have a suit? No? I'm going to buy you a suit. Do you have this covered? No? I'm going to do this. Even when we got married, we were home on the honeymoon and somebody came and asked, do you have a stove? When you're in love, sometimes you don't think about that. Once you get the bride, everything else is covered. That's when we figured out we didn't have a stove to cook on. And somebody said, don't worry, I'll get one for you. But we did what we knew God wanted us to do. I'm just giving you a little bit there.

From the time some of you start getting problems in your family, you storm and mope. You don't want to fellowship anymore. We're not seeing you in church. The church isn't helping me. My husband is doing this, my wife is doing this, my children are doing this, and the church doesn't seem to have time for me. Maybe if you spend time with Jesus, if you focus on him and not the storms, you'll get the right help.

With Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, God didn't save them from the furnace (Daniel 3). Many Christians are waiting for God to save them from problems. And God is looking to forge you, make you better through the fire. But we're crying about the problems.

The scripture shows people spitting in Jesus' face. They pulled out his beard (Isaiah 50:6). They hit him and said, prophesy, who hit you (Luke 22:64)? You saved others, now save yourself from the cross (Matthew 27:40-42).

Still pick up your cross. When you're going through, still worship. When you feel like giving up, still worship. When they look at you and say, look at her playing a sister now, but she was behaving bad just now, still worship. Don't let them drive you back to what you just came out of. The same people who said, you're a Christian, you should know better, when you start to worship they say, look at the hypocrite now. Don't let them drag you back into the past. Worship.

When the Lord corrects you

"And have you completely forgotten the divine word of appeal and encouragement in which you are reasoned with and addressed as sons? My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by him." (Hebrews 12:5, AMPC)

How many of you have read this verse before? How many of you have hardly heard it preached in church? God doesn't want us to lose hope and courage and give up when we're corrected by him.

I learned this verse the hard way. When I got saved I was pretty black and white. Even before I got saved, I used to like to correct Christians with the word when they weren't living right. After God saved me, one brother did something I knew wasn't right, and I really gave him a tongue lashing.

The next day I went to teach Sunday school, and I can't remember what I did, but I did something, and one of the older women teachers gave me a tongue lashing. I cried. And then I really felt how I had the brother the day before, because somebody gave me back a dose of my own medicine. When I went home, this was the next portion of scripture in my Bible reading. And I cried more.

Because God knew exactly what would happen, and he had to correct me. He used a woman to correct me. And then when I got home he gave me this scripture to tell me he was the one correcting me. So even if I was angry with her, I knew there and then it wasn't this woman just trying to correct me. God was trying to get my attention.

God's prefects

As Christians we can be so religious. We can be God's prefects. You know in class the teacher puts someone to write down all the talkative people, and people love that job. You just move your head and your name is on the list.

You have some Christians like that. When they come to church, they know who shouldn't be doing what, who shouldn't be wearing what, who shouldn't be saying what. They find fault with everything. You see how she's hugging? You see how she winked? And here's the most shocking part. They always have an ear in the church waiting for somebody to come and gossip with them. Church is over, you turn around, and you see them in a corner. And when church is over you call their phone and it's busy for an hour.

The Lord disciplines those he loves

"For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom he loves, and he punishes, even scourges, every son whom he accepts and welcomes to his heart and cherishes." (Hebrews 12:6, AMPC)

Look at that scripture again. I want those parents, and those children like mine, who say they'll never beat their children. I'll just watch and smile, because I'm waiting to be a grandparent to sit down and hear some of these stories.

God corrects and disciplines everyone whom he loves. So to all those who are sitting here saying, pastor, you deliberately addressed this message to me, good for you. You can see your pastor loves you. It may not sound so, it may not feel so, but it is so. I love you.

How many of you, when you got disciplined, felt like running away? Who are you going to live with? We all pass through that stage, because we don't understand how our parents could love us and spank us.

Mommy used to beat me, but when Daddy talked, I used to cry. I could take the licks, but not the words. When one was beating you, you cried murder. When the other one talked to you, you felt like they were murdering you. Not bad words, not harsh words.

My younger sister isn't here today. I'll never forget the day she was in the yard telling her friends she doesn't get licks, nobody beats her. Daddy came home a couple of minutes after, and she got licks. After how many months or years, she got licks on that same day. I looked at it and smiled. You could be boasting one time and suffer the consequences soon after.

I say this to parents. Discipline is one of the hardest and strongest parts of loving. It takes strength. It takes character. No parent takes joy in it. My children used to say I took joy in beating them. I never took joy in it. I was smiling because I had just told them they'd get licks and they went and did the same thing. You discipline them so they know that when you talk and they venture out, they'll feel the consequences right away.

Sons, not illegitimate children

"You must submit to and endure correction for discipline. God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not train and correct and discipline? Now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all of God's children share, then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons at all." (Hebrews 12:7-8, AMPC)

Hold on here. If you read your Bible and you hear sermons, and nobody can speak into your life and bring correction, you need to check yourself. You may not be a Christian. You may be a question mark. God is looking down in the church saying, sheep, sheep, sheep. Goat, goat. Fox. Wolf. Snake.

Sheep and goats

He's only coming for sheep. He said he'll separate the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:32-33). How many of you minded goats before? Tell me some characteristics of a goat. They're stubborn. They go their own way.

You see them on the field grazing, you go out to the back, and when you come back you hear rustling in the rice bag. They're in your house eating out your provisions. You left them in one place, and in the afternoon somebody comes to complain they pushed down a glass case. Put the sheep out, they'll eat grass, and you know where they are. The goat looks to go into people's farms and eat all the leaves off the plants. They always put you in trouble. Unruly.

God is looking and he's counting the sheep in this church right now. Are you one? Or are you a goat without horns that looks like a sheep? Some goats and some sheep, you have to look at them good, because some of them can blend in. When you hear them, you have to listen good to know if it's a sheep or a goat.

Can God speak to you? Can he give you an instruction you'll carry out? Like the sheep, you leave them on the pasture and you know when you go back you'll find them there. Or are you a goat? God's word is not enough. You have to go on adventure. God set boundaries in his word for you like a field, but that lifestyle is not you.

One of the things I noticed about goats, you don't see goats get knocked down on the road. Goats get sense, like some people in church. I'm smart, they can't catch me. I know what they're doing. Leave them in the pasture with boundaries, they're going to trouble things that don't belong to them.

That's what happened to Eve. God put her in a pasture and said, this tree, don't eat. But somebody whispered in her ear, this tree looks nice, nice fruit. That's how goats operate. Leave the grass, go into the farm and ravage it, destroy it. Whose life are you destroying? Because you don't want to live in the confines of God's word, the boundaries of God's word. You want to do your own thing. You're smart. You know better than God.

Too smart for our own good

I was at an age where I knew better than everybody. Smarter than my father and mother. And then I reached an age where I realized, boy, you were really foolish. All that smartness was a set of foolishness. You caused a set of heartbreak and pain for your parents. You caused them to grieve unnecessarily because you were smarter than them all.

The serpent said to Eve, you won't die. You'll be like God. Your eyes will be opened (Genesis 3:4-5). That day she became smart. She lost her wisdom. She lost her senses and became smart. Some of us are too smart for our own good. Young people, I hope you're hearing me.

I was at the age where I was really bright. I was at, my secondary school. So with all of that, compounded with my teenage exuberance, I thought my parents were out of touch with reality. And then I reached an age where I thought my pastor and all of them were from another era, and we're the young breed now. And then I became wise and realized I don't know anything. Knowledge is so vast, and I'm like a speck in the universe, and I need to lean into the wisdom of God.

How should I respond to you?

Just close your eyes. Pause and consider. What am I doing with my life? How should God respond to me? He loves me. And because he loves me, there must be some corrective measure.

Habakkuk said, I will watch to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer (Habakkuk 2:1). We were looking to see and listening. But now he's asking what response you will give him. I love you. I have been speaking. How should I respond to you this morning? What type of circumstances should I create around your life? For Jonah, I caused a storm (Jonah 1:4).

(Prophet Jonathan leads a time of prayer and yielding, followed by worship and the offering.)