Transcription
We need your grace with us. We bring before you our adornments, all things precious to us. Our hearts we bring before you, purify us and walk with us. Oh, we remove [Music] we remove our adornments, all things precious to us. Our hearts we bring before you, purify us and walk with us. Oh, I remove, I remove my adornments, all things precious to me. My heart I bring before you, purify me and walk with us. Oh, I remove, I remove the adornments of all things precious to me; my heart I bring before you, purify me and act, Father. I remove [Music] I remove my adornments, things [Music] all to me, every habit, every anything, my own will. I bring before you, purify me and walk with me, Father. We remove [Music] we remove our adornments, all things precious to us; our hearts we bring before you, purify us and walk with us. We ask that your presence go with us. O Lord of Hosts [Music] intercede for us, Father; show us your face. We cry out for your grace, go with us. We ask, we ask that your presence go with us. O Lord, O Lord of Hosts [Music] hear us, be with us. We do not want to leave here; we cannot be alone. Go with us; we ask that your presence go with us. [Music] With us, O Lord of Hosts [Music] hear us, be with us. We do not want to leave here; we cannot be alone. Go with us. We remove [Music] our adornments, all things precious to us; our hearts we bring before you, purify us and walk with us. Oh, we remove, we remove adornments, all things precious to us; our hearts, our hearts we bring before you, purify us and walk with us, Father. I remove, I remove my adornments, all things precious to me. My heart I bring before you, purify me and walk with me, Father. I remove, I remove my adornments, all things precious to me. My heart I bring before you [Music] purify me and walk with me. My heart is open; my heart [Music] is open, Father. I am here; touch me, Lord. My heart [Music] is open; my heart [Music] is open; a heart of openness, Father. I am here; make me new, Lord. My heart is open; my heart, my heart is open. I have come before you. With my heart open, Father. I am here; touch me, touch me, Lord. My heart is open, Father. My heart, my heart is open; my heart is open. My Lord, I am here, I am here [Music] touch me again, Lord. My heart is open; touch my heart; touch my heart, Lord. My heart is open; make me new, Jesus. My heart, my heart; change me, Lord. I am here; I am here; touch me, Lord; touch me, Lord, Lord. My heart, my heart is open; my heart of praise; my heart, my heart [Music] my heart. I am here; touch me, touch me, Lord. Your yesterday; I need today; my heart is open; my heart is open; my heart is open to you, Lord [Music]; my heart. I am here, Lord; I am here; touch me, Lord; make me new; touch me, Lord; cleanse me. My heart is open; my heart. I will; my heart. Oh, I have come before you; I am here; touch me, Lord. My heart [Music] Lord, Lord, give [Music] us, Father; I am here, Father. Touch me, Lord. My heart is open. Jesus, I need today; I need yesterday, Lord. My heart is open; Father, I am here; touch me, Lord. My heart [Music] [Joy] [Music] Holy Lord [Music] change my heart. The thoughts of my heart; the words of my mouth [Music] may please you, O Lord, Savior. My prayer is that the thoughts of my heart and the words of my mouth today may find favor before you, O Lord, Lord Savior. [Joy] Thoughts; words [Music] [Joy] may find, may find favor before you, O Lord. O Lord, Savior, my thoughts [Music] the thoughts of my heart, words, words of my lips, may they find favor before you, O Lord. O [Music] Lord, these thoughts are a prayer that may find favor before you, O Lord. O Lord, Savior, my heart, O words, words of my lips, may they, may they find favor before you, O Lord. My prayers O Lord, Savior, my thoughts, the thoughts of my heart, words [Music] words of my mouth may they find, find favor before you, O Lord. O Lord, O Lord, Savior, you are good, you are good, good. Lord, I have seen your goodness; life, you are good, you are good to me; you are good. Jesus, you are good, you are good to me. I have seen your goodness; your goodness, your goodness, good, good, you are good to me. Thank you, Spirit. You are good, good, you are good to me; you are good to me; you are good, good to me. I have seen the goodness of, you are good. I have seen you are good to me. You are good to me; you are good, good to me. Lord, Lord, Lord, you are good, good to me. The thoughts, thoughts of my heart. Words of my heart, words of my mouth may they find, find favor before you, O Lord, O Lord, Savior. Your love, and I am a worshiper. I have overcome battles; therefore, your grace is with me. I stand, Father. I am a victor; I overcome all battles; therefore, your grace, with you. I stand with you. I say, I am a victor; I overcome battles; therefore, your grace, with you, I stand. With you, I stand, your grace. I overcome; I am a victor; I overcome all battles; therefore, your grace. Therefore, your grace, Lord, with you. I stand. There is strength in me. I have overcome; I have overcome battles; therefore, your grace, with me, I stand, with you, I stand. I am a victor; I overcome battles. Therefore, your grace, with you, I stand. I am a victor. The thoughts, thoughts of my heart, with the words of my mouth [Music]. O Lord, Savior, my heart, my words [Music]. O Lord, Savior, my love, and I, I am a victor. I have overcome all battles, with you, I stand. [Joy] I have overcome; I overcome; therefore, with you [Music] you stand, overcome [Music]. Good, good, good, Lord [Music]. Celebrate; be lifted up, Jesus. You are good, good; glorify Jesus; you are good; be lifted up, Jesus; you are good; glorify Lord Jesus; you. You be lifted up, be lifted up, my Lord Jesus. Ah, you, you are good; glorify, be glorified, ah Jesus; ah, you, you are good; be lifted up, be lifted up, O Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, you are good; glorify, glorify Jesus; you, you are good; be lifted up, be lifted up. To lift up Lord Jesus; you, you are good; glorify, be glorified, Yes Jesus; you, you are good; be lifted up, be lifted up. Lord Jesus, Jesus, we lift you up this evening. You are good; be glorified, be glorified, Jesus. You are good. O Lord, O Lord, among all gods [Music] there is none like you. Ah, glory in holiness, the Savior, the awesome one in praise, you who blow, you who breathe, your wind has covered the enemy; they have sunk like lead, lead, lead into the deep waters. O Lord, O Lord, among all gods, there is none like you. Glory in holiness; the awesome one, the awesome one in praise; you who blow, this evening, your wind, the sea, the sea, has covered the enemy; they have sunk, they have sunk like lead, lead, lead into the deep waters. Be lifted up, be lifted up, Jesus; you are good; we give you all praise, Lord Jesus; you. You, you, you, you be lifted up, be lifted up, Jesus; you, you, you are good; glorify, be glorified, Jesus; you, you are good. Somebody shout Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! We thank God; it is another evening. I thank God; it is another evening, and we are delighted to be in the presence of God once again. And we are delighted to be in the presence of God once again. I believe you are ready for one more step. I believe you are ready for another extra step. And God bless you so much. And God bless you very much. Father, we give you all the glory. Father, I give you all the glory. Holy Spirit, we invite you. Holy Spirit, we welcome you. We do not have enough wisdom. We do not have enough wisdom. I don't know what to say to your people. I do not know what to tell your people. Therefore, Lord. Therefore, Lord. Allow me to speak what you want to speak to them. Allow me to say what you want me to say to them. Thank you, Daddy. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you, Holy Spirit. We glorify you. We glorify you. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Come into our midst, in Jesus' name. And everyone say Amen. God bless you so much; you may take your seat. We are ready to roll out once again. Thank you so much; God bless you, worship team. Please take your seat. Somebody shout Hallelujah! In one or two minutes. Send a link to someone. Tell them Pastor Peter is live, ready to teach once again. A very short message. Please do that if you've not done it. Yesterday, we finished, we ended with the problem of speaking carelessly. And there are so many people today in the body of Christ. They are suffering, and they don't know the source of their suffering. But it's because they spoke something. There are many people in the body of Christ today; they are living in pain, not because somebody has stabbed them with a knife. But somebody spoke something to them. And that word is still hurting them till today. There are many people today. They've lost their jobs. They've lost their opportunities, not because they stole money. But because there is something they said. And it caused a chain of reaction. And as a result, some of them have lost their jobs. There are people who went for interviews; they qualified with every qualification you can talk about. But they missed the job because they spoke one thing carelessly. Just one thing, and they couldn't get that job. So you can't underestimate the importance of words in our lives. Our lives are built around words. Creation came by words. Faith comes by word, but from God. So words are not that small, but people have not paid attention to learn more about this subject; they've learned how to give; they've learned how to pray; they've learned how to preach; when they converse, ah, but when they speak, they speak carelessly, and one word will slip out of their mouth and cause big problems. One word will slip out of their mouth and deny them a miracle that they've been waiting for many years. Now, hear me, children of God. Yesterday, we looked into that, but we did not exhaust it because of time. There's one part of it that I want to do today. It's not enough to know that you are not supposed to speak carelessly. It's not enough to know that one bad word can destroy your life. The question remains: How can one be able to speak good words? How can one be able to speak positive words? How can one be able comfortably to be safe from speaking hurting words? How can one be able to run away from words of pride? Bragging words, blaming words. How can one be able to overcome? Yes, we've known it's bad, but how can one be able? To resist. In the book of Matthew, chapter 12:33 all the way to 37, we are going to learn something that will teach us how to speak good things instead of bad things. Matthew 12:33: Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad. For a tree is known by its fruit. Have you ever eaten fruits that you've been eating and you know how they taste? Let's say the fruits that are more available here at East Africa. Oranges, mangoes, pineapples. Have you eaten an orange that, or maybe pineapples, that is so sweet, so nice? The flavor is just fantastic. And then the next day, you go to buy, and you buy a mango that is very sour, very tart, and it makes your teeth develop some kind of what do you call that, sensitivity? And it makes your teeth like it's a mango. You bought from the same person; you love mangoes; I love mangoes so much. But this particular one you buy, you can't finish a quarter of it. It's a mango. What's the problem? It came from a different tree, mango tree. And that mango tree was not properly treated. Probably didn't get enough water, or maybe didn't get enough nutrients from the soil. So every mango from that tree, it's a mango, but it's bad. Have you ever enjoyed an orange? You eat an orange until you say Hallelujah! And then the next day, you buy another orange, expecting to get the same taste; this time you bite, and it's sour; it's an orange, but from a different tree; the tree was bad. If you want to get good oranges from that tree, you take care of it; find a way of treating orange trees, and the oranges from that same tree next season will be sweet, just the way you treat the tree. Are we together, children of God? Now the Bible is telling us, either make the tree good, or its fruit, and its fruit will be good. Or else if you don't make it good, or else if you don't make it good, the fruits will be bad. The tree is known by its fruit. It's not the other way around. Not the fruit is known by its tree. It's the tree that is known by its fruit. People will know who you are by what you speak. Let's go to verse 34. Brood of vipers. How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men speak, they will give account of that word in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. The Bible is clear. You cannot just decide, from today, I refuse to speak bad things, and then the next day you are not speaking bad things. Ah ah. It doesn't work that way, according to the Bible. The only way you'll be able to control what you speak without even thinking is to deal with the tree. Are we together, children of God? Deal with the heart. Because the Bible is clear; the treasures are in the heart. What do you value in your heart? What do you embrace in your heart? What things have you kept in your heart? You can't run away from them. Your mouth can never betray your heart. Your mouth will never betray your heart. If you have anger inside you towards someone, when they come and speak to you nice things, that anger is inside; it is a treasure you've allowed. When you answer, you say, "Why are you asking me?" The mouth cannot betray your heart. Why? You have hatred towards this person; no matter how much you try to be nice to them, when you speak, there will be a trace; there will be symptoms of anger in your words; there will be symptoms of hatred in your words, because that's what is in your heart. If it is not genuine in your heart, you will lie; you lie about everything because that's what your heart is. You are hiding too many secrets, and your heart is accustomed to secrets. The best way to keep a secret, do you know what is the best way to keep a secret? Is to lie. When people corner you, you can't say the truth; you want to keep the secret, so somehow you find a way of dodging by lying. But if your heart is pure, your mouth will never betray your heart. If you want to speak positive things, first deal with your tree, your heart. Change the treasures you have in your heart. What is a treasure? A treasure is not just anything. You can't go out there and take a stone, put it in your word, in your drawer and say, "This is a treasure." A treasure is something you value. So when the Bible says treasure in your heart, it's the list of things you value in your life. You regard them highly. Now there are some people who regard bad things, but they pay respect to them. If your values are very low, are very poor, you can speak otherwise. If you regard yourself poorly, if you regard yourself, you have low self-esteem. When you speak, it will show. Somebody shout Hallelujah! So how do you change your words? Change your heart first; deal with your heart first. If your heart is proud, you speak arrogance, arrogance every time. "I, I, I, I am not like that one. I am not like him. I win all of them. I have more money than everybody." You keep saying, "I, I." You speak arrogance. And you can't stop until your heart is changed. "Change me, O Lord," that should be our cry. "Lord, change me." See whether there is a wicked way in me. That's how you change the way you speak. If I think of somebody, I consider somebody highly; I respect them; I love them. When you begin to talk to me about those people, I will speak good things about them because that's how I look at them. That's how I carry them in my heart. And if I speak good things, but it's the other way around, in my heart, do you know what that is called? Hypocrisy; that is hypocrisy; it is also another problem of the heart. Lord, change me. Lord, transform me. Many times, I hear people say, "You have to bear with me; that's who I am. I am like this; Lord, you have to bear with me; that's who I am." Ah ah, really? Where did you get that arrogance? Can you say and cry, "Lord, change me?" Complaining, hurting people, many people complain and hurt people; change me, Lord. What happens is that when people don't experience physical pain that is directly related to our weaknesses, when people do not encounter physical pain that is directly related to our weaknesses, we tend to ignore the impact of our negative situations. We think we are just okay. No. It is causing us to miss a lot of things, miss divine instructions, to miss timely blessings. If you are walking in a jungle and you pass somewhere and you don't see anything, will you regret you didn't see anything? Just walking, but if you encounter a huge block of gold lying on the roadside, take it, and another person comes finding you celebrating, he was supposed to go before you but somehow he delayed to start his journey, he will regret, "If I was the first one, by now I would be rich," because he knows there was gold there. But if he finds you away, you've gone, he doesn't know there was gold, not any regret. There are many blessings we miss, and we don't know we've missed them, so we think it is okay. This is how I was supposed to live, but there's something we've missed because of our spiritual negligence, of the words we speak. Never underestimate the force of your words. Stand up where you are. Lift up your right hand and repeat this prayer with me. And say, "O Lord." Shout out louder; say, "O Lord." Today, I've decided; I want to be transformed. Change my heart, O Lord. Change my values. Change my mind.
My mind. Transform me, Lord. Father. Create something new inside me. So that my heart will treasure something good. And transform the words I speak, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.
Please sit down, and give a big hand clap for the Lord Jesus Christ. Today we are going to number eight. Things that people practice—characters and attitudes that people allow. They don’t look like very dangerous, but they have a massive destructive force that can destroy someone’s destiny, that can steal someone’s timely blessings.
One of these things, among many which we have already mentioned and are continuing to mention, is the issue of unfaithfulness. Unfaithfulness. Unfaithfulness. Unfaithfulness. Unfaithfulness. In the book of Luke 16:9-11, please hear me very carefully. Please follow closely what I’m telling you. It’s not big problems that deny people blessings. Because those, everyone knows them, and they fight them with great effort, because they don’t want to commit a big mistake. Too obvious. If you do them, everyone will know. It is small, hidden, negative attitudes that cause big problems. Unfaithfulness. Luke chapter 16, verse 9. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?
According to this scripture, there are many believers who are suffering economically because of unfaithfulness. It’s about economy here—unfaithfulness is something that people don’t pay much attention to. Many people may decide to be faithful when they are handed a big responsibility that everyone sees. The whole church knows. Now he’s handling this and that. The challenge is, can you be faithful in the least? And “least” doesn’t mean quantity or size. It can also refer to significance. Can you be faithful when you are handed a responsibility that doesn’t look very significant? If I chose you to come and take responsibility here where we are live-streaming from, will you take it seriously, just like I had given you a responsibility in a Sunday service? It is as simple as that.
We tend to classify things that require a high level of faithfulness, and this one not really. To be faithful is when you alone, nobody supervising you, you do the same way you would have done when someone was supervising you and giving you instructions—you do it on the same level. Many times, let me go to the issue of giving just a little. People would be faithful in giving when there’s a lump sum amount of money, and they are waiting for that. But if they receive a small amount, and the Holy Spirit is urging them to give, they don’t pay so much attention to what the Bible is saying here. That is a sign that if you can’t be faithful with something small, you are telling God, even if you give me something big, I will still be unfaithful.
Can you handle your responsibilities with accuracy and diligence even if nobody is watching you? Can you treat that small responsibility with high regard? Or maybe you need pressure applied on you before you do something? Do you need people to push you? That is being unfaithful. God is willing to bless us, but He will not bring you that big blessing. He will bring you first the trial blessing—the test—and see whether you’ll be faithful with that small. If you want to be a businessman or businesswoman and you say, “Lord, make me rich,” it will not happen overnight. Don’t be deceived by anybody. God has to test you first, with something small, and see whether you’ll be faithful. Lord, make me rich. I will build Your kingdom. I will build churches. I will buy buses for the church. I will help orphans. I will give scholarships to students from underprivileged families. And God brings you something small—just 100,000 Tanzanian shillings. That’s probably $40 or $30, I don’t know. And then He will ask you to help someone out of that small amount He gave you. And you go in your prayers, “Oh, Lord, this is still small. If You can give me big, then I will start now.” No. That big will not come. That small that has been given into your hands—be faithful. If you are told to do something, do it. You are telling God that, Lord, this is my heart. Even if You give me big, I’ll keep doing this. That’s how it works. Am I speaking to someone here? Somebody shout hallelujah!
Tonight, don’t say, “I’m already faithful.” Excel in your faithfulness, to the point that you need to be faithful even in small matters. The Bible says, “Be faithful until death.” What does that mean? It simply means, at all costs, choose to be faithful, at all costs. If they choose to fire you from your job because you decided to be faithful, so be it. That’s how it works in this kingdom of God. Please, everyone stand up. Pursue faithfulness. The more you grow in faithfulness, the more God will entrust you with true riches. Say, “This doesn’t belong to me.” The Bible is so clear: If you’re not faithful in someone else’s property, who will give you yours? The Bible says so. You walk in the compound. You see a plastic bottle, and you don’t pick it up. Your mind tells you, “It’s not me who threw it there.” Ahah. That is not being faithful. A neighbor is in pain, and you say, “Or there is a funeral in your neighborhood, this one let us not even pray with him, even if I invite him to church.” And the next day there is a seminar in our church. They will tell you, “Get lost!” Children of God, are we ready to be transformed? If there is anything you need to ask God to give you, among many important things, faithfulness should not be missing. In areas you were unfaithful, ask for God’s mercy, because unfaithfulness is sin. But from now onward, make it a determination, a cry, a desire. Lord, help me to grow in faithfulness. I want to be faithful. I want to be more and more faithful. Grow in faithfulness, because the more you grow in faithfulness, the more God will entrust something to you. God doesn’t entrust serious and sensitive blessings to people He doesn’t trust.
Many people want to be trusted, but what they don’t know is you can never demand to be trusted. Being trusted is a voluntary thing. People who trust you have to see something in you, until they are satisfied. They choose to trust you because they’ve seen something inside you. Not by printing a t-shirt, “I am trustworthy in Jesus’ name.” Ahah. Ahah. Oh Lord of hosts, touch the people, I want to be trusted, oh Lord. Ahah. Ahah. Be faithful, people will see and trust you. That’s how it works. And when people trust you, when God trusts you, now He begins to entrust you with things, with different things. Hivi, wewe ukimuona mtu amekaa kama kibaka? If you see somebody looks like a thief—you are in a church, and when we are praying, someone has put his phone on the chair, and somehow you open your eyes, and you see him almost taking it. And when you see him, he stops. Now you want to go to the toilet yourself. Can you tell him, “Please hold my phone? I want to go.” Can you give him your phone to keep it for you? You can’t trust him. You can do that to a person whom you know, you’ve seen them, you’ve known them, and you say, “Hold my iPad for me, I want to go to the toilet.” There are blessings God will never give to an individual until He is satisfied that this one is faithful. If I elevate him, he will not betray me. If I make him rich, he will not despise other people around him. You have to convince God. And the problem is that you can’t hide anything from Him. So, for you to convince Him, it has to be genuine, because He sees our hearts.
Lift up your right hand. Say, “Oh, Lord, tonight I choose to be faithful. I don’t have the ability, but Lord, I surrender unto You. Help me, Lord. Change my heart, Lord. I choose to be faithful, even in the smaller things. Help me to be faithful. Change my heart. Transform me, and in the things I have been unfaithful, I repent, oh Lord, forgive me for my unfaithfulness. Father, help me. I want to be transformed. Give me another chance. Give me another chance, Lord, and help my heart. I don’t like being unfaithful. I refuse to be unfaithful, in the name of Jesus. Father, when we ask, You said we receive, tonight I’m not asking for money. I’m just asking for a faithful heart. So change my heart. Change my heart, and make me faithful, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. A big hand clap to the Lord Jesus Christ. A big hand clap to the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray, in the name of Jesus, that you see value in what we’ve talked about tonight, and you begin to pursue it. Look around your life. When you have somebody’s money and you haven’t returned it, you promise, “Next time I get money, I’ll return it.” And you get money and that person doesn’t even know. And your heart tells you, “He doesn’t know you got this money.” You can continue using it. And then you use it. And that is a secret already. That is what? Do you remember I told you about what you speak? Now tomorrow he asks you, “My friend, haven’t you gotten the money?” What are you going to say? Will you say, “I got it and I used it?” You have to keep the secret. How? By lying. No, no, no. “I’ve not gotten it at all.” Economy these days, money has become scarce. You got the money, you finished the money, because he doesn’t know you got it. It doesn’t mean God also doesn’t know. Next time you go for a business deal and it doesn’t materialize, you come to the pastor, “Pastor, I need prayers. When I’m in business, in the last minutes, things go wrong.” At that time, you have forgotten what you did. Number one, you were not faithful, you didn’t return someone’s money, and you cover that sin by doing another sin—you lied. And the Bible says, “He who covers his sins shall not prosper.” This Bible, this Bible! Oh, children of God, I really plead with you. Do not underestimate the power of faithfulness. Do not underestimate the destructive force of unfaithfulness. I repeat, do not underestimate the power of faithfulness. Faithfulness can make you rich without having capital, but also do not underestimate the poison that is hidden inside unfaithfulness. It can kill your future. Do not allow it to happen in your life again. One more time, say, “I refuse to be unfaithful.” Refuse to be unfaithful. Oh, Lord, help me. I want to be faithful, in Jesus’ name.
May the Lord bless you. May the Lord protect you. May the Lord help you in your pursuit of spiritual things. May the Lord cause you to hear His voice. May the Lord shield you from premature death. May the Lord bless your offerings, in Jesus’ name. Everyone say, “Amen.”