Victory Through Holiness ( 3)

\ Text: 1 Samuel 2: 12 – 36; 1 Samuel 3: 11- 18

TKey Verse: 1 Samuel 2: 17, “Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord: for men abhorred the offering of the Lord.” ( KJV) Hechurch can never rise higher than the pastors of the church. A bishop must be blameless. The higher spiritual the pastor is, the higher the church will go. If the pastors come down, the church will also come down. What is the reason for saying so? Pastors who don’t do well will mount their pulpit and excuse every wrongdoing. When they know what the Bible says, they will never go there. Paul said he came to preach Christ crucified ( 1 Corinthians 1: 23).

No pastor should be evil. The Bible said if a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good thing and a bishop must be blameless, of good behaviour and not greedy ( 1 Timothy 3: 1- 2). If you have your one wife, marry your one wife, don’t have concubines and don’t live in adultery. Phinehas and Hophni, Eli’s two sons, were priests who committed evil deeds. They were living in greed and immorality. They were so brazen and bold, and they had no restraint about committing these deeds in the tabernacle, the house of God. The Bible said these kinds of things should not be mentioned among you ( Ephesians 5: 3). But not only are they mentioned, even when they are mentioned, some people in the church also support it. How would the church stand, when people who should be in front support evil? It calls for repentance and revival.

Our local churches can never do better than the pastors shepherding them. Hophni and Phinehas were children of Belial, and they did not know the Lord. Hophni and Phinehas were a disgrace to their pulpit; Hophni and Phinehas were pretenders; Hophni and Phinehas were hypocrites; Hophni and Phinehas were liars and Hophni and Phinehas were children of the devil, but they occupied the pulpit of the Lord. How would the church move forward with such people on the pulpit? The church will never move forward with such people. Hophni and Phinehas refused to repent; Hophni and Phinehas refused to honour God and Hophni and Phinehas refused to reverence God. Same goes for the two sons of Samuel, Joel and Abijah, whom Samuel appointed to be judges over Israel when he grew old, but they turned aside towards dishonest gain and began accepting bribes to pervert the course of justice in the house of God ( 1 Samuel 8: 3). Our relationship with Christ comes first before any position will hold in the church. If you are a church musician, your relationship with Christ comes before your music. The pastors are not the only leaders in the church; there are other leaders. There are pastors that have been living in adultery. There are music leaders who live in adultery, and some pastors even live in adultery with members of the church choir. As a choir member, your life with the Lord comes first

before your singing. Who will abide in the Holy hill, the psalmist asked in Psalm 15: 1? Which of us will abide in the holy tabernacle? It is a personal question that each individual will answer. Which of the choristers will abide in the holy hill? You can sing it, but yet you will not experience it. You can sing it, but yet you will not run to the holy hill and you can sing it, but yet you will not go into the tabernacle. If you are not living for God, you know it. We don’t need to know; you have to know.

Today’s Nugget: A Bishop must be blameless.

Prayer: Lord, help me to live a life of blamelessness.

Prayer lines: 08054477940.

E- mail: servantofgod111@ yahoo. com

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