Let's start from Genesis chapter 1 verse 26. I trust that we'll be looking at a few Scriptures in the Old Testament and a few in the New Testament. Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, the Bible says, “Then God said, let Us,” you know, the title is “Let us go back from the church to Christ”. Now, we are introduced to something, we will not be the first group or entities to use the word let us. Now the Bible says, “God said, let Us make,” ours now is to go back, but God said, “Let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth”.

 

God said, “Let us make man”. If you are here today, you are either a man or a woman. And if you're a woman, there is a man in you. All right! So, the Bible says, “God [Himself] said let Us make man in Our image, and according to Our likeness”.

 

Now, for many of us that are familiar with art, you know, those who do art work; before you see the artwork, usually, for those who draw and paint, if you see an artwork that shows the picture of somebody like Sister Ritmua on the wall; they drew it with pencil or different things. And it looks exactly like her, there are two ways they can get into that state: it is either they have sister Ritmua seated or standing before them and the artist looking at her, draws the exact image of what the artist is seeing in a big platform, and then hanging it — the finished work on the wall. Do we see that number one?

 

Number two is the artist having a good picture, either a photograph or a picture of Sister Ritmua. Now, Sister Ritmua is not around, but he or she only has the picture and based on the picture, he or she draws the image, and then hangs it on the wall, the finish work, right? So, the Bible says in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26: “God said let Us make man in Our own image, according to Our likeness [so the finish work that will be hang on the wall is going to be in Our image]”. So, it's going to be that we will be looking at Ourselves, and then we will be drawing him or her as the case may be. As we see, as we behold Ourselves, we capture or we draw, we paint. So, what we see is what we paint, to the degree that we see to the same degree we paint it. So, as long as we shall be visible, the image shall be exact replication of the visible, or what has been captured. Sister Ritmua, did you see it?

 

So, as long as the artist keeps looking at you, there is a goal that in the long run, the artist is going to have your image in a big place. So, when we are introduced to that we can see that, you know for the artist that is drawing the image, it doesn’t happen in one minute, do we agree? We don't know whether it take days, some could take hours, some could be overnight, you have the image, you keep looking at the image throughout the night for you to have a good picture.

 

Now, for God to have you and I, we don't know how long God keeps looking at Himself, God keeps beholding Himself to replicate Himself in us. So, we don't know the time factor. But what do we know? There is a need for, how many of us have photocopied or scanned documents or pictures before? Alright! So, you open the scanner or the photocopier machine you put the image there and you cover it, does it happen like this (at no time)? It takes time. The machine will warm up, if it is a copier, and then the image will be scanned over time, over time, and then it will be replicated. Everything has time factor.

 

Now, when the copier starts scanning and then you in a hurry, you pick the image out of the machine. I'm sure we've seen those light, the light bulbs, coming in and going, and the light bulbs start like this and you pick the image, and then the bulb, assuming the bulb now passes, what does the bulb capture? Nothing. So, for that image to be captured successfully, what needs to be replicated must remain visible throughout the course of the process. There is a place we are going, what's the title? “Let us go back from the church to Christ.” Hallelujah!

 

Having introduced us to what God said in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, let's go to Genesis chapter 3. Let's skip a lot of places; let's jump to verse 8: Genesis chapter 3 verse 8: ^“And they heard the ^[c]sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the ^[d]cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden”.

 

Now, something happened between Genesis 3 from verse 1 to verse 8, especially verse 7. Just immediately after what happened, happened, the Bible says, “And they heard the sound; like a photocopier machine that is doing humm, hummm, hummm, preparing to print. They heard the ^[c]sound of the Lord God walking.” What's the goal of the walk? Okay, now, let's take for instance, brother Gboyega is standing before you now, is the goal to stand? What is the goal of this standing that is taking place before you? To teach, somebody can say, “so that you can hear me or so that you can see me”. So, if I stand, I'm not standing without a goal, I'm standing because you must see or you must hear.

 

Now, when they heard the sound of the LORD God walking, it was not because God just wanted to do a race. God wanted to exercise His body, no! there was something that they needed to benefit from that walking that was taking place. For even though it begins with a walk, it was supposed to progress to something else. When you hear the sound of your friend walking around the front of your house, the goal is not that the friend should keep walking around your house, the goal is that you should open the door, the friend comes in and then you dine with the friend and then, the friend will dine with you. Both of you will exchange pleasantries., you will exchange ideas; you will gist, you will laugh, is that not the goal?

 

So, but if the friend keeps walking and then you keep hiding yourself in your toilet, will there be any exchange of anything? No! So, “they heard the ^[c]sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the ^[d]cool of the day, and Adam and his wife.” And that represent all of us. We could have said, “And Nigerians and Chinese”. We could have said, “All Africans and Europeans,” because those two were the only ones on the earth. So, the Bible could have said, “And the inhabitants of the earth hid themselves before the presence of the Lord,” do we get it?

 

I'm sure we normally tell ourselves that Adam and Eve hid themselves, right? But the Bible can also be interpreted at this moment to mean that it is everyone. What they did, we could all be doing it now. Bro. Francis, imagine it becoming real to you that what Adam and Eve did, thinking the two of them did; you and I and many other people across the world, we are doing it today. Then it becomes important for us to understand what happened? How do we break the pattern from repeating itself in our own time?

 

The Bible says, “And they heard the ^[c]sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the ^[d]cool of the day,” and instead of welcoming God and then seeing God and hearing God, the Bible says, “they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord”, so what happened? Of course, they had done what God told them not to do. And said, “In the day that you do it you will die.” Something will depart from you; something will stop functioning in your life. There is something you are seeing currently that is visible in your life, no one will see it again. There is a grace you are enjoying; you will no longer enjoy it. There is a life you are living; you will no longer live it. The day you do it something will stop working in your life. And they did it, and lo and behold, that thing stopped. Now, that thing has stopped, God now came down, what was the goal?

 

I could imagine a situation which never happened: that the two of them, the husband and the wife, Bro. John, they ran to God; they knelt down before Him: Elohim, Jehovah is your name, nobody is compared with you. Nobody can take your place, You are Elohim, Jehovah, Yawah, You are greater than the greatest, You are mightier than the mightiest, there is none like You. Imagined that they start worshipping God. Sorry, what do you think would happen? We can't imagine it; do you know why? We can't imagine it because some of us our minds are telling us God would have forgiven them. God would have restored them. But God didn't restore them because they didn't do it. What did they do? They hid themselves. God came down, did God need to come down to judge them? God came down for a reason. They were on earth, God was in heaven, but God came down. They didn't go to heaven; heaven came to them. Why?

 

Some people think the moment God showed up, they were doomed. No, it was their decision when God showed up, that made them to be doomed. So, God never stops showing up, even when we sin. When we transgress, God never stop showing up. But what do we do? When we go wrong, we hide ourselves from the Lord. Instead of God saying, “Depart from Me, we say to God, Depart from us”. Didn't we see it in the case of Peter and Jesus? He literally chased Jesus away like ‘Me, I'm a sinner, don't come, don't come close’. And Jesus had to draw him closer.

 

So, something happened in Genesis 3 verse 8, God came down not primarily to judge. God came down for a purpose, but mankind, the entire human race, decided to hide from God. If you read subsequent chapters just after that, the Bible made us to realize that from a particular instance, in fact, in Genesis chapter 4 verse 26b, the bible says, “Then,” from that moment, “men began to call on the name of the Lord”.

 

I don't know if I can be looking at you and you are looking at me, okay, I can be in front of you, and you are not looking at me, do we agree? But can you be looking at me and I'm calling your name at the same time? For instance, let's say bro John, I said, ‘Bro John,” now, he wasn't looking at me, but when I said Bro John, he now began to look at me. Now that you’re looking at me, imagine me said, “Bro John,” in your mind, you're like, “Sir, I'm looking at you what else do you want again?” So, when they began to call on the name of the Lord that means they were no longer seeing the face of God.

 

God was not that far from them or inaccessible as it were like they don't know where God was. The issue is they could no longer see the face of God. I'm sure today, many of us tell ourselves, “I'm going to seek the face of God; I'm going to seek the face of God,” this is where this whole thing began from. Ordinarily, the face of God was supposed to be something that we experienced regularly. And we needed to keep seeing His face so that we will keep replicating His image.

 

Alright, let me do another practical, Sister Ritmua, have you used a photocopier machine before? Alright, you know you traveled for a while so in case you're like why is he mentioning your name? it is because, maybe I should say, ‘I missed you when you were not around, now that I'm seeing you, I'm calling you, you understand? So, don't get worried. Alright, imagine a photocopier machine, you have put the document in it and you have covered it and you said, “Copy!” And the thing starts, and maybe the thing went like this, then they took the light, will you receive the copied material?

 

All right, you now opened it; you remove the original; you kept it somewhere, then they now brought the light, you now say, ‘Copy!’ Will the photocopier machine remember the image it captured? So, do we see our problem? We were copying the image of God exactly until Genesis chapter 3. So, light went off, didn't God say the man will die? Light went off. So, light came back on. Do you want to just replicate the image without you having the original back? Original must come back; there must be a direct contact, a visibility: a facial contact. There must be a facial contact between the original for you to have a copy that is correct.

 

How many of us agreed that the light went off? Alright, so we can build on that foundation. Sometimes we wonder why children that are born without being schooled, they can behave in a way that doesn't look like God. And they didn't need to be trained. In fact, for them to do the right thing, that's when they need training. To do bad thing, no need for training, have we realized? Light went off. So, if there will be, you know we said training now. Training is now a system that is put in place to make sure the original becomes visible to the machine that replicates. So, if the machine will produce a photocopied copy that is correct, then the original must be seen. The original must be seen, let’s accept that.

 

Now, let's go to Exodus. Exodus chapter 33. Many of us are familiar with the story, so, I will not read too many chapters in Exodus, I will just read that chapter 33. Something happened, which is also a follow up of what happened in Genesis chapter 3, light went off, and light was brought back. I'm sure we understand that in Genesis, from chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, the children of God were in bondage, and God wanted to save them. These people were not yet behaving correctly, do we agree? They were not perfect. But God wanted to save them; God loved them. God wanted to make them a sample; a sample of what is possible. That if only a people on the earth can be aligned with God, this is what can become of their lives. So, let's fast forward to Exodus chapter 33, a people whose light has went off and has come back.

 

Exodus 33 from verse 7: “Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting”. This is where it all started from. Prior to that time, people were used to meeting with God on mountains individually. You go on a mountain, you meet with God, you build an altar unto God, I'm sure we remember Abraham who built a lot of altars unto God, but it was not between Abraham and his children and his wife, do we remember? It was all about Abraham, Isaac built his own, Jacob built his own.

 

In fact, there was a time that Jacob had to send his whole family away. He said, “Be going ahead,” and he stayed back, and he had an encounter. Will you call that like a church of today? So, it was an individual experience. But in this place, Moses set up a place and he called it the tabernacle of meeting.

 

“And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord,” what is the word? Sought the Lord. In the present tense it means everyone that is seeking the Lord. Why are they seeking the Lord? And please, do you seek for something or someone that is not unavailable? Are we looking for me right now? All right, you're not looking for me because you can see me. You can see me or you can hear me. So, they were seeking for God because they could no longer see God, they could no longer hear God, and then why were they desperate for God if God could be substituted in their live? If they didn't need God, why were they looking for God?

 

Many of us today we are looking for money, if you don't need money, will you look for money? If they transfer 1 billion Naira to your account right now, will you go about looking for money the second day, Bro. Dennis? So, what you have, you don't look for. And if you need something, then you look for it if you don't have it. So, we already know that they needed God, and yet they couldn't see God, right? So, they were seeking God.

 

The Bible says, “Everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp”. When they go to the tabernacle of meeting, what were they going for? To seek the Lord; to seek God. And the Bible says that every time they needed to see God, they will go to that place. “So, it was whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all people rose and each man stood at his own tent door, and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass where Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle. And the Lord talked with Moses.”

 

The same One that the people are looking for, spoke with Moses. Can Moses be seeking for what is having? So, Moses was having a great time. “All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshipped each man in his tent door. So, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend, and he would return to the camp, but is servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man did not depart from the tabernacle.”

 

As far as the tabernacle of meeting was concerned, God was always there to speak with Moses face to face. We can as well conclude that they were having facial contacts. And then we can also assume that it was easier for Moses to copy God, than for the children of Israel to copy God because as it were, the original was closer to Moses. Now let's go to verse 12. “Then Moses said to the Lord,” let's see Moses, you know, like Oliver Twist looking for more, “see, you said to me, bring up these people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet, you have said, I know you by name, and you have also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in your sight, show me your way that I may know you, and that I may find grace”.

 

What's the goal? Alright, let me do it again. What was Moses asking God? Just one answer. He said, “Show me your way.” Thank you, Sir. Then what was the reason why he wanted to see the way of God?  He said, “Show me your way”. Sister Joy, what was the reason why he wanted to see the way of God from what we read? God blesses Sister Joy! Is there in the Bible, he said, “I pray, if I have found grace in your sight, show me your way that I may know You. And that I may find grace”.

 

So, there were two reasons by the way, not just one. The reason why he wanted to see the way of God, number one: that he may know God, and then that he may find grace. He was looking for grace, and he wanted to know God. And so, what was he asking God? “Show me your way.” There's a place we are going but never forget these things that you are reading now. And says, “And considered that this nation is your people,” and he said in verse 14, “My presence will go with you and I will give you rest. Then he said to Him, if your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here for how will it be known that your people and I have found grace in your sight except you go with us?”

 

What was the whole point that Moses was now rounding up with? Are we noticing the presence of God? You know, initially he said, “Show me your way that I may know you, and then find grace”. Then he now concluded with the only way people will know that we are a special and a different people is that your presence is with us. The presence of who? Of the Lord. How do people know that we are different, is it not that your original is in the copier machine? Because as long as the original is in the copier, the copies that will be coming out of us will be after the order of the original. You cannot put an original in the copier, and then the copier is producing the copier. Can we quickly think about it?

 

The copier is a machine, right? How many of us have put originals in copier machines, and what we had was a picture of the copier machine? Brother Francis, has it happened to you? No! The copier does not copy itself. The copier copies the picture, the image, that is set upon it.

 

There will be a problem if no image is set upon the copier. Then what will the copier copy? It will copy blankness. I hope that blankness is not translated literally as darkness. The Bibles says, “Darkness will cover the earth, and gross darkness the people,” what is the cause of it? It says, “But the Lord will arise upon you and His glory shall be seen in you”. Are you not the copied product, the product of the copier?

 

When the Lord is not rising upon you that is the presence of the original is not in the copier. What the photocopier machine will produce is going to be blankness and darkness. But when the Lord arises upon you, God making Himself visible in the copier machine, what comes out of you is the image of God — this is the will of God. All right, so let's continue. We are in verse 16, it says, “So we shall be separated. Your people and I from all the people who are upon the face of the earth. So, the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing that you have spoken. For you are found grace in my sight, and I know you by name. And he said, please show me your glory”.

 

“The Lord shall rise upon you and His glory shall be seen in you.” “Show me your glory”. He knew, if only he could see the glory of God, what will happen? He will become that image that he is seeing. Sister Joy, as you see, you become. Whatever you see, you will become. If you set a wrong image before yourself, you will become a wrong person. That's how God has created us. That is why the Bible says, “The light of the body,” that thing in us that copies is the eye. If your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light. Your whole body will become translated in into the image of what your eye is seeing.

 

If you go to where they are smoking and they are drinking, they're drinking, they're smoking all manner of weed, if you go there; go there in the morning and leave the place in the evening, do that for seven days of the week, tell me you are Holy Ghost filled and tongue speaking, Bro. Francis, what will happen? The man will be transformed. You will say, “The church I used to go, I go there no more, there is a great change since I started going to those places”.

 

What is the reason you are seeing new things? What you see is what you will become. That is why the psalmist was saying, “I have set the Lord before myself,” you cannot set just anybody. In fact, you cannot set any man before yourself. You cannot set any people before yourself. We will soon realize that, you must set the Lord otherwise you will become like the people or the men or the man that you have set before yourself. Then problem arises if the man that you have set before yourself has nothing to do with the original image. So, instead of doubting: is it close to original, is it a fake or original, just once and for all look for the original; just look for the original copy. Just look for the original. You are doubting, is Bro. John accurately in Christ; is Bro. John accurately Christlike; is Bro. John Christly? Instead of you confusing yourself about all those questions just look for Christ.

 

Verse 19: “Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you.”” Can somebody remember the photocopier machine, the light that is going up and down; that warm light that goes like this, that goes like this? God said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you,” how many of us can look at that light that comes from the copier machine like this, how many of us can do it? Bro. John, you know it is not good; is dangerous.

 

So, when that light wants to come, you just take your eyes away, that's why you have to cover it. You just take your eyes away because it can damage your eyes. But let's see it, you know this is earthly, let's look at the heavenly. “I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you,” don't forget men began to seek God. But now God said, “I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion”. But he said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”

 

And in my mind, I began to reason it: didn’t Adam see God? Before the fall, the Bible says, “God was walking”. God was not tiptoeing like ‘I don't want them to see Me’ because they will be problem. No, ‘God was walking’. They were the ones that hid. That's why immediately he gave God an answer, God said, “Have you eating what I asked you not to eat?” Because that is what can damage you, and render you to become you to become incapable of seeing the Lord.

 

God didn't create us in such a manner that we cannot behold Him. look at it, He said, “No man shall see Me and live”.  In verse 21: And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me,” can somebody say, “here is a place by Me”. By the Lord, there is always a place. I can remember in John where Jesus said, “I am going to the Father to prepare a place”. I'm going to the Father, and I will prepare a place; I'm not preparing it here; I'm preparing it in the Father. There is a place by the Father. He says, “Here is a place by Me and you shall stand on the rock”.  I'm sure many of us that are Bible students are seeing key words that connect us with Christ, are we seeing already? You will stand on the rock; you will not stand on the mere sand. You will stand on the rock. That is the platform upon which you can see the Lord.

 

Yesterday at the Leadership Fellowship, we were looking at “Liberty of the Spirit”. The Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. And then the Bible says, “But we all with an unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord”. We all with an unveiled face, nothing is blocking us. Sin is not blocking our face. Satan is not blocking our face; with an unveiled face we behold the glory of the Lord, and what does the Bible say? “We are changed into the same image from glory to glory.”

 

Sister Joy, you cannot see God in a glory; in an image and then become something else. If our lives are becoming something else, we should start asking is it the Lord we are seeing or we are seeing other things? He said, “So it shall be, while My glory passes”. You know is good we use the copier example, and that example came while I came here; it didn't follow me, I met the example here. And you see it, while my glory passes, that thing that the copier requires to capture, that light, for God to also be able to replicate Himself upon us, His glory must pass over us. That's why when we are praying prayers, we must be praying prayers in line with this revelation.

 

There is something about the glory of God. There's something about light that comes from God, when it impacts your life, it translates your life to the same light that God is. So, it is God that you see that you will become like. If you cannot see God, you are always dodging yourself from God, you will rather show yourself to men, you will rather show yourself to pastors, but God does not see you, you don't see God; you can't become like God, you will rather become like the pastor.

 

Bro. John, remind us the title of this message again: “Let us go back from the church to Christ”. He said, “while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock”. God said that He will put Moses in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I passed by, then I will take away My hand and you shall see my back.

 

If somebody should ask us now, Mrs. Grandma Adedeji; front of God, back of God, does it matter? Is it not to see God? Bro. Dennis, you're like, “No oooo, don't give me your back, just give me your front,” will you talk to God like that? Bro. France is like, “I don't care whether it is the front or the back of God, I don't mind. I just want to see God”.

 

Moses cannot tell you today that he did not see the glory of God. It is important that you and I don't die until we see the glory of God. So, the desire must be there. “I want to see the glory of the Lord; I want to see God.” There was a time in one of the Gospels, the Bible says, “Andrew came to Jesus,” he said, “they are seeking you [some people said, we want to see Jesus]”. That's what they said. They came to the disciples, they said, “We want to see Jesus”.

 

Now we have seen in reality, did the Bible say all the children of Israel saw the face of God, the back of God, who saw it? Moses. If I ask you now, do you see the things that your pastor see about God? You will say no. Even now your pastors are seeing more than you. But you go to church.

 

Now we have started the church. You go to church, and your goal is you want to see God. You want to see God, that's the goal — I am going to church, and I want to see God, do you end up seeing God? All right, before we go on, there is something I want us to look at. Does anybody have an understanding of the word church? Can we briefly respond, we need one or two people to just talk to us in one or two lines what he or she thinks the word church means. Sister Joy, do you know the meaning of church? Not yet, you will know it.  Any definition of church or example church, Ma? The church means the called-out ones — Ecclesia! He took it further again, do you agree? Some people will say, “The assembly of the called-out ones”.

 

So, when you say you are going to church, and the definition says that the church is the people that are called out, sister Rite, can you go to the people? Alright! Let’s do it again. I'm going to church, Sister Joy. Where are you going to? I'm going to church. And they said, “The church is the called-out ones, the people that are called out: called out of darkness into the marvelous light”. Do you go to the people? With all the things we've seen from Genesis to Exodus, is the primary goal of men to go to the people. Some of us are struggling with the answer. Do you go to people? Okay, assuming you go to the people, is the goal to see the people? But what do we end up seeing when we go to church? We see people, especially, after service; “Oh, good afternoon, good afternoon, Ma, how are the children?” Sometimes we exchange gifts. “I brought something for you.” Sometimes we show our clothes, I like your style, who is that your tailor that is doing it? It is Sister Rita, “Oh, Sister Rita, how are you, please; you will make my cloth for me”. So, we go to church because in our words we are going to people and the people is what we end up seeing.

 

Now, let's quickly look at where Jesus made a statement about the church in Matthew chapter 16 from verse 17: “Jesus answered and said to him,” talking to Peter, “blessed are you Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it”.

 

Jesus said, “I will build my church,” so what was Jesus saying he was going to build? Sir, was He going to be building the Cathedrals, the big temples? He says, “I will build my church”. So, Jesus said that He will build His church but you are going to the church. Where are you going? The church. The church requires building. The church needs help, and don't want to say the church needs to be worked on. So that Jesus said that He will personally make sure that He works on the church. He makes the church right.

 

Do we remember that place that the Bible says Jesus is coming for a church without spot or wrinkle? It is going to happen because Jesus will make it to become without spots, but that doesn't mean that it doesn’t have spots. It has, but Jesus will make it without. The very thing that Jesus is walking on that's the very thing you are saying, you're going to. Should I repeat myself?

 

Let's be very realistic. A man is actually having issues: a man having issues with addiction, and sometimes when he's alone, he takes a little drink. He says, “Dry, this code whether,” he takes something cold. When he travels for ministration or anything, and his wife is not there and he sees a young girl, he doesn't mind. And then you go to him and say, “You are my savior, save me from my own present predicament,” can he save you?

 

Now, this is the issue: Jesus said, “I will build my church,” is He the one that wants to build the church you go to or the church that needs to be built? When people that the priorities have been shifted, and the devil doesn’t care how many years you go to the church. How many of us are aware that the representatives of the devil are in the church that is they are among the people of God? That's the word. My wife sent me a video today. Ma, did you watch the video before sending it, the TikTok video? Alright! I shared the video too on some groups. Now, in the video, somebody that was converted from worshipping Satan who is now a pastor's wife was talking about how they used to do it. So, when you find the people of God gathered, you will find representatives.

 

Brother John, imagine you saying there is a big hospital called so, so and so Specialist Hospital. And in your mind, you're like saying, “I'm going to meet the patient in the hospital”. And when you are asked, where are you going? I'm going to meet a patient at the …Specialist Hospital. What is wrong with you? I'm having issues with typhoid. Where are you going? I'm going to meet the patient at the Specialist Hospital. Is that what we say? Don't we say we are going to see the doctor? That’s it. It is not particularly about the building; it is about the person that is there to take care of you. Right?

 

So, when you go there, you don't go to meet fellow patients, what do you go to do? You say, “You want to go and see the doctor”. You pay consultancy to see the doctor. When you say you have come into the midst of God’s people, you have come to the church. Do you come to see God? Or do you come to see yourselves? See the way brother John is looking today; see the way Sister Joy is looking today, is that what you have come for? Have we not been in the church for the last 16 years, what has changed about our lives? From Genesis till now the goal has not changed; our goal is to see God, and the goal is when we see God, we will become change into the image of God.

 

I Don't know how many of us have gone to hospital to see doctors and the doctors are also sick; the man you want to see is sick himself? Did you successfully see the doctor that day? All right.  People often make gest of nurses that they don’t like pain at all. They are the same that attend to the sick, but they can't tolerate pain. They are the ones taking care of you, but when they are in a need, this is how them too will be — panicking. What help can that nurse be to you when that nurse is sick? Have you never met a doctor that has never been sick before? Have you never met a nurse who has never been sick before? And that nurse or doctor is in one particular place, but you go to a place, you are not sure whether the doctor and the nurses will be sick, and they said, “Go to the hospital,” which one will you choose? May we never go to hospitals when we need it but the doctors are sick in the same place. Because there will be no help for anybody.

 

One woman came to the king and said, “Help oh king! Help oh king!” and the King said, “From where will I find help for you, if the Lord does not help you, I'm not the helper of your life. It is God that will help you”. If God does not help you, where will I find help for you? This is why we must keep our gaze on Jesus. The healer who has never been sick before. The Bible calls Jesus, “He was rich yet He became poor that you through his poverty might become rich”.  Don't you rather go to Him? The one who is not trying to exploit you, is not trying to make money from your life, the One who wants to make you rich.

 

We can set up a society of good women, I'm sure many churches have different associations. Sister Rite, have you belonged to any association? Good women in the church. We can belong to different societies in the church, and do you know, many societies, they try to help themselves. But again, I will quote a scripture: “Woe to the help of man”. The help you need is Jesus Christ. God said, “I have set in Zion a Stone for a foundation, anyone that believes in Him will never act hastily”.

 

Let’s see a place in John chapter 14. Don’t forget, Moses said to God, “Show me your way”. And Jesus speaking in John 14: 6, Jesus said to him, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father,” that is the Lord God, “except through Me”. And then He said, “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also, and from now on, you know Him and have seen Him, why was Jesus emphasizing on have seen Him because until we see the Father, nothing changes in our lives? Phillips said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father and it will be sufficient for us”. What is the word again, it will be enough, that will be all.

 

Sister Lara, this is all we are looking for: the Father. We try to gather ourselves together as believers, we try to gather ourselves, we call it different names. We are all looking for the Father, Jesus, if you can show us the Father, that will be all. Look at what Jesus said, “Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Phillip? He who has seen Me, has seen the Father. So, how can you say show us the Father?”

 

Is it not possible that Jesus has been with all of us for many years, but instead of looking for Jesus, we are looking for the church. When our problems do not get solved in this church, we go to another church. Christ who is not helping me, let me go to Christ Reviver Ministries. So, from one church to another, two, two years: one church, two years, another church, two years; you will not have gone through all the churches in your community before you die of old age, did you eventually see Jesus? Did your situation change? Did you get what you are looking for from God? Has your gaze not be on those churches instead of on Jesus Christ?

 

Let's conclude with a place in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And Apostle Paul was really looking at division. He sent a letter to the people of Corinthians, and he saw that there was division among them. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 from verse 10, I will be ending this evening with it. "Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all ^[d]speak the same thing, and that there be no ^[e]divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. ¹¹ For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are ^[f]contentions among you. ¹² Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” ¹³ Is Christ divided?"

 

Is Christ a denomination? This is it, he says, “Now I say this that each of you,” you know like, me, I am a Winner; me, I am a Redeemed; me, I am a Potter’s house; me, I am a Full Gospel, you know, we boast about these things as if this is what saves us. This does not save us. There's only one name that is given among men by which we must, we must be saved. Bro. Dennis, what is that name? Jesus. He said, “Is Christ divided dead?” He now got angry, he said, “Was Paul crucified for you? Why are you trying to photocopy your life with all these names?” He said, “Were you baptized in the name of Paul?” Look at it, he said, “ I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. ¹⁶ Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other.”

 

Look at it, ^“For Christ did not send me to baptize.” So, who is the main sender? You know, for married men, just imagine that your wife is pregnant and wants to deliver, and you know it that she wants to deliver through CS, and then the hospital, the chief medical director of the hospital is the best everybody knows it. The Chief Medical Director is available, he didn't travel and you know he is the best, how many men here will give your wife to one of the doctors instead of the Chief Medical Director? Because I've been there before. When your wife is with the Chief Medical Director there will be no fear. Sister Rite, is it one guy that just finished medical school that you will give your wife? Okay, you will not get it.

Bro. John, will you give your wife to one guy that just finished medical school, or who will you give? The Chief Medical Director. God said, “I have laid in Zion a Stone for a foundation. A precious stone, chief cornerstone”. Men and brethren can pray for, the real one you need is Jesus. Come, let me lay my hand on you, it can help you, but what you really need is Jesus. Who you really need to see is Jesus. Men can speak to you, until God speaks to you, your situation has not changed.

 

The woman with the issue of blood went everywhere, went to many physicians, nothing happened until she found Jesus. Don't waste your life looking for men and women that will help you: prophetess this, apostle this…go for Jesus. Your life will never remain the same again.

 

Thanks for the gift of your time, We are Gboyega ADEDEJI and Lara Gboyega Adedeji!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!