In this article, we are looking at “The Two Sides of the Coin of the Disciple’s Journey”.  And in case we want to replace that “journey”, we can use “of the disciple’s destiny”. At the Believer’s Fellowship, we were brought into an experience in the book of 2 Timothy, and I will love us to start from that place. 2 Timothy chapter 2, I will read from verse 20 to verse 26. Now, see what the Bible says,

 

But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold, and silver, but also of wood, and clay, some for honor, and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone, [whether male or female, boy or girl, rich or poor], if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work. Flee also youthful lust, Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strive, and a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all; able to teach in patience, in humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps, will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.  

 

May the Lord bless the reading of His Word in Jesus' name!

Before we go so deep into the core of the message, I want us to look again at a few thoughts in that 2 Timothy chapter 2 from verse 20. It says, “But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver” You know it says, ‘vessels of gold and silver’. When we look at a typical coin, they will say, “There is the head or the tail,” there are two sides to every coin. And so, many of the things we will be looking at in this article will be having two sides. It may not be words and opposites hundred percent, but they will be two different kinds, of things in such a manner that we will not usually love to want the two together. Let me say it again, the two are not necessarily word and opposite, like peace and war.

 

If I ask us, how many of us are looking for peace, how many are looking for war? There will be peace people and almost nobody for war. But these things may not always be like that. It may be how many of us want to have four children? How many of us want to have five children? We all want children but we can just differ on what we want. So, the things we are looking at in this article, they are not necessarily good and bad, but they are two kinds of things that in the long run, we will not be able to have two of them together, we will just pick one. So, that's why we are looking at the two sides of the coin of a disciple’s journey. So, it says, “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver,” so, there are two types, it says, “There are vessels of gold, there are vessels of silver”.

 

Some days ago, I was looking at something on my phone and so, I saw the price of gold in the International market, maybe almost two weeks now. So, in case my data is not correct. I think I saw per the ounce of gold, maybe 2000 plus, 2000 something dollars. Now, the same thing for silver, maybe $23.

 

So, who will want a lot of gold? Or who will want a lot of silver? Does it mean silver is bad? But you want one, right? But the Bible says “In a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and Silver”, so two groups, it says, “but also wood and clay”. In the same house, there are vessels that are wooden vessels, some are clay vessels, none of them is bad. It just means that they are two different vessels. So, if they give you an option; you need a vessel to drink water, can you pick two vessels to drink water at the same time? So, you always pick one. So, but the question can then be, which one would you pick? Is it a wooden vessel or a clay vessel?

 

So, it says, “Some vessels are for honor, and some vessels for dishonor”. You cannot also pick honor and dishonor at the same time, you must pick one. So as a vessel, you must ask yourself, I want to be a vessel for honor. Or you say, “I want to be a vessel for dishonor,” you cannot pick the two. So, there are two options, but you must only pick one. So, let's go over it again. “But in a great house, they are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor, some for dishonor.  Therefore, if anyone classes himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor.”  Once you “be” a vessel for honor, you cannot be a vessel for dishonor. Do we agree? It is expected that once you choose to clean yourself from the latter, what does the Bible say? Then, you will be a vessel for honor. It is like its compulsory. But if you refuse to clean yourself from the latter, even though you desire to be a vessel for honor, then you have chosen to be a vessel of dishonor. Why? You choose not to clean yourself?

 

Just cleaning yourself, that one thing, it’s enough to determine whether you will be for honor or dishonor. What we don't know is what is it that will make you for gold or for silver, wood or clay? We don't know those ones yet, right? But we can see how you can be for honor and not for dishonor. And if anybody also wants to be for dishonor, we can see how to be for dishonor and not for honor. Yet those two are possible. Do we notice that they are possible? Did you realize now that a vessel can choose to pick any side? You will not be arrested. It just means that once you have picked that side, you must stick with it. If you pick honor, you must be in that honor. If you pick dishonor, you must remain in dishonor. So, how does it look to God, after a man has picked dishonor and he goes to a prayer mountain and says, “Oh Lord, I want honor,” and he has chosen dishonor.

 

How do you want God to look at the matter? Does the person now want to make God a liar? There is a path to honor, you chose the opposite. Now, in the opposite, you are praying for honor, how does it work? So, while it is good that we pray, while our prayers can draw the hand of God, we must not forget that there are principles that guide our conducts and that will inform our destiny. It will inform the man we will be, it will inform the future ahead of us.

If you want to suddenly have an honorable destiny, then you must have suddenly made decision to begin to clean yourself. Others will be getting themselves dirty, you will be cleaning up yourself. Others will be careless, you will be careful. Look at it, it says, “If anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work”. That also tells us that not every vessel are meant for good works. It says, “When a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be for honor, he will be sanctified and then he will be useful”.

 

So, does it not tell us that the quickest way to be useless in the hands of the master is to pick dishonor. So, dishonorable vessels are not so useful to the master for every good work. Now, if there are 20 chairs in this place, assuming there are 20 chairs, and we say, every chair, how many chairs are we expected to be there, to be involved? 20!

 

So, when they say every good work; it means if the master has 20 works, so that servant can be useful to the master in all the 20. What is it that has brought that servant to that state? He has decided to clean himself. Let me use our Nigeria word, he has decided to polish himself, he has decided to package himself. He has decided to work upon himself. You know the Bible says, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling”.

 

Don't wait for brother this and sister that to come and help you to do it. Do it! Several years ago, I wrote an article that is titled: ‘Oh Lord, I need Help with My Laundry’. I don't know how many of us that went on our knees one day and we were like, “God, just help me, I need help with my laundry. I need help, my clothes are dirty”. Have you done that? “Help Me Lord, help me, my clothes are dirty,” do we do that? “Oh Lord, show up today, Lord, all my clothes are dirty, please, help me. I need help, please my clothes are dirty.” So, what do you need to do with a dirty cloth? Do you need a miracle? What do you do? You wash! It is your responsibility to wash. But when we now say, “Oh Lord, I need help with my laundry. Lord, my clothes are dirty”. So, what do you want God to do? To wash them for you? So, there are certain things we take responsibility for. It says, “If a man cleanses himself, then he will be for honor, he will be useful for many things”.

 

You know, things may be wrong around our lives, and we are like, I'm really discouraged. Things are not working. Why? I don't know. But what will I do? I will just sit down. I'm really tired; things are not working. They say why are you not going to work today? You say, “The last one I went, I didn't get anything, things are not moving”. So, what are you doing? “I'm just sitting down, I’m watching TV.” Now, while we could do that. The reason why the man is frustrated is not because he is lazy. It's just that things are not working. So, what is he doing? He is sitting down. Now, he is sitting down because things are not working. Don't forget that. As we want to scold him, let us be nice; things have not been working. So, he decides to sit down.

 

Now, if he keeps sitting down, even though he does that for three years, will sitting down suddenly make things to work? So, there are times that the circumstance or the circumstances around us don't always encourage us. They don't give us opportunity to express ourselves. But we can choose how we respond. We can choose to either fold our hands or to do something about it. And I really want to drive home that point. If a man cleanses himself, if a man develops himself, if a man works on himself, work on his attitude, work on his temperament. Some people they cannot take nonsense, you give them nonsense, they will scatter the nonsense all over your face. Whereas the same nonsense, splash it at some other people, they will take it. You won’t even know that there was a nonsense that was poured on them because the nonsense had dried up. But some people, they will scatter the nonsense back at you. So, two people; the same situation, but they behaved differently, what could be the difference? Sometimes, it could be temperaments, we are different people. But it could be that somebody has chosen to work on himself.

So, no matter how difficult our circumstances can be, it is possible for us to have a different experience or different outcome because we have chosen to work on ourselves. As we work on ourselves, what do we get? We get a situation where we are good vessels in the hand of the master for different works, different jobs. So, when the master needs somebody to do some things, we are available, and we are good enough to do it, why?  We worked on ourselves.

 

“Oh, the economy was not good that is why I don't know how to do anything.” Somebody else will say, “While the economy was not good, I took the opportunity to learn how to do other things”. So, I decided to be a little bit practical with that Scripture. But that's not our destination.

 

So now, let's go to the book of Genesis chapter 1, we want to see another dichotomy or two sides that we could learn from. Genesis chapter 1, and we will read from verse 1 to verse 5. The Bible says,

 

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” can we see another two sides, another two dimensions, “the earth was without form and void. And darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day”.

 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. There was a time the Bible was telling us that God Himself said, “My thoughts are different from your thoughts, my ways are different from your ways as the heaven is higher or far from the earth, so my thoughts are far from your thoughts”.

 

So, God was telling us that the heaven is very far. So, these are two places, the heavens and the earth. And the Bible says, “They are very far apart”. So, the question we could ask again if we want to bring it down, is it possible to be in the heavens and on the earth at the same time? Are you in heaven or you are on earth? On earth! So, we can see it! Even though they ask you and I, where do you want to be? Some of us may have different answers. But currently, we are in a place. So, look at it, that earth that we are in, the Bible says, “It was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep”. So, we can see formlessness and voidness and then we see darkness. We want to focus on that darkness side.

 

Do you know at this point, the Bible had not mentioned light, the Bible only mention darkness. The Bible says, “Darkness was on the face of the deep,” so, when you come to the earth, the only thing you see is darkness. So, what if somebody wants something different from darkness, how does the person get it? So, when God came over, God said, let there be something else apart from the darkness, what was it? Light! And the Bible says, “And there was light”. There was initially darkness. But because God said, “let there be light,” the Bible says, “Now there is light”. So, when there is light, what about the darkness?

 

Okay, let's give an example. Let's say now we are tired. Then we sleep and we wake up. How are we going to be? Is it tired? Normally, is it going to be tired? Refreshed! So, the new experience is I'm refreshed, before I was tired. Alright, let's do another one. In the morning after we did all manner of things, we dressed up, we were planning to go to the office, we did something for many of us, we ate. Before we ate, we were hungry. After we ate, were we hungry? What were we after we ate? We were satisfied! So, what now happened to the hunger? ‘It has died, it has gone.’ So, let's look at it now. The Bible says, “Darkness was everywhere,” but God said, ‘let there be something else’. And the Bible says that something else that is called light appeared.

 

So, what happens to the darkness? Look at it, “Then God called the light day. And God called the darkness night”. If God called the darkness night, that means there was also darkness. There was light but there was darkness, so God named the light and God named the darkness. So, these are also two dichotomies or two sides. For every given day, there will be times of light, there'll be times of darkness that completes a day.

Now for us, let's say our lives are like the day, let's say our entire lives, no matter how many years we are going to spend maybe 120. So, even though it could be 125, 126, 87, 92 years we are going to spend, let's call all those years a day just like many hours in a day.  In your own day, let's say what had been when you came around all over you was darkness. Let's say when we got to know you or when you were growing up in secondary school, in university, the only thing people can see all over you was darkness. A man, a woman that didn't know her left or his left from right, somebody who needed somebody to teach her what to do. Somebody who was not clear about the kind of career ahead, somebody who does not know whether God really exists or God does not exist. So, such a man was in darkness or such a woman. So, do we know anybody who didn't have that kind of darkness? So, even though we look gentle, there were moments in our lives where the only thing that can summarize everything about us was darkness.

 

But remember that Scripture that says, “The evening and the morning were the first day”. Who is that day, you know, we likened the day to be a man's life? Even though the man's life ended up being 130 years. It is still one day. But the Bible says, “The morning and the evening is that day”. So, that’s where we are learning from. But we can see what happened first. There was darkness. And maybe you can say characteristics or things that are common, that happens in darkness is what the Bible says, “There was no form and there was “voidness”. “Voidness” means things were empty. If you asked what do you want to become? I don't know. Who are you really life? I don't know. What is it that really drives you? I don't know. Oh, can you give me your best role model? I don't know. So, things are empty.

 

The other one is formlessness; there is no shape. Nothing is predictable. You cannot say this is how he wakes up, these are the places he goes or she goes, these are the things she does. These are her principles. She can never break them. These are her way of life. You cannot bring her to a place where you say this is her. She was anyhow, and she does not know a lot. That time of voidness can also be times of ignorance. I'm sure you know that they normally classify darkness with ignorance. What produced the ignorance is that voidness — emptiness.

 

You know when people want to abuse anyone, they will say, “Empty shell that makes the loudest noise”. Why is it making the loudest noise? It is empty. If you can put something inside, it will be full, it will no more make noise.

 

So now, when we have darkness, we are having two things that are very unpleasant; formlessness and ‘voidness.’ This is like a state that it is like the beginning of many people. I don't want to say all of us. In your own lifetime, which is also in your own day, there is the tendency for darkness to come first. But if your life is all about darkness, it now looks like that scripture where Jesus said, “The eye is the light of the body. If that eye is single, the body will be full of light. But if the eye is then, darkness,” the Bible says, “then the darkness will be very great for the entire body”.

 

So, what happens to a man a woman whose life is purely darkness; 25 years, darkness! 47 years, darkness! 63 years, darkness! 92 years, darkness! Even at 106, darkness! No form, empty! She does not have principles, anything goes. There is nothing really stands for in the community.  There's nothing she's known for. Nobody can say, “So, so person said and I quote,” for him or her because she never said anything meaningful, she never did anything meaningful. So, what do you characterize such a life? You say such is darkness. Even though, it could be normal for a man's life to begin with that darkness, it will be an abnormality for a man's life to remain in darkness. Even though we could start as a people who didn't know the will of God for our lives, even though we could start with a people who have issues with character problems, even though we could be a people who rise today and fall tomorrow, even though we could be people who think we are for God but really we are not for God, even though it is possible to start our lives like that, we must not end it like that.

 

You know, we are looking at the two sides of the coin of the disciple’s journey. And we remember at the beginning, we said even though there are two possibilities; one is usually preferable, do we remember? And it is not possible to pick two as one together. Your life cannot end with darkness and light at the same time. You are like, what ended his life? And they say, “Light and darkness,” two of them were present. You know it's not normal. Do we know it’s not normal? So that's why we are saying, even though these are two sides that are possible, it is important for us to know the right and to pick it.

 

Apostle Paul said, “If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be for one,” and that is honor. I'm sure there must be certain things that we must do that will make sure that our lives does not end with darkness even though it could start with it. I'm sure there must be certain things we must do that even though our marriages started in what can be characterized as darkness, there was not enough form, not enough substance into it, not enough meaning, it is wrong for us to be celebrating 40 years in marriage and there is still no form and there is still “voidness.”

 

People may not see beauty with our lives at the beginning, it is wrong that we die; we leave this earth, no beauty. That's the summary. You became born again and people are like, who are you? There's nothing beautiful about your life. I don't even want my life to be like your life. No problem! But it will be wrong for us to continue to walk with Jesus and still nobody can see any beauty.

 

And yet the Bible says, “If they can see beauty in your life, that means you are sanctified”. 2 Timothy chapter 2 says, “When a man cleanses himself from the latter, he shall be a vessel for honor.” Number one, “sanctified and useful for the master for every good work”. Three things! Three things, that can take place if we choose to do the right thing that stops us from being darkness. Making sure that as God said, “Let there be light,” and indeed in our lives, it is light. And we ourselves know; it was not like this before; there was no serious light in my life before. In fact, my thoughts, there was no light inside it, everything was darkness.

 

When you offend me, I wish you just fall down and die. It is possible to start like that. But as you continue to journey with Jesus, you must not remain like that. Let me give us an example that we are familiar with. Jesus was going with the disciples, and He needed to pass through Samaria, and the people of Samaria did not welcome them; they were not excited. They were like, what is there, who is Jesus? What do you want to do here? Why are you here? And John and James, they got angry. They said, “Lord Jesus, do you want us,” they didn't say Jesus, you should do it, they said, “Lord Jesus, do you want us to call down fire from heaven so that these people can be destroyed as Elijah did?”

 

Do you know they've been following Jesus for many years? We don't know how many. Before, they could have been bad boys, but let's say they were now getting better. But even in their better state, they were still angry. Because people don't want to give their life to Jesus, is enough to kill them? But they felt, they deserved to die, “Let's call down fire and kill them”. And Jesus rebuked them and said, “You do not know the manner of spirit that you are of”. What Jesus was saying in a nutshell is, before, you could have been darkness, but the Spirit that is in you now is the Spirit of light. Before, you could have done those things and people would say, “They are angry oh, the thing don vex them well well that’s why he dey angry now”. But Jesus was saying, “Even when you are vexed well well, it mustn’t be darkness that people will see, they must see light. That's the challenge that God wants us to leave here with. As ambassadors, as children of light, children of God, we must not be a people that continue to romance our past in darkness, as if it is darkness that gave birth to us.

 

Even though our forefathers sold us into slavery, into darkness, we must not remain there. The Bible says, “He has translated us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son, the kingdom of light”. Another place says, “He translated us from kingdom of darkness into light that we may show forth the praises of Him who has translated us”. So now, we are no more in darkness. We were there before. We used to join them as they do all those bad things. We used to join them as they do the juju, we used to join them as they danced to those songs. We used to join them as they do all those things. But now, we don't do them again. Why? We know better. Why? Our lives now have proper plan, proper shape. There are things that don't go, there are things we don't do, there are things we don't say, there are places we don't go, why? We have followed Jesus enough to know that the manner of Spirit that is in us is not darkness, but light.

 

But yet never forget; it is possible for a man to be so to say in Christ and still be walking in darkness. The two sons of Zebedee, they said, “Do you want us to call down fire from heaven?” They thought they were in the light but it was darkness. And Jesus rebuked them. There's a Spirit that is in you that is different. The responsibility is on us. It says; “He will be useful to the master.” Our master is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only One that can determine our readiness, our capacity. If a man is a plumber and he has three apprentices, the customers cannot tell the plumber, “Oga Plumber, these your boys, they don good well well, give them work.” Is it the customers that will be telling the plumber? No! They can only acknowledge that, “Ah, Oga Plumber, all your boys, they don dey try oh, I dey see wetin dem dey do for your shop, dem dey try.”

 

It is the plumber that knows what they know. It is the master that knows whether we are capable or not, based on how we choose to clean up ourselves, how we choose to live our lives, the master is watching you and I. He will tell us, you are ready. He will tell us, you are good enough to do this good work. But if we do anyhow, even though we are busy, even though we've been with the Lord for donkey years, the master will not deceive himself. Bible says, “God cannot be mocked, whatever a man sows, he will reap”. Another version says, “God cannot be deceived.” if we are not ready, He knows. If we are ready, He knows”. My prayer is that God will help us in the name of Jesus, that we will not disappoint our master, we will not remain in darkness, but be translated to light.

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Gboyega ADEDEJI!

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