Mount Olivet Baptist Church MOBC Tema Ghana

02/05/2024

25/09/2020

YOU MUST BE SAVED!
John 3:16
What is the meaning of Salvation and why does God want to save every man? The Bible says in John 3:16 and I quote: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
From the scripture above we see God, then we see man presented in the pronoun ‘whoever’ and we are able to conclude that every man “whoever” he or she is, is bound to perish unless he believes in God’s Son that he has sent. We ask: Why is man (whoever he or she is) bound to perish unless he believes in God’s only son?
God created man for a purpose; that is to live with man eternally. Sin came in seeking to destroy this plan of God by separating man from the Holy One who could not live with sinfulness. God’s love makes him unable to live without man so he had paid the price by letting Jesus Christ, His only begotten son die a painful and shameful death for all men. Why? Because sin’s price must be paid by blood and blood alone! We are to do nothing but just believe that the price for our sins has been paid and will be saved from sin and its consequence of eternal death (Heb. 9:22).
Have you sinned? Yes all have sinned (Rom 3:23). Do you want to escape perishing in hell in eternal damnation? (Rom. 6:23) Yes you can because God himself has paid the price for every man’s sin. What do I do? You may ask. All you do is to believe. “For with the heart man has faith to get righteousness, and with the mouth he says that Jesus is Lord to get salvation. (Romans 10:10). He wants you to only believe and accept what he has done for you through Christ Jesus on the cross of Calvary and Salvation is yours. Not only will you escape perishing in hell but you will pass on to eternal life with Him in heaven.
Friend Jesus died for you and calls you now to come to Him and be saved. Tomorrow will be too late “For He says: "In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Accept Jesus now and be saved!
Pray this prayer with me: Lord Jesus, forgive me all my sins. Be my Lord and my personal Saviour and help me to live for you. Amen!!
God bless you!

THREE CRUCIAL QUESTIONS OF LIFE
Luke 12:19-21
Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.
"And he thought within himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?'
"So he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 'And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry."' "But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?' "So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

There are three very important questions everyone born into this world should have answers to so they can live a meaningful life here on this earth. The questions are:
1. Who am I?
2. Why am I here on this earth?
3. And where do I go from here?
By this passage of the Foolish Rich man, Jesus teaches us three very important truths about life.
1. God made us for himself,
2. to live for him, love him and obey him and
3. one day one when we depart from here, to live with Him forever.
If we know these truths, we seek God and live our lives every day to please him. By doing this we prepare for a time of eternity with him in heaven. (Matthew 6:33)
To do this, we believe in his only son Jesus Christ through whom we receive the promise of salvation. (Acts 16:31). Then, we find a church that teaches us about the truth of God and live a life of love, righteousness and holiness. When this happens we have hope that when we die our works here will follow us and we will be with God in His kingdom.
Friend, have you done this? If you have not I will plead with you to give your life to Christ now by praying this prayer with me. Say: Lord Jesus, I believe that you are the only means by which I can be saved. Come into my life and be my personal Savior. Give me your Holy Spirit to help me live for you till you come for me into your kingdom. I thank you for saving me. Amen

26/08/2020

DO YOU KNOW THAT GOD WANTS EVERYBODY SAVED BUT MOST WILL NOT BE SAVED? (2Pet 2:9)
SO, WHO DETERMINES WHO WILL BE SAVED AND WHO WILL NOT BE SAVED?
YOU!!!! (Mark 16:16)

19/07/2020

Full message for today 19/07/2020 at Mount Olivet Baptist church.

WE FOLLOW JESUS AT A COST - COUNTING THE COST

Matthew 8:18-20; 16:24; Luke 14:27-33

18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

"Large crowds were following Jesus" ...... and they always did; they followed Him in the cities, they followed Him in the towns and villages, and they followed Him on the highways - even today many are following Him everywhere, but it is important to note that Jesus never was interested in the large crowds. He severally made it plain to those who followed Him that His interest was not in the large numbers but rather made it plain that, the crowds? Yes, but there is also the reality of a cost to count.

In our main text, the large crowds were there again and a man was there who expressed his desire to follow Jesus as he put it "wherever he will go".

The man who wanted to follow.

>>He could be sincere or not.
(Among the followers of Jesus there are always the sincere and the insincere.) Which one are you?

>>The man, being himself a teacher, a religious person, a clergy, maybe a rich person, could have a motive that could be wrong and Jesus might have known so he showed him the realities of following.

Motives of following Jesus should always be right from LEADING to FOLLOWING. What is your motive, what is my motive for following Jesus?

>>Our motive will always determine our sincerity. Our motives should be right or we fail from the start. God is very interested in our motives. See Prov. 16:2

Jesus does not reject any who wants to follow but will always show and insist on the realities of following. Remember Matt. 16:24?

So he turned to the teacher who wants to become a follower - Man??? if it is for luxury, if it is for comfort, if it is for riches, if it is for fame, if it is for any good thing of this world then, LISTEN! I want you to know that....... FOXES HAVE HOLES AND BIRDS OF THE AIR HAVE NESTS, BUT THE SON OF MAN HAS NOWHERE.... TO.... LAY.... HIS.... HEAD!!! DO YOU STILL WANT TO FOLLOW?

THERE IS A COST TO COUNT AND EVERY PROSPECTIVE FOLLOWER HAS TO COUNT BEFORE MAKING A DECISION TO FOLLOW.

This is something we have always left out or change as we go out to make disciples or followers for Christ. Christ did not do it that way! See same thing at Luke 9:57-62. Following Christ is not supposed to be easy but it is rewarding.

The Cost of Being a Disciple

Jesus teaches us how to count the cost in Luke 14:25 - 33

"25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."

From the above we can learn that:
>> Following Christ (sincerely) may cost us our family. Are we ready for that?
>> Following Christ (sincerely) may cost us our friends. Are we ready for that?
>> Following Christ (sincerely) may cost us our dignity. Are we ready for that?
>> Following Christ (sincerely) may cost us our comfort and wealth. Are we ready for that?
>> Following Christ (sincerely) may even cost us our lives. Are we ready for that?

Oftentimes we do not consider any of these but it is right there in scripture from the mouth of Jesus.

What to do
* We sit down
* We ponder over the cost
* Are we ready to pay the price?
* Will we be able to endure to the end?

When we have answered these questions, we may decide to follow or not.

Following Christ is not a fun fair. It is a costly endeavour but also very rewarding.
Count the cost today, are you still interested? Weigh the cost against the reward. What is the reward? (Read Matt 19:28,29; Rev. 21:1-7)

Do you want to continue?

Following Christ may be costly but very rewarding. Count the cost. Yes let's do, but let us also consider the reward and the prize and let our decision be good.

Let's read Romans 8:15 - 18. "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."

The reward is there: "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ" but the cost must be counted and the price paid. It says, "if indeed (some other version say PROVIDED) we share in His suffering."

God bless you all.

18/04/2020

The Cost to Follow Jesus

Hello people of God hope you are all doing well, keeping to the precautions and PRAYING. Yea we need to because there is so much confusion out there with all the strange and numerous theories being put forward to explain what is going on. I think that in the midst of all that, our theme for the year comes in handy. "Being Ready for the Coming of Jesus Christ" re-emphasised, is the best way to prepare for any eventuality. All the evil system can do to us is kill us. But the Master said in Luke 12:4,5 that we should not fear what they can do but fear the one who can throw our souls to hell fire after killing us, yea He is the one we should fear. As such we need to be ready to stand before him.

We have looked at KNOWING GOD well enough to be able to walk with Him in the first qtr.
This quarter we are looking at DENYING OURSELVES TO FOLLOW JESUS as a way of being ready. Our scripture text for the quarter is Matt 16:21-28.
Jesus was about going to the cross to die for the main reason He came to earth and began to now talk freely about it. Peter thinking he loved his Master so much took him aside to rebuke Him. "What are you saying? You really want to do this? "Far be it from you that this shall happen to you." Jesus takes offence and rebukes Peter sharply even calling him Satan. Then He goes forth to announce to the disciples what really is the lot of everyone who wants to be his. vrs 24 "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take his cross, and follow Me"

Let's start by understanding what Jesus meant by:

a. Come after me
b. Deny himself
c. Take up his cross
d. Follow me

1. Come after me sounds like Jesus was on an assignment and bid any of the disciples who wishes to join Him to do somethings to enable them be part. What assignment could that be?

2. Jesus sounded like he was passing through on His way somewhere and wishes everyone who desires to follow him to those things. Where could He be heading for? (see John 16:28)

3. He bids any who want to follow him to deny himself. What could "deny himself" mean? (see Phil. 2:5-8)

4. Jesus does not ask those interested in following him to just deny themselves but also pick up their cross. What is the cross? Which cross? What do you think it stands for? (see Heb 13:12; 1Pet. 2:21; 3:18)

5. He asks those who deny themselves and pick up their crosses to follow. Where are the followers expected to follow Jesus to, seeing He was on his way to die? (see John 21:18)

Meditate on these questions
1. Have you decided to "come after (i.e. follow) the master?

2. By your understanding of self denial have you denied, or are you ready to deny yourself?

3. What is Christian suffering and do you think you are ready and willing to endure suffering for Christ sake?

Discuss these and send your conclusions to me. I will start the sermons from next Sunday.

God be with you all.

23/01/2020

Giving - The Principle of Sowing and Reaping

Luke 6:38; 2Cor 8:1-12; 9:6

One of the reasons why God after creating all a He wanted to create, created man (as I have said several times) was for the man to continue with His creation. If God had wanted to continue creating then He would have made the train, the aeroplane, the computer etc. etc. But the scripture says and God rested from all He was doing (His works) and handed over His work to the man (Gen. 2:2; 15). This means that everything God would do from then, was passed on to the man so man GAVE names to all God had created. Note: He gave names to what God had made. Man will continue God's creation but will only continue with material and means God had provided. So his will be RECREATION or PROCREATION. If there came up anything the man could not do, or will be beyond his abilities, God will come in to intervene and this was to be called the SUPERNATURAL or the MIRACULOUS.

Among this responsibility of continuing God's creation was the responsibility of GIVING. It is important to note that the first action man took after he has been giving his task of recreating was a GIVING. He gave names to all God had created.

GIVING IS AN ACT OF GOD PASSED ON TO MAN. ANYTIME A HUMAN GIVES, HE IS PERFORMING A DIVINE TASK OF GOD'S THAT GOD PASSED ON TO HIM. GIVING CAN ONLY BE DONE BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD PUT IN MAN AND ANY MAN (AND OF COURSE WOMAN) WHO GIVES HAS PERFORMED A TASK OF GOD FOR GOD; OR HAS ALLOWED THE GOD NATURE IN HIM OR HER TO ACT AS GOD, AND GOD PROMISES TO REWARD SO WELL SO HE CAN CONTINUE TO REACH OUT TO HIS CREATION. — 2Cor 9:10,11. GOD IS BOUND TO BLESS EVEN AN UNBELIEVER IN HIM NOT FOR THE SAKE OF THAT UNBELIEVER BUT FOR THE SAKE OF THOSE HE, THE UNBELIEVER HAS ALLOWED HIMSELF TO BE USED AS A CHANNEL. THE PRINCIPLE OF SOWING AND REAPING MUST WORK AND IT WORKS FOR EVERYONE WHO ACCEPTS IT.

Facts about giving

Giving is a revelation of God by man to man. Revelation of God's character through man. That is why God loves a cheerful giver.

Giving is man living up to his responsibilities giving him by God (We are conduits of God's plan to bless. When God wanted to save a Sir-phoenicians widow and her son from famine and death, He picked a prophet from Israel – 2Cor. 9:8) God's sending of Elijah to that woman was for the sake of the woman not Elijah. Remember God was already feeding him by ravens.

Giving is man's responsiveness to God's promptings (It shows obedience to God. We don't choose who to bless. We may not know who God wants to bless through us. That is why it should be a decision of the heart and not the mind – 2Cor. 9:7. We don't obey God by analysis but by obedience)

Giving results in acknowledgement of God and thankfulness to God – 1Cor. 9:7;12,13.

Giving makes man God. (man gets worship (appreciation) from man.)

Giving must go with Christian maturity – 2Cor. 8:7

Giving's other name is GENEROSITY also meaning kindness and goodness which are part of the Fruit of the Spirit – (2Cor. 8:2; 9:11)

Giving is sowing unto God, receiving is reaping from God the rewards of our giving – Matt. 25:40 and he promises to whoever gives that he will receive, whoever sows that he will reap.

The Reaping Principle
Reaping is God's way of ensuring that one will allow himself or herself to remain a conduit for God's use – 2Cor 9:8; Acts 20:35

The Reaping kind is determined by God (Cornelius reaped salvation - Acts 10, Tabitha reaped resurrection - Acts 9:36-40, the Sir-phoenicians woman received food in time of famine and the resurrection of her only son 1Kings 17:7-24)

The Reaping is in God's own timing – the widow received her reaping both instantly and later, Cornelius, after so many acts of generosity, Tabitha after her death and Jesus adds: "others at the resurrection of men."

Conclusion
Giving by man is the way God continues to provide for the needy, the poor and unfortunate ones of this life. He blesses some to take care of others. Every giver is telling the world that God exists and is working for the good of all men. He blesses man so man will bless for Him because He has taken a rest from His works. If a man creates an aircraft God is at work, if a man invents the telephone, television and whatever "teles" we can think of, God is at work. If man does good by giving money, clothes, help, self etc., it is God at work. Let us not therefore not get tired of Giving so that God will be continually revealed to men, so that God will be appreciated by men, so that God will be believed and will be thanked by men everywhere. Giving or generosity is a character of God that is to prove that God is alive and at work. If we develop this character of God which enables Him to continue to take care of His creation we will become a repository of God's blessings and will never lack.

God bless all as we learn to give.

Amen!

10/01/2020

Watch & Pray…
Mt 26:41 "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Mr 13:33 "Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.

Mr 14:38 "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Therefore Watch…
Mt 24:42 "Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.

Mt 25:13 "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

Mr 13:35 "Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming--in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning--

Lu 21:36 "Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."

Ac 20:31 "Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.

1Th 5:6 ¶ Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

Re 3:3 "Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

10/01/2020

Everyone seeing the year 2020 has been another chance to make your peace with GOD
Don't Blow It!!!

25/10/2019

Developing Christ’s Character of Excellence,
The Basis For Christian Discipleship

Matt 11:28-30; Phil 3:7; 1Cor. 11:1

Introduction
Matt 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

The exegesis of the scripture above reveals very interesting truths that sum up what Christianity is all about.
1. Humans are in very unpleasant situation where the need rest.
2. Jesus bids all such who are laboring under a heavy load to come for that rest
3. When they do come, they should fall in line (seek to be like him) by learning from Him.
4. They are to pick certain characteristics (or nature) of His (here, lowliness and gentleness)
5. Then they will find the rest they need,
6. This rest is for their souls
7. (Initially), It may not be without any effort, but come what may it still will befar lighter and easier than what we (human) are carrying now.

From the above we see what the efforts to be made are. COME, TAKE, LEARN, then we will FIND (RECEIVE, GET, INHERIT, HAVE)
1. We have to come (which means moving from where we are to Him where he is)
2. We have to take his yoke (which means dropping our burdens or what we are yoked already to, to take His)
3. We have to learn from him (which means developing his CHARACTER and NATURE)
4. Then we will find the rest we need for our souls (which means when we put in the efforts the results will come.

We have our part to play before what we need will come to us. Beloved, this quarter we want to go to Jesus, take his yoke, learn from Him, His character of EXCELLENCE and we will FIND REST FOR OUR SOULS.
So what we are going to do is to look through the Bible for the Character of Jesus from the bible, yoke ourselves to him and learn some character of Him and rest will come to us.

*This is what is called DISCIPLESHIP – Making the effort to COME to Jesus, TAKING His Yoke and LEARNING from Him to develop His Character, The CHARACTER OF EXCELLENCE

How to do this

John 13:34-35: There is a manual to follow. Follow the right manual. THE WORD OF GOD RIGHTLY INTEPRETED IS OUR MANUAL
We have a manual to follow (call it textbook, book of instructions, rules & regulations, etc.) It is like that in all learning experiences. It teaches a character of Christ. Here it is LOVE. The WORD is our new commandment

1Cor. 11:1; 1Thes 1:6: Follow the right leadership, leadership that is eagerly following after Christ is what we should look for and follow.

Phil 3:17: Join a gathering to follow right leadership, which is equally yoked with Christ (following Christ)

It is only in this way that we will be able to develop the Christ character of excellence to become like Him and live with Him in His kingdom.

Christ’s Character Development, The Meaning of true Discipleship
Note the words: lowly (i.e. humility), gentle and love. What do they remind us of? The FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT. The whole business of discipleship is not for the individual to become a skilled carpenter, IT guru, Renown Business owner, Outstanding politician, Billionaire philanthropist, etc. but becoming like Christ above being any of the listed.

Conclusion
In Gal 5: 19-23, the contrast is sharply distinguished. What we are as heavily burdened humans 19-21 and what Christ bids us to come to Him to become 22,23. The one side and the consequence it brings – “will not inherit the kingdom of God and other the rewards – “No law against.

May God bless all of us as we heed the call to come, the instruction or command to take the yoke and the desire to learn to become true disciples and the rest is awaiting us. Amen