11th February, 2018.
Speaker: Evan T Damkhothang.
Evening worship service
2:00 pm
The speaker Evan T Damkhothang started off by acknowledging the congregation of their presence.
“I wanted to base this lecture upon the verse we’ve chosen for the year i.e. May you be a blessing. Genesis 12:1-4. 1 Samuel 16: 1-13.
In order that one must be a blessing, one should pay a price and its costly.
Firstly let us look at the life of Joseph and see why in order to be a blessing one must pay for the price. Joseph’s story is a unique one. He was told by God in a dream that he shall be a king. He dreamt of hay-stack surrounded by his brothers’ stack. Upon telling his dream, his brothers got frustrated and they mocked him. Another dream went where the sun, the moon and the stars bowed to him and upon telling his family he was asked to keep quiet and even cursed.
In another incident, his father had asked Joseph to look for his brothers who haven’t returned in a long time hearding sheep. Joseph went to find them at Dothan and his brothers plotted to kill him because they were still angry about his dream. So they decided to throw him inside to die of hunger and starvation. The important thing to note here is the Lord promised him that he shall be a king but now he’s in a pit. Why Lord? Could be his question.
He was sold to an Ishmalite by 20 pieces of silver. Joseph was then transported to Potiphar’s palace to work for them. By now, I strongly believed that Joseph would have asked “Lord why?” many times, after all the dreams and promises. Potiphar’s wife tempted hi to lie with him repeatedly and Joseph had to flee leaving his garment behind. She alleged to Potiphar that it was Joseph who tried to sleep with her. Joseph was then thrown to jail.
The Lord has promised Joseph that he would be a king but would he be left in the dungeon? What I wanted to stress on this is in order to be a blessing and progress in our spiritual knowledge. The Lord does allow us to go through trials. Without trials there could be no blessing even spiritually. One cannot stay in their comfort zone and be a blessing. He was tried in a dungeon, went through trials, but he kept on leading his life with dignity. Interestingly, while he was at a dungeon, two of his inmates had a dream and asked him what it meant. Joseph could help them with the translation of their dreams which did came true.
After sometime, pharaoh had a prophetic dream and asked his entire kingdom to what his dream meant. His cup-bearer whom Joseph had helped translate his dream remembers of him and recommended it to pharaoh.
When the Lord leads the way, one is always remembered and heard. Pharoah had asked Joseph to be brought to him and pharaoh related his dream to Joseph and ask him to translate. Joseph was able to help pharoah with his dream and held him to the position of a prime minister. As adviced by Joseph, pharoah gathered barns of food to eat while abundance of seven years is there. It was also predicted that after abundance of seven years, another tumultous seven years of drought will be all over the land. Pharaoh had given him the authority over anything in the land except the authority to rule over pharaoh.
Now, Joseph’s family had heard of the abundance in Aigupta and his father has sent his brothers to get rice from pharaoh. This is when the dream truly reveals. Joseph’s brothers came to him and bowed to him for food! Seventeen years have passed since Joseph had a dream and after many years of trials and tribulations, the word of the Lord is still alive. The Lord never fails! Praise God because we have a father who is true to his words.
Noah is another one we can think of. The Lord spoke to him and told him that he would destroy the earth with flood waters. He built the ark for a good 120years. He was despised, mocked and even laughed at while he was building the ark, but as God promised after 120years the flood truly came. One should never be discouraged . “I will come to take you” this was the promise of Jesus. It has taken more than 2000years and will surely reveal himself one day.
Let’s take a look at David who was anointed by Samuel to be the king. David was the youngest among his brothers, did not have the best built but the Lord choose him and was annointed. It is important to note that David did not immediately become the king after he was annointed. It took him 15years for the promise to come to pass. The journey was not easy for him either. Kind Saul wanted to kill him. He tried different means but to our surprise, Jonathan son of king Saul protected David. If God is with us, who can defeat us?
David was annointed to be the king, but why would God make him go through this? David has to go through trials where his followers tried to stone him to death. David turned to God and ask Him for help. After 15 good years , the God who keeps his promise made him the king. He never fails! He is your God. He is my God. Let’s ask him touch us and ask for his help so that we can keep our trust in Him. One should be ready to pay the price to be a blessing.
The life of Daniel is another test too. He was taken from his place to Babylon which is more than 2000 kilometres. Daniel sticked to his values of purity even while he is away from people that know him. To the youths I would like to tell to refrain from uncleanliness. Daniel prayed three times during the day facing Jerusalem. The law maker plotted plans to get Daniel out of their sight so that everyone should bow down to the king’s deities only. Daniel sticked to his ritual and tried at the court for not following the order. Daniel had to go through all of these to get to the Lord’s promise. The journey was not easy for him either. Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would not bow before the king even after warnings from the king. They simply replied “Our God will save us from this fire, He can and even if He doesn’t we will not bow”. The king was frustrated and they were thrown into a pit of hungry lions, yet they were left unharmed, so they were taken out from the pit. They were again thrown into a furnace, but the Lord is with them so not even a single hair of theirs were not burnt. The Lord put him in trials, tested him but the Lord our God who has always been faithful was also faithful to Daniel and he was still made to be a great man. This is the same God we serve! Let’s look to the Lord and ask Him to guide us.
In the new testament, God choose Joseph and Mary to be the route to make his plan successful. He choose them as the way or tool for his plan of salvation. He choose them as the birth parent of Jesus but still then, once they were about to deliver God made a difficult route for them. If the people who stayed at the guest house knew that it was Jesus who was going to get delivered, they would have given space to Mary. Likewise, why would there be no rooms in our hearts for Jesus, because all the rooms are full with other guests like greed , lust and more, because of that we can’t host Him. The good news is Jesus was still given birth, even in that situation where he has to be delivered in a cow shed. When Jesus talks to you, if you did not open door for Him, he can reveal himself to someone else! When Jesus was born, it was ordained that kids below two years must be murdered. His parents had to flee with him. Mary and Joseph did not question a thing and faced the trials, only then God can work His ways. God does allow us to go through trials. He allows us to suffer, but He won’t let us suffer the whole time. He promised us happiness, security and an everlasting life. He is faihful!
The Lord brought out the Isralites from Egypt and brought them in the desert for forty years. But the wonderful part is their clothes did not wear out, it’s a miracle/. At last after many trials like the parting sea- the God who promise them brought them to the promise land, Canaan. We don’t understand our sufferings, but he sees us and is with us.
When God called Abraham, he made a list of things he had to abandon. Abraham’s father was a prominent figure in their town but God called Abraham to abandon his home, family and town to follow him. Abraham decided to follow him despite all there. Once Abraham departs form his brother Lot the Lord spoke to him. Likewise the Lord cannot speak to us while we live with sin. There are things to keep away to sacrifice. Abraham was called by God to be blessed but he was tested first and still blessed later.
If you believe, you receive it. Let us ask to God for help and let’s start anew as a follower of Christ.”