Doctrine and power - Bro Olaopa Olajide Michael — Bro Olaopa Olajide Michael

Amen. Amen. There's one thing I want us to remember. And you may not of us are not used to coming down to fellowship and people are not so much like this. But something we must keep in mind. Oh the Bible told us that whatever to or are that there I am in their midst, in my name. And as long as we have gathered in the name of Jesus this morning, God is here in our midst. Without wasting our time can we pray to God. Can we pray to God now. And what we'll be asking God this morning is that he should come into our midst. He should just show us his face today. As we've began as we are about to journey into his word, He should just show us his face. Bible says that we behold him and we are transformed from glory to glory. Every time we come into contact with the word, what we behold is Christ. The face of the church is still Christ. Christ is the one that we behold. The end of everything that we do is so that we might behold Christ and become more like him and we can express that which we have behold. Can we open our mouth and begin to tell God, Lord we want to see your face this morning. I want you to pray and open your mouth and pray. We want to see your face this morning. Lord show us your face. Lord we want to see your face this morning. Lord show us your face. I believe you can pray better than that. We want to see your face this morning. Lord show us your face. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. For we understand that until you show yourself to a man. A man will only seek in vain. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. We ask that by your spirit you show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Show us your face this morning. We want to behold you that we might be transformed into you, that we might be transformed into your glory. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Holy Spirit show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Father show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Lord show us your face this morning. Come, come, come. Holy Ghost come. Come, come. We wait, we wait on you to come. As you're sitting, can you begin to pray to God? Come, come, come. Holy Ghost come. Come, come. We wait, we wait on you to come. Come, come, come. Holy Ghost come. Come, come. We wait, we wait on you to come. Can you tell God, Lord, come, come, come. Holy Ghost come. Come, come. We wait, we wait on you to come. Can you begin to cry to God, Lord, come to us this morning. Lord, you wait upon you this morning. You wait upon you this morning. Father, come, come to us oh God. Lord, come to us oh God, Lord, we wait upon you this morning, come to us again. Come to us again. Come to us again this morning, Lord, we wait upon you. Come to us again. Come to us again. Come to us again. Come to us again. For the Bible says that those that wait upon the Lord, is your renew their strength and they shall mount up with with wings like eagles. Lord, you wait upon you this morning. Come and renew our strength. Come and show us your face once again. Come and show us your face once again. Come and bring upon us once again. Come and show us your face once again. We want to see you. We want to hear from you. We want to see you. We want to hear from you. We have come. We have gathered in your presence this morning. Lord, come to us. Come to us again. Father, come to us again. Lord, come to us again. Come to us again. Come to us again. Come to us again. Lord, come to us again. Come to us again this morning. Lord, come to us again this morning. We wait on you to come. Lord, we come to you. Lord, come to us this morning. Come to us this morning. Come to us this morning. For in Jesus mighty name we have prayed. Our Father and our God, we give you glory, we give you honor. We bless your name because you are here with us this morning. Thank you because your spirit is here to edify us once again. Thank you because your spirit is here to build up our lives once again. We thank you, Lord, because we have gathered in your presence once again so that as we might touch our lives. We thank you because you are here to touch us again. Thank you because you are here to make us transform into your image so that we might carry more of your glory. Lord, we give you glory, we give you honor, we give you adoration. Thank you because even though we are not much, we thank you because you have allowed your presence to come into our midst. We give you praise, we give you honor. We esteem your name to be exalted in the name of Jesus. Lord, we want you to work towards this morning, Lord. Let our hearts be open to receive from you, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Let our hearts be open to receive from you, Lord, in Jesus name. We thank you because you have answered us. For in Jesus mighty name we have prayed. The topic before us this morning, the topic before us this morning, is doctrine, doctrine, and power. doctrine and power doctrine and power doctrine and power Can somebody open back to our Bible text? Mark 12:18-24. Mark 12:18-24. Then came to him, Okay sir. Okay sir. Okay sir. Okay sir. Okay sir. Okay sir. Now, if you notice the last verse that place we read, Jesus said that is, you enter into error because of just two things. Number one is, you know not the scriptures. And he said, neither the power of God. Amen. That is our topic this is doctrine and power. doctrine and power Now, for us to understand the message in that place we just read, I would like to quickly just explain some things to us. Now, the Bible says that there came unto him the Pharisees. Now, in the Bible, there are two sects that are that are masters of the law, two different sects. Some are called the Pharisees, the others are called the Sadducees. Now, the Pharisees believes in the resurrection of the dead and in spirits. Why the Sadducees do not believe in the resurrection of the dead or spirits. Amen. So, they came to Jesus, the Sadducees now came, trying to tempt Jesus and they began to ask him a question. That if because, in the Jewish custom, when a man and a woman marries each other, and the husband of that woman dies without leaving a child, what then somebody in the family, maybe the elder brother or the next person to that man, must marry that woman. And that woman must bear a child to that person. That was their custom. So, they were asking Jesus that, let's assume that a woman that marries a man, he marries the first one, the first one dies, did not give us wedding children. Now, she marries the second one up to like seven, and she did not give birth to a child from those, from all of them, all the time they died. When they get to heaven, who will be the husband of this woman? Since she married a lot of people when she was on earth. So, Jesus Christ replied, this was not to seek Jesus. So, Jesus Christ replied and told them that, you err, that is, you enter into error because you know not the scriptures, neither the power of God. He is simply telling them that, why you are asking this kind of question, why you are in confusion, why you don't understand the kingdom, is because of two things. You err because you don't know the scriptures, neither the power of God. And before we proceed, let's understand that the Sadducees we are talking about are masters of the law. They were men in those times that they were like professors that have studied the Old Testaments and they knew the inner and out of the scriptures of what we call the law and the prophets, which were the Old Testaments. But, yes, Jesus Christ said to them, you err because you don't know the scriptures, neither the power of God. Even though you have been reading and reading and reading for a long time, you still don't know the scriptures. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So, they were to, if you were to bring them to our 21st century, we can refer to the Sadducees as, or the Pharisees as, people who have gone to theology school to study, to master the Bible. They have gone to schools to study the Bible. Yes, Jesus Christ said that, you err because you don't know the scriptures, neither the power of God, even though you have been studying it for a long time. That is why you are in error. And, you don't also know the power of God. Because, Jesus was trying to make them understand that as long as a man does not understand the scriptures, he cannot understand the power of God. He cannot know the power of God. The lens, the breath, the depth of God's power is revealed in the scriptures. So, we are trying to look at two things this morning, which is doctrine and power. And when I talk about power here, I'm talking about the power of God. How important is doctrine to the Christian life? And to the church as large? And the power of God. Now, just like Jesus to the Sadducees at that time, that you are in error because you don't know the scriptures and the power of God, Jesus is also saying to the church today, that you are in error because you don't know the scriptures and his power. Even though we claim to follow him. Let me bring it down. I want us to understand very well. The Sadducees believed with their mind that they were the ones that were doing the will of God. They thought that they were the ones that were waiting for the Messiah. They thought they know God. But today, you know, the Sadducees read the scriptures and they saw the promise that the Messiah will come. But when the Messiah came, even though they had read a lot about him, they could not discern that this is the Messiah. Even though they could quote the law so much, Jesus was with them, living among them as the Messiah. Yet they could not see him and comprehend that this man is the Messiah. There's a lot of things that we are doing now as a church. Many of us read the Bible daily. Many of us indoors ourselves in activities. Many of us do, we are so zealous for God. Yet, the understanding of scriptures and the understanding of the power of God still eludes us. Amen. Amen. The understanding of the scriptures and the understanding of the power of God still elude many of us, just like the Sadducees. There are many people in church today that are not different from the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the time of Jesus. They know a lot, but they don't know Christ. Jesus Christ spoke and said that, when he was speaking in the book of John, he said, search the scriptures, thinking that in them you will find me. But, even though you search the scriptures, you don't come to me that you may have life. They proved that you have understood the scriptures, that you have understood this, that you have understood the scriptures is that it becomes life inside of you. Until you can live the life of what is written in the scriptures, all you have is still be calling his head knowledge. You know it in your head, but it does not affect your life. That is why you can see so many people who know so much, who can quote the Bible so much, but their life cannot reflect what they are quoting. They know the answers to so many things, but their life does not reflect all that they preach. It's because you can, you know, when you read your hand outs, when you read your hand outs, you can read the Bible like that, too. You can cram it in your head, and it does not produce any fruit in your life. Lord help us in Jesus. Second Corinthians chapter 3 verse 6. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 6. Now, who also has made us able, able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter killes, but the spirit giveth life. Thank you, Mum. Thank you, Mum. Now, this verse should help us understand something. Apostle Paul said that not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills. The letter kills. Now, I'll like to explain something to us. Before a man can grasp the spirit behind scriptures, he must first be familiar with the letters of the scripture. That is compulsory. Before you can understand the Bible into its depths, you must first be familiar with the facts, the historical facts, everything that is in the Bible. But that does not produce life. That's what Apostle Paul was calling us, the letter kills. Knowing the facts of the Bible, knowing the name, knowing how old Abraham was before he died, knowing all the facts that surround the scripture, does not produce life in a man. Until you understand and the spirit makes it become life inside of you. Amen. That is what is becomes profitable. Amen. Amen. Amen. There are two major things that the church is missing, and the church has summarized in that place we read. We failed to understand the scriptures and know the power of God. There's a lot of ministries, there's a lot of teachers, there's a lot of prophets, there's a lot of programs that is organized now, but despise all of these, there's still there's still a deficiency in our knowledge of scriptures. There's still there's still a gap in our understanding of this word of God. And one thing we have failed to realize in our generation in this time is that we can do nothing in the church once except we do it based on the understanding of scriptures. Jesus, if you read the four gospels very well, you realize that when they gave verse, the Bible was something like, "So that it might be fulfilled, so that what was written might be fulfilled, some things has to happen." For example, they have to take Jesus out of Israel into Egypt because the prophets have prophesied that, "He shall come out of Egypt." So they have to take the message out of Israel to Egypt, so that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Everything the church will do, we will do everything by scriptures. Amen. But unfortunately, many of us have detested scriptures, we prefer to go after things that are spectacular, things that are, that looks unnatural, and sit down and then understand the scriptures. If they tell us now that, "There's a program somewhere." and miracles we are about, miracles are good. People will run towards it. But when you call for a Bible study or for a place where people can gain understanding, people will not show up. It is because we think that we can survive by those things that are spectacular, but the thing that can keep us going on a long time is the word of God, is the scriptures. What can sustain us for a long time is the scriptures. And the church, the body of Christ, that we have been saying for throughout the first semester, talking about the current state of the church, talking about where we are as a church, how that we are not looking like the church in the book of Acts of Apostles. If we must look like the church in the Bible, the Bible showed us that in the early church, they do two things primarily. They said they, "They remain steadfast in the doctrines of the apostles and in prayers." They remain steadfast in the doctrines of the apostles and in prayer. Our generation must learn or must must come to a place where we place value on many description more than any other thing. There are things we want to know. There are things we want to do. But because we have not read what is written, we don't know it, we cannot do it. Hallelujah. I know we are not many years today. I'll take six quick words from the scriptures. Now, if you look at praise God, If you look at the New Testament, what we call the New Testament now, if you look at the apostles very well, everything they thought,…