Led By Love Part 2. — Prophet Cherub Obadare

I depend on you I have confidence in you in you oh God I put my trust Lord I sing in You by thy depend on you you have confidence in you you oh God I put my trust Yes you cover me Lord in the can't be you give me security I am the righteousness of God Yes you cover me Lord in the can't be you give me security I am the righteousness of God Hallelujah Most High Nevelarsing God we thank you. Open our understanding, Amen Speak your word to us. Give us all trance like never before. Amen In Jesus name we pray. Amen Celebrate Jesus and have your seats. Hallelujah. I'm excited this morning And um, I want to thank God for His love and faithfulness upon each and every one of us for what the Lord is doing in our lives. What He has started, He will perfect in the name of Jesus. Amen. We started a series last week, very interesting. By the grace of God, we started a series on what we titled "Led by love". Say after me, say "Led by love". Come on, say it louder, say "Led by love". Now to be led by love means to be controlled by love, to be driven by love. It means that you are love-motivated. Whatever you are doing, the reason behind it is love. And we have found out that many people demonstrate all kind of um activities even in the household of God that is not love-driven. And we are able to see last week that you can do so many things. In fact, you can lay down your life and yet, if it is not love-motivated, the Bible says it is nothing. So you can do everything. But if love is not the premise, if love is not the reason, as far as God is concerned, it is a waste of time. Because God himself, all that he did, he did it on the base of love. John 6:3:16, John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world." Everything God started, it started with one thing, love. And so it is important that we understand this subject so that we won't get to heaven and you'll be surprised that many of your, because our, the Bible actually say our work will be tested. Our services will be tested. The Bible says some some we have there are work burns. They will not have any reward. Because what they did was not love-driven. And so it's important beloved in the Lord that we understand this and you know, we work on love. Um 1 Corinthians 13 was making us to understand that even if you speak in different languages of men you have ability to decode mysteries you have the gift of faith and the miraculous. The Bible say, if you lack love, still, it is vanity. That's what the Bible says. And so, if you if you want to take analysis of your life, since since when you have been born again, the things you have involved yourself in, the sacrifices you have made, the money you have given, the people you have helped, if you look down inside of you, is is love the basis for doing those things? Because people do a lot of things. Not because of love. There are people who give you money so that they can control you. You would think it's love because you'll be wondering, "Why is this person helping me?" He's building a system around you to keep you at a at a at a place where you'll be controlled. And that's why we you you know, we must we must be wary of gifts. It's good when people come giving you gift, ask "Why are they giving you?" Because it is not every gift that is love-driven. It is not every preacher that preaches because he love saving souls. Listen to me, there are preachers who just love crowd. They don't love souls. If there is crowd, they love it. Not because they love the soul seated there. And so people are driven by all kind of activities. And that's why Paul analyzed it in 1 Corinthians 13. He said, "Even though you see the visions of heaven, if it is not on the premise of love, it is still a waste of time." May our works not be burned. Amen. Come on, say a louder amen to that. Amen. People do all kind of things for selfish reasons. And so we must be very careful. I was hearing of a particular man of God who had a ministry here in Ibano. A member of the church gave them a property like a plot or two plots to build on it. And they all celebrated it, they were happy. Everybody was happy. Oh, what kind of sacrifice is this? The sacrifice of love. And about a few years later, the man traveled out of the country and came back. When he came back, he sued the church to court. He said he was manipulated. And he asked them to move their church, he wants his land. We must understand what the love of Christ is so that you know how to demonstrate it. You will know when somebody is trying to fake it when it is not of God. Our anchor scripture is Matthew 22 and from verse 35. We are going to be a bit fast today. I'm going to be sharing a lot of things with you. Matthew 22 and 35. Then one of the law then one of them, which was a lawyer, asks him a question, tempting him and saying, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment." The Bible says, the greatest commandment is love. Everybody say, "Love." Talk to me, say, "Love." Now number one, the Bible say, "Love towards God." Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with the whole, now look, this is how love is demonstrated. It involves, love involves your heart. Say after me, say, "Your heart." Listen to me, if it is a demonstration of love, your heart must be committed to it. It is not something you do with your mouth. It's not, it's not the sacrifice of talk. Talk is cheap. You go and meet people, meet people who have become orphans, they will tell you how many talks they have had. They don't worry, we will help you. You hear things like Baba uku Baba uku. Look behind you, you won't see them again. Love is a matter of the heart. Love. It's not an eye service. There's too much eye service, high service in the body today. It is when they see you that they show they love you. Behind you, they stab you. Somebody was sharing with me, he said he's wondering what is happening in the body of Christ today. He said, "Members of churches team up together to fight another member." There's a there's an understanding that my enemy the friend of my enemy is my enemy, the friend of my friend is all those all those ideologies. There's a lot of things going on today even among ministers. High service. He said, "These people worship me." Matthew 15 and verse 8. He said, "From their lips, he said their heart is far." You can't talk about this love if your heart. Jeremiah was speaking Jeremiah 17. He said, "The heart of man is desperately wicked. Who can know it?" And that's why love must first start from there. From the heart. It's not the thing you do, you know, when you see the person like, "No, our brother, you know, we've been praying for you." When is God going to be like You see How how your life will look like few years to come? It's a matter of the heart. Say after me say, "Love." A matter of the heart. Yeah. There are people who may not look like they love you. They challenge many of us, many of us like high service. You like people who always demonstrate. Listen, there are people who may not show it, but there are believers praying for you. They may not send you an SMS. They may not give you a phone call, but they truly love you from the heart. But some of us want to be cajoled. Yeah. Want to be cajoled. High service. It's too much in the church. From members to ministers, building stars to members, members to members, there is no heart committal again. There's nothing from the heart again. Everything stops from the lips and the eyes see. You know, God sees both the open and the secret. At times, we, we, our attitude wants to, at times we confuse the angels. Our, when they see your, they see what you are thinking inside and they see the outside, they'll be like, "There's a confusion here." Love is a matter of the heart. The thing of the heart. See, wait, didn't you look at it? Thou shall love the Lord thy God with thy all thy heart, meaning, listen, the whole, there's it's a, it's a complete committal. It's a it's a commitment that has no space for any other thing but love. And with thy soul. Meaning, thy intellect. He said, "And with thy mind." Your emotion, your soul, your emotion, your mind, your intellect. That's how to love. He said, "And this is the first and great commandment." You see, when this become a reality in your life, where the whole of your heart is filled with love for God, nothing matters again. Nothing matters again. Giving to the kingdom would be would be the would be the easiest thing for you to do. You know, I I I said it last week, one of the reasons many of us have challenges with transacting, or I won't want to call it transacting, you know, doing a giving to the body of Christ or giving to brethren or giving to ministers is because we are still struggling with this fact of love. Yeah, it's still a struggle. You see, anytime it's it becomes a pain for you to give or you give and regret, you have not come to this point to this standard. It is the highest it is the highest level of sacrifice, love. For God so love, and he gave. I want to believe that every love is completed and perfected by giving. You can't say you love and nothing lives you. Forget it. You can't say you love. It's either you are giving yourself, you are giving your time, or you are giving, you can't say you love and nothing lives you. You can't. Something must live. Help me, Holy Spirit. Verse 39 says, "And the second like it. Second is like, is like unto it. Thou shall love the law, thou shall love thy so thy neighbor as thyself." Now, um, you know, people say things like, "The Bible did not say you should love your neighbor more than yourself." But look at, look at it, it is good we look at scripture, you know, um, from, from the contextual point. He put your neighbor first before you. Look at it very well. Let's go, let's look at that scripture again. He said, "And the second is like unto it. Thou shall love thy neighbor." You know, it should have been thou shall love thyself. Love your neighbor. Now, look, look at me. That's why I'm telling you that you can't really portray genuine love and nothing lives you. Love is sacrificial. Love is self-denial. Love is letting God have His way and letting His will prevail in our life. And verse 40, very important, verse 40 says, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." And I told you last week, I said, "All that the prophets were trying to explain in the entire Old Testament, the 10 commandments of Moses, all the precepts given to them in Leviticus, was trying to demonstrate just this, this commandment, love." Say after me, say, "Love." Come on, say a little louder, say, "Love." Uh, quickly, I want you to give me if you can give me in the, okay, you are going to give me this scripture I'm about to call in like three different versions for the purpose of understanding. Give me 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and from verse 14. Let's have it in the King James first. Yeah. You can look up if you are not there. "For the love of Christ constrain us." Everybody say that after me. Say, "The love of Christ constrain us." Mm. I love that. Because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we are all dead. We are controlled by a power. What Paul is saying is that we we are we have lost we have lost ourselves to his love. We are now being we are now driven by his love. We are now dead to what we want for ourselves. It is about him, not about me again. You know, when you are at the peak of your career, you are doing well and all of a sudden the Lord said stop what you are doing, not because you are not doing well, but because he wants you. But because he wants to, because he wants to sacrifice, he wants to make you a vessel. Give me in the message version. Let's look at the message version of the same Christ love has moved me to such extremes. Listen to me. When you demonstrate love, you don't look like a normal person. You are called an extremist. Like this is too you're going too far. Christ love has moved me to such extreme. His love has the first and the last word in everything we do. Mm. They're seeing it. Can you all read it? Let's go. One, two, go. Praise God. Let's not you know let's not read like the in the classroom. Let's read like we are in the church, all right? One, two, go. "Christ's love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and the last word in everything we do." Everything. How many of you have heard about Mother Teresa? Or you have read about her? Listen to me. This is a woman that was caught up with the love of God. May the love of God catch catch catch your heart, catch your spirit, hold onto your soul. Can you say amen to that? Amen. Before I talk about Mother Teresa, can we have it in the amplified or any other version, please? I want you to "For the love of Christ controls I love that word. and urges and impels us. The love of Christ controls. Let me ask someone, say, "What is controlling you?" One of the things controlling people today, even among believers, is greed. Hey! Greed. Some of the states where they eat palliatives, some of their governors were dikkins in churches. Greed. Greed is killing the people of God. Greed. Only you want to have 10, 10, 10 things. Somebody doesn't have any. You prefer to hold on to 10. And that's why it bothers me. You see a sister have a rack of shoe. She keeps it there as if it's a museum or a a tourist site where people should come and say, "I bought this one 1995," and she comes she goes on the street, see people without shoes and still come back home comfortably. Still looking at her shoe rack. You go to some people's house, you see properties of 80s, still there. Same thing with me, my car be my rali. And you see mothers on the street, in the church, who don't have what you have. And you are still okay, greed. Greed is controlling people, greed. Some of us need to go and empty our houses. Because listen, listen, if you just keep The Bible say, he that there's there's a there's there's there is he that um gather it. He say, yet he remaineth poor. He say, but there's one that scatters. He keeps giving, but he keeps increasing. Self-centeredness. Say, for the love of Christ, it is it is it's what is what is driving what is driving me is love. What is controlling me is love. You see the way some believers treat people, their maids at home, people who help them. I heard I I was reading lately, I saw one they tied the lady. They they said she stole meat or something. They tied her for days. And if you see their name, Christian names, some of these people are they are they are they are they are key people in church. They give money in church. They tie people, beat people, talk to people. You see the way some of them are dressed people. Uh a man of God was sharing with me one of his boss. And unfortunately, if you hear some of the churches where these people go, you cannot really you can't you can't trace their life to those churches. Some people this attendance in the restaurant came to serve them. They were sitting in the restaurant, and that's why one of the reasons God don't want to put too much money in the hands of many is this reason. Because what is controlling you presently? If God allow a level of wealth to enter your hand, you'll be wicked and Adolf Hitler. Because some of us don't even have anything now. That small thing you are still being greedy. If God now put billions in your hands. And the the the woman, the lady that was the attendants came and was trying to say, "Why are you doing? You are behaving like cockroaches." Human beings. You can see that what is controlling that man is pride. The fod the only thing that should control a believer love. Say, my spirit does not agree. Listen, who ask your spirit to agree? We don't want your spirit to agree. Because some people when you hear some people say, "My spirit does…