This is the message I delivered in Glory House, Redeemed Christian Church of God, Dallas, US, on Sunday, January 26, 2020. Please, read on: Last Sunday, Pastor Lanre Osobo, the Senior Pastor, spoke on ‘Navigating life with God’, and he recommended four tools for the journey: the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, Prayer and faith. This is to ensure that we have a sound foundation that will lead us to the goal. The goal may be Year 2020, our business enterprises or the journey of life. 

The bad news is that a strong foundation may not guarantee success absolutely in any journey. In athletics championship, a sprinter may start well, but disqualified if he ventures into another competitor’s track. In soccer, except the goal keepers, the players are not allowed to touch the football with their hands. Penalty is imposed for breaking the rule. It is good to start a journey well and also to finish well, hence our topic, ‘Ending the Journey with Jesus’.

The Lord Jesus, in Luke 15, narrated three parables. In one of them, a man had one hundred sheep and one of them wandered away. He left the remaining ninety nine to look for it until he found it and then brought it into the fold. In another parable, a woman had ten pieces of coin and she discovered that one of them was missing. She lit her lamp and searched for it until she found it. In the third parable, a certain Uncle had two sons and one of them left him for a far country. We thank God that one day, he returned.

Two things are common to the three parables: something or somebody missing and later on, recovered. The reason is that we are still in the time of God’s mercy. A time is coming, when anything missing will not be recovered. If someone committed any sin and refused to repent, though he had the opportunity to do so, and then he dies in that state or the Rapture takes place, nothing can remedy the situation. That is why Psalm 95:7 & 8 tell us that we should not harden our hearts when convicted by God’s Word.

It is dangerous to make the journey of life in pretence. That may explain why some people, especially ladies, come to me to confess evil things they did. I do not rebuke them nor encourage them for committing sin. I appreciate them for their boldness in coming to me for counseling. They are the people, who want to end the journey with Jesus. I share God’s Word with them and pray for them. A beloved Christian sister, reviewing one of my manuscripts, suggested that I should remove the confessions I made on sexual immorality before my salvation. I told her that it would be immoral to do so. I insisted that the confessions I made must be published. And I did. Why should I hide where I was coming from before the Lord Jesus saved and cleansed me?

In Matt. 25, Jesus gave the parable of the Ten Virgins. They seem to represent a Church as they had many things in common: all ladies, all invited to the wedding, all of them accepted, all arrived early, and they all came with lamps, since the country, being like Nigeria, where NEPA light could not be guaranteed. They all slept when the bridegroom was coming late. Each of them thus, provided all the things the human eyes could see. Their only difference was what nobody could see – the quantity of oil in their lamps! If the Senior Pastor announces today that tithes and offerings will not be put in the envelop next Sunday, as he will like to see them, I am pretty sure that the amount will double!

In the Church, right now, we have many things also in common: soft speaking, Pentecostal smiles, not angry, even when provoked, singing, dancing, praising God, et cetera. Our difference is only in the heart, which the human eye cannot see. In that parable, that night, the bridegroom arrived late. His lateness produced a midnight, a time when the truth about everybody is known and nobody can influence it. It is the time the true personality of everybody is known. The midnight for Paul and Silas was a time of worshipping God, in spite of the chains on their feet and hands. In pain or plenty, a child of God is still the same. For some people it may be a time when couples are fighting or committing sin.

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That midnight,it was revealed that five of the ladies, who were wearing the wedding outfit, well-made hair, and had been chatting and sleeping with others, had no oil in their lamps! That might have been their practice, but that night, their ‘sin’ found them out. They begged the other ladies to give them oil but they refused. There is a time when we do not help people, for an example, in the examination hall. As they went to buy, which meant that they had the money, but refused to buy, the bridegroom arrived. The other five ladies, who were ready, entered the hall with him and the gate was locked. The five ladies, the Bible described as foolish, bought the oil and knocked at the gate but nobody opened for them.

The tarrying of the bridegroom showed that time reveals the genuineness of love. In 1993, I told the members of a Church in New York, when I was ministering, that I admired the endearing names the spouses were calling each other, the most popular then was ‘honey’. Now it is ‘babe’, even in Nigeria. What bothered me was that after calling the endearing names, sooner or later, they would be on their way to the court for divorce. Time had then proved that the affection was from the head and not from the heart. Time proves also who is a true friend or not. It shows who is or not a committed child of God. Writing to Philemon, Paul included greetings from Demas. He did the same in his letter to the Colossian Church. It was a different ball game when he wrote to Timothy in 2Tim 4:10: “For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world,” he informed him. Chai!

One day, the girls living with me started ridiculing a brother, who came to stay with me. I warned them to stop it, stressing the youth’s love for God. They laughed the more and continued whispering about him. The oldest among them, reminded me that there is no smoke without fire. She pleaded with me to allow her to investigate the matter.

I obliged her. She reported to me later, that the brother had slept in my house with one of my cousins. Who could believe that of a youth, who joined us in the house because he distanced himself from a wrong act his dad was pursuing! He owned up the evil relationship but the girl denied it!

Success in the race can only be guaranteed if we look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, as we run.

For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi:  0802 3002-471; [email protected]