Depression (2)

Can anything ever separate you from Christ's love? Does it mean that Christ no longer loves you when you have trouble or calamity or if you're persecuted or you're hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? Some of us who follow and love Christ some are killed every day and some are being slaughtered like sheep. But no, despite all of these things, overwhelming victory belongs to us, belongs to you, through Christ who loves us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate you, nothing can ever separate me, nothing can ever separate us from his love, death cannot and life cannot. The angels cannot and the demons cannot. Our fears for today are worries about tomorrow and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away from us. So whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us. And in all creation will ever be able to separate you from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. I just read for you from Romans chapter 8 verses 35 through 39 and I adapted it to make reference to you. Good morning, it's Sunday, May 7, 2023 and you'll listen to faith, life, faith and business with Nana. So as we read from the scriptures, Romans chapter 8, nothing can separate us from God. Nothing can separate you from God unless you reject God's love. So how are you doing? I hope that you are dreaming of God's love. So as we just read from that passage in Romans chapter 8, God really desires an intimate relationship with you. God desires an intimate relationship with us. And one major we have to go to God is through prayers. Prayer is one way that we can access God. It's one solid way that we can relate to God. Now some may think, "Oh, prayer is just you talking to God and telling you more the problems you have and all that." But it's a two way thing. If you listen intently when you pray, you will not just be asking or making a request or giving worship, you also receive your message from God. Yes, either he speaks to you directly or he refers you to a particular portion of the scriptures or he brings people around you to speak to you. If your spirit is open to here, you will hear from God and you will know what it needs for you per time. My prayer for you, my prayer for me is that we continue to cultivate that intimate relationship with God. I mean, he's always there. You know, he's always there. We are the one who run away sometimes, hide sometimes. And let me just add this. There's nothing you can do as we read from the book of Romans chapter 8 from verse 35 to 39. I can't separate you from God because some people feel like, "Oh, they have messed up so badly. Like, oh, God is not going to take them back." And if you don't see so many terrible things and they are on deserving of being loved, don't be yourself up. Some people feel like, "Oh, God, they have hurt God so badly that he's impossible or we'll be very difficult for him to forgive them." No, please. And just remember the story of the pretty girl's son who had messed up. I mean, what could be worse than your father is still alive and you ask for your own inheritance? I mean, that's like, you want the man to die quickly. That was what the pretty girl's son did. He went to his father and said, "Sir, please, I want my own share of the inheritance. Give me my own portion of inheritance." And the father, true to being a loving father, actually did that, giving me his own portion of the his inheritance. The man, the boy, the son, actually squandered the whole wealth. Squandered the whole wealth and came back and said, "Okay, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But please take me in as his servant." And the father, true, this huge party for him called everyone, decorated him and said, "My son, who has lost his now back." So I don't know why you've done, but whatever it is, trust me, God is waiting to receive you with open arms. As long as you are not going to be like, "Oh, let you just come back and then you go back to your mess again." But in the first instance, take the step of going back to God. Take the step of walking back to God. Take the step of accepting the love that God has there waiting for you. Open yourself up to God, helping you day by day to continue to embrace that love and walk in the love and share the love. And it's a beautiful thing to note that there is so many prayer groups now, which is so amazing. It's like one of those things that when he's just says that as the days go by, as in towards the end of time, the God who pours his spirit, we are seeing more and more of that. And there are so many prayer groups, which is great. I believe that heaven is rejoicing that people eager to talk to God again, eager to access God and just to put their requests at his faith. I believe that God is really happy about that. But beyond that, God desires an intimate relationship with you. Excuse me. I'm not a possess and intimate relationship with you, with each of us personal relationship. Now for those who are parents, you know that as a parent, you sometimes want a one-chance, which is each child. So you could have dinner, you're talking to everybody. But sometimes you just want one particular child per time to have a conversation with that child or to point out something or to find out what the child really needs personally that he or she is not saying, you know, to study the child to different things that parents do. God is our everlasting father. Now he already knows everything. But at the same time, he wants us to have that one-on-one chat with him. And for me personally, I have an idea of what, oh, sorry, we are still going to discuss at of equality, which is part two of depression. But this is like preliminary conversation and we're going to try to keep it very short so that we can spend less than an hour today. So I was saying that I actually have an idea of how much God desires to have that intimate relationship with those. Because when I think about my earthly father, when he was still living, he has passed on now, passed on a couple of years ago, when my earthly father was still alive, there were times when he would just call me, I said, "Nana, come." And I was sick with him by the balcony and just discussed various things. You know, we discussed national issues, politics, spiritual things. He tells me about his history. He tells me, you know, and I, he also used to prompt me to tell him things as well. About my dreams, where my hopes, my aspirations, my struggles, you know, and we had those one or one chats that the memories remain ever fresh for me. And the lessons I learned from those conversations continue to carry me through life on a daily basis. So God desires that intimate relationship with you. And I hope that you won't run away. If you've been running, the time to stop running is now. Don't say tomorrow. Don't say you wait you tomorrow. You know, remember Pharaoh? Oh God. Pharaoh, I believe it was in the book of Genesis Exodus, when Moses went to him and said, "Oh, "God said, 'Let my people go,' and Pharaoh said no." And then there were plagues sent out by God against the Egyptians. And people were dying, they were frogs everywhere, all sorts of things were happening. And Moses went to him and said, "You know, if you ask me to pray right now, I can pray for these things to go away." So when would you like these things to be with? Pharaoh said tomorrow? Oh my God. That's really funny. He said tomorrow, like, "Okay, I have this problem now, but let me see if I can solve it. And if you're still here by tomorrow, you can take care of it." Why not now? The time is now. The time is now. The time for you to return to God is now. The time for you to take benefits of your position as a child of God is now. You know, I keep many things just coming up to my mind and I'm really moved by the spirit to share with you. So let me share with you. There's this movie I used to watch because I remember I actually saw it twice during my childhood. It's called The Prince and the Pope. I believe it was produced by the BBC. That's the British broadcasting corporation. Several years ago. And I saw this movie as a child. And the plot was these two boys that were really identical, like they looked so much alike. One of them was the son of a king and was living in the palace and the other was the son of a beggar, like a commoner. I don't know how to describe him, but he was really very, he was living a very rough setting. I wanted the prince went on his work and saw this boy that really looked so much like him. And he was like, "Oh, you must be having such a great time living outside the castle, living outside the palace and just being able to move around freely. Can we swap places?" So you take my garments and live in the palace for one day. I believe it was one day or a very short period of time that the prince actually intended. And the prince decided to wear the Popeye's outfit and stay outside the palace for one day. "Oh, you need to watch that movie. I am hoping that is somewhere on YouTube these days. If I find it, I am still going to watch it again because it has so many lifeless sins and bedded in the story." Well, long story short is that the prince did not, he wasn't able to get back to the palace on the same day. Of course, the Popeye who had won the prince's outfit was in the palace and being treated like a prince that everyone assumed that he was because he looked so much alike, like this, he looked so much like this prince. Even the father of the prince could not tell the difference that this was not his real son. Meanwhile, the real prince who was outside the palace was grabbed by towels and all sorts of criminals and tortured and all sorts of things happened to him. And then the father of the Popeye thought that the real prince who was in the Popeye's outfit was his son. And the prince was like, "Do this, I command you." And the father was like, "What are you okay?" "You're command you, do you know who you are talking to?" And just like the beating daddy was too much for the prince. The prince was almost days to days. Like he was beating eventually to submission. He was beating eventually to submission and then he started to behave like a Popeye. Like he started behaving like a Popeye like a beggar. He almost lost track of who he was. Now I just told us this story because sometimes some of us find ourselves in that situation. We have wandered so far away from God that we don't even remember who we are anymore. We allowed the devil and the Indians to use us to play football. We allowed the world to just toss us around anyhow, we allowed the cares of this world to just worry us. I get things so many things. And then today I'm giving you an invitation. Please, please, please walk away back to God. And one way you can do that is to find a Bible believing church near you and start by going to church. Go to church. Go to church. Go to church. Please don't stop listening. No, stop listening at this point. I promise you, yes, still so many fantastic things ahead, but go to church. People say that the church is not perfect. Sometimes you have monsters and the church and all that. But one thing I can assure you is that in there, as long as the world is being preached, you will definitely hear something. You know why it's called service? It's not service that you're going to service God. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's called service because they are going there to service your soul. It's like a car. It's like a car that has to go for servicing, you know, in the mechanic workshop. So for us, we have to continuously be reminded of the world. And it's not enough to say, oh, you listen to the word on your phone or your radio television, whatever, or you read your Bible on your own. We have thought of that. They call me together of people, of human beings. There's something, there's something beneficial there. There's something beneficial there. Yes, you know, just the meeting of spirits, physical meeting of spirits, especially meeting in the name of God. In the name of Jesus Christ. And the world of God says that where to or more are guided in the name of Jesus that he is present. So the first step is for you to walk your way back to God. Finally, Bible believing church. Plant yourself there and talk to God as God to reveal Himself to you, as God to draw you closer to Him. I promise you, if you ask persistently, you will see the hand of God at work. I promise you, if you ask persistently, you persistently ask God to draw you closer to Him to reveal Himself to you, to help you to understand who He wants you to be, who you are in Him. And for me, I always say this 101%. Jesus Christ is the way. And I'm not preaching to you all because someone said, "Oh, this is now like you preaching service, but Jesus is the way." And if you invite Him, "Oh my God, when you invite Jesus into your life, your life will never be the same again." It will change positively for the better. There's nothing more powerful than knowing that the one who has, it's just like, it's just like, let's say you want to, I'm trying to find a very common, "Okay, let's say you bought a car, you bought a car." And this car was designed by Toyota, for example, Audi or Chevrolet, whatever the car whoever the car maker is. And you know that in Chevrolet or Audi or Toyota, whatever the company is, mess these bands, they have a team, you know, a team of people who actually designed this car. Like those who drew the design, those who did the engineering works, copied it together and all of that, chested, it's, you know, performed different chest. You know that this set of people exists, right? And then you are in an engagement with them. And you know, they are telling you, "Okay, this is the right car for you. We're giving you this car as a gift and we'll follow you. We are going to follow you as you're driving this car. You know, one of us will always be here as you're driving this car to ensure that, you know, you have the best experience. You almost be over the moon because you know that, "Okay, in fact, you'll almost always be asking questions. Okay, so what's the function of this one? You know, what's the function? What does this do? Okay, let me test it. Oh, this speed limit is okay. All right, this is how you just be. You will be, and maybe this is not a very good example to use. But one thing I want to assure you is that living this life with the one who created the life itself, who owns the life itself, having him by your side, you know, having the manual of the creator himself and having the creator himself directing you makes life. A worthy, sweet, sweet experience. Now I also want to bring something to attention. Please, Christians. We, as much as possible, try not to criticize each other. In this very embarrassing way, publicly, I think it's just getting out of hand. And I was sitting the other day and thinking, I'm like, "I've not seen witches, for example, criticizing each other in public. Like, you can't find it. aha! "I have no sinit, if you have sinit, please let me know." "I have no sin any post on social media or an article on the news or anywhere where one of these witches or cultists or cults people sit down and be saying, 'Oh, this person is going against the rules of the or culty, the kingdom.' This person is going against the rules of witchcraft. The person is now becoming nice. They are not supposed to be nice. In fact, we will consider expelling him, 'Did you want seeds? I have no sinit. In fact, even in Islam, I do not remember seeing news about Islam being publicized. Like, okay, this Imam is criticizing a lot, a lot of them are in a lot of things. Maybe they do it with India's seclusion. You do not really, I personally do not hear it all the time. But in our own case, you just see a Christian makes a mistake or maybe does something deliberately and people just, other Christians just pounds and so why am I saying this? Recently, and this is like maybe a month ago now, there is this popular American preacher and he is quite young, very young and his messages, honestly, the spirit of discernment in me accepts a lot of the messages that he preaches because they resonate with the word and my spirit accepts them. So he has also this useful way of sharing the gospel that makes it accessible to younger people to the younger generation. And I actually like the fact that he is on ashamed of his love for the gospel, for Christ and for God. And he always, always, always reflects God in everything like he was overweight and he was walking out and he was taking his followership on social media through his weight loss journey. And after he lost weight, he challenged himself to, like he was on the big side. He challenged himself to also gain weight again and repeat the process just to show that it's possible. You know, and he did a lot of things. Now he then put out this video of him and his wife. His wife was doing a chore and he was holding her by the back side and see comments. Oh my God, he was standing on Instagram. Now I liked it because for me, so many people, especially those in the faith act like, oh, you know, I mean, for married people, you should just be about, I mean, romance or whatever, shouldn't you be present, but just have babies and concentrate on the word, the word, the word, you know. You see, husbands acting like their wife is not existent because they are studying the scriptures, they are preparing for one lesson or the other. I mean, if the Bible is not evident in your home, please, it's difficult for you to go and preach it outside. So this mom, to my mind, was trying to show people that look, it's okay for you to be romantic with your spouse. It's okay for you to be romantic with your spouse as a Christian. But some people pounced on it and they were saying all sorts of things and I had to just put in my own ten cents of comments there that look, this is a message I believe he's trying to pass and it's okay. You know, so what really got to me was the fact that people were making lots of derogatory comments and trying to link it with the scriptures and trying to make their derogatory remarks cryptural, which is really unacceptable. This is Instagram, right? People can send direct messages. Please send a direct message to that person. So the message you are sending is not going to be viewed by the whole world. Send a direct message to the person, oh, hi bro, I get it that you are probably trying to put out this message but some people might view it negatively. You just put out your own opinion there and give your advice. Nobody asks for your advice but this is a brotherhood and a sisterhood. Christianity, we are all brothers and sisters, we are all fatherhoods, God almighty, right? And we have access to him through our Lord and our Savior Christ Jesus. So we can talk to each other, we can correct each other. And there is no druid in a way that will make those who are unbelievers to love our choice and just kill the seed that we carry because kind of the kind of comments that they made on that post that this beloved preacher had shared. Honestly I could just imagine that first of all they would have deflated him because I can't even begin to mention the things that were written there now. I'm sure that those would have grieved him badly if he was to think about them if he had read them I thought about them. I mean, words once you put them out you can't take them back. And words actually cut deeper than knives because they caught into the soul and they stay in the memory or less good heals. So I pray that he didn't see that. And also for the nonbelievers that might have read it might just dismiss the preacher entirely and everything that they might have even learned from me. I know that this is how these people were. So as Christians we need to be careful. We need to be very careful. We need to be very, very careful with how we relate to one another, especially in the public. We need to have respect and real love for each other. If you love someone and you want to correct the person you will not correct the person in the way to destroy that person. I mean, the kind of comments they said, they made were quite destructive in my own opinion. They could have made those corrections in private in the first place. And if they were willing, I mean, there were several ways to access this man. His direct message on Instagram was there. I'm sure he has a website. You can go to the website, get his email or the email of his church or whatever and send an email. Or there's always a phone number. You could call, ask to speak with him, book a session and make your opinion known. But not just, and we need to find a way to just do less of that in Christianity, find a way to cover each other and help each other without destroying each other. Okay? So, it took 27 minutes to do the intro and we will get right into the meet of the conversation for today with discussing depression. And the intention is to discuss three persons. Yes. Remember when we discussed depression one, we considered people in the Bible who were depressed. And the first person we looked at in detail was Noah, Papa Noah. Oh my God. Everybody just says, oh, Noah, see if the world, oh Noah. It was not easy for Noah. Oh my God. I don't know if I want to be Noah shoes because it must have been a lot of work for him. But God eventually helped. And here we are today thanks to Noah's obedience to the Word of God. The next person we are going to consider is Papa Abraham. You know, when I was sitting down, and if you school in Nigeria, you probably sang the song as well. I am one of them. And so are you. So let us praise the Lord. I think we are just singing it with so much joy without really understanding who this man Abraham was and what he might have gone through. Oh my word. Abraham, I'm sure, went through so much. I mean, for God to have said, this is the father of faith. You can imagine what he went through. He walked through the value of the shadow of death like he walked through thick and thin. And I know when we're studying my most fascinating Bible characters, which we are thinking to come back to. We're thinking to study more characters in the future. But the first character we studied, one of the characters we studied was Abraham. And we saw that, oh, Abraham was just really, you know, to serve God, to love God. He knew that there was something, that there was a God different from the God that his people were worshiping. He came from a pagan society. And I also mentioned of this book that I had read, where, you know, aside from the scriptures, there were also some Asian books, you know, those who study Asian times and biblical scholars, they actually access those books. And I read these books that was written by a couple who were, I think, the word is "tyologians," right? There were, I believe, pastors and maybe they held the PhDs in theology. India. In the course of their research, they discovered that Iran had been tortured where he was living because he was not complying with the traditions, with the religious customs, which were really pagan. A lot of things. And they said that in the course of their research, they actually discovered that Abraham was at some point, he was training to. I can't remember if it was boiling oil or into fire, and he walked out of it like God protected him. You know, when you read that, Abraham's father had to leave. It might not just have been like, "Oh, he decided to. I believe that God moved Abraham's father to leave that place, not to set the family aside and also prepare Abraham for the journey and to use Abraham as the one through whom Christ will come." So, Abraham went through all of these and they introduced me. Chapter now, you can actually read from Genesis, Chapter 13, in your free time, or maybe Genesis 11. If you read Genesis 11, all the way to Genesis 16, 17, Chapter 16, and 17, I'm sure you'll get the midst of today's podcast on these three characters of the American study. So, you see, in the opening chapter of Genesis 11, when Tara was introduced, Tara is the father of Abraham. He says that Tara had three sons. You know, he was about 70 years when he had his sons and he mentioned their name. And Abraham was mentioned first. Which tells me that Abraham was the oldest of the three sons? I don't know if there were three plates. I don't know if there were three plates, but because he says, "Oh, and he was this age when he had this and this and that." So, I don't know if there were three plates or if they were born to different models on the same day, or maybe they were born years apart, but he just says that when Tara was about 70, I believe he had these three sons. And he mentioned Abraham first. So, Abraham and his name was Ibrahim. So, I will be referring to him as Ibrahim, not Ibrahim, because I just like the fact that his name became Ibrahim and that's the name that we all know him by. So, you can imagine Abraham being there. And, Heron, Heron was mentioned last, like of the three sons, he was mentioned last, which suggests that he was the youngest. Now, even if there were three plates, Heron would still have been the youngest, right? From the way it was mentioned. And he says that Heron had, you know, children had his son called lots. And Heron died in the particular place, where the only God knows what happened. But, after that demise, their father Tara decided to move and moved the entire family to another place. Where Tara does Abraham's father's deed and eventually passed on. Now, that place also mentions that. That's just also mentions that. Now, Abraham's brother also got married to one of her parents, daughter, so you can imagine. So, that means that this heron, her children and the children have even grown up to the age of marriage. And, Abraham was there, no having a child. Okay, so, when Heron died, Abraham had already married to Sarah. Who was his step sister? Because we noticed from subsequent chapters that when Abraham accused Abraham of lying, Abraham said, no, he didn't like that. Sarah was actually his sister, but from another mother, not the same mother, the way from the same father. So, Sarah, his wife, Abraham's wife, was his step sister. And in those days, was allowed in these days. I know that that would not be allowed. That would be insist. But in those days, the customs and traditions of the times. And that's, you know, see, because some people will say, oh, these are customs. Want to hold onto these customs? Change. You know, they evolve. That's the word. They evolve with time. They grow with the people. So, don't be stalking your old ways. Please, continuous improvement. If I could just digress for 30 seconds, 30 seconds. So, there's this South Eastern soup, an evil soup called "Overware." Oh my God. They say, if you don't work hard, you cannot, you should not. You should not eat overware if you don't work hard. And if you don't have money, you should not go overware. And really that's the fact. So, this guy, he was invited to the kitchen or from a content creator, like a food blogger, if he's kitchen. And he made overware. And he put him shrimps, a prawns. He put prawns, like fresh prawns, you know, overware, which is something that most evil people would not narrowly do, like in the Asian times. And people were just commenting on the posts and saying, how could it be salt overware by putting prawns? No, we don't put prawns, you know, overware. This is not, I was just laughing. Like, come on, this is continuous improvement. You don't have to do it in, you know, the way they used to do it in Asian times, you can take the Asian ways and add some modern touch to it to make it better and voila. So, I said, please, this is continuous improvement, which is very much welcome. And I actually am going to take a step to do that one day soon as well. So, the customs and traditions of the times allowed Abraham to marry a step sister, which he did. And you can imagine Abraham and Sarah being there and lots had grown up, had become, you know, a boy or maybe a man because sister was ready, woman enough to be a wife to somebody else. So when lots father died, Abraham took lots and his wife, a move that God had told him to move. And they kept moving and moving and moving. I went and got to Egypt, Abraham was scared like, hey, this is wife Sarah, so beautiful. Ah, she's so fair and all that. And I've been to Egypt, I've visited Egypt before and it's really a very vast land. It can be very intimidating. It's vast. You have desert, you have the Oasis regions, you know, by the river now and all that. So, and then Egyptians are really very strong people. Even till today, their government is quite strong. You know, the people themselves, they are cheerful, but you can't tell that's look. You cannot just mess around with these people. So I can imagine how Abraham would have failed at the time. Coming into this country, he was different, probably spoke a different language and then he had this very beautiful wife. So he had forgotten, maybe he still remember but somehow he just felt that, ah, this God that told me to move now. He may not be able to help me with this one. Maybe this is not a strong enough matter for me to bring to God. You know, I say God, please let him not take my, let him not take my wife. I don't know what's way through Abraham's mind, but he just told Sarah, please, if this people ask you, tell them that I'm your brother, I'm not your husband, so they will not kill me. You know, and Sarah also accepted and Pharaoh took Sarah, he read. Now when you read the scriptures, he says that Sarah was taking to Pharaoh's harem. Harem is the place where the king, it's a part of the house of the king's house or in the man's house where his women are kept, his concubines, his female servants, sometimes they even keep your wives there. So that's where the kept Sarah like. You are now going to be like the king's concubines. You're preparing her for the king to sleep with her until God appeared to Pharaoh and said, don't touch this woman. You know, and then Pharaoh went back to him and said, why didn't she tell me that this woman is your wife and everything? Abraham confessed and said, oh, he was actually scared and all that. And Pharaoh released a lot of gifts, sevens and a coat to go with. Abraham is wife and food and everything for them to live the country and return to where they came from. So you see that Abraham actually, he went through various times and seasons, right? And even this lot, he's, he's nephew that he took us his own son. I would like to think that he adopted lots, right? Because he didn't have any child and he felt like, okay, this one is my own blood. It's my brother's, it's my brother's child. You know, so let me help him. I know that he will be there for me in the evening of my life. But lots, lots that he is behaving. And you know, sometimes even you are a person. What some of the things that cause depression like you are doing your best and it seems like your best is no good enough. And you almost fucked out. You know, you are trying to obey instructions, but the situation is looking more difficult, like closing, closing, closing in on you. You know, like Abraham was being obedient following God's instructions, moving out of the place that out of here and moving to the place that God said he was going. Mill Zuschufirlan치work was пох scientists, nehikkiad daftko driftakuage, Ne suppose he went to find what he'd 좋은. Nokikiid, if he did, routines could have. So, the first lesson we learned was that when we begin to feel this challenge is this troubles that wales down, that makes us feel like there's no hope, e.gie만 arma appealing to us. Beleaf, said if we are told that Sarah was his wife who would not make it out of Egypt alive, you know, he probably felt that way. And I heard that even here in Nigeria, in the days of old, that when a king in the areas that had kings, because in the South is where it comes from in Ibuland, we didn't have kings in Asian times. But in the areas of the area now known as Nigeria, where the were kings, especially in the southern parts of Nigeria, I heard that when a king sees a woman and he just says, "I want this one." That's the end, dude. (laughs) Like, once the king says, "I want this woman." They've carried the woman to the king's palace. And whether she's married or not, the husband would just need to go and look for somebody else. Sometimes the husband would come and beg and they would try to think him and tell him to greyway. And if he doesn't, you know, so many things could follow after. Thank God that those kind of traditions no longer happen. So I can almost imagine how terrified Abraham was at the time. And one lesson we learned from it is no level of fear should keep us away from God, you know. Imagine if he went to God, just like David, oh God. Well, did we study David before? We need to study down money again. Hey, God. We need to study David again. David was, he always goes, "What an inquire of the God. "God should I inquire from God and say, "God should I do this? "God, I want to go like this. "Should I go like this or do like this?" You know, so lesson number one on this particular episode, do not allow anything keep you away from God. Not even fear, remember the passage we read, Roman chapter 8, verses 35, 39, do not allow anything to keep you away from God. Now they kept moving and Abraham was so good to Lord, that Lord became very wealthy. Ah, to the extent that even Lord sevens, for God that this Lord that is your boss, was actually helped, he said, "Man helped by God, his fable, "that Abraham took him away from that place "and just treated him like a son, "that he was now feeling like he was almost of equal status "with Abraham and the sevens of Lord were now, "you know, having squabbles with the sevens of Abraham." And you know, sometimes, let me know good day, let me know good day. But the sevens of Lord and Abraham were having squabbles. And rather than you would think that Lord himself, being the younger person who come and say, "Ah, my father, this thing that is happening, "I'm not happy about it. "Sevens keep fighting and struggling "over past your land." And I understand because when you look at that particular area, you know that it's a huge part of it could be, that speaking to the middle is some part of it we drive, but thank God for technology. With technology now, the middle is this fantastic, you know, they've been able to do, I was watching a video of how to buy, make some rain, you know, from salt crystals and all sorts of things, like God, thank God for technology, advancements and the brain that he has given to us as human beings to create value. So I can imagine really how the pasture, in those days, you know, a pasture that was just dependent, or dependent on rain, maybe pasture by waste is like water regions. A lot of other areas would have been dry, so it wouldn't have been easy, you know. When you look at them, ship, lamb and all those things, they're always eating. It's very difficult for you to see, maybe in the whole day, you can count the quantum of time that you see, ship or cattle or animals that have been moved like her dead. You can almost count the number of times you just see them, I do, like they don't want to eat. Most times, if they see the grass, they're eating it, like they're eating, and they're eating to stone, so that was what they call, like the curd and they could turn it out later and eat again when they get hungry. So it must have been very tedious for these people, and then that fight broke out, and lots did not do what he was supposed to do to calm and see. My father pleased how to resolve this thing. It was Abraham who had proposed a solution, and he said, "Look, choose any part you want, and I will take the other path." And lots jumped at the area that looks very juicy. And from one of our previous episodes, you can see that lots went to, I believe he went to Sodom, and Sodom was captured by King Caledom, when they were in the battle. And someone came and told Abraham about it. "Oh, your nephew has been kidnapped too, like he has been taken as a prisoner of war, right? That's what they call them, POW. He has been taken as a prisoner of war. In fact, this whole city has fallen, the king has been captured, everybody there has been captured, and your brother, your son, your nephew, Lord has also been taken." And Abraham got at his friends and his servants, and there were about a little shy of 400 of them went to battle against this king. And this king had an alliance with three other kings, this king that he went to fight, had an alliance with three other kings. And Abraham went to fight in order to get Lord's release. So you can imagine, Abraham was ready to die for Lord to be freed. As God would show mercy, Abraham and his allies, the one, and they were able to get Lord's freed, as well as the king of Sodom and all the others. Can you imagine that Lord still went back to Sodom? After all that episode, you would think that he would have thought, oh, maybe this place was not the right place for me to stay. My father, I'm sorry, I repent of what I don't before please take me back. But at the end of it all, Abraham returned back to Canaan alone, without any son, without any adopted nephew, and he was just there. And I could just picture in my spirit, I Abraham just being there, like, ah, so this my nephew, Lord's, this is how he's gone. And I'm so old, so doesn't mean I will not have a child anymore. And he probably was also afraid that these kings, these kings that he had fought, might probably come after him. You know, how it is, when you get involved in somebody's fight, you now earn an enemy for yourself, because whoever exists here, if it's a two, three-day person, would not die cute. So I could just imagine Abraham thinking, you know, just being there like, "Wow, so this is how my life will be, to just end like that, no son, nothing." And I'm just so exposed. And God appeared to him in the trans, and spoke to him. He was like, "Ibrahim, don't be afraid, I'll be with you." And I'll give you this, I'll give you that. And Abraham was like, God of what's used are all these things that are given to me, seeing that I don't have a child. What's the essence of all these things that are given to me? It's a servant that is born in my house, and he has that I is going to inherit these things, you know? And that's the lesson there for me, you know, being able to open up to God. Sometimes in our prayers, we should have quote things, like we don't want to say the way it is. Like, say you need something, you, it's not just saying it's the way it is. Like the way it's really, like for me, let me use myself as an example. And I'm not by any means, it's time that neither am I perfect in terms of how I communicate with God. That's how I go to God and I say, God, I feel like I'm drifting away. I feel like you're not really there. Maybe I've drifted away. I'm sorry if I've done something wrong, but please pull me back to you. I want you here for me again. I just want to feel your loving hands around me. I just want to feel your presence. And I want to fulfill the purpose that you have created me for. But it's difficult for me to do it on my own. Please help me. As it is, the way I actually chart with God. And then there are times when I'm like, God, this person really annoyed me. I want to forgive but it's hard. Oh, it's really difficult. Unless you help me. I don't know if I can forgive this person. Oh, God, I really need this. I have no other way to go. I have nowhere else to go. I don't even know where to start from to get this. Oh, God, this is why I need this thing. This is why I need this thing. "I want this. Please do not allow me to go to those who love me to ask for it. Please provide it to your own name be glorified. Open my wisdom. Show me what to do. How to get it sent by help us. To me I'm position me at the right place at the right time, you know, to access this help from the people that you have sent. For me this is how I try to talk to God from time to time. And I encourage you to do it." Now Abraham was open. He told God plainly look. "These things you are saying you give to me. They are nice but I don't have a child. So what's the essence of this thing?" He asked, "No, it was really grieving Abraham like he was in pains. And God said, "I will not just tell you. I will show you." And he said, "Okay, get up. Go outside." And Abraham went outside. He said, "Look up. Can you see the stars? Can you see? This is how your descendants will be scattered. There will be so many that it's really difficult to count them." And that's what I'm saying to you today. I pray that God will show you, not just tell you that God will show you what he has installed for you. Now the next person we are going to study and we really have to rush rush rush because we have barely seven eight nine minutes to go. We will study Sarah. Now let's just call Sarah briefly. Anybody who is a woman knows that every woman deserves to have her own child, right? So you can imagine Sarah there. She was there probably when when her and her had his children and being a woman she must have tried to rally around her parents' wife to help her to say, "Oh, Mugotting, so take your baby, help her with chores and all that she must." Probably most likely she might have been involved in all that. Then they went to Egypt and they gave her a way just like she went to sit in Ferris, Harlem with all that we meant, "Oh, yeah, the woman that came from somewhere, yes, you know, just keeping all these things to herself that oh, this was her husband, they came from here but she no one to say, you know, she just kept quiet. Why? Because she wanted to save her husband." And then this son, this boy, this man, lots that she took as her own son, you know, whom she had probably cared for for some time. And now he had become a man, a wealthy man, actually, he was now robbing sure that's which husband, you know, she was just there witnessing all these things. And eventually after Abraham had gone to fight to get lots released from that same bondage that he had been placed in after the kingdom where he was living had been captured in a battle. I can imagine that Abraham was just almost like drained and Sarah was just looking at him and Sarah said, "You know what, take this my servant, Higger, and let her have children for you because you know that's me, I'm not able to have children anymore." That was, you know, what can make a woman to do that? I say woman, I know that it will not be easier. It's just like even the men, can you imagine, even for Abraham, can you imagine you as a man, just give somebody your wife and say, "Take, you know, I'm sure that Abraham probably went through a lot of pains as well when he, when he chose Sarah to act like she was his sister, not his wife. So in this particular case now, Sarah was saying, "Please take this my servant." So she must have trusted this Higger. Higger was an Egyptian. Now remember that when Abraham and Sarah were living Egypt, Pharaoh had given them sleeves. I believe that Higger was one of the sleeves that was giving to Abraham and Sarah in Egypt. And she must have heard that, "Oh, this woman, she took her to the King's house and everything. They thought that she was a brother sister to this man. Meanwhile, you know how helps, helps helps. Sevens. They gossip. They really gossip. They gossip. If you don't believe me, you need to watch some sitcoms, just see examples. They gossip a lot. So I could just imagine that these people must have been talking, seeing all sorts of things about Sarah. But Sarah trusted Higger. Now sometimes in your depression, you run to the one you should be running away from. In your sadness, you run to the one you should be running away from. Because you have be clouded by your pain that you are not really reasoning the way you should. Of all the people around, it was Higger that Sarah chose. She trusted Higger. And guess what? Abraham married Higger. Please go back and read that please. He said, "Ebraham took Higger as a wife." So Abraham married Higger. And that's why Higger was now feeling like, "Okay, I'm now also the madam of the house." Not just, you know, when you read the story of Jacob, Jacob is a grand child, the grandchild of Abraham and Sarah. You see that his wife's almost made the same mistake that Sarah had made, but they were a bit wiser. So they didn't allow, they did not allow their servants to marry Jacob. They just said, "Have children. Have children for the man." And those children were almost counted to be the children of Leah and them and Rachel. But in this particular case, Sarah allowed Higger to marry Abraham, you know. And Higger began to believe like she was the boss of the house. She was also the boss of the house, such that Sarah now descended on her to show that, "Come on, you are still my servants. I just allowed you to be having this conjugal relationship with my husband so that we can have children and Higger ran away. She ran away and she cried out in the desert. She was pregnant and she cried out in the desert and got hurt her cry. Now, God hears when you cry out for help. You know, and Higger was an Egyptian. So I presume that she was into idol worship and all. She probably wasn't worshiping Yahweh or the God of Abraham. But God still heard her cry. And God came to hand and said, "Higger, Abraham, Sarah's servants, go back to your mistress." So God reminded her of who she was that look. You might be feeling like you're now a wife, but you're still Sarah's servant. Please go back to your mistress and submit yourself to her. And that was how Higger went back. We have to end this episode soon. But before we do, just to remind you that one, please, in your state of pain, in your state of depression, please reach out to God. Reach out to God. He's our ever-present helping time of need and he's always looking to hear from you. Nothing can separate you from God. Don't think that's all you got yourself in this mess. You have to clean it up. No way you can't. You cannot clean it up yourself. My brother, my sister, go to God, cry out to God for help. Secondly, please be open. Open up to God. Don't say you will tell him this one. You'll not tell him that one. He hears and he knows all things. But he's still looking to you, you know, for you to speak, for you to speak to him. God wants to have that intimate relationship with you. And he wants you to be truthful, to be to trust him. Yes, God can be trusted. I cannot show you. God can be trusted. Trust him. You know, you have done, maybe you have what you call it, although some, the world is escaping me now. But you have some attitudes, some characters, some things that you do that are really perfect, you know, like perfect kind of attitudes. Please, please, please don't hide it from God. Don't say I, if I thank God now, you know, as a my prayer, you know, you know, you just might just kill me in no way. Please go to God. You have a problem and addiction problem. You have whatever the challenge may be. Please run to God. And thirdly, in your, in your depression, please be careful. Be careful. So you don't run to the wrong person in your depression. Fertile in your sadness, in your, in your state, whatever the situation may be, please, please don't hesitate to cry to God. Cry to God in your bedroom. Can't cry to God. Anywhere at any time, he will always hear you and answer you. May God bless you. I hope that this message has touched your life positively. We will continue with in the next episode to wrap up our study of these three characters. For now, I pray that you have a beautiful Sunday and a great week ahead. God bless you. Bye. [MUSIC]