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In this piece, we will be looking at something that I believe will be helpful to us and is in line with the prayer that we have been praying; talking about being built up talking about faith, talking about the Word of God. So, we want to look at “how to be born and built in the kingdom of God”. How to be born and built; for some of us who have been born, for some of us, we are being built. It is possible also for some of us to be born and not being built.
So, today we want to look together at how to be born and built in the kingdom of God. I remember yesterday at the leadership fellowship; we were looking at Kingdom parenting. And so, how do we become members of the family of God? And how do we grow in the membership? Let’s start our meditation this evening from the book of Ephesians. How to be born and built in the kingdom of God. Ephesians chapter 2 and I will read verse eight.
The Bible says; “For by grace, you are been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Again, if I say, read it again, it says “for by grace, you are being saved through faith. And that not of yourselves”. By grace, you are being saved. So, if the ‘you’ represent Gboyega Adedeji, so we will say for by grace Gboyega have been saved through faith.
There are two words there that I don’t want us to miss. We’ve encountered them in the past but we want to look at them very briefly, and to identify their uniqueness, as it concerns our subject this evening. The Bible says; “For by grace”. So, we can see there is something that is by grace. And then the Bible says through faith. So, we have two words there. The first one is grace and the other word is faith. When we hear Grace, I’m sure we understand that the Bible was not talking about the grace of brother Gboyega. When the Bible said, For by grace he had been saved, the Bible was not saying that grace came from him. The grace that saved him, came from God. However, the Bible says through faith. And that gives a kind of responsibility to us tonight.
For us to be born into the Family of God, there is that aspect that requires God to do something. And there is the aspect of us as a people doing something also. In other words, we can say there is part of it that begins with God, as God be the initiator. And there is an aspect of it that involves us responding to what God has initiated. So, it’s all about God initiating. It is possible that God has all the good intention, and all the good initiation, initiating good things concerning us. However, it is possible for us to be limited in our experiences, simply because it is all about God initiating without our response to the initiation of God.
So, the Bible says, “For by grace, you and I have been saved”. However, it has taken place, through our faith, our faith in ourselves? No! Our faith in God. So, God begins by making his grace to be available. So, there are many people in the world that are in sin. But God chooses to show you that you can be saved, when you will realize you can be saved, you then came to a point that you choose on your own to respond to the saving grace of God.
Do we still remember the story of the prodigal son? He had entitlement in his father, he had experiences as a son in his father’s house, but, he chose to go out, going with everything the Father gave to him. But when he finished those things, it still continued in that land, suffering and in a shameful state, yet his father was in a glorious state. So, the man came to a point he said; ‘This is faith’. The servants and all the other people in my father’s house, they are living better than the way I’m living. I will go to my father, he has not gone but he made a declaration of faith, I will go to my father and I will say, father; “I will say”. The Bible says; Faith is in this; That place in Romans that says. Don’t say in your heart that who will go? But faith is in this.
So, faith is in your saying. It says ‘don’t say’, faith is in you saying. There are certain things you will say by faith. How do we know you are a man, a woman of faith? It is by certain things you say, and the certain things you don’t say? This man came to a point he said, I will say to my father, why? He had faith that when he goes to his father, He will enjoy grace. He had faith that his father had enough grace to a point that even him a sinner can get to benefit from it. And based on the faith, he had in the father’s grace, he went to meet the father. And lo and behold, as soon as he was approaching, and the father saw him, the Bible says the father opened his arms. So, as he actually believed and that became his experience.
Now, the father’s arms perhaps could have been open for many years. But nothing changed for the prodigal son until he responded to the grace of the Father, until he believed that his situation could change, and it doesn’t need to die in this pitiable state. When he came to that point, suddenly he realized my father has enough grace, the grace didn’t start the day you realized this?
The grace of the Father had been; yet he never enjoyed that grace until he came to believe in the grace. So, God’s grace is enough to save any sinner. However, no sinner will be saved until that sinner realizes that even though I’m a sinner, the Lord God Almighty, who created me, has enough grace, to save me. So, don’t let us just throw it up on God, there is an aspect of us. And one of the reasons why we’re looking at this, for some of us that have been born already, in the manner that we were saved, it looks like that is the same manner we shall be built.
So, if we abandon the process of our being born, the process that birthed us, we may not be able to experience that process that will grow us, that process that will build us effectively, there was a way we came into the kingdom. And it looks like that is also the same way we will grow in the kingdom. But for many of us that haven’t entered the kingdom, we seem to forget how we came in. That there was the grace of the Father, and our faith. And when the two are aligned together, we became saved. I am sure that we always remember that God had always been God from where we were born. When we were messing around as young boys and girls, God was God.
In fact, the messages that we heard that made us to say we will give our lives to Jesus, we could have had better. But nothing changed about our lives until that day, that we came to believe in a manner of speaking that these things they are saying, actually may just be useful for me. And it was that day that we were able to connect with the saving grace of God. And because we believed we had faith in God, and God is able to forgive us, God is able to give us a new start. We responded, and so we were saved. And so we were born. Having been born into the family, we must not forget, how we came in.
Some of us have made it God’s responsibility for our growth, that I will grow only if God gives grace, by the grace of the Lord, I will grow. It is not that you will not grow by the grace of God. In fact, you would not, and you will never grow without the grace of God. However, in addition to the grace of God, there is a need for your faith for you to keep growing. The moment you think everything that happens to you is because of God’s grace, then you make your life to go nowhere. Because the father has unlimited time, unlimited in everything, you are the one that is passing through a phase. You are the one that wants to fulfill an agenda in the heart of God.
Now God has pre appointed your times, you are the one that must then key into the moments per time. You are the one that must respond through faith to what God has prepared for you the preparations of God for your life, are the grace of God for your life. Or they are the expressions of the grace of God for your life. Before you were born, God prepared it. God determined your pre appointed times, that is grace. But if you choose to fold your hands and do nothing, not responding to the moments, not responding to the yearnings of God, not responding to the promptings of God for your life per time, even though God that prepared God that determined; you will see no meaningful progress in your life.
We were in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight. Now let’s go to Ephesians chapter two, verse 19, to verse 22. How to be born, and built in the kingdom of God. From verse 19, the Bible says, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners.” It says; ‘You are no longer’. Some years ago, I was listening to not even one-time certain instances listening to the message of Brother Gbile Akanni and he would mention certain assumptions in the Bible. And this is one of them. “Now therefore, you are no longer a stranger.” Somebody would say how did you know? He is assuming. And for some of us, the assumptions are correct. But not for all of us. But let’s assume that as he assumed, that is it, you are no longer stranger. Look at how he believes you are now he says, “both a fellow citizen with the faith with the saints”.
The citizens are the saints. And the saints are the citizens of the kingdom. He says, You Are no more strangers, but now you are now fellow citizens, and members of the household of God. So that means God is the Father and you are one of the children of the Father. And how can you become a member of a family if not by being born into the family? So, verse 20 says; “Having being built.” Now we’ve seen two things. Now, even if we pause here, we have now seen “you have now become members of the household of God, that means you were born into the family.” So, we can see born indirectly. Again, we can then see, ‘having been built’. So, we can see been built. It says; “On the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself, being the chief cornerstone. In whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a only temple in the Lord”. I’m sure we can see growth? The agenda of God is not that we stagnate, we were born and then we remain the way we were. And then we tell ourselves, there is no need for us to change anything.
There was nothing really wrong with us apart from our spirit man, which was dead from God, now alive to God. And that’s all. No! It says; “Whom the whole building be fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are been built together”. You know, when you see being built together, another way we can say it is being built individually. Because, when we are built together, it just talks about these things takes place among us, and it involves, us, neglecting or abandoning none of us.
So, if we are being built, let’s say there are four walls, four straightwalls, a wall goes straight like this, and three other walls beside it. If you are building the four walls together, you are not building line one abandoning line two or three, you are building line one, line two, line three, line four together, they are progressing together. So. there is individual growth, and there’s collective growth. It is not about one out-growing the other. And it’s not about one saying let me remain here, all of you go up. It is not a situation where there is schism in the body, it is not a situation where there is inequality. It’s a situation where each one is challenged, is positioned to grow.
So, the expectation of God for us does not exclude any one of us. You cannot say the reason why I’m not going to grow is because I am not an apostle. The Bible says you have become a fellow citizen with the saints and you are a member of the household of God. With that put into consideration, you are expected to grow. Because you cannot deny your citizenship or your membership of the family that is the lowest. You are not a leader in the kingdom, you are not the father of the family, you are just a child. You are just a citizen. That’s the lowest and the Bible says for that lowest, there is an expectation of growth. Now let’s continue in verse 22. “In whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit”. You all are being built together, a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. So, we’ve seen that we have been saved by grace through faith. God wanted it, we wanted it. God wanted it, we responded to it.
So, we became saved. We are now citizens, we are now members of the family. And as a member, the expectation is that you must be built. Now, let’s quickly go to John, chapter three, that Scripture that we used to read for memory verse competition many, many years ago. John chapter three, verse three; the Bible says; “Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Don’t forget, our goal is to know how to be born, and to be built up in the kingdom of God. And the Bible says, Unless one, unless a man, a woman is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Please understand that the reason why you are called a man and a woman is because you were born. Somebody who was never born is not a man, is not a woman, haven been a man, haven been a woman. The Bible says there is yet another birth that you must engage in for you to be ready to see the kingdom of God. Now, as if that was not enough;
Let’s go to verse five. Because our goal is not just to see, there is more that we desire. “Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water, and the spirits, it cannot enter the kingdom of God.” There are two things that we’ve seen there. Jesus began by saying, unless one is born again, he didn’t specify how. He said, that person cannot see the kingdom of God. So, my mind began to think of that first stage as a situation where a man is being born into the kingdom. You have become a member of the family. But is that all?
Look at Verse five, It says; “Unless you are born of water, and of the Spirit, you cannot enter; let’s continue. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not mavel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Having understood that we must be born again. Then Jesus went ahead to tell us the manner of our being born again. We must be born of the water and born of the Spirit.
And if we will be built up in the kingdom, the means through which we were born, is also the same means to which we must be built. But before we emphasize more there, I also want us to see the popular place in Jude. Jude 20. The Bible says; “But you beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.” But you beloved, building yourself up on your most holy faith. praying in the Holy Spirit. Let’s take the first phrase, building yourselves up.
Beloved, brother, Joshua, brother Matthew, brother Sunday, you have the responsibility of building yourself up. You have enjoy the grace to be saved. And you needed to respond to that grace at the beginning with your faith. And so you are now being born. It is now expected that you must also continue to take responsibility for that faith to be built up. So, the faith that you had, that made you to be born, you needed and you need to be building on that faith. It says; build up yourselves on your most holy faith. Now, it says praying in the Holy Spirit. If you connect that with John chapter three, verse five, ‘you must be born of the Spirit’. If you are born of the Spirit, you need the spirits to be built up. It says; that which is of the flesh, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.
It is not possible for a man to eat yam and egg and to be filled with the Holy Ghost by Yam and egg. Except the Holy Spirit wants to do a miracle. If you eat yam and egg, after a while you will go to the toilet. Because you have eaten the flesh, you will release the flesh. So, when we were being formed, flesh was used to form us; To be built up in the flesh, we need to consume the flesh. When we were born, or when we were formed in the Spirit, we were formed of the Spirit with the Spirit. In the same way we need to feed on the Spirit for our spirit to survive. You know, I was reading about something and what I was reading about I’m sure there are residual understanding that all of us also have in Nigeria. But let me just mix it together. There is a name they gave to two groups of demons. But they claim one is the male version while the other one is female. And they said those two demons they feed, they survive on sperm. The male survives on, I don’t know, the version that it survives on. But sleeping with women in the night, in their dreams.
The female survive on the sperm of the male sleeping with men in the night. So, it is a spirit but for it to remain to continue; it is to be getting the sperm. Now, for us that watch a lot of Nollywood and films, there are spirits that cannot survive without taking in blood. Have we understood that many years? So, you wonder why these spirits killing? Why are they taking ritual? Why are they killing people? Why are they saying they are collecting blood on the streets on the highway? They need it. If they don’t have it, their spirit cannot sustain or be sustained on the earth. So, what I’m saying is, have you ever seen a demon who survives on that kind of sperm telling you I took sperm last year I think I should be fine this year. I don’t need it. Is that how we see them? Those ones that survive on blood. Do they ever rest? No! We are the ones that rest. But guess what, we don’t also rest.
We are just hypocritical. I have never rested from eating rice since I was born. Bring rice to me every day of the week. I will eat it day one, day two, day three. So, I understand. And I’ve understood that for me to remain alive. I need to keep eating. Whether it was my mother that taught me that this boy bring your mouth, don’t die. But over time it has become natural, like a second nature to me. I just believe I need to feed. I don’t know how we see the little boys and girls that are just coming up less than one, less than two years. The way they get aggressive when it’s time to eat. And I’m sure some of us adults we also get a little bit aggressive when our wives are not ready. Are you have been there for one hour now what is going on? And shes like I’m coming, and you can hear the frying of plantain, frying of fish, and you’re like, can you bring this food without any fish? We survive on it. And guess what?
Let’s use practical example for those of us that are married, when you were not married? It’s just that most of us here are not chubby people, we are too disciplined to be chubby, but we know married men that are not too discipline that enjoy the jolly jolly of their wives; we know how we added weight after we got married, even those of us that we think we don’t eaat because my wife will be complaining. She will tell herself my husband you were not like this when I married you. I have added a lot of weight. Do you understand? So, I have grown. As I eat I grow. Unconsciously I increase in stature. She’s a witness that when we even got married, I was still continuing in my height. I kept on increasing. So, we grow. As we eat, we grow every feeding produces growth.
You may also like the audio message:https://centrendl.org/podcast/how-to-be-born-and-built-in-the-kingdom-of-god/
