What we need to preach now in our Churches ~ Poju Oyemade

What we need to preach now in our Churches. 

Any honest thinker will know that the bondage we confront today in Nigeria is one of corruption. The travails we hear in people are the groanings to be delivered from this bondage called corruption that has crippled this nation.

This brings me to the purpose of this article, which addresses the messages we ought to start preaching. It was French philosophers who in the 19th century said he toured the whole of the United States to find out what made the nation so great and surpass European nations.

He went to their libraries, their schools, and various places yet he found nothing that differed from that which he saw in Europe. He said he saw no difference until he attended their Church services and listened to what was coming out of the pulpit then it dawned on him where the difference lay. 

The ways of the people that reside in a nation determine the outcome of that land. This is the reason why God said, “If my people that are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways I will heal that land”

What caused God to get involved in healing their land was the “turning from their wicked ways.” What was the purpose of humbling themselves to God in prayer about their land, It was Lord teach us, where we have erred show us. 

It is the ways of a people that determine the health of a land. When people pray for the improvement in the state of the nation, they should really be asking God to show them their ways, which are hindering progress so they can turn from it. 

Read both portions of these scriptures carefully 

Job 36:8-16 

"And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction;

Then he sheweth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded.

He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.

If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.

But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.

But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them.

They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean.

He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression.

Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness."

Job 34:29-32 

"When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only:

That the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared.

Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more:

 That which I see not teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more."

To spend time praying for the development of a land without asking Him about the practices that ought to change is really a prayer offered in pride. Every form of progress requires that changes be made.

Those of us called to ministry must seek the face of God in humility and let Him show us the vices in the culture killing the potential of this nation. Not just speaking to the symptoms but addressing the root cause of the disease.

We should be preaching the corrections that are to be made, the things that will make our Churches uncomfortable for anyone who is neck deep in those vices. It should be made crystal clear from our messages on Sunday mornings and through every form of media outlet, “Nigeria these are the things that must change in you.”

Some are afraid to preach things like this so they are not labeled guilt preachers who do not understand the message of righteousness. They have regarded any form of conviction as to guilt. If you look closely at the definition of righteousness popularly embraced you will find that in all good conscience you cannot fit every usage of the word righteousness in the New Testament with that definition. 

There is more to righteousness than the single definition of one’s ability to stand before God without a sense of guilt.

Paul who taught the revelation of the righteousness of God in Christ also said this about the purpose of scripture.

2 Timothy 3:16

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

There is reproof and correction in righteousness. A sound teacher of the word of righteousness establishes one in doctrine and then he reproves from the word, corrects and instructs. All these attributes must be in a sound message. 

No one should be stealing and embezzling public funds and sit comfortably in our church services listening to messages week in week out without having his or her conscience continually pricked. Until we start preaching the full gospel from the pulpit born from a place of prayer armed with the instructions from the throne, this nation will not change.