OUT OF ZION 003 | RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTS A NATION
Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.
– Pro 14:34
The task of salvaging the nation rests on those who practice righteousness.
The emphasis on Sunday, 1st November was on nation building.
Pastor stated that the journey to the future is not just a personal one, it is also a corporate one. While there was a personal undertone to the future of Israel in Canaan, as seen in the importance of individual choices (Num 13), it was also a corporate one.
He said we could limit the discussion of the future to the ultimate one, but that we haven’t because of its implications. While looking forward to a future with the Lord forever, we cannot be oblivious of the future here while this earth remains. Smith Wigglesworth in his lifetime posited that preparation for heaven should be as for the next moment and for the future here, as for 100 years from now.
Pastor said we must consider our corporate future because such disposition offers people a window of opportunity to make a difference and to secure their own future. Those who have made significant difference in the past and in the present are those who think more about the need of others than theirs.
Israel invited reproach by the practice of sin while Phinehas’ zeal for God stopped God’s fury on Israel and earned his lineage an everlasting priesthood. A nation is built by righteousness.
Whenever the devil wants to destroy a people:
- He gives them a serious occupation with destructive sins or unrighteousness. Pro 14:34. Num. 23:20-21 showed they had escaped the curse because, God did not observe iniquity or wickedness in them; This He did not because they were not allowing sin to remain with them. The drive for fellowship with God doesn’t allow someone to continue in sin – Num 15:22-29; 15:30-31.
- He uses wrong teachings put stumbling block in people’s way – Jude 1:3-4 and leads them into presumption (Rev 2:14) as against the need to warn them of the need to maintain their place and walk before the Lord.
- He also mobilises his agents to put stumbling block on people’s way.
We must salvage our corporate future by raising a people who will stand in the marketplace, against unrighteousness that brings reproach to a people. The use of the word shows how the sinful disposition can turn the will of God to lift a people to reproach or judgement on the people. Jude 1:5-6 shows that God’s good plan can be messed up by those who take it for granted.
He said It is time to build a new Nigeria: where people will operate with royal mentality to maintain their honour; where they will salvage our existing corrupt system.; where the future of the nation becomes a priority for them; where the government is influenced by righteous voices and participants; and where there is desire to see nothing else but the glory of God filling the system.
We can salvage the corporate future of our nation by becoming Phineases: who are zealous enough to give God His place in their lives; who will stand out by refusing to be defiled by the trend in the land; who will stand against, rebuke and judge iniquity in the land to bring Gods mercy on the nation; and who will, with their selfless disposition, build a nation where righteousness without compromise exalts.