UNITED AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCH

SERMONS OF THE MONTH

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December 2, 2007
Positively Contagious
Scripture Lesson: John 15:1-8

Text: “I am the Vine; you are the branches. If anyone remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5). “This is my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit” (John 15:8).

“And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after Our likeness…So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him: male and female created He them” (Genesis 1:26-27 KJV). The Hebrew word, “Elohim” refers to God in the plural form yet in Deuteronomy 6:4, the Bible says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” In the New Testament, the apostle John declares, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1:1 KJV). In Him, the Word or Jesus Christ, are embodied all the treasures of the divine wisdom, the collective thought of God  (Colossians 2:2-3). “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ who is the head over every power and authority” (Colossians 2:9-10 KJV). “I am the Vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NIV). “Therefore, God has exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11 NIV).

Just before He ascended back to heaven Jesus told His disciples,

• “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20 NIV).

To us Baptists, this is the Great Commission from the Founder, Head and Foundation of the Church. The mission and purpose of the Church is to share the Good News of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ with people everywhere. Then we bring together those who accept Jesus Christ for nurturing and equipping so that they may go out into the world connecting people to Jesus Christ. Christians everywhere need to take this Last Will and Testament of our Lord very seriously. To do otherwise is to turn our backs on the Savior. The way Christians can take the Great Commission seriously is to allow the Word of God and His Message to sink into and to saturate our lives so much so that evangelization will become a way of life for us. This task can be done in two ways but with dramatically different results.

The Popular Method
In the first method we do evangelism through entertainment. This reminds me of millionaire televangelists who milk the poor of their hard earned money only to enrich themselves. They fly to evangelistic events in special jets. They have beach and mountain resorts where they go to relax. Yes, they pray for you over the television set, but how many of them show up to join your daughter in holy matrimony? Who of them comes to visit you in the hospital when you are sick? How many come to your humble abode to bury your dead. It is your often overworked and underpaid local pastor who is worthy of the double portion of your generosity because he is the one who has boots on your spiritual ground and takes care of your needs. He is the one whom you can look in the eye and ask difficult questions. An entertainment method is just that—entertainment. It is of no spiritual significance because it is not done in the power of the Holy Spirit. This method reminds me of the word of God that says, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death (Proverbs 16:25 KJV). “Without Me,” Jesus says, “ye can do nothing!”(John 15:4 NIV).

The Unpopular Method
A more excellent way to go about bringing people to Jesus Christ is to do it according to His prescription in the Bible. He says, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches, He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit” (John 15:4-5 KJV).

The Electrical Wiring System

• The Kingdom of Jesus Christ can be likened to a huge spiritual house.
• Jesus Himself is the electrical wiring system in this house of faith.
• The house contains innumerable electrical outlets.
• The current or power running through the whole electrical wiring system is the Holy Spirit.

The Electrical Strip

• I see each believer as an electrical strip with several outlets.

In order for believers to tap into the inexhaustible power of Jesus Christ, each of us, as an electrical strip, must be plugged or connected into one of the electrical outlets all over the huge house of Faith.

Electrical Extension Cords
Each outlet on the strip represents the point into which we can plug our spiritual gifts. For example, you take your gift of teaching, encouragement, administration, prophesy, evangelism, discernment, prayer, et cetera, and plug it into the electrical strip of your life. When that is done the Holy Spirit will have an unhindered path to surge out and to travel through the strip to the total length of all the extensions of the electric wire. So when we are connected to Jesus Christ, we become spiritually charged, spiritually alive, spiritually electrified and ready to go out into the community and to the uttermost parts of the earth to become positively contagious for the Lord Jesus Christ so much so that anyone who comes into contact with us might be blessed because my hands are filled with the blessings of God. Anyone I touch anywhere in the world shall surely be blessed simply because I am contagious for Jesus Christ.

Conclusion
I do not have to tell you how much Christianity is being attacked left and right in the United States today as well as around the world. The United States has never needed Christ more that it does today. Many Christians have been silent for too long in the face of removing God from our schools and from the public place. Unfortunately that is just the beginning. If saints of God do not wake up from their spiritual sleep, we will wake up one day to find that our beloved country has been overrun by spiritually confused people and all the freedom we so much cherish today will be a thing of the past. You and I are spiritual electrical strips. It is only as we are connected to Jesus Christ and electrified for Him and our special gifts are plugged into Him can you say, with humility and confidence, “we are positively contagious for Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord, to whom be glory and honor, majesty and power, dominion and authority now and for evermore. Amen.

‘Yinka Jolaoso 
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November 25, 2007
Launch into the Deep!
Scripture Lesson: Luke 5:4-11

In Luke 5:4 Jesus told Simon that if he wanted to catch fish he should not stay in the shallow part of the lake. For him to catch anything worthwhile he had to “launch into the deep.” Simon, Andrew, James and John who were professional fishermen had labored all night but caught nothing. According to Luke 5:5 Simon told Jesus, “as professional fishermen we have done all that we knew to do all through the night but we caught nothing. However at your word, we will let down the net. They did so and they caught so much fish that they had to call on other fishermen to come and help them to haul the fish to the shore.”

You have a friend but how good is that friendship?
You are married but how solid is your relationship with your spouse?
You are a teenager but how much do you love and regard your parents?
You are a mother but can your children rise up and call you “Blessed?
Do you make your home a place of joy and peace for your husband and children?”
Do you love your wife and children with tenderness and provide for them?
You are a Christian with God-given spiritual gifts. How much desire do you have to use those gifts in the church to advance the Kingdom of Christ?
You have many copies of the Bible at home but how much of the Word of God do you know? How much have you grown as a Christian?

For many years I have been a “Missionary of the Week” at Camp Mundo Vista for Girls and Camp Caraway for Boys, both outside of Asheboro, in the mountains of North Carolina. I love to watch the boys and girls as they swim or play in the swimming pool. A “Yellow” tag around the wrist of a child signifies that she is not an expert swimmer. So she can only swim or play in the shallow areas of the pool.

On the other hand when you see a child with a “Green” band on his or her wrist, it means that the child can swim in the deep part of the pool. She can dive from the board and do a variety of acrobatic displays as she heads into the water. She is capable of many tricks inside the water before she surfaces again.

Just like Peter, Andrew, James and John, you may know a lot about life but do you know that no matter how good you are, you are still in the shallow waters of life and that there is very little you can show for your life? Christ expects your life go to go beyond the state of being a Christian baby who has to be fed with the milk of the Word of God everyday. He wants you to begin to eat solid spiritual food so that you can grow and become a very strong Christian, one who is not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and one who knows the Bible enough to recognize wolves in sheep’s clothing.

If you want to have a lasting friendship, a solid family relationship, be a good mother, be a happy husband, be a Christian who uses her spiritual gifts, be a Christian who knows her Bible, and a Christian who grows like a cedar in Lebanon, then you must take a step of faith. Move out of the shallow area where you are and launch out into the deep. That is where the fish of growth is. Your taproot will go so deep into the spiritual ground and keep giving your life a steady flow of nutrients so that anyone who sees you will see a maturing Christian through Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord, to whom be glory and honor, majesty and power, dominion and authority now and for evermore. Amen.

‘Yinka Jolaoso

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• Be obedient
• Love and encourage each other.
• Resolve disagreements whenever they occur.
• Team up to fight off attacks on any member of the family.
• They cry together or laugh together.
• The success of any member is celebrated as the success of the whole family.
• Never drag the name of the family in the mud.
• Never bring shame or sorrow to the family.

• ''For by grace are ye saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast'' (Ephesians 2:8-9).
   
• ''As many as received Him to them gave He power to become the children of God'' (John 12:12).
   
• ''I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me'' (John 14:6).

• ''I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters…'' (2 Corinthians 6:18).

• Be obedient to God
• Love and encourage each other.
• Resolve disagreements whenever they occur.
• Team up to fight off attacks on any member of the family.
• Team up to fight off Satan as he attacks the church through many devious ways.
• Cry together or laugh together.
• Work together in the church to advance the Kingdom of God
• Help one another
• Be kind one to another
• Give to support the work of the Lord through the church
• Take good care of our pastor because the Bible tells the church to ''Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor , especially those who labor in the Word and doctrine. For the Scripture sys, Thou shalt no muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And the laborer is worthy of his reward'' (I Tim. 5:17-18).
• The success of any member should be celebrated as the success of the whole church.
• Never drag the name of the Lord or the church in the mud because when you do so, you ''grieve the Holy Spirit'' (Ephesians 4:30).