DATE: SUNDAY JULY 23RD 2017
THEME: DANGERS OF FINANCIAL STORMS I
Memorise:
The poor is hated even of his own neighbor: but the rich hath many friends. Proverb 14:20
Read: Proverb 14:20-22
14:20 The poor is hated even of his own neighbor: but the rich hath many friends.
14:21 He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth: but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he.
14:22 Do they not err that devise evil? but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good.
Message:
Peace is desirable because it signifies everything that is calm, quiet and in order. On the other hand, storms are undesirable because they bring turbulence, trouble, fear and absence of rest. While all storms are bad, a financial storm is one of the worst storms that can hit the foundation of an individual, family and community. One reason why financial storms are more deadly is because they can trigger off other storms. For instance, Proverbs 14:20 says,
“The poor is hated even of his own neighbor: but the rich hath many friends.”
This means that because of the poverty of the poor, many of his neighbors prefer to avoid him. Some would even develop hatred for him just for that reason. This describes the attitude of many unsaved people to their poor neighbors. It is most unfortunate that some believers also follow this evil trend. This has led to the formation of cliques and factions in places where there should be unity and togetherness. Psalm 10:2 says that only a wicked and proud fellow would subject the poor to such treatment. Some Church leaders cannot stand seeing those who are not well-to-do. As a result, they discriminate against them, using every excuse in the book. They appoint only those who are rich into positions, even when they know that the poor are more ideal for such positions. If you are involved in such discriminatory practices, remember Psalm 12:5 which says that when the poor cry out to God, He will arise on their behalf against their oppressors.
Are you hated by your neighbors because of the financial storms you are confronted with? Fear not! According to Psalm 69:33, the Lord will hear your cry today and bring you out of poverty and reproach. Moreover, financial storms can make an individual contemplate suicide. In 1 Kings 17:12, due to the financial storms that the widow of Zarephath was going through with her son, she decide that they should just take their last meal and afterwards die. Have you found yourself in a similar situation where you are contemplating or have even attempted suicide? Stop right there! Suicide can never solve your problems. It is worse than going from frying pan into fire. See your pastor, tell him your situation and see what he can do to help. However, more importantly, call on the Lord to deliver you from the challenges you are confronted with. I rebuke every spirit of death suggesting suicide to you right now! I pray that hope be restored in your heart right now in Jesus’ Name.
Action Point:
If your financial storm is so bad that you feel seriously pressured to commit suicide, just know that your turnaround is truly around you. Don’t ever quit, and don’t kill yourself!
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
2 Samuel 21-22
Ezekiel 13:20-14:11
AUTHOR: PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE
HYMN 4: THROUGH THE LOVE OF GOD OUR SAVIOR
THROUGH the love of God our Saviour,
All will be well;
Free and changeless is His favour,
All, all is well.
Precious is the blood that healed us,
Perfect is the grace that sealed us,
Strong the hand stretched forth to shield us,
All must be well.
Though we pass through tribulation,
All will be well.
Ours is such a full salvation,
All, all is well.
Happy still in God confiding;
Fruitful if in Christ abiding;
Holy through the Spirit's guiding:
All must be well.
We expect a bright tomorrow;
All will be well.
Faith can sing through days of sorrow,
All, all is well.
On our Father's love relying,
Jesus every need supplying;
In our living, in our dying;
All must be well.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR PASSAGES
Ezekiel: 13. 20. Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly. 21. Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. 22. Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life: 23. Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine divinations: for I will deliver my people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I am the LORD. -
Ezekiel: 14. 1. Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. 2. And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 3. Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them? 4. Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; 5. That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols. 6. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 7. For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to inquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself: 8. And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. 9. And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. 10. And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him; 11. That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD.
2 Samuel: 21. 1. Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. 2. And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.) 3. Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD? 4. And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you. 5. And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, 6. Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them. 7. But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. 8. But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: 9. And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest. 10. And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. 11. And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. 12. And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa: 13. And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. 14. And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was intreated for the land. 15. Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint. 16. And Ishbi-benob, which was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David. 17. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel. 18. And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant. 19. And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. 20. And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant. 21. And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David slew him. 22. These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants. -
2 Samuel: 22. 1. And David spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul: 2. And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; 3. The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence. 4. I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. 5. When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid; 6. The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me; 7. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears. 8. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth. 9. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. 10. He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet. 11. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind. 12. And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies. 13. Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled. 14. The LORD thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice. 15. And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them. 16. And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. 17. He sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many waters; 18. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me. 19. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay. 20. He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me, because he delighted in me. 21. The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. 22. For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. 23. For all his judgments were before me: and as for his statutes, I did not depart from them. 24. I was also upright before him, and have kept myself from mine iniquity. 25. Therefore the LORD hath recompensed me according to my righteousness; according to my cleanness in his eye sight. 26. With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright. 27. With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury. 28. And the afflicted people thou wilt save: but thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down. 29. For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness. 30. For by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall. 31. As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him. 32. For who is God, save the LORD? and who is a rock, save our God? 33. God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect. 34. He maketh my feet like hinds' feet: and setteth me upon my high places. 35. He teacheth my hands to war; so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. 36. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy gentleness hath made me great. 37. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; so that my feet did not slip. 38. I have pursued mine enemies, and destroyed them; and turned not again until I had consumed them. 39. And I have consumed them, and wounded them, that they could not arise: yea, they are fallen under my feet. 40. For thou hast girded me with strength to battle: them that rose up against me hast thou subdued under me. 41. Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me. 42. They looked, but there was none to save; even unto the LORD, but he answered them not. 43. Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad. 44. Thou also hast delivered me from the strivings of my people, thou hast kept me to be head of the heathen: a people which I knew not shall serve me. 45. Strangers shall submit themselves unto me: as soon as they hear, they shall be obedient unto me. 46. Strangers shall fade away, and they shall be afraid out of their close places. 47. The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation. 48. It is God that avengeth me, and that bringeth down the people under me, 49. And that bringeth me forth from mine enemies: thou also hast lifted me up on high above them that rose up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man. 50. Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name. 51. He is the tower of salvation for his king: and sheweth mercy to his anointed, unto David, and to his seed for evermore.
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