DEALING WITH IMPOSSIBLE

What we do when we face the impossible?  Let’s remind ourselves for the reasons behind this great chapter, Hebrew 11.Hebrew 11 is an encouragement to keep trusting God in their difficult circumstances. Let consider Hebrew 11: 29-31 to see the response of faith in impossible circumstances.

 

a.       God allows his people to face impossible situations
How did the Israelites get to the Red Sea – God brought them there. How did they get to Jericho – God brought them there. Why? Because God had a great purpose in it. He wanted to show his power. God allows his people to face impossible situations ultimately for his glory and to work out his purpose. Do we find ourselves hemmed in by circumstances/enemies, obstacles/barriers, and problems? Got any rivers you think are uncrossable, got any mountains you can’t tunnel through? In the end God is God, he does what he thinks is right, he doesn’t act according to our comfort or convenience.

b.      Trust God’s purpose

Look at what the Israelites faced at the Red Sea. Moses assured them that God would act on their behalf even though they could not see how. They could have responded “come on Moses, give it up, it’s been a nice trip, we’ve had a holiday by the Red Sea, it’s over!” But they didn’t do that, they went forward as Moses said, they trusted God’s purpose, that it wasn’t all going to end for them at the Red Sea, even though it seemed impossible, now way out. What does that say to us? Trust God’s purpose in your life and in those that you love. Trust him with our fate, our destiny.

c.       Obey God’s instructions

The Israelites did this at the Red Sea but it is more obvious here at Jericho. God brought his people to an impregnable fortress, an impossible obstacle. Note that there is a gap of 40 years for after the Red Sea the wanderings are a time of unbelief. Even people who have once expressed faith can lapse into unbelief. Imagine how they felt at Jericho. They must have been sick to death of blowing trumpets – what a ridiculous thing to do. They may have thought, “Moses wouldn’t have had us doing something so stupid!” How they must have groaned at the instructions for the 7th day – march 7 times around the city! But key to the walls of Jericho falling was the obedience of the Israelites. Once again the author of Hebrews is saying that faith and obedience are the two sides of the same coin. The relevance of this is that we need to keep doing what God says, keep doing what you know is right, keep following and trusting

d.      Believe in God’s ability

We can be confident in God’s ability to deliver on what he has promised. Faith believes the impossible will happen, before it happens. God calls us to believe that the impossible will take place even though we see no current evidence for it. Rahab challenges us to trust in God’s ability now, not after the fact wishing that we had.

Got any rivers you think are uncrossable, any mountains you can’t tunnel through? Well God specializes in the impossible. We need to trust his purpose, obey his instructions and be faithful and believe in his ability.

MAJOR PIECES TO THE LIFE PUZZLE

1. "Learn how to be happy with what you have while you pursue all that you want." 

2. "If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary." 

3. "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." 

4. "Walk away from the 97% crowd. Don't use their excuses. Take charge of your own life." 

5. "To attract attractive people, you must be attractive. To attract powerful people, you must be powerful. To attract committed people, you must be committed. Instead of going to work on them, you go to work on yourself. If you become, you can attract." 

6. "Don't just learn how to earn. Learn how to live. The good life is not an amount. It's an attitude, an act, an idea, a discovery." 

7. "Ants never quit. If they're going somewhere and you stop them or block their path, they'll look for another way. Up, down, all around. How long will they keep looking? Till they find another way. See, that's good philosophy." 

8. "Here is what my teacher taught me: "When you change, everything will change for you. When you get better, everything will get better for you."" 

9. "One of the best places to start to turn your life around is by doing whatever appears on your mental "I should" list." 

10. "Let others lead small lives, but not you.
        Let others argue over small things, but not you.
        Let others cry over small hurts, but not you.
        Let others leave their futures in other people's hands, but not you

DREAMS FULFILMENT

Your tomorrow will look like today, unless you enlarge the capacity of your imagination to see what God sees concerning you. You must understand that an error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it. What you think is a mistake or failure is just an error that is waiting for your correction. You can still fulfill that dream in you, believe in yourself and have faith in God… it is possible in Jesus Name! Jeremiah 1:11-13

LESSON FOR SUCCESS

Perhaps, as a child, you were told the story of the turtle and the rabbit race, but if not, here’s the story below:  

“Once upon a time a Turtle and a Rabbit had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race, agreed on a route and started off the race. The rabbit shot ahead and ran briskly for sometime. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the turtle, he thought he'd sit under a tree for sometime and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The turtle plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ. The rabbit woke up and realized that he'd lost the race.”

The moral of the story? - Slow and steady wins the race.

That may be the version of the story that we all grew up with but it isn’t the end of the story:

The Turtle and the Rabbit Part II:

The rabbit was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realized that he'd lost the race only because he had been

overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the turtle could have beaten him. So he challenged the turtle to another race. The turtle agreed to a second race, and this time, the rabbit went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.

The moral of the story? Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast

and reliable. But the story doesn't end here.

The Turtle and the Rabbit Part III:

The turtle did some thinking this time, and realized that there was no way he could beat the rabbit in a race as long as the race carried on in the way it was formatted. He thought for a while, and then challenged the rabbit to another race, but on a slightly different route.

The rabbit agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the rabbit took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometres on the other side of the river. The rabbit sat there

wondering what to do. In the meantime the turtle trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

The moral of the story? First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency.

But the story still doesn’t end here.

The Turtle and the Rabbit Part IV:

The rabbit and the turtle, by this time, had become pretty good friends and, after some brainstorming, they both realized that the last race could have been run much better. So they decided to re-run the last race, but to run as a team this time. They started off, this time with the turtle riding on the rabbit’s back until they arrived at the riverbank. There, the turtle took over and swam across to the opposite bank with the rabbit on his back, at which point, the rabbit once again took over and carried the turtle on his back. This time, they reached

the finish line together, feeling a greater sense of satisfaction than they had felt in their earlier races.

The moral of the story? It is good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you are able to work

in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you will always perform below par because there will always be situations

outside of your key competencies where you might do poorly and someone else excel.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.

To sum up, the story of the rabbit and turtle teaches us many things.

(1) Fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady;

(2) Identify your uniqueness, work to your competencies but be willing to accept challenges

(3) Pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers;

(4) Do not be over-confident and never give up when faced with failure

(5) Compete against the situation - not against a rival.

(6) Celebrate the team's success

HYMN: MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide his face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
In ev’ry high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, his covenant, his blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

When he shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in him be found;
Dressed in his righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

TIME TO RETURN

"Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations'. Joel 2:1-2

"Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?" Joel 2:12-17

The prophet sounds a trumpet calling all the people from infants to honeymooners to a solemn constructive assembly. It is time to return to God with all one's heart. Fasting, weeping and mourning are appropriate as we consider how we have strayed from God. As if to challenge our use of ashes, the prophet calls worshipers to rend the heart, not their clothing. The point is that outward rituals and actions can camouflage and hide unrepentant and deceitful hearts. Don't fool others or yourself. The prophet proclaims that such a turning around is not giving something up for Lent but discovering anew the source of life in the gracious, merciful, slow to anger, steadfast love of a blessing God

Peace be unto you

PARTNERSHIP: BUILDING OUR SANCTUARY OF WORSHIP

The Glorious Family-The English Chapel of Cherubim & Seraphim Movement, Emmanuel District is over 15 years old! All thanks and glory be to the Almighty God. In those years, we have grown steadily in number and in spirit. Our congregation has grown from 20 to 150 and our services and programs have expanded from Sunday worship, Bible study(Sunday School) & prayer meeting to include a monthly night vigil every second Friday of the month. In those years, we have seen each of our members develop in their knowledge of the Word of God and in making a living faith in Christ, a way of life.


Now we are making a request to you to please make a generous donation to our church building fund. We have a goal of N6,000,000 for buying a piece of land and thereafter building our sanctuary of worship. We believe the Holy Spirit will encourage you to consider giving us a handsome donation! We also believe that God will reward you abundantly for it.


We thank God for what we have been able to do for Christ with what we have had so far. However, we would surely be able to do far more with more space designed to our need and belonging entirely to us as a congregation.


We have several ways in which you can contribute to our Church Building Fund:  


1.  By DIRECT CREDIT form your bank account to the church building fund account

• Account name:                 THE ENGLISH CHAPEL
• BANK:                                 First Bank of Nigeria Plc
• Account Number:             2024645818
• Sort Code:                          011152303                          

2. Monthly posted cheques of any amounts you plan to contribute. We would receive the cheques and lodge it on your behalf on monthly basis
3. Collect a building project card from the Committee and monitor your remittance on weekly or monthly basis
4. Any other plan that is convenient for your that is not mentioned above


Our plan is to encourage you to make a continuous contribution throughout the year with God 

LIVING OUTSIDE NIGERIA 

Kindly contact us via church email address and we would provide you the account for your Dollar contributions.

Email: englishchapel.csmcottaroad@gmail.com

Most of all, thank you for your generous contributions to our Church Building Fund

Tel: +2348184934032

        +2348023915414

        +2348055406618

        +2348023343365