The Inner Life of the Preacher — Gbile Akanni

For giving us a space to be part of the altar. We thank you Lord that no man take a dishonor unto himself. No man could be called a servant of God just because he wanted to be. Only those that were so called as Aaron was.

Lord we do not take your calling on our lives for granted. We do not take it as a light thing. We say do you consider it a light thing? That you should be brought to serve at the altar. Lord so we want to first appreciate you this morning.

That you have extended to us the privilege of serving you. And the privilege of being called your servant. Either on the mission field or on the pastoral ministry. Where so ever Lord you have placed us we want to thank you.

And this morning Lord as your servant we have gathered. Because we recognize that every time you want to move in any land in any nation. You begin with your leaders. If I would say strike the shepherds and the flocks will be scattered.

We do ask Lord this morning. That as we spend this day together before you. You bring refreshing unto our lives. You will bring to us fresh restoration and revival. That as you help our lives. As you set us ablaze.

You might set the men under our hand. Under our ministries on fire to the glory of your name. Thank you. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you very much. Now this day has been a very precious day for me.

I know we have met some of you at various situations in years past. And I have cherished the fellowship over time. And I also want to thank the Lord for the way the Lord led our brothers and sisters to put this meeting together.

As a cry in our hearts for a deeper fellowship as we are praying for revival. As we are seeking a fresh visitation upon the church in Northern Ireland. And by extension in the Republic. By praying that today I am told that the Queen is visiting the Republic of Ireland.

For the first time in a hundred years. It's significant. But we are looking forward that just as the Queen takes a step that she has not taken for years. Our greater king will visit the land. It is his visit that we actually long for.

We long for him to come again. To come on our shores and do for us what he had been longing to do over the years. We know that if you look back at several years. God visited this land before. He walked on the streets.

Many, many lives were brought to God. And many, many walk broke out here. Several mission broke out. Several missionaries out of revival were called out of this land. And they went and poured out their lives in various parts of the world.

Part of which we are recipients back in Nigeria and several other parts of Africa. I want to thank God that God who moved then has not changed. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. He's going to move again.

The reason why we gather is because there is the promise of another visitation. There is the promise of another midnight cry. That will wake up his church before his final appearing. And we being his servants, we have a critical role to play in what God is about to do.

And this day I just wish we would be spending time together. Looking at the critical place of our ministry in bringing about revival. The critical place of the servant of God. Of God's minister in bringing about revival.

Do we have a space in what God wants to do? That's the kind of thing I'm hoping that we will spend the day. Deliberating upon and praying together. And seeking the face of God. And standing shoulder to shoulder.

Now it's clear that God wants to move among us. And he's breaking barriers in between us. And bringing us to begin to touch base one another. As men who have a common destiny in Christ Jesus. So this morning our meeting will be in three segments as he has announced.

We take this time and as the Lord may lead us after we take a coffee break. We come back before we take our lunch buffet. As the Lord has already made available for us. Now I'm going to ask us to take a bit of study this morning.

The Minister’s Inner Life and the Measure of Ministry

As I'm looking at the crucial place of the man or the woman in ministry. As far as revival is concerned. And the first segment this morning. I will be looking at the personal inner life of the minister.

The personal inner life of the man of God. And what goes on in the life of the man of God. The first issue that determines the effectiveness of his ministry. Or the effectiveness of his output. We cannot possibly give what we don't have.

Isn't it? And a man cannot go beyond what is inside of him. Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A man cannot speak beyond what is in him. And so I found that for Jesus the first priority in ministry is the man of God himself.

And we will see that as we turn to scriptures. And I'm going to want us to read two scriptures together along the line. And then we will begin to discuss. I'd like us to first read the book of Luke chapter 6 together.

And then we will take an input from the songs of Solomon. That is the cantikos. You'll find that after the Ecclesiastes. So let's start with Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6 was the peculiar meeting that the Lord Jesus had when he called his disciples aside.

And he began to speak unto them. You will see that there is a lot of similarity between Luke chapter 6 and Matthew chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7. What we call the salmon on the mount. And what is the reason for that?

I found that when Jesus Christ had called the disciples, especially the twelve. They were the people he was preparing to hand over his ministry to them. They were the people he was looking forward that they will be the bearers of the body that God lays on him.

And they were the people he was longing to commit with the mission of reaching the entire world. They were the people Jesus was longing to empower that they will carry on after he will have gone back to heaven.

And that is okay. That is God's principle. God's principle is first of all to prepare men, prepare leaders that he is going to commit his work into their hands after he will have gone. And I found that whereas Jesus spoke many, many parables to the crowd.

But when it comes to these select people, the men that he wants to focus his ministry upon, he gives them extra attention. He took them aside. He took them aside. Sometimes he would take them to a garden and they would sit down there.

Sometimes he would take them into a house and they would sit down there. Sometimes after he has dismissed the crowd, they would come and say concerning that parable that you are telling the people, what does it mean?

And he gave them extra attention. He concentrated upon them. Because leadership itself is not born. Leaders are made. Somebody may have great capacity but for him to be a leader among men, he has to be made.

And the making of leaders was what we saw Jesus concentrating his attention upon. Because he knew that the spirituality of the church can never be higher than the spirituality of the ministers. At any given point, in any place, in any local church, no church will be spiritual than the ministry they receive.

And no church, I mean no man, no minister will be able to give a ministry that is more spiritual than who himself is. So the focus, the emphasis that Jesus Christ placed on the life of those who serve him was very deliberate.

Because you won't get anything better than what the man who stands on the pulpit carries. And so if we are looking and we are longing and we are believing God for revival in the church in this nation, it's very critical that we must give attention onto the life of the men and women that are bearing the oracles of the word of God.

So I found Jesus, he did it. And because that was what was his pattern, it becomes very important that this kind of meeting, this kind of pull away a bit from the congregation, come aside, he's saying you yourself, come aside and rest a while.

This kind of meeting, this kind of retreat, this kind of leaders, come away and let's talk face to face. Let's challenge one another directly. What we cannot expect to get from the congregation. Because since several of you have gone into the ministry, you realize that you are always giving out.

You are always releasing and giving and giving and giving. And even when the congregation looks very wonderful, I have traveled so much and one of the things I have not found is to see a member of the congregation, church members, coming to confront the preacher and say, oh, how are you this morning?

How is your quiet time today? Since you have been preaching, has anybody, a member of your local church, came up to you and said, oh Sid, did you have your quiet time this morning? They will not. They believe you know what you are doing.

They believe that you are sure. If the life of the man of God gets rotting inside, he is likely not to have anybody to help him. So the reason why we need to pull aside, the reason why we need to look inwardly into our own lives, is because how can we help others unless we have helped ourselves.

So Jesus called them aside and I want us to look at Jesus reasoning with his disciples in Luke chapter 6. And I will deal with that briefly and then we move quickly onto the songs of songs and tie it together before we take our coffee break.

Verse 39, Luke 6 and verse 39 up to verse 45 is where I thought we could meditate very quickly. And he spoke a parable unto them. Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?

The disciple is not above his master. But everyone that is perfect shall be as he is. And why beholdest thou the moat that is in your brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in your own eye?

Either, how can thou say to your brother, brother let me pull out the moat that is in thy eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrites, beam out of your own eye and then shall thou see clearly to pull out the moat that is in thy brother's eye.

For a good tree bringeth forth not corrupt fruit, neither does a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil. For of the abundance of the heart is mild-spoken.

May the Lord bring in Christ to his word as we share together. Now I am not sharing this with you because you did not know. No. The Bible says iron sharpens iron. The Bible says if the iron is blunt and you did not have a way to sharpen it, then you will have to put more strength in order to cut the wood.

And you know when our own inner life gets blunt, when some savages begin to drop on our own lives that our sharpness in ministry is beginning to, you know, to wane off. We do more things. We do a lot of more effort only to get very little results.

And the only wisdom, the only wisdom is to pull apart and put that iron back into the fire for sharpening. Isn't it? You know several times when you want to mow in those days when we were using manual mowers.

After you have been cutting, you have been cutting, you have been cutting, there comes a point where you push so hard and yet the grass is not cutting. What do you do? You pull apart. You dismantle it.

You bring out the blade. You clean it up. And sometimes you sharpen it. And then you put it in again and your work goes smoothly. It's only a foolish man that keeps pressing on with an iron edge that is already blunt.

You will have much blister palms for not achieving much. So I wish to submit to you this morning that it's only wisdom for any of us who wants to succeed with God to pull apart and say, Lord sharpen me again.

Sharpen my implements. I have been running for a long while. I'm preaching but I'm no more seeing responses. I am speaking but nothing seriously is happening. Lord sharpen me again. What is it that has blocked my shaft that is not making me sharp again?

So I believe that as we look at this, it may look direct, it may look confrontational, but I want you to know that where else are we going to be confronted? We are the people that stand confronting people with the word of God all the time.

Where do we get confronted ourselves? Where do we get our own sharpening? Where do we get God to sharpen us afresh? So that when we stand up again, we will be that sharp threshing instrument that God has promised us to be.

So I see Jesus calling his disciples. These were men, these were leaders. These were people that he wanted to use for his glory. And he asked them two questions. Very, very critical questions. Let's please examine that question very quickly.

Blind Leaders and the Necessity of Self-Examination

He said, can the blind lead the blind? What a question. Jesus said, I said Jesus did not mind if the people we are leading are blind. It's not a problem for the led to be blind. But it's criminal for the leader to be blind.

Isn't it? It is not a problem if the led, those that have submitted to our leadership, if they were blind, their blindness actually is the reason why they need leadership. Isn't it? You need leadership because you don't know where to go.

But when a man who elects to be a leader, himself has a blind eye, and he cannot see, what is he planning for those that he is leading? Jesus said, we did not fall into the ditch. And that's the, that's how, it's a problem.

It's a problem that if a man is blind, and he does not have a leader, at least he knows that, look, I can't see. And he might be begging about, he might need a stick to be doing like this. But when somebody walks across to him and says, oh, oh, don't worry, don't worry, follow me.

I will lead you to where you are going. I know you can't see, but I see very well. Only for that man, himself, to be a blind man. Will he not have endangered the life of those whom he has decided to lead?

So I found that Jesus considered it a very critical issue that those of us who stand in leadership, those of us who minister to the people of God, something must be right with us. Our own eyes must not be blind.

Now he went on and said, do you know that the disciple is not above his master, but everyone that is perfect shall be as his master. Now that makes me a bit afraid. That the disciple is not above his master, but that when a disciple is perfect, and I'm telling you, how many of our church members will be actually perfect?

When he is perfect, when he has been fully trained, he can only be like his master. So what am I discovering? I'm discovering that no matter how church members make effort, the highest standard they can rise to is the standard of the minister.

So which means that every time God is looking for the highest measurement in the congregation, it can never be higher than the height of the man of God. So can you imagine that what we are talking about is this, that no matter how people are working hard and praying, you already set the limit to which they can grow.

If the leader himself is a dwarf, all the people under him, what would they become? They would be shorter dwarfs. Because they can't grow taller than him, unless he is no more their leader. So two questions that Jesus confronted his disciples with, and I wanted to suggest to you that this was not in the multitude.

He called them aside. Because you will notice that as he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, he was talking to them. He actually took them to a place like where we are now. Even if me and you decided to weep and roll on the ground before God, our church members are not here.

We are free to do that. We are free to cry out and say, Oh God, look at where I am. Please send help to my life. We are free to do that. So he now raised other questions. And these questions he raised, to me, they are critical.

In verse 41, let's quickly look at verse 41 and 42, there are questions that he was raising. In 41 he said, And why? Why beholdest thou the mote that is in your brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Why? You see the first question is why? You see when you use the word why, it says, what's your rationale? What's your morality? To want to look into someone's life, when you have not dealt with a big log that is in your own eyes.

You don't have any right to do that. And I'm hearing God say, I have no right to preach to anybody, when the issues I want to confront with them, is also resident in my life, and I'm not dealing with it.

That I have no basis. I am not justified to stand up and confront people, and say, let me help you remove the mote in your eyes. When back in my own life, back inside my life, there are issues, logs, logs, that I have refused to handle.

It's not right. How many men are on the pulpit today, who sincerely the Holy Spirit is querying them to say, why is this man on the pulpit? Why is this man preaching today? Why? Why? Why is he standing there?

Has he dealt with his own life? Has he extracted the logs in his own eyes? What gives him that audacity to stand up preaching? I found that many people are zealous. Many people are zealous, but Jesus is asking, why are you on the pulpit?

And I found for me as a person, that sometimes people may not know. Church members are generally blind, and they are ignorant, but their Lord, the owner of the sheep himself, is asking questions. Why?

Why are you doing this? Why? Why? Why are you doing that? That's the first question. The second question he asked was in verse 42. He said, Ida, how can you say to your brother, brother, let me pull out the moat that is in thy eye, when thou that said, behold there is not a being that is in thine own eye?

How will you do it? That's the second. The first question is, why? But even if you refuse to answer the why, how will you do it? How will you do it? How will you say it? How will you preach it? How will you present it?

I realize, that for a man to be able to speak, that which is not happening in his life, he must be a perfected hypocrite. He must be someone who has learned to share his own conscience with hot iron. He must be a man that has become a great dramatist who comes on the poopy only to dramatize and to wear a cloak because it is not compatible.

If my inner life is contrary to what my mouth is saying, it's not compatible. It's not correct. And Jesus said, how will you do it? So I saw a priority that Jesus Christ was emphasizing in that verse.

He said, thou hypocrite. If you read verse 42, you will see the word, first. And the word, first. Am I correct? First thing, first. What's the first thing for us as ministers? Our own lives. Before we prepare another message, my own life first.

That is in your own eye. You see, the word of God is very clear and very simple. First and then. You see, the word then is a preposition and of order. You cannot do this before you do this. This comes first, then you can do this.

It looks as if even though ministry is urgent, something is more urgent. What is more urgent? Our own lives. That's the beam that is in your own eyes. And I saw why we must do that. And then, shall thou see clearly.

It looks as if we will not have clarity of ministry, clarity of utterance, clarity of discernment, and clarity of spiritual authority to deal with men if there is no clarity in our own lives. Utterance does not come basically because you read widely.

A powerful penetrating utterance does not come because you studied so many books and commentaries. Clarity of utterance is a direct function of the clarity of a man's life. Even if a stammerer comes to speak and he could not utter three sentences in ten minutes because he is a stammerer.

But if his inner life does not stammer, the three sentences he makes in ten minutes will penetrate the heart of people. That the eloquent man who can put one hundred sentences in ten minutes but with a life that is muddled up.

We must pray together with ourselves. We must look inward. We must say, Lord, what is it that is not making my message clear? What is it that is not allowing my utterance to be sharp? What is it that is not letting me penetrate into people's lives?

Lord, what is it? I'm not ashamed and I'm not too proud for you to sort me out. For if God cannot sort out his servant, who else will do it? If we have become so conscious of our status, of our position, of our place, of our title, to the extent that even God, who employed us, who brought us into the ministry, is not able to sort us out.

Don't you think we are a problem? So this morning, God brought us together because I feel that he hasn't finished with your ministry. I believe that you are critical and crucial in what God wants to do in Northern Ireland.

And you see, several of you are sitting here. Some of you still have other pastors under your hand that God is depending on you to instruct. Some of you, by the grace of God, you are making input into Bible colleges where we are raising other ministers.

Oh, if we are not clear, can we raise other preachers who will be clear? Do you not know that every preacher you see is a product of those who made him? So we must be praying this morning and say, God, if this is a priority, please shuffle me.

Please shuffle me one more time. Now, the last point in this passage that makes again fearful to me, you know, when I read Jesus, I say, Lord Jesus, is this the kind of thing you placed before those whom you called?

Is this the kind of demand you placed upon those you want to use? He came to another matter here, and the matter is very quick. He said, for a good tree, bring it not forth corrupt fruit. Neither does a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Every tree is known by its own fruit, for of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bamboo bush gather they graves. I was wondering, what does that mean? Servants of God, please permit me to explain what I have come to, you know, with serious trembling, I've come to discover.

I discovered that Jesus is saying, nobody can gather figs from bamboo bush. A tree cannot produce a good fruit. And I said, Lord, what does that mean? He said, yes, that's what it means. What it means that every time I stand up to preach, regardless of the Bible passages I'm quoting and the way I'm talking, the only thing people can gather from my life is what I am.

Nobody can gather figs from thorns. He now goes on to say, oh, so what a man can release into the body of Christ is not empty words. It is life. So it means every time a man stands up to preach, what he is pushing out, actually, is pushing out his life.

And that's what will be settling upon the congregation. That's what they will be collecting from him. They won't collect anything else. If an arrogant man, and an arrogant man is internally arrogant, when he comes to preach an eloquent sermon on humility, excuse me, what will the church members collect from his message?

They will only collect arrogance. Even though he preaches on humility, they will not see humility to collect. Because a man can only release what he is. So it becomes critical that for every man that stands on the pulpit, we need to keep checking of what kind of life does he carry.

Of what species of a man or a woman is she. Does he have a life that we want to spread in this congregation? Does he have a character that God himself wants to export onto his church? Forget about his mouth.

Forget about his eloquence. Forget about his education. Forget about his charisma. Forget about his courage. Forget about his presentation. The basic question is who is this man? And what can we collect from him?

Now that goes back to checking. What quality of life do we carry? What inside life do we carry? Is it the life that Jesus Christ himself had already sanctified? Has he made this tree a good tree? Or there is internal corruption but dressed up with clerical garments.

Is there internal deficiency but that is wrapped, wrapped in good garments of ministry? God will have us. Not only for our sake. Now this is why we need to talk. If you are only living your life by yourself and you are not leading anybody and you are not speaking to anybody and you are not pushing life into any other, it's okay.

But now you have agreed to be a leader. You have agreed to be a minister of the gospel. You have agreed to be on the pulpit. You have agreed to touch the things of God. Even if you do not love yourself enough as to make your life right, why do we endanger those who hear us?

Why do we endanger those who listen to us? Why do we jeopardize the capacity of those that God has gathered around us? This is why it is crucial. That's why even if you don't feel like praying, I want you to hear the voice of our members.

They are crying, they are saying, God help our pastor so that we can collect the right thing from his life. Help our ministers, help our elders so that they can give us what will take us to heaven. They are crying.

Some of our young people, they are disappointed and they have gone everywhere learning jumps. Are we going to pray and say, Lord, make me a good man. And when I use the word good man, I am not talking about natural goodness.

Because the Bible says, no man is good. The only goodness that is good enough for the kingdom of God is that which Jesus Christ has wrought in us. If it is not Christ's life, you know, beaming out of our lives and character is not good enough.

It's not good enough. Our natural morality, as wonderful as it may appear, is bankrupt. All our righteousness, it's like feed the rats before him. I want us to pray together on that and say, Lord, make me a right man for your people.

Dig into my secret life and please cleanse me. Please cleanse me. Please cleanse me. Now, I like us to conclude for this segment before we take our break by looking at the songs of songs. The cry of another shepherd.

The Minister’s Neglected Vineyard

Another shepherd cried in the songs of Solomon or what they call Canticus. Songs of Solomon. And I just want to read chapter 1. Chapter 1. And I'd like to read verse 4, verse 5, verse 6 and 7 up to verse 8 of A Shepherd.

What I thought should become our prayer as we conclude for this segment of our meeting. Draw me. Draw me. We will run after you. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in thee.

We will remember thy love more than wine. The upright love thee. I am black, but comely. All you daughters of Jerusalem as the tents of Cedar and as the curtains of Solomon. Verse 6. Look not upon me.

I am black. Because the sun has looked upon me. My mother's children were angry with me. They made me the keeper of the vineyards. But my own vineyard have I not kept. Tell me, O thou whom my soul loves, where thou feedest and where thou makest your flock to rest at noon?

For why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? And the answer came, If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go your way forth by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.

Now, what's the crying? There are two issues that are jumping up. I would have loved to start reading from verse 4. But I felt the cry was coming out of a need. The cry of this man is coming out of a need.

What was the need? The need was put to us in verse 6. Let's look at that verse 6. It says, Look not upon me. Because I am black. Because the sun has looked upon me. Now, newer version. Instead of you saying, The sun has looked upon me.

They said, The sun has tanned me. You know what they mean by tan? T-A-N. You are the only people that can understand that. As an African, there is no amount of sun that will beat me that I will know.

But whenever you go out to Africa, and you are under the open sun, do you notice that before you return, something has changed about your color? Isn't it? You have been tanned. You have become a little more brownish.

And everybody will see and say, What has happened to you? What has happened to you? You say, I am just back from Africa. Because the sun has looked upon you. Now, but you know what makes it so? Because most of the time, the sun is overhead.

There is no cover. We are walking under open sun throughout, for 12 months. We don't have winter. All we know is, the sun shines all year round. Now, this man said, for me, because I am black. Because the sun has beaten me so much, I am now tanned.

I am now dark. I am no more as bright as I used to be. Because the sun has overbeaten me. And what was the reason? Look at his reason, and it is a very important reason that I felt, me and you should take note about before we pray.

He said, my mother's children, they were angry with me. They made me the keeper of the vineyards. But my own vineyard, have I not kept? How many of us are in that danger? We are busy to keep the organization running.

We are busy to keep the ministry moving. We are busy to make sure that we officiate everything. Your own inside, your own inner man, you have not kept. But the trouble is this, when you now become dark, when dark spots begin now to appear in your character, in your family life, when our children begin now to show signs of rebellion, do you know what I have always discovered?

I again discovered it is the same church that you are serving, that will stand there and say, well, he is not serious. Let him go. I have found that when many, many ministers who have worked hard, when they become fracked out, when they become exhausted, when they become emptied, when grace has disappeared from their lives, the church is not compassionate about them.

They are thrown out as if they are useless. The danger of not taking care of our own visions. The danger of neglecting our own inner life. The danger of letting the ministry override our own personal intake.

The danger of being available to everybody and becoming unavailable to our own hearts. It is a terrible danger. And this man cried. Let me share with you what was his cry, because I am hoping that that could be our own cry as we pray together this morning.

Drawing Near to God and Receiving Personal Instruction

The first thing he said, Draw me. Draw me. Draw me, Lord. We have that song we keep singing, Draw me nearer. Draw me. Another version, a simpler version, I use the word, Elope with me. It's as if God does not snatch us to take us to a place where He could take care of our souls, we will never have peace.

It's as if God does not do something deliberate to take us out. There will always be need that will not let you take care of your own inner life. Draw me. That's the first prayer. Lord, draw me. Draw me.

Draw me in. Take me into your chamber. Take me inside. Please draw me. Draw me. Take me in. Take me to where you can help my soul. Take me to where you can deliver me from my own personal struggle. Draw me.

The second question, the second matter of prayer, and I want you to note that in verse 7, He has used the word, Draw me. Then the second word is, Tell me. Tell me. Do you know that as servants of God, we teach others, but many, many servants of God are unteachable.

Several servants of God, they cannot endure some teaching anymore. In fact, when they go for meetings, I don't know whether it happens here, but in Africa, when many people go for meeting and they are already preachers, they are not there to listen for their lives.

They are more concerned about how to get more sermon notes. So as they are hearing, they say, OK, that would be a good sermon for next week. That would be a good sermon for next month. Even when they are supposed to receive from God, they are only receiving from people.

They are not. So they are your personal quiet time where you should have soak in and be helped and be blessed. You could still fall into the mistake of using your private quiet time to prepare sermons.

It's the danger we all fall into. The danger of what will I present to people, rather than how will I present myself to God. That's the first thing. Draw me. And if God doesn't draw us, we are already entangled.