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So let me take this opportunity and just say today's message is going to be a message that is going to be for somebody. Who just wanted to give up, who just wanted to quit. Somebody who just felt like life become too much. The message is for somebody who I can say that whenever they come to certain things, maybe comes to workplaces, comes to their marriage, comes to relationships, comes to school, is the person that just felt like, no, I'm tired. I can't take it anymore. The person who is so close to being so tired that they just wanted to pack up and leave, walk away. The one who has been holding on for so long and they have been forgotten why they kept on holding on. And quitting feels like it's more of a relief to quit than to keep on keeping on. the person whose business, whose marriage even their calling when God called them this person you know the ones that has been recovered from drug abuse and just wanted to give up as they were just about to go this is the message for you the one is hard. It's like a stretch from breakthrough. And they wanted to stop. This is who the message is for today. The one being mocked, you know, those ones, just give up, man. It's not working. Can't you see? It's not worth it. Can't you see? Come down. Leave that thing. They mock you in saying to you, Ish, bruh, you broke your leg twice and you still want to play soccer again. Just give up, man. You know the belief who feels like God has gone quiet like you know that time where you feel you are in the desert there no noise there no crowd there not even quietness You just feel like you want to give up. this is for anybody who felt like this before. They say it quietly, like literally in a crying, quiet voice. I can't take this anymore. You know that voice that is just can't take it anymore. It's like in a Hannah's voice murmuring. I can't take the mockery anymore. This is who the message is for. We quite rank before the breakthrough. Because the hardest part is always the closest to the finish. This is the person I'm talking to. Because when you're looking at it, it's exactly where it feels more pointless to go on. It's like literally, sometimes you get to that point where you feel like, uh-uh, can't take it anymore. That voice you're listening to, it says, calm down, man. Just give up. You know that voice that say, take it easy. Just leave it. Like, it sounds like wisdom at that time when they say to you, can't you see you are tired? Just leave it. That time you are also like, yes, and I have been tired. I have been feeling like, yo, I can't take it anymore. And at that time is the person speaking to you, that voice that's saying to you. It doesn't just speak to your ears. It speaks to the inner being of you giving up. And you say, this guy is talking the truth now. I might as well just give up. I might as well just give up the world says if this is hard it not meant to be for you Quit and find something else. It's not necessary for you to go through this kind of hardship to get to where you want to be. Just quit. And you know what the mind does? the mind listen to the easy way out. There's always a place where there's an easier way out. And that's when you start quitting. Now, Israel was almost free. Almost there. Kept wanting to quit and go back to Egypt. They like literally every day they were murmuring, But God, we are hungry. Quail. Ah, there we eat. God, we are hungry. Mana. There we eat. But they kept on saying, it's better to go back than to stay in this. Let us make a captain and let us return into Egypt. This, according to Numbers 14 verse 4, they wanted to put one step from the promise. this is the person I'm speaking to today this is the message who this is for today Adam and Eve when it got hard they quit on the command they were given they were given a command and they quit on that command they did not endure the test they took the shortcut eat it that is according to Genesis 3 verse 16 quitting under pressure is the oldest failure you can find quitting under pressure is the oldest failure you can find the moment the job becomes harder it's the moment that a next path comes your way and yet you're quitting Now I want us to go to Matthew 27 verse 39 Let us read Matthew 27 verse 39 And they had passed by refiled him wagging their heads and saying Thou that destroyeth the temple and buildeth it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise, also the chief priest mocking him with the scribes and elders said he saved others. Himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. Imagine. Imagine. Matthew 27 verse 50 says the following. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielding up the ghost. Hielding up the ghost. John 19 verse 30. John 19 verse 30 says the following. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. He bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Now we read the cross as something that was done to Jesus. He was a victim. Nailed there helpless. That is what we read. we're seeing this as oh the poor guy they've been literally literally giving it to him but the problem is what we don't understand is that he was not helpless how can the commander of all commanders cannot command himself to come off from that from that cross do you really think that it could have been because of how he was fastened on there he couldn't get himself off from there do you really think If that's the case, because if you think that's the case, I can tell you now, he said he could call 12 legions of angels. 12 legions of angels. He could have come down at any second. And the worst part of it is the crowd dared him to. They dared him to come down. they dared him to say if you come down we will believe yet he did not come down yet he kept hanging yet he kept hanging he did not stay on the cross because he could not get off he couldn't get off you have it wrong my friend he could have gotten off there he stayed because if he came down to save himself, he could not save you. Because it's for the same reason why he had to hang on the cross to save you. The same reason why he had nailed, pierced into his hands and his feet a crown of thorns around his head. It's for the same reason he kept staying there. He kept keeping on is to save you. If it wasn't for that act, we wouldn't have known Christianity today. If it wasn't for that kind of thing, this is not a story about a man who could not escape. This is not a story about a man who was trapped and couldn't save himself. No. it's a story about the man who could have quit at any moment and choose to finish it for your sake choose to finish it for your sake if you go to the word that is it says it is finished this is now the Greek word it's tetelestai tetelestai Tetelestai it was a word they wrote across a bill that has been paid in full It is a bill that has been paid in full It paid and it was settled and it was complete Paid, settled and complete. It was a word for a finished work. Tetelestai. He did not say, I am finished, like a man that gave up. He could have said, I am finished, I'm done, I'm done, I'm finished. Whatever the word could have been used at that time. But he said it differently. He said it is finished. why not say I am finished he said it is finished for somebody who is about to die it sounds best to say I am finished for somebody who is who is about to give up his ghost who is about to give up his spirit he would have said I am finished but yet he used the word it is finished now my question to you is at what time do you get to a point where you feel like i am finished and not what comes to you is finished because the things that come to you doesn't finish you come on let's let's talk about the things that you went through Has it finished you? Or were they finished? Let's talk about testimony. You took, this is now my wife I'm speaking to. She took a board or something from a top drawer and the board that fell was this Chevron board that the trucks are having on top. that board thing or that chevron thing fall on her just centi not centimeters millimeters from her pulse And it cut her whole tendon open That could have been her finished line. But she was not finished. The thing that tried to kill her was finished. when you're looking at it if you go if you go to the photos and you can see that big part of a of a tendon was big picture that so close to her pulse she could have bled herself to death because if you cut here there's no stopping the breathing she went through it now my question to you is if somebody who stood on a cross that could command a legion of angels to take him down why didn't he because he was not the finished one but it was the finish. In certain things in your life it's time for you to understand that there's a difference between you being finished and it being finished. The mockers will tell you to come down. People will tell you you might as well just give up. Come down and we will believe you. The loudest voices at the hardest moment told him to quit like they always do. They keep on saying to you, Nehman, just leave that guy. Just leave that girl. That girl has been giving you all the hassles. Why not just leave her? Some people even told you, but how many times did you fail this great? Can't you just leave it? Just give up and go and do something else. Yet the grades is finished, but yet you're not finished. I need you to understand something that sometimes when you get to a cross route where there a part to choose and one of the paths is to give up and one is to say let me go and keep on going on The best part will always be the one that keep on keeping on. I'm looking at some people who went through financial difficulties so much that they wanted to commit suicide because of financial constraint. what if I can tell you now the moment you thought that it was finished it could have been the time where somebody could have bought you a lottery ticket. And I'm not talking about a physical lottery ticket but a ticket out of your misery. I'm reminded of myself I was always saying even though I didn't have a job. I would do any kind of job as long as I get some sort of a salary. I went to work for a company that paid me 6,000 rent a month. After the deductions, it's just about 4,000 rent. And that was the rates and taxes of the house. 4,000 rent was what I had to pay on only rates and taxes. I could have given up on that 4,000 rent because it's not necessary for me to have that money when you have the 4,000 rent and it only goes away towards rates, taxes and water and lights, those kind of things. Imagine. I would have given up at that time. But yet I constantly went to work. I constantly went to work. Even if I felt like today I want to take a sick day off. I went to work. Knowing that the salary is downgrading me. The salary, it felt like it's almost like it's a hassle. It's like Jesus that felt like Jesus that was taken to the slaughter room, a lamp that was taken to be slaughtered. That's how I felt when I went to work. But I didn't give up. I want to tell you a story about suffering. somebody that went through the same thing and i would like you to to to listen to this story it was in the year 1996 five months before the olympics a south african guy by the name of josiah Tugwane. If I'm saying it incorrectly, forgive me, but it sounds like Tugwane. It's T-H-U-G-W-A-N-E. T-H-U. It's like Thugwane. So it's Tugwane. Now, Tugwane was hijacked five months before the Olympics. Now, picture this five months before the Olympics being hijacked, the gun went off and a bullet cut across his chin. He hurt his back jumping from the moving car. He had every reason to stop running. Instead, he healed, trained and got on the plane to Atlanta. In the marathon, he break away at 35 kilometers and won by three seconds. Olympics won by three seconds. The closest Olympic marathon finish in history. And it became the first black South African to win an Olympic gold medal. The scar was still on his chin when they hang the medal on him. if he had quit nobody would have blamed him because how can you not quit if you just got hijacked how can you not quit if you just hurt your back how can you still even run after your back was was not fine that would have been a story that stopped there But as he did not quit, that is why the story can be said the same time today. Nobody would have been lifted by that story Nobody would have been knowing about Josiah Tugane But because Josiah Tugane did not give up five months before the Olympics, he won a gold medal. The mockers were telling Jesus to come down, and yet he did not. some people probably have told Josiah hey brah no no no I don't think you will be able to make it yet he went forth if you're looking at Jesus now he stayed because coming down would have cost you everything if he would have told the angels the legions of angels come on, take me down from here. What story would there have been? It wouldn't have saved you the way it saved you today. You wouldn't have had, you can almost say, you wouldn't have had the whole forgiveness of sins. He died for your sins. If Jesus would have come down from there, it would have cost you more than what it would have cost him. Being the man that he was, being the son of God that he was at that time, he could have just said, my God, which is his father. Come on. These guys are mocking me. Can't you see? Do something about it. He could have said it. but yet he left it so that you can have the glory in that story I want you to understand he could have saved himself by quitting but he could have if he would have saved himself by quitting at that time he couldn't have saved you if he quoted he wouldn't have been able to save you He chose you over himself. So some of the things that we do I remember there was a time we don have enough food and I would hear my wife says no I not hungry You all can have it At that time I know she hadn been eating for the whole day But yet she gave her all for her family. Knowing that I'm hungry, but I can stay another night without food, as long as my family doesn't go without food. sometimes we quit doing things to save others in the moment if we didn't do it we wouldn't have saved them i would understand sometimes we feel like certain things is is is not to our advantage because every time whenever the your your father is telling you or your mother is telling you not to do some things. You feel like it's a direct attack on you. But yet, they're just trying to save you from yourself. If it wasn't for my mother, that saved me at the time when I was in matric and having a baby coming to me. This guy was born in 1996, which was the 16th of July, he was born and I was writing my matric exams at the time. And when he was born, I wanted to quit. Thank you for a mother that said, no, don't quit now. I finished my matric. That same year in November, I wrote my last paper. and the nicest part of it is I got a certificate that shows that I was the best woodwork student in the whole standard team metric grade 12 like you call it today if I would have given up I wouldn't have gotten that certificate these are just things that I'm trying to tell you why it is best not to give up as yet. Don't give up as yet Just try one more day Do you know psychology is telling you that the more things you win the more you can win The more things you lose the more you will lose Although psychology says it like that, the Bible have a word for it. For those who are given, more will be given. And some of these things that we think it's a psychology thing. It's things that comes out of the Bible, but they're just making it look nice. I want you to take your Bible, open it up on Hebrews 12 verse 2. Sometimes you must understand that the reason you cannot quit is because there's something bigger than you. Hebrews 12 verse 2 says, Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and it is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Scripture in Galatians 6 verse 9 says, And let us not be weary in well-doing, for the season, I mean for in due season, we shall reap if we faint not. Galatians 6 verse 9. Imagine. And sometimes we want to give up. Just as the breakthrough was about to happen, we gave up. And I must tell you, if you would have given up a long time ago, let me make an example of myself I almost make an example of you Bishop but let me make an example of myself if this wife was quitting on me 16 years ago no Levin no Leighton no Lechet would have been here today because she had all the reasons to put on me. She had all the reasons to put on me because this guy, starting off an time you speak to him, he barks like a dog. She could have quitted on me. And yet she didn't, because there was a greater cause than what was between the two of us. I need you to understand that. There was a time where I felt like this ministry is taking too much toll on me. I wanted to leave and just say, guys, let us call it quits. Let's leave it and just let everybody just go and serve somewhere else. I tell you, I was at a point of saying, ah, this is too hard. I could have used my ways in another place. Yet, I kept on keeping on. If only you can know those nights when I went through. It's like Satan is telling me a lot of nonsense. You calling yourself a man of God. Imagine. I could have given up. Yet I'm standing here today before you. Telling you today how good God is. Yet I was the one that almost quit. don't think that me standing here I'm a super human being no I'm just human just as you I sometimes get angry I sometimes feel offended I sometimes feel like you don't even worry I do feel those things don't get me wrong being a man of God doesn't mean that as we are standing, we are perfect. If we would have been perfect, I would have been the one that was on that cross. I would have died for your sins. But yet I'm not perfect. That is why I was not there. That is why I was not hanged on the cross. So please forgive me. I'm not. There a word that is tetelestai That means it is finished But can I tell you it says it is finished It doesn't say I am finished. And that's the reason why it says I am finished. It's a word that only got earned by not quitting. it gets earned by not quitting if I can tell you now how many times I would have given up I took a blunt knife tried to cut my balls this piles of mine when I was younger I tried to cut it for what? for a woman for a girl in fact because she was not yet a woman at that time. Because I felt like I hurt the girl too much. I need to kill myself to make me feel better. And I thank God that that knife was so blunt. It was like it didn't. That knife was useless. If I thought I was useless at that time, that knife was more useless than me. I would have killed myself and I wouldn't have stand here today but I've earned the part to say that it was finished it is finished only gets said by the one who did not come down from his cross who took up his cross and hanged himself on the cross that person that didn't give up he kept on keeping on he can say it is finished if you feel like today there's something or some place that you felt like I almost gave up keep keeping on because the moment you keep keeping on you can say it is finished and you can look back Did I just survive that? I wouldn't have survived it. But I survived it Breakthrough only belongs to the ones that break through their situations The one that break through that pain. The one that break through that, you know, that, Hi man, you might as well just give up. Break through that words of Satan telling you you are useless. Break through that word. How can you call yourself a man of God while you don't even have anybody serving under you? Break through those words. The moment you break through those words, your breakthrough is about to go. If you think the reward is not for the one who felt like quitting, it's the least that you can do is for the one who did not quit. Amen. The reward is for the one who did not quit. I told you the story about Josiah Tungwani. 1996 Olympics. Five months before the time he got shot right through the chin. Five months before the time he hurt his back. While he was running off from the, I mean, jumping off the moving car. five months after that, he won the Olympics. South African guy. I'm proud of him. Because healing doesn't happen easily in five months. Ask my son. My son will tell you, it's a struggle. When he broke his tibia, and the worst part of it is The tibia isn't broken off that they could screw on it. It's broken in a different section. Like it's a long break, but surrounding the whole tibia. It was a tough one. Some of the things that we go through is because we can afterwards say, Hey, it's finished. It's finished. You are tired and you just want a quit and you are probably closer to the finish than what you feel The voices that are screaming you to come down. Jesus heard it. The same voices. And yet he stayed. if he didn't stay on that cross he wouldn't have saved us this is a principle I can tell you that worked for us if you remember our series you can go on YouTube and you will find on our FGI channel all the series that we have talked about If you start from number one and go up to today, we are on number 14, I think. Let me just make sure. Yeah, on principle number 14. So if you listen from principle number one to number 14, when you just want to quit, that is the one of today. You would see we have come a long way on the year of action. principle number one come closer even when you feel too far gone to be touched that was preached in the month of june 14th of june the leper if you can remember principle number two show up yourself do not just pay the bills that was the father that just paid the bills but didn't show up on our father's day message release what was never yours to carry principle number three principle number four take the root to god not the symptom sometimes we we say god give me money but you've but you forget money can be used in one day if you say god give me the resources to make the money daily that's a different prayer because the prayer of a symptom of getting the money it's not the prayer of the symptom of saying god give me resources that every day the money can flow from. Take the first action before you feel ready. Some of us feel ready only when we think we have it all together. Bless the little you have and start with it. Some of us think that we need to have a lot before we can start. Step out and own the thing you are hiding, and you will stand. Number seven, principle number eight, pull away to the secret place and get refilled or refueled. And this is the one that I felt like the past two months, I felt like I needed to step away to get refilled. If you go to principle number nine, press through and reach for him in the crowd, press through the crowd. Then principle number 10, turn the feelings into action. not just the post. Don't just post on Facebook. Oh, my glory day. Go and make that glorious day. Principle number 11, pick up a towel. It's the biggest people that are the ones who serve. That is how God, how Jesus was serving his people the day before he was about to die. He picked up a towel That is what we need to do is to start serving Principle number 12 confront the wrong things that you kept tolerating Some of the things that people are tramping on your toes and you feel like ah it just my No, no, no. Refuse to tell it. Like Jesus refused that somebody must come and take inside the church, have something to sell there. It is just wrong. If it goes against the whole being of you, why still stuck and stay in it? Principle number 13, take the step you have been ready. Take that first step. Take that first step. Don't wait and wait until it's too late. the thing that you wanted to put on, name it. The one you probably closer to the finish line name it Next week what about when we already feel too late When the thing is dead and buried the dream is gone. The door is shut and everyone has moved on. So I'm going to take you to a seal tomb with a stone no one could even move on the morning when it all looked finished, what happened at dawn? If you think it's too late for you, you cannot miss this one. That is the message for next week. You cannot miss this one. Today I want to pray, Lord Jesus, that each and every one under the sound of my voice, wherever you are, I pray for you. And I ask God to just let you take one more step towards your glory for his glory I want to ask this even this morning that God will take you And just tell you that as Satan has been giving you the wrong information, it was because he wanted you to quit. But I'm asking today in the mighty name of Jesus that God will close your ears not to hear what Satan is saying. and only open your ears to hear what the promise of God is in the mighty name of Jesus so that you can keep keeping on in the mighty name of Jesus. My prayer today is also, Lord Jesus, that as we go out this week, let this week be a week that will show us we have not quit. And therefore, the glory that is upon us is for your glory. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. We pray. Amen and amen. Now let us share the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
