Life Is A Journey - 50th Birthday Anniversary Sermon

LIFE IS A JOURNEY – PASTOR AKINSANYA ADUBI

TEXT: EXODUS 40:34-38

34Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 36And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: 37But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. 38For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

My prayer is that God will guide you in all your journeys in Jesus name.

I have discovered that different people see this life from different perspectives, thus we handled and treat it differently. The way you see this life is the way you are likely to take, handle and treat it.

For example, some see this life as WAR or A BATTLE GROUND. For people like that you see them fighting forever, and living their lives as fighters. For such people, they fight for husbands, fight for wives, fight for children, fight for money, and even they fight for God. When they sing, they sing war, when they read they read war, when they pray they pray war and when they preach they preach war. That is the perspective from which they see this life. The thing about it is that at the end of their lives, they wonder whether they have actually won or lost. One musician said he did not realize early enough that the this world is a battle zone, he would have prepared when he was young, he would have brought to this world bows and arrows, machetes, a gun with two shooting outlets is called double barrel, but he said he would have armed himself with a gun with six shooting outlets, (I do not know what they call that type of gun). My prayer is that you will not be a loser in Jesus name.

Some see this life as a competition, and competition also is about winning, who comes first, who is the best. In Olympics, they say that the spirit of Olympics is to participate and not to win. However, you will agree with me that, that is just on papers. Up till today they are still cancelling, the results of competitions held twenty years ago if they discover that someone cheated. Some results of several years are still being debated up till now. So the spirit is to win. This means that there is tendency to cheat when you see yourself loosing. We see people like Ben Johnson taking drugs for enhancement, Mike Tyson, biting opponent ears. The same in politics, the spirit of competition leads to killing, cheating, embezzlements, and unfortunately and sad as it is, it has affected the church. Churches are supposed to complement each other, however the church today is about competition, which is the biggest, which is the largest? May God deliver us in Jesus name. The situation with people who see life as a completion is that at the end of their lives, they wonder in which position I am?

I can go on and on about how people see and treat this life. Some see this life as an expectation, so they wonder at the end of their lives; whether they meet up with usually unattainable goals they set for themselves, so they are either happy or disappointed. Some see it as a drama, at the end; they wonder whether their life is a comedy or tragedy. Some see it as a market place, to buy and sell, and they wonder at the end whether they have made profits or losses. Some see it as a restaurant, to eat, to drink and die. Some see it as a joke, and wonder whether it is funny or not. And some see it as nothing.

I do not know how you see this world and honestly God did not instruct me to convince anybody that life is like this. This message is not to change your perspective either about what you believe this world is? As I said earlier, God did not tell me to do that. And secondly, I do not want to cause any unnecessary arguments, however, I know and I am sure that whatever and whichever you take this life and how you treat it, one day you will give accounts.

I want to see, take and treat this life as a journey. A journey is simply a movement from one place to another. Jesus said in John 16:28 that “28I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.