In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of the personal inner life of a minister in bringing about revival. He highlights how Jesus took extra attention to prepare his disciples for ministry, often taking them aside to teach them. The speaker emphasizes that God wants to move among his people and break down barriers between them. He also emphasizes that a minister cannot give what they do not have, and therefore, it is crucial for ministers to prioritize their own spiritual growth and relationship with God. The speaker references Luke 6 and the book of Canticles to support his points.

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. Wherever 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 man 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 have met some of you at various situations and 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. They are seeking a fresh visitation upon the church in Northern Ireland and by extension in the republic by praying that today I'm told that the queen is visiting just as the queen take and do for us what he had been longing to do. We know that if you look back at several years God visited many many lives who are missionaries out of revival in various parts of the world. We are recipients back in Nigeria. Thank God that God who moved yesterday today the reason why we gather is because the promise of another midnight cry and we being his servants we have a critical role to play in what God is and this day I just wish we will be spending time together looking at the critical place of our ministry in bringing about revival the critical place of of God's minister in bringing about. Do we have a space in what we spend the day deliberating upon and praying together shoulder to shoulder. Now it's clear that God to begin to touch base one another as men who have a common. So this morning our meeting will be in three segments as may lead us after we take a coffee our lunch buffet as the Lord. Now I'm going to take a bit of study crucial place in ministry in our life personal in our life what goes on in the life of the man of God first issue of his ministry or the effectiveness of his 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'll 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'll begin to discourse. I'd like us to first read the book of Luke chapter six together and then we'll take an input from the songs of Solomon that is the canticles you'll find that after the ecclesiastes so but let's start with Luke chapter six. Luke chapter six 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's a lot of similarity between Luke chapter six and Matthew chapter five chapter six chapter seven what we call the salmon on the now 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 this select people the man 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 sometime after he has dismissed the crowd they will 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 here 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 sit 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 so if the life of the man of God gets rotting inside he is likely not to have any 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 six 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 expect 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 his master and why beholdest thou the moat that is in your brother's eye but perceives 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 hypocrite cast out first the beam out of your own eye and then shalt 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 their 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 mouth speaking may the lord bring increase to his word as we share together now i'm not sharing this with you because you did not know no the bible say iron sharpens iron the bible say 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 sad things begin to drop on our own lives that our sharpness in ministry is beginning to you know to wean 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 isn't it you know several times when you want to when you want to mow in those days when we were using manual manual mowers after you have you know 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 sometime 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 with with with 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 he said can the blind lead the blind what a question what touches me is that i said jesus did no mind if the people were 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's leading jesus said we did not fall into the ditch and that's the that's how he is a problem his problem that if a man is blind and he does not have a leader at least he knows that look i can 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 say oh don't worry don't worry follow me i will lead you to where you are where i know you can't see but i see very well only for that man himself to be a blind man will you 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 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 is that 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 so which means that every time god is looking for this 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 pray 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 will be they will 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 this was not in the multitude he called them aside because he 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 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're free to do that we're free to cry out and say oh god look at where i am please send her 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 and why beholdest thou the moat that is in your brother's eye but perceives not the beam that is in thy own eye why you see the first question is why is when you use the word why he said what's your rationale what's your morality to to to want to look into someone's life when you have not dealt with a big log 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 that i have no basis i am not justified to stand up and confront people and say let me help you remove the moat 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 queried and they say why is this man on the pulpit why is this man preaching today why why why is he standing there as he dealt with his own life as he extracted the logs in his own eyes why 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 question why why why are you doing that that's the first question the second question he asked was in verse 42 he said either 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's 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 isn't it he must be someone who has learned to share his own conscience with hot iron 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 is 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 cast out fasts if you read verse 42 you will see the word fasts and the word fasts is fasts am i correct fast fast fasting fasts was the first thing for us as ministers our own lives before we prepare another message my own life firsts fasts cast out the beam that is in your own eye then you see very the word of god is very clear very simple first you see the word then is a preposition of time and of order first then did you get that now 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 first cast out the beam that is in your own eyes then and i saw why we must do that the 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 a clear 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 stamara comes to speak and you could not utter three sentences in in 10 minutes because it's a stamara but if his inner life does not stamara the three sentences he makes in 10 minutes will penetrate the heart of people than the eloquent man who can put 100 sentences in 10 minutes but with a life that is muddled up we must pray together with ourselves we must look inward must say lord what is it that is not making my message clear what is it that is not aligned by utterance to be sure what is it that is not letting me penetrate 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 releasing 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 the last point in this passage that makes a game fearful to me i'm you know when i read jesus i said 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 for every tree is known by his own fruit for of thorns men do not gather figs nor of a bamboo bush gather day 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 discovered jesus is saying nobody can gather figs the corrupt tree cannot produce a good fruit and i said lord what does that mean you say 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 so 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 would the church members collect from his message they will only collect arrogance even though he preached 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 as 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 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 say 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 we take us to heaven they are crying some of our young people they are disappointed and they have gone everywhere Lenny Jones are we going to pray and say lord make me a good man and when i use the word good man talking about natural goodness because the bible said 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 is all our righteousness is like feed the rats 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 a break by looking at the songs of songs the cry of another shepherd 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 the cry 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 rejoicing thee we will remember thy love more than wine the upright love thee i am black but calmly all you daughters of jerusalem as the tents of cedar and as the curtains of solomon verse six look not upon me because i am black because the song 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 order whom my soul lost 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 their companions and the answer came if thou know not oh thou fearless among women go your way forth to the footstep by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy kids beside the shepherd's tent now what's the crying there are two issues that are jumping up i would have loved to start reading from verse four but i felt the 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 six let's look at number six is it look not upon me because i am black because the sun has looked upon me now newer version instead of using the sun has looked upon me they said the sun has turned me you know what you mean by turn g a n you are the only people that can understand that as an african there's 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 turned you have become a little more brownish and everybody will see yes ah what has happened to you what has happened to you you say i'm just i'm 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's no cover we are working 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 don't look down upon me because i'm black because the sun has beaten me so much now i am now turned i'm now i'm now dark i'm no more as bright as i used to be because the song has overbitten me and what was the reason look at his reason and it's 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 but your own vineyard your own inside your own inner man you have no cares 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 what i have always discovered i again discovered it is the same church that you were serving i will stand there and say well he's 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 vineyards 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's a terrible danger and this man cried and let me share with you what was his cry because i'm hoping that that could be our own cry as we pray together this morning 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 use the word a lot with me it's as if 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 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 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 seven he has used the word draw me then the second word is tell me tell me do you know that as servant 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're hearing okay that would be a good sermon for next week have a good sermon for next month they even when they are supposed to receive from god they are only receiving for 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 is the danger we all fall into the danger of what will i present to people rather than how will i present myself to god draw me that's the first thing draw me and if god doesn't draw us we're already entangled the second point tell me tell me lord tell me teach me oh thou whom my soul loves tell me where you feed and where you make your flock to rest at noon i was touched that he was asking where do you make your flock to rest at noon because you know in africa at noon that's when the sun is overhead that's the highest point at which the sun is hitting your head so much and that's the time a servant of god needs a shade where do you make them to rest at noon where do you release your your your flock so that they don't get fucked out lord show me show me and the last question which is a request why should i be as one that turned it aside why would i be abandoned i thought that that last that last request it's a big request lord why should i be discarded why should i be a casualty in the ministry why should i start where and i become a byword why should i not arrive at the glory that you promised me when you called me into the ministry i found that this man was asking three needs draw me tell me and lord why will i be desolate why will i be on the roadside why will i turn aside why will i be one that is put aside i want us to pray about that and the holy spirit now says oh don't you know don't you know what has caused this problem go your way go forth by the footsteps of the flock and may i ask you there is already the footsteps if you really want to work with god there are footsteps there are footsteps that our father strode upon there are footsteps that all those who serve god how they walked upon but for me the greatest footstep is the footstep that jesus how did he do it himself do you think jesus was always ministering without taking him no almost every time you see jesus preaching to people when he finished what does he do he himself will go to his secret place a great white before day he has gone to be with his father sometimes he's praying with loud tears that is the first time he took to be fresh jesus was fresh jesus was not just preaching from old notes he was fresh so as i hear i judge what i see my father do that i do so i found that jesus the greatest thing in jesus life was his communion with god that was the first step that we saw him walking what again was his first step i found that jesus obeyed the word of god for himself he did not just preach he was himself obeying the word of god you remember what he said he said no i have come to do thy will oh god as it is written concerning me in the volume of the books so i found that jesus read the bible he read the bible not just to preach it he read the bible to obey it several times he said as it is written concerning me so i found that the man of god i mean the the man of calvary that we are called to follow in he was one who ran away from the public to be alone with his father he was the one that read scripture not just to preach to people he read scriptures to practice it to obey it and what else did i say about him that it is full step that kept him fresh that kept him fresh that kept him can i tell you you know jesus said abiding me and i in you if you separate yourself from me you can do nothing you will only wither and sometimes as preachers we don't know when we stop abiding we even allow ministry to cut us off but jesus he was the branch that ever abides in the father he is a branch of his father how can i be anything else if i'm not a branch so as we pray together this moment and i want us to do so with liberty i want us to do it as if we are just alone deep in our spirit and say lord let this day that we have pulled apart let it be significant in my ministry henceforth let the result of this freshness that you are bringing me into let it impact the people that hear me let something happen that at the end of this day our members will say something happened to you in recent times you say yes yes i went to implement i was getting blunts you people didn't know i was missing out i was spending more time before the television than before the lord you know when we started ministry some of us didn't have television at all in our house isn't it we will spend all our time praying but now but now all the channels are there and when the servant of god spends more time before the screen much more than the time he spends before the lord would you like us to pray there's already a full step and that full step but if you are if you are saying oh but let's look at full step of john wesley let's look at full step of a charles poggio let's look at full step of a duncan camber and all the men that god used even their footsteps will have been wonderful but it's a bigger full step jesus you wonder god i break let's pray