 And if you have your Bibles, let's open to Genesis 4 verses 7. We're just going to read the description if you didn't bring your Bibles on your screen. And it says, if you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must rule over it. This is a very famous scripture that comes from the book of Genesis. We know it's a story about Cain and Abel and how they came to give an offering to God and how one's offering was not accepted and other's offering was accepted. And we see that Cain comes and he has this jealousy, he has this anger towards his brother why his offering was not accepted. And God comes to him and he says that, look, if you do the right thing, if you choose to do the right thing, will your offering not be accepted? But if you choose to do the wrong thing, sin is crouching at your door. There's consequences for sin, but even then once there is sin at your door, you still have the power and the choice to rule over it. You must rule over it and that's what the scripture says. And tonight's short topic I want to talk to you about is the power of choice. It is the power of choice. Every single person in this place, we make choices, right? I make choices, you make choices. You woke up this morning and you made tons of choices. Most of us, we showered. That was a choice we made. Most of us, some of us did not shower. That is also a choice that we made. As we wake up every morning, there's tons of choices that we make. And it's as you realize it or not, but you are every second you're making a choice to do right or to do wrong. It is at the power of your fingertips. And this is what a gift that Jesus Christ has given us. God has given every single person is to be able to make a choice. That is the free will that we have. Every single person, you do not need to be powerful. You do not need to be smart to make a right choice or to make a wrong choice. Choices, it comes as just you, you just make a choice. You don't need to like, okay, I need to study hard to make a right choice. Or I need to do bad things to make a wrong choice. It does not need any requirements. You just simply make a choice. Life is a product of decisions and decisions create events. We become today of the choices we made yesterday. And what we become tomorrow is by the choices we make today. Life does not just happen to us. It is all about choices and how we respond to every situation. Many people think that life is just, it happens to us. It's just random. You know, this person has a good life because, you know, they're just lucky. They're just was born with a golden spoon in their mouth. And they're just born in a paradise. And that is their life. Some people believe that, you know, you, some people are just lucky. Some people are just unlucky. It does not come out to be that way. Life, it does not just happen. It is the choices that we make and how we respond to every choice that comes our way. You can be a person that is poor, just as poor as it can be. If you make the right choices, you can become great. You can become financially independent. You can be a person who is born in a multimillionaire family where just everything is there, whatever you need. But with the wrong choices that you make, you can become the poorest person on earth. It's not right. So you cannot say, you cannot believe the devil's lie that, I am unfortunate today. I do have these circumstances around me because the way I was born, the way I was made, the things that were done to me, no, it is not like that because life is not just what happens. It's the choices that we make and how we respond to those choices. The question I have for you tonight is, what choices are you making tonight? Turn to your neighbor and ask him, what choices are you making? Turn to your other neighbor and ask him, is it good or bad? And many people feel like, I will not make a choice. I will just not choose anything. People think that when it comes to choices, I will just stay on the neutral ground. And that's not how it works. There is no neutral kingdom. You're either with God or you're without God. And life without God is, one life is life with Satan, is life with the devil. So we have to understand and get that clear through our mind that good choices or bad choices, we always choose it. We cannot sit on the fence. We cannot sit on the place where we think I'll just not serve God and I'll just not serve devil. I'll just stay in the middle. It does not happen like that. And the devil always tries to get to our mind that if you just don't do bad and if you just don't do good, you can just remain in the middle in the neutral ground but it's not like that. There is no neutral kingdom. There's only kingdom with God or a kingdom with Satan. Which ones will you choose? The choice is yours. And no one is powerless. No one is uneducated. No one is unqualified to make a good choice. And also no one is too bad to make a wrong choice. We have the power within ourselves. When God created man, He created them with the power of free will. When He created Adam and Eve, He said, look, you have the choice to do right or to do evil. The choice is yours. And when man fell, when man made a mistake, God still came to him and said, there is also a chance to be restored back and to do right after you fall. Failure is not failure. Failure is only failure when you choose to stay down. When you choose to get back up, it's counted out success. When the moment you choose, when you fall, when you make a mistake, the moment you choose to stay down, that is when it is called a failure. The Bible says that the righteous man shall fall seven times, but what makes him righteous is that he gets back up. You would think that a sinner, when he sins, sins, sins, and when he comes back to God and you're like, well, he's a sinner, that my Bible calls him righteous because he gets back up and he comes to God. So failure is only failure when you choose to stay down. To succeed or to fail, it is a choice. And do not let devil tell you otherwise. If anyone has failed is because they have chosen to. They have embraced failure. And failure is a choice just as success is a choice. There's three people that I want to share with you about. Number one, you guys know all of them as Michael Jordan. And by acclimation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. He's the phenomenal athlete with a unique combination of grace, speed power, artisity and provisional ability and an unquenchable competitive desire. Jordan single-handedly redefined the NBA superstar and this is what he said, the key to success is to failure. And he said, I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26th occasion, I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. But I did not choose to stay down. And that is why I succeed. Failure is only considered failure when you choose to embrace that you have failed. Success is when you choose to say, you know, I messed up. I made a bad mistake. You know, I did not do it right, but you choose to get back up. When we wake up in the morning, we have a choice. Do I want to spend time with God or do I want to give in to laziness? Do you want to spend time reading God's Word to be able to get to know the Holy Spirit? Or do I complete to get to know myself as desires where I just sleep in? Or I do whatever I want. I become sinful man. I just, you know, do whatever I want. The choice is yours. Nobody takes that from you because free will is given to us. It's a gift that God has given to each one of us. In school, I just, I just hated questions with just one answer. Whether you have to write it in, you know, I always loved multiple choices. I always love when they give you so many choices and you just get to choose A, B, or C. You know, I don't know what those tests called, what they're like. What are they called? Yeah, those ones where I always thought there'd be like, if it's B now, it cannot be next. A next one cannot be. It has to be C. Or there will be like a pattern or be like, try to spell things out. I just loved multiple choices because it's, it gives you options to do good or to do bad. One's let it explain yourself. I'm like, dang it. I did not like to give me options. And that is life. Life gives us choices to do right or to do wrong. I've seen so many people have life ruined. And the only thing I have to say it, well, it's because of what has been done to me. Oh, it's because that this, this person just offended. This person has robbed me. This person has abused me. Society is just shooting me. The government is this. And then they live their life in failure, thinking that somebody else dictates how their life is going to be. But success is a choice just as failure is a choice. Getting to know God more, bringing people to church, starting your own home group. It's not that something that you need to be qualified for. You do not need to have like this doctoral degree to open a home group, which we would like if you have a doctoral degree to open a home group. Be honest. Most of us, we have GEDs here. It's a joke. I graduate. So you have to make a choice. Do I want to get closer to God with God? Or do I want to get far back from him? I remember one time I, I, when I had a chance to live in Nigeria to get to, to spend time with prophet Josh and to learn from him. And one thing that he would always tell us is that, that what separates me from you is the choices I make every day. What separates me from you is the everyday choice that I, that I take to spend time with God. And that is why God uses me this way. Whenever there's a time to, to do my own thing or to go to, to spend time just relaxing or whatever. I choose that time to spend with God. Whenever there's a time wherever I received money, he said, I chose to give the money away. And that's why God has been blessing me. Whenever there's a time to be, to be prideful, I made a choice to humble myself. Whenever there was a time where the pain came into my body, I made a choice to tell to myself that by his stripes I am healed. Whenever there was a time where I failed, I made a choice to get back up and tell to myself, I'll be on top and I will not be in the bottom. Every time that I, my hand touched something and it failed, I told myself that everything my hand touches will prosper. I made these choices and today I am who I am because of the choices I made yesterday. And I remember like, he's always shared that look, I grew up without education. I grew up without this. You know, I, I never to, my prophet, Josh, I never, he took classes to, to speak English. But today if you listen to his sermons, there's certain words that are just like, I never knew these words even existed in English dictionary. But it's because the choices that a person has made that resulted into a life that you live today. We are either a success or a failure by the choices that we make today. Excuses are the language of a proud and a lazy heart. Excuses are just simply a, a language of a proud. You're just saying that look, I'm too good to, to try again. It's, it's for somebody else. I'm just, it's, it's not worth doing that again. It's not, it's not worth doing that. And Thomas Edison, if you can put up a scripture, his picture. Edison developed many devices which greatly influenced in the life in the 20th century. Edison is considered one of the most propholic inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents to his name. When he was a boy, his teacher told him he was so stupid to learn everything. When he sat on his own, he tried more than 9,000 experiments before he created his first successful light bulb. And this is what he said, he said, I haven't failed, I just found 10,000 ways that won't work. 10,000 ways that won't work. Champions are not crowned because they just desire to be crowned. They are crowned because they have chosen to defeat failure. Champions were never made because they just woke up one day and just had this wishful thinking that look, I'm going to become a champion one day and that's it. Just sit back and relax. To succeed and to be a successful person when you're in a relationship with God as a family man, maybe as a married man, or maybe to your family, to your church, to your home group leader, you have to have a choice that you make every day as you get up. Just like when you get up in the morning and it's a choice to make to shower. It's the same choice to make that you spend time with the Holy Spirit. One day with the Holy Spirit that you spend is a thousand days better than spent without him. Just that one hour spent in his presence is a thousand days better than spent without him. So we have to realize that when we get up every morning, we are always presented a choice to do right or to do wrong. And that is a choice that is, it is with you and that you need to make. And life's biggest choice is what you do with Jesus Christ. Life's biggest choice that you ever make is what do you do with Jesus Christ? When that time comes to spend time in God's Word, to be able to get to know Him, to be able to understand His love for you and how God has created and fashioned you and how He has made you. That time, that choice that you make to spend time with Jesus is the biggest and the best choice that you can ever make. One thing I would always regret and as I am now is why couldn't I start my relationship with God earlier? Why couldn't I spend more time with Jesus Christ? Because that is the one thing that always profited me. The only thing that never failed me has been concrete and has been put me through the toughest times. Your relationship with Jesus Christ is the biggest and the wisest choice that you will ever make. God chooses what we go through, but you choose how you go through it. Yes, some people are not, they weren't born into a rich family. They weren't maybe born into maybe with a healthy body or with certain disabilities, but we, the choices that we make results the life that we live today and the life that we live tomorrow. And one thing that the Bible always made me to understand that your life does not need to be perfect to make good choices. And your life, we see in the life of David, where David at the toughest times of his life, he made the best choice ever. We see that the book of Psalm was written when David was being persecuted, when David was being backstabbed, when David was being sought to killed after, being cheated upon, being backstabbed by his best friends. And that is the best choices that David has made in his life at the toughest time. But also we see when David was being victorious, David had everything going for him. And he was a king, he was making victories. And when everything was also on the top, we see that when life is good, it also gives an opportunity to make wrong choices. But we cannot live with the slide that the devil always gives us. Only if God would heal me, I would serve him. Only if God would give me a good pain job, I would tithe. Only if God would give me, you know, bring people to church and I'll have my own home group. Only if God will give me a healthy body, then I'll say thank you Jesus for giving me health. That is not the case because Bible tells us otherwise. We see Job when he was sick, when he was, when he lost everything, he gave God his best. He gave God an honor and worship that God deserved. And he said, God, maybe, you know, I have everything and maybe I lost everything, but your name still be praised. I might have everything and I might lose it, but that will not change my relationship with God. And no many people that told me, you know, only if I had, you know, a car, then I'll come to morning prayers. Only if I had a car, I would bring people to church. I would just, you know, witness. Only if I had more money, I would give money to church. I would, you know, give to the needy and do this, but that is not the case. The choices that you make today will result the life that you have tomorrow. If you want to have a good life tomorrow, you have to make the chases, those choices today. And it starts right now. It starts today with saying, God, I'll serve you. God, I'll spend time with you. God, I'll develop a relationship with you. God, I'll bring people to church and that is the best life to live with Jesus Christ. Amen. And I just want to give you a few steps to how to make a right choice and how do you know that you are actually making a right choice. Number one is to think God's word, meditate God's word. God's word is the best and the best meditation that you can have for your life. Many other religions and things, you know, they talk about staying positive. They talk about, you know, good thinking, empty yourselves, you know, think about the stars or whatever things are up there. Just all these things, but God's word is the most positive and the most powerful thing that you can ever meditate. And if you let God's word dominate your mind, it will dominate your heart. Once God's word begins to dominate your heart, it will influence your conduct and your behavior. You begin to change automatically, but God's word has to be dominating your mind. You have to be thinking God's word constantly. It's not something that you come in the morning, you just pray or you just read John 3.16 and that's it. That's thinking about God's word. God's word has to be something that dominates your mind. When it begins to dominate your mind, it's like food. When you begin to take food and you begin to chew it, it automatically goes into your stomach. Same thing with God's word. When you begin to think about God's word, you begin to meditate on it. What is God's word saying to be? You begin to think about it. That's when it begins to enter into your heart. Once it enters into your heart, it begins to change your conduct and your behavior. God's word is the best thing that you can meditate because when you fall, God's word says that there is forgiveness. You can get back up. You can have strength. It gives encouragement to always be at your best. You know that when you fall, it gives you wisdom to how to get back up and how to avoid the same mistakes that you made. It gives you knowledge. It gives you the understanding of what God loves is for your life. And God's word is the best thing that you can meditate upon. Number two is act. Act upon it. Act upon God's word. Epsom 119 verses 9 through 11. It says that, When you take God's word, when you meditate upon it and you begin to act upon what God's word is saying, that word will begin to give you power to stay with God, to be able to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ. And acting upon God's word is developing your relationship with Jesus Christ. It's to spend time at His feet, knowing from God, hearing God's word. What is God's word saying? We give an opportunity to every single person to come before work to morning prayer here at church. Five o'clock in the morning, the doors are open at church. It is not that we can fill this church up. It is not that we can say, oh, we're the only church in Tri-Cities that has morning prayer, so we need you to come because we need you to fulfill your Christian duties. It is because you will prosper. We're giving you the opportunity that your life has changed. You cannot get anything from anyone coming to morning prayer here. Don't believe Satan's lies like, pastor just wants me here because he needs a check mark, or I don't know what the pastor wants. He just wants me here to morning prayer. We want you here to develop your relationship with God because you need to succeed. Because God wants to take you to a place where you will not fall. God wants to help you to accomplish your dream, to change people's lives, and you cannot do that without the Holy Spirit. Morning prayers are developed just for one reason, so you can become who God wants you to be, become to achieve those dreams, to become the person of influence in this community. Rewrite the history of your family. Be the person with a difference. That is why we are challenged every single person. Develop your relationship with Jesus Christ because you need to succeed. Give, you know, your tithing offerings, not because the church needs your money, but because you need God's blessing upon your life. There's so many testimonies where people said, as soon as I, you know, I started coming to morning prayer, I started developing a relationship with Jesus Christ, I started giving, my life has changed. And for us it's like, that's what I've been telling you for years. I'm not trying to drag you here or to challenge you to give so you can, you know, make me feel good. That is your life changes, that your life becomes better and that you will be on the top and not on the bottom. You will be a prosperous person. You will be a healthy person. You will be a person with a difference. Amen, church. And number three is get up when you fall. Get up when you fall. You have to get tired and you have to get mad at the failure. You just have to just get mad and you have to get up. The reason for your success in life is that there's thousands of people are waiting for you to succeed in life. Why do we have to make the right choices today is because there is somebody out there that is waiting for you to succeed. There's somebody out there that is waiting for you to share the message of hope. There's somebody out there that is waiting for you to pray for them so they'll be healed. There's certain people that God has designed and God has sent only you, that only you will be the one to speak to them in order for their life to be changed. Prophet Joseph said that I only started to succeed in life only when I realized that there's millions of people that God has sent me to. And until I make the right choice, those people that God has sent me to, they will not succeed. There's certain people that right now I look into my life that God has placed me even in my home group. Some of the guys that God has entrusted me with, and I know one thing that when I get up in the morning, when I spent my time with God, I know I have to make the right choice. I need to succeed. I need to develop the relationship with Jesus Christ because those are the people that God has sent me to, to give encouragement, to pick them up when they fall, to be able to be the inspiration, to be the mentor to them, to be the guide to them. There's some people at the gym that nobody has witnessed to and God, and they're waiting for me to make the right choice. Hey, I'm going to share my faith today. Hey, when I'm working out, I'm going to say, hey, do you know Jesus Christ? Do you know God? Or maybe somebody who's depressed to offer them love, and there's certain people in your school, in your gym, in your colleges, in your workplace that God has sent only you to them, and they will not succeed until you make the right choice. We do not just want you to develop the relationship with Jesus Christ so you can feel good. So things, you know, just only good working out for you. There's also a world that is dying, and until you succeed, they will not succeed. Right now, I'm thinking, you know, some of the people that God has sent me to, and I'm just thinking, even some of the people that moved away in different states, and today I'm still talking to them how, during school time, I witnessed them, I told them about Jesus Christ, and today I was thinking like, what if I never spoke to them about God? Where would their life be now? I know one person would probably be dead because when he came and gave his life to Jesus Christ, he was addicted to drugs, and as you heard today's testimony, that's where drugs lead. I know there are certain people that, when I witness to, when I talk to them, I know today most of them probably will not be alive. There are people, there are thousands, there are hundreds of people are waiting for you to succeed in life. Your relationship with God, you stepping out in schools to witness, to be able in your workplace, in your colleges, to be a person of influence, to be the person of light, to shine to them, to share the message of hope, is not just so for you. There's a world that is dying that needs you to make the right choice. We have the powers of choice. It is out of fingertip. Nobody tells us what to choose. We have the power of choice. And tonight, this is what I want to encourage you with, is that a soul is more, a price of a soul is more worth than the world. You cannot put a price on a soul. We are made to succeed. We are made to become a successful people with Jesus Christ, not so we can just feel good, which is, it comes with that. A blessed life with Jesus Christ is a byproduct of spending time with Him. But there's also a people that God has sent you to. Every time we are presented of a choice to do right or to do wrong, we need to always have in mind that if I make the wrong choice, then somebody's life will be affected. But if I make the right choice, even if I myself, I choose to get back up, somebody's life will be influenced, somebody's life will be changed. Today, every single person that is sitting in this pew, we're celebrating today, we're rejoicing today, we're sitting together, it's because one man has made a choice of opening this church and it was our pastor. Today, many souls are saved. Many people are given their lives, even tonight we'll see some people give their life to Jesus Christ. People be healed, people be delivered. How many people have been delivered and set free from that tax of the many? Because there's one man that made a choice. When everything was going against him, when people were saying, you shouldn't be opening the church, what are you talking about? Open an English-speaking church. You're a Russian man. You don't know what you're talking about. You don't have money, nothing. But he made a choice to do the right thing, what God has asked him to do. And today, we're sitting together, we're celebrating and our lives is changed because of one man's choice. How many more lives will be changed and influenced of the choices that you're going to make tonight? Of the choices that you will make to spend time with God? Of the choices to get up in the morning and say, God, I'll spend time with you. I'll learn from you. I'll get to know your love because I know that there's somebody there waiting for me to share the gospel of hope, to share about love, to be able to share that encouragement. There's a world that is dying and there's certain people that will not be changed until you reach out to them. We have to live a life and we have to live a life of being a successful people of making the right choices. We are celebrating today because one man's focus was not broken. How many of thousands and how many of hundreds of people will celebrate because of the choice that you will make today? How many people's lives will be healed? How many millionaires? How many businessmen? How many marriages will be saved because of the choice that you will make today to walk with God, to love God and to love people? How many of you guys have been encouraged tonight? Come on, put your hands together for Jesus Christ and just the three things we just want to go over again is that one thing is think God's word. Meditate upon God's word. Make God's word the standard for your life. Number two is do what God's word says. Partner up with the Holy Spirit. Develop that relationship with God to do what God's word says. And number three is to get up when you fall because there is a generation that is waiting for you to succeed. Amen, church.