English service Report 31.09.2007
 
Pastor Bose Adelaja: Receiving people God sends to us

2 Corinthians 7:13-16 (NKJV)
Therefore we have been comforted in your comfort. And we rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.  For if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I am not ashamed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, even so our boasting to Titus was found true.  And his affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him. Therefore I rejoice that I have confidence in you in everything.
 
I want to speak on the topic of: Receiving the people God sends to us.
 
I know that God to us is everything. While God lives in heaven, He has His Spirit here and also Jesus that is seated at the right hand side of God. We love praying to God because we know that God is a prayer answering God. Often we expect a miracle, especially for me, brought up in Africa by tradition. You pray to God and expect a miracle. You expect God to do something.
 
According to this scripture; if we study God, you see God sending something from heaven like angels or appearing Himself in weird cases. Often God acts and God answers our prayers on this planet earth by using people. People are God’s angels for this season. People are what God will use to bless us. People are what God will use to correct us. People are what God will use to challenge us to the next level. So, you have to pay attention to the people sitting next to you and who God is sending into your life. Nothing happens by accident in your life. It is not by accident that you know the people you know. It is not by accident that you are interacting and relating with the people you are relating to.
 
In verse 15, Paul sent Titus to the Corinthians and in this verse we can see the testimony. "And his affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him." According to this verse we can see that God wants us to receive the people he sends into our life. For example, God wants wives to receive their husbands that He is sending into their lives. God wants husbands to receive their wives. God wants parents to receive their children, brothers to receive their sisters and sisters to receive their brothers in the church. As a church we must receive these people.

God wants us to receive them with fear and trembling. We say that we fear God and in Ephesians chapter 5 God through Paul said that wives should fear their husbands. This fear has nothing to do with being horrified. This fear is to respect God. It is to have a reverence for God and to stand in awe of Him. We should receive the people God is sending in our lives with respect. The Bible says that we should think of other people above ourselves. We shouldn’t think of ourselves more than we should. To receive people with fear and trembling is to receive them with respect and high regard.

Why must we do this?
Because God will use these people as a channel of blessing, correction and as channels of guidance to the next level He wants us to go.
 
Often we look down on people and think that nothing good will come out of this person and we look at a person and wonder what he could do for you. You write him off because there is nothing he can do for you. God will always do it so that after some years you will really need that guy. As for us as parents in bring up our children we often look down on them because they depend so much on us that we feel that it will always be like that. No, it will not always be like that.
Life is an exchange. Life is an inter-relationship. We give what we get. We should receive all the people God is sending in our lives with fear and trembling; with respect and having high regard for them. We must receive them with Holy expectations and high honour. You must receive the people in your school, in your ministry, your country.
 
You shouldn’t go around dividing people. We should place a great value and a great worth upon the people God sends to us. People don’t just appear on the horizons of our lives. God sends people to us. There are no accidental cases. There will be a time that we will bless people, a time we challenge them and correct them. And a time will come when they will do all these things to us.
 
The Corinthians were really good examples in the way they received Titus. "And his affections are greater for you" You see, sometimes we think people are bad, but really, people will react to us in the way we react to them. If somebody receives you with joy, your affection for that person increases. People love to go to places where they are honoured, to a place where a great value is placed upon them. People’s affections will always be greater in places where they are accepted and challenged.
 
If we see people as bad then their affections towards us will be bad. If we see people as good then their affections towards us will be good.
There are some people that you just remember for good. The things we do are very important and the impression we leave on people. People will have high expectations on us as Christians. So, we should not be going around dividing people. People’s spirits will be refreshed if we receive them in the right way. That is what we were created for; to make life better. We are created to serve each other. Jesus said: "I didn’t come here to be served, but to be a servant"; "I didn’t come for those who are whole, but for those who are sick." When we receive people well we will leave an impression on their spirit, because God wants us to keep our spirits right. We influence the spirits of others by the way we receive them. We can’t see each others spirits, but this receiving each other goes much deeper than we think.
 
Often we just ignore people, but remember that it goes much deeper than we think. Sometimes we do something for people and think it is just a small thing, but know that life is made up of those little pieces of kindness and trust. Those little pieces go much deeper than we can imagine.
 
2 Corinthians 7:3-4 (NKJV)
I do not say this to condemn; for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.
 
As leaders, we want to be confident in the people we are leading. For a leader to be sure in the people he or she is leading they must be sure in the way they receive and react towards other people. Receiving the people God sends to us also include receiving our leaders. It does not matter who this person is; we must receive the people God has placed as leaders in our lives. For our spirits to be refreshed it is also important how we receive our leaders.
 
In verse 3 we see that God sent these people to comfort us. Often we need comfort in life. Often we just need somebody to be around. If we have the right mentality we will receive these people. We will be true ambassadors of God. I must receive these people in the same way as if it was God coming in their place, because everyone is created in the image and in the likeness of God. There should not be a class system among us; that is not biblical. We must receive people because God will send them as comfort. They have the answers we have been anticipating.
 
God will often answer us through people. God will answer us through our husbands and wives, our children, members of our ministry and church. God will even use unbelievers, because to Him it doesn’t make any difference. That’s why we have to have the right mentality towards all people. We have to respect the person.
 
2 Corinthians 7:6-7 (NKJV)
Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.
 
We pass on what we receive. If I am comforted by somebody it is easier for me to pass that on.

We must always leave an impression. The things we do for people we must do in the name of God. Not because these people are worthy. The kindness we show towards people does not just stop with those people. We must always have the greater picture in mind. The people we affect today will affect other people in time. So, we better plant something good in them.
 
It is not possible for us to treat people right if we do not have a zealous relationship with God, if we do not have the power of the Holy Spirit and if we are not free in God. To have zeal you need to know God personally. This goes beyond religion. It is a deep rooted relationship, being on fire for God.

When your fire is burning it consumes everything. We need the zeal for God and this we get from a relationship with God. If we go by our flesh we will not be able to meet this standard. There will be people that just irritate us. If we have the zeal of the Lord it does not matter who comes our way. We must deposit something Godly in the people God sends to us. You are still going to meet many people so make sure your heart is right, make sure you are deep rooted in God for you to know how to manage good relationships with others. The things you do to these people will not be because they are worthy of it, but it will be because of the zeal of God in your life.
 
So, review your live, review your relationships. You must review the people God sends into your life. It is our responsibility to receive people according to the zeal of God. God that is in me is enough to help me affect all people and will make me eager to meet more people. We do not need to worry about whether people will remember the good things we have done for them. There is a good God that will always remember us. If our focus is on God then we will have no trouble with people. We will become God’s angels for this season. We will love people as much as we can. That will improve our character and it will make us a channel for God’s blessing.

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