Mid-Week Service 06-03-2013

You are welcome to the first midweek service in the month of March. We are very grateful to the Lord for keeping us alive and for bringing us here to be part of another refreshing time in His presence.
Today's service commenced with a brief session of intercessory prayer lead by Pastor Anya Peter. Next was call to worship, led by Mariam Efogwo. Min Sam Afam declared the service open with a short prayer..
De Masterpiece was on hand to lead the congregation through a session of praise , which was led by Maryann Laackmaan; with song title like, "Lord you reign forever," and "Let the glory of the Lord rise upon us." After wonderful time of praise, Anita took the congregation in a session of worship, with songs like, "As the deer pants for the water," and "Chineke nkigwe."
The announcement was taken by Pst. Dexter Ekpe, who later welcomed the Senior Pastor, Cosfinney Udoka for the day's message. There was a musical interlude by the master piece; (I take pleasure in worshiping You)
Pastor Cosfinney Udoka emphasized on some key announcements already taken by Pst. Dexter, and dedicated 17th of march 2013 to celebrate the women of House On The Rock Asaba.
He started the message for the night by continuing with the series he started two weeks ago, titled: "The E's of Leadership." The first "E's" he previously talked about were Education and Exposure. "Everyone is born a leader". He said, "whether there is an actual group you are leading at the moment or not".
The next "E" is Encounter.
Bible texts was taken from the book of: Exodus 3 vs 3-7, 2 vs 11-15, Heb. 5 vs 8, I Sam. 16 vs 11-13, 17 vs 34-36
"There are some changes that will not take place in our lives until we respond to God, through the Encounters we have, through the experiences He brings our way. If you must be a leader, there must be an Encounter for you to be the best leader possible."
"Encounter could mean confrontation, to come up against, contention, exposure to danger or opposition. Almost everything we desire involves being a leader in one way or another, and if we really want those things, we should expect opposition, confrontation, and contention. Every man that we see is made up of his encounters, what he has gone through in life. In fact, we are represented by them. The reason for which you will go through the shock of tomorrow is because of the encounter of yesterday. We are built to expect opposition, confrontation, and the "unexpectables," God planned life in such a way that everyone has to have an encounter. The strength of a leader is tied to the things he or she has encountered in life, the experiences the individual has had".
"When God made man, He decided that He will not limit us to a particular weight or level of load. Instead, He dropped a seed in us so that we can develop it to whatever level or weight we want. We need to start developing this seed/capacity so that we can deal with whatever encounters come our way. As long as we keep developing the seed, we will keep increasing and getting stronger. That is why we should not let anyone limit us or talk down to us, God has put the seed/capacity in us, we can become whatever we want to be. It depends on what we are exposed to and what we think about. We are likely to see what we think, whatever we think in our heart is what we attract".
"Just like Moses needed the right encounter before he could become the leader he was born to become, so do we. There are some things we are born to become, but until we have the right, God-orchestrated encounter, we won't become those things. Your age does not matter, your encounter does. Just like it did not matter for Moses. Once we have the right encounter, life becomes smoother for us."
"Christ needed an encounter before He could properly start His ministry. If He needed one, we definitely do as well. If we haven't had an encounter with Christ by giving our lives to Him, then we are not Christians. Encounters are memorials, you can not forget them. Encounter releases experience to you, and experience makes you a master. Encounter will always put you ahead of your mates, it produces boldness. Moses gathered boldness on the basis of the encounter he had with God in the burning bush. It also gives you assurance and seperates you from the crowd".

How to have an encounter:
1. "It can be experienced consciously and purposely. Encounter is dependent on being born-again, on being part of the Kingdom of God. The decision to belong to the Lord and have Him be your Lord and Saviour can and should be done consciously, just like Nicodemus did".
2. "It can be divinely arranged, by God. He can make the neccesary arrangements to give us the kind of encounters that will make people envy you after the end of those encounters. Those encounters might not be good or pleasant, but God will bring us out of them and they will make us better, stronger, more developed, and bolder. They will make us all that we can be".
He concluded the message by making an altar call for people who wanted to give their lives to the Lord.
After that, tithes and offerings were collected and then the benediction

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