Build The Ark by Apostle Emmanuel Iren: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Stand for what you believe

We must learn to stand by each other unapologetically. The devil is becoming more brazen and more unapologetic

They will gaslight you as if standing up for what you believe is not being politically correct. So stand for what you believe

The salt of the earth

Matthew 5:13 to Matthew 5:16

Jesus never exaggerated. He never said anything that was not true. He is the way, the truth and the life John 14:6

You may think you don't matter in the scheme of things. You just own a small business, or you are even seeking employment.

But there is something about your presence on the earth that contributes to its preservation

You may not know it, but because Jesus has said it, now you know

This has economic, philosophical and political implications. The more good people out there, the more true followers of Christ, the better the world is. Just by existing, you make the world a better place

Jesus did not stop at salt. He also said you are the light of the world

The proof: after the rapture, everything goes south

After we leave this world, everything will go south.

Every two market days they find a reason to drag the church and point out one of the many, admittedly many and sincere, issues with the church.

But oh boy, will they miss us when we are gone

Testimony: the demon in 2010

We were casting out a demon in the year 2010, and at some point the demon said, smirking and sneering, "We cannot wait for you people to go." He was talking about the body of Christ

He said, "When you go, the people who are left behind, we will eat their flesh, we will break their bones." He was bragging, talking with glee and anticipation.

Even demons know the rapture is coming

The church of Jesus Christ carries the presence of God Ephesians 3:21. The world is going to be destroyed because the preserving agent, the church, is going to be raptured

Everything that is going to happen in the future, the key prophetic apocalyptic events, was already shown in types and shadows in the Old Testament

Three examples of the preservers leaving

• Lot and Sodom
• Noah and the ark
• Jesus on the cross

Lot

Jesus' statement about Lot's escape from Sodom Luke 17:29

Remember Abraham's negotiation, from 50 people down to 25 Genesis 18:23 to Genesis 18:32

The people of Sodom did not know it, but Lot's presence in that vicinity was preserving it Genesis 19:22

Following this biblical pattern, 10 people can be the reason a city is not destroyed

Noah

The same thing happened with Noah. As soon as he entered the ark and the door was closed, rain began to fall

Jesus

The moment he gave up the ghost, everything went south. It was 12 noon and the sun would not shine.

For the first time since the sun was created, there was an eclipse at that time of the day

It was such an abomination for the blood of Jesus to touch the earth that everything revolted. There was an earthquake, the sun refused to shine Matthew 27:51

All of this is a prophetic metaphor of what will happen when the body of Christ is no longer on the earth.

The body of Christ started with one person and he brought all of us into glory

Imagine the chaos everywhere because one man gave up the ghost. That is what will happen the moment the church leaves the earth

Build the ark

The ark is Christ. The Old Testament writers spoke of salvation in types and shadows. The ark was a salvation story

God did not discriminate. God did not segregate. Every single person who entered the ark was safe

The rain is coming. The destruction is coming. You can't do anything about that. But you can heed the words of the preaching, get into the ark of safety, and therein lies your security

Prophetic parallels in the ark

Genesis 6:14

One of the things God does when he wants me to pay special attention to something is to providentially make sure I keep hearing that thing in different shapes and forms

As an undergraduate I would read my Bible in the morning before class.

One day the lecturer was not yet in class and I opened my small purple Bible to Genesis 6, and read that the ark was covered inside and outside with pitch

I read building technology. That very day we were discussing roof styles and parapets, and how flat roofs use something like bitumen to make them impervious to rain

It made sense. It is no advantage to build an ark when rain is falling for 40 days unless it is layered to prevent the rain from entering

It blew my mind, the supernatural intelligence. You couldn't claim Noah didn't hear from God. God gave him the templates

The Hebrew word for pitch is kopher, from the verb kaphar. The same word is translated atonement when the Levitical priests slaughtered lambs and used the blood Leviticus 17:11

The pitch that covered the ark so the rain would not destroy it is the same word as atonement. The blood of Jesus covers us and prevents us from judgment

I'm covered by the blood of Jesus Christ

The ark was supposed to typify salvation in Christ

Noah was a preacher of righteousness 2 Peter 2:5. Imagine him telling people a flood is coming.

Just the same way, implicit in the gospel is that there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and the people on the good side of that prophecy are the people in Christ

The ark had just one door. There was no other way in or out. Jesus said no one comes to the Father except by him John 14:6

It was God himself who closed the door of the ark Genesis 7:16, because salvation is of the Lord. Your security in Christ comes from Christ, not from your ability to keep yourself

Why many did not enter

Jesus' words again Luke 17:27

Many did not pay attention to Noah's preaching because they were busy getting married, paying attention to marriage instead of purpose

Notice Jesus' choice of words. Of Sodom he says "until the day the Lord came out".

Of Noah he says "until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all". That is the prophetic pattern.

And they are going to miss you when you are gone

Take preaching and evangelism seriously

On a salvific level, take preaching seriously. Take evangelism seriously. We get so used to the programme that we just show up in church

Follow up with somebody and make sure they come to church. Every single one of us should do it. Set a reminder now

It's bad enough that you don't evangelize as you should. If you can't even do the lazy job of making sure someone who usually comes to church comes more consistently...

When your team is about to play, you call your friends. Maybe you should start calling people. It's time for devotion, are you awake?

Or go and press your church cloth now before you say you don't have what to wear. Or say, I'm coming to pick you

I'm not joking. This is important. God is counting on you

John 21:15 to John 21:17

Notice the stratification. There are lambs and there are sheep, at different levels of development and maturity.

God expects you to go out of your way to encourage them in the Lord, to help each other fan your flames of salvation

If you have relatives who don't know Jesus, preach to them. You cannot make it just about yourself, come, get blessed and go. If Christ comes now, some of your relatives will perish.

You can't be passive

Anybody who knows what can prevent the death of another person and doesn't tell the person is complicit in the person's death. There is an aspect of preaching that is a warning. Warn everyone

Some prophecies are cyclical

Some prophecies are foreordained and happen once. Others happen in cycles. Two examples

The abomination of desolation

Daniel 8

Daniel prophesied that a pagan king would come, ransack the second temple and perform an abomination. In fulfilment, Antiochus brought in a pig and sacrificed it in the most holy place.

Daniel prophesied it ahead of time

It was in that context that Daniel spoke those words about people who know their God Daniel 11:32. We quote it out of context.

You will stand in the day of persecution

Then Christ referred to the abomination of desolation that Daniel spoke about, as a future event that will yet happen Matthew 24:15.

It had happened before, it will happen in the day of Christ and it will happen after

Part of why people struggle with the book of Revelation is that they don't see that the same prophecy can have two manifestations

The blessing of Abraham

There was a spiritual component. Abraham was to be the example of faith for all believers, both Jews and Gentiles.

When God promised him children like the sons of the seashore, he was promising him he would be an archetype of faith for those in Christ.

In that prophetic sense we are the children of Abraham

There was also a material, practical fulfilment. Abraham also had biological children. The prophecy was fulfilled two folds

On Revelation

That book is not for the weak. Even the title is to mock you. John Calvin, a theological genius by every objective metric, did a commentary on every book of the Bible except Revelation

Leave Revelation alone unless you understand it. Some teachings on Revelation have made people worse. There have been false teachings that the mark of the beast will be an ATM card

There is an aspect of eschatology where the church is adverse to technology. When there is a new technology we say the antichrist is coming.

After a while we discover it's not the antichrist and stylishly begin to use it shamelessly

But Christ is indeed coming

The days of Noah

Before then, irrigation happened from the ground Genesis 2:6. Rain had literally never fallen, so the people had no mental picture of what rain would look like

When you say water is going to pour for 40 full days from the sky, really, bro? Imagine how weird Noah looked waking up every day for 100 years.

Historians say it must have taken 100 years, even though the Bible doesn't categorically tell us

Some people say anything not in the Bible, I'm not interested. How did Peter die? What about Paul? Show me the chapter and verse

There are extra-biblical books that are serviceable for history, and we selectively cherry pick, Foxe's Book of Martyrs yes, every other one no.

Any book that is not a book of the Bible is not inspired by the Holy Spirit. It doesn't mean it has no historical benefit. Read with discernment, don't take everything hook, line and sinker.

I am not talking about forgeries or occultic books

God vowed not that he would not destroy the world again, but that he would not destroy it by water Genesis 9:11.

Peter was meticulous enough to give the distinction: the world will be destroyed by fire 2 Peter 3:10

Noah knocking wood every day for 100 years became a nuisance in society. They used the ark as a landmark: when you get to the ark that madman is building, turn right, then go straight.

It was all fun and games until it happened

Prophecies fulfilled by name: Cyrus

Isaiah prophesied of a man named Cyrus who would help exiled Israel return and rebuild the temple. That prophecy came 100 years before Cyrus was born, and God mentioned him by name Isaiah 44:28

God is speaking to a man who didn't even exist Isaiah 45:1. If I remember correctly, Isaiah lived around 700 BC and Cyrus was born around 600 BC

God said he had called him by name, not yet born, not yet named Isaiah 45:4. One century before

Look at the key prophecies and their fulfilments and you can know for certain that the end is coming

Be smart like Jacob and recognize yourself as a pilgrim Genesis 47:9. The prosperity in Egypt is not your final destination. You are a stranger and pilgrim on the earth Hebrews 11:13

Not just to preach but to build

We have no evidence Noah preached with sermons. We only infer it because Peter says he was a preacher of righteousness 2 Peter 2:5

Either Noah was building and also preaching, or building the ark was the message. It sparked curiosity. People came asking what he was doing, and he said the rain is coming

There are people who save souls by the messages they preach, by the podcast they have. There are others who save lives by the things they build

I think the prophetic archetype of Noah is not as common in the church. We have a lot of evangelists but we don't have a lot of builders

Imagine you were Noah's child looking out of the window at the flood coming, thanking God you had a father with prophetic foresight.

Be sensitive not just to what God will ask you to preach but to what God will ask you to build, because the safety of your children may depend on it

If God has asked you to build a school or an institution, it just might be that children in Christ have no healthy alternative

Illustration: the cartoon

Years ago my first daughter was watching a cartoon I didn't trust. I played something else for her and I could tell from her face she was not enjoying it.

If I'm being honest, me too

The world has raised the stakes excellence-wise. Everything with healthy content now looks mediocre and your children don't want it. You can complain and preach and preach, but what's the alternative?

There are preachers warning about the end times. Are there builders who will build? What is the ark God has asked you to build?

Foundationally, the ark is Christ, and nobody is going to build another ark.

But is there something God has asked you to build in society that will be a safe haven as the world gets darker?

Illustration: the boy in a skirt

Somebody I know very well sent his son to school in a nation I won't mention. At age four the boy came back in a skirt.

He asked the teachers why they changed his son's clothes. They said they were teaching inclusion, so that though he is a boy he doesn't have to look like one

It is possible to be deeply concerned and not be able to do anything about it. You depend on a job to sustain the family. You cannot resign to attend to your son.

You can't homeschool, you don't have the resources. And there is no faith-based institution in that vicinity

So you warn the boy seriously and send him back the next day, and they find more intelligent steps to continue to indoctrinate your son

If you only preach, what you are doing may not survive a generation. Building is the only way we can save our children

Illustration: Turkey

Turkey was a Christian nation, one of the seven churches Christ wrote to Revelation 2 and Revelation 3. Then it was taken over by the Ottoman Empire

We thought the narrative was that they were forced to abandon the faith.

According to a report I read from Canada, which you can fact check, they said: practice whatever you want, but if you practice any other religion you pay a tax annually

Imagine you are already struggling to pay rent and feed yourself, and now there is a new cost for your conviction. The first to convert were the poorest. Some became closet believers.

But when you are part of a culture, how do you teach your children otherwise?

A generation rose that knew not Joseph Exodus 1:8. They didn't use brute force. They controlled the system, and even the churches Paul built couldn't survive it. Do you know history?

Illustration: the hall document

I went to preach somewhere and we needed a hall. They gave us a document to sign first, saying what I am not permitted to say in my sermon.

I knew I couldn't agree, so we couldn't use the hall

In that country they are systematically building systems. A time will come when churches will not have a venue to use. I've seen the templates. This is something that happened to me

One of the foremost evangelical voices in the world right now told me the conditions for his last programme took about a week to agree. There were things he was not permitted to say.

There were sicknesses he was not permitted to pray against. There were testimonies he was not permitted to share

He said, "I just decided I would do it even if that's my last time. You don't know what's coming"

It breaks my heart when people act as if those who tell the church to build systems have less consecration. That is a terrible deception.

Sometimes the way to prepare for the end time is to build. Not just to preach but to build

What will your children face?

What schools will your children attend? What will they be taught there? What cartoons will they watch?

We are seeing a level of demonic oppression among the younger generation that the older generation never saw. Anybody who ministers to teenagers and children knows.

You will be shocked at the dimension of witchcraft and demonic possession

Illustration: the camp

I was preaching at a camp years ago. Two people who had never met physically knew each other in the spirit.

We were casting demons out of one person, and the demon was telling the other, "Don't give up"

When I stepped in, he said, "I know you. You cast out my master from so and so", and he named a boy who was an undergraduate on campus. "He disappointed me.

I thought he was strong"

He said they possessed that boy to train him to be a man of God in the next 15 years. The demons were training him

Please be careful where you go. Be careful who lays hands on you. Some of you are too easily impressed. They could give you a prophecy that everybody knows.

Anybody can walk up to you on the street and say it

What are you looking for? The way you jump from programme to programme, one day you may get into trouble

Build what God has asked you to do

We have created a brand of Christianity that only sees God in what we preach and not in the things we build

The logos of God, the logic of God, is the bedrock of science, architecture and physics. When you spend time with God, there should be intellectual stimulation, an incentive to build

Don't be stereotypical in how God expresses his excellencies through you. It is not just in casting out devils, as important as that is. There must be an anointing to build

When the rain is falling in the days of Noah, don't stand under the rain and pray. There are things coming that will not answer to prayer. They will answer to systems

Thank God for Moses. There will be deliverers, but there will also be judges with the same mantle and the same wisdom of God, creating institutions

You can have a call to set up an educational system. It's a call. Some of you had teachers who encouraged you in the things of God. It's a call.

Some of you gave your hearts to Christ on campus. It's a call. I might not be here if not for the kind of school I attended. I don't trust myself like that

Take seriously what God has given you. Not everybody will do what I'm doing the way I'm doing it

Genesis 6:22

There is a generation that when God says build, you get up and build

We've been discussing the seven mountain concept for decades. There are some problems with the understanding and the execution of it. That's not even what I'm saying.

God wants to raise more people to influence policies for him

The church can be many and not be powerful. You have to position yourself strategically to be powerful.

There is a way we do church that even people who are powerful outside drop their brain outside

In some churches it is an achievement when you say the bank director used to clean chairs in this church. Thank God for that, and for the people great and small doing humble things.

I'm not talking down on that. But I believe there is more to your life

One of the greatest advantages of the end time will be strength of numbers, that we can rally around each other's visions and stand side by side.

It will take bravery and it will take community

The reason seven mountain prophecy is not working is that it is meant to happen collectively, not individually. Everyone catches his own vision and pulls in different directions

What if a church comes together, identifies a problem and solves it? We would discover we are not using even 1% of the real strength God has given us

The people God sent in the Old Testament were not all prophets. Abraham was a family man and a businessman. He didn't go by any title.

You don't need a church to be a man of God

God can use you in a prophetic way in different spheres of influence. God has raised you up for such a time as this Esther 4:14

There's a reason you are in governance. There's a reason you are in policy and development. There's a reason you are in manufacturing.

Your presence in that space means more to God than you can imagine. Be sensitive to it

Don't think the anointing only comes on people when they are receiving a healing. There is an anointing to build. There is an oil resting on people

Where are the Nehemiahs of this generation?

Impartation

Jeremiah 1:10

Let that mantle rest on you now

Let the fortitude of mind, the intelligence, the exposure, everything you need, be made available speedily

Let the doors be made wide open on your behalf. The sponsorship, the international collaboration, everything you need, receive it in the name of Jesus

There are people stepping into the grace of Caleb. All your colleagues are retiring, yet God is giving you a fresh vision

The later part of your years will be the best part of your years

Like Caleb, you will say in your 60s and even your 70s, I still have much strength, don't count me out, give me this mountain Joshua 14. That grace is resting on you

Just because of you, Nigeria is a better nation. Let Josephs arise. Let Daniels arise

I speak these words to your spirit Joshua 1:9

They asked the richest man in the world, if all your businesses fail, what will you do?

He said, I will buy a laptop, get into a garage and start building the next thing the next day. I won't cry more than a day

You can be prayerful and not have tenacity. There is bravery that comes from the fortitude of the mind, but bravery is also an impartation

Everything the Lord has said that has stayed dormant in your heart, that you have been second-guessing and self-sabotaging, let bravery and strength rest upon you strong

Every plan and scheme of darkness orchestrating fear and timidity, be destroyed

Receive grace for supernatural leadership

There is a mantle coming on you to outrun chariots. There are a lot of giants and oligarchs in your industry, but there is a mantle on you for speed and acceleration

Don't be afraid to stand before Pharaoh, says the Lord. By that rod I have given you, you shall do great signs

John 7:38

As the river flows, it begins to bring everything to life

Every symptom of stroke is destroyed.

From the crown of your head to the sole of your feet, let your nerve endings, your bones, every muscle in your body, let the function of your body be restored perfectly

• Lord Jesus, I believe with all my heart that you are my Lord and Savior.
• Thank you for dying for my sins and for rising again the third day. My sins are forgiven.
• You are my Lord and Savior and I receive your Holy Spirit that empowers me to live for you.
• I'm a new person. I am saved in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

It's a new day for you and all your battles are over, says the Lord

He has taken away all that the enemy was setting up as a hindrance to your future

I call you blessed. Blessed in the city and blessed in the field. Blessed in your going out and blessed in your coming in Deuteronomy 28:3 to Deuteronomy 28:6

The anointing to build

I see the angels of the Lord put the tools in your hands. You will repair bridges. You will restore. You are part of the restorers of the dignity of this nation

The zeal of the Lord will perform it

In the next 12 years, some of the things God has been putting in your heart, you will have the platform to execute

I see your seat added to the table