Hallelujah! Good morning, look at yourself and say I am blessed; look left and right and tell your neighbor ‘you are blessed’; why don’t we look around ourselves and say ‘we are blessed’. Since I joined CTL, this is home, we are the blessed family, hallelujah!
This morning, your blessing has come. I don’t care what the devil has said to you before you came here, blessing is God assisting a man to succeed in whatever he does; I declare this morning because you are part of this service, your blessing has come.
I don’t know how you slept overnight, weeping may have endured for the night; I came here to prophesy to you that your morning of joy has come.
May be you’ve been living a life of shame, glory is the opposite of shame, God is going to clothe somebody with garment of glory from this day in the name of Jesus.
Before you sit down and I say any other thing, as I was driving from home this morning, it occurred that the first word I needed to say to somebody is based on Psalm 102: 13, it says “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion (me): why? For the time to favour her (me), yea, the set time, is come”.
As I was coming, I was joining this church online and the sister prayed for mercy this morning; God has decided to show mercy this morning and because of that, your set time for favor has come. Lift up your voice and say Father, I receive favor today; the favor of God that will single me out for blessing, the favor of God that will purpose me out for healing, the favor of God that will give me exceptional promotion, Lord, I receive favor as I stand in Your presence my set time of favor, this week is my week of favor, this month is my month if favor, thank You Lord, in Jesus matchless name we have prayed.
Daddy, we are grateful for the gift of life; twelfth day of the fifth month, we are still alive, we are well, we are strong, our bodies can move, our hands are still able to wave, Daddy we say glory be to Your holy name.
Thank You for Christ the Lord Parish, the central parish in Lekki here; Daddy, You ordained today, I ask that You take complete control. Nothing of us all of you, whatever You will do in this service that will give You maximum glory, please do just that. As we have prayed, let us be clothed with the garment of favor; Daddy, let it show forth this week.
Daddy, Your word is not the word of man, Daddy, what we came to hear today is not the crafty words, enticing words of man’s wisdom, Daddy, if we came to hear any Pastor Kpandei, we have wasted our time because he has nothing to say, Holy Spirit, we want to hear You, let Your word come with power, let Your word come with great grace, let Your word perform, let Your people be blessed, thank You Father, in Jesus matchless name we prayed.
It’s my joy to be here and today is very different; I thank the Pastor in Charge of this Province, the Pastor in Charge of CTL, the one who I call ‘the dollar’, your Pastor and his wife, the one I call ‘Oriaku – eating the man’s money’, can we please celebrate them.
You see, we are happy to be here, I said today is different, please celebrate all our ministers and all the great people. You see, it’s only here when I’m coming, great SANs and Judges will come and be standing, please celebrate all these great men of God, God bless you; all our women of God, God bless you, I really appreciate you.
Today is full day for me here, that’s what makes today different, I had thought I would come for second service because I’m staying here today officially to visit Lagos Province 20, so it meant I will stay till about 4:00pm today. He told me last night I’m locked in today, so he said you must come for 8:00, so I’m here, and I pray that God will bless you in Jesus name.
This morning for the next few minutes, now we’ve gone through all these, God has a word for you. I spent time to say Lord, what do You want me to share with these Your children because if they came and You spoke to them, their lives will be changed, they will go out transformed.
There is this scripture that drives this church for this month, and that is why Micah 6: 8, “ He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” I read that scripture and believe God has something to say; when I read that scripture, I was reminded of what the word of God says in Revelation 4: 11, it says “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created”.
Everything was created, everything is being created for just one purpose, for the pleasure of God. I am created to give Him pleasure; everything He makes out of me is to give Him pleasure. Every one of us, everything about our lives is to give God pleasure, never forget that. And if purpose is known, then you can deal with expectation, praise the name of the Lord!
He created me for pleasure – His pleasure, so that scripture says what does He expect of me? And that’s a question every one of us must keep answering every day; God keeping me alive, what does He expect of me? God blessing me, what does He expect of me? God healing me, what does He expect of me? In a time and a season like this, what does God expect of me?
I’m going to move a little from the three things you saw there because the Lord asked me too just like Micah to share with you three divine expectation for every one of us in a season like this, praise the name of the Lord! And they are very simple things;
Number one is that you should make sure you are saved. Too many people are involved in religion, too many people are involved in religious rituals; many of us, we are doing what does God expect of me – to come to church, that’s not correct. God’s number one expectation for every one of us in a season like this where it is clear that we are at the end of the age is to make sure we are saved, and Acts 4: 12 says “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved”.
Today, 12th day of May, you came to church, God decided to divert a message in a way you probably expected, for me to ask you are you sure of your salvation? Everything else rests on this, and I want to say it like that man, the prisoner, when he had this encounter in Acts 16: 30 & 31, he says “Sirs, what must I do to be saved”? Too many people have no assurance that they are saved; I beg you today, forget your position; I beg you today, forget how long you’ve been around the church; I beg you today, forget what people think about you; I came here because God sent me to challenge you again and if you are hearing God, you are saying what must I do to be saved? Very simple, in verse 31, He says “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”.
Today, make up your mind, I will acknowledge that I am a sinner; I will throw away every pride and ego; sin loves to be covered, say I will not cover my sin, I will acknowledge that I am a sinner, I will acknowledge that I cannot save myself, I will acknowledge that the only name which I can be saved is Jesus Christ and I will call upon Him to show me mercy, and I will invite Him to come into my heart and take over my life and then He has promised (in John 1: 11) that as many as received, He gave them power to become sons of God. Invite Him today, and I’m going to give opportunity for that shortly, it’s not for small men – today is a big one, praise the name of the Lord!
So what is the number one thing God expects me to do? To make sure I am saved. What does God expects me to do? What gives God pleasure? Number two: that I live a holy life. Let me tell you, many of us are living anyhow, the Lord gave me the scripture in 1st Peter 1: 13 – 16, “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; (now hit it here) 14 As obedient children (that’s the whole essence of holiness – total obedience to the word of God, that’s what endeared me to Daddy G.O, the day he defined holiness, not as to the way I cut my hair or as the way I wear my clothes, but as total obedience to God’s words and all of us know what God says on the issues of life, on the way we treat our spouses, on the way we handle our children, on the way we handle our workplace, on the way we deal with other people, whatever these things are, He says) not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: there are lifestyles that we were living when we did not know, in fact, you may probably have been living it before you came to this service, now you know, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
If there are areas you know today you’ve been living in disobedience to God’s word, He says 15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; (that word ‘conversation’ is behavior, your lifestyle; tell yourself, live a lifestyle of holiness.
Hey, you didn’t like this preaching this morning, oh boy, you know but I came because God sent me to preach this message – a lifestyle of holiness; make up your mind, it’s not difficult, it’s just a decision; from now, I am saved, I must make sure that I obey God’s word; if in any area I miss it, I will tremble and cry out to Him and say Lord, I am sorry, forgive me, I won’t do it this way.
I speak to many young people, you are living reckless lives here, people are telling you stories, people are sleeping around, people are behaving disorderly as my mama will say, today, the truth is what God sent me to tell you; many of us in the way we do business, we are doing business without relevance to what God’s word says.
We are relating, we are ruling, we are doing things; today, God has a word for all of us, what is the word? Be holy. Why? Because the One who called you is holy, the Lord bless us in Jesus name.
And the final one for this season, and this is so important; for you to know why this is important, you need to have what God thinks about the season we are in; Jesus was walking with His people in John 4: 35 – 38, it says “ Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. 36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. Tell your neighbor, now is harvest time; now tell yourself, now is harvest time.
Now, very important, what does God require of me at harvest time? To join in the harvest and win souls. Too many of us, yes, we are living life, we are saved, we are living holy, but we are complacent about winning souls.
I believe the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, and usually we have excuses and I can tell you that this morning, God said I should tell you that everywhere, every day you are going around, you have opportunities to tell somebody about Jesus. In the aircraft as you sit there, tell somebody this was my life, I had an encounter with Jesus, now this is the change that has come to me, if you do same, this change will come to you, will you like to receive Jesus?
Craft your own one-minute testimony, he has the opportunity either to say yes or no, you have done your bit. For some of us, we need to do like Cornelius, gather your people to where they can hear; I’m sure they’ve been pushing you, telling you invite somebody to church; there are people oh come, you’ll put them here, the day God will speak to them, it will be to your credit.
Cornelius gathered his kinsmen, he gathered his friends and family members. I tell people in the churches I pastor, I say listen, especially the big people, turn your little birthday to a time to preach; gather them and when you say come to my house, put them by the poolside, call the pastor, share the word.
God is challenging us, we have been too complacent. What does God expect of me? Win souls anyhow, no excuse. We have influence, use this influence to tell people about Jesus.
There is one young man in the Bible, the first time I saw that God called a man a fool in Luke 12; what was this guy’s problem? He did not use the blessings of God for things of eternal value; he thought God’s blessings are for me to put up my hands and say do you know I’m the newest millionaire in town? You know I’ve just hit my first billion; do you know I’m the smartest IT guy here? All these things He did for us is for His pleasure, use your resources, whatever they are – intellect, money, whatever, skills (young people) to gather for eternity, and the only thing He will count for us in eternity is how many souls?
I am wrapping up because we are going to pray. There’s a song that when I learnt it those days and the story behind it, it always makes me be careful; it’s the story of a man who was on a sickbed, a good Christian and he knew it was time to die, and it became clear he had nothing to show and he wrote the song, ‘Must I go an empty-handed’? Must I meet my Savior, not one soul with which to greet him? Must I empty-handedly go?
Today is God’s day of opportunity; maybe I could have preached a more fanciful message and you would have been it but I came here because God wanted to talk to somebody, what does God require of me? Number one, to make sure I am saved, do it today, don’t postpone it; number two, live a holy life; number three, anyhow, win souls, let’s go into the harvest, let’s reap, somebody will receive reward.
God rewards, all the things you need, as you do these, you will testify soon.
So we are going to pray: number one prayer somebody is going to pray is Father, I am a sinner, everybody may think I’m a great guy but I know, God knows that I am a sinner, I need mercy.
The story of the publican who came to church, not like us who say is he a Pharisee? Who say I pay tithe and we are the ones sponsoring God’s work but the publican said Lord, be merciful; He said one left justified, somebody will leave here justified today.
It’s time for prayer; we are praying three prayers quickly, please close your eyes, think about the word of God this morning and if you are here you want to pray that prayer, number one prayer, a prayer that starts it off, you are not sure today of your salvation, yes, you’ve done it, you want to be sure today, if there are any such persons, please lift your right hand up wherever you are and just wave it.
Lift your two hands (it’s a mark of surrender) and say Jesus, I lift my hands, I surrender to You, please have mercy on me, please forgive me my sins; today, come into my heart, come and be my Lord and my Savior, I believe in You that You are the Son of God, please write my name in the Book of Life, and from today, give me power to live a new life as a child of God in Jesus name.
Father, this Your children, You brought them, please show them mercy, please forgive them and give them a brand new life, let the change in them today be permanent, let it be genuine till they make it to heaven, in Jesus name we prayed.
Say Father, I am Your child, Your desire is for me to live holy, every area where I’ve been struggling with obeying Your word, today oh God, forgive me, give me grace from now to live as a holy person. Say Lord, I need grace this morning, I want to step out of this place a new lifestyle; Lord, I want to live a new lifestyle, I want to live holy, I want to please You, I want to do Your bidding, I want to obey your word. Say Daddy please, release grace on me today, grace to live holy, thank You Father, in Jesus matchless name we prayed.
Now lift your two hands up as we pray this one and say Father, thank You for reminding me that it is harvest time, today oh God, release grace on me to preach the word, to win souls, to use everything I have to enlarge Your kingdom. Say Lord, I don’t want to go empty, Lord, I don’t want to die with no souls; Daddy, today is the twelfth day of the fifth month, Daddy, release help to me, everything that has been a limitation or an excuse to my sharing the word, to my bringing my people to Christ.
Father please, the way I’ve been coming, I cannot even invite somebody to church; Father from this moment, please help me, help me Lord; Daddy I don’t want this word to be held against me, Daddy today, change me oh God, thank You Lord, in Jesus name we have prayed.
Now you will receive the prayer and agree with me as I pray; Father in the name of Jesus, Your word has gone forth, You don’t send Your word carelessly, it is on purpose, let purpose be achieved in the lives of everyone saying amen now in the name of Jesus.
Daddy, everyone saying ‘amen’ are already saved by their own confession, I pray that we will receive grace for a lifestyle of holiness in Jesus name. I pray that we receive grace to become passionate soul winners, to do those little things we need to do, to bring men into Your kingdom, to labor with everything we have, to enlarge our Kingdom.
Daddy as we do, I pray this week as Your people go, let them receive reward; reward in health, reward in joy, reward in harmony in families. Father, bless all Your children, give them promotions, answer to their prayers, let them return next Sunday with testimonies, thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus name we have prayed.
