Our Father and our God, this morning once again we want to thank You; we thank You for Your love, we thank You for Your mercy, we thank You for Your compassion, we thank You for Your grace, we thank You for Your help and we thank You for Your faithfulness, thank You Lord in the name of Jesus.
We return to You all the praise and glory, we started 2025, just like yesterday we’re rounding up June, it is by Your mercy that we have been kept, so we return all the praise and glory to You even as You continue with us if You tarry in the name of Jesus.
This morning Almighty God, show Yourself Almighty in the congregation of Your people as You move to save, to heal, to deliver, to set the captives free; thank You as You are going to replace mourning with dancing, thank You Lord God Almighty that no one will go from here the way they came, just take all the praise and glory as Your name is being magnified, in Jesus matchless name. Praise the Lord!
Good morning church, I‘m happy to be back, I keep coming back, praise the Lord! Pastor told me that your theme for this month is Favor, and he said the anchor scripture was Psalm 30: 5. This morning I’m going to bring you the word of encouragement from Psalm 30: 5, added to the word of encouragement I’m going to do a bit of teaching and I believe that God will meet you at the very point of your needs.
Psalm 35 says “For His anger is for a moment and His favor is for a lifetime; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning”; that is the word of God, the Bible says the word of God will never return void, the word of God is settled in heaven, the word of God is embedded with power to make it work for you and I, the word of God is spirit and life unto us and God is faithful, He watches over His word to perform it, He will perform in His word in all of our lives this morning in the name of Jesus.
Before I go into the sermon proper, I must make certain categorical statements, positionally and legally, God has provided everything that you and I will ever need through the blood of Jesus on the cross, but these things do not automatically fall on our laps because sometimes the way that they preach to us ‘take it, claim it, receive it’ is causing a lot of confusion, God operates with principles, as I’m standing here this morning I could preach until my face becomes blue even as a black woman, but if you do not receive the grace of God, the favor of God and believe what has been preached to you and come to the altar, there’s no way you can be saved, and it is the same with every other thing that God provides, God has provided it, it is yours but there are ways that you have to pass through to be able to access it.
Favor is not going to just fall on your lap, that’s what I’m trying to say in a nutshell, there is favor, abundant favor, more than enough favor but it’s not going to fall on your lap, as I’m standing here this morning I’m a product of favor but I don’t want to go into that testimony.
In this fallen world, (I’m going to begin the sermon now), there’s a lot of sorrow and there’s a lot of things that cause people to weep, we cannot be going into all of it, some of you know it, people are married for 20, 30 years they haven’t had a baby; people have been praying to have a husband for donkey years, they’re already 60 there is no husband; people have been promised heaven and earth by the people that are very close and dear to them, they have suffered serious disappointment; name it, you know the problems that make people weep, you have a beloved person that you think that they will never die, I don’t know where people get that idea from, then suddenly they just pack their load and leave you and go, it takes a lot of grace of God, favor of God to get over situations like that, but God is assuring us from this anchor scripture this morning that weeping may endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning. Your morning of joy is now in the name of Jesus Christ.
And because God is a faithful God like I said, embedded in this verse is the encouragement that you need to hang in there, you don’t have to give up, what truncates people’s destiny is that they give up too soon, some people even give up when their miracle is around the corner, God has told you categorically in His word this morning that weeping may endure for a night, ‘but’ that single word emphasizes it, joy cometh in the morning, you can trust God’s faithfulness, joy will come into your life in Jesus name.
If God were not true I won’t be standing here this morning, people ask me if they ask you to describe God in very few words, I can describe God in three words; God is faithful, if you are born again because that is basic, if you genuinely belong to God and that does not say you are perfect and I’m not saying don’t be perfect, so don’t quote me out of context, but if God knows that body, soul and spirit you belong to Him, there is no way He will leave you in your trouble, it’s not possible.
He says in the world you will have tribulation and that is to the children of God, He says but be of good cheer, I have conquered the world for you, He has won the war on Calvary cross for you and He has never lost a battle, if He will lose a battle I won’t be here this morning, if He will judge me according to my sin and the multitude of my transgression I won’t be standing here this morning, if He will answer the prayers of the enemy that when I wake up in the morning, ‘ha, obinrin oni wahala yii tun ji’, because they have tried everything they could so I won’t wake up and then I wake up, it is because of the faithfulness of God, eni t’o ba pa l’oku, eni ti o ba pa wa laye sibesibe, (I don’t know how to say that in English very adequately) but if you are a genuinely born again child of God, don’t be afraid that anybody can kill you, they can punish you, they can postpone what God wants to do with you but they can never win, hallelujah!
Joseph is a classical example, there was nothing they didn’t do to truncate God’s destiny concerning him but at the end of the day he arrived in his promised land; as you have sung this morning, you will arrive in your promised land in the name of Jesus; every wall of Jericho that has been built to corner all of your inheritance of the cross, they are going to collapse this morning, blessed be the name of the Lord.
When the night is long, because if you are in sorrow the night can be long, you put your head on the pillow and you are weeping and morning refuses to come, morning will come and this is the morning in the name of Jesus. Psalm 30: 5 says the sorrow is going to end, the weeping is going to end, these too will pass in the name of Jesus Christ.
As painful as our seasons of sorrow is, it is only a season, it’s not going to last for a lifetime, the Bible has already told you that, blessed be the name of the Lord, God is going to remove your sackcloth in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and you are going to sing praises unto the Lord in Jesus name. God promises to let everything work together for good for you, it is in His word, Romans 8:28, and when He says everything will work together for good for you, it is not when things are always rosy and beautiful, even some of the painful problems that you have right now God is going to use it for His glory and for your good.
I don’t know where testimony is bubbling up in me this morning but I have limited time, when I was going through my trouble I thought there will be no end, long story short, for the first 16 years I suffered in my marriage and my greatest desire was just to get out, but thank God for people who when they are not even born again they are destiny helpers, we are talking of destiny helpers this season that will tell you ‘don’t go, it will end, stay, it will be good, it will work out’, thank God I stayed, everything that I’ve gone through in my marriage God is using it now in my ministry, He causes everything to work together for good for you and for His glory, blessed be the name of the Lord.
He did it for Joseph, He did it for David, can you imagine somebody that is going off, they’ve called you to come and bring comfort to the person and at the end of the day all they wanted to do is to have you dead and you keep running and running and you think there will be no end, the end came and David was enthroned in Israel, blessed be the name of the Lord. Those who are saying you will not be enthroned or those who are sitting on your chair, this morning God is going to dislocate them in the name of Jesus.
God did it for Paul, Paul thought he was fighting for God, there was nothing he didn’t do, God encountered him in His favor on his way to Damascus to go and bring Christians to be killed, that is the God I’m talking about this morning and his destiny was finally fulfilled, you will fulfill your destiny. It does not matter what tight corner Satan has put you in, you may be in a hard place this morning, joy comes in the morning, God is going to bring you out of that difficult situation because of His favor upon your life, blessed be the name of the Lord.
But when we are talking about favor, we need to know what we are talking about, what is favor, what does the word favor actually mean? Favor is that thing that causes you to be noticed, favor puts you in a place – you may not even been entitled to be in that place, like I said, testimonies are just bubbling up within me; when my husband passed on in 2002, I’m very dramatic, I’m not a business person, so I said to myself I give up all the business and I’m going to church, my children said to me, what are you going to do in church? And then if you leave everything behind what are you going to eat? I just was not thinking along those lines, all I wanted to do is just go and be with God, then I went to church and in 2003 (I think, I hope I got it right), I got a letter from…
Let me say first of all that my husband was a senior pastor and I considered myself as a pastor’s wife, so all I did was follow my husband around, so when he left I was on my own, I didn’t even quite believe that God will do all the things that He has done; then in 2003 I got a letter from the national and they said I was to go to Abule Odo, (I think you were my Assistant Provincial Pastor, no, I was an Assistant Provincial Pastor before you came), so I went to the then Pastor Akindele (of blessed memory), I said how can I go and be an Assistant Provincial Pastor, (APICP is what they call them now), I said number one, I was never a Parish Pastor, that is the rule, that is the line of operation, that is the due process, I was never a Parish Pastor, I was never an Area Pastor, I was never a Zonal Pastor, how come I can go and now be an Assistant Provincial Pastor when all these rules and regulation are in your book? So they won’t say I’ve come to bribe my way to the position, I don’t want to be.
So Pastor said go and make your complaint to Daddy GO, so I went to Daddy G.O and characteristically when I made my complaint he was just laughing, I said this is a serious matter, why are you laughing? Everybody knows I’m mommy G.O’s friend o, they will now say that they are doing magomago for me and I don’t want any magomago, G.O said to me, go and do your work, that’s how I became an Assistant Provincial Pastor.
Then I think about three or two years later, my Provincial Pastor japa and then they now came and said I was to be the Provincial Pastor; I took over as the Provincial Pastor, Pastor Pande became my assistant in 2004, then in 2008 when they said I was to come back to Lekki, Pande took over, he was promoted. Anyway long story short, I came from not being a Parish Pastor, not being an Area Pastor, not being a Zonal Pastor to become an Assistant Provincial Pastor, that is grace, because number one, I’m not the only woman in the Redeemed Christian Church of God; number two, I’m not the most qualified and qualification vary, even if I have the grammar, even if I have the word, even if I have everything, I don’t normally deceive myself, if I look into myself I didn’t think I was a pastor, because if I begin to shout here now, it will be as if the roof wants to come down, they know me, it is God who has worked on me that I am the way I am this morning, but we are talking of favor this morning, favor has taken me from nowhere to be who I am today, praise the Lord!
So favor is that thing that makes people prefer you, they pick you right from the back and they bring you in front, but you may be saying how can that be possible, that is not something you can logic, when God determines to do a thing He will do it anyway, I’ve been enjoying this favor from time to time, from Provincial Pastor to the Special Assistant to the General Overseer, Women Affairs, I was the only woman among about how many of them, so I needed to be strong and to be dramatic, so when they start I say look all of you, I will bring you into subjection now and so on; from there I became Regional Pastor and usually the only woman, and then from there, this morning he just said that by the grace of God I am the only woman on the Board of Trustees of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
Look, this is not to clap or to boast, what I’m telling you this morning is that God can bring you because of favor from the lowest rank of the ladder and put you to the top most part of the other, don’t look at where you are, look at the God that you were singing to this morning, the God who died for you and because He has died for you there is nothing else He will not give you, blessed be the name of the Lord! And when He puts you in that position through favor, don’t be afraid, the grace to operate in that position He will add it onto you, kii se mi mo n se, kii de n se agbara, kii se t’itobi eeyan, people have all the PhDs and all the LLBs and all the rest of it, they put them in a position, they can’t function properly, but when God puts you in a position, He has the grace for you to function; this morning you will receive the favor of God and God will add onto you the grace to function in that position.
Some of you are here this morning, I’ve been through a lot in my life, I got married, blessed be the name of the Lord, some people have been looking for husband they don’t have husband and then I got this husband that I thought would be my friend, when I sit he will say I didn’t sit properly, when I stand he will say I didn’t stand properly, when I talk you say I’m not talking the way I should be talking as a wife, I’ve gotten a husband but where is the grace to function in the position, because unless you have the grace there’s no way you can please a husband, no way, and it’s not because he’s a bad man, it’s because we live in a fallen world, he might have seen someone in the office that prepares tea better than you do, if you prepare it the following day he will complain about it, these are very serious matter that you people are laughing at, we are talking of favor this morning, God is going to bring His favor to be upon your life, and when He has brought the favor to be upon your life, He will put the grace for you to function in that position.
Grace is when you are preferred, you are promoted above other people, they just call you and say come and sit in this chair, it’s not that you deserve it, you are going to have that favor this morning and God is going to add grace to function in the position, blessed be the name of the Lord.
You now know what favor is, favor is not something that you deserve, favor is just that God is looking at you and just picks you out of the crowd and puts you where you don’t deserve, blessed be the name of the Lord! So I was saying to you that you need the favor, God already provided the favor but like I said at the beginning, favor doesn’t just fall on your lap, there are certain things you can do to access favor because they will tell you God is no respecter of persons, I think that is in Acts 10:34, God is no respecter of persons, they will tell you that God is not partial, I think that is in Romans 2:1, but God bestows favor, that’s all I can say so that I won’t say something that is not correct.
The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 16:9a, the eyes of the Lord runs to and fro the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of those whose hearts are perfect towards Him; God is looking for people like that, I also said at the beginning because they will say you must be perfect that God is perfect, I don’t know and I don’t want to preach contrary to what the church is preaching, but if I stand here this morning and tell you that I’m perfect, I’ll be telling you a lie, I still have my struggles, all of those terrible things – Moses was a very angry man and he kept subduing the anger, God kept helping him; in an unguarded moment he was angry and that anger didn’t allow him to enter the promised land, so as born again children of God, we must be vigilant, we can’t take anything for granted, God is working upon us every day but we have to be aware, to be sober, to be vigilant.
God is looking for people whose heart – and I want to emphasize the heart position now, quite a few people know me in the church here and all the things that I used to do, I thank God that God is peeling the layers of what is not good off and I know He will continue to do that until I see Him in glory, blessed be the name of the Lord! But that is not to say that if I’m unguarded I can’t slide back, that’s why I have to be guided and vigilant. God is – Yoruba will say o ri’nu, o ro’de, oun ni olumoran okan, sitting here this morning if you normally assess yourself as I normally do, you will see areas of your life that does not align with the will of God and when you see those areas, honestly, genuinely, sincerely you don’t want it, when God sees that kind of a heart then He brings favor.
What I want to tell you this morning is that you should have a pure heart towards God, if He sees that 100% your heart belongs to Him, all the weaknesses that will not allow you to have favor He will remove it from you in the mighty name of Jesus.
So what are those characteristics that God sees in a man and then He bestows His favor? If you look at His friend, Enoch, in Genesis 5:22- 24, the Bible says God used to come and walk with him, they will come in and go out together, one day He just decided this going up and down is enough, come with me, that’s the greatest that God can do for a man, that he will not taste death and he will just go with God, blessed be the name of the Lord.
There are some of us standing and sitting here this morning, we will not taste death, we will go in the rapture, it’s very close, I don’t know how close, look at all what is happening, it’s very close, I don’t say it’s tomorrow, don’t go and quote me that I say the rapture is next week but it’s very close, we are nearer home than when we first began, blessed be the name of the Lord.
God is looking for people whose hearts belong to Him, people with pure hearts, people who desire genuinely not the one they say by their mouth, who desire to do the will of God, if you desire to do that God will send you favor in the mighty name of Jesus.
He’s looking for a friend, the Bible says Abraham was a friend of God, why, because he just trusted God; most of the time people in this area, I don’t know whether some people like that are in this church but in this area because of the education, if you say God will do this they say how is it possible, they are always logic about it, they put two and two together they say it’s four, sometimes it’s not four, I can’t explain it, when God wants to do a thing nobody can stop Him.
Mary, the mother of Jesus found favor; there were so many small girls around that time, why did God go to Mary? Because evidently she was a pure person and God saw that purity of heart and God chose her, God will choose you for favor today.
He’s looking for a friend, He’s looking for somebody whose heart is pure, He’s looking for somebody who is meek and humble; you are the Provincial Pastor and you are walking over everybody, you are talking anyhow, you are treating them anyhow, that kind of person can’t find favor, you have to be meek, you have to be gentle, blessed be the name of the Lord.
Another thing that I must say, I don’t know whether I’m preaching straightforwardly this morning, is that all these things that I’m saying starts with God and then ends with God; the Bible says God gives power to will and to do, you desire but usually you don’t have the power to do it, the God who has given you desire also gives you the power to do what He wants you to do so that He can bestow favor on you, hallelujah! You will get help from God this morning.
People are looking for meek and humble people, people who desire like I just said to do His will, you are not able to do it. Sometimes I promise myself, today I’m going to the office I’m not going to be angry, but by the time I enter the compound somebody is right there to make me angry and I just blow off, you can’t do that on your own, you cannot curtail anger on your own, it is by the spirit of God and God will bestow favor on you this morning by causing His Holy Spirit to walk in you and through you, blessed be the name of the Lord. Desire to do His will, desire to obey Him and God will give you the grace and the favor to do that, blessed be the name of the Lord.
Be totally surrendered to God, when I first came to church I had compartments in my life, I used to be a very (I don’t want to use the word ‘terrible’), I was a very good person, it’s just that it was not showing at that time, so when I go to Mommy or Daddy G.O, this is my prayer request, don’t bother about this, this one I don’t think God will be able to do this, daddy will say there’s nothing that God cannot do but I didn’t know that that time, this Mary that we are talking about, the mother of Jesus, she surrendered absolutely, she didn’t have compartments in her life to say ‘God look at this one, God don’t come here’, she just gave herself to God, she didn’t understand; being educated, even education is good oh but sometimes it hinders us, it tampers with our faith, you put two and two together and if it’s not four you begin to worry.
God is able to do anything and He did it for Mary; Mary said “how can this be Lord?” The angel told her “the Holy Spirit will come upon you.” And she said to the angel, ‘let it be done unto me according to Your word’; she knew all the trouble that can result from what she was trying to accept but in spite of that she trusted God. I used to have a favorite preacher, he will say “obey God, leave the consequences to Him”; if you are obeying God you may suffer but you will come out triumphant in the end, God will show you favor.
The Bible says nothing is impossible for God, Luke 1:37, it was Job who said God can do all things after the devil has tampered with him, he still beat his chest and said God can do all things, Job 42; God’s purpose cannot be frustrated, cannot be thwarted; concerning Abraham and Sarah; he said “I am the Lord God of all flesh, nothing is too hard for me.” Your situation will not be too hard for God, He will show you favor and the grace to hang in there He will add onto the favor, blessed be the name of the Lord.
Surrender yourself and see what God can do, and this favor that I’m talking about acts as a protective shield, when you have the favor of God you are shielded by God. God said to Abraham, ‘I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you’, they cannot overcome you because whatever they think that is evil if they don’t repent God sends it back sevenfold; that’s what He does when you have found favor with Him, so you have the protective shield of God, God safeguards you from harm, there is nothing that you are going through no matter how difficult, this season is very difficult in Nigeria but you left your home to come to church this morning, you are here, some people left their homes this morning, they didn’t get to where they were going and they won’t go back home, is not a curse, you know about all of this, it is God that is safeguarding you, it is God that is shielding you and it is as a result of His favor, everything you touch God is causing it to succeed it is as a result of His favor, it’s not that you can do it or how mighty you are, but God is able to do all things, nothing is impossible for God, nothing is too hard for God, that’s what His word says, blessed be the name of the Lord.
You can see all that in the characters of the Bible that we are talking about, you have your own part to play, you can’t behave disorderly and get favor, it’s not possible.
How do you remain in God’s favor? If you want God to favor you because I said to you that you have encouragement but you also have a teaching, there is no way that you can live in favor unless you remain born again; you cannot say you were born again 10 years ago and then you come into a tight corner and you say this thing is not working again and you walk away, God is not going to give up on you, but if you walk away God is not going to force you, He has given all of us freewill and He will not infringe our freewill, if you are born again and you don’t remain with God no matter what, if you walk away (God forbid), you’ll be walking into the den of the lion, God forbid.
So no matter what you are going through now, if you remain in God your problems will not overcome you; Jesus Christ has won the war finally on Calvary cross and the Bible says the battle belongs to Him, if He has lost a battle concerning me I won’t be here this morning, He has consistently fought my battles for me, He will fight your battles for you, but don’t let anybody come and tell you ah the times are very hard o, your salary is not enough for you and you join yahoo or you begin to cut corners to make more money, it may work for a time but it’s not going to be permanent, stay with Jesus, He can never fail, grow in your faith and stand firm and say ‘God this is what Your word says, I’m standing on Your word, Your word cannot fail’, if it’s coming from your heart God will never fail you, stand in faith and grow in your faith, blessed be the name of the Lord.
Continue to bear fruit, bearing fruit has so many ramification, you can go preach to people to bring them to God, then in your Christian walk you are expected to walk in love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, self-control, those are the fruits of the Spirit, you can bear fruit by bringing people to Jesus, you can also bear fruit by growing in your walk with God so that all the fruits that people will see in you that you don’t even have to preach they will come to God through you.
When you walk in the fruit of the Spirit you don’t have to go about saying ‘I’m a Christian’, when they see you they will know that you are a Christian. One day I was coming from London, I was in the plane sitting, I do a lot of reading, is one of my hobbies and I was quietly reading my book, then somebody came to me and said madam we have been on this trip for about 3 hours you haven’t spoken, what are you doing? So I showed him the book I was reading, he said okay, are you a Christian? I said yes; he said while I came, he said you look very much like somebody I used to know, I said yes, who is this person? Then he started talking, of course I knew him but I didn’t want him to know that I know him quickly, so he said to me, that person that I’m talking about can’t sit in this plane and not get up to go and greet somebody or get up to go and ask for something or get up to complain about something.
He said but the resemblance is striking, it’s a long time since I saw her but I just cannot contain myself. I said so who is this person? He said Tayo Adetola; I said she’s dead; he said really? I said it is me but this is a new me, that other one is dead; then I called him the name we used to call him in the politics of the former western region, he couldn’t believe it, he said is you? I said yes, it’s me, it’s not a ghost. That day he got an appointment to see Daddy G.O, it was a weekend, by Monday he was in the office to see Daddy G.O, he died a Christian.
I was preaching in London one good Sunday and when I came down from the pulpit a woman came to meet me and said mommy, I’m very glad to be in church today that you are in church. I said you know me before? She said I don’t, but my husband never stopped talking about you; I said who is your husband, she told me, and said this morning when you finished preaching, I came and gave my life to Christ, it’s a ripple effect, the fruit of the Spirit in you, your character bringing people to Christ, sometimes they see you that you are not even different from the person next to you that is not a Christian because the way you talk is the same, the way you walk is the same, the way you treat people is the same, grow in the fruits and God will bestow favor on you, blessed be the name of the Lord.
I want to make my final submission now, I started by telling you that nothing falls on your lap automatically, you need to access it, when you fix something into the computer you want to access it to get it back, Jesus died on the cross for you more than 2,000 years ago, everything you will ever need for the abundant life, for the more than abundant life here and for eternity in heaven has been provided but you need to come and access it, so if you are here this morning you have never given your life to Christ…
[Altar call]
I gave my life to Christ 44 years ago, I have never regretted it; I’m not telling you that I didn’t have problem, I had a lot of problems since then but I’ve come out triumphant, God is able to make you triumph. The way things are going you cannot help yourself, I’m not trying to make you afraid, and if you are here this morning the way things are going you say to yourself I will go and try something else, don’t try anything else, God is forever faithful, I told you that this morning and the Bible says God is looking for backsliders to come back home, it’s like the father of the prodigal son, He will not give up on you, but if you decide to walk away He will not force you.
Thank You Almighty God, blessed be the name of the Lord, we give You praise and glory for all these ones that have come, we thank You that You are the ever faithful God, blessed be Your holy name oh Lord in the name of Jesus. Those who are coming for the first time, Lord receive them in the name of Jesus, thank You Almighty God; prodigal sons that are coming back, receive them back in Jesus name, blessed be your holy name.
Stand up and let’s pray one prayer; our Father and our God in the name of Jesus, this morning we want to thank You for the favor that has brought all of us here and we thank You for the grace that You are adding to it, Lord God Almighty so that when we go away from here we will be instruments of honor in Your hand in the name of Jesus; our purpose and plan will be manifested in the name of Jesus, it will bring You glory and it will do us good, thank You Almighty God, blessed be Your holy name in Jesus matchless name.
