Let somebody shout hallelujah! [Music] Praise the Lord! Praise the living Jesus! As powerful as that song is, only a very few actually demonstrated what I call gladness, you said God has made you glad and you are doing like this; you know you cannot be joyful and you hide it, joy is not something that could be hidden, so I need you to experience joy.
[Music]
Immortal, invisible, the only wise God, we bless Your name this morning; thank You for the gift of life, thank You for victory that You have given unto us, thank You Father Almighty God for bringing us into the eighth month, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus.
Lord, You have done so much for us and the truth of the matter is that we cannot count all the things You have done; from January to date has been by Your grace; there have been storms, there have been battles, there have been confrontations, there have been backstabbing, there have been contentions both in the physical realm and the spiritual realm, but Lord, it has pleased You to give us victory.
Thank You Father, for provision, thank You for protection, thank You for Your guidance, for January, for February, for the month of March, for April, for May, for June, for provision in July, and thank You for bringing us to the new month. Thank You for a new beginning, a new beginning of joy, a new beginning of grace, a new beginning of a new walk with You, a new beginning of inspiration; thank You because You never leave us the same, thank You for always taking us forward, accept our praises in the name of Jesus Christ.
If we have a thousand of tongues like that songwriter has said, they are not enough to glorify You; we are products of Your mercy, it is Your mercy that is keeping us standing, the devil would have wished that we were not alive again, Lord, thank You for dashing the expectations of the enemies, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus Christ.
Thank You for this glorious new month, the month of a new beginning and the season for the overcomers, Lord, our testimonies will shake the world, accept our praises in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, it is in Your word that it is not in a man to direct his path, and that’s why Lord, we commit this new month onto Your hands that You will direct us, You will lead us, You will guide us all the way, You will carry us in Your wings and You will have our back in all situations, and at the end of everything Lord, we will sing the songs of rejoicing.
We remember all Your children who have been faithful in the payments of their tithes and the giving of their offering, Father, we pray that in blessing You continue to bless them in every area of their lives, none of them will know a better yesterday, from glory to glory You will take them. And so God of heaven, we commit today’s service onto Your hands, Lord, register Your presence strongly among us, do that which only You can do. Accept us, accept our worship, and at the end of everything today, let only Your name be exalted, in Jesus marvelous name we have prayed.
I want you to help me tell your neighbor, welcome to the month of a new beginning, welcome to a fresh start, you will experience newness in every aspect of your life, and so shall it be in Jesus name. Praise the Lord!
I welcome you once again to this glorious service in the name of God the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I pray that God will dwell in our midst and prove Himself in this fellowship today in Jesus name. It’s also a pleasure to welcome you to the new month of August, eight represents a new beginning, and in our assembly here by the grace of God, we’ve been led to declare this month as our Month of a Fresh Start, and the anchor scripture for this month is found in Isaiah 43: 19; there, God assured us of a new beginning, He said, “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Brethren, I have this assurance and I want you to be expectant that in this month and beyond, there shall be rivers in your desert in the mighty name of Jesus. When you talk about miracles, you talk about something that is beyond human imagination, when God says I will do a thing, God is not a man, God is God, and whatever He says He will do, so expect rivers in your desert, in every aspect of your life you will experience newness in Jesus name.
Also this month is a special month for us and for Redeemed Christian Church of God, it’s our month of our Annual Convention; for ministers and workers, it started since Thursday, some of us have been going up and down but generally it starts tomorrow and the theme for this year is “The Overcomers”. I told them in the workers meeting this morning that there will be a renewed grace to overcome, renewed capacity to overcome. You know we are created for dominion, you are not created to be trampled upon, you are a candidate for victory and by the grace of God you will take your place in the name of Jesus.
So make sure you are part of it, and if for any reason you cannot go, if for any reason beyond your control you cannot go, make sure you join online. There are many social media platforms where the program will be relayed, so in the event that you cannot make it physically, make sure you tap into it, I can assure you that your life will not remain the same. Ministering of course is no other than our father in the Lord, Pastor E.A. Adeboye and other anointed men of God, it promises to be great and you’ll come back with loads of testimonies in Jesus name.
Don’t allow the thought of school fees that you will pay in September to drown your amen, the shouting side is a winning side, very soon you will join our group. Let the winners in the house shout hallelujah! God will provide school fees for you, I told you earlier that there will be rivers in your desert, if it requires God to send the money through the fish, fish has done it before and it will do it again, raven did it for Elijah, you must learn to walk with God by faith and you will testify in Jesus name.
There will be no weekly services all through this week; our next meeting will be on Sunday. By the power conferred on me, all services – Monday to Friday here is suspended, the next meeting we have here will be next week Sunday. The Lord will bless you in Jesus name.
[Birthday Thanksgiving]
Isaiah 42, we just want to give you the first course as usual because our father in the Lord will be reaching out very soon, and as usual, we’ll like to hook up, but before then, let’s open our Bible to Isaiah 42: 10 – 13; “Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. 11Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. 12Let them give glory unto the Lord, and declare his praise in the islands. 13The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: He shall cry, yea, roar; He shall prevail against his enemies.” As you praise God today, God will give you a permanent victory over your foes in the name of Jesus Christ.
Today I will be talking to us very briefly on the topic “In His Praise”, it’s a three-word topic, and we have every reason to appreciate the Almighty God for giving us another opportunity to celebrate His goodness in our lives individually and of course collectively. We are grateful to God for the gifts of life and health, we are here today all because we are alive, you know where the dead are kept, and when a man dies he loses it, what I meant by that is that he’s no longer in control, he can only move to the extent that he’s being carried; but we are on our own, we came to His presence this morning just by ourselves to the praise and glory of God, and it is my prayer that God will accept us today and accept our worship in the mighty name of Jesus. He will accept the fruits of our lips in the mighty name of Jesus.
Brethren, prayer and praise are very powerful means of gaining access to God. However, it is often said and is confirmed in the scriptures that it is possible for us to pray amiss, it is possible; the Bible says that we pray a lot of times and we pray amiss, when we don’t offer prayers in line with the godly principles, God will not answer such a prayer. But the good news is that you cannot praise amiss, no man praises amiss; in fact the Bible says wherever I’m being lifted up, in other words wherever God is being praised, He does something and that is He draws people, He pulls people to Himself. My prayer for every one of you under the influence of my voice this morning is that as we praise Him today, God will draw us closer to Him.
Still talking about prayer, we do pray because we have faith, one of the key drivers of prayer is faith, but we also do pray out of fear. There are factors, many reasons why people come to pray; there are some who come to pray because they have faith, because the Bible says whatever you pray for, believe in prayer that the Lord has done it, but there are people who come to church to pray out of fear; when people have issues, when people have problems, whether at work, whether at home, often time the next place to go is the church simply because they want to seek the face of God for divine intervention.
But praise is a demonstration of our faith in God, praise the Lord! Prayer does not necessarily mean a demonstration of faith, because if that prayer is induced by fear, what you just need is a way out, but when you praise God, is a demonstration of our faith in God. You pray to Someone that you consider reasonable, up higher and that has done something good, so praise is a demonstration of our faith in God.
So knowing the value of our faith in our relationship with God, I want us to go further this morning by reminding ourselves of how the totality of our lives should be a continuous praise unto God, for that is the whole essence of our being, and guess what, God truly and genuinely creates for it. In Isaiah 43:21, it says, “These people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise.”; Revelation 4:11 says, “Thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” The whole essence of our being is for the praise of our God.
Now to the big question, how can our lives be of a continuous praise to Him? Firstly is by surrendering our lives to Him, that is, by accepting Him as our Lord and personal Savior. Matthew 3: 16 & 17, and Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were open unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. 17And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. My prayer this morning is that you will hear a voice from heaven, declaring your approval, declaring your acceptance in the mighty name of Jesus.
So these scriptures underscore the importance of being born again as a necessary prerequisite to a life that delights God. You must know that at the point that God declares to be well pleased with Jesus, His earthly ministry has not even began, He has not started at all, but yet God gave the testimony because Jesus is His Son and He was certain of what Jesus will do, so God was saying watch out, His life will be a praise to me. I hope and I wish that God will be able to vouch for you and I and God will be able to say upfront that this is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased.
So this is exactly what salvation does for you because you become born of God that can truly praise Him, therefore brethren, you need to have the right identity with the Almighty God, and the starting point of the new identity with God is to become born again. In John 1:11 & 12, it says He came unto his own, but his own received him not. But as many that received him, he gave to them power to become sons of God. And in John 3:16, that popular scripture says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” I decree everlasting life to as many of you that are in desperate need of it in the name of Jesus Christ.
Number two, you need to live for Him. I’m talking about how our life can be a continuous praise; number one, I said you need to give your life to Christ; number two, you need to live for Him, and I want to say this morning that life is about interpretation; how you interpret it depends solely on you. Your interpretation of life, your make as far as life is concerned is a function of number one, your environment; number two, your perception of life.
How do we interpret life? Sometimes we see life as a race, and for those who see life as a race, they are always very competitive; for those who see life as a race, they are always very combative, in fact, they take competition to the next level. There are some that will even compete with their own children because that is their interpretation of life; when you see brothers competing with brothers, sister competing with brothers, it is interpretation of life because he has the mentality that he has to be ahead of these other people, but the danger is when you see life as a competition, it brings about contention and bad blood, they compete with everything around them.
There are some who see life as a war and every day is a continuous fight; they will fight physically, they will fight spiritually; they will bind, every day they are binding, in the afternoon they are binding, in the evening they are binding, in the night they are binding, sometime you wonder, ogbeni, what is the problem? But that is his own interpretation of life because he sees life as a war and he will fight and fight. When he sees a cockroach, they have come again, when mosquito bites, they have come again, when he sees a bird that perches on the frame of his window, ha, tani mo șę (who have I offended?) because for him or for her, life is a war. I pray for as many of you that are under that situation, God will deliver you today in Jesus name.
Some other people see life as gain and so they want to acquire as much as they can, and in some cases, they pursue material gains to a dangerous point, they want to buy everything off the shelf so that nobody has any other thing, but the good news and the ultimate thing is that we must see life as an assignment, as believers, we must see life as an assignment.
I saw a quote this morning, somebody said something to me and I find it very relevant to this exhortation; he said in a race between a lion and a deer, (he said) many times the deer wins because the lion runs for food and deers run for life. He said remember that purpose is more important than need, you know how strong, how powerful a lion can be, but often time in a competition between a lion and deer, often time the deer wins, reason simply because lion is looking for food, by the time he’s chasing a deer and if alone he finds an antelope, he just perches on it and leave the deer to go, but deer runs for life.
So on this note I draw the curtain, I hear my father in the Lord is ready to come, if time permits, if you are interested in the second service you’ll get the full load. The Lord bless you. Stay tuned.
