Let somebody shout hallelujah! Our Father and our God, the Lord who loved us, the Lord who changed us by His love, the Lord our Maker, our strength, our all in all, how good and pleasant it is to be in You. Thank You because Your presence always makes the difference, and thank You Father for not starving us with Your presence this morning, without any iota of doubt we can feel Your presence, and Lord Almighty God, with one recommitted and one reunited heart we say You ride on in our midst, accept our thanks Father in Jesus name.
Thank You for yesterday, thank You for today, thank You for our tomorrow; thank You for bringing us together this morning, it is not an accident that we are here, You have brought us so that You can refill us again, You have brought us so that You can recharge us again, You have brought us so that You can blend us in such a way that we’ll align with Your divine plans and purpose for our lives, Lord take all the glory in Jesus name.
Thank You for the success of the convention, thank You for journey mercies given to everyone, thank You because there was no accident, there was no any ugly incident, nobody was reported there kidnapped and of course no accident was recorded, everything went smoothly; there was no fall and die, there was no trip and fall, everything was seamless and You took all the glory, everybody has returned and all we can hear is good news, accept our praises in the name of Jesus.
Lord, we have come today to raise our Ebenezer and we have come oh Lord Almighty God to lift up our hands unto You so that You alone can carry us; when You carry us no man can snatch us away, when You carry us no demon will be bold enough to come near where we are, Lord, we pray You will carry us, have our back, defend us, and see us through.
Everyone that has come here today with noble and righteous expectations, Lord Almighty, we pray that You will meet them at the points of their needs in Jesus name. You are the lifter of men, I pray that everyone saying amen to this prayer either here physically or joining us online will experience divine lifting before this month runs out in Jesus name.
We are for signs and wonders, Lord we pray that the manifestations of signs and wonders will not cease in our lives in Jesus name. Thank You Father because You have answered, speak to us today like never before and let Your word be a blessing to our soul, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed.
Good morning church, congratulations on this glorious day. I shared with the workers this morning that every opportunity of human existence actually calls for thanksgiving because it is by the grace of God that we are all alive to witness today, perhaps there are people who are very close to you who don’t even wish that you see today, but thank God that the plans of God prevail over them because God is always ahead of the devil and is one of the reasons why we are gathered this morning. I pray that your victory shall be sustained in Jesus name.
I would like to personally appreciate every one of you for your support over the years; I want to thank you very profoundly for your love, for your encouragement both personally and of course officially. I’ve said it before and I can say it again anywhere that you are the best congregation any pastor can have, thank you for your love, thank you for your prayers, thank you for your encouragement and thank you for supporting the mission. I pray that God will continue to multiply your grace on a daily basis in Jesus name, and together we will make it to heaven on the last day in the name of Jesus.
Once again we bless God for the success of the 73rd annual convention of the church; it has come and gone and we bless God for the blessings, for the victories and of course the breakthroughs. My prayer is that we all forever remain in His love to enjoy these blessings now and forever more in Jesus name.
By the grace of God, we’ll have our prayer chain tomorrow, and the theme for tomorrow is Quenching the Fiery Darts; the scripture is taken from Ephesians 6: 12 – 18, time is 6:30. I look forward to seeing every one of you, the Lord will bless you in Jesus name.
Revelation 3: 11, “Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown”. By the grace of God, I’ll be talking to us on the topic Sustaining Your Victory; to sustain actually means to maintain or to retain; to sustain means to keep something on in existence so that it does not go down, or of course slip away. And of course, victory has been the main thing in the last one week of the convention; the convention theme as you recall is The Overcomers.
Brethren, every genuine believer has something; John the beloved was telling the church, he said I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Every genuine believer has something and it is not in doubt that for those of us who are genuinely saved, we have our salvation obtained through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By reason of our confessions and repentance of our sins, we have grace that appears to us and many blessings that God has freely given to us. It is a rational thing for us to keep our valuables; when you have precious things, when you have valuable things, you keep them, nobody keeps useless things except a mad man, you have your garbage trash outside the house while your valuables are kept within the house. The reason is simple, you keep your precious things inside to ensure the safety of those items, while the garbage is kept outside simply because it is garbage, it is not useful, it is kept there awaiting final disposal.
Therefore, if the scripture is encouraging us to keep what we have, then it means that what we have are valuable things. Like I said, for every overcomer, there’s something that makes you an overcomer and it is salvation; so for you to qualify then you must have been saved, and it is by that that you can claim victory. There’s a song we used to sing those days, it says ‘I am what God says I am; I’m a winner and not a loser. I’m a victor and not a vanquish’; it is not just by mere declaration, is something that comes from salvation.
The last convention brought us many talks and events that offer us the opportunity to refresh ourselves spiritually and of course granted us the pleasure to become winners and overcomers, Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:57, he said thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Regardless of what your situation is, I want you to know today and let it be impressed on you that we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us according to Romans 8: 37, therefore, you cannot for whatever reason act contrary or negate the word of God for your life and deny yourself the honor and privilege of being a lifetime victor and overcomer.
And this is so because the throne belongs to conquerors, according to Revelation 3: 21, it says to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne. Brethren, you are a divine gift, but it’s not a prayer in a way, it’s just an affirmation of the fact, you are a divine gift, a treasure made for divine purpose, and I can assure you whether the devil likes it or not, you will accomplish your purpose in Jesus. You are a candidate for the top, therefore, you must do everything possible to ensure that you sustain and maintain your victory.
Now the question, how do we sustain our victory? Number one, you must learn to declare the word of God, and for you to declare the word of God you must know the word, because no man can declare what he does not know. Praise the Lord! And the Bible tells us that in His word there is life and hope of a better tomorrow; if you ask me how is tomorrow going to be, I can tell you effortlessly that my tomorrow is going to be all right because the Bible says the glory of the latter house shall be greater than the former, I have that assurance, I know it for sure and is forever settled that our journey in life is a journey unto greatness.
It doesn’t matter the situations, it doesn’t matter the challenges that you are going through, the truth of the matter is that like that song, one of the stanzas says ‘today you hear the noise of battle, but tomorrow you hear the noise of victory’, there is victory ahead, victory provisions have been made but you must know the word of God to claim your victory.
John 6:63 says it is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life; take away the word of God from a man, that man is dead; give a man the word of God, you have given him life. And I pray in the name of Jesus that eternal life will be your portion from today in the name of Jesus Christ.
You will need to hold on to the promises of God. In Matthew 24:35, it says heaven and earth may pass away, but a jot of the word of God will not fail; and in Isaiah 55:11, it says His word will not fall to the ground for nothing; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the things whereto I sent it.
You have the responsibility to send the word of God an errand and that is one thing we as believers need to know; the Bible says He sent His word and His word healeth them and delivereth them from their destruction. So sometime we jump up and down instead of us to sit down, send the word on an errand; you can send the word backward, you can send it forward, you can send it sideways because you are a child of authority.
By the word the heaven and earth were made, and let me tell you, talking about the validity of the word of God, there’s no question about it because the Bible says forever thy word is settled in heaven and on the earth. Remember that it is by the word that the earth came to being, and I want to tell you today that our God is too faithful, He’s too gracious for Him to relent on His word. Hebrew 10:23 says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised); and to cap that, Numbers 23:19 says, God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good?
What is the problem? The problem is with us. David said God seems far, who moved? If there is any movement at all is us, we are the problem. The Bible says with Him there is no shadow of variableness; God is constant, He’s too faithful to fail, He’s too faithful to disappoint. And I pray in the name of Jesus that if you have been disappointed before, as you hold on to the word, every disappointments of the past will become a divine appointment for you in the mighty name of Jesus.
So brethren, when you are feeling drained, refill your heart with the word; when you feel exhausted, when you feel tired, we are humans and occasionally we feel tired, even Jesus at some point felt tired, He didn’t know when it came out from His mouth that ‘God, if it’s possible let this cup pass over me’, it was because He was exhausted for a moment.
For Elijah, that one even prayed that his life should be taken. Every man, because we carry flesh and blood is vulnerable, we are susceptible to exhaustion, but when you feel drained, when you feel exhausted, refill with the word, His word works and there is power in it.
Number two, for you to sustain your victory you need faith. Faith, the Bible says, is the anchor of the soul, according to Hebrews; faith is the force of fulcrum of our relationship with God; take away faith, brethren, there is nothing left of our communion with God. According to Hebrew11:6, it says but without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
What brought us here today is faith; we have not come to share money, where will I have money to share to the big men and women here? What brought us here today is faith, we have come to draw from the fountain of life, but the day faith is taken away, our communion with God, our relationship with God become a null effect because the driving force is faith in God, believing that He’s the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, and the need to have faith in God in order to keep your victory cannot be overemphasized.
In Isaiah 40:31, the Bible says, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. They that wait upon the Lord, how can a man wait upon the Lord without faith? Is not possible, it is faith that will keep you hanging on even when your environment, your reality, is saying something different, it is that faith that begins to propel you that don’t worry it will happen, oh there is a Red Sea ahead but something will happen, we are going to walk through on a dry land, they that wait upon the Lord.
The scripture simply talks to us about the promise that those who trust in the Lord will experience, what I call a renewed strength that enables them to overcome weariness and persevere even through challenges. And of course, Proverbs 3:5 & 6 also encourage us to trust in the Lord, it says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and He will direct your paths.” Jeremiah 10:23 says it is not in a man to direct his path, the best of a man doesn’t have what it takes to direct his path because the Bible says the way that seemeth right unto man, the end is destruction.
Jeremiah says, “Oh Lord, I know that the way of a man is not in himself: it is not in a man that walketh to direct his steps”; if God does not direct you, you are in a mess, that’s why David said except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that buildeth it. My prayer is that God will join His hands with yours and He will take you through in Jesus name.
Number three, you need prayer to sustain your victory. Prayer is a critical key to sustaining and maintaining our victory as believers. The word of God makes it mandatory for us to pray, in Luke 18:1, it says men ought to pray and not to faint; and in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, the Bible says pray without ceasing; one of the shortest verses in the Bible, three words, praying without ceasing is key.
The elders will tell you, I learned that even from when I was young, they say good things require prayers, why do you have to pray for something that is good? You pray that the good thing does not get corrupted because every good thing can be corrupted, every good thing can be messed up. My prayer is that the devil will have no say over your life. The Lord has created us and made us good, no demon will be able to mess you up in the name of Jesus Christ. You will not be contaminated in the name of Jesus.
Good things require prayers for preservation and bad stuff requires prayer for transformation. When you have a child that is stubborn, that is difficult, what do you do? In my place they say omo buruku ko se le fun ekun pa je, you will not say your son is bad and you throw him into the lion’s den, what you do is that you go on your knee and say Baba help me, help me touch this boy, help me touch this girl, cause him or her to start behaving properly. You pray.
Good things require prayers and bad stuff requires prayers. In other words, it means that prayer is a constant for everyone that desires to live above challenges and troubles. You want to live a life of an overcomer, your prayer life must be constant and rich.
Brethren, the enemies are not relenting, one of the reasons why you have to pray; in first Peter 5:8, it says be sober, be vigilant, because your enemy like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, what your prayer does is that it helps to shut the mouth of the lion. And I decree standing on the altar of God this morning that every lion walking around roaring against you, they will roar for nothing, they will roar until they roar into the sea in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. God Almighty will help you to shut the mouth of every lion around you in the name of Jesus.
No wonder a songwriter said ‘Christian, seek not yet repose, hear thy gracious Savior say, you are in the midst of foes, watch and pray’; you need to pray, you need to watch, and I pray that as you pray, the Lord will hear and answer us in Jesus name.
Number four, you want to sustain your victory, avoid filthiness, vanity, and worldliness. First John 2: 15 – 16 says love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Brethren, we need to watch it, there’s nothing wrong with having money, but you don’t need to steal for you to have money; there is nothing wrong to be a big person but you need to work for it and allow God to bless what you have done.
The Bible says the blessings of God add no sorrow; you see a lot is happening, you go online, you read papers, you see people now killing people because they want to make money, and of course, unfortunately the church is not also spared, a lot of manipulation, zigzag, because of popularity. The Bible says what shall it profit a man if he gains the world and lose his own soul; some of you are in the church today to steal, you want to steal phones, you want to steal wallets, people come to church to do business, that should not be your primary focus, your primary focus should be to have encounter with God. If along the line your body now offers you what to sell, no problem, after all the Bible says seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things, other things follow but your priority must [inaudible].
Because I have come to realize – somebody sent me a video a few days ago; a video of a man, I don’t know the man, you need to see the house full of vehicles, the man passed, I saw Rolls-Royce, I saw all manner of Land Cruisers, Prado, everything, leaves are falling on top of everything, the house looking abandoned. The man is dead, death is the end of every man, the only difference here is that when it’s time, all of us seated, at one point or the other they will carry us like this, the only thing is that we don’t know, so I’m saying this so that you behave properly.
You want to impress, you want endorsement, after endorsement and impression, what next? For you to sustain your victory, you must live above vanity, you must live above pride, avoid filthiness. iPhone 20 and others, some of you cannot do more than hello or WhatsApp on it, and if the thing drops, million is gone. The devil is vicious and wicked, he looks for everything that he can leverage on to dispose us of our victories and blessing; he deploys anger, he deploys (what in the colloquial language they call) longthroat – covetousness, though it’s not in dictionary.
He has it, I will get it, the man you are comparing with God has blessed him, he has a starting point, because you are in the church together and putting on suit you think you are the same, you will so much suffer. Greed, filthiness, pride and all the rest, I pray that God will help us in Jesus name.
We must be very sensitive in our pursuit of wealth so that we don’t soil our hands. I discovered that today that the rate at which people pursue this thing is making us to lose our humanity, we’ve lost our values.
I was telling pastor that those days you drive on the express you have a breakdown, you can leave your car, go to the next village, they will entertain you, if you do that today, in another 30 minutes your head is already on the shrine. How did we get there? We must recalibrate, Proverbs 28:20 says a faithful man shall abound with blessings; but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.
Number five, be positive in your outlook and inner mind, obey His command. Romans 12:2 says, and be ye not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (for your life).
Get rid of that ungodly mentality. One thing we need to do as a people and we need to do urgently is to get rid – we harbor a lot of ungodly mentality in this part of the world; the level of anger, you will see our airports have become a war zone, it’s because of absence of values, it’s because we have the wrong mentality. It takes two to tango, somebody can insult you and you can decide to walk away.
Get rid of that of godly mentality, work on your mind. I beg you today, work on your mind, align your mind with godly principles and concepts, and don’t let anyone to hold you captive through deceptive philosophies that are based on the doctrine of men. Colossians 2:8, Paul was telling the Colossians that beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of this world, and not after Christ.
Today, listen to sermons, go to churches, you will see all manner of trash, people want to attract people. The church that supposed to be the basis of hope has become a center of contention, but I can tell you that God is not coming for contentious men, God is coming for righteous men, God is coming for those without spots, without wrinkles. God is coming for those who are focused, who received the calling and have not lost the vision of the calling that they received. God is not coming for gluttons, God is not coming for the proud, God is not coming for those who want to prove this is where I am, this is how I am, my church is bigger than yours.
Like somebody taught us today, ‘I’m more blessed than you’, what is the meaning of that? Our role should be complimentary, it should not be contentious. Today you find couples contending with each other, husband contending with the wife, wife contending with the husband, we need to go back and think, we must be positive, God did not create a man and a woman so that they contend, He created a man and a woman so that they can compliment themselves.
The last one is gratitude, cultivate the habit of gratitude. Gratitude determines your altitude, and then another thing is that when you practice gratitude, it brings increase, I think that is Psalm 67: 5, when you practice gratitude it brings increase. The Yoruba version of it is yinniyinni ki eni se’mi, when somebody gives you anything, even if it’s your husband, even is your wife, it’s your father, we must learn to say thank you, when you do that, you keep the relationship alive.
There are many of you today, ‘I want a man who will take care of me’, it should be symbiotic. ‘I must be taken care of, I must be well taken care of’, who does not like to be taken care of? Don’t go into a relationship as a liability in the first place, renew your mind.
I want you to thank God for this morning, pray to God; I thank You for bringing me here today, I thank You for this honor, I thank You for this privilege, let the word I’ve heard today, Lord Almighty, not work against me. Personalize it. I also pray it for myself, I preach Your word today, let this word not work against me, give me the grace to run with this same word in the name of Jesus.
Everything I need to sustain my victory, to maintain my status as an overcomer, by the word, by faith, by prayer, by being positively minded, by showing a heart of gratitude, everything that I need to keep this hope alive and to walk with You for the rest of my life with benefits that no man can give, give to me in Jesus name.
Commit this week onto the hands of God that everywhere you go this week that grace will announce you, that you will not miss your steps, that you will not go to where the presence of God is not, and if you have not had an encounter because the the foundation of being an overcomer is salvation, if for any reason you know that you have not given your life to Christ, pray to God for forgiveness this morning, it’s so simple to align, the only thing is you just confess your sin, not to me, not to any pastor but to God and resolve not to go back.
I tell God, Lord please forgive me, overlook my past; from today I yield myself unto You, take my life, take my all in all and let it be, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Father in heaven we want to say thank You; for the word You have shared with us, we give You all the glory, even for the choir ministration, we want to say thank You, for the totality of the service, we bless Your holy name, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus.
Lord, our earnest desire is to walk with You for the rest of our life, therefore Lord, everything that we need to do to support that quest and that desire in terms of the word, in terms of faith, in terms of prayer, in terms of being positively minded, in terms of showing gratitude, in terms of being focused, Lord grant to us in Jesus name.
Your children have prayed concerning their movement this week and even in the future, Father, please hear and answer them in Jesus name. Everywhere they go, let Your grace announce them, let them be back up by Your grace in the name of Jesus. I pray that these ones will not lead themselves but rather they will be led by the Holy Spirit, and Lord, the blessings and the benefits of walking with You, Father let it not be withheld from us in Jesus name.
Glory be to Your name forever. I pray for those who have prayed the prayer of confession wherever they are today, Lord please receive them unto Yourself in Jesus name. And as they take that bold step of coming out, I pray that every outstanding in their life, You will release to them today in Jesus name. Let Your mercy continue to prevail for them and forever Lord take all the glory in our lives, thank You because it is done, in Jesus marvelous name we have prayed.
If you have prayed the prayer of confession and you want God to give you your outstanding…
[Altar call]
I have already prayed for you that those who will take the bold step that God will have mercy on you, I’ve prayed that God will write your name in the Book of Life, but you want to get the outstandings, don’t just waste this opportunity. God bless you. Have a wonderful Sunday.
