Let us begin to worship that God, let’s exalt the name of that mighty God, let us bless His holy name. Our God is champion, He reigns forever more; there is only one name and that name is the name of Jesus, at the mention of that name, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess; every tongue confess at the mention of that name, every sickness will bow, every witch and wizard will bow in the mighty name of Jesus. Let us magnify the name of the most high God, let us bless His holy name.
Father Lord, we thank You, Father Lord, we bless You, we honor You, we adore You, we exalt Your holy name. Father Lord, You have made us overcomers and overcomers we are, overcomers we’ll remain in the mighty name of Jesus. Every chain is declared broken this morning in the mighty name of Jesus. My God and my Father, we appreciate You, Lord we bless Your holy name, we thank You forever and ever; we thank You because You are here in our midst, thank You for the manifestation of Your power, thank You for what You have done, thank You for what You are doing, thank You for what You will yet do.
Father, thank You for Your word that You are going to speak to us this morning; Father, thank You because through Your word, You will open our minds, You will open our hearts, You will open our ears, You will give us understanding, glory be Your name forever more. Father and much more, You will give us a fresh start, You will give us a new beginning in the name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed. Praise the Lord! Praise the living Jesus!
Good morning, let’s welcome one another; good morning, daddies and mommies, welcome to the house of your Father, God bless you even as we take our seats.
I welcome you all once again this morning, I’d like to give glory to God for the privilege of life, that’s why I’m here and I believe the same reason for each and every one of us, the owner of that life is also here in our midst, thank You Jesus. I would like to also appreciate our father in the Lord, the APICR of region 11 and PICP of Lagos Province 20, our father here, Pastor Netufo; he’s not here this morning, the annual convention, the final session is this morning at the redemption city and he needs to be there, particularly also for a meeting with the General Overseer, but I believe that his mind, his prayers are with us this morning. Praise the living Jesus!
We want to thank God for the success of the 73rd annual convention of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, hallelujah! And the theme is ‘The Overcomers”, how many overcomers do we have in the house? Hallelujah! Overcomers we are and overcomers we’ll be forever in the name of Jesus. If for any reason you couldn’t participate in the convention which started on Monday rounding up this morning, please take time to go to YouTube and just go through some of the sessions, and if you did participate but still want to say oh I feel like I missed this, you can get all those things back on the YouTube.
There will be no Prayer Chain tomorrow because many of our ministers and I believe many members of congregation also will be coming back today or some have just come back and they are resting, so we need tomorrow off, but with that let us take time on our personal altars and pray and tarry before the Lord. Prayer Chain will resume next week Monday, that’s on the 18th but the other midweek services will hold this week, that’s from Tuesday, we have Digging Deep, and on Thursday we’ll have the Faith Clinic, praise the living Jesus!
This morning, I’m going to speak on the message titled ‘A Fresh Start’ and that’s our theme for the month; I’ll take my Bible passages for our text also for the month, Isaiah 43: 18 & 19, then I’ll also take first Kings 19: 1-9; “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. 19Behold, 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”. Praise God!
So let’s take 1st Kings 19, I would ask that we take our time to read the whole chapter, but because of time I’ll just take 1 to 9 and make reference to the other verses in the course of the ministration. (I’m reading from NLT version) “When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal. 2So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the God strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.” 3Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. 4Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed there that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.”
5Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!” 6He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again. 7Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, “Get up and eat some more, or the journey ahead will be too much for you.” 8So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. 9There he came to a cave, where he spent the night.” And where he spent that night, he had an encounter with God. God spoke to him, gave him instructions to go and anoint people in his stead and that concludes the passage, but please take time to read the remaining part of that passage.
This month of August has been declared prophetically by our father as the month of a fresh start, and I believe it’s not a coincidence this morning that we’re also taking this message because God has a word for somebody, it is not an exhortation, it’s a message actually, and I believe God has a message for somebody. Somebody’s about to throw in the towel, somebody is tired, like Elijah, somebody is saying I can no longer continue, but God has a word for you this morning and that word is simple, ‘I’ll give you a fresh start, I’ll give you new life, I’ll give you a new beginning, I’ll give you reasons to complete the journey in the mighty name of Jesus’.
Life is like a race, as we know there are categories of races, (I tried to do some research here); the short one they call it 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, for those of us who are sprinters or who take interest in that part of sport, they call that sprint. Then there is one that they call the medium races, those ones are from like 1,500m, 3,000 meters, they require different things. What you need for the sprint is to be able to run fast and to have that energy to sustain that, but when it comes to the other one, what you need is strategy and endurance, but it gets even more difficult when you get even to the longer distance races.
There are some that they say 1.5 kilometers, 3 kilometers, 10,000 meters (10 kilometers), you need even more strength, you need time, you need discipline, staying power and all that. But then after those, there are some that they call the marathons, many times some of us wake up and they say Lagos state has shut a certain part of town because there’s a marathon in town. Marathons take place mostly in cities and they just lock down the city for some time, maybe a whole of a day or part of the day but there is a marathon, marathon can be for up until 20 kilometers, 50 kilometers, but then there are even more, it can be up to 100 kilometers.
Where am I going, there are races and they require different things to succeed; what you need to succeed for a sprint is just to be able to run and sustain your breath for 10 seconds, 11 seconds, but for the other ones where you need hours, you need endurance, you need perseverance, you need discipline, you need purpose. Many people run in marathons, they don’t run because they want to win the prize, if you look at those who join this bank marathon, that bank marathon many people join, it’s not because they want to win the prize, they join because they have a personal purpose, ‘I want to get to the finish line’.
But then there are other variants of races; there is the one that they call hurdles, where they put obstacles around the way, and then there is what they call relay, where you exchange batons; then there’s one they call triathon, where there are other things. There is biking, there is swimming, running through water, jumping, scaling fences and all that.
Now brethren, I want to compare life with these races; life is like a race, particularly the marathon garnished with those things like the obstacles, like the water in between, like having to scale over some things, that’s what life is about. It requires endurance, it requires perseverance, it requires discipline, you need a staying power and you need a purpose to run through life. But much more than the races, you know when you run the races, you know when you are starting, you know where it will end, life is slightly different from the races because you don’t know the starting point, many of us wake up and just find ourselves in the races. Is there anybody here who knew when they started the race? I didn’t know, I woke up and got into it just as you didn’t know when it starts, you also don’t know where it ends, so just continue until you breast the tape at the finish line. And I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that you will be there and breast the tape at the finish line in the mighty name of Jesus.
It is possible however that God can reveal to some people where the finish line is; the same Elijah in our passage today who failed just before he got to the finish line, after God had encouraged him in 2 Kings 2: 6-9, then Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to the Jordan River.” But again Elisha replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you.” So they went together. At that point, Elijah already knew that he was getting to the finish line.
Now see in verse 8, then Elijah folded his cloak together and struck the water with it. The river divided, and the two of them went across on dry ground! 9When they came to the other side, (take note), Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away.” (Because he knew he had reached the finish line). In 2 Timothy 4:7, Paul also had the privilege of knowing that he had gotten there, he said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.” Hallelujah! I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that even as we run through the race of life, you will not fail, you will not faint just before you get to the finish line in the mighty name of Jesus. The Lord will give us the privilege to know when we are getting there in the mighty name of Jesus.
Interestingly, in life, many people run life as though they are running the sprint, many people run life as if is the 100 m 10 seconds, but what happens to such people? They burn out, examples, people who want to make it now; there are people who are running life as if it’s a sprint, people who want to be like others without knowing the story of others; there are people who are running life as if it’s a sprint, people who look at somebody and say, “I wish I was in your shoes’; there are people who are running life like a sprint, people who leave their lanes because they think another lane is faster.
You are in a kind of business, you see that people are making it in one business but God has called you to be a teacher and you say no, I’m going to do that, it’s like running life like a sprint. What happens to these people? They will burn out, and when they burn out, what happens? No more purpose, no more energy and they get discouraged.
Then there are people who truly are running life like a marathon, they understand it’s a marathon but then somewhere along the line, you get tired also. There is one they call the ultra marathon which can be up to 100 kilometers, like running from here to Ibadan, how many people can run without stopping? So when you are in that type of race, a time comes when you are really tired, this was what happened to Elijah. Many of us are in situations like this, we are running races, we are running life but then we have gotten to a point where we are tired, then we are losing purpose, no more energy to continue, no reason to continue to run in life and people are even contemplating what is there left again and that’s why you hear that somebody jumps from third mainland into the river, that’s when you hear that somebody hangs himself, that’s when you hear that somebody takes sniper, may that not be your portion in the mighty name of Jesus.
I have come with a message to you today, as many of you who are running life and you are tired, just like God did for Elijah, God is going to refreshen you, God is going to give you a fresh start, a new beginning in the mighty name of Jesus. Life is a combination of races in a race, so when one race ends, another starts. Races combination – sprint plus marathon plus every other one, whatsoever it is, whenever you get to that point where it feels like you are tired, you’ve run out of steam, the Lord will come through for you in the mighty name of Jesus.
So, what is a fresh start? Because that’s our topic this morning, I just did an introduction, what is a fresh start? A fresh start is an opportunity to begin something new, in this case, we are talking about life, it’s an opportunity to start life anew. There are different ways to look at a fresh start; it can be a new beginning to some people or what you call the end of an era. In Exodus 15, the children of Israel woke up on the other side of the Red Sea, it was a new beginning for them, it was a fresh start. For as many people here who have experienced oppression, deprivation, limitation, in the mighty name of Jesus you will come to a fresh start from today.
A fresh start can be a recalibration, you just want to do a reset, you think that this thing is not working the way it should be. Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:9 – 10, he had carried the name Jabez around for so long, then he got to a point, said something needs to change, he went before the Lord, prayed to the Lord and God answered him speedily and changed his name from sorrow to honorable. In the mighty name of Jesus, as many people here who are going through life in the mode of Jabez, sorrowfully, God is going to recalibrate your life today in the name of Jesus.
A fresh start can be an opportunity for you to right your wrongs. In the book of Luke 19: 1 – 10, the Bible tells us about a man called Zacchaeus, he was a tax collector, he got to a point where he felt hey what he had done to the people is hurting him, he can no longer continue that way, so he needed to make a change. He heard that Jesus Christ was coming so he went on a tree, (we know the story) and Jesus Christ saw him, and when he encountered Jesus Christ, he said all the bad things that he had done in the past, he will leave them behind, he will pay everybody that he had extorted and even give them more for what he had taken from them, for every one he paid back four, that’s like you want to right your wrongs.
As many people here who are carrying about the guilt of life, you think I have done this, would this person forgive me? Would it happen this way? Would this not stop me? In the mighty name of Jesus, the Lord gives you a fresh start from this morning; He gives you an opportunity to right your wrongs in the name of Jesus.
A fresh start can be a new level, coming to a new level. In 1 Samuel 16, David woke up one morning and said to his father, ‘Papa, I’m going to the bush’, he was a shepherd boy; but by the time he went to bed to sleep that day he was an anointed king in waiting, he had gotten to a new level. For somebody here this morning, it does not matter where you woke up today, God is going to give you a fresh start, your level is going to change in the mighty name of Jesus.
A fresh start may actually be walking away from a past that you consider unsatisfactory, a past that you want to forget forever but continues to go with you. In 2 Kings 5, the Bible described Naaman as a great man, the commander of the Syrian army, but then he said, “But,” he was a leper, he had that spot that was going everywhere with him. But then a time came in verse 13 – 14, he encountered the man of God and he went to River Jordan to wash, when he came out of Jordan, the Bible says that all the spots on his body had disappeared and his skin was as though he was a baby. In the mighty name of Jesus, every reproach, every disdain, every name that the world continues to call you up until now that has become your label that is not of you, in the mighty name of Jesus this morning, you will have a fresh start.
A fresh start can be an opportunity to relocate to a new place, Genesis 12: 1-7. Abraham was from the family of idol worshippers, he was living in a place where shrines and everything, but then God called him and said I will take you to a place, just leave where you are living, just follow my direction, then he did, God brought him to a new place and that was the beginning of what we call the Promised Land into a land called Canaan. In the mighty name of Jesus, if there’s anybody in a situation where you think there can be more to life than what I’m experiencing, God will relocate you today; in the mighty name of Jesus, God will give you a fresh start today in the name of Jesus.
A fresh start can be a restoration – restoration of your health, restoration of hope, restoration of lost glory. In Mark 10: 46 – 52, Bartimaeus was blind, he was living in darkness even though it was daytime, that means he was in gloom, no future, no hope, but when he encountered the Lord Jesus Christ, his sight was restored, he came into a new life, hope was restored, glory was restored. I pray for somebody here this morning, God will restore your lost hope, God will restore the glory upon your life, God will restore your health, God will restore your purpose, He will give you a fresh start in the mighty name of Jesus.
Brethren, our God is an expert in providing people a platform for a fresh start, men may try but there’s no man that can give another man a fresh start but God. Jeremiah 10:23, the Bible says it is not for a man to direct his purpose in life; what is saying essentially is that every man is just a wanderer, he doesn’t even know his own path talkless of assisting another person to find his purpose. The only One that can give purpose is God and that’s the only person that can give you a fresh start.
There are various examples in the Bible, I’ve given you a few, I’ve talked about Naaman, talked about Jabez, talked about blind Bartimaeus, what about Peter? Peter got to a point one day, the Bible says in Luke 5, he was washing his net, was saying ‘it’s over, I cut it off, I leave this career, nothing works anymore’, but then God came and gave him a new beginning and gave him the greatest success of his life. In the mighty name of Jesus, if you’ve gotten to that point in your career, your business and you’re saying ‘I want to quit’, the One who alone can give fresh start is here for you today and He will meet you at the point of your need.
What about Saul of Tarsus in Acts chapter 9? He was a professional in persecuting Christians but God called him one day and said this is not your purpose, and God gave him a new beginning, and that new beginning led him to becoming one of the greatest apostles ever. God will reorder your lives, He will bring you back into purpose in the mighty name of Jesus.
What about Hannah and Sarah? Hannah was mocked, Sarah, I believe, also was mocked, but one day God came through for them. 1 Samuel 1 & 2 and Genesis 21, God came through for them and gave them a new beginning; before that day when people saw Sarah, they laughed at her, ‘iya agba, look at her, nothing, male pawpaw tree’, but then when God gave her a new beginning, the Bible says those who laughed at her came to laugh with her. In the name that’s above every other name, those who have been laughing at you, from this moment they will come to laugh with you in the mighty name of Jesus. Praise the Lord.
Now let us do a quick case study on Elijah, the passage we read; Elijah as a case study, prior to that 1st Kings 19, who was Elijah? He was a very successful warrior, he was a child of God, a prophet. Look at first Kings 18, all that he did, he destroyed the prophets of Baal, in the process of time over the years because he was in races, he was in battles, no one goes through a battle or series of battles without scars, without marks. When you see somebody and they say this person is a winner, look at wrestlers or boxers, by the time they are declaring the winner, he’s probably having some cut in his head but they raise up his hand; he was a winner anyway, but he had a cut, so Elijah over time had marks from the battles of life.
I believe there are many people here, through the battles of life they have different marks that are unknown, invisible, unknown to even people around you or even to you, but the marks were there for Elijah. Then it came to a time that the wounds he incurred from these marks actually brought him down, then he got to a point where he said ‘God, I can no longer continue’.
Look at Elijah, people will be looking at him and say great prophet, but this was a man that was dying and that’s why brethren, I would appeal to us again, the only One that we can look up to is God; you would think one man is successful, you don’t know what he’s going through, let’s look only to God, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So at this point, Elijah was giving up, the nemesis of what I call ‘the last act’ was going to catch up with him because if he had died that way, that’s what would have been judged on, Ezekiel 33:18 & 19.
But thank God, God came through for him, God fed him twice; the first one was to fill his tank, then the second one was to give him energy to continue. I pray for you this morning, the Lord will fill your tank, in addition to filling your tank, the Lord will give you additional capacity to continue; in the mighty name of Jesus, you will not fail before you get to that Promised Land in the name of Jesus.
He would have finished on a low note complaining, (we saw in Open Heaven today, what a coincidence) but God gave him a reason to continue and finish, the devil wanted to sift him as wheat, but God said no. Mercy will say no for the plans of devil over you in the name of Jesus. Then he received strength from the meal to go on the journey – 40 days and 40 nights, he was divinely refreshed and he overcame eventually.
How did I know that he overcame? His name was written in God’s hallmark of faith in Hebrews 11, hallelujah! He rode on a chariot of fire, God sent His limousine and said ‘go and bring my son home’, God doesn’t send limousine to everybody, God sent him a limo, ‘go and bring him home, he’s a champion. You are a champion, I am a champion in the name of Jesus. Then he’s one of only two people who lived and did not die, the other person was Enoch, just to see, somebody was at the brink of collapse but then he ended up well.
Brethren, it does not matter where you are right now, the God that can give a fresh start is here and He will give you that new beginning. People will see you tomorrow and they will not be able to recognize you anymore in the name of Jesus.
So we’ve looked at Elijah, how does this apply to us? Many of us are very weary now through the marks that we’ve sustained in the battles of life, we are in a battle. In those days, there used to be some people who (I apologize for people who may have that here) have marks like this, there are not many of them anymore, my father used to have one, so I can talk about it. In those days, we used to say these are people survivors who fought lions and escaped, so there are many of us like that, it’s only that our marks are not showing; the battles, the marks of the battles of war are on us, people are tired.
Some wounds have refused to heal and they have now become life-threatening for some of us; emotional wounds, loss of loved ones, loss of spouses, loss of children, loss of parents, loss of things that are valuable, loss of businesses, loss of career, loss of other treasures of life; financial wounds, you used to be buoyant, today you are a shadow of what you used to be; withered hands, you used to pay school fees, you used to pay rent, you used to buy things but now you cannot even think about it.
Maybe you used to lend donations, now you are begging; there are wounds everywhere, brethren, but like Elijah, have you reached that point where you are thinking there’s no more essence for life? Have you reached that point where you are thinking, let us just put an end to this whole thing? Please don’t give up, wait a minute, God is already on your case and I believe that’s why you are here today, I believe that’s why He sent me this message to you and I believe He will do it for you in the name of Jesus.
God knows what you need, He may not need to feed you like Elijah, it may be something else but God knows what you need to solve your problems according to John 6:6 and He will do exactly that for you. He was very deliberate for Elijah, He knew what he needed and He gave him a tailor-made solution which is what He will give to you. Whether the devil likes it or not brethren, you will overcome; whether the devil likes it or not, you will finish well; whether the devil likes it or not, you will testify.
Have you been failing and falling? Are you giving up just before you get to the finish line? 1st Kings 19:17, Elijah did not know that God had a plan already for him to hand over the baton in a race, but he wanted to drop the baton on the floor and God said no, you will get there, and he got to that finish line and handed over. In the mighty name of Jesus, whatsoever it takes the Lord to keep you going, He will do it for you today in the name of Jesus.
What do we need to do to get a fresh start? Like the story of Zaccheaus, you must get to a point where you renounce your past and say ‘these things are haunting me, I can no longer continue with it’, and God will renew you in the name of Jesus.
You must surrender to Jesus Christ if you are not saved already. Elijah was a child of God, Saul of Tarsus became a child of God, Zacchaus gave his life and they all had a fresh start. If you want to have a fresh start, please surrender your life to Jesus Christ.
We are going to pray shortly but then I want us to listen to this; in the name that’s above every other name, you will overcome, but you need to become a child of God. It doesn’t matter what the enemy has planned for you, he wanted you to drop the baton just before the time, just before your hand over time, it won’t happen; as the Lord lives, you will breast the tape, you will get to the finish line.
[Music]
As we are taking that song, if you are here and you want to surrender your life to Jesus Christ, please just come.
[Altar call]
You are here this morning, like Elijah you’ve gotten to a point where you think you can no longer continue, the marks from the battles of war are getting into you and slowing you down and eventually you may get to a point where you just take life, please come and surrender your life to Jesus Christ to have a a fresh start.
Let overcomers rise up, please I want you to declare it boldly, ‘I overcame’, tell that mountain that I overcame, say to that problem, ‘it came too late’, tell that sickness that is too late for him. Declare it boldly that you are a child of God, I overcame, I’m a child of God.
Let’s begin to give thanks to God, let’s bless the name of the Most High God, let us give thanks to God. Father, I thank You, thank You Lord, thank You Father; King of kings and Lord of lords, bless Your holy name. Thank You Lord, in Jesus wonderful name we have given thanks.
Let’s pray and say Father, please give me a refreshing that I will not quit the race of life before I get to the finish line. Please Lord, give me a refreshing that I will not quit in the race of life before I get to the finish line in the mighty name of Jesus. Father, please refresh me divinely, please, oh Lord, fill all the voids in my life, fill the deficiencies in my life; Father go before me oh Lord, make every crooked path straight in the name of Jesus.
My God and my Father, please give me a fresh start, give me a new beginning Lord, give me a recalibration, Father take me to a new level, erase my ugly past in the name of Jesus, restore me divinely. Thank You heavenly Father, glory be to Your name forever more, in Jesus wonderful name we prayed.
Finally, brethren, what you need a refresh start for may be different from mine, just take one minute and talk to the Lord; God is here, tell Him you need a restart in your marriage, your business, your health, in whatever way, in whatever aspect of life, God is here and He will answer you in the name of Jesus.
