Lord bless you and keep you, enlarge your territory. Let’s worship God this morning, let’s praise Him, He’s worthy of worship, worthy of honor, worthy of adoration, let’s bless His holy name, glorify Him, magnify the Lord. Our Lord is worthy of praise, worthy of honor, He will enlarge our territory, He will bless us, He will keep us, He will keep our children, He will keep our children’s children to the generations unborn in the name of Jesus Christ.
Bless the Lord, this morning, worship His name, glorify Him, magnify Him, exalt His name.
Father for the gift of life, we give You glory; for salvation, we give You glory; for grace to be alive today, we give You glory. Father Lord Almighty, for 67 days of 2026, we give You glory, thank You for how You’ve kept us, thank You for how You’ve protected us, thank You for how You’ve defended us, thank You for strength to be alive today, thank You for gift of salvation, thank You for coming down to wake us up this morning, thank You for infusing Your breath into our nostril to give us life, all praise, all glory, all honor belong to You, oh Lord. Accept our praises, accept our thanks in the mighty name of Jesus.
As we go into Your word this morning, speak to us, oh Lord, bless the word of our mouth, oh Lord, anoint the ears that will hear Your word, oh Lord, Father Lord Almighty, put Your right hand of righteousness upon us today. Bible says the entrance of Your word brings light, let it bring light to us, let there be clarity today, let there be understanding and let us benefit from what we hear, let Your name be glorified. Thank You precious Father, blessed be Your name, King of kings, in Jesus name we prayed.
I want to appreciate our Assistant Pastor in Charge of Region and Pastor in Charge of our Province, and I want to appreciate the pastorate for the opportunity to bring the message this morning. I pray that God Almighty will continue to increase them on all sides in the mighty name of Jesus.
Our main text this morning is from Exodus 23: 27-33 (NIV), and the message for this short period that we have is titled ‘Build Capacity Little by Little’. Praise God!
“I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter (that’s God speaking to the people of Israel, speaking to you, too, speaking to me). I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. 28I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites out of your way. 29But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you.
30Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. 31I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you. 32Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. 33Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you”.
Topic again is Build Capacity Little by Little; build capacity towards excellence, we are just coming from the special Holy Ghost service with the theme excellence, this message, for the youths, is to guide you on how to build your capacity, for the elders, especially for those of us who have retired, you can always look back and say maybe that’s why this thing went this way, and again we are still mentors to youths, people coming up around us, we can still mentor them on how to build capacity little by little.
The emphasis is on the second part – little by little, it’s about endurance, it’s about perseverance, it’s about running the long distance. To achieve excellence, you need to build up your current capacity and you need to do it as Bible enjoins us little by little. Don’t rush, be calm and you’ll get there; don’t rush and choke on the food, you know when you eat fast, you can choke on the food.
Build capacity through the grace of God little by little, be ready for the opportunity, let opportunity meet preparation, don’t jump the starting gun. Those who jump the starting gun, what happens to them? They get disqualified from the race. You’ve watched athletics, 100m, you run, boom, you’re out of the block, I don’t think they even give them second chance again, in the past maybe twice you do it, you’re out of the race, so, don’t jump the starting gun.
Rushing is the way of the immatured, rushing is the way of babies, rushinng is the way of unbelievers, so be calm. Praise God! Be calm, if you are loaded, you will be needed, so build capacity; if you are loaded, somebody will need you. Praise God!
What does it mean to build capacity? It means be trained, get education, formal or informal; I’m not saying you must go and read and write alone and such, but they are important; acquire the necessary skill for the job at hand. The emphasis here is not on just building capacity for excellence, but on the method of doing it.
It’s not a message about building capacity alone, is about the method of building capacity. It has to be gradual, done patiently with great perseverance and following due process; it’s a doctrinal teaching because they said every second Sunday we need to doctrinal teachings, it’s on the teaching of Jesus Christ about perseverance, about endurance, about finishing well. Praise God.
So the message is a message of patience and contentment, a message of abiding and abounding hope in the ability of God to do that which He has promised. The main issue here is God’s timing or intervention and our preparedness. As we know, God doesn’t come at the expected time that we usually expect because a thousand years, Psalm 90:4, Bible says it’s like one night in His eyes.
Also, as you must have found out in our various experiences with God, He uses what we call ‘delay’; we call it delay, He doesn’t call it delay to get us truly ready for the place He’s taking us to, God uses that thing that you and I call delay to get us ready for where He’s taking us to. We want to get there quickly, I don’t want delay, but that’s what God is using to get you ready for the place.
The man that joins the army as a recruit, he doesn’t expect to be made a general within 5 years, it doesn’t work that way; and you don’t just graduate from the university or business school and expect to be made the managing director of a company within a few years, it doesn’t work that way. That’s not reality, that is delusion. Praise God!
So the same way, we shouldn’t just expect that we are always ready for the move we’re asking God to make on our behalf, we must learn to build capacity. We ask for so many things from God, ‘God do this for me, enlarge my coast’, yes, it’s nice to enlarge our coast, enlarge my territory, but a lot of times what we are asking for, are we ready for it? Are we prepared? So He delays us at times to get us ready for where He wants to take us to.
So many times, the answer to our prayers may be ‘please wait a while’, but in this age of instant miracle we want immediate answers to our request without realizing that a yes response may lead to our untimely death whether physically or spiritually even professionally. The fact that God gives you that thing can lead to your demise in that profession or even physically, we must patiently build capacity.
I remember the General Overseer told us a story, I think I read it in one of his books and he mentioned in one of speeches too, about one of his sons that wanted a bicycle when they were still living in Mushin, and he said no to that child. Why? Because the environment was not conducive for riding bikes around, and he said as soon as he got to the camp, when he moved to the camp he bought a bicycle for that same boy without even asking again. So at times God does not say yes to our answer because we are not ready for that thing yet, it’s not a good environment for that promotion you are looking for, for that thing you are so much desiring. Praise God!
So the fact that our Father in heaven did not or has not given you that thing you asked for does not mean He does not have the means to give you, it may just be because it’s not the right time or the particular thing or position is not His plan for you or for me; until we mature enough in faith to understand God’s dealing with us, we’ll be facing this type of problem.
You want something, He hasn’t given you, you’re anxious, why has God not answered me? You run to this place, another mountain, this mountain to another mountain, but it might be because you are not mature for that thing yet. Praise God!
For those of us who studied biology in school, you know this process they call metamorphosis, when the lava becomes a butterfly, and I don’t know whether you’ve seen it, I’ve seen them at times, you feel sorry for that lava struggling to come to become a butterfly and you want to help, and if you try to help you’ve killed that butterfly, he won’t be able to fly because he needs to struggle and build out wings to become a proper butterfly, so you don’t truncate God’s plan through your own self-help, we need to learn to wait for God’s timing.
Jeremiah 29:11, Bible says God’s plan for us is for good and not for evil, (I’m paraphrasing), to take us to a happy ending, so if you have that at the back of our mind that God’s plan for us is for good, we will not fret, we will not be unduly anxious when it looks like there’s a delay in the response to our requests in prayer.
Many times in the Bible, especially Book of Isaiah, for me, we have several promises of God about our welfare. Let’s look at Isaiah 45: 2-5, (I’ll just bring two of them out), God’s promises for our welfare, we need to have that at the back of our mind, that’s God’s promise for me. I will go before thee and make crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: 3And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
4For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. 5I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou has not known me. Part of promises of God for our lives, they are there in the Bible.
Another one you can see in Isaiah 41: 10 – 20 (which you can note and read at home). There are some things in life that we need to ask God to help us manage, like riches, like fame, if God does not manage them for us, they can get us into trouble. One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22, is patience or longsuffering, we need the grace of God to avoid greed and avaries.
What is avaries? Extreme desire for wealth. A lot of us want to move from the kindergarten class to the university in one giant leap, like I said earlier, it does not happen that way in real life. So this message is saying to you, to me, I will prepare you until you are ready to take over your promised land, that’s God’s promise to you.
I want you to serve as a governor of a state, a backward state (forgive me if you’re from such a state, my state is like that too, so don’t worry), not the Lagos, not Rivers, not Kaduna, not Kano, maybe Osun, maybe Bayelsa, maybe Katsina, not those jim jim states that collect all the revenue. Praise God. I want you to serve there as governor for 8 years before I groom you and bring you to the presidency, did that happen to somebody?
I want you to run a town, a council, a local government or an important government department before I allow you to become a state governor; I want you to teach in house fellowship in Sunday school, in believers class before I promote you to the position of a minister of the gospel. Some of us want to be General Overseer of our ministry immediately after completing workers in training, I know somebody who after School of Disciples went to go and start his ministry.
God is saying from the message from our main text, that if I don’t drive the strangers away little by little, the beasts will overrun you. What are the beasts? The beasts are our pride, our arrogance, the demon in us that makes us angry. You know anger is a result of pride, that thing that pushes you, that’s the beast God is talking about. I want to decimate them, I want to deal with them before I give you that position because you will destroy yourself if I give it to you now. Praise God!
God is saying I need to allow you to play in the under-17 team (for those of us who know about football) before I introduce you to national side. You can’t just go and be as a 14 -15 year old superstar, the Maradona of your time and then take you to the Super Eagles, go and play straight, play on the under-17 team first, then we’ll take you to under 21, if you are such a superstar you can move but play under-17 before you go to the national team, that’s what God is saying to you in effect.
That’s the reason why boys are not allowed to marry, you know boys from 16 are mature enough to have children but they cannot marry because they are still boys, only men marry. Proverbs 25:16, hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it. Too much honey, you will vomit it, too much goodness, you will vomit it.
The human body has a way of reacting to too much enjoyment. If somebody who is on a salary of 20,000 naira suddenly gets promotion and they begin to give you 1 million naira per month, what do you think will happen to that person? He will lose his head, he’s bound to lose his head, so that’s what we mean about gradual thing. There’s a Yoruba proverb that says that a child does not have as much rags as the elder, there’s no way a child would have so much things in his wardrobe that he will have as much rags as elders.
What is a rag? A rag is experience. Rag is the experience you have by reason of your years on earth, that’s what you have above young people, you have the experience. No matter the knowledge of a young person, you cannot have as much experience as the elderly. Praise the Lord!
So God does not want His blessings to kill us, hence He prepares us for promotion little by little at times, you need to stay the course. What does it mean to stay the course? It means to be consistent and persistent and wait patiently until you see the solution to the challenge in front of you. Proverbs 30:7 – 9 talks about riches in moderation, not too much and I start despising the Lord, or too little and I’m forced to steal and bring reproach to the name of the Lord, that’s what the Bible says there. God, I don’t want too much so I begin to despise you, and I don’t want so little so I now go and steal, let it be in moderation. That’s what the Bible is saying there.
If you look at the example of Moses, Moses was building capacity; he had 40 years training in the palace of Pharaoh being trained in the etiquette of the Egyptian palace, and he felt he was big and good enough to start exercising leadership. And then he went (you know the story very well) out, saw an Egyptian maltreating an Hebrew, he fought, killed the Egyptian, following day he saw two Hebrews fighting, tried to separate them and one said you want to kill me like you killed the Egyptian yesterday? Praise God.
That got to the authorities and he had to run away, he had to be sentenced to another 40 years of training in the desert place after the 40 years of training in the palace. I’m not saying you should go for 80 years like Moses, I’m just saying take it easy too, you’re rushing, take it easy. Praise God!
Maybe you need to examine yourself again, maybe the training in the palace is not enough for the assignment of your life, maybe you need additional training in the desert of life, that’s why it’s always nice to learn the grace to release our ambition, our passion and our desire to the Lord for divine direction. We need to learn it, release your ambition, your passion to God for divine direction.
Psalm 31:15 says, ‘my times are in your hands, oh Lord’, release your time to the hand of God; by the time Moses emerged from the desert, he was described in Numbers 12:1-3 as the meekest man on earth. The Moses that was angry, full of pride, prince of Egypt, separating people, killing one for the other, Bible described him as the meekest man on the earth.
Peter is another example; he moved from being an ordinary fisherman to a zealous but unstable disciple. But after his recommissioning in John 21:15-19, he now became a fiery and effective apostle whose shadow healed the sick, Acts 5:15; who performed several miracles, Aeneas from sickness of 8 years, Acts 9:33-34; he brought Tabitha from the dead, Acts 9:36-41. But see the way he started, it was after God recommissioned him in John 21 that he became who God wanted him to be.
Another example is the example of David. In David’s case, there was a delay between anointing and appointing; David was anointed to be king but he didn’t get the appointment to the palace immediately, it took him several years after the anointing before he became the king.
Some of us are anointed and we are running beyond our time, there’s no appointment yet, because you are not anointed you think you should be running, why don’t you wait until they appoint you to the position? Praise God. So it took several years for David to get to the position of the appointment; Samuel came to his house, anointed him and he left. And where did you think David went to? To the palace? He went back to the jungle to look after sheep for many years still, it took time for him to get to the throne.
He was in the desert place building capacity to become Israel’s best king, this is the proper way of releasing the time and season of your life to God.
We need to learn endurance, that’s what we are saying in effect. This message is not to be seen as an endorsement of complacency, I hope nobody will get me wrong that because I said you take it easy, you should be complacent, it’s not an endorsement of complacency, it’s not an endorsement of lack of ambition, it’s a message of giving our ambition to God, allowing God to lead us.
David, like I mentioned earlier, is an example of a person who left his ambition in the hand of God; Absalom, David’s son, on the other hand was over ambitious, who knows maybe he would have become king after David if he had allowed God to dictate his times. He was described as a very charismatic person, if he had allowed David to die, he would have become the obvious king, but he was too ambitious, he drove his father out of the palace. He didn’t just drive him, he drove him out of Jerusalem completely, his own father, because he wanted to be king.
That’s not the way God wants, God wants us to be enduring and persevere and wait for our time.
Little by little is a message of calmness in the storm, it asks us not to be hasty but wait on the Lord after we have made our request. When you have prayed, fasted and confessed the word of God, then you have received the promise of God. If you are a believer, our soul at this time should be free from stress, tension or pressure, our soul should quietly wait for the manifestation of the promise, you should have calm repose.
That’s why there’s a difference between a 5-year-old and a 5-month-old; the 5-year-old, the mother tells him, I’m preparing food for you, he calms down, I’m preparing plantain, I’m frying, it takes time, maybe five, 10 minutes to do it, but the 5-month-old, you are mixing the formula, he is crying his head off. He’s just balling because he’s a 5-month-old, the 5-year-old is better, that’s what we mean by that. Calm down, God is doing something, He has given you promise.
That’s why we read Isaiah earlier, if He has given you the promise, wait for Him, He will do it, He is God and He cannot lie. Between promise and performance is a time frame called patience, it’s rather to wait than to move, it’s easier to run than to stand still; you and I don’t like delay, but patiently waiting is valuable because the Lord has instructions for us. While we are waiting, He has our attention, we are ready for personality adjustment.
You know Elijah had personality adjustment when he was taken to the inner recess of the cave; he was a fire and brimstone preacher but God calmed him down. God did not come through the fire, but came through a still small voice, He was adjusting Elijah’s personality. Maybe that’s what He’s doing for you at this time, maybe you are the type that wants to get things going, He’s saying, “Calm down, I will still do it for you”. Praise the Lord!
So in our time of waiting, we learn we cannot program God, instead, we must place our total trust and reliance on Him. One of the benefits of waiting is that we receive answer eventually and helps broaden our faith. We get encouraged because the answer will come eventually if you learn to wait, then we learn valuable lesson of trust, to trust God and reliance, it makes us more spiritually mature.
So this message is not about resignation or acceptance of what you should not accept; there are things you resist, I’m not saying accept all this and wait for God to – it will come later on, that’s not the essence of the message. Is on the other hand a call for persistence, resilence and endurance in the place of prayer. Continue with it, be persistent, don’t just give up like that. While we wait, we should remain in faith, we should trust God, we should live holy, we should be joyful and we should be full of praise and thanksgiving.
As I begin to round up, in this new year which is just 78 days old, we need endurance, we need great endurance, we need to wait on God. You never trust the resources of God until you attempt the impossible, is when you attempt impossible that you trust the resources that it’s only God that can do this and we are just (like I said earlier) coming from the special Holy Ghost about excellence, to get to position of excellence, you need to endure, you need to trust God, quitting doesn’t build character, endurance is what builds character, endurance develops something in you that nothing else can.
Nobody knew more about endurance than our Lord Jesus Christ; He endured all the way to Calvary until He fulfilled His mission on earth, He endured all the way. Life is full of quitting points, don’t throw in the towel on your marriage, don’t throw in the towel on that child, don’t throw in the towel on that relationship, on your career, so that you don’t regret for the rest of your life.
It’s only by staying the course that God can strengthen you and make you a winner. So when trouble comes, you can either turn against God and say, “But I serve You and You didn’t do it for me,” or you can turn to Him and release the issue to Him. Bible says in Psalm 27:14, wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. He will still do it.
So whatever that situation is, I don’t know whether I’m speaking to a particular person here today, wait on the Lord, don’t quit, don’t throw in the towel. What does it mean to throw in the towel? In a boxing match, when they see that the opposition is pummeling your face, what does your side do? They throw in the towel, what does it mean? We don’t want to fight again, we are quitting. Don’t quit, don’t quit yet, wait on the Lord, endure.
Sometimes God changes our circumstances and other times He uses them to strengthen us. He can help you not to get to the fire and He can help you in the fire, it is His prerogative, that’s why He’s God. And He can do that for A and do another one for B, don’t say because this is the way He helped my brother, that’s the way He must do it. You can’t program God, He’s not your house boy.
So the situation you are in right now could be a platform for God to demonstrate His love and care for you. Trials at times are means to victory, you should learn patience. Impatience is the one of the dominant characteristics of children, it is spiritual immaturity, so learn to be patient. Press through the pain if you’re in the pain now, there’s gain on the other side of pain. The popular saying is no gain without pain, no real gain without pain.
As we bow our heads to pray today, it’s all been about enduring, about building capacity. preparation must meet opportunity. So they made my friend a governor, they made my former roommate in university a governor, he was the one that sit on the top bunk and I on the – so we stayed in the same room, we were there for the same five years and you are not prepared, you don’t have proper education and you want him to make you a commissioner, is that possible? I’m talking to the youth especially, is that possible?
So you need to be ready, so when that man becomes governor, you are also ready so he can make you commissioner, there will not be protest, he can make you whatever, but when you are just the big boy around town and say my friend, ah he’s going to make me something, he won’t be able to do it, he can only send money to you, small change because you are his friend. But if you have built capacity, you are ready, he will make you something bigger and you can also empower others.
So as we bow our head to pray today, before we talk about building capacity, are you saved? Because excellence is for those who know God, spiritual excellence is for those who know God. Are you saved? To make advancement in this month of advancement, in this season of excellence, you need to know the One who gives the spirit of excellence.
Let’s bow our heads to pray this morning, let’s reflect on our lives, [inaudible] that I’m going to go for excellence, I’m going to endure, I’m going to try one more time, I’m not going to quit on that issue, I’m not going to quit on my career, I’m going to get better training, I’m going to build my capacity and I’m going to allow God to move me to the position He wants me to be.
Are you a child of God? The bread of God is for His children, Bible tells us; you need to be like Daniel, ask for the spirit of excellence as we build capacity little by little, ask for God’s strength.
[Altar call]
Heavenly Father, King of glory, we thank You; eternal Rock of Ages, we worship You, we adore You, we glorify Your name. Thank You for the message You sent to us this morning, for Your children who have heard Your word, as they ruminate on Your word, as they continue to meditate on it, Father, speak to them. That situation that is troubling them, help them, oh Lord, not to quit, help them to continue to trust You so that You can see them through because there’s gain at the end of pain. Father, that pain, let it lead to gain in Jesus name.
Grant them the spirit of excellence, and Father, as they begin to trust You for that upliftment, for that promotion, meet them at the point of their needs in Jesus name. Thank You eternal Father, blessed be Your name King of kings, in Jesus truly wonderful and precious name we prayed.
