Our Father and our God, we want to say thank You this morning; the truth remains we cannot thank You enough, a billions of tongues are not enough to do the job; You have been very amazing, You have been very kind-hearted to us, You have been generous, You have been dependable, You have been reliable.
Thank You Almighty God for all the battles that you fought on our behalf and thank You for the victory You have given unto us. We thank You Father Almighty God for Your abiding and Your sustaining grace; it’s by reason of we are seeing today that we are standing ; Father, for this and more that You have done unto us, we return all the glory back to You today in Jesus name.
We want to thank You because You are the first and the last, the beginning and the ending. You rolled us into January 2023 with great hope and faith, You did promise us Lord that You will see us through this year and today we stand to testify to the fulfillment of Your promise, accept our praises in the name of Jesus Christ.
We know Lord that You that has begun the good job, You are more than competent to complete it, and that is why we have no doubt in our hearts that this year will end in praise for us; accept our thanks in the name of Jesus Christ.
Father, today we have come to do one thing and to celebrate Your faithfulness, Lord we pray that You will cause our worship and our thanksgiving to be acceptable unto You in Jesus name. We pray for all Your children who have been faithful in the payments of their tithes and in the giving of their offerings, Lord Almighty God, that according to Your word, that so shall it be unto them in Jesus name; unto them You will open the windows of heaven in the mighty name of Jesus. You will pour out Your blessings upon them and You will cause their lives to overflow in the mighty name of Jesus.
And I pray for as many that Lord Almighty God still have a long list of outstanding miracles, one thing You do is that You reserve the best for the last, therefore Lord I pray in the name of Jesus that between now and 31st of December, You will surprise Your children in Jesus name; You will rush them with miracles in Jesus name; You will overload them in the name of Jesus.
And Lord Almighty God, I pray for everyone under the influence of my voice and the families that we represent, that You will preserve us jealously; that You will keep evil far away from us; that Your hands will diligently be upon us, and Lord Almighty God that You will prosper our lives and You will enlarge our borders.
Thank You Father because You have answered; we commit this service unto Your hands, take preeminent in Jesus name. You are the One that can do what no man can do, therefore, take charge in Jesus name; speak to everyone in the name of Jesus; give us a receptive heart in Jesus name; and at the end of everything today, let everyone of us have reason to rejoice, and let us be able to testify that our coming today has been a blessed one; so shall it be in the name of God the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus marvelous name we have prayed.
Good morning church and happy new month to you all and merry Christmas and a very prosperous new year in advance, it shall be well with you. Never bother yourself about the situation, one thing I can tell you (for free) is that next year will be better than this year, and so shall it be in Jesus name.
Our declaration for this month is taken from the Book of Psalms 65: 11; it’s our month of ‘Divine Goodness’, because in the scriptures we were told that God said I will crown the year with His goodness. God is going to crown this year for me; He’s going to crown this year for you; He’s going to crown this year for us with His goodness and so shall it be in the name of Jesus Christ.
The kind of blessing you will receive this month will be such that the blessings of November put together will be nothing to compare with it and so shall it be in Jesus name.
The long awaited congress is here and by the special grace of God it starts tomorrow and it starts with ‘Divine Encounter and Shiloh Hour’, 10/11, please make sure you avail yourself that opportunity and you will be blessed in Jesus name.
Lamentations 3: 19 -24, “19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. 21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. 22 It is of the Lord‘s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24 The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him”.
This morning by the grace of God, I will be exalting you on the topic “Celebrating His Faithfulness”; as usual, it’s the first course, the main course will be served by our esteemed General Overseer, Pastor E.A Adeboye, speaking on ‘Oils of Wisdom’, that is for them today, but for now, I’ll be talking to you on ‘Celebrating His Faithfulness’, we are here to celebrate the faithfulness of God and you will recall again that today is the third of December, 2023; you are here, I am here, our children are there and so God is most deserving of our praises because His faithfulness is clearly overwhelming, and not only that His faithfulness is overwhelming, we also discover that the faithfulness of God is inexhaustible.
That scripture that we read said they are new every morning; so it is the faithfulness of God is being daily renewed and such, it is inexhaustible. So, to celebrate means to acknowledge, to celebrate means to recognize, and it is very important for believers from time to time to sit down and take stock of all that God has done for them.
The Hebrew word for faithfulness is amen, praise the Lord! And that’s why you hear things like ‘His words are ye and amen’ as captured in the Book of 2nd Corinthians 1: 20; and that is why it is a bit difficult to find an English word that is an exact equivalent to the Hebrew word ‘amen’, but for the purpose of this exhortation, I will try to see if I can just list a few that will capture the depth and the richness of that Hebrew word.
One of them is firmness; when you talk about faithfulness, you talk about firmness; when you talk about amen, you talk about firmness. Firmness means solid.
When you talk about amen and faithfulness, you talk about constancy; when something is constant, it means that it’s enduring, it’s regular.
Another thing that comes to mind is support, and when you talk about support, you talk about assistance.
Another one that comes to my mind is trustworthiness, and trustworthiness as we all know has to do with truthfulness, being truthful.
Another thing that comes to mind is loyalty, and loyalty means allegiance; that’s why you hear in the government parlance, you must swear to the oath of allegiance; when they ask you to swear to the oath of allegiance, they are simply saying that you must swear to the oath of loyalty and loyalty must be total, loyalty must be 100%, no half measure, so it is in faithfulness you find true loyalty, true allegiance.
Another word that comes to mind is steadfastness, and steadfastness on its own means unwavering, unchanging. When you say someone is steadfast, Apostle Paul told the Corinthians, ‘be you steadfast’; unmovable, continue with your good work because it is in that that your reward will come.
So these are the words that one can use to (as much as possible) describe the word ‘faithfulness’; when you look at it from the perspective of the Hebrew word which is amen – firmness, constancy, support, trustworthiness, loyalty and steadfastness.
So the opposite of faithfulness means ever changing which is unfaithfulness. When somebody says that man is unfaithful, it means that the man is not stable, he is ever changing, he can do anything, he’s not trustworthy, he’s not steadfast, you cannot rely on him for support. Unfaithfulness means wishy-washy; when you hear someone say he’s wishy-washy and she’s neither here nor there.
Someone who is faithful is steadfast in affection, commitment and loyalty like I said in the past; such is full of faith. Faithful is a combination of two words – one is faith and the other side is full, so faithful now simply means faith-full or full of faith. So to this end, the simple definition of God’s faithfulness means that everything He says and does is certain. In other words, God is 100% reliable, 100% all the time, the faithfulness of God is not seasonal; the Bible says His faithfulness is from generation to generation and it’s being daily renewed.
I pray today in the name of Jesus that everyone under the influence of my voice, you will have your strength renewed in the name of Jesus; you will have your faith renewed in the name of Jesus Christ.
God says what He means and means what He says; He’s not like a politician. A politician called me last week, he came to my gate and said he was coming to my place, I said no problem and spoke with the security, meanwhile he never used his phone to call me, he used the security number to call me and I asked the security to open the gate for him to come in and told him we were not too far from the house; by the time we got to the house, we didn’t see the politician, we didn’t see his car or anything. I called the security that where is the man; he said daddy, that man is not serious o; immediately we opened for him, he was driving straight to someone else; we tried to flag him, no, this is the way to that man’s house , I said that’s a politician for you; God is not a politician.
Politicians when elections are coming will tell you very soon, the whole of Lagos will be on solar light; they will tell you as a matter of fact, another airport is long overdue in Lekki, Dangote side; they will tell you all kinds of things, but you cannot hold them accountable, it’s very shameful but that is not who God is, God is forever faithful.
God’s faithfulness is not some fraction or a little part of His character, rather, God’s faithfulness goes to the very core of His personality, that is to say that faithfulness is essential to His being and without it, He will not be God; what makes God who He is, is His faithfulness. For God to be unfaithful, it will mean that He will have to act contrary to His nature which is impossible.
God never forgets, God never fails, God never falters, He never forfeits His words, and looking at the Bible, there are many scriptures – passages that relate to God’s faithfulness in which I would like to share just a few this morning just to drive home this message because of our time:
Number one, Exodus 34: 6, it says “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth’, that is who God is; He’s faithful, He’s longsuffering, He’s merciful and He’s truthful. He keeps His steadfast love from generations, from thousands unto thousands.
Also in Deuteronomy 7: 9, it says “Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, Tthe faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations”; today, God will keep the covenant of mercy with you; He keeps the covenant of mercy with those that love Him and keeps His commandments to a thousand generation.
In Deuteronomy 32: 4, “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he”; are you following how the scriptures actually describes our God as a faithful God. Another translation says ‘a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He’.
In Psalms 25: 10, it says “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies”. Another translation (ESV) says “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast, love and faithfulness”.
1 Corinthians 1: 9, “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”. What brought us here today is the faithfulness of God as demonstrated through the fellowship that we have of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible says for God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life; so the fellowship we have is brought about through the platform of His faithfulness.
Brethren, this exhortation will not complete without looking at faithfulness is that in God which guarantees that He will never be or act inconsistent with Himself; all of God’s acts are consistent with all of His attributes, not a single one of His attributes contradicts the other, no, not at all, but all combine and blend into each other in the infinite ambit of God’s head. God being who He is cannot cease to be what He is; He is faithful and immutable, so all His works and acts must be and remain faithful.
In Hebrew 6, it says by two immutable things which is impossible for God to lie. Paul to his letters to Thessalonians said just as He who called you is faithful, (he said) he will surely do it. In other words, God that has saved you, God that has preserved you up till this moment, there is nothing else He cannot do for you; He will keep you beyond this December; He will take you through the New Year and the New Year shall be a better year than this one.
God’s faithfulness is at the core of His nature; time will not permit me, I would have shared with you something about nature, in fact, it was one of my friends that shared it with me, he said character is very key to nature, maybe I’ve shared it with you before but I will quickly say it. Tortoise and Scorpion had a function, so as they were going, they got to a big river, Tortoise can swim but Scorpion cannot. Scorpion started begging tortoise, Mr. Tortoise, please help me; and Mr. Tortoise said Scorpion, you that I know cannot be trusted because you sting.
Scorpion said how can I sting you? How can you help me and I will now pay you back in that manner. Anyway he convinced Mr. Tortoise and he yielded his back, gave Scorpion a ride and they entered; by the time they crossed the river to the bank of the other side, Mr. Scorpion stung and Tortoise started crying, I said it that I can’t trust you, and Scorpion asked what happened; he said you just stung me, did I sting you? He said sorry, you know it’s in my nature.
Faithfulness is in the core nature of God; God is not scorpion, He will not repay good with evil, He will never do that. Faithfulness is at the core of His nature, and if we don’t understand and trust God’s faithfulness, it will be very difficult for us to trust the rest of His character.
Now, there are many valuable reasons why we have to celebrate the faithful God;
Number one: God is faithful because He is faithful, 2nd Timothy 2: 7 – 13, we will not be able to read it because of our time but it says, “7Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things”. 11It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: 12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: 13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself”. God can never deny Himself; if there’s anything you are trusting God for and it has not happened, be rest assured that it will come and it will come at the right time in the name of Jesus.
God is faithful because that is His character, just like He is holy or He is love or righteousness, and no man can make God unfaithful; whatever you have done or you are doing will not make Him unfaithful.
Number two: He is faithful because He never forgets His promises; whatever He says He will do, He will do it. In Psalms 105, it says He has remembered His covenant forever, the word which is commanded to a thousand generation, for He remembers His holy promise and Abraham His servant. God is faithful because He keeps His promises; God is not a man that will lie (according to what Numbers tell us), nor the son of man that will repent, whatever He says, He will surely do it.
He remembered Abraham, He remembered Noah, He remembered Sarah, He remembered Hannah; I pray that the God that remembered all those great personalities of hope will remember you for good in Jesus name. Whatever it is that God has promised you, maybe God has promised you good health; that He has promised you a life-changing miracle; He has promised to give you your right partner – the bone of your bone, the flesh of your flesh; He has promised to give you a baby boy; He has promised to give you a baby girl or perhaps God has promised to build you a house, God has committed to His words and I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that in too long a distance time, you will celebrate the faithfulness of God in you.
Number three: God is faithful because He always has a way out; He prepares a way out for His own, whenever trouble is around. 1st Corinthians 4: 13, the Bible says there is no temptation that overtakes us such that it’s not common to us; (it says) but God is so faithful that He will not allow us to be tempted beyond our strength and that even the temptation on its own will provide a way of escape.
This same God parted the Red Sea, He has not changed; this same God dried river Jordan, He has not changed; tell me what you want God to do for you that He cannot do, our God is faithful, no shaking. I want you to tall your neighbor, no shaking, God always has your back, (take that away for free this morning).
Number four: He is faithful because He loves us; love, mercy and faithfulness always work together. Psalms 117: 1, it says “O praise the LORD, All ye nations: Praise him, all ye people”. If you take it down, it talks about why; we need to praise Him because we can only be faithful to someone we love and so is God; He is faithful because He loves us and nothing can separate us from His mighty love. The Book of Romans says what can separate us from the love of Christ? And it listed all those various adversities and says as strong as they are, they cannot actually separate us from the love of Christ.
You may run away from many places, you can even run away from your family, but guess what, you cannot run away from the love of God. So if you are here this morning, you have not at any point in time given your life to Christ; the Bible says herein the Lord commended His love towards us that even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
So if you are here this morning as we take this worship song and you have not given your life to Christ and you want God to be constant in your life, you want God to be firm with regards to the promises He has made concerning you; you want Him to be supportive of your vision and your mission in life, you want God to bless you; I want you to receive Christ into your life today and that decision will be the key to transformation in your life.
I just want everyone of us to pick a song of our choice in celebrating all that God has done for you; there is nobody here today that will tell me that God has not done something, your preservation is something great and God has preserved you so that you can be a vessel in His hands. So if you are here today, you have not given your life to Christ, as we worship God, can you please raise up your hand…
[Altar call]
