Hallelujah. How many of us are here with the heart of thanksgiving this morning? It’s a testament to the fact that you are alive and I am alive, I pray the God Almighty will drop treasures into those hands in Jesus name.
Father in heaven, we want to say thank You; for all that You have done, we say thank You; for preserving our lives and for keeping us to this moment, we want to say thank You; for all that You have done for us in the last nine months, we give You all the glory, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus, accept our praises in the name of Jesus.
Thank You for the miracle of going out, thank You for the miracle of coming in, thank You for the miracle of provision, thank You for the miracle of protection. Thank You Father Almighty God, today we are alive standing in Your presence, we have come with a heart full of praise, Lord, accept us in Jesus name, accept our worship in Jesus name.
I pray for all Your children who have been faithful in the payments of their tithes and in the giving of their offering, Lord Almighty, let it be well with them in the mighty name of Jesus. Remember Your covenant that as many that perform that responsibility, that unto them You will open the windows of heaven, Father, please, let it be in Jesus name.
Move mightily in our midst today in the name of Jesus, accept us and accept our worship, and let us be blessed and let the devil be put be put to shame. Thank You glorious Father, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed.
I welcome every one of you to this glorious service in the name of God the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. I welcome members of the praise team, in particular, I want to welcome you specially, thank you for honoring our invitation, I pray that honor will not depart from you in Jesus name.
Very quickly, before you take your seats, this month is Our Month of Double Grace; grace for double portion, double joy, double favor, double victory, double success, double courage, double upliftment, everything double-double. I want you to greet yourselves and wish your neighbor that this month, it is going to be double-double, and so shall it be.
So I welcome everyone of you, like I said, it’s our month of double grace, God has given us grace for grace, and by the grace of God, all through the rest of your life, you will ride on the wave of the grace in Jesus name.
I want to seize this opportunity to register our unreserved apologies for the chaotic situations we find ourselves last week Sunday; I would also like to say a big thank you to every one of you that supported us on the palliative initiative, it was part of our own legacy to give back to the society, and I tell you at the risk of being sanctimonious, at risk of being immodest, what the church is doing today is perhaps even more than what the government is doing with the huge amounts of money at their disposal, so I want to say a big thank you to every one of you that contributed massively towards the initiative.
But last week we escaped a mob action only by God’s divine intervention, it was a tough one; many of you had to go back home, many of you suffered bruises and pulled here and there, at some point, the police had to fire teargas in order to ward off people, we had to bring in soldiers to use horsewhip on the unruly boys out there, the people that we were trying to cater for – it’s unfortunate that in Nigeria, I don’t know whether its poverty, but one of our major problems is shortage mentality.
Put an 18-seater bus in the bus-stop for six people, people will still rush, I think there is something in us; the level of disobedience, the level of being unruly, I don’t know where we got it from, and it’s part of what we intentionally need to bring to God that He should take away from us. So it was very chaotic and I’m very sorry for whatever discomfort, whatever harassment or pains that you would have suffered in the course of last week. And for those of you that got angry, please forgive me, I take responsibility, take it that I caused it and I can assure you, we will review our strategy, I’m not sure we will do that kind of thing in the nearest future, I give my word, we will not do it because we will not help those who want to kill us; we tried to help but they took it the other way, they nearly brought down the two gates by force, when the police got overwhelmed, they had to call the soldiers, it shouldn’t be like that for someone you are trying to help.
So my own reserved apologies to everyone that suffered whatever discomfort, whatever harassment or embarrassment, please find a place in your heart to forgive us. And for those who ran away because of that and say they will not come to CTL again, I beg you, please come back, this is where your treasure is, this is where your blessings will meet you, if you go elsewhere because of that setback, then you don’t know what you want, praise the Lord! And we must begin to be intentional about our service, our commitment to God; this idea of rolling away from one place, people will say we go to where we are invited and honored, you must also be ready to endure pains, Jesus Christ says so, Apostle Paul says so, he said endure hardship as good soldiers for Christ; sometimes, you can’t run away from hardship, some of my ushers was pushed down, crushed, but she’s here today, she didn’t say she will not come again because of that, the issue is who are we? We are sand, dust, unto it we will return, let everybody behave properly, praise the Lord!
Philippians 4: 6 – 8, “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 8Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things”. Job 14: 7, “For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease”. May God bless the reading and the hearing of His Word in our heart in Jesus name.
Today, I’ll be talking very briefly on Celebrating Hope for Our Nation; today’s service is dedicated to the celebration of the 64th anniversary of our great nation, that’s why I will be talking to us on celebrating hope for our nation. The first scripture that we read tells us in clear terms that we should be careful for nothing; and Job 14: 7 puts an ice on the cake for us by telling us that there is hope of a tree, that if it be cut down, it will sprout again and the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Brethren, hope by definition is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen; we have our earnest expectations of our nation, but unfortunately, not much of those expectations have been achieved. I said it on this same pulpit some weeks back, I was talking about the visions, the mission statement, a lot of mobilization words, media reorientation and all kinds of things; and among the things that were said then that I can remember was ‘food for all by year 2000’, ‘housing for all by the year 2000’, ‘electricity for all by year 2000’, but here we are in 2024, none of those things have been achieved.
We are lacking as a people in the area of healthcare, we are lacking as a people and as a nation, even in the area of value, our values seems to have been corrupted; the value of honesty, the values of hard work, the culture of sincerity, the value of love and oneness. Before, Igbos will stay together with Yoruba, Yoruba will live in Hausa land, and everybody saw themselves as one, but not anymore, but the Bible says there is hope of a tree. The fact that we are alive makes it compelling for everyone of us to thank God, because it is not over until it is over. My Bible tells me that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Brethren, I tell you this without any fear of anything that our God is an unequal turn around Manager; when He turned around the captivity of Zion, it was captured that it was like a dream. So that means that our situation is not beyond repair, hence, we need to look on to hope, so all that God requires from us is sincerity of purpose, both on the path of leadership and followership, we must all be honest enough to assess ourselves individually and see where we have missed it, and see where we contributed to this mess that we find ourselves in our nation today and take a step forward towards amending the mess, because Proverbs 14: 34 says “Righteousness exalteth a nation” but sin is a reproach to any people”.
Brethren, I challenge every one of us today, we cannot continue to play the ostrich’s game; all of us Nigerians, we are specialist in ball passing – leaders will say followers are the problem, followers will say it is the leaders that are the problem, but the challenge is that we often forget that leaders are recruited from the same community. Those who are in power today were not there before, before they got there, they were with us, we were with them, but once they get there, they becomes something else.
So it’s like there’s something in our DNA, there is something in our system that has to be changed. Often time, when we have people in government, we go to them and say, it is your time o, help as many that you can help o, so that culture on its own promotes impunity, it promotes nepotism and it promotes ethnicity. ‘Help your people, the number of people you are able to help …’, you are using the common wealth of the whole people to service your brothers, your sisters, because you speak the same language.
Good followers will surely bequeath good leadership. We must all rise up to repair the broken walls of our dear nation; this generation, and indeed, future generation has no other country than Nigeria, there is no other country that we can boldly declare to be our own. You may have four passports, your primary nation is this country; it’s not an accident. I need to let you know today that it is not an accident that you a Nigerian; it’s not an accident that I’m a Nigerian, God has brought us here so that together, we can build our nation, and that’s why no effort should be spared in restoring the glory of our land, concrete effort must be made.
We must keep in focus the efforts of our heroes past, we sing it in our national anthem, ‘the efforts of our heroes past shall not be in vain’, but the efforts of our heroes past that we have buried, the heroes were not nepotistic, the heroes were not self centered, the heroes as at that time, they were never selfish, everything was balanced. So if we want to restore the glory of our land, then we must make that extensional effort to ensure that we put in focus and put in perspective the efforts of our heroes past.
Brethren, there can still be great economic boom and prosperity in our nation. People can still work together, people can still live together, people can still trade together without minding which parts of the nation one another is from. God has promised to restore the years that locust has eaten the cankerworm and the caterpillar, and the power worm, according to Joel 2: 25 – 26.
But brethren, we need to wake up and be ready; God is ready to restore the years that have been wasted, the years that have been eaten, the years that corruption has taken away from us. God is ready to restore, but again, we must be ready to wake up. We must rise up like Nehemiah and be ready to fight courageously and strenuously to repair the broken walls of love, the broken wall of trust, the broken wall of equity, the broken wall of justice, the broken wall of fairness, the broken wall of patriotism and maximum value orientation.
In the 80s, I was coming from Abuja, those were the days of Okada here; I missed my flight and I needed to be in Lagos, somebody told me to go to Zuba junction, by the time I got to Zuba junction, it was around 7pm, I just saw a bus calling Benin, I jumped into it, by the time I got to Benin, it was around 9-10pm; I saw another one saying Lagos, I jumped into it; woe betides somebody to do that now – love, trust.
At another time I was coming back, we took Ogbomoso; around 1am, the Peugeot broke down in the middle of the night, we had groundnut and garden egg, one man bought that in Jebba, so he shared it, we were feasting on it when the car broke down. Another car was coming, Peugeot 504 Saloon, I flagged him down, he asked me, where are you going? I said, if you can drop me at Redemption Camp, I hopped in, the others refused. He was a lone ranger in the car, I joined him; when we approached the camp, he asked where exactly, I said I was going to Lagos, he said, let’s go. He took me to Lagos, and dropped me at the old toll gate, from there, I walked through Jimoh Balogun, and I found my way to my sister’s house, how many of us can do that today? No trust anymore, even when you have genuine people, even where you have honest people, you cannot be too sure, because trust has been messed up; we need restoration, and there is no better time to talk about it and to start working on it than now.
Those days you contribute money to buy car, you have to save; I told you the first car that I bought, three weeks, my wife had not seen it because we changed the windscreen, I changed the headlamp, I changed the bumper, I changed the tires, and of course, panel beater was working, rewire was working, painter was working, mechanic was working, but today, here we are. Everybody wants to buy Range, it does not work like that; the reason why people are dying, the reason why there is criminality, we are too much in a hurry, we need to go back to where we are coming from, and to do this, we must be ready to settle with God for Him to answer our prayers.
2nd Chronicles 7: 14, it says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”. Bible says all things worketh together for good in the life… So that is to tell you that as far as God is concerned, is never too late.
So my chide to every one of us this morning is that let’s keep hope alive for our nation; the Bible tells us in Romans 5: 5 that “And hope does not maketh ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”. Nobody, and I say this, nobody should be ashamed of what is gainful, it’s a gainful thing to hope, hope is a gainful enterprise, and it’s worth the sacrifice.
And there are tremendous benefits in hope; for instance, hope gives purpose and meaning to our lives and inspires our decisions; hope inspires our emotions and pursuit; hope fills us with confidence and joy in the midst of our trials, and fuels our perseverance as we press forward in God’s strength. People of God, hope gives us peace, power and love.
Finally, what are the effects of these benefits of hope?
One, it causes believers to praise God; when you are hopeful, it gives you that motivation, that you’ll find in Psalm 71: 14.
Number two, it causes us to rejoice, that you’ll find in Romans 5: 2.
Number three, it inspires us to persevere. You hope against hope, you press forward, that you’ll find in 1st Thessalonians 1: 3.
Number four, it renews our strength, that you’ll find in Isaiah 40: 31.
Number five, is a cure for discouragement, Psalm 42: 11, and of course, it says, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God”. Do you know hope is the health of our countenance? Praise the Lord!
And of course, number six, it encourages us to live a life of purity, 1st John 3: 3.
Number seven, our hope is like a robust and a steadfast anchor, that you’ll find in Hebrews 6: 18 – 19, and of course, in Isaiah 49: 23, and in Romans 5: 5, the Bible tells us that hope does not maketh ashamed.
And lastly, hope encourages us to push forward with optimism.
So when you talk about the benefits of hope in God, is telling us that even in the midst of drought, there will be abundance for you; it says the tree can be cut down but it will sprout again, so I believe God very strongly that Nigeria will rise again, if you believe me, rise on your feet and say a better amen; if you believe that Nigeria will rise again and take its pride of place in Africa and in the committee of nations globally, rise on your feet and shout a thunderous hallelujah!
So with all these benefits, brethren, we have strong reasons to hold on to hope. Hope, according to that scripture in Hebrew elevates us to the promises of God that we eagerly await, and I pray for as many of you that are hoping, that your expectations shall not be dashed in Jesus name.
Shall we rise on our feet as we celebrate hope: so I just want us to go before the Lord this morning, that songwriter says count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. So count your blessings one by one, and thank God for hope, thank God for this, and let’s keep hope alive in every aspect of our lives, believing that our tomorrow as a people will be alright, believing that the tomorrow of our nation will be alright, believing that things that have been destroyed will be repaired, and of course, we also need to make up our minds to join the league of builders and not destroyers.
Pay your taxes; when you drive on the road, keep the traffic rules; don’t take what does not belong to you; try as much as possible not to be a problem to your neighbors; the scammer should desist, God is a gracious, He is a generous God.
If your hands are up, I can assure take care of you 100%; He has done it before, and He will do it again.
Bow down your heads and talk to God: pray to God for mercy – pray for mercy over you, pray for mercy over your family. Tell God in every area you have not lived up to expectation, in every area you have not been able to contribute your rightful quota to the growth and development of our nation, that God will have mercy on you, that God will have mercy on me in the mighty name of Jesus.
And if you are in the house this morning, you are expecting that you want to thank God, you want mercy to prevail for you but you know you have not given your life to Christ, pray to God this morning, Father, please forgive my sin; in every area that I’ve come short of Your glory, in every area that I’ve not lived up to expectation, Lord, I pray for mercy, let Your mercy prevail over judgment in my life, in the name of Jesus.
I have come with my thanksgiving, whatsoever that will not allow my sacrifice of praise, my sacrifice of thanksgiving to be acceptable unto you today, Father, please take it away, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
[Altar call]
Mighty Father, once again we thank You for the entrance into Your word, thank You for speaking to us in a very simple and a clear manner; Lord Almighty God, we cling on to hope knowing that hope does not maketh ashamed, Lord, as we continue the journey of our lives as Your people in this great nation, help us to keep hope alive in the mighty name of Jesus, help us to imbibe those values that will redeem our nation in the name of Jesus Christ.
In every area the country has been broken down, Lord, we receive new inspiration today; the inspiration to rebuild, to repackage, to restructure, for the betterment of everybody and the whole nation altogether in Jesus name. Help our leaders in Jesus name; help we the followers in Jesus name, let Your mercy prevail for us in Jesus name.
You said in Your word that ‘if my people that are called by Your name’, we are Your people, we are called by Your name, Lord, it is our earnest expectation that You will heal this land, Father, please heal us in Jesus name; banish corruption from our land in Jesus name, and give us that sense of orderliness, give us that sense of decency, give us that sense of obedience, give us that sense of consistency in applying ourselves to good things in Jesus name.
Let it be well with us, and let Your name be glorified, and let us continue to prioritize the safety and the wellbeing of others even ahead of that of ours in Jesus name. And let today, oh Lord, Almighty God, mark the beginning of new things and new joy in our lives in Jesus name.
Lord Almighty God, we pray You will release double grace into our lives, and let it work for our good in Jesus name. Have Your way, in Jesus name we prayed.
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