Praise the Lord! Our Father and our God, we want to say thank You. Thank You because You are the great God, You are good and Your mercies endureth forever; thank You because You are a way maker, You can make a way where there is no way and that’s why we pray this morning that in our lives this year, You will have Your way, in our homes have Your way, in all our undertakings, Lord, please have Your way, glorify Your name, back us up and take all the glory in the mighty name of Jesus.
We commit all Your children who are here this morning onto Your hands and those who are listening to us online onto Your hands, Father Almighty God, encounter each and every one of us through Your word in Jesus name. And we ask Lord, by Your word challenge us to aim higher and make us better people. Thank You for everything Lord, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed. Praise the Lord!
Good morning church, you are welcome in the name of Jesus. My prayer is that as you have come before His presence this morning, you will encounter Him in Jesus name, and that encounter will change you for better in the name of Jesus. Amen.
By the grace of God, we’ll have our prayer chain tomorrow, and the theme for tomorrow is “Help for the Helpless”, time is 6:30 by His grace. I believe we all had a wonderful time last week during the Operation Fresh, my prayer is that God will take care of your life, take care of the journey of this year and He will crown your effort with success and you will have beautiful outcomes in the name of Jesus.
Genesis 32: 25 – 28, “And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his tight; and the hollow of Jacob’s tight was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. 26And he said, let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. 27And he said unto him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. 28And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” My prayer for every one of you this year is that God Himself will bless you in the name of Jesus, and He will change you from nothing to something to the praise and glory of His name in the mighty name of Jesus.
This morning I’ll be talking to us on the topic “Determining to Change your Person”, and I bring you this message because I believe it’s a message of hope, inspiration and encouragement as we continue our journey through the new year, I believe very strongly in my spirit that this message will not only inspire you but it will also challenge and propel you to aim higher in all your doings in this year 2026.
The word ‘determining’ is from determination; you know the gramarians have a way of breaking words into usage. Determination itself is a noun, and when you say determining, they will call it an adjective because it qualifies an action, then when you talk about determine, that one is a verb. Praise the Lord!
So when you say determining to change your person, we are talking about determination, and determination is an act of coming to a decision of setting a purpose or a goal. It makes you keep trying to achieve something not minding whether it is difficult or not, and determination is a vision that fuels passion. In other words, determination propels passion, and we are told those days that passion is a pursuit of desire, so determination actually fuels our passion.
It is the secret of success for the successful one. When you see a successful man or a woman and you ask him or her, what is your testimony? You find out that his testimony will not be complete without reference to determination. Nothing great has ever been achieved without determination, and the fact remains that determination separates success from failure.
Thomas Edison, that inventor, his story tells us that he persisted through many failures but he was determined to succeed, and the man Thomas Edson actually gave a different definition of failure, he redefined failure to be what you call discovery. In a bit to design the light bulb, he made several attempts and according to him he said in his bit to come up with the right design, he made over 10,000 attempts that gave him over 10,000 ways of doing it.
So he defined failure as something that leads to discovery, because in your failing you make attempt, you find out that there are other ways towards which you can achieve result. So failure is not failure until you throw in the towel; failure is not failure until you sign off. And I remember one of our lecturers those days in school, he would always tell us that failure is an indication to succeed, it is those who make effort that fail, but those who fail permanently are those who never dare.
And let me tell you something, you can never make success in life if you are afraid of failure. Therefore, this morning I want to challenge every one of us, don’t ever give up on your dream, obstacles are only stepping stones to miracles, and as a child of God, you should have what I call long range goals to keep you from the frustration of short-time failures. Because the truth is that if you say, “Oh, may we never fail,” that prayer is just a prayer, but the truth of the matter is that sometimes in achieving big result you need to fail in a small way.
Taking into cognissance the story of Thomas Edison, he failed severally and in his failure he was able to find over 10,000 ways, so he redefined failure as an ability to discover options. So if anybody says ‘may you never fail’, maybe on the long run, yes, but occasionally you fail, but you need to have a long range goals that will not make you to feel the frustration of short-time failure.
In Hebrews 12:2, the Bible says, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; (note) who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus for the purpose of the long range goal of His coming endured the cross, He despised the shame, those temporary pain, that temporary shame will not matter to Him because if He had allowed those things to matter to Him, salvation would not have come to mankind.
It says, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus did not allow the temporary challenge to affect His longtime vision, therefore, brethren, don’t allow the short-time challenges you are facing to affect your longtime goal. Every time God wants to lift you up, you must be determined because opposition will come due to envy, jealousy or whatever, I think it’s a normal thing.
I said something last week that many of us have enemies, in fact, there are enemies within. There are brothers who are not happy with your progress, there are sisters who are not comfortable that you are better than them, and sometimes you confide in these people because you can’t read their mind. But regardless of whatever happened, even when you discover that they are not there for you, they are only playing to your face, you still have to forge ahead.
The Bible tells us about how the Philistines envied Isaac in Genesis 26; they kept challenging him and his servants, covering his well of water out of envy but he did not throw in the towel, he was very tenacious. They will cover one, he will move to dig another, they will come, they will say look, this is our father’s place, he will move to the other.
We must be tenacious this year, we must be ruggedly determined. There is this popular lingo that there is no food for a lazy man, whether the devil likes it or not, this year you will achieve your goal in Jesus name. I said whether the devil likes it or not, this year you will reach your goal in the mighty name of Jesus.
Isaac kept digging until he got to a place where he was left alone. The devil will struggle with you but believe you me, a time will come they will leave you alone in the mighty name of Jesus. Therefore, never lose sight of your goal, no matter the challenges you face this year.
In Proverbs 24:16, the Bible says, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” Now, what this scripture is simply highlighting is that the righteous people also experience failure and setbacks.
Don’t think that when you fall into problem or error is because you are not with God, no. The Bible says the righteous man falleth seven times, but the beauty of it is that he will always rise up. I pray in the mighty name of Jesus, for as many of you that have fallen, you will rise up this year in Jesus name. It’s our year of restoration, it’s a year of recovery, it’s a year of a brand new beginning, you will get to the top in the mighty name of Jesus.
The righteous will fall but they will come up, it’s only the wicked when they fall, they fall full and final. And I decree in the name of Jesus that everyone or anything that represents an enemy in your life, this year the Lord will displace them in the name of Jesus Christ.
That you have one challenge does not mean that you should just give up, don’t just give up because ‘oh you have tried, things are not working,’ without determination you cannot succeed. The Bible tells us in Psalm 34: 19 that many are the afflictions of the righteous: (it says) but the Lord delivereth him out of all of them. So challenges will come but the Lord will surely deliver you in Jesus name.
The same Thomas Edison once said many of the world great failures did not realize how close they were to success until they signed off. It was after they gave up that they now realized that ‘if we had known we would have pushed a little further, if we had known we would have given it another try, we were so close’. I pray that will not be your own testimony.
Brethren, those who run away from battle don’t give the testimony of victory, those who give the testimony of victory are those who stay back and fight to the end. So he was saying that to let us know that we need to persevere and not to quit too soon, because when you quit too soon then you will miss your breakthrough. But I pray in the name of Jesus that you will not miss your breakthrough in the name of Jesus Christ.
It is not because things are difficult that people don’t dare, it is because we do not dare and that is what makes things to become difficult. Difficulty will not make people not to dare but your inability to dare makes things what difficult. David Livingstone in his own account said I will go anywhere as long as it is forward, did you get that? This year you need to move forward, the Lord will move you forward in Jesus name.
You must develop a mindset of relentless progress in year 2026. Relentless progress, adventure and overcoming obstacles in the pursuitof your goal, it speaks to our desire to constantly move ahead, embrace the unknown and never retreat.
You can be intelligent and talented without reaching the top; there are a lot of very intelligent people, very well talented people who are there and nothing to show for their intelligence, nothing to show for their talent. Until you make up your mind not to quit, you remain a part of 95% of a group of people who will never taste success. My prayer is that you will taste success, you will enjoy success, you will pass success across to other generation in the mighty name of Jesus.
So don’t settle for mediocrity, cast your sleep of ease away, take away the tokenism mentality. When we assumed duty as the Provincial Pastor of Lagos Province 20, I went around other parishes under us; I saw some beside the canal, I saw some under the bridges, I saw some beside the seashore, there is no difference between them and the shrine, I closed them down.
I relieved about eight area pastors of their jobs, I talked to them, ministered to them in a very special way that I cannot say here but I told them we can’t do things like this, this tokenism mentality must be taken away. If you are not a pastor, will you cheerfully walk into this place and come and worship? They all agreed, so we reached a concessus and we removed them.
We closed a lot of those things, then we pumped money into those ones that we can rebuild, we built them and that was what led to this one too, the CTL here being remoulded, this church was not like this before. I remember some Sunday services you will see PoP powder dropping on people’s head, we must cast away this sense of tokenism, it has hindered a lot of us from making steady progress.
Some of us will embrace what we are not supposed to embrace; people will say that is the way God created you, God didn’t create you that way, you can enlarge, you can improve, you can be better. Help me tell your neighbors you can be better. Failure that will come and tell you that is the way God created me, who told you that? Our God is good.
The Bible says after the work of creation, He reviewed what He has done and He said you are wonderfully and fearfully made. Don’t settle for mediocrity this year, stop murmuring, stop complaining about how life has treated you so badly. Are you the only one in life? People will say, “Oh, it’s tough,” in the midst of that you see people driving cars all over the place.
People are buying new cars, people are building new houses, so where did you get your own from? Money will not bring blessings to you, complaint will not bring blessings to you, it is success, your determination to make success that will attract you blessings.
In Philippians 3:14, Apostle Paul said, “I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Not ordinary calling but high calling, special calling, if we may say tough calling. I say this with every sense of responsibility, in the whole of Redeemed Christian Church of God, your province is among the top 10, but sometimes in returns in the last three years, sometimes we are number one two three.
I think last December, seven, before then we were six, before then I think October we were three, a few times we came number one, number two. Who says it is not possible? Persevere, keep the momentum going across the finish line to be a success. I see you succeed this year but don’t give up.
The determination to succeed starts with the desire, and like I said before, determination is the ability that propels action and action on its own generates results. As you determine this year like Jacob, you will succeed in the name of Jesus Christ. Don’t let disappointments, failures, discouragements, tough times, oppositions, problems, and all the rest make you to quit, refuse to quit because quitters never win and winners never quit. Persevere against all and succeed.
In Genesis 32:26, our text today, and he said, let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. Jacob did not take a no for an answer, he wrestled with God until he was changed from a person to a nation. In fact, that was where I got the theme, when he wrestled with the angel and the angel was in a very tight situation, in order so that the man can let him go, He said what is your name? And he said, “My name is Jacob.”
The name sounded awkward and the angel said from today, we will have to change your name, you will never be a person again, you will not be an ordinary man again, He changed his name from Jacob to Israel. Today Israel is a nation, he changed from ordinary to extraordinary.
I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that as you make up your mind like Jacob did, Jacob was not ready to let go, he said you will not leave here except you bless me, he endured the pains associated with the dislocation that he suffered, because when the angel touched his thigh he suffered a dislocation, he was in the agony of that dislocation yet he persisted, yet he was determining and he changed from a person to a nation, that was where his name changed.
And today you hear nation of Israel, have you ever heard a nation of Jacob? The Lord will change you.
Shall we rise on our feet … [Music] You are next in line for change. Determination helps in changing position, it helps to change your status, it helps to change your personality but courage is required. And the reason why courage is required is that in the course of your journey this year, you will be alone.
When I said alone, not necessarily that you will not have your wife, your friend, your children, but when it comes to life experiences, it comes personal. But I pray in the name of Jesus that the grace of the Lord will be more than sufficient for you this year in Jesus name.
God spoke to Joshua, Joshua 1:8, He said this book of the Lord shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Good success is your portion, good success will come your way.
But you need to push your way through and break through, break through the cloud so that you can rule your world. There may be challenges but don’t give up because you will soon enter into your rest in the mighty name of Jesus. The devil will fight you, but every time they come is an indication that God is involved in your matter.
In 1 Corinthians 16:9, (that will be the last scripture for today), it says “For a great door and a effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.” Anytime you want to do good things, adversary will come; when they contend, all you need to do is for you to persevere, be determined, and move forward.
And I pray that this year you will move from glory to glory, God will move you from glory to glory. God will by your determination this year turn you to extra large; you’ll be bigger than you think.
Bow down your heads and talk to God this morning; bless God for the outpouring of His voice, thank God because God is helping us here today to set the agenda for the new year. God is telling us the importance of determination and the need for same as we march into the year 2026, I pray that the presence of God will be with us.
Ask God for the grace to be determined, ask God for the grace not to be distracted, ask for the grace to be courageous so that you can take extraordinary decisions, positive decisions that will help you in the achievement of your desired goal. God is with you and is right there to back you up as you commit your ways and everything unto Him.
You will be great, so long as you don’t give up, God will turn things around for you and everything around you will testify to the goodness of God at the end of everything. So shall it be, in Jesus name we pray.
While we remain in the attitude of worship…
[Altar call]
I determine to be more consistent, to be more tenacious in our walk with You this year, Lord grant unto us in Jesus name. As we depend on You oh Lord, we pray that You will change us from ordinary to extraordinary men and women in Jesus name. Let it be well with us.
We put our hands in Your hands oh God, and as You know Lord that nothing dies in Your hand, we pray that we will not fizzle out this year in Jesus name. We will not run out of steam this year in Jesus name. You will carry us by Yourself and You will back us up in Jesus name. And Lord Almighty God, at the end of everything this year, You will give us extraordinary results. Thank You Father because You have answered, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
