Almighty Father, we want to thank You; thank You for all that You have done, thank You for the gift of life and thank You Father Almighty as well for the gift of the new year, thank You Father Almighty God because the testimony has begun, Lord accept our thanks in the name of Jesus.
It is our season to dance, to sing the songs of victory and to dance the dance of victory, and we know Lord, there is nothing the enemies can do about it because the victory is already settled, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus Christ.
Thank You for bringing us here together today, You have brought us here Lord Almighty God so that we can be fed, dear Lord, we pray that You will feed us with balanced nutrition this morning in the mighty name of Jesus. And Lord Almighty God, we pray that the meal this morning will nourish our body in Jesus name, and by reason of it Father Almighty God, we’ll respond to better living, to greater walk with You and to total improvement in every aspect of our daily life in the name of Jesus Christ.
We pray Lord Almighty God that none of us today will be offended by this word, but rather we’ll be receptive to it and it will be a blessing unto us in Jesus name. Thank You glorious Father; we pray for all Your children who have been faithful in every area of their spiritual calling, Lord we pray You will bless them, You will cause Your face to shine upon them and You will be gracious unto them.
Grant us peace in the name of Jesus; renew us Lord in the name of Jesus. Give us fresh insight into this year in the mighty name of Jesus and let this year respond to us positively; let there be testimonies of divine turnaround at every turn and bends of our lives this year, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Good morning church, welcome to the presence of the Lord, I pray once again, God will bless you in Jesus name. We want to say thank you once again to everyone of you who has ministered to us in the last few weeks during the Christmas and the New Year by way of cash and of course also in kind, we pray that God Almighty will bless you all, He will fill in your void and He will show up for you in the name of Jesus. Every one of you this year will move from one level of grace to the other, and it shall be well with you in the name of Jesus.
We also welcome back all our people who traveled in the course of the New Year, so if you did not do watchnight service with us, you did not do thanksgiving with us, remember you must do your general thanksgiving as mandated by the authority of this mission.
We’ve also been told that we need to share with you on Sunday school but we will not do that in this first service, but you need to know that every Sunday in Redeemed Christian Church of God, Christ the Lord’s Parish, the Sunday school is done even before 6:00a.m, we send it to all the platforms, if you go to our website, you will find it there, so for us here, we have no problem at all because we have access to the Sunday school class; today’s lesson is ‘Blame Game’, lesson 20, so go there, refresh yourself with it.
In fact, the first thing I do every morning on Sunday is to listen to the Sunday school, it comes as early as 5:30a.m, so please, it’s not an option to the Sunday school, but if for any reason you cannot attend the Sunday school, you have that already served for you and my God will bless you for it in Jesus name.
Judges 9: 8 – 15, it’s a new year and we need to charge ourselves, we need to be repositioned so that while God is blessing others, none of us will be passed by; when the wind of good things is blowing, you will not be an exception, and when others begin to give the testimony of divine turnaround, you will not be looking forlorn, but in order for that not to happen, I think we need to get ourselves prepared, and I pray that this morning, the Lord will speak to us all in the name of Jesus.
“8 The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. 9 But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? 10 And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us.
11 But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? 12 Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. 13 And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?
14 Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us. 15 And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon”. May God bless the reading and the hearing of His words in the name of Jesus Christ.
This morning by the grace of God, I’ll be talking to us on the subject matter that I’ve titled “Dignity”; the title of my message today is “Dignity”. When you talk about dignity, it’s a state or quality of being worthy of respect or honor. Dignity is a state or quality of being worthy of respect or honor, and I’m sure many of us have heard of the expression ‘dignity of labor’, and the dignity of labor actually is a concept that presupposes that no vocation, no legitimate vocation, no good vocation is superior to the other.
An accountant (like me) cannot say oh, my profession is better than the legal profession, and let no legal practitioner come and tell me that oh, I am a legal practitioner, my practice, my vocation is better than that of a banker, no, not at all. Even when you are a street sweeper, there is still dignity of labor because that is where you earn your living as an individual and as a person.
So when you talk about dignity of labor, it presupposes that no profession is superior to the other, no work is superior to the other, provided you are not a scammer, provided you are not a sucker, provided you are not a vampire; no other profession or vocation is superior to the other.
Now back to the scripture, from the text that we have just read, we find what I call a typical case of an allegory. An allegory is a story that illustrates a case; an allegory is a story or an account that also gives an account of another account. Something that is symbolic and typical in nature.
We found the story of trees that desired a king, moving from one tree to the other asking them to come and become king and how they were turning it down; once they turn down, they go to the other until it gets to the last one who accepted to be king; he said look, if you want me to become your king, then you must trust in my shadow, and the question you ask yourself is that how much shadow can a bramble provide? Praise the Lord somebody!
Today by the grace of God, we will not look or concentrate at what led to the story itself, but rather, we want to look at what we can get from the story, what we can learn from it as a people, especially taking into cognizance the specific time that we are in.
Like I said, the trees desired a king, and as you know especially in Nigeria today, regardless of the geographical zone, the position of kingship is a honorable and desirable office, and every member of a royal house always desires to be a king.
I found out from my own past experiences, today, kingship stool has always become a subject of litigation because of stiff competition, everybody including pastors now want to become king, to let you know how attractive it looks; we have seen army officers, Colonel in the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General in the Nigerian Army quitting the military just to become king. If you think I’m lying, the current Sultan of Sokoto was a military officer, he vacated it to become king; the Emir of Zazzau happens to be an ambassador, he vacated ambassadorial position just to become king, to let you know that the position of a king is an honorable office and it’s something that is desirable.
If tomorrow you wake up you say you want to be king, I will pray for you and I will support you, praise the Lord! Don’t ask me if I will need chieftaincy title, we will discuss that in camera at the appropriate time, but however, the olive, the vine and the fig tree declined the offer of kingship because they believe in themselves and much more in what they bring to the table, and that leads us to the first question, how much do you believe in yourself? How much do you believe in what you are doing?
Today by the grace of God, kings are ordained with oil, and even great men of God today are equally ordained with oil; we must appreciate the fact that we are very important and valuable to God and humanity.
“9 But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man”; brethren, the position you are occupying today is an exalted position; you may not be the son of a president, you may not be the daughter of a governor, but I must confess, you occupy a very valuable position, the position you occupy today offers honor, offers value to God and to mankind.
The olive tree stood by its office of honoring God and men; among the various oils, olive is the most important and expensive. How much do we buy fuel now? It’s about ₦600 the last time I bought which was yesterday, but I’m sure you won’t get olive oil to buy for ₦600, those little bottles, you know how much they are; among the various oils, it’s the most expensive.
Olive is actually cultivated in Israel, but today you will find it all over the globe, you will find it here and there; in Nigeria you will find it, in UK you will find it, in US you will find it, go to Australia you will find it, and it is so because the dignifies itself, it dignifies its office from the beginning, it stood for success at the onset.
It is imperative to state here that a man who cannot stand for something will fall for anything. That’s why I want to challenge every one of you under the influence of my voice this morning, hold on to your vision.
It was like a man that presented to us during the morning dew today, saw my sermon note for today, we talked about visioning but I’m not also surprised because it’s a new year; if you can dream it, you can have it, but if you cannot dream it, you cannot have it. Every great innovation around us is products of vision.
I shared with them, the cars that you drive, the clothes that you wear – you know in the olden days, people cover themselves with leaves, after Adam and Eve have been shy, they used leaves to cover, and of course we grew up and we read in history of how people at the beginning were using animal skin as their cover, but I’m sure somebody thought that look, we cannot continue to use animal skin; if somebody is using the skin of a leopard and another one is using the skin of an antelope, the one using the skin of an antelope will probably run from the one wearing the skin of a leopard knowing the nature of a leopard that this one that is coming, I can’t trust you, he will run, so that’s why we are all arrayed in beautiful dresses today, fabrics of different grades and all.
The fig is the most valuable tree in Philistines; it is a tree with many branches and people find shade under it, contrary to what bramble was saying, the best of shades can only be provided by the fig tree. I have seen one before, I’ve been to Israel, we’ve stayed under it and like I said, it’s a tree with many branches; it produces fruits twice in a year and the fruits can be preserved because it’s also medicinal.
And someone may want to ask, but why did Jesus curse the fig tree? The only reason why Jesus cursed the fig tree in Matthew 25 was not because He was hungry, but simply because by nature, a fig tree supposes to produce fruits round the year, but in that particular instance, the fig tree failed, it was like it was involved in conspiracy and needed to be punished for it.
My prayer is that we will not be punished for not bearing fruits at the appropriate time in the mighty name of Jesus; but nonetheless, we find out that the fig tree attached so much great value to its purpose. There is this saying that when purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable. My prayer for everyone of us as we continue our journey in the year 2024 is that we will not abuse our purpose, because when purpose is abused, destiny will be truncated, and I pray that whatever we will do that will bring about destiny crashing or altercation or whatever, the Lord will not allow us to do in Jesus name.
And the same applies to the vine tree which is the most important of them all; today, it remains in the process of producing wine which (of course) has traveled all over the world because it refused to remain in the forest. You’ll find wines among both the lowly and the high segments of the society, even Jesus recognized it as He compares it with His blood at the Passover.
When you talk about the wine, during the communion service, we say it denotes the blood of Jesus, because Jesus has been killed how many years ago, so we don’t have access to that fresh blood, but by faith, the wine we drink today is synonymous to the blood of our Lord Jesus.
However, the bramble tree accepted the offer and became the tree of the forest; it failed to appreciate its value and today, of all the trees, it’s the cheapest and you’ll find it in the bush.
Do you know the bramble is the cheapest among all those trees as captured in the Jotham story? Nobody cultivates bramble – people will cultivate the fig, people will cultivate olive, people will cultivate the vine, but nobody cultivates the bramble or if you know of anyone that does, you’ll let us know. The best the bramble is used for, in fact, they call it props in the construction world, the best they use it for is to support concrete casting and structures, and immediately after it’s used, they pack everything together and burn it off. My prayer is that you will not become useless in life in the name of Jesus.
So how do we dignify our effort this year? Because the subject matter of our discussion today is dignity and how do we dignify our efforts? How do we maximize our value so that we can get the best result as we journey into year 2024?
Number one: learn to attach great value to whatever position you find yourself, this is because value will propel us to the next level. Whatever position you find yourself today, attach great value to it, and value takes you to the next level.
We read about Bill Gates today, one of the richest men in the world, information had it that he was not educated, as a matter of fact, he left the university when he was failing and failing, but he has a vision for something you need, for something special, and immediately he left his education, he ran in pursuit of his vision, and today, his name is among the nobles.
Daniel was able to achieve his desire goal on account of value he attached to his calling. When they brought them together, they gave them food, they gave them everything, the Bible tells us in Daniel 1:8 that ‘and Daniel purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the portion of the king’s meal’; if you want to make a meaningful progress, brethren, you must dignify your office. You are a child of God, you are a prophet, you are sons of the Most High, you must take a stand as we continue our lives, as we continue our journey into the New Year.
Magnify your office, Romans 11: 13, Apostle Paul was talking about him magnifying his office, he said “For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office”; brethren, if you don’t magnify your office, nobody will do it for you. Yoruba has a saying that ‘eleru ni o ma ko fe, ki won to ba gbe’, in other words, it’s someone that has a load that will express readiness to go before he will get a supporting hand.
Magnify your office this year, magnify your calling, magnify your marriage, when you don’t magnify your marriage, you stand the risk of losing out. Magnify the opportunity you have to go to school, it’s not a right for your parents to send you to school, it’s a privilege, magnify that opportunity, and that takes me to point number two.
Number two: you must value your Christian life if you want to go to heaven. 1st Peter 2: 9 goes on to tell us who we are in Christ; it says “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light”; brethren, you must pursue this with all vigor so that you can be set to magnify your calling.
You must stay on track, avoid wishy-washy, avoid distraction, go straight, walk straight, be focused and don’t get distracted as you continue the journey to the year.
Number three: dignify yourself. How do you dignify yourself? You dignify yourself by investing with honor; invest with honor, innovation, moving to the next level, doing things to make things work.
I shared something with the workers and ministers this morning, I printed it out and I will read it to you, one of my friends, a managing director of a group of conglomerates sent it to me last week and it has to do with the statement made by the chief executive for Nokia immediately after the acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft; he said during the press conference to announce Nokia being acquired by Microsoft, Nokia CEO ended his speech by saying, ‘we didn’t do anything wrong but somehow we lost’. He did not do anything wrong, but yet, he lost.
Upon saying that, all his management team, including himself teared sadly; Nokia has been a respectable company, they didn’t do anything wrong in their business, however, the world changed too fast, their opponents were too powerful, they missed out on learning, they missed out on changing and thus, they lost the opportunity at hand to make it big. Not only did they miss the opportunity to have big money, they lost their chance of survival.
The message of this story is simply that if you don’t change, you will be removed from the competition. Don’t just take things for granted, you are just there, it’s my wife, it’s my husband, what you are supposed to do, you don’t do it; your work – it’s my uncle’s company, they cannot remove me, if they cannot remove you, technology can render you useless, trend can make you of no consequence.
I remember those days while we were in school, it’s bukaterias we hear, they would ask where are you coming from, from bukateria; but today if I say bukateria, I’m sure some faces are looking at me now, which one is bukateria? Because now, what we are used to is eatery.
I remember those days when you get to the bus stop, ‘omo oni ice water yin ree o, ice water yii tutu, o wo’yin’ (ice water sellers would be hawking), how many of you have heard of that before? But today, do we have ice water again? What do we have today? Pure water.
You also remember ose dudu (black soap); my mother would go to the market, buy ose dudu and cut for everybody, that’s what we bathe with, but ose dudu has become dudu osun, and now we have Premier, we have Joy and of course the women, you know more than I do in that area.
Banking started with goldsmiths; those days you want to store value, you go to the goldsmiths, but today, banking has taken over, they’ve more or less rendered goldsmiths useless. If you don’t move, competition will remove you; the chances of survival can be very slim.
Number four: you must be a good time manager; you must use your time to the best of available opportunities. There is this popular saying that procrastination is a thief of time, and let me tell you something, the stories of the Ten Virgins we have in the Bible is not just for show, it’s just to teach us about preparedness, don’t wait until the time comes before you start running helter-skelter, you must be a time manager.
Every one of us, make the most of your time, do the right thing at the right time. I would rather finish my job and be playing, than playing when I still have a lot to do. There are many of us today, we are playing, leaving our job behind, believing that don’t worry, I will go back to it when I’m done; finish your job before you play.
Number five: cultivate the habit of reading, readers are thinkers and thinkers are readers, praise the Lord! Those who cannot think cannot lead, and if they lead, they will become authoritarians, very impulsive, because in leading, you need to think about others; this policy I want to push out, how is it going to affect every member of the team?
Empathy, people’s consciousness, awareness of the fact that we are not equally gifted must come to play when you are formulating policy. When you see those who are not readers, who cannot think, they just come up and they don’t care; they profess to be leaders but they are leading nobody; those who are following them are just following them by compulsion, they are following them because if they don’t follow, they will be killed or cut off. They’ll say let’s just follow, we know him, that is his nature, we need to be very careful.
Are people only following you because they just believe if we don’t follow him, there will be no food for us? Thinkers are grateful people; when you see those who cannot think, they don’t give a damn, they are always entitled; you’ll give them, they will say how much did you give me? What have you done that eyes have not seen before? All of you in that category, I don’t want to go to our mothers, God will have mercy on you. This year, God will forgive you, otherwise, many of you have used your mouth to bring condemnation and problems, ‘awon egbe e, awon egbe e lo fe, o o ri egbe e nile’.
For you to be able to manage resources well, you must read and arm yourself; read about investment. There was stock that were bought for about ₦10 per unit about 2-3 years ago that are selling for ₦40+ today, Zenith bank, GT.
I remember when one was selling for ₦10, another one for ₦13, UBA was going for like ₦5, I saw their prices about few days ago and I was like what is going on here? Even First bank that was in coma for how many years now, they are there.
Number six: you must be a man of integrity. Integrity is the currency in the global marketplace. Integrity demands for transparency, sincerity, accountability, accuracy and truthfulness. What I said about stock price, I was talking about their stock price, not the organization, so that you’ll get me right, because of some of the challenges, you know their stock price was low for quite some time, I have my friends there.
When you get home, read Psalms 101: 2, Psalms 15: 1 – 5; integrity (like I said) is the currency in the global marketplace, there’s need for personal integrity, social integrity, when you say 2:00, it should be 2:00; it’s only in this part of the world that we abuse people’s time, when you abuse people’s time, you abuse their life because time is life and life is time; there should be spiritual integrity, financial integrity, they are very critical.
If you have all of these, people will follow you naturally when you are accountable. In my provincial meetings every month, I have participants here, we tell them how much came in, how much was spent, how much is left, and occasionally I give the ministers. It’s not a common practice but you let people know what is going on, so that when I have money, if I have to buy a chopper (but I don’t need it), because my village doesn’t have … my own is that God should just provide me money to be flying, I don’t need jet, I don’t need chopper because those things come with their problems, they put you under pressure.
Integrity, nobody will doubt you, because they know who you are and the way you run, you are accountable.
Number seven: prudency is key to right and creative leadership, Proverbs 14: 15 – 16, maybe during the second service if time permits, I will give you more, shall we rise on our feet [Music]
I just want us to close our eyes and talk to God this morning; Father, give me oil in my lamp and keep me burning, help me to yield myself to dignity, help me to dignify Your place, help me to dignify my calling, help me to dignify my vocation this year, help me to be more focused and help me oh Lord God Almighty to achieve much more than ever before in the mighty name of Jesus.
If you are here, you know you have been failing, every effort you’ve made in the past, you’ve been failing, it could be because of disobedience, it could be because of sin, as we all continue in that prayer, [Altar call].
Father in heaven I want to say thank You, thank You for Your word that has come forth this morning, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus Christ. I pray for all Your children that have heard Your word this morning, help us Lord to live a quiet, peaceful and righteous life that will inspire and influence productivity and (of course) our society for good in Jesus name.
Help us Lord to dignify our calling and help us to dignify our relationship with You so that in service to You, we will invest in honor in the name of Jesus. We pray oh God that the key learning of this exhortation this morning will not be lost on any one of us in Jesus name.
Blessed be Your name forever; for Your children who have come out this morning, receive them onto Yourself in Jesus name, cancel failure in their lives, cancel insults in the lives, open a fresh chapter in their lives, and let today mark the beginning of a new beginning in their lives; thank You Father because You have answered, we pray that at the end of this year when stock shall be taken, Father Almighty God, let every one of us be able to say thank God we got it right, thank God that from 14th of January when I heard that exhortation my life has never been the same; blessed be Your name forever oh God, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
God bless you, thank you for your time!
