Let somebody shout hallelujah! Father in heaven, we want to say a big thank You; thank You for another opportunity to come before Your presence, You are the mighty Savior and it is unto You we have come. We thank You Lord Almighty for this solemn ministration, even through the choir ministration
And so Father, we confess our frailties, we confess our inadequacies, and we ask Lord Almighty that Your Spirit will step into our lives and help us in Jesus name. There is no way we can help ourselves, we rely on You, we depend on Your grace, we ask Lord Almighty that Your grace will continue to carry us in Jesus name.
We commit this service onto Your hands, Lord, please speak to us in Jesus name. Thank you for thus far You have helped us, thank You because You will see us through this year, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus.
As you speak to us, Lord, today, we pray that You will challenge our faith, You will motivate us, You will stir up our zeal, and You will help us, Father Almighty God, to serve You and to walk with You for the rest of our lives in Jesus name.
You are the One from the beginning, we pray oh God that like never before, You will speak to our hearts in Jesus name, and by Your Word, let everyone of us be blessed today. Thank You, Father, because You have answered, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed.
Good morning, church, happy to welcome every one of you to His presence, my prayer for you is that you will go from one level of grace to the other in Jesus name.
I want to start by thanking God, first and foremost, for making today possible for everyone of us, and I want to profoundly appreciate you for your contribution and support towards the CSR initiative of the church, against the run of play and by the grace of God, as at this morning when the list was brought, we’ve been able to raise about ₦17.9million, out of which the sum of about ₦17 million was spent. I want to also appreciate Pst. (Mrs) Umeh and her team, who coordinated the purchases and the packaging of the products we are going to give out, may God bless you all mightily in Jesus name.
At least, plus the balance we had in that account before, we’re able to raise about ₦24million+, and now we have a balance of about ₦7.5million, the Lord will bless you all mightily in Jesus name. But we have a big challenge; we came in this morning to see the church filled up, by the time I wanted to go and park, I saw a canopy filled up and another service was going on there, and I asked, what is going on there? They said those who came for palliative, we had to stop them that the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Christ the Lord Parish, is one and this one you are doing is illegal, if you want to sit down you sit down, why would you go ahead and start conducting another service.
Okay, we thought we were done, the next thing, they took over the church. So with this now, we may be forced to review this whether to stop it or to find another way of reaching out, the youth hall is jam-packed, we decided to free up this place for our members. And this, of course, is a testament to the state of the nation, that married people, aged people, will leave their homes very early in the morning to come and queue for rice, we can only pray that God will intervene in the affairs of the nation in the name of Jesus. We will sit down and take a look at it, we will review it whether to stop it or whether to continue, because I was completely disorganized this morning, but if you have any piece of advice for us, please don’t hesitate to let us know, because two good heads are better than one.
So that is the situation, please bear with us. We had to call for more reinforcement so that they can keep watch over the cars, so that your cars will not be burgled. And as you are seated there, please keep your phones, keep your bags, the Lord will bless you mightily in Jesus name.
By the grace of God, next week Sunday will be our celebration service, and by popular demand, even from the Ministers, they said, okay, daddy let’s dress freely, so because of that, feel free to wear your best next week Sunday; I want the Urhobo people to come in their full regalia; Hausa people, come in your full regalia; whether you are from Benin, I want to see those red stuff, come in your best and the Lord will bless you mightily in the name of Jesus. The National Praise Team will be on ground to lead the praise worship by the special grace of God.
Then tomorrow we’ll be having our prayer chain by 6: 30, and the theme for tomorrow is ‘Becoming What He Wants You to Be’. You see, God has a design for your life, God has a purpose for your life, and that purpose you got to fulfill, you got to be at the center point of God’s wish for your life. So tomorrow is another opportunity for us to share the Word, and, of course, to pray to God, and I trust God that His purpose for each and every one of us will come to reality in Jesus name. So I look forward to seeing every one of you, God will bless you in Jesus name.
2nd Chronicles 25: 1 – 10, “Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart. 3Now it came to pass, when the kingdom was established to him, that he slew his servants that had killed the king his father. 4But he slew not their children, but did as it is written in the law in the book of Moses, where the Lord commanded, saying, the fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin.
5Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of their fathers, throughout all Judah and Benjamin: and he numbered them from twenty years old and above, and found them three hundred thousand choice men, able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield. 6He hired also an hundred thousand mighty men of valor out of Israel for an hundred talents of silver. 7But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the Lord is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim.
8But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle: God shall make thee fall before the enemy: for God hath power to help, and to cast down. 9 And Amaziah said to the man of God, but what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, the Lord is able to give thee much more than this. 10Then Amaziah separated them, to wit, the army that was come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again: wherefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in great anger”.
Verse 9, because that is where I’m taking the theme or the topic of the exhortation, “And Amaziah said to the man of God, but what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, the Lord is able to give thee much more than this”.
This morning, by the grace of God, I will be talking to us on the topic ‘He Can Give You Much More Than This’, He can give you much more than you think, it’s a word of assurance, is a word of encouragement that God can exceed our expectations. One of the challenges we face as Christians is to really understand and believe God’s words; it is rather difficult for us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts without leaning to our own understanding; it is difficult for us to totally acknowledge God in all our ways and truly trust him to direct our paths.
And the reason is simple, trusting God means relinquishing control into His hand; trusting God means choosing to stand still and see His deliverance in all situations; trusting Him means choosing to believe that in all situations, He is working things out for our good. However, we find out that is never an easy thing to do, especially when the evidence before our eyes tells us an outcome that contradicts what we believe.
King Amaziah, in our story, had it all planned out and he was ready for battle. He counted the fighting men and he was able to gather 300, and when he was of the opinion that the 300 men may not be enough to do justice, he decided to hire extra 100 men from Israel so that he could go for war. And of course, he paid a pretty sum of 100, 000 talents for the mercenary that he got to come and fight; all was set for battle but God has a message for the king. My prayer for everyone under the influence of my voice this morning is that God will speak to you; then whatever message it is that God has for you, you will receive today in the name of Jesus.
God spoke to the king through the man of God, he said these troops from Israel must not match with you, for the Lord is not with Israel. And he cautioned further, even if you go and fight courageously and strenuously in battle, God will overthrow you, (he said) for God has the power either to help or to cast down. My prayer again for you this morning, standing on this anointed altar is that you will not be overthrown in the mighty name of Jesus; you will not be cast down in the mighty name of Jesus.
Brethren, there are a few lessons that I want us to learn from this passage:
Number one is the fact that God is Sovereign and He has the power either to help or to overthrow. In 2nd Samuel 14: 6, I remember when Jonathan and his armor bearer went to fight Saul, together with the children of Israel; Saul and the army were hiding, but it got to a point that Jonathan told his armor bearer, he said come, let us go ahead to the camp of the Philistines; he said, it’s not impossible that the Lord will help us, (he said) because there is no restraint to the Lord either to save by many or by few.
Brethren, our God is Sovereign, what that means is that all power belongs to Him. No matter how much we prepare in situation, God has the final say. Proverbs 21:31 says, the horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord. Another interpretation has it that the horse is made ready for the day of battle: but victory rests with the Lord. I decree this morning that the victory of the Lord shall be your portion in the name of Jesus Christ.
So what this simply is telling us this morning is that our dependence should always be on the Almighty God and not in our own strength. No man can help himself, no nation can help herself, we all need the help of God to survive in this our journey, and that’s why we were told in 1st Samuel 2: 9 that by strength shall no man prevail. I pray today that God Almighty will strengthen you for the journey ahead in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Number two is that we must be careful of the alliances or the associations we form or keep in life. 1st Corinthians 15: 33, the Bible says, “Be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners”; and in Exodus 32: 2, “And Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me”; then he went further to say do not join the multitude to do evil.
Brethren, ungodly associations are always displeasing to God, no matter what gains we think we may get from those alliances or associations. You see, king Jehoshaphat almost lost his life because he went into alliance with ungodly Ahab, that you will find in 2nd Chronicles 1 : 1 & 2; later, he formed another economic alliance with Ahaziah, another wicked king of Israel, however, God destroyed all the investments he made in that partnership and demonstrated His Supremacy over all.
Brethren, the danger of ungodly partnership is that they have the potential to corrupt our relationship with God, and indirectly attracts the wrath of God upon our lives; they cost more than they deliver and that is the truth, the consequences of wrong association can be very terrible, they bring short time gains but the end is predictable and often time it leads to death. And that’s why I want to encourage us this morning, watch the people you allow into your life, you must carefully evaluate or assess your relationships, your associations, your alliances, and ask yourself, are these relationships sanctioned by God? Will they work for your greater good or the greater good of your family?
And I want to say this morning, be careful of whom you marry; if you are not married yet, you need to be very careful, you need to watch it, be careful of who you marry. The Bible says two cannot walk together except they agree; be careful of who you marry.
Be careful with your choice of business partners; quite a number of lives have been lost to dubious and fraudulent business partners, not only that they defraud you, sometimes they also go as far as planning for your assassination. As a pastor, we have had to grabble with cases of having to intervene in business challenge, business relationship; when you go into these businesses you never carry pastors along, but when the problem comes, they come to pastors, and we don’t have the power of enforcement neither do we have the power of adjudication, we cannot do it, all we can do is just to persuade, when we persuade him/her and he/she’s not ready to listen, at the end of the day, they go and say Pastor is not doing anything, how can pastor do anything when pastor is not the IGP, the pastor is not the Chief Justice of Nigeria,
So our role can only be persuasive through persuasion and adversary, so it’s either it is taken or not taken. In fact, one of the three things my mother told me when I was coming to Lagos those days, maybe I’ve shared with you before, was that if you come to Lagos and do business with anybody and they are not ready to give you your entitlement, please don’t fight with them, there will always be another opportunity, because if you try to drag it and they kill you in the process, then it’s a waste on both sides. My prayer for every one of us is that our lives will not be wasted in Jesus name.
But the prayer alone is not enough, you must assess your business relationships, it starts sweet and nice, by the time money begins to flow in, then you’ll see the other side of the other people. Oh, let me use your company, oh, let me use this one, oh, let’s partner together, oh, let’s use this office, oh, let’s combine – there is nothing wrong in partnership, it brings synergy, it helps to pull resources together, but again, the personalities involved, the people that are involved must be correctly assessed so that by the time the business grows, there will be no problem, people will not plan to eliminate you. My prayer is that you will not die before your time in the name of Jesus.
Be mindful of those you share your concerns with; you have issues and you want to confide in somebody, there’s nothing wrong to share, because sometimes when we share our concerns, is like the problem is half solved compared to not talking at all, but in doing that, you must assess the person that you want to talk to, be careful of those you share your concerns with so that after sharing your concerns with them, you will not get to hear it on CNN, you will not have it used against you.
Be careful of those you share your concerns with; Paul took it upon himself to warn the Corinthians, he warned and said do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for there is no relationship between light and darkness, he said, there’s no relationship between a child of God and a child of Belial, we’ll find that in 2nd Corinthians 6: 14.
Now, Amaziah had to let go the Israelites soldiers because they were not meant to bring him joy; he had to let go because if he had to push ahead with them, he will end up in defeat. So, what are those things that need to let go, brethren? You may need to let go some partnerships, maybe you may need to let go some jobs, maybe you need to let go some friendships, if it doesn’t add value to you, then why retain it?
Why retain a relationship, why retain an association that will cause you to be overthrown? My prayer for every one of you this morning is that the relationship you keep, the association you keep will not cause you to be cast down in the name of Jesus Christ.
And finally, the Lord can give you much more than you ever think; so, when Amaziah was told by the prophet to release the hired Israel soldiers from his army, his greatest concern was that but you know I paid these people, how will I get the monies back? And the man of God spoke to him emphatically, let them go, don’t ask for the money, for the Lord can give you much more than that, and I want to tell us today before we round up that there is nothing a man has, according to the scripture that is not given to him, including our lives, He is the giver and the owner of our lives.
The life we have is gone the day God decides to take it, He has the final say, therefore, we must have and live with that consciousness that there is nothing our God cannot do, there is nothing you want that God cannot give you. The Bible tells us in Psalm 24: 1, it says the earth is of the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
Apostle Paul in his own submission in Philippians 4:19, he said, “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus”; and the same Apostle Paul said to the Ephesians, Ephesians 3: 20, he said, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us”; there is power that is at work in us, and is a power to do anything at all, because we have been created in the image of God, we are small gods like I always say and that is in line with Psalm 82: 6, it says we are small gods, and whether you believe it or not, heaven and earth may pass away according to His word, He said but a jot of His word will not go unfulfilled.
There is nothing that will make God to abandon His own, what He has said concerning you, what He has said concerning me, God has the capacity to bring it to pass.
What are those things that God can give you abundantly and exceedingly? God can give us life, John 10: 10 says for the thief commeth not, but to steal, to kill and to destroy, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. God can give you life, so if you are being threatened by any ailment or whatever, I can assure you that as long as God is alive and as long as you receive Him into your life, you will not die before your time in the name of Jesus Christ.
What is other thing that God can give you abundantly, its health, in 3rd John 2, He says, Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. So God is ready to give you health, abundant health, super health, health that cannot be impaired, and from today you will receive it in the mighty name of Jesus.
God can give you wealth, in Deuteronomy, He says I have given you power to make wealth. If you are here today and you are not rich, by the grace of God, by this time next year, you will be rich in the name of Jesus. But don’t steal, don’t involve in any form of criminality; you want to be rich, follow divine principles, serve God, walk with God, fear God, work, the era of manna falling from heaven has come and gone, it was during the time of Moses, it will not happen again.
And if you are here, you are one of the people that swindle people, you will send all kinds of scam email just to defraud people, they say everyday for the thief, one day for the owner. My prayer is that it will not be too late for you in the name of Jesus; if you are into such game, it is time for you to stop it, it will never help you, those who have done it before, when they make the money, they will start buying cars, cars that after some time they cannot maintain, in fact mere looking at them, you will know that these people didn’t get this money through the deed of hard work, when you see those who work hard for their money, they live a decent life; when you see those who work for their money, you will not just see them dressed with earrings as a man, plaited hairs, with bog chains, all kinds of things as if you are a bishop.
The way you dress – you know sometimes when you dress, you’ll enter some places and I know who you are, because if you are properly modeled after Christ, you will not follow in that direction.
God can give you joy, God can give you peace, He can give you favor, and He will give you children. For as many of you that are trusting God for children, the Lord will surprise you; before this time next year, your testimony shall be loud, it shall be real in the mighty name of Jesus.
Whatever it is that you need to give up brethren, like I said before, any relationship that you know is not adding value, cut it off; in the accounting parlance, there is something we call deleting in segment under the costing techniques, anything that is not giving you contribution, you are not getting valuable contribution, you delete it because it will add unnecessary cost to the profitable segment, so if it’s not working, you cut it off.
You’ll see a group of companies recently, they deleted a segment just for business strategy; if you are not getting maximum value, then why are you dissipating your energy? So whatever you need to delete, delete, and if you characters, manners that need to be deleted, delete, bad manners are like a flat tire, they won’t take you anywhere. Many of you have not been able to get married because you have no character, so we need to delete.
Whatever God wants you to give, please give up; whatever contribution you need to make, make it, whether to individuals lives or to organization or to a church, bearing in mind that God can give you much more.
Shall we rise on our feet: before we pray this morning, key things I would like you to take away from this service today are number one, you must learn to trust God. Number two, if you are here and you have not given your life to Christ, you must repent. Number three, you must take heed of divine instruction.
Amaziah has hired the soldiers of Israel, but God sent to him, those guys have been forsaken. My prayer for you today is that you will not work with forsaken men and women in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Then number four, you must have faith in God’s ability to exceed expectations; He’s a God of all flesh and there is nothing that is too hard for Him to do.
2nd Chronicles 25: 2, the Bible says “And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart”, how can it be right when it’s not perfectly done? We are going to pray to God this morning and say, Father, help me to do that right which is right in Your sight, with a perfect heart in the name of Jesus.
There was a place where the man of God told him, if you proceed with this war, taking the children of Israel with you, he will be overthrown (verse 8); so you are going to pray to God and say, Father, please help me not to fall before my enemies in the name of Jesus. You will not fall before your enemies, you will not fall into the hands of your enemies in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You Father because You have answered, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
I join my faith with yours this morning, I decree that you will not fall before your enemies and you will not fall into the hands of your enemies in the mighty name of Jesus. You are going to pray to God very quickly and say, Father, give me the grace to heed divine instruction in the name of Jesus.
Open your mouth and pray to God, Father, please give me the grace to heed divine instruction at all times, whether it is convenient or not, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Lastly, you are going to pray to God and say Father, in every area that I need to act, please help me, give me the courage, give me the will to do the needful in the name of Jesus. Those things that you need to delete, those things that you need to remove, those things that you need to throw away, pray to God this morning, Father, give me the courage, give me the will to stand my authority and do the needful to the praise and glory of Your name. So shall it be, in the name of God the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Today is the last Sunday in the month of September, I want you for a minute to ask God for something new and great that you want Him to do for you; the word of God says He can do much more, He can even give you beyond your expectation, ask Him whatever you want Him to do for you, but if you are here, you have not given your life to Christ, remember, the Bible says children’s bread are not meant for dogs, so your prayer will be repentance, prayer of repentance, pray to God, Father, I regret my shortcomings, I pray for forgiveness this morning in the name of Jesus. So shall it be in Jesus name.
If you are praying the prayer of forgiveness and repentance, God can exceed your expectation and God has the power to forgive sin, He will forgive you; men may delete you, the society may forget about you, but God will never do that to you
