Hallelujah! Father we thank You; we thank You Lord for Your faithfulness, You are a good God. Father Lord God of heaven, we are here this morning despite all our challenges, all our burdens, all the mountains before us because we know that You are good, because we know that You’re here already; Lord God of heaven we ask this morning that You will minister to us, You will speak to our situations, lift our burdens in the mighty name of Jesus.
Oh Lord God of heaven, we pray Lord that You will cover us with Your glory and envelope us with Your favor like never before. As we go into Your word, Lord please give us understanding in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You blessed Redeemer; glory, honor and adoration Lord we give You, in Jesus mighty name we prayed. Praise the Lord!
Good morning brethren! You’re welcome to the presence of God this morning; I bring greetings from the Pastor in Charge of Province, our father in the Lord, Pastor Tunde Netufo, who has to visit one of our locations this morning but he sends his warm greetings to all of us, but the Lord is here with us in the name of Jesus.
And I want to give glory to God for the privilege of life; by the grace of God this morning, our message will come in two parts: the first part (which is going to be very brief) is going to focus on the Helps Weekend; the helps weekend started on Thursday and we are rounding it up today with a thanksgiving after the service or in the course of this service.
The help group in the Redeemed Christian Church of God consists of four departments: the Sunday school department, the welfare department, the ushering and the choristers; so that forms what we call the helps group; so they are the ones celebrating but we all are celebrating by the grace of God.
The theme for this year (for the help weekend) is Grace to Touch Lives, praise the Lord! It started on Thursday, the first day, by touching and changing lives through praise and worship; the key text was Acts 16: 25- 40, therein, we were told that when praise and worship is truly anointed, it has power to touch lives and change situations, hallelujah! Psalm 149: 1-9; and we see what happened in 1st Samuel 16, the king Saul had a season of madness and he said send me somebody, and it was David that went and in true praise and worship, that disappeared, praise the Lord!
We moved on to the second day and looked at the importance of mercy and the works of mercy; and therein we know that God answers our prayers when we pray to Him every now and then, it’s actually an act of mercy, because if we pray and God will not answer, it means that person has not received mercy. So is there anyone here who has ever received mercy of the Lord? Because at one time or the other, we have all prayed to God and God has answered us, and also we are expected that we should show this same act of mercy particularly to people around us who are less privileged. So in our daily living, even as we receive mercy from God, please let us show mercy to all the people around us, particularly the less privileged, praise the Lord!
So today very quickly, we’re now going to look at the dynamics and power of the grace to touch lives. By the grace of God, this month is the beginning of the new calendar year in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, so we don’t want us to put the cart before the horse, so one of the reasons why we are taking this exhortation is to be properly aligned as to the expectations in the course of the year. The Lord is going to give us mighty visions even as we start this New Year, hallelujah! But even at that, He’s also going to give sufficient grace to fulfill those visions in the mighty name of Jesus.
The first lesson here says, vision is crucial, Proverbs 29: 18. We need to have a vision of where we want to be or where we should be at any given time because that’s what drives us. The Bible says where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Jesus Christ commanded His disciples to wait for Him.
So the second point is around partnership and empowerment for vision pursuits. After having that vision, the vision is big enough, but you (on your own) are not able to achieve that, so you need a kind of partnership and the first person to partner with is our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Acts 1: 8 and Luke 24: 49, He was saying to His disciples, the work ahead of you is a lot, but wait here for Me until I impact you with power and then you can go and begin to fulfill your vision. I’m praying for someone this morning that the Lord Almighty will impact you with that power and enable you to fulfill that vision in the name of Jesus.
The third point is that the work of the Kingdom is not carnal. In the work of the Kingdom for example, one visible walk of the Kingdom or one that is common that everybody knows is soul winning. Soul winning for example is not carnal, you don’t just wake up one morning and say I’m going to win a soul, there are some spiritual preparations that you need to do that goes ahead of going to win a soul.
Zechariah 4: 6, the Bible says it is not by power, it’s not by might, but by my spirit, says the Lord. So anything that we have as a vision for this year, brethren, let us remember that is not carnal, let us put God in it, let us get the partnership of the Lord Jesus Christ to go ahead of us.
The next point says that grace is fundamental. There’s nothing anyone can do without the spiritual enablement; this spiritual enablement is grace. If you take G out of the word Grace, you have race, so that G is the God factor in the race of life. When you have God in your race of life, you will always be a winner, hallelujah!
The next point is that prayer is essential; we must pray. How many times must we pray? The Bible says pray without ceasing; pray at all times; pray until something happens; you must not give up on those situations, you must not give up on those visions that you have, pray until something happens and then commit the work and the challenges that come out of your daily living to God. When you commit it to God, then you are giving it to a higher authority because God is able to do all things, He is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than you can ask or imagine, and there is nothing that is too difficult for our God to do.
So when we get to that situation that it appears is not moving anymore, even before you get there, start with God, but when it gets to those points where you know that except something comes to help you, you cannot move forward, lift it up to God.
The next point is God is a great provider; Philippians 4: 19, He has everything within His power, He has capacity to give everything and all things, He’s a great provider so don’t limit yourself; the moment you have entrusted God to be part of your vision, God surely will come through for you in the mighty name of Jesus.
And having done all of these, trust the Lord, trust God for the grace to do great things, even the impossible things because with Him, nothing shall be impossible. Trust God to do the impossible; for Him, there is no impossibility; impossibility is with men, it’s with you and I, God has nothing like that, Mark 9: 23, Philippians 4: 13 says, I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.
And we also have a responsibility even as we are pursuing our vision, we are encouraged here that we should preach the word of God always; everyone that comes across our path, everyone that we see, in one way or the other, let us preach the word of God to them; it may not be by preaching a message, the preaching may even be by our lifestyle, hallelujah! The preaching may even be just dropping a tract or a note for them, praise the living Jesus!
I’ll quickly take an opportunity to share a testimony here: a couple of days ago, my daughter was going back to school, so she had to do some tests; so we went to a hospital and then there was this person who came also on behalf of his father and it appeared that his situation was difficult and my daughter said she wanted to write something for him, I was wondering what a 12 year old was going to write; so she wrote God is able to do it’ and give it to that person, and the person was encouraged.
It can be as simple as that, preach the message, study and preach the undiluted word of God, praise the living Jesus! My prayer is that even as we celebrate and bring to a close in thanksgiving the celebration of this year’s helps weekend, the Lord will empower us to do great things in the mighty name of Jesus. He will give us visions that are greater than what we can do on our own, because if the vision is something you can do on your own, then it’s not big enough; the Lord will sort you out this year in the mighty name of Jesus. Praise the Lord!
That brings to a close the first part of the message, so I will go into the second part of the message; please turn with me to the Book of 1st John 3: 1 – 4, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as is pure. 4Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law”.
I will title this message very briefly and I’m praying God will give me grace to do it in this time, What Manner of Love, praise the Lord! Brethren again, just to situate it even as we are starting a new year in the Redeemed Christian Church of God calendar 2023/24, it’s important that we try to rebuild our foundation, try to look at some of those things – our faith, what we are standing on with a view to going forward, because if the foundation is not strong enough, it’s just a matter of time, whatever you build on it may crash; so we want to lay the proper foundation, hallelujah!
The way we view ourselves and how we carry ourselves all around is an integral part of whether we’re successful or not, praise God! I’ll point us to the Book of 2nd Samuel 9: 3 – 10; there is the story of a young man called Mephibosheth, he was the grandson of a king, he was a prince; he had certain calamities and a prince became somebody who was living in a village somewhere and hiding because of certain things that happened to him (which I’ll mention shortly).
But the time came when the new King David said go and bring anyone in the house of Jonathan that I may show him mercy, then they brought Mephibosheth. When he got to David, 1st Samuel 9: 6, he said I am a servant; this was a prince, but because of his issues – his father and grandfather died in war and then when they were trying to take him to escape, he fell and he became lame, and after that they moved into a village; so he lost everything about royalty; so to speak, he came down from being palatial to being pedestrian, praise the Lord! Praise the living Jesus!
So his mentality changed from ‘I am a prince’ to ‘I am a servant’; then in verse 8 when David said no, from today, you will be eating on this table, he said who am I? A lame dog. The reason Mephibosheth did this was because he forgot who he was. Today brethren, I want us all to come around and remind ourselves who we are in Christ, and then we can walk in the knowledge of who we are and then attain what we need to do, because if you don’t know who you are, then you’ll take anything for good, praise the living Jesus! So we need the right mentality to go through these tough times; some people are likely going to say ah, this country is for them, these good things – living in Lekki, living in Ikoyi is for some people, why is it not for you? Praise the Lord!
Some people have big titles and these titles open the door for them and they carry themselves around as if everything belongs to them, oh I’m the CEO of this organization, I am the founder of this whatever, I am the bishop of this place, I am the general overseer of that place, I am the pastor in this place, and then the people who don’t have titles apparently maybe are teaming and say oh, the little resources left, maybe it’s for those people with big titles. Brethren, I want to tell you this morning, you have a title that is bigger than all those, and what is that title C O G, we’ll come to it; your title is COG, praise the Lord!
Our topic today, what manner of love, reminds me of a song we used to sing many years ago, ‘behold what manner of love the Father has given on to us; behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us; that we should be called the sons of God, that we should be called the sons of God’.
Brethren, may I tell you that the best title all over the world, the biggest title anywhere in the world is COG – Child of God; you may not have CEO attached to your name, but you have child of God, that’s the best title anyone can have and it opens the door anyway. Anywhere a CEO can go, a child of God can go even better, praise the Lord!
Now let us look at the depth of the love the Father has for us, how deep is this love? How much is this love that the Father has for us, praise God!
The first sign or the first look that I will take of this love that the Father has for us is that He made His Son, Jesus Christ to die for us while we were yet sinners. In Ezekiel 18: 20, the Bible says the soul that sins shall die; in Psalms 51: 3 – 5, the psalmist says that we were sharpened in iniquity; so if you put these two together and Romans 3: 23 says all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. If you put all of these together, it means all of us are dead because we were sinners; but then, the judgment for sin is death, and then the Lord decided that we would not die, instead of that judgment for death, He brought us life.
And how did He bring about this life? He gave His Son Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son to come and die for us – for you and I, praise the living Jesus. John 15: 13 says “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”; He laid down His life for His friends and through His death, a few things happened to us:
One, He redeemed our souls; before, by reason of sins, we were slaves to the devil, we were slaves to death, but when He died, through His blood, He purchased us from death and then we became servants unto righteousness, hallelujah! Romans 6: 16 – 18, we became servants unto righteousness, so we became His own, He redeemed our souls; we were all destined for death but because of the love that the Father has for us, He gave us life, hallelujah!
Then He changed us from a people that had no hope and we became a people that have a hope of eternity. A good example is the two thieves on the cross, they had been condemned to die, nothing else was going to change, but at the eleventh hour, the destiny of one of them changed; that was what happened to us when Jesus Christ died for us and God asked Him to die for us, praise the living Jesus!
He brought us out of darkness and brought us into His marvelous light, praise the living Jesus!
How deep is the love of God? How many of us can give (even) our car and say I dash you forever? Talk less of giving our sons, our only begotten. God gave that to us because of the love that He has for us.
The second view of the depth of His love for us is that we then have access to a relationship of a great mystery. I was excited this morning when I was listening to the Sunday school recording talking about relationship with God; He brought us into a great mystery, an equation that nobody could understand except the Lord gives understanding.
As we know, there’s a mystery that surrounds the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, some people will say where is His father and people who don’t have understanding will say it’s not possible, it’s not true; it is true, it happened, it’s a mystery, yes, because Mary conceived of the Holy Spirit. In Luke 1: 34 – 41 we’ll see the mystery of His birth, therefore the blood that runs through the veins of Jesus Christ – the Man Jesus Christ is the same blood of the Lord almighty, praise God!
This is a mystery, when we now accept Jesus Christ, then the same mystery was now transferred into our own lives, we now have the same blood as the blood that Jesus Christ has, hallelujah! Look at the love the Father has for us; brought a complete stranger, complete outsider into a closely knit family, into a mysterious relationship, praise the living Jesus!
Romans 8: 16 – 17, the Bible tells us that the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17And if (we are) children, then we are heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Him (Christ); it says if we are the same blood with Jesus Christ, then whatever inheritance He has, we also have it, praise the living Jesus!
Having looked at the depth of the love the father has for us what is the implication of those two things – first, that Jesus Christ died for us and then He brought us into that mysterious equation of a relationship.
The first implication is that (like I said), if we have the same blood as Jesus Christ, then we are heirs also of God and we are joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. We become a part of the strongest blood relationship that can ever exist all over the world, for example: therefore, any sickness that cannot operate in the body of Jesus Christ should not find existence in our bodies, praise the living Jesus! Anything that cannot stop Jesus Christ should not be able to stop us, praise the living Jesus!
In Psalm 24, every powerful testimonies that Jesus Christ was able to perform by His blood, guess what brethren, we should also be able to do the same; that is the implication of the love of the Father for us. So don’t let us limit ourselves, don’t let us walk around Nigeria and all over the world as people who do not have a God, praise the living Jesus!
The second implication of His love for us is that we are positioned to inherit the Father just as Jesus Christ. So what are we positioned to inherit? We have access, 100% access to the largest and best inheritance ever; there’s no one who bears the title COG that is poor; brethren, you are only poor in the mind but you are not supposed to be; you have access to the greatest inheritance, what is this? Materially.
In Psalm 24: 1, the Bible says the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; and the world, and they that dwell therein; in Psalms 37: 11, the Bible says the meek shall inherit the earth; and it’s referring to the COGs in the house shall inherit what your Father has in Psalm 24:1 & Psalms 37: 29 says the righteous shall inherit the land, praise the living Jesus!
In addition, and far and beyond the material inheritance, we are also positioned to inherit glory, hallelujah! Romans 8: 17 says that we will be glorified with Him; Jesus Christ is glorified, we also will be glorified with Him in the mighty name of Jesus.
And what type of glory are we talking about? Let’s continue, Romans 8: 18 & 19, it says that our present suffering, what we are going through now is nothing compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. Brethren, can I announce to you that there’s a glory waiting for you, there’s a glory that will be revealed in you; whatever it is that you are going through now is nothing compared to that glory here on earth and even in the beyond in the mighty name of Jesus.
On another note, as we know glory is the opposite of shame, Proverbs 3: 35, if the Bible says you are going to inherit glory, then it’s saying shame will not be found in your lives. By reason of that word, I pray for you and myself that every shame is taken away in the mighty name of Jesus.
The third implication of the love the Father has for us is taken from the text for this morning, 1st John 3: 2; the Bible says whenever He shall appear, something will happen, first, we will see Him as He is; I’m excited sometimes when people draw Jesus Christ, they draw a man with beards, they draw whites, some people draw black, that is the imagination of man, but when He shall appear, those of us who have seen ‘Jees’ will have the privilege of seeing the actual Jesus Christ, not the one that we’ve seen in papers, praise the living Jesus!
The Lord will give us supernatural eyes, not these ordinary eyes and we’ll behold Him because His glory is so much that even the angels will have to cover their faces, but we will have those eyes to be able to look at Him, behold Him and see Jesus Christ, praise the living Jesus!
Number four of what will happen, (still in that verse 2) is that not only shall we see Him, (then this is exciting) we shall be like Him. What shall He be like? Is He a man? Is He a woman? Does He have two heads? Does He have one head? We do not know, but whatsoever it is, a day is coming and a time is coming that we shall be like Him; but I have an idea what we shall be like, 1st Corinthians 15: 50 -53 tells us first and foremost, our body, this flesh is a corruptible body, the Bible says we shall drop this corruption and take on incorruption, praise the living Jesus!
Then the Bible tells us further that we shall drop mortality and take on immortality; it means there will be no more death, no more pain, no more struggles, no more failure, no more defeats in the mighty name of Jesus. We shall triumph and reign with Him, Hallelujah!
Let us take a look at that passage, 1st John 3: 2, when He shall appear, we shall see Him as He is and we shall be like Him. There is this song I listen to and is asking the same question; when I see Him, what will He look like? What would I do?
Brethren, from today let us begin to imagine when He shall appear, we shall see Him as He is for we shall be like Him.
How should we then reciprocate the love the Father has for us? The first thing we must do to reciprocate this love is to accept Him, embrace this love, John 1: 12, the Bible says as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God; another translation says children of God.
Number two: we must bear this title with pride; this title, Child of God –COG, take it everywhere with pride. Well brethren, let me sound a caution note here it is not by writing COG, because by tomorrow some people will write COG on their vehicles; it’s not by writing COG on your vehicles or on the door of your houses, amen!
Many years ago when I used to transit from the mainland to the office, right on the third Mainland Bridge you’ll see many cars with ‘I am Redeemed, I am this, I am
that’, but when you see the way they are driving, you would say ah, is it the car that is redeemed or the owner; but mostly you’ll then come to the conclusion that probably the car was redeemed but the owner was not.
Brethren we don’t need to carry the title COG; the Bible tells us in the Book of Hebrews 8: 10 – 12, it says that He will write His laws on our hearts His tablets in our hearts and then we’ll take it about and He will give us grace to live with that word; that is what is expected of a COG, wherever you turn to from tomorrow, let them know you’re a child of God without necessarily carrying that tag; you don’t need the title CEO, the best title ever in the world is COG, let’s demonstrate it, praise the living Jesus!
Number three: we must purify ourselves; that passage in 1st John 3: 3 says everyone that is expecting His appearing must purify himself in the hope of that appearance; we must live every day holy. Matthew 5: 48, the Bible says be thou perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect; 1st Peter1: 15 &16 says be ye holy for I am Holy. Every day let us live purifying and just search yourselves and that is what keeps you in expectation of His appearance, praise the living Jesus!
Brethren as I begin to round up, there is no one that cannot benefit from the love of God because the Bible says in John 3: 16, for God so loved the world that He gave – but it’s only whosoever keys into it that will see all of these things that we are talking about.
John 1: 12, the Bible says only those who received Him will be called the sons of God; so if you carry the title and say I’m a COG and you have not received Him, the devil will tell you Jesus I know, Paul I know, who are you?
This morning before we pray, if you are here this morning, you’ve never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, let’s go back to the basic – the first thing to do, accept Him as your Lord and Savior. Imagine, a time will come when He will appear, we will be like Him, we shall see Him as He is, but even before then, we have the benefit of inheritance here on earth and in the beyond and anything and everything that Jesus Christ can do, we will be able to do.
[Altar call]
We are going to pray and say Father, I thank You for Your mercy, I thank You for who You are and I thank You for who I am; Father, I thank You, glory be to Your name forevermore, in Jesus mighty name we have given thanks.
We are going to pray and say Father, Your love for me, please don’t let it be in vain in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
And finally brethren, we’ll pray and say Father, when You shall appear, please give me grace to see You as You are, and be like You in the mighty name of Jesus.
Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
