Everlasting Father, the King of glory, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, my Rock, my Shield, my Refuge, my Fortress, my Anchor, my Bridge over troubled waters, my Redeemer, my Savior, I just want to bless Your holy name, be thou exalted in the mighty name of Jesus.
Father, thank You, thank You, thank You; for Your faithfulness, we thank You; for Your unhindered ability, we thank You; for all that You have done for us, we say thank You; for the Holy Ghost Congress, we say thank You; for the journey through this week, we say thank You, Father, please accept our thanks in the mighty name of Jesus.
This morning Lord, we come in total submission to You, Lord, speak to us this morning, let us not hear the voice of any man, let us just hear from You, and Lord God Almighty, guide us, direct us, that at the end of this service Lord, surely we would have encountered You in the name of Jesus.
Take all the glory, take all the honor and adoration, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed. Praise the Lord!
I’d like to appreciate our father in the Lord, our PICP, for this opportunity to minister this morning, I do not take it for granted sir, more grace, more anointing in the mighty name of Jesus. And on his behalf, I would like to welcome us all back from the Holy Ghost Congress, if you had an awesome time, can I hear you shout hallelujah!
Just to let you know, we learnt a lot, we got a lot from the Congress, but brethren, it is not enough if we stay at the level of just hearing, we must get into the level of internalizing all that we have learnt, putting to practice all that we have learnt so that our victory will be assured in Jesus mighty name. The Lord will engrace you to do it in Jesus mighty name.
Brethren just to let you know so that we can rest from the Congress activities, there will be no prayer chain here tomorrow, be at your private altars and continue to pray; pray for yourself, pray for the church and pray for the country, and the Lord will answer our prayers in Jesus mighty name.
Brethren, we surely have gotten our victory from the Congress; we started from weeping to the garment of praise, it’s a prayer actually – from weeping to the garment of praise is your portion in Jesus name. We were moved from the miry clay to the rock to stay and we will stay there in Jesus name. All incurables have been healed in the mighty name of Jesus, and the Lord of hosts is fighting our battles for us in Jesus name. And to crown it all, we have indeed been divinely repositioned in the mighty name of Jesus.
I’d just like to read three passages quickly: Micah 6: 8, “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God”? You shall walk humbly with thy God in Jesus name. 1st Peter 5: 5, “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble”. And the last passage would be Philippians 2: 3, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves”. I pray that God will grant us understanding this morning in Jesus mighty name.
Without a doubt we’ve obtained our victory, but you know, maintaining that victory is very important; we need to sustain that victory. So this morning, I want to talk to us briefly about taming one of the adversaries of victory; you know when you get to a new status, you get a promotion, you get a pay rise, certain things begin to work in your system; you’ll begin to walk differently, you’ll begin to conduct yourself differently, so we need to tame some of these adversaries that can hinder our victory, our victory will not be hindered in the mighty name of Jesus.
When you are at the mountaintop is when you need to be most vigilant. I’m sure some of you know that I support a club side that finds it difficult to stay at the top of the table they find themselves and they fell yesterday, you and I will not fall in Jesus name. I would have loved to pray for that club but you know that my father in the Lord here supports another side, so before I get driven out of this altar, I will behave myself.
But you see, this morning I want us to talk about something I’ve termed, “Taming Our Ego”, God will help us to tame our ego in the mighty name of Jesus. So I’m sure some would be looking and saying – there’s a term I have, AOB, you can go and find out by yourself; you know people will be looking at me, who is he to be talking about ego? But I know this morning, the message is for me, I don’t know whether it is about you, but I know it is for me and God will help me to learn in Jesus name.
What is ego? Ego is a person’s self-esteem and self importance. You know there are some Yoruba words that you cannot translate to English, one such word is ‘igberaga’, can you translate igberaga to English? No English word is suitable, do you agree with me? Ego is an inflated feeling of pride in superiority to others. If you could maintain it to yourself, okay a bit, but when you then begin to use it in relation to another person, big problem; and when you are over-conscious of your identity; I’m sure some of us would have walked into church today and said you know what, I need to go and sit in that vantage position, don’t the ushers know who I am? Doesn’t the church know that I’m doing them a favor by being here? God will deliver you, God will deliver me in Jesus mighty name.
Let me give a caveat please, around this issue of ego, there is the obvious ego that people see and they know you are an egocentric person, and there is the one that you are aware of. The one that even though you are almost prostrating to the other person, ‘good morning, bro, good morning, sister’, but you know in your heart, you are saying it’s because of church I’m doing this, God will deliver us from all of these in Jesus name,
What are the synonyms for ego? Self-pride, self- admiration; the ‘pepper them gang’, I must kill them with the way I look. Some people are not in church today because their tailors (apologies to the ladies), your designers have not sent your December clothing to you, because if you cannot pepper us, you will not show up, God will deliver us in Jesus name.
And then if you don’t understand the other synonyms, there’s one you cannot miss which is a Nigerian phenomenon, ‘I better pass my neighbor’, I am better than you. Who has given you the right to ascertain that you are better than the other person? God will help us in Jesus name.
And if you forget anything today, ego is really about edging God out; when you edge God out of your life, you are living contrary to His plan and agenda for your life, God will help you in Jesus name. And peradventure there are psycho analysts and there are motivational speakers, apologies, if we ever have a digging deep on this subject, you can come and canvas your own views; one thing is sure, ego is dangerous, and God will deliver us from it in Jesus name.
Two simple stories: I know about a young man, about 30 years ago he was training somewhere and he desired to work for another organization and God helped him, he got the opportunity to work for that dream organization of his mind; he was happy, he got the letter and he resumed in that organization.
On the day of resumption, his happiness turned to sadness, (the offer letter had not changed, please take note), what had happened? He got into the venue and saw a young lady who was three years his junior in the university and they were going to come in at the same level. His temperament, his blood pressure, everything scattered and he was almost going to walk out, what do you think was at play there? Do you know what helped him from not walking out? I suspect that it was the prayers of his mother who had just started attending the Redeemed Christian Church of God at that time.
That young man is myself; I was looking for a job, I got the job and my ego wanted to get the better out of me, thank God I did not leave, I now got a confirmation there that this was what God wanted me to share with you. So somebody on Friday shared a story, similar circumstance, the person had negotiated the terms, even over-negotiated and wanted more, and the person got into the workplace and found people that he thought were not at her level and she walked away.
I do not know the end of the story, but brethren, ego can take us out of where we ought to be and we need to be very careful, and God will help us in Jesus name.
There are so many egocentric people walking around these days; some obvious, some not obvious, but even let’s go to the Bible and we’ll see a few examples; King Ahab –king, by virtue of his lineage but it was not enough for him, his ego pushed him, he needed to get what belonged to another man. When he couldn’t get it, he then engaged his ego promax wife and they killed an innocent person; that’s King Ahab and we see that story in 1st Kings 21.
Another one, Nabal, just to let you know that these people have been around for a long time, God will deliver us from these traits in Jesus name. 1st Samuel 25: 10 & 11, we see the story of Nabal; somebody had been protecting him, protecting all that belonged to him, providing cover and a simple request was made, Nabal answered David’s servants and said who is David? They might wonder that Nabal was saying who is David; it might be you and I saying who is that brother in church? Who is that usher? Who is that pastor? Doesn’t he know my status? Who is his father? Who is the son of Jesse? There have been many servants nowadays that break away every man for his master; ego can drive you to the place of insanity and we know what happened to Nabal, David did not touch him, he lost his wife to David and God dealt with him. I pray that God will be merciful to us in Jesus name.
We see another example in King Herod in Acts 12: 20 – 23; he got so pumped up like many of us got pumped up, something has happened, we have achieved a particular status, some money has come into our hands, we get pumped up and we start to say see me; some of us even walk round our estates, to walk round our homes, see what I have accomplished.
You remember the song we sang at the beginning of this service? Is it some of what you have has been given to you by God, is it some or all? All, has been given by God. There’s no such thing as a self-made man, if you followed the lyrics of the hymns, please, we share the lyrics so that you can understand; part of the lyrics in the hymns today says that God lends us the breath, can a self-made man have ownership of his breath? God will help us in Jesus name.
Nebuchadnezzar, we see that in Daniel 5: 20 – 30; pumped up man, egocentric man, not only was he pumped up and egocentric, he transferred it to his son, are you aware? Some of us, let’s be careful, the way we behave, that’s why you’d see that there are some spoilt children, you know why they are spoilt? They see the way their fathers carry themselves around and then begin to embrace such, they have not achieved anything in life, the only achievement was that they were born by a supposedly successful father or mother. I pray we will not transfer bad traits to our children in Jesus name.
And in Luke 14 we see a group of people and I pray that those of us here are not in that group, the Pharisees in Luke 14, and you can read the story when you get back home; they wanted to trap Jesus, they wanted to show Jesus that they were spiritually ahead, and many of us in church, I pray for we Christians, the Pentecostals, the attitude we have in the marketplace is such that ‘I am superior to the others’, ‘I am better than the others’.
Brethren, even our Master, the Person we are meant to imitate, our Lord Jesus did not behave like that; what is our work? We do not witness by telling another person that we are better than them or by condemning them, that is egocentricism, I pray that God will help us in Jesus name.
What fuels our ego? We want people to look at us as great, as accomplished people, what fuels our ego? Our wants and our needs; I want to achieve, I want to do this, I want to do that. Let me tell you something, there are people today, God has blessed them but they are not happy, you know why they are not happy? You’ll be surprised, people younger than me would say ‘I never move go Banana’; there is something we need to kill, it’s the spirit of comparison, run your race, that you live in Banana does not make you better than the other person.
And I’d let you know, there are people who live on the mainland, they are tons, multiple times more successful than people that live in Banana. I have nothing wrong with your living in Banana, if that’s what you desire, if that’s what God wants for you, you will live there in Jesus name, but don’t let it be because you want to pepper your friend or your brother or your sister.
What fuels our ego? The need to be right, the need to feel important at all times, I must be right. And parents be very careful, at times, what we demonstrate at home is that as a parent, I am right, I must be right, and you know if you have Yoruba parents, even if they are wrong, you have to dobale and say I’m sorry, e ma binu, God help us.
Short story: my mother had been in the field of finance for a bit and when they had the shares bonanza – buying of shares, I told my mum, okay you have this money, buy these shares. My mother ignored me and went to consult her elder sister, successful trader but she wasn’t literate, and they were wondering whether I was pushing my mother into kalokalo and all of that. And so many of us are like that that a younger person is giving counsel, that a younger person is giving advice, our egos will not accept it.
Fortunately she bought the shares and she’s enjoying the dividends, but you know because I’m a Yoruba son, I cannot tell her that I told you. Some of us will not take counsel from our subordinates in the office, the best ideas are from the ground up, if you are the smartest and the most intelligent person in your office, you need to fire everybody there and get smart people to work with you.
Egocentric people are threatened by smart people, so don’t feel threatened, don’t let your insecurities affect you, I pray God will help us in Jesus name.
When we are egotistic, we fear rejection; somebody tells you no to your view, you are not okay for the next few days. Egocentric people find it difficult to work in committees, because if they work in committees, they must listen to other people’s ideas and I tell you it’s in all of us, I belong to some committees at times, even when they’ve rejected my ideas, I will tell them I want to remind you about my minority view, members of some committees I belong to, I’m sure you know, so I’m reporting myself again.
Egocentric people suffer from what we call a confirmation bias, they are only looking for people who will confirm the things in their mind, they do not want anybody to tell them anything contrary, if you tell them anything contrary, you are in trouble, and that’s why you’re having a lot of Nigerian organizations and even our governance structures people pay more premium to loyalty at the expense of competence. They produce a list of appointments, you can trace, oh, this is why this person is there, because an egocentric leader needs to surround him or herself with loyal people, yes men, yes women, God will help us in Jesus name.
What are the characteristics of an egocentric person? Let’s go to the Bible now and the Pharisees particularly and we can see that in Luke 14, they have what I call double standards, you cannot know where they stand on issues, you know why? The only constant stand they have is the one that is of benefit to them, so they can tell you a decision, today is a yes, because it favors them; the same issue will be a no tomorrow because it’s not in their favor.
The Pharisees say look, you should not heal anybody on the Sabbath day, but if it is their animal or their own stuff, it is okay to heal. Egocentric people have double standards.
Egocentric people elevate themselves over others, and you can see that in Luke 14: 8 – 11; they have inflated ego, so they think they are better than the other person, who are you that you think you are better than the other person? Go to the mortuary and see great people, they are gone.
I think somewhere in Ecclesiastes says that a living dog is better than a dead lion; we are not dogs, we are human beings, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, we are great people, no one will ever bring us down in Jesus name.
Egocentric people only work for their personal gains. Like I mentioned that earlier on, and brethren, the danger in all of these is that when you are egocentric and you are working for your personal gain, you are doing so many things contrary to the will of God; God has set you up for a particular reason and when you do not follow that path, there are dangers, and what are some of these things? You know I said we’ve come back from the Congress and we are victorious, and we will remain victorious in Jesus name.
What are the things that have happened to us when we let our egos get the best out of us? We are setting ourselves up for failure, Proverbs 16: 18 say “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall”. To the married men in here, there’s a scripture that scares me, 1st Peter 3: 7, because when men have ‘arrived’, they cannot be contained, they cannot be controlled, ego comes in.
A couple who has been on the journey for a while, success comes the way of the man and then what happens? Uncontrollable; the children can’t speak to him, the wife can’t speak to him, that’s because of ego and it can constrain our prayers from being answered, that shall not be our portion in Jesus name. It also happens to women as well, by the way.
You become an abomination to God when you are egocentric; Proverbs 16: 5 says “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: Though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished”. Brethren when you are egocentric, God purposely opposes you; James 4: 6 tells us “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud”; when God resists you, all the things you are doing just falls aside, I pray that will not be our portion in Jesus name.
What happens to us when we are egocentric? We are not learners; only the person who learns grows. Some of us have told ourselves that I have been born again for 40 years, there is nothing they can teach me in digging deep; some people today would say I am not going to wait behind for Sunday school, what can they teach me? In fact, my Sunday school teacher is not the PICP, what will they teach me? Because you are not a learner, you believed you have arrived, may we not arrive prematurely in Jesus mighty name, God will help us in Jesus name.
And as we begin to close, what are the things we can do to tame our ego? And I’ll give you a short story before we continue; the general overseer said that when he was appointed the general overseer, on his table, (you know those olden days my father’s generation time, you will have your name on a mantle or whatever, and all your qualifications, and he said he has his, BSc, MSc, I don’t know whether he had MPhil, PhD, Reverend, Dr. and all of that) and God told him that ogbeni, I cannot use you with this mindset, and what did he do? He forgot about it and only adopted the title ‘Pastor’.
I have real life experience with friends, old schoolmates, these people got their PhDs 30 years after some of our people have gotten theirs, and they will now tell you, Wale, don’t call me by my name, call me by Dr., and you know me, it’s not ego, principles, even the people who were professors before, I started calling them by their names because they did not come to this world with any title, so let’s be careful, you get intoxicated by your accomplishments, God will help us.
So how do we tame our ego? Humility is very key, and humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less, don’t pataki your person (if I can say that), humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up, and we see that in James 4: 10.
Humility is a choice, it’s a choice for us to make, we can choose to be humble, it is possible and I pray that God will help us to be humble in Jesus name. Humility requires our submitting to God’s authority, ‘God, you are the source of all, I submit to you’, and geocentricism will go.
What is another way to tame our ego? Brokenness, Psalms 51: 17 tells us that a broken and a contrite spirit is what God desires; the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, oh God, thou will not despise. Many of us are struggling with the issue of brokenness, we are not broken, that is why things easily upset us, we are easily provoked and I am speaking to myself.
I had to engage the parish Pastor during the course of the week, instead of him helping me, he threw me Bible passages, I didn’t want to read it at first, I must confess, (the ego in me), but in preparing for this message I realized, if we are broken, it will not be difficult for us, God will help us in Jesus name.
Our father in the Lord talks to us a lot about gratitude; you know a grateful heart – you know what gratitude means, it means you are acknowledging that somebody did this for you, you won’t get pumped up, God will help us in Jesus name. You need to surround yourself with people who will not feed your ego, be deliberate with the company you keep.
And in summary, the last remedy, if you do this one, it works across – love, 1st Corinthians 13: 4 says love does not vaunt itself, love is not puffed up, if you are not puffed up, you will tame your ego, I pray that God will help us in Jesus name.
For some of us here, our ego has not allowed us to yield to working for the Kingdom; I am too big to come and clean the church, I am too big to arrange chairs, ha ha, don’t you know my profile? I sat in Redeemed for many years, more than 10 years, worker, what do you mean by that? When God was going to deal with me, it was not even in a setting where they were multiple workers, I was the only one, if I didn’t come to church, chairs will not be arranged in that location, God humbled me, God brought me down; if you think it’s by my intellect or whatever that I chose to serve God, far from it, God dealt with me, may God deal with you, many of you are not saying amen but God knows how to handle you.
Learn to be of service to the kingdom, and some of us here, our ego says logic, I can accomplish this if I do this if I do that; many of you believe that you are the master of your life. Yesterday, somebody shared something on WhatsApp with me and I shared it with a number of people; big powerful people who edged God out of their lives, at their death beds, they regretted edging God out, I mean the most powerful people, Napoleon Bonaparte, I’m not talking about leaders of one country, I’m talking about people who controlled continents; Vaultier, these are names that people study and revere; at their death beds, they regretted, their ego got the best out of them. I pray that God will help us, God will touch us.
So if you are here this morning, you know you have been playing church, you know you have been saying I am in control, I have planned it out, my investment accounts are these, I have people who I can rely on, I really don’t need to go into this relationship with Jesus, please I beg you, this is that time to surrender to Jesus, He’s inviting you, He’s telling you come home, He wants you, because of you, He went to the cross, He needs you, He wants you.
So if you are here, you have not surrendered to Jesus and you want to give your life a fresh start, this is the time for you to surrender to Him.
[Altar call]
I want us take a few prayers; I want us to cry unto God and say Father, please show me mercy for all my egocentric conduct and tendencies, show me mercy, Lord, Your mercy I need Lord, show me mercy in the mighty name of Jesus.
Next, we’ll cry unto God and say, as I have been fearfully and wonderfully made, please heal me of all my insecurities, heal me of all my fears in the name of Jesus, heal me Lord, in Jesus mighty name.
Next we’ll cry and say Father, please deliver me from the spirit of controlling and manipulating others. Brethren cry to God that God will deliver you from the spirit of controlling and manipulating others in the name of Jesus.
Next I want us to cry unto God and say Father, the grace to love others as You have commanded me, please release upon me in the name of Jesus, in Jesus mighty name.
And our final prayer point we’ll take from Jeremiah 9: 23 & 24, I want us to pray this in understanding, so we’ll cry to God and say Father, please help me not to glory in the things You have blessed me with, Father, please help me not to glory in the things You have helped me with, in Jesus name we prayed.
