Hallelujah! Let’s appreciate the Lord Almighty; Father, we thank You; Father, we bless Your holy name, we thank You Lord for Your faithfulness, we thank You Lord for Your mercy, we thank You Lord for the dawn of this new day, we thank You for the salvation of our souls, we thank You Lord for You are here in our midst this morning, we thank You because You are going to speak to us, speak to our hearts in the name of Jesus, You are going to guide us to number our days in the mighty name of Jesus.
Father Lord God of heaven, we thank You for everything You’ve done for us in this year 2024, we thank You for what You are doing and what You will yet do, Father Lord be thou glorified in the mighty name of Jesus; thank You heavenly Father, for in Jesus wonderful name we have given thanks. Praise the living Jesus!
I welcome you all to the presence of the Most High God, God bless you in the name of Jesus; happy Sunday daddies and mommies, the choir has given us a teaser of what is to come next week; next week Sunday we’ll have our Christmas Carol service and then on the 25th we’ll have our Christmas day service, please don’t miss it, if this is interesting then you can imagine what’s coming, God bless you.
I thank God for the gift of life and salvation of my soul, I’d also like to appreciate our father in the Lord, daddy thank you for this privilege, God bless you Sir. We thank the Lord Almighty brethren for the outstanding success of the just concluded Holy Ghost Congress, ‘Onward Christian Solders’, shout hallelujah! Onward forever in the mighty name of Jesus. For those who may not have joined in anyway, please go onto YouTube, just go through the services – the messages, you’ll be blessed, there are so many that our father in the Lord has said, let us take time, internalize those messages, pray on our personal altars and have some time to come back, so because of that there will be no prayer chain tomorrow, but then thereafter we’ll have our prayer chain, praise the living Jesus!
But we will have our Digging Deep on Tuesday and also the Faith Clinic on Thursday, praise the living Jesus!
We have a few texts to take this morning, so I’ll just go through (very quickly) Psalm 66: 5-12, “Come and see the works of God; He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men. 6He turned the sea into dry land; they went through the river on foot. There did we rejoice in Him. 7He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. 8 O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard: 9Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.
10For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. 11Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins. 12Thou hast caused men to rise over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but you brought us out into a wealthy place”, praise the living Jesus!
Matthew 25:14 -19, “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. 15And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. 16Then he that had received five talents went and traded with the same, and made five other talents. 17And likewise he that received two, he also gained other two. 18But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. 19After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them”.
Then the last of the text I’ll take from Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom”, hallelujah!
So this exhortation I will title it ‘Teach Us to Number Our Days’, that passage says teach us to number our so that we can order our hearts, put our hearts unto wisdom, and we know wisdom comes from knowledge and understanding that is appropriately applied, that’s wisdom.
Proverbs 2:6, for the Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding, praise the living Jesus! When we talk about ‘teach us to number our days so that we can put our hearts unto wisdom’, there are many ways this can happen, but I want to look at two this morning, one of it is ‘counting our blessings’, and then the other one is ‘stocktaking or self-reflection’, praise the living Jesus!
When we talk about counting your blessing and stocktaking, they are brothers and sisters, two sides of a coin; counting your blessing is looking at what has God done for me? What has God not done for me? What is outstanding of all my prayer requests? Stocktaking or self reflection is looking at what have I done with respect to God’s expectations of me? So we’re going to look at the two today so that as we will be numbering our days appropriately, praise the living Jesus!
This concept is perhaps what everybody is talking about today ‘count your blessings’, by the grace of God brethren, today is just 16 days away to the end of this year, so I know that a number of people now are looking back to January 1st and saying what has God done for me this year? What has God not done for me this year? What prayer points have been answered? Which ones has God refused or failed to answer (in our language)?
Particularly for us in Nigeria, you are looking at the happening since the beginning of this year, how prices have been going up and up like butterfly, today you buy something for ₦1 the next day is ₦20 and then you have ₦10, by the time you get back they’ll say the price has moved on; house cost of living has become unbearable, rents are going high, how people have lost their jobs, how businesses have been brought down, how families are struggling because of the economic hardship, how separation, how divorce has been on the increase, how there are no more relationships, nobody is committed to anything anymore, and then you look also at the bigger level ‘government policies and policies of assaults’ how they are not helping issues, and if you ask an average Nigerian give an account or what is year 2024 about, what will most people say? Many of us will say 2024 has not been a good year because I planned in January to build a house I’ve not been able to finish it, because I planned to buy a car the prices have moved, I’m unable to buy it, because I planned XYZ nothing has come, that is the way many of us will count our blessings, isn’t it?
Many of us are grumbling, many of us are complaining like the children of Israel in the wilderness, there’s always one thing or the other, this approach to life of complaining, of grumbling, of murmuring about anything and everything whatsoever, they have enormous effects on our spiritual lives, it tends to blindside us often that we don’t remember the other things that God has done for us, it tends to take away our joy, praise the living Jesus!
I want to encourage us this morning that as we are winding down the year 2024 and you are looking back and counting your blessings, can we also please take a look at some of the other things that God has done? Praise the living Jesus! For example, today is day 350 of the year so there’s somebody here who at least has slept and woken up 349 times, has God done anything for anybody? Psalm 3:5 (NIV), the Bible says I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me, so is there anybody here who says God has not done anything? So when you are counting your blessings for year 2024, can you please count ‘I slept 349 times, I woke up 349 times’, how much can we pay for that?
When you count your blessings despite the obvious challenges that are around us, it creates the atmosphere of positive thinking, it brings a level of contentment, it takes away stress from our life, so we don’t think ‘this has not happened, that has not happened’, let us look for something that has happened, praise the Lord! It brings an atmosphere of positive feeling if somebody is coming to you and say have you not seen, have you read, have you? Simply say I know that God has done something for me, so don’t let anybody spoil your day because something is not working, there are other things that are working.
Brethren, some of the ways that we can count our blessings, let’s think positively; for example, if you missed a job interview and because of that you lost the job, can you look at it in a different way – perhaps God does not want me to have that job, perhaps God has a different plan for me? You can also talk positively with others, when people are discussing the economy and all that, 20 things that are bad, please garnish it with one thing that God has done that can turn around that 20 things, let us put more focus on God as we are reviewing the year and our lives, let us show gratitude to God, how many people – even some of us that take tablets to sleep, there are times when those tablets don’t work anymore, right? You take tablets you cannot sleep, but when God lays you down and causes you to sleep you must sleep, so there’s nothing that can buy sleep.
For example, it is not uncommon for someone who is a very successful business person and is waiting for a consignment of goods to sell in December and there’s a delay, what would that person be saying? He will be unhappy, he will be cast down, I can’t make sales, yet he’s very successful; but then you find a gateman who does not know where the next meal will come from, but he’s saying God I thank you because I have life, what is the difference? Our perspective to counting our blessings, praise the living Jesus!
Many of us have reduced counting our blessings to material things, to physical things, to financial things, you want to measure the progress that you’ve made, ‘where was I on January 1st, where am I today’? You want to see how many new vehicles have I bought, how many houses have I built, how many countries have I traveled to this year, what is my bank balance, what was it in January? Those are the ways, how many children, how many times?
But brethren, even though there’s nothing wrong in counting our blessings using physical and material things, there’s nothing wrong with that but I’m saying this morning, let us be deeper when we are counting our blessings and look at the things that God has done, praise the living Jesus! For example, what about the breath that is in you, how much does it cost you? The whole of your bank balance cannot buy it; what about the salvation of your souls, what price did you pay? The Bible says we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus, nobody can pay for it; what about divine protection and safety that you have gotten, the roads that you travel on and come back and assume that it’s normal, some people never completed that journey, praise the living Jesus!
What about your children, the progress they have made or that they are making in life, they are graduating, they’re moving from school to school, from city to city, they’re having children, they are flying your flag all over the world, is that not part of God blessings for you, brethren? We must determine that in counting our blessings let us consciously look for what God has done and acknowledge it, let us bring God’s presence because the Bible says He is the One that giveth us power to make wealth, even the wealth that you’re talking about, who helped you?
God’s blessings, let us bring it, let us look at God’s help, let us look at God’s provision, let us look at God’s protection in our lives when you are counting the numbers, these ones you cannot attach numbers to them but is part of counting our blessings.
The Psalm that we read, Psalm 66, if we have time to take it from beginning to the end is a Psalm that encourages us to look at the totality of our lives and count our blessings, and you will see that even though we went through difficult times, the Psalmist says the Lord has brought us to a place of abundance, to a wealthy place; it may not be abundance in money, it may not be abundance in material but abundance in health, abundance in peace, abundance in joy, praise the living Jesus!
In 1st Samuel 1 for example, while other women were celebrating having children almost every now and then, there was one woman who they called barren, but when God started with her, after Samuel, the Bible says she had five other children, it didn’t end there, one Samuel was bigger and better than all the other children of the other women combined because we never heard their names, but you know what, at the time when Hannah was waiting, many of us today would say God where is Your face? God what have You done? My neighbors, You have answered their prayers; His thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways.
So brethren, in counting our blessings let us please bring God into the equation, it’s not all about numbers, so when you are winding down towards this year 2024, don’t be part of those people that will say what has God done? Some people say 2024 is a bad year, it’s not a bad year, it’s a fantastic year I’m alive, it’s a wonderful year I have a hope, praise the living Jesus!
So that is one side of the coin, looking at what we expect God to do, now we see that God has done more than we expected Him to do, as a matter of fact, for me personally, there were many things at the beginning of the year that I wrote out I said I want to do 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, looking at those list today some of them have been done, some have not been done but guess what, there are a whole lot of things that I never put down that God has done, what about you? So count your blessings, bring God into that equation.
So the second part of it, the second side of the coin says stocktaking or self-reflection, self-examination; the passage we read from in Matthew 25: 14 – 19 tell us that the kingdom of God is likened to a man – the master who traveled, and before he traveled he called his servants and delivered goods onto them; for one he gave five talents, another he gave two, another he gave one, but you know what happened, one traded with it, we all know the story – five became ten, the other one – two became four, and then the last one says counting his blessings in numbers – he gave them five, he gave another person two, he gave me one, what is my offense, you will come back here and meet your money, he did not even think that he considered me worthy of a gift, praise God!
Then the master traveled, (the Bible says) for a long time, he came back and the first thing the master did was to ask them to give an account; now the one who got five cheerfully came and said I got five more, thank you; the one who got two cheerfully, I got two more, thank you; the one who got one said you didn’t even expect anything of me anyway, so take, but he was wrong because from the response of the master there was an expectation; so for all of us brethren, God is doing this God is doing that but there are also expectations of us, God has expectations of the things that we must do so that – as the accountant will say ‘debit and credit’, as you are taking on one side you are also accounting for it on another side and that’s what will balance the book.
And then going back to Psalm 90:12, teach us to number our days, so as we are counting another year numbering our days, let us do counting our blessings and let us do stocktaking, praise the living Jesus!
So going back to that passage, that servant that hid his talent, perhaps he didn’t know that there was an expectation of him, maybe he knew maybe he just thought there was nothing the master would do because he was a good man, maybe he knew but because he did not know that the master will come back he had thought the moment he hears the siren that he will quickly do something but it was too late for him because the master came back unannounced, we need to consider how our walk with God has been, so when we are counting our blessings, the stocktaking part of it is how have you been in your walk with God this year, in your service to God this year, what have you done? The expectations of God for you this year what have you achieved? Praise the living Jesus!
We must look, the darkness parts of the world all around us, how many of it have you brought light into? We must assess our readiness for the return of that Master, the Bible says he went on a long journey, however long the journey may be the master returned, in the same way our Master, however long that journey may be He will return someday in the mighty name of Jesus.
So let us quickly look at some of the areas (it will not cover everything, just some of the areas), the expectations of the Master for us so that when we are doing our stocktaking we can tick the box, we can look at these things and prayerfully in areas where we are falling short, we still have time to make up while we are alive, while we have the breath in us:
I’ll take a whole lot from Galatians 5: 19-21, I’ll take it into two sides, some of the things that we should desist from doing, that we should not do, the Bible calls this ‘the works of the flesh’, those are the things that are not of God, what are they? Adultery, please run away from adultery; fornication, the younger brother, run away; uncleanness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions and heresies, run away from it. Look at what the passage says, as I have also told you in time past, anyone who does any of these things shall not inherit the kingdom of God; but you remember teach us to number our days so that we can put our heart unto wisdom, as we are counting the end of another year, we are also counting our drawing closer to the final date, do you want to inherit the kingdom of God? Stay away from these things, praise the living Jesus!
Time will not permit me but I’ll try to emphasize on a few of it: the first one, 1st Corinthians 5: 1- 5, it says say no to adultery, to fornication, to any form of sexual immorality, praise the living Jesus! Brethren, if there’s anything that is tearing our world apart today that’s one tool that the devil is using and many people are falling for it; we’ve heard many stories of a mother who goes to take care of baby for their children and the mother got impregnated by the son-in-law, sexual immorality, stay away; we’ve heard cases of fathers who are taking over the wives of their sons, stay away; how many of us have read how a 73year old man defiled 6-year-old girl in this our clime? Then we have today, apologies ladies, they go almost naked and advertising ‘come and take me, come and take me’, what does it lead to eventually, sexual immorality; and in the media today, there are some adverts you look at, you have to take your eyes away, everything they advertise are with girls, how many people have noticed that? Everything they advertise are with ladies and not just ladies, inappropriately dressed ladies, so the environment is awash with this tool of the devil, brethren, is one of the things that will be measured with, please stay away.
The same 1st Corinthians 5:9 – 11, another one that I want to talk about is greed, fraud, taking what does not belong to you, praise the living Jesus! What is greed? The desire to have more of something far and beyond what you need; more food, more money, more power, more houses, more vehicles, more than is necessary and more that is fair.
Greed will always employ the following tools: cheating, stealing and then fraud, so if you find greed you will ultimately find these things. About a week and a half or two ago, there was a breaking news of somebody who had 700+ houses, duplexes, in the same country where people are on the roads and they have no place to lay their heads, people are under the bridge, praise the living Jesus! Brethren, we must think about these things, greed, and how did it happen? Stealing would have been involved, cheating would have been involved, doctoring books would have been involved, and when we are taking stock all these things will count against anybody, so say to somebody again, stay away from it, and the Lord Almighty will help us in the name of Jesus.
I think I can take one more on this side, 1st Corinthians 5: 7 & 8, there’s one called wickedness, malice, deceit, hypocrisy and everything like it. Malice, I asked of something from him he has it he does not give me, and then tomorrow I stay away from him, I don’t greet him again and we’re in the same household, do you know if he had need of that thing? You looked at it you said he has it, are you even sure that it’s his own? Praise the living Jesus.
Wickedness, we should be our brother’s keepers, some people will do so much to backbite, to detract, to take away from somebody just so because you want to replace him in a seat, if it is your turn God will give you. What about hypocrisy, you are not there you’ve been supported by technicalities, may God help us in the mighty name of Jesus.
What about vain glory, Galatians 5:26, let us not be desirous of vain glory; what is vain glory? I did it myself; in Daniel 4, the Bible talks about Nebuchadnezzar, it says look at this great city, Babylon, that I have built with my own might and God gave him one year, and because he did not take heed by the end of that twelve months … should glory in anything except in God, whatever you are, whatever you have, whatever you own has been given to you by God; the Bible says no man can have anything except it be given unto him from above, praise the living Jesus!
So those are some of the things we should stop doing, what are the ones that we should do? Galatians 5: 22 – 25, the things that we should do when we are taking account: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, perseverance, meekness, temperance; the Bible says against such there is no law; you cannot be wrong being meek, you cannot be wrong if you persevere instead of grumbling, you cannot be wrong when you are patient, you cannot be wrong when you love truly, praise the living Jesus!
Let’s look at a few more outside of Galatians 5:22, Romans 12:11, the Bible says never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically; we must serve God with zeal, the same zeal that we pursue business ventures, the same zeal that we go get anything that we want – positions and all that, can we please apply the same to serve the Lord, and by the way, serving the Lord does not mean come on the altar to preach, serve the Lord with your lifestyle, serve the Lord with the words of your mouth, serve the Lord with your with your environment – the people around you, propagate the word of the Lord to them, do it actively, with zeal, with passion, praise the living Jesus!
Romans 12:12 &13 say we must be prayerful, we must rejoice in hope and patient in tribulation, we must be prayerful, praise the living Jesus! And 13 says we must be hospitable; our environment today has made it difficult for anyone to be hospitable but we are still expected to be hospitable; you are going on the road, somebody is stranded, is late in the night, you are thinking if I pick the person, what if he’s an armed robber, that is because our environment has dropped this on us but it should not take away from us that requirement.
There was a day many years ago, I took my father’s car out he didn’t know, so I was coming back home and because God wanted to expose me, so as I was coming, just a few kilometers to the house the vehicle stopped, Sunday evening, my father had to go to work on Monday, so I was waiting, people were passing but one man stopped for me, he said who are you, where are you going? I said I was going to Ogudu, we were living in Ogudu, he said he was also going to Ogudu, he took me home and he arranged to bring the vehicle – being hospitable, but that was many years ago, how many people can do that today, but we should not allow this to change who we are or who we are expected to be, praise the living Jesus!
Romans 12:14, the Bible says we must bless, we must not curse, bless people – ‘God bless you, God be with you, I join my faith with you, it is well with you’, don’t curse anyone, you don’t have the power to curse, praise our living Jesus!
Romans 12:15 & 16 say we must live in harmony with other people, we must live in harmony both high and low, both the mighty and the small, both the rich and the poor, everybody will end in the one place one day, there’s no difference; somebody said this before, when a rich man eats and everything is good on the table, fry this and fry that, and a poor man who eats only bread and water, when they go to the toilet you can’t tell the difference when you do the sampling, hallelujah!
So why should you take heed of these things, why should you put your heart to wisdom, why should you do an account, why should you do stocktaking, why should you count your blessings even now? We’ll take a few reasons;
Every man’s work shall be tried, every man’s work shall be made manifest, 1st Corinthians 3: 13-15, every man’s work shall be made manifest, when the master came what did he do, he called all of them and he opened their works up, nobody told us how they traded but we saw that they traded, the other one nobody knew when they went to hide it but eventually we knew that it was hidden, there’s nothing that can be hidden before him, every man’s work shall be tried.
Number two, you have been bought with a price and your Owner is a jealous God; the Bible tells us in 1st Corinthians 6: 20 & 1st Corinthians 7:23 that we have been bought by the blood of Jesus, God sent His Son, He shed His blood on the cross of Calvary to redeem us, so He bought us. He will not open His eyes to allow the devil to have us, however, if somebody has chosen to go the other way He will also not pardon, please let us know that we have been bought with a price; tell yourself I have been bought with a price and that price is the blood of Jesus, therefore I am precious.
Number three, 2nd Corinthians 5:10, because a day is coming that we must all face the judgment seat of God; for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and that everyone may receive things that he has done in the body according to what he has done whether it is good or bad, and the Bible calls Him in Genesis 19:25 that He’s a Judge of all, the Judge of all cannot miss anything, He cannot be compromised, nobody will call black for Him white. Psalm 1:39, He sees everything, praise the living Jesus!
As we close brethren, in the final analysis everyone will be categorized into two groups – the sheep on one hand and the goat on the other hand, Matthew 25:31-46; according to 1st Thessalonians 5:1 &2, nobody knows when the Master will return but one thing is certain, He will surely return.
Next, we will all give an account of what we have done in our body, so while we are here now let us begin to count our blessings and take stock and number our days so that we can put our heart unto wisdom.
Of the time and the day nobody knows but He’s surely coming, we need God’s mercy so that we can enter; Romans 9: 15 &16 says He will be merciful onto whom He will be merciful, I pray that God will have mercy on you, God will have mercy on me in the mighty name of Jesus.
The greatest mercy that any man can receive from God is salvation, the greatest mercy that any man can receive is for God to give you His best which is Jesus Christ; 2nd Corinthians 6:2 says now is the appointed time, today is the day of salvation, therefore if anyone is here if you should take an account today, if you should count your blessings today and take stock, you know that you will fall short, you know that if the Master should come back today He will damn you like He did for that servant with one talent, you have an invitation now from the Lord Almighty to accept Him as your Lord and Savior and to make Him your all; Hebrews 4:16, the Bible says come therefore boldly unto the throne of grace, so if you are here this morning you want to give your life to Jesus Christ, because certainly He will take an account someday…
[Altar call]
Brethren let us rise up, let’s begin to give thanks to God, let us thank Him for our lives, let us thank Him for this year 2024, no matter how bad people are saying it is, is a wonderful year, let us thank God for all the things that He has done for us, let us thank Him even for the ones that we say He has not done, let us thank Him for the ones that He’s working on, let us thank Him for year 2025 that is coming, let us thank Him. Father we thank You, glory be to Your name forever more, in Jesus mighty name we have given thanks.
We are going to pray and say Father, please give me the grace to number my days so I can reorder my life through wisdom from today in the name of Jesus; give me the grace to number my days Lord, give me the grace oh Lord to number my days so I can reorder my life in the mighty name of Jesus, thank You Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
We will pray again and say Father, please help me to count my blessings from the lens of Your presence, from Your own perspective, help me to count my blessings not from the perspective of the world, from Your perspective, help me to count my blessings in the name of Jesus.
And next one you will say Father, as I do a self-examination, as I take stock, there are things that I will see that are not right, give me the grace to correct them, give me the grace to do the right things, give me the grace to correct them, Lord give me the grace to correct them in the mighty name of Jesus, thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
And finally, that passage in Psalm 66:12 says God brought us to a wealthy place, irrespective of what has happened; then Psalm 65:1 says that God will crown the year with His goodness; we are going to cry to the Lord Almighty, it doesn’t matter what you’ve gone through up until now, you will end this year well in the mighty name of Jesus. We’re going to pray and say Father, please crown this year for me with Your goodness and let my drop fatness in the mighty name of Jesus, crown this year oh Lord for me.
