Our Father in heaven, the Lord God Almighty, hallowed be Your name; Father God of heaven, we appreciate You; Lord, we love You; Lord, we honor You; Lord, we adore You, we thank You Lord for Your faithfulness, we thank You Lord for Your mercy, we thank You for Your grace upon our lives, we thank You for Your presence in our midst even this day, glory be to Your name forever more.
Father Lord God of heaven, our gathering this morning is unto You and we know You are already here, Father, meet each and every one of us at the point of our needs, speak expressly to our situations this morning in the way that everyone will understand and appreciate it in the name of Jesus.
Father Lord we ask that You will do that which only You can do in our midst in the mighty name of Jesus. The grace oh Lord to keep hoping on You even in the midst of the challenging situations, Father give unto us, and at the end of it all we’ll all testify in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You our heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed. Praise the Lord!
Good morning, I welcome you all to the presence of God, let’s appreciate the choir. I’d like to appreciate the Lord Almighty for the gift of life and for the joy of the Lord that is in us and same for every one of us, it’s because we have life that we are here, so Father I say thank You.
I’d also like to appreciate our father in the Lord, the Pastor in Charge of Province, Pastor Tunde Netufo, he’s visiting one of our locations today, so he’s not seated here with mummy, but daddy I want to say thank you for this privilege, I’ll not take it for granted, hallelujah!
And before we go into the service, tomorrow by the grace of God we’ll have a special prayer chain, the theme of which is “Glory of His Favor”, Psalm 89: 17 & 18, praise God!
2nd Kings 7: 1 – 10, “Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria (Nigeria). 2 Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. In our own case, we will see it and we will eat thereof in the name of Jesus.
3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? 4 If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. 5 And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there (all your fears will be gone in the name of Jesus). For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.
7 Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. 8 And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink (these were hungry people, everyone here who is starving or who is lacking resources, soon enough we will eat and drink in the name of Jesus), and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.
9 Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household. 10 So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were”. Praise the Lord! Praise the living Jesus!
In the next couple of minutes, before I introduce the title of the message, in November 2020, God led me to minister this message in the thick of Covid-19, and by the grace of God about three weeks ago, God dropped in my heart to minister this message also today and which is why this message is coming. Also, I trust the Lord Almighty that if He says minister this message again, it’s a message of hope and I believe that somebody’s hope will be sustained in Jesus name.
The topic is “The Audacity of Hope”, it’s much more a bit different from what it was in 2020, I’ve updated it but the base is still the same. Our passage today, many of us are quite familiar with it; simply, the whole of Syria went, laid siege on Samaria and the people could not come out, they shut them in and that led to famine, and in chapter 6, the Bible tells us that women were already killing their children, donating sons around the table to survive, but a time came that God intervened, and my prayer is that the Lord will intervene in our situation in the name of Jesus.
There are a lot of things in this passage that we see is similar to what we have in our clime today; there is famine in the land, there’s hardship in the land, there are difficulties everywhere, things are not working the way they used to work in families, separation and divorce have been the order of the day, graduates have nothing to look forward to, so there’s depression everywhere; people are thinking what is it to continue to live for? They are also getting to a point where maybe not literally donating children, but people are actually sending their children on errands to bring money such that it’s almost akin to donating them, living off the children. Some parents are known to register their children for yahoo-yahoo, praise the Lord!
And the submission of all of these is that there’s a dark cloud, there’s hopelessness everywhere, but the Lord said I should bring this message of hope to everyone today – the audacity of hope, praise the living Jesus!
I’ll quickly define the keywords: audacity – is from an adjective ‘audacious’, when you say audacious, you are talking about something that is bold, fearless, not going to give up, that is resolute. The Bible says the righteous is as bold as the lion, Proverbs 28: 1; the account in Daniel 1: 8 tells us that Daniel purposed in his heart, that’s resolute, that irrespective of what happens, I will remain, that’s audacity, courageous, God told Joshua in Joshua 1: 7 & 9, how many times am I going to tell you, be bold and be courageous, praise the living Jesus! So when we talk about audacity, we are talking about boldness that we’ll not let go even in the face of opposition, hallelujah!
What about hope? Hope is an optimistic attitude of the mind based on an expectation of a desire, praise the living Jesus! We can say hope is the feeling that you have in the present about something that you expect in the future. I hope that by the end of this year, the exchange rate – naira to dollar would have come down to what it used to be, it’s hope, praise the Lord!
Biblically, hope is a confident expectation of what God has promised. Proverbs 23: 18, the Bible tells us that the expectation of the righteous will not be cut off, praise the living Jesus! So when we say audacity of hope, then we are talking about a stubborn hope that you will not let go irrespective of the circumstances. The audacity of hope represents resilience, optimism and courage to believe in positive changes even when faced with challenges.
You know for some people, they said by this time tomorrow at the Gate of Samaria, a bag of flour will be sold for a shekel; you know it looked like something that would never happen which was why the professor said it’s not possible – in my economics, if you see demand and supply, if you see this going this way, it will go up. In the same way some people today if we say this Nigeria situation will get better, some people will ask you what do you see? I do not see anything, only that I hear God say it, and because God says it, so it will be in the mighty name of Jesus.
But brethren, whenever we talk about hope, there’s no way you will talk about hope without making reference also to faith, so I’ll try to link the two together, Hebrews 11: 1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for (you can see faith and hope linked together), the evidence of things not seen”. Hope is it tomorrow, faith is it today; hope is a destination, faith is the journey into that destination; so today, we are hoping that we will see a better Nigeria, we are hoping that we will see marital bliss again in our homes, we are hoping that our industries will work again, we are hoping that our graduates will be gainfully employed again, that is the hope, it is not here today, but the way we’ll get there is by taking a step of faith day after day, today I have faith that it will happen; it doesn’t happen today, I get to tomorrow, I have faith that it will happen; if it doesn’t happen tomorrow, I’ll continue, I have faith that it will happen until a time will come when I don’t need faith again because I’ll be holding it and then hope becomes testimony.
So brethren, everything that you are hoping for, everything that you are spending the currency faith for every day, a day is coming in the name of Jesus that you don’t need faith for it again because you will be holding it.
We can look at hope from two different categories, but before we go into that, let me share with you in Genesis 12: 1 – 4, the Bible says God told Abram I will do this and do this but you need to get out, then verse 3, I will bless thee, I’ll do this I’ll do that; in verse 4, “So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; God had told him, he didn’t take it, but eventually one day he departed, he did not know where he was going; the Bible says he left his home country looking for a country whose builder is the Lord, he just kept going, that’s the hope, he had faith and he continued in that journey until one day he got to his destination (hope) and it became reality.
So let’s look at hope in two categories: there is a hope of a better tomorrow, Isaiah 3: 10, the Bible says “Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings”. So I’m saying to you brethren, your tomorrow will be alright, your next tomorrow will be all right, your next year will be all right, your end will be all right; it does not matter what it is that you see today.
One of our hymns, a popular hymn, ‘Through the Love of God our Savior, All Will be Well’, we know that hymn; the third stanza says ‘we expect a bright tomorrow’; brethren, let us expect a bright tomorrow, today is not saying that it will be good but please hold on to hope, expect a bright tomorrow because it will come.
Some four years ago, incidentally this was also during the Covid time, I met a gentleman who was a dispatch rider and I got to engage him and said tell me about yourself; then he said oh, I have a degree in mathematics and statistics; and you are a dispatch rider? Okay, how much are they paying you? ₦40,000; I looked at it and I was like eh. I saw him months later also during Covid, what are you doing now? In fact I didn’t need to ask because I saw him in what he was doing, so I was excited and said what happened? He said I did not give up and then I got this job, he now got a proper job as a graduate and as at that time, from ₦40,000 he was earning about ₦200,000. But it is a story of there’s a hope of a better tomorrow; brethren, don’t give up on today because there’s a better tomorrow coming in the mighty name of Jesus.
There are many areas of life where this better tomorrow will manifest, we’ll take a few of them, we can’t take everything in life can take a better tomorrow – our finances, our marriages, our businesses, our employment, our health status, everything but let’s take a few:
Healing – there’s a better tomorrow for your health. I don’t know about you, sometimes these days you go to a hospital early in the morning or a diagnostic center and you are finding a place to park, parking spaces are filled in the hospitals on Monday morning, diagnostics centers are filled on Monday morning and it’s not just on Monday, go on Tuesday too, it’s the same thing, you’ll be looking for parking space; go on Wednesday, go on Thursday, go on Friday; brethren, but as the Lord lives, if there’s anyone here whose health is failing, there’s a better tomorrow for your health in the mighty name of Jesus.
Because in John 5: 1 – 11, there’s a story of a man, the Bible tells us that he had been at that spot 38 years because he was an impotent man, he was not able to help himself, so he was on one spot, but the first thing that you know is that what will keep a man 38 years, it was hope, and everyday of 38 years he had faith, which was why even though he knew that he could not win the race to get to the pool but he will still make an attempt, that’s faith. Then one day, faith collided with the hope and it became a manifestation and that man got up and went home.
If you are here disabled in any way, diseased in any way in your body, in the name that’s above every other name, as you keep hoping on God and have faith in Him, you will be healed in the mighty name of Jesus; you will be made whole in the name of Jesus, because in Job 14: 14, the Bible says (the big part of it) “…all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come”.
There’s a hope that there will be restoration of marital bliss in our homes. Separation and divorce have become the order of the day. Sometimes ago, I stumbled on a certain statistics (not for this country, you know we don’t keep records here) but I’ll read it all the same: it says that about 15% of marriages don’t last one year; that means people dance and say I love you, you are my sweetheart, you are my sugar, you are everything, all of those end in one year for one out of six people.
It goes further to say less than 20% don’t see five years; then about 50% do not celebrate 25 years in marriage. You can imagine what we see around us and if we had records, and especially in Christendom, people are not working well but they continue to cohabit as if everything is working well, that’s a technical separation or divorce, so if you add all of those together, the rates here will jump beyond the roof. But there’s a hope of marital bliss coming into our homes again in the mighty name of Jesus.
In John 2: 1-11, there’s a story there, (we all know that story), the Bible tells us that there was wine (meaning the source of joy, the source of happiness) flowing and everybody was merry-ing, but once upon a time, wine finished, the source of joy finished and then it was a friction time, but Jesus was there on hand and provided better wine, gave them a reason to continue. If Jesus did it for the family, He will do it for your family.
So as many people who are here and on the verge of divorce, on the verge of separation or maybe you’ve even divorced or separated, the Lord Almighty will give you wine in your homes in the mighty name of Jesus; He will sustain your families in Jesus mighty name.
There’s a hope of restoration of your finances, of your prosperity, praise the living Jesus! Let’s face it, when we have a condition or (economic) situation as we have it here, it necessarily will affect people’s finances and by implication, this thing goes to affect relationships, it goes to affect the home, it goes to affect happiness and joy and everything, but today God will visit your finances, God will restore your prosperity in the mighty name of Jesus.
How do I know? In 2nd Kings 4, there is a partnership story there, we read that passage in a different way but let me present it in a different way this morning. There is a partnership story, Mr. and Mrs. A and Co., and then the senior partner died and he was the CEO of that business, he was the one who does the finances, he was the one who does the sales, he was the one who looked for customers and then when he died, everything died with him and the other partner couldn’t continue.
Before you know it, creditors came and said the money partner A borrowed, you have not been able to pay, you are in default, we want to enforce our collateral, they wanted to take the children and say go and sell and take our money, then she cried out and God heard her and He gave her abundance, so much that she paid up that debt and the company continued to prosper.
May I pray for somebody here, you are heavily in debt or you do not know how you are going to meet your expenses, in the name that is above every other name, as you cry unto the Lord Almighty today, there will be restoration of your finances in the name of Jesus, of your businesses in the name of Jesus, of prosperity in the mighty name of Jesus.
Let’s take the second category of hope as I have it: the second category of hope is the hope of eternity. The first category is the hope of a better tomorrow, the second one is the hope of eternity, praise the living Jesus! Brethren, whether we like it or not there’s something called eternity, it simply means forever, an unending time, and in theology, it’s the endless time after life, after we close our eyes here. There’s a time that continues forever after life, praise the living Jesus!
Luke 16: 19 – 31 tells us the parable of Lazarus and the rich man; the Bible says Lazarus died, there was no ceremony for his burial, the angels came and carried him to the bosom of Abraham. Then the rich man died, there was great fanfare, all the who-is-who came and then by the time he opened his eyes on the other side, the devil says welcome home, he was in hell. But let me make a contrast here; that somebody is rich does not mean he will go to hell, and that someone is poor is not license to heaven; what determines the hereafter in eternity is the things that you will do and we’ll go through some of them very soon, praise the living Jesus.
Brethren, no one will live here on earth forever, the Bible tells us in Genesis 5: 22 – 27, Methuselah lived for 969 years; some people would have thought (at his time) that he would never die but where is Methuselah today? He’s dead; no man, no woman, no one will live here forever, hallelujah! And in preparation for that eternity, Jesus Christ came, he lived among us, showed us the way and then He left and then He said to us, He didn’t leave us without the comfort, He said in John 14: 1- 4, that I go to prepare a place for you and then I will come back and take you to be with Me so that where I am, you will be there also.
Where is Jesus Christ? At the right hand of God interceding for us, so one day, we will be there also, that’s talking about eternity. So brethren, we must hope for eternity; in 1st Corinthians 15: 19, the Bible says if we have hope only on this earth, we are of all men most miserable; brethren, if we anchor our lives only on the first category – hope for tomorrow, improve marriages, prosperity and all that and we do not have hope of eternity, the Bible says we are of all men most miserable, praise the living Jesus!
We must therefore hope for eternity with God, 1st John 3: 3 says, “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure”; so one of the requirements for this eternity after salvation, you must purify yourself, praise the living Jesus!
Why must we keep eternity in view? Why must we have hope for eternity? You remember the story in 2nd Kings 7 of the Syrian army, what were they interested in? Why would a country go and lay siege on another country? It’s all about taking over. The Syrian army represents the devil, while the people of Samaria represent the children of God; the devil will come with all forms of tactics, all forms of challenges and problems all to make any child of God to derail so that he can take over.
Brethren, the reason some people are struggling, perhaps is an orchestration of the devil so that the person will say ah, why would I keep myself chaste, if my other girls are doing other things and getting money, let me go and do the same; and the moment a child of God steps out and do the other thing, while others get free, the devil goes to God and say look at Your daughter.
Why must we keep our eye on eternity? So that the devil will not have a say upon our lives, so what am I saying? We have challenges, we have troubles, we have problems, we have all sorts of things all around us, in the midst of all of these, let us remember eternity, let’s have a hope of eternity, let us remember that one day, we will stand before the judgment throne of God, praise the living Jesus!
How do we demonstrate therefore the hope for eternity? The first of it is holiness; after salvation, holiness; 1st John 3: 3 says everyone that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure; purify yourself, ensure that every day, your thoughts, your deeds, your action, everything conforms with Him, praise the living Jesus! 1st Peter 1: 15 & 16 says be ye holy for I am holy, praise God!
What must we do again? Stay away from sins. You know the beauty of this life is as soon as you purify yourself, the devil is not waiting, he’s looking for something else to give, stay away from sins. Temptation will come, it’s not a problem to be tempted, what is a problem is to yield to temptation, stay away from sins brethren.
1st Thessalonians 5: 22, the Bible says abstain from all appearance of evil; another one say flee from sins and all appearance of evil.
So the third one says you were saved so that you can save others; let’s think about this brethren, if everything about us is salvation, the day you were saved, you should just die and go to heaven, but we are still here because God in 1st Corinthians 5: 18 has called us into a ministry of reconciliation, as many people who are yet to be saved, God wants to bring them into the fold using us. And then in 1st Corinthians 3: 6 – 9, it says to us that we are co-laborers with Him, the Bible says we are laborers together with God.
God empowers us as humans to relate to human and bring (reconcile) them back to God, praise the living Jesus!
In discharge of our duties brethren, we are expected to be diligent, to be faithful and to love sinners but hate sin. We have different ministries, we have different ways of approaching it but the objective is the same – reconcile sinners back to God and that is particularly important at a time as this because the harvest is ripe, brethren.
So two things in summary (as I try to close): there’s a hope of a better tomorrow and there’s a hope of eternity, we must keep both in our view every day as we live. Hope keeps alive when everything or everyone else says there’s no way. People can tell you that there is no more way, there is nothing else left in this country, don’t let anybody deceive you, there is hope.
There’s a story of this man and his son, they were going one day and it was raining heavily and the road was flooded, so when it got to a point, all the other vehicles had stopped, some were even turning back and God said continue, so he continued and the son said daddy, why are you going? He said God says we should continue; just a few 100 meters after, there was nothing else and then he continued, meanwhile the others were still stranded. Brethren, the One who you know and call your Father says continue, continue to have hope, there is a lot to happen even after this dark period, please don’t give up on hope, praise the living Jesus!
The faith is the fuel that gives hope life, if you don’t have faith, hope will not be sustained. By taking the steps of faith, you’ll one day arrive at the destination called hope, and by that time you will no longer call it hope, you’ll call it testimony. The beauty of it brethren is that that day is very close by; it’s not too far away for some people in the mighty name of Jesus.
So let us hope for a better tomorrow, let us hope for eternity, let us keep that audacious hope that we’ll not give up when every other person is giving up only because God has said go ahead, we will continue to keep hope and in the name of the Lord Almighty, He will surely hear us in Jesus mighty name.
So where do we place our hope? Psalm 33: 20 – 22, the Bible says “Our soul waiteth for the Lord: he is our help and our shield. 21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name. 22 Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in thee”. Our hope is in the Lord, you know there are politicians that will tell you that there is renewed hope, keep hope alive, that is the hope of man, our hope is in God.
If our hope is in God, then it is only in God that that hope can be sustained, and if you don’t know God and you don’t have any relationship with God, it will be difficult to sustain that hope. That’s why this morning brethren, if you are here you don’t know God, the hope that you’ll be hanging on is the hope of man which will fail, he has failed many times, he will continue to fail, but if you want to hold on to the hope of God, you need to know Him and the starting point to knowing Him is to accept Him as your Lord and Savior.
I would like to call on two categories of people here; the first category of people, if you are here this morning, you do not know Him at all, you’ve never accepted God as your Lord and Savior or you want to or you used to be but you have backslided, you want to come back, some, He’s waiting for you, He will give you the hope and He will strengthen your faith that every day, you will keep going until that hope becomes testimony.
[Altar call]
The second category of people that we want to call: there are challenges in homes, there are challenges in businesses, there are challenges in relationships, there are challenges in finances, there are many people here who are struggling and do not know how to navigate, if you are in this category and you will need help, at least counseling, we have special counselors in the house who can attend to your need, if you are here this morning, you need counsel on how to navigate this situation, the woman in 2nd Kings 4 cried out, she sought counsel and God sought her out, you need counsel, you are here, please just wave your hands.
I will ask that category of people to see the ushers at the end of the service or second service, then they will connect you to the counselors and the rest, God will handle it in the mighty name of Jesus.
Let us rise up as we take our prayers; let us give thanks to God, let us bless His holy name, let us thank Him for the promise of hope, let us thank Him because He alone can make things better and He will make things better for us in the mighty name of Jesus.
We are going to pray and say Father, I receive divine grace for boldness to wait on You until my hope turns to testimonies in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
We’ll pray again and say Father, I will wait on You without wavering in faith until my change comes in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
In that story in John 2, the wine finished, the source of joy, the source of merriment finished, dried out but God came and turned things around. We are going to cry to God, say Father, please don’t let the source of my joy dry up, don’t let the source of my merriment, the source of my hope, Father don’t let it fry out in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly father, in Jesus mighty name we pray.
And finally, before the shame of that family in John 2 came out, God came there promptly. We are going to ask the Lord Almighty, Father please, attend time promptly, cover my shame oh Lord, attend to my situation promptly
