Let somebody shout hallelujah! Let me appeal to you, and the appeal is that maybe you will go and learn to dance, worship and praise God because every day of this year is going to be for thanksgiving, every day of this year is going to be for celebration, so you need to get used to it.
Father in heaven we want to say thank You; for all that You have done, we say thank You, particularly for seeing us through year 2024 we are grateful; thank You for all that You did for us, thank You for blessing us, thank You for keeping us, thank You for guiding us and thank You for bringing us into the new year, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus.
Father we have no any iota or doubt in our hearts that this year will be better, that it will be more glorious, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus. Lord today we have come to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, Lord please accept us today, accept our worship, accept that which we brought and use it to the glory of Your name in the name of Jesus.
And as Your children intentionally and cheerfully offer their thanksgiving sacrifice today, Lord Almighty You will bless them more, You will pave the way for them in the mighty name of Jesus; You will make celebration a part of their life forever, a permanent feature of their life, as an individual, as a family and as a member of the church, and even as citizens of this nation in the mighty name of Jesus.
Glorify Your name in our lives and perfect all that concerns us Lord; let this year be a remarkable year of blessing, a remarkable year of favor, a remarkable year of breakthrough, and we pray Lord Almighty that in every area You will exceed our expectation.
We pray for all Your children who have been faithful in the payments of their tithes and in the giving of their offering, that Lord You will bless them according to Your word and You will even exceed expectations in their lives in Jesus name. Every activities of the devourer in their life is cancelled in Jesus name, and we pray that more than ever before You will open the treasuries of heaven upon them in the name of Jesus.
Thank You for everything, we commit this service onto Your hand, Father take control and glorify Your name in our lives, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed.
Happy New Year to you all, we appreciate you very profoundly once again for your support and your encouragement in the past years, you are one of the best congregation that any pastor will pray for; thank you for your moral support, thank you for your spiritual support, thank you for encouragement, and thank you for lifting up your hands all the time, my prayer is that God Almighty will never cease in blessing you in the name of Jesus.
I want to seize this opportunity to say thank you specially to all those who ministered to us during the Christmas and the New Year by way of collective gifts and material gifts, we appreciate you profoundly, it’s a privilege we will not want to take for granted, and our prayer is that God of heaven will bless you all mightily even beyond your expectation in Jesus name.
Like when the Apostle Paul told the Philippians when they ministered to him, he said for my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus, and that will be your portion in Jesus name, and I trust God that this year will be more, but the truth of the matter is that you can only give what you have, the more you have the more you give, is proportionate, so I pray for you that this year will be better in the name of Jesus; every day of your life you will carry the presence of God, and everywhere you go this year glory will announce you, it shall be well with you, it shall be well with your work, it shall be well with your home, it shall be well with your businesses, it shall be well with your family, it shall be well with everything about you; your finances will be well, you will be richer than before and you will serve God with your resources in Jesus name.
The Lord bless you in the name of Jesus! I want to tell us once again happy New Year to you, it is with great joy in our hearts that we welcome you to the year of Great Expectations, it’s our year of Great Expectations and the relevant scripture is Proverbs 23:18, it says for surely there is an end; but the expectation of the righteous shall not be cut off; my prayer for you all is that you will exceed expectations in the year 2025 in the name of Jesus Christ, you will go beyond your target and the name of the Lord will be praised forever more in Jesus name.
So the month of January as been declared as our month of praise and that is what we have come to do here this morning; the Bible says I will praise the Lord at all time and His praise will forever be in our heart, so please make sure you make it a habit in praising God this year and as you praise God continuously, the blessings of the Lord will continue to be multiplied unto you in the name of Jesus.
As our culture in this church, the first three days in the week (now from Monday), we always have what we call ‘Operation Fresh’, and the whole essence is to enable us commit the year onto the hands of the Lord; there is nothing we can do without the support of the Almighty, and as you all know if God does not help us, who else? So we need to fortify ourselves and that can only be done through prayers, because of that beginning from tomorrow through Wednesday we’ll be having our special prayer programs, time is 6:30 in the evening, and Wednesday by the grace of God there will be special impartation by way of anointing service, so we look forward to having every one of you, it’s just the beginning of the year, before it gets busy please come and immerse yourself in that divine power and divine anointing of God and we trust that God Almighty will come through for you in the course of the journey of this year in Jesus name.
Also the authority of the mission has declared a 100 days fasting and prayers; it looks so long and somehow but you can do it in a very simple way: if you do seven days of 24 hours you have 14 days, if you do 14 days of 24 hours you have 28 days, if you do 21 of 24 hours (mind what I said – 24 hours) you will have done 63 and if you’re able to do 30 days of 24 hours you will have succeeded in completing 100 days, you see it’s very simple, praise the Lord! But alternatively you can do your 12 hours then you run, 6 to 6 – if you 6 p.m. to 6 p.m. is 24 hours, we have to make it attractive so that people will not just embark on hunger strike, the only way you can get the benefit of it is when it’s done with understanding and you do it cheerfully, if I’m right shout hallelujah! But if you have health issues please take note of that, I will not say more than that but God loves a cheerful giver, just do the one you can do but let it come from your heart, don’t be legalistic about it, because sometimes we are so legalistic about it, do it to the best of your ability because it’s between you and God in the first place, and when you are fasting don’t let anybody know, that’s what the Bible says, don’t join those who will say ‘e ku on’gbe’ every day, don’t text me any e ku on’gbe message, if you do that I will delete your message; do it naturally, do it to the best of your ability, I think I have spoken, the Lord will bless you, the Lord will bless me.
Psalm 8 (NLT) (we will be joining daddy any moment from now, so wherever daddy comes from is where I’m going to stop), “Oh Lord, Our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens. 2You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you. 3When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers – the moon and the stars you set in place – 4What are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? 5Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.
6You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority – (you need to know because this year we will teach you, you need to know that everything is under your authority) the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, 8The birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents. 9O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!” Let somebody shout hallelujah!
I’ll be talking to us very briefly on “The Majesty of His Name”; today we are here to appreciate God for all that He has done for us, for what He has done in the past, for what He has started doing in the course of this year, for what He’s doing presently and for many others that He will yet do. Brethren, the name of the Lord is awesomely majestic and the majesty of His name (according to that scriptures) fills all the earth; the name of the Lord represents who He is, His character, His nature, His attributes, His power and majesty, and of course what He is capable of doing.
His name is equivalent to His person and all through the scriptures, God is very clear on His attitude to His name and what He wants our attitude to be to the same name. For those of you who probably have listened to the Sunday school today, we talked this morning about the essence of praise and why we should praise God, and what our attitude as a people should be to praise.
In Malachi 1:11 (KJV), the Bible says for from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; brethren, in other words, from the east to west and from the north to south His name is great. His name is great because God is a God of the universe, and in Isaiah 59: 19 the Bible says, so shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.
It’s a good thing to know the name of the Lord and to fear that great name because in it there is defense for you, in it there is protection for you, in it there is safety for you, His name is closely connected to His glory and His name is to be feared throughout the universe. In Deuteronomy 28:10, the Bible says and all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee; when you are called by the great name of the Lord, you know the great name of the Lord, you associate with the great name of the Lord, when people shall see it, they shall be afraid of thee. I pray that as from today you will carry a mark of honor upon yourself in the mighty name of Jesus.
Also in Psalm 102: 15, it says so the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory; and in Psalm 113:3, we are told that from the rising of the sun unto the going down of same the name of the Lord shall be praised. The first scripture tells us that His name shall be feared but it did not stop there, it says when you fear the name of the Lord it also demands that you praise the same name, and that is why we are here today to praise the name of the Lord for all that He has done, so without much ado, God wants His name to be praised by all the inhabitants of the earth because He is worthy to be praised and adored.
In Exodus 20: 7, and of course repeatedly in other scriptures, it says thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain; so what that means is that God wants His name to be reverenced and never to be taken in vain, anyone who uses His name in vain will not be guiltless according to the scripture; so Jesus when teaching His disciples how to pray, advised them on how to go about it like our Father in Matthew 6: 9 -13, it says our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
If you want an open door or breakthrough this year; number one, pray for forgiveness and number two, you must of necessity learn to do forgive, because your own forgiveness is tied to your ability to forgive others, you need to take note of that because there are many of us who are actually the problem for ourselves, there are many of us who are problem to ourselves and how did we become a problem to ourselves is because of our inability to forgive.
So therefore as believers in Christ you are expected to know number one, the name of the Lord, Psalm 9: 10, it says and they that know thy name of the Lord will put their trust in Him: for thou, Lord, has not forsaken them that seek thee; God does not forsake His own, but you must know the name of the Lord because if you don’t know the name of somebody how can you put your trust in somebody, if you don’t have a relationship with somebody how can you put your trust in that individual? I pray that all through this year and beyond you will never be forsaken in the name of Jesus.
Number two, believe and trust in His name, Malachi 4: 2, it says but unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing is his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. You must believe in the Lord, trust in Him and depend on Him.
Number three, you need to reverence or hallow His name as captured in Matthew 6: 9.
And number four, you must call upon His name in worship and in prayers. In Romans 10:13, the Bible says they that call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And number five, you use the authority of His name, Mark 16: 17 & 18, it says and these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover; so you’ll use the authority that is in the name, it’s your right, is a privilege that God has given to His people.
Number six, you’re expected to go into all the world in His name according to 3rd John 1:7.
And number seven, we are expected to proclaim His name all over the world according to Luke 24: 47.
So today, I implore every one of us to make a fresh commitment to know, to reverence, to believe and call upon the name of the Lord; make a renew commitment to proclaim His name to the world and use His name, to heal, to see, to cast out demons and baptize those that believe. My prayer for every one of us this year is that the majestic of the glorious name of our Lord and our God be with you all through this year 2025 and beyond in the name of Jesus Christ.
In Proverbs 18: 10, the Bible says the name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous run into it and is safe, shall we rise on our feet.
If you are here this morning and you have given your life to Christ, you are the righteous that the scripture is talking about, and I think what you are required to do this morning is simply to raise your Ebenezer unto the Lord, thank the Lord for all that He has done particularly for taking us through the storming year 2024, it was a tough one but at the end of everything we were able to survive it and we survived it neatly, we survived it for good.
But if you are here you have not given your life to Christ, the next thing you need to do is simply by going before the Lord and confessing your sin, it is when you have confessed your sin that you’ll be enlisted as the righteous and it is then that you’ll be able to call upon the name of the Lord and run into it – the name of the Lord and get saved.
So I want us to close our eyes, if you have given your life to Christ I want you to just begin to appreciate Him, begin to count your blessings one by one; that songwriter says ‘count your blessings, name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done’, but like I said if you are here you’ve not had an encounter with Jesus, all you need to do this morning is to confess your sin before God or maybe you are here you’ve lost your relationship with God and you want to reconnect back to Him, today provides you that wonderful opportunity and how do you bring that to bear is just by mere confession, you are not going to confess to me neither are you going to confess to any man, nobody has the power to save, you need to know that, nobody has the right, it doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter the title you carry, it is only God that can save.
So if you are here this morning, I want you to go before the Lord and say Father, I want to be reconnected, I want our relationship to be restored, please forgive all my righteousness, my insincerity of the past, my unfaithfulness of the past, Father please forgive, wash me Oh Lord Almighty God by Your blood in the name of Jesus; today fifth of January, I want to be reconnected, I want to come back to You, I am a Prodigal son that wants to come back home, Father please receive me onto Yourself today in the mighty name of Jesus.
All eyes closed all heads bowed, if you have prayed the prayer of forgiveness…
[Altar call]
Father in heaven we want to say thank You, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus; thank You for this opportunity that You have given to us to listen to You, we pray oh God that the grace to reverence and to treasure Your name and to prioritize it so that it will continue to work wonders in our lives You’ll grant unto us in Jesus name.
Thank You for what You have done in the past; thank You for what You are doing; thank You for the marvelous things that You will do in our life this year, accept our praises in the name of Jesus. We surrender everything to You Lord, take control and let it be well with us; for Your children that have come to say yes Lord, Father receive them unto Yourself, let Your mercy oh Lord Almighty God come through for them and let them be saved and let their sins be forgiven, and Lord let them be given a brand new life from today in Jesus name.
Thank You Father because You have answered; as we continue in this service please come along with us and speak to our heart and bless us like never before, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed. God bless you, you may please be seated as we listen to our father in the Lord.
