Let somebody shout Jesus! The Master of the universe, amen! The Master of the universe; the Heir of power; the Heir of joy; the Heir of peace; Jesus that lives and Mighty to save; it’s unto You we return all the glory this morning. Thank You for all that You have done for us; Father Almighty God, we are not unmindful of the fact that You are the reason that we are alive today, glory be to Your name in Jesus name.
Father, You brought us here today to minister to us and You have started in a very wonderful way, we pray oh God that You will not stop; You will pour Your heart upon us; You will release Your Spirit upon us; You will cause each and every one of us to be possessed of Your Spirit here today, and Lord by reason of that Father, You will energize us; You will strengthen us; You will cause joy to flow in the hearts of every one and You will bless every one Lord.
Where there is confusion before now, Lord we pray that You will replace with clarity in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Let Your light so shine in the life of each and every one such that every form of darkness to be dispersed in Jesus name. We lift up our hands unto You oh God and we pray that You will join Your hands with ours and You will give us a lift in Jesus name.
As You speak to us today Father, speak to us very clearly; speak to us in a very simple manner; speak to us with clarity; and Father we pray that You will truncate every distractions in our lives in Jesus name. And at the end of everything today, we’ll have cause to celebrate Your Holy name; thank You Father because it is done, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed.
Good morning to you all and happy Father’s Day to all the fathers in the house, I want you with Jesus joy celebrate all the fathers in the house. Fatherhood is not by title; fatherhood is not by name; fatherhood is by responsibility, nobody can superimpose himself as a father when he does not play that fatherhood role. So it is on this note that we celebrate all the amazing fathers, excellent fathers, responsible fathers in the house and I pray that the hands of the Lord will be upon you all in Jesus name. All the fathers in the house, you will live long, you will live well and the latter part of your days shall be better, and God forbids anyone will turn the hearts of your children against you.
Today is our contemporary Sunday; by the grace of God, it also happens to coincide with this year’s Father’s Day, and that is why fathers in the house are excited, because to the best of my knowledge, I think there is only one Father’s Day in a year, but Mother’s Day is like 3-4 times in a year, how the thing is still against us, only God can tell. But again, I feel that the fathers in the house should make the most of today because after today, it’s until 2024.
So we celebrate everybody and today’s service is devoted to everybody, it’s a family service and I’m sure also that our children and teenagers will have a lot to learn and I pray that God will bless us all in Jesus name.
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Praise the Lord! I want to believe that ministers to someone; someone sent it to me yesterday and I looked at it and I felt that it’s something we need to share; don’t dispense the caterpillar that cleared the bush and demolish the mountain when the road is smooth; and truly by nature, caterpillar can be destructive but that is not the case with the father – a good father, and of course we need to underline a father.
Like I said before; fatherhood is not by title, it’s not about just impregnating a woman and disappear, fatherhood is about responsibility; please, I beg everyone of us, don’t dispense your caterpillar; whatever a man soweth, the same shall he reap, and I want to seize this opportunity to appeal to as many of us that still have parents (not only fathers now), please take care of them while they are alive.
You may say pastor you don’t know, my parents never took care of me, I’m a product of God’s grace; but the Bible says if any man be in Christ, he’s a new creature, old things are passed away; and if you cannot forgive your parents, it will be difficult for God to forgive you. Take care of your parents, take care of every father figure and the Lord will bless you mightily in Jesus name.
Joshua 1: 1-7, it’s a very familiar scripture; “Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying, (2) Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. (3) Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. (4) From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.
(5) There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. (6) Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. (7) Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest.
My prayer for every one of us today is that the blessings of the Lord will locate you wherever you are in Jesus name; and as you follow the word of God preset by preset, every corresponding promise, every corresponding blessing that God has so declared will be your portion in Jesus name.
So therefore this morning, I will be talking to us on the topic “The Power of Your Focus”. Focus can be defined as the centre of interest; they call it centre of interest or centre of activity. Focus can also be considered as the state or quality of having or producing clear visual definition. Thus, focus can be said to be the focal point of activity and it is an essential ingredient required for a successful experience in life.
Take any successful man or check the lives of every successful personality, you would find out that they have gone through the path of focus again and again continuously. Take the story of any rich man, take the story of any successful woman, there is no way you can take away clarity from his/her achievement.
This morning during the workers’ meeting, we were taught about the five rules of goal, how to make money, how to be successful, and by the grace of God, I also shared three things with them about the need for us to set goals. You must set a goal, you don’t leave your house without a destination, at the end of the day, you will wander and go back home; every journey out of the house is to a specific destination, and that demands of every one of us to have a clear goal set.
And of course I talked about the need to start little; they say a little drop of water makes a mighty ocean; and of course I also talked about the need to have rules, there must be ground rules that will guide your movement, your path as you journey and continue in the journey of life.
God spoke to Joshua in the midst of grief; God spoke to Joshua in the midst of confusion, because as at the time God was speaking to Joshua, his leader had just been buried, Moses died, and in the midst of that, God spoke to him. But thank God for Joshua, he hearkened to the word of God, he hearkened to the instructions given, and no wonder among the very few that made the Promised Land, Joshua happened to be one of them.
Not only that he made the Promised Land, when you read the book of Numbers, there was a time he demanded for his inheritance; he turned to the leadership and said give me this mountain, I fought for this mountain forty years ago. As at this time, Joshua was 85 years old; he said just as I fought forty-five years ago, I’m ready to fight again, and eventually he got what belonged to him. Focus makes a man to fulfill destiny.
My prayer for all of you under the influence of my voice this morning is that God almighty will raise your power of focus in Jesus name.
You have to focus on what matters if you want to live a life of excellence and go for the goal. If you want to live a life of excellence, you want to get to your destiny, you need to live a life of focus. No matter how talented you are, if you are not focused, you can’t go too far in life.
In Philippians 3:13-14; “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, (14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”. The power of focus helps you to press towards the mark for the prize; you want to be successful, you must press towards it; you want to be on top of your game, you must press towards it; you want to be a great personality in life, you must work towards it; you want to be a good father, you must work towards it. It says ‘I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’.
The subject of focus cannot be overemphasized in the pursuit of success. Focused people do not only grow fast, but they also go far in life, just like Joshua did. There are many of us today who we can clearly cite (by the special grace of God) as a typical example of what focus can achieve. Thank God for those of you who are successful professionals, successful career people; I’m sure if we have time to call everyone to relay his experience(s), there will be a lot for us to learn from.
Everyone of us – the great guys, without an exception is a typical example of what focus can bring to bear, because when you are focused, it helps you to be resilient; focus brings resilience, there is no amount of discouragement that will come your way that will make you to throw in the towel. Focus brings commitment; you are irrevocably committed to the pursuit of your goal and focus brings about dedication. I pray in the name of Jesus that every product of focus in your life will bring you gain in Jesus name.
Focus is not just about being busy, but focus is about being productive. There are busy people, when you talk about busy-ness today, a lot of people are busy; but talk about productivity, only very few stand to pass that test. Focused people make productive investment of their time and resources by doing only the things that matter. Focused people invest their time and resources on things that matter.
We were talking this morning; if you want to be rich, then you must plan to invest your time and resources on things that matter; you must set rules for yourself. You cannot thrive in business, (like our sister told us today) if you don’t have one project at any point in time, project helps you to build portfolio; but if you are the type that buys everything that is buyable, at the end of the day your net worth will be zero. We spend on frivolities, frivolous things, forgetting the fact that a little drop of water makes a mighty ocean.
I have a friend in the house, (we’ve been friends for years), he told me about the story of a multibillionaire in Nigeria; he said each time you visit him and you go for lunch, he doesn’t spend more than ₦10,000 – ₦20,000 (that’s when you are lucky), but yet he’s a rich man. But there are many of us who don’t even have ₦2,000,000 in our account, when we go for lunch, we clear the whole place, and at the end of the day, the life has no net worth.
There’s something they taught us in investment appraisal – Net Present Value (NPV); some people’s NPV is zero, so with that you don’t even go to the IRR (Internal Rate of Returns) because it’s going to be zero.
Be focused on making significant progress in the things that matter most to your life, and let me tell you, to succeed, you don’t need to be everywhere. You can be in Nigeria and be successful; you can be in UK and be successful; you can live in America and live a second-class life, and that is why it’s not everyone that japa (traveled abroad) that is enjoying it now; I know quite a lot of them that are stuck, but they can’t come back: number 1, they sold their houses when they were going; they sold their cars; they resigned their employment, now where are they going to start from? All that glitters is not gold; you can stay in Nigeria and make it, and by the grace of God, I decree, every one of you under the influence of my voice, you will make it in life in Jesus name.
You don’t need to be everywhere doing the same thing again and again; you don’t have to be everywhere doing things the way others are doing it, what is good for you might not be such for me, what is such for you might not be okay for me, and as a matter of fact according to the saying, the way you lay your bed is the way you sleep on it.
1st Corinthians 9:26; “Therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:” Look, you must be purposeful, you must be focused. “I therefore so run, not uncertainly’; do you people run as uncertainly most of the times? In fact, when you want to see those run without knowing the purpose, Lagos is a typical place; you’d see people running, cars turning back and the next thing is everybody is turning, they won’t find out what is going on; whether the man that made his first turning missed his way, everybody will just follow suit and if they are asked, they would say something is happening at the front which is not. You don’t have to run so uncertainly, so run as certainly as possible. Be purposeful.
Discover what matters in your life and give it your best shot. Eliminate activities that are not productive; number one is procrastination; we were taught in those days that procrastination is a thief of time. You keep procrastinating, and one of the things that procrastination does is that it enhances stagnation. I pray in the name of Jesus, as many of you that are stagnated, not moving forward, today God will break the chain of stagnation in your life in Jesus name.
Get rid of negativity: negativity feeds ‘causic cycle’; it makes you very unhappy, it makes you very bitter, it doesn’t help you to see beyond your nose, in fact as a matter of fact, it makes you to see those things that are not okay, and do you know what, it also undermines your mood, it places your mood below par, it undermines your perspective. If you have a negative mind, your perspectives will be negative; if you have a negative mind, your expectations will be undermined. The Bible says there’s surely an end, but the expectation of the righteous shall not be cut off. I stand on this exalted altar this morning and I prophesy that your expectations shall not be cut off in Jesus name.
But get rid of negativity, get rid of overspending. One thing overspending can do to you is that it will bring you financial stress, and ultimately, insecurity. Once you are financially unstable, once you are financially stressed, insecurity will knock at the door because complex will come in, fear will come in, and of course overspending will lead to the accumulation of debt.
Nigeria is in a debt mess but God will deliver us, that is what overspending can cause us. Any little project, the contract sum is inflated; any little thing, the contract sum is inflated. People will claim money for training that they did not attend, at the end of the day, the nation will borrow.
I learnt we spent a reasonable amount of our budget to service our debt, and before then, about how much percentage of the current and capital expenditure – do you know in Nigeria, the current expenditure is always higher than the capital expenditure? And that is why you hardly see any progress being made; bulk of the money is meant to pay salaries, trainings and allowances.
Get rid of overspending; and for you to get rid of overspending, you must set your rules; you must know what to buy and what not to buy.
Get rid of substance abuse: some of the children are into alcohol, and when you get to the bar, you’ll buy alcohol for everybody – fine boy no pimples; at the end of the day, the barman has an account book for you (IOU).
There are some into drugs; there are drugs that I’ve never heard about in my life, as old as I am, I hear all kinds of drugs among the young people, it’s because you are idle. Please get rid of drugs, if there is anything it will do, it will ruin your life, but my prayer is that your lives will not be ruined because you are here today.
There are many of us who are chronic latecomers: we come to church late; we get to work late; functions, late; forgetting the fact that time is life. And let me tell you, lateness has the capacity to harm your reputation; if you are a perpetual latecomer, when people are saying we are waiting, they would say ‘but you should have known him now, he’s a habitual latecomer’. Your reputation is done, and asides from that, it can strain your relationship.
We invited a young man for an interview; he called in the morning to remind that you said we would be having an interview, we said yes. What time should I come? 10⁰clock; when it was 9:45, he sent in a text message, ‘sorry, I’m running late; I had to attend a church service today’; and I texted him back, ‘go back to that church for your interview’. Foolishness. And the truth of the matter in the church today, why poverty seems to be growing is because a lot of men of God cannot stand bold and teach you the truth; they tell you things that will excite your heart so that you’ll give them something, I don’t know how many of those things they will take to heaven.
The Bible says food for the stomach, stomach for food, those shall be destroyed. The work of every man of God will be tested by fire. He said he went to church on a Thursday, you had an interview, you were aware of this before. Another one came and we said where is your CV? He said ‘I left everything; I went to a morning service before I came in here’; I said the anointing from that service will make way for you.
We must get our priorities right; all these elders jumping from one place to the other, you are claiming and claiming. The other time I saw a video; people were told, ‘lift up your phones, you will receive alerts; from Zenith bank, release alerts; from UBA, release alerts’, how much did Union bank released? You see those churches you don’t run away, you can’t go far.
It was Ebenezer Obey that sang ‘eni r’owo e loju ala t’on dunnu, e ni k’o te’pa m’ose e nitori ebi, oro re l’owo Oluwa l’owa’. Look, there is time for everything; the level of manipulation is so high and you have to be very focused. If you are not focused, you can never be there; I pray the Lord will help us in Jesus name.
Hebrews 12:1; The Bible says “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us”. If you are not focused, you won’t get it right; if you are not focused, you will sell yourself as a lady, you will do what you are not supposed to do. A lot of times, we want to belong; those who always like to belong, they belong because they are not focused.
We need to drop every unnecessary way and stick only to the necessary. A wise man said the wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials; where you eliminate the non-essentials and give the essentials your best; I can assure you that life of excellence is inevitable.
We must identify relationship and friendships that are essential in your life and give it your best. And conversely, you must identify those ones that add little or no value to you and delete them accordingly.
Proverbs 13:20 says “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed”. Like in the story of Ruth; Ruth identified Naomi as someone who mattered to her destiny, and Boaz was the reward of Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi. You cannot be loyal and you will not get the reward of loyalty especially when you are positively loyal.
Your resources and time must be channeled towards those things that matter most in life, and the reason you must invest in honor and focusing on the essential. One of the reasons people fail is simply because they tend to channel their time and resources into what I call ‘the non-essential’; and successful people put 80% of their time and resources on what mattered most in their lives.
I remember – those of you that did Elementary Management at the tertiary level; I remember our management lecturer taught us then about pareto rule. Pareto rule’s school of thought posits that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of the consequences come from 20% of the causes. In other words, a small percentage of causes have an outsized effect(s).
The concept is so important to understand because it can help you to identify which itinerary to prioritize so that you can make the most of impact.
I remember in school those days when we did assumption costing versus marginal costing; when you want to delete a segment, you don’t look for profitability, but rather you look out for the contribution margin. What is the contribution margin? If the contribution margin is low or not there, you cut off.
You must be very careful of what you allow in your life. What consumes your mind controls you. Proverbs 4:23 says “Guide your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life”; and in Proverbs 23:7, the Bible says “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”; and in Matthew 6:22b, the Bible says “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light” – talking about focus. And I want to appeal to us that you should starve your destructions and feed your focus.
One of the secrets of successful business owners is that they focus relentlessly on what they do; and I want to say today brethren, your dream is achievable, your goal is achievable; just be focused and be determined. Your path to success is always based on determination that you have engraved within yourself. Nobody is coming to drive your dream for you or on your behalf; you are the one that have to drive it.
Determination aligns your energy and attention towards your focus. In this distracted world, you need to master how to stay focused and be productive so as to live a life of excellence and fulfilling.
As we purpose to obey the Lord and follow His will, in fact what we need to obey and fulfill His purpose for us. If you feel like you are facing unknown environment and you are sure or unsure of what is to come, choose to honor the Lord, no matter what; the Lord will give you courage, He will give you strength, He will give you peace and He will point you to the right path.
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I pray today for every one of you that God will give you the grace to drop every unnecessary ways and focus on what matters in your life in the mighty name of Jesus. In other words, God will give you the required grace to focus.
I want you to just bow down your heads and thank God first and foremost for the privilege of being here today; thank Him for the word that has come straight from the throne of grace, and I want you to pray to God: Father, please give me the grace to starve my distractions and feed my focus in the name of Jesus. Give me the grace, oh God almighty, to starve my distractions and to feed my focus.
Pray to God that He will overwhelm your mind with the spirit of love, grace and godliness in the name of Jesus. Pray to God: Father please overwhelm my mind with the spirit of love, with the spirit of grace, with the spirit of compassion and passion and godliness in every aspect of my life in the name of Jesus. and pray to God: Father, drown every distractions in my life and deliver me from their strongholds. Thank You Father because You have answered, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed.
If you are here you have not given your life to Christ, and you are here this morning you’ve heard the word, and as the word was coming you were wondering how am I so distracted? Why is it that I’m failing in the area of focus? I want you to raise up your hand. Fight my battles for me today; I join my hands with Yours Lord, give me a lifting above distractions in the name of Jesus, thank You glorious Father, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Once again by the apostolic authority; I join my faith with every one under the influence of my voice this morning that God will drown your distractions. Every distractions coming from the area of marriage; coming from the area of your academic pursuit; coming from the area of ministry; coming even from the parties of your chosen professions; I pray that God will drown them today in Jesus name. God will make your life meaningful; He will make you productive in every area in the mighty name of Jesus.
God will give you a lifting, and He will restore back to you those opportunities you have lost, in other words, God will give you a second chance in the name of Jesus Christ. God will make you celebrants of joy, celebrants of victory, celebrants of success and you will overcome all your strongholds in the mighty name of Jesus.
I prophesy to every one of you today that the grace to go and sin no more; the grace to go and dominate and possess the land, may God release to you today in Jesus name. And for every one that has come out to say yes Lord, Father let Your mercy overwhelm them; write their names in the Book of Life; start with them afresh; restore the wasted years back to them; and above all in Your Kingdom, count us worthy to be with You; blessed be Your name forever oh God, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed.
