Let all the works of God in the house praise the Lord! Father in heaven, we want to say thank You once again; a billion of thanks are not enough to express our gratitude to You because so much You have done for us. Thank You for preservation of our lives; thank You for our maintenance; thank You for maintaining us health wise; thank You because You did not allow our health to fail; thank You for provision; thank You for daily loading us with Your benefits; thank You Father Almighty God for mercy, thank You for mercy; thank You because Your mercies endureth forever, it’s unique, it’s wonderful, it’s unparallel, it’s by that same mercy that we are what we are today, and it’s by Your mercy that we have been able to see this day, accept our praises in the name of Jesus.
Thank You for seeing us through this year this far; thank You for the fresh month, thank You for the second month, thank You for the third month, thank You for the fourth, thank You for the fifth, thank You for the sixth, thank You for the seventh, thank You for the eighth, thank You for the great convention and thank You Father Almighty God for the ninth month; thank You because we are rest assured with one fact that You, the Lord, that has begun the good work, You are able to see us through, thank You because all will end in praise, accept our thanks in Jesus name.
Thank You for our gathering together today, thank You for Your presence in our midst, thank You Father because as we have come to say thank You, Lord Almighty God you will accept us, You will accept our worship, You will accept our offering and by it Lord, You will do much more for us in the name of Jesus Christ.
We pray for all Your children who have been faithful in the payments of their tithes and in the giving of their offering, Lord Almighty God, remember the promise You have made concerning us (Lord Almighty) that unto us You will open the windows of heaven, Father almighty God, please let it be so in Jesus name. Honor Your words in our lives, bless us Father and make every one of us a delightsome land in the mighty name of Jesus.
We pray that this new month shall be a month of fruitfulness, a month of multiplication, a month of divine favor and a month of celebration; we pray oh God almighty that this month You will renew our strength, You will renew our faith, nothing will die in our hands in the mighty name of Jesus; and everywhere the soles of our feet shall tread upon, it will cause us to possess our possession, and at the end of it we’ll have cause to glorify Your name.
Thank You Father because You have answered; as we go into Your word of encouragement, Father almighty God we pray that by Your word, You will provoke a deep sense of gratitude in us in Jesus name; glory be to Your name, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed.
Good morning church, happy new month to every one of you and of course happy new Redeemed year, because August marks the end of a Redeemed year and (of course) September marks the commencement of a new one. I would like to seize this opportunity to say a big thank you to every one of you who has been with us, who have been very supportive of the course of the church in the last one year, thank you for your commitment in every area, in every department and thank you for keeping faith with God, with the church and with us as leadership, and our prayers is that the goodness of God will never cease in your life in Jesus name, and I pray that your testimony this year or your testimonies this year shall be greater than that of last year in Jesus name.
God always reserves the best to the latter time and the Bible says the glory of the latter house shall be greater than the former, I pray that your testimonies this year shall be renewed more and more than before in Jesus name. We appreciate every one of you very profoundly and we pray that the presence of the Lord will continue to rest and abide with you in Jesus name.
By the grace of God we’ll have a prayer chain tomorrow, and the theme for tomorrow is ‘The Lord our Provider’, and our text is taken from the Book of Philippians 4: 16 – 19. I trust God will provide for all our needs even beyond our expectations in the mighty name of Jesus. Please come join with us as we pray to God and the Lord will hear and answer our prayers in Jesus name.
I also need to remind you of the declaration for the month of September as our month of Divine Fruitfulness and Multiplication; you will be multiplied, your grace will be multiplied, your joy will be multiplied, it will be victory upon victory, success upon success and favor all the way in the name of Jesus. The scripture is taken from the Book of Genesis 1: 28.
Those of you that follow the Holy Ghost, you would have seen that that Genesis 1: 28 has been a very recurring scriptures and that speaks to one thing that God is here with us, and that God has a hand in whatever we do, and that God will bless you in the name of Jesus.
You can see fruits of different nature, that is what God is going to do for you this week and not only this month, for the rest of your life in the mighty name of Jesus; failure will become a thing of the past in the name of Jesus.
Romans 9 – I’m sure you know the practice, what we want to give you is just what we call the first course, our father in the Lord, the General Overseer, will be coming in a moment to serve the meal and I’m trusting God that today you will be full, and not only that you will be full, there will be an overflow and of course there will be a takeaway, ‘e e je, e e mu, e e tun di l’ole’, God bless you.
Romans 9: 9 – 16, “For this is the word of promise, at this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. 10And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 11(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger.
13As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 14What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 15For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God the sheweth mercy”.
My prayer for every one of you under the influence of my voice this morning, both physically and online, is that today you will receive mercy, God will show you mercy in the mighty name of Jesus.
So I’ll be talking to us very briefly on what I call “The Value of Mercy”. Mercy is what I call an uncountable forgiveness or compassion towards someone over offenses committed; in other words, mercy means to be gracious with others in their needs and to be forgiving towards them when they have wronged us.
From our text, God’s promise towards Abraham and his wife, Sarah, about having a child almost looked impossible. Humanly speaking, considering their age and considering when the promise was made, but God through the wonders of His mercy visited them after all they went through, including what I call Abraham’s indiscretion of having a child with his maid, Hagar.
The value of mercy caused Jacob to be preferred over and above his brother, Esau; and I pray for someone listening to me today that by the mercies of God from today, you will become the preferred one; by the mercy of God, from today you will become the preferred one in the mighty name of Jesus right.
And God did this for Jacob in order to fulfill His purpose for humanity as captured in Romans 9: 15, it says “For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion”; I also pray once again today that God will find you worthy of His compassion in the name of Jesus.
What this underscores is the fact that it is God’s prerogative for anyone to enjoy his mercy; what this is saying to every one of us here today is the fact that it is God’s prerogative for us to be alive today; it simply means that you are not alive today by accident; it means that you are not just alive today by reason of works or your righteousness, but rather, you are alive today all by the reason of His mercy.
Lamentations 3: 22 &23, the Bible makes it clear (in verses 22) that it is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. (It says) they are new every morning: and great is the faithfulness of God. And seeing today, He will cause every one of us to celebrate the faithfulness of God
Mercy is not a product of your academic background, praise the Lord! Mercy is not a product of your societal connection; it’s not a function of how many people you know in government; it’s not a function of how fat your purse is; it has nothing to do with your family reputation; mercy is just pure God’s prerogative.
As I was preparing for this sermon yesterday, I stumbled on a Xavier University’s post on mercy, and it says, “I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than street justice; sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge; charity is a supreme virtue and the great channel through which the mercy of God is passed on to mankind; where mercy is shown, mercy is given”. I pray for everyone under the influence of my voice today that may you encounter mercy in Jesus name; in every area of your life may you encounter mercies in the name of Jesus Christ.
It must be put on record that God’s mercies abound for all; in other words, the mercy of God is available for the good, for the bad and for the ugly, but what you make out of it is a function that will determine the reward or the outcome of its expression in your life. In other words, there are things that interfere with the operations of God’s mercy in the life of a man and number one is sin; in Proverbs 14: 34, the Bible says “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people”. It doesn’t matter your status, it doesn’t matter your level of knowledge, once there is a sin, then you carry the corresponding reproach and that is why it is necessary to do away with sin in order to experience the full-blown effect of mercy in the life of a man.
One of the effects of mercy is that it brings happiness, praise the Lord! But let me be honest with you, until you get rid of sin, you can never be a happy man or a woman, because the Bible made it clear that sinners are meant to suffer. You may be rich but you’ll find out that you are not satisfied; you may be great and you’ll find out that there’s no peace of mind for you, and that is why I pray again this morning that for as many of us that are listening to this sermon that that are yet to surrender our lives to Christ, that today you will find the courage and the humility to come before the feet of Christ to say God I’m sorry, I surrender to You, and as you do that, you will find acceptance in the name of Jesus Christ.
Number two is nonchalant attitude towards God and His priests. In the Book of Leviticus 10: 1& 2, “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. 2And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord”. My prayer for every one of us this morning is not for you to die, because God is not interested in the death of any sinner, however, God expects every one of us to watch it and we must be very careful of the sacrifices that we offer to God.
The heart, as you are aware, is really critical to every relationship, and our relationship with God is not an exception; whatever you offer to God in terms of worship, in terms of gratitude, in terms of offering, must be such that come from the heart.
Nadab and Abihu desecrated the office of the priesthood by offering the sacrifice that they were not commanded to do. We must be very careful, we must follow the line, you cannot be more Catholic than the Pope; if God has not given you a clear instruction, please you must be very careful, and whatever you do, let it come from the heart, because the Bible tells us in 2nd Corinthians 9: 7 that God loves a cheerful giver.
Number three: murmuring and complaining amount to interference with mercy. If you read Exodus 17: 3, the children of Israel murmured; the Bible says “And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst”. The children of Israel were perpetually ungrateful set of human beings just like many of us are today; they’ve seen a number of miracles performed, but yet any little challenge they will recall the land of Egypt.
They crossed the Red Sea, they saw that miracle, when they had issue, they complained; before the Red Sea was parted, they told Moses, we told you, we had enough land in Egypt, even if we are going to die, at least we would have been buried, look at where you have brought us; God parted it, they walked through.
Every time, every bit, complains; I’m sure the children of Israel must have the same gene with Nigerians – from government to government we keep complaining, from one leader to the other, it is complain galore; brethren, let’s stop murmuring and complaining, but in everything, we should give thanks to God.
Paul told the Philippians; be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Gratitude is a prerequisite to miracle; gratitude is a prerequisite to great wonders just as we were told, if you give your child something and your child says daddy thank you; the following morning he wakes up and he comes to you to say daddy thank you for yesterday, won’t you be excited? If he has another need and comes next time, won’t you give to him?
Conversely you have a child that you blessed yesterday and he just takes it, says thank you and he walks away; the following morning, no follow-up thank you, no appreciation and he comes again and says that I need this one, how will you react? You’ll say my friend, the one I did yesterday, you collected; and that is the nature of many of us, we live for now and we are so consumed with the sense of entitlement; if you cannot thank those who you are seeing, there is no way you can thank God that you cannot see.
I think I said it last month that the test of knowing a good child, who will grow out to be a good adult is when you flash a toy, something that makes a funny noise and she does not struggle to touch it, know that this one is going to be a Gaddafi, praise the Lord! When you see those who don’t have sense of appreciation, they are nonplus, and sometimes it’s not as if they have what it takes to do what you have done, but by nature, they are not designed, they are not wired to be appreciative, and as far as God is concerned, if you are not appreciative, it’s difficult for God to load you with blessing, but I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that from today, God will take away that ungrateful part of you and will replace with the heart of gratefulness in the mighty name of Jesus.
As a spouse, if you don’t appreciate your spouse, there will be no motivation. As a child, if you don’t appreciate your parents, there will be no further incentive to do more. Yoruba has a saying that ‘yinni yinni, k’a le se’mi’; when you praise and you appreciate someone, then he is motivated to go all out; but when you give something and somebody just feel that it’s his/her right, then next time you would want to prove that it’s not your right, at least it costs that individual something to give.
Number four: lack of faith in God interferes with God’s mercy. The Bible tells us in Galatians 3: 6, it says “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness”.
Brethren, God honors our faith and rewards our trust in Him hugely, He rewards our trust in Him, all things are possible for those who believe in Him, and I pray that your faith will be rewarded today in Jesus name.
And of course lastly, lack of appreciation of God’s goodness, Psalm 136: 1, it says, “O give thanks to the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever”. All through that scripture, David was saying ‘oh give thanks to the Lord, for his mercies endureth forever’.
Brethren, there is so much to be thankful for, and like we were told on Friday that gratitude is the secret of multiple wonders and every good things that He has done for us; His faithfulness, His grace, His favor, His kindness, encouragement, support, and of course His mercy that is everlasting. The mercy of God is from generation to generation, it is a continuous phenomenon that constantly makes the difference in our lives.
So as you praise God today, I have no doubt that God will do much more for you.
In conclusion, the greatest example of God’s mercy is Jesus paying our debts on the cross. Like in the parable, when we are truly repentant, God shows us mercy and welcomes us with open arms. The Hebrew word for mercy, (I tried to find out this last night) actually translates to love, amen!
