Praise the Lord! How many of us are excited to be here again? How many of us are happy to witness the sixth day in the month of April? And how many of you believe that the Lord that has begun the good work is more than able to see us through this year? Wave your hands to Jesus.
Our Father and our God, we want to say thank You; if we have a billions of tongues, they are not enough to glorify You; You are the reason we are alive and that is exactly the reason why we are here, we are here because we have come to say thank You for sparing our lives and for making us what we are today, that we can stand, that we can dance, that we can sing, that we can see, that we can hear, Father we return all the glory back to You, accept our thanks in the name of Jesus Christ.
Life is a warfare, it starts from the cradle and until sunset, so if we are alive today it can only be by Your grace; Jesus told Peter, He said Peter, the enemies was determined to have you, (He said), but I have prayed for you; thank You because it’s Your prayer that has made us what we are today, accept our praises in the name of Jesus.
One thing we have come to do today is to offer the sacrifice of our lips, Lord we pray that everything we have come to Your presence with today, we’ll find acceptance from You in Jesus name. If there be anything in our life that will not allow the fire of the blessings to be released as we praise You, Lord please take away in the name of Jesus; overwhelm us by Your mercy in Jesus name; open the gates of heaven and release Your blessings in the name of Jesus.
It’s our month of victory, Lord we pray that none of Your children here, together with those who are listening to us online will pass through this month without testimonies in Jesus name. Take over all our battles and fight for us accordingly, thank You because You have answered.
We pray for all Your children who have been faithful in the payments of their tithes and in giving of their offerings Lord, that in blessing You will bless them in Jesus name, in multiplying You will multiply them in Jesus name, You will enlarge their coast in Jesus name, You will make them a blessing and a channel of blessing in the name of Jesus, and by reason of their obedience, we pray that shame and reproach shall become a thing of the past in their lives in Jesus name.
I pray for those who are still struggling, Lord Almighty, many are struggling because of what they have heard, many are struggling because of misconceptions, many are struggling because they have been discouraged, Lord, we pray for those who are struggling, Father Almighty, we pray You will encounter them in the mighty name of Jesus, let them see the sense and the blessing in payments of tithes so that others can be taken care of in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Blessed be Your name forever; once again in this service come along with us, take all the glory and bless Your people, in Jesus marvelous name we have prayed. Praise the Lord! Praise the living Jesus!
First and foremost, I would like to say good morning to every one of you, happy new month to you, the Lord will bless you this month, He will bless the works of your hand, everywhere you go you will find favor in the mighty name of Jesus, you will not fall victim of evil, you will not be found in the custody of kidnappers, your children will not be found in evil, and you will not succumb to adversity in the mighty name of Jesus. So we welcome you to this month of Victory, it shall be victory all through for you in Jesus name.
Thank you very much, God bless you all, we shall all be celebrated and in the kingdom of God none of us shall be found wanting. By the grace of God we’ll be having our prayer chain tomorrow by 6:30 p.m, the theme for tomorrow is ‘Glorious Liberty’, and the text is Romans 8:21; I look forward to seeing every one of you and the Lord will bless you in Jesus name.
And like I said earlier, this is our month of Victory, our month of divine victory; our text is taken from the Book of Acts 2: 24, I pray that for you and for your loved one, it shall bring from one level of victory to the other in Jesus name.
Psalm 66: 1 – 5 (as usual, you know what we are going to give you is just an appetizer, the main meal will be served by no other than our esteemed General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye in due course, but before he comes down we need to give you that appetizer just to fill the gap, to prepare you for the main one) “Make a joyful shout unto God, all the earth: 2Sing out the honour of His name: make His praise glorious. 3Say unto God, How awesome are Your works! through the greatness of Your power shall Your enemies submit themselves unto thee. 4 All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing praises to thy name. Selah. 5Come and see the works of God: he is awesome in his doing toward the children of men”.
Today, I will be sharing with us on the topic “True Worship” or “True Thanksgiving”; when you talk about true thanksgiving you talk about real thanksgiving, authentic thanksgiving, because you’ll find out that it is not all thanksgiving that are thanksgiving, and today we are gathered here to celebrate His goodness and the victory He has given to us all one way or the other, there is not a single fellow among us here who can boastfully stand up and say sorry God has not done anything for me, none of us can say oh what are you talking pastor, what do you mean by victory?
Victory is coming out of circumstances with a positive outcome; ‘mere’ sleeping – I call it ‘mere’ with every sense of responsibility, we call it ‘mere’ because it’s something we’ve taken for granted – sleeping and waking up is a victory, because it is not everyone that goes to bed often time wakes up the following day; I can tell you very confidently that it wasn’t everybody that went to bed yesterday is alive today, so for the privilege of seeing another day, for the privilege of life and hope, God has given us victory, therefore as we have come before His presence today, I want to remind all of us that true thanksgiving is not a one-off, in other word, is not a one day affair but a definite way of life, a constant recognition of God’s blessings and of course a heartfelt expression of gratitude for all that God has given us.
The Book of John made it clear, Jesus was saying that a man can receive nothing except he was given; so the bedrock of true thanksgiving therefore is rooted in recognizing that everything comes from God, not from ourselves. I’ve heard people make that mistake and say ‘I’m a self-made man’, I can tell you that there is no self-made man because the Bible tells me in the Book of Romans that I will show mercy unto whom I will show mercy, and compassion unto whom I will show compassion. So if you have tried and God has blessed you, it is because God has decided to bless you, so whatever it is that you have received is not from you but rather is from God.
In James 1:17, it tells us that every good and perfect gift is from above, and come down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. This scripture simply highlights that all things, all good things and gifts – both physical, material, spiritual, originates from a higher source and that source is no other than God, it therefore behoves us to make a conscious effort to find and appreciate the good in our lives even during difficult times like this; we must make it a habit to look around us, look at ourselves and find reasons to appreciate God, find good reasons to appreciate God.
If you had listened to the Sunday school of today, it was talking about some of us being critical about ourselves, you are so critical about yourself because you compare yourself with the other people, you say oh, some of my classmates have gone ahead, but the fact remains that you are not running the same race, you are not from the same background and everybody has his entry point and exit point, life is not the same, and like people will say, life is not a sprint but a marathon, so we must as a matter of necessity find reasons within ourselves and around us to do thank God. Don’t look at what is happening elsewhere, there is this saying that the grass looks greener on the other side, but often time you find out that it’s not the same, it is not the case, it is when you now get there you now realize that ah, even my own garden is much better than this, so we must find out those good things to thank God for.
Thank God for your children, thank God for your work, thank God for your shelter, thank God that you have people around you, don’t let us always focus on the issues; often time as a people, our focus is always on the issues, ‘I pray to God to do this, He has not done it; last year it was part of my list that God should do this for me, it has not happened’, thank God for the one that He has done and in doing that you will see that God will be moved to do the one that has not been done.
You need to prioritize, considering the things that God has done like David. Thank God for our pastor that led us in the opening prayer, it was like she saw my note, Psalm 103, David said bless the Lord oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name; the soul of a man is intangible, is invisible, you cannot see the soul but David did not challenge his spirit man alone to praise God, but he challenged everything that is within him, everything that makes him who he was – your eyes, your mouth, your hands, your fingers, your legs, your back, your tendon, everything within us is meant to praise the Lord.
And don’t also forget that appreciation is one of the credible pathways to victory and happiness. Show me an unhappy man then you show me someone who does not praise God; show me an unhappy woman, you are showing us someone who never appreciates because when you see those who don’t appreciate they are not always happy because when you fail to appreciate, you will depreciate, but when you appreciate of course you go up. I pray today in the mighty name of Jesus that God will give us the grace to always appreciate God for all that He has done for us in the name of Jesus Christ.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, the Bible says in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you; when you refuse to praise God, is like you are declaring a war against God; if God says that is His will for you, then you rejecting it is like a declaration of war and telling God I am not going to accept this, telling your Maker I am not going to accept it, telling the One that has made you to say I’m not going to accept, is that going to work, how far will that take a man?
Brethren, we must always express thankfulness and share our gratitude with others, both verbally and through actions, and remember to thank God for all things. So in thanksgiving, I’ve said it on this altar before, our thanksgiving must be to God and it must be to people around us; Apostle Paul often expressed gratitude for his fellow Christians for encouragement and support that they gave, when you get home you’ll read Philippians 4: 15 &16, Apostle Paul always recognized that God was ministering to him through those believers while giving them a chance to know the joy of serving the Lord and the feeling the power of community brought out praises, we must make it a point of duty to appreciate ourselves.
Today you are all seated, some group of people are standing up – the ushers, we need to appreciate the ushers. Before we start our service, every time we come the choristers will come up, they will give us hymnal then they give us special number, I think we need to appreciate them; we have a group of people in the prayer department that you don’t even see them, but as we are here they are praying so that everything will go on fine, there won’t be any problem, I think we need to appreciate them, and of course you need to appreciate your pastor, I am here standing, you are sitting, and of course pastors have to appreciate the members because if you are not there I will not be here, let somebody shout hallelujah!
In 2 Thessalonians 1:3, it says we are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, (that’s Apostle Paul) as it is fitting because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abound towards each other. He was not saying your love abides towards me, he said abide towards each other, we must appreciate ourselves, there are many of us here that are handlifters, enablers every time. I remember how we remolded this church, we repackaged this church to make it look modern, I always thank God; we came up, it was just an idea, okay let’s just do something, we started with about 250 or 300 million projection but as we continued we saw the need to do this, as we continued we saw the need to do that; as at that time (my chairman is here) we must have spent close to 800 million to put everything and I asked myself if that has not been done as at the time we did it, how will we have been able to do it today, and guess what, we raised that fund, we borrowed none.
The church was part of the original God’s plan for His people, most of us who belong here will agree that there is comfort and strength to be found in fellowship; here we are given opportunities to serve each other and help each other grow closer to our Lord, and the sound of thanks coming from a congregation sounds sweet to God; when God hears the people say thank You Lord, it sounds sweet to God.
Every one of us, Sunday school teachers, evangelism team, every one of you deserves thank you; as I say thank You to God this morning, I also want to say thank you to you, thank you for choosing Christ the Lord Parish and thank you for yielding yourself as vessels unto honor in this place and of course for being a blessing to us.
Another thing we need to thank God for is to appreciate God’s promises, the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 1:20 that His words are yay and amen; and in Jeremiah 29:11, the Bible tells us that His thoughts towards us are good, peaceful, reassuring and of course refreshing; trust in His faithfulness and know that He will always work for your good even when you cannot see it.
In Psalm 48:14, the Bible says for this God is our God forever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death. Brethren, let me tell you something, He will never forsake you, you may not be where you desire to be but that does not mean that God’s presence is not with you, He said for this God is our God forever and ever: and not only that He said He will be our guide from now even to the end, God is always with His own, praise the Lord!
He’s Emmanuel according to Matthew 1:23; Emmanuel means God is with us, make it a duty to live a life of gratitude, let your actions and words reflect the joy and peace that comes from a heart full of gratitude and I tell you brethren you can’t go wrong with this kind of mentality because it draws blessings and attracts goodness.
Now practical step; what are the practical steps towards true thanksgiving? Number one, pray regularly, cultivate a habit of expressing gratitude in your prayers both for small and big blessings and victory in your life. Philippians 4:6 says be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
Number two step, demonstrate forgiveness; you must acknowledge the fact that you are a product of forgiveness, all of us are products of forgiveness; if the Lord has not forgiven us there is no way we can claim to be saved, acknowledge that God through His infinite mercies has forgiven you and extend the same to others.
I hammered on this during our last month thanksgiving, there are many today who are preventing themselves to be blessed because of unforgiveness; people will say heaven will sort us out, you won’t get there, if you don’t sort it out here forget about getting to heaven. The importance of forgiveness cannot be overemphasized, in Matthew 6:12, it says forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. I pray today that every one of us will receive the grace to demonstrate forgiveness in the name of Jesus.
The next step, number three, serve others, and this requires you to apply your gifts and talents to serve others, especially those in need, demonstrating your thankfulness through your actions, they say action speaks louder than voice, you cannot say ‘oh I’m a child of God’, you see people around you who are suffering, you see people around you who cannot feed and all you do is to say ‘I declare you blessed in the name of God the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’, that is a trash, God expects you after prayer to take a step further and be a blessing unto them.
Galatians 16: 6 says as we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, everybody, especially unto them who are of the household of faith, charity begins at home, and I see people, oh you say you are a man, if we cannot see the effect of your words – when you need money you come to us, but when we need money you ask us to go and pray, that is not life and that is what is happening, we have all these prophets, all these people all over the place, do good to all men; Yoruba has a proverb, ki otun we osi, ki osi we otun ni owo fi n mo, encourage others, lift up and not oppress anyone, don’t show anybody, ‘I will show them’, what are you showing, with all your show you will go down one day, we must always learn to put the end in focus.
During Sunday school, they were telling us this morning, don’t think about the end, I disagree with that, sometimes you need to project it, even the Bible says put the end in perspective; in Deuteronomy 32:29, it says if only they are wise, if only they are knowledgeable, (it says) they will think of their ends, it doesn’t make you a pessimist, because if you don’t put that end in perspective, sometimes you misbehave, you spend your life recklessly, but when you put the end in perspective and you look at it, after this jet, after this mansion, mansion here mansion there, this one there, you will die and when you go, like he rightly said, the things you suffer for you don’t even know how is going to be appropriated, don’t oppress anybody, instead of oppressing encourage, lift them up, I pray the Lord will help us in Jesus name.
Number four, be mindful of your environment, take note of the beauty and goodness around you and be thankful for the simple things in life. Zechariah 9:17, for how great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful and new wine the maids; look at your environment, please be happy with how little or much you have while you are – you have everything, have a plate of food, a place to sleep, you are not lacking anything.
One of us here, one of my friends here sent me something yesterday of a young man that died at the age of 40, he said he has been to barbers shop for many years, he’s been flying private jets, sleeping in one hotel to hotel but alas he was struck with cancer, and you know when you take cancer treatment, chemotherapy, it takes off your hair, he said the man that was going from one barber shop to the other has no hair anymore, the man that was sleeping in all manner of a five star hotel now in the hospital on a small bed, the man that was eating whatever he liked was on a diet of injection and salt water, they gave him salt water, there is nothing to life, let’s just appreciate God while we are here, we’ll be deceiving ourselves if we say let’s not talk – there is nothing, do you know the dust has no respect for anybody, whether you are great it will swallow you, whether you are poor it’s going to swallow you and it swallows without drinking water, whether you are brilliant it swallows you, whether you a dullard it swallows you, you are a billionaire is going to take you, you are a gardener is going to take you, we need to calm down, take stock and know where we are, but while we are here let’s appreciate God, remember God’s love.
And brethren, as I close, I challenge you all to reflect on God’s love for you, for your family and let that love motivate you to live a life of gratitude and service. 1st John 4:19 says we love him because He loved us first, so you could see today I love God, you know I love God as if you are doing something special, who loved first. The Bible says we love him because He he loved us first and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
So in conclusion, as we celebrate His faithfulness and kindness to us today, let us not make it a one-off affairs like I said before, rather it should be internalized and reflect the deeper meaning of gratitude and thankfulness, let our hearts be filled with joy and our lives be transformed by the power of gratitude as a way of life that honors God and blesses others. God’s love is the foundation upon which our love for Him and others is built, according to 1 John 4:10, it says herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be propitiation for our sins.
Shall we rise on our feet, the big question I want to ask this morning as we round up this service is do you love God? Ask your neighbor, do you love God? Then if he says yes, how do you show Him love? The Bible tells us in John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Let me tell you, love must be made real, those of you that say ‘I love you, I love you’ but you always collect from one side, always collect, you don’t love, you are an extortional; love must be symbiotic it must be mutual, it must flow from both side but if it is one-sided I’m sorry to say you are a vampire.
Shall we close our eyes, let’s appreciate God, let’s say God I appreciate You, thank You for coming to die for me, thank You for having my back, thank You because while I was yet a sinner You died for me, thank You for Your blood that serves as a propitiation for my sin even on the cross of Calvary; promise Him, Lord, as long as You spare my life I will be all out for You, I will serve You for the rest of my life as You engrace and enable me Lord, thank You Father because You have answered, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
All eyes closed all heads bowed,
[Altar call]
This morning I hope somebody is not protesting, God bless you, you are special, you have come to God and from today God will give your life a meaning, from today you will live a real life, a life that is free from oppression, a life that is free from failure, a life that is free of grief and sorrow, mercy will find expression in your life and from today you’ll begin to give true thanksgiving, real thanksgiving, and your thanksgiving will scent to God as a sweet smelling offering in the mighty name of Jesus, thank You Father because You have answered, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed.
