Hallelujah! Our Lord and our God, we just want to bless Your holy name this morning; we acknowledge Your sovereignty, we acknowledge Your power; You are the God that can overrule anybody, You are the God that can overrule curses, You are the God that can overrule covenants, You are the God that can overrule negative patterns, You are the God that overrules superstition, You are the God that overrules doctors, You are the God that overrules death, Oh Father, we adore You, we magnify Your holy name, indeed, we hold on to Your report, Your report that says we are healed, Your report that says that we are victorious, we hold on to Your report in the mighty name of Jesus.
And Father, this morning, I pray that we hear from You and from no other. We declare, this morning, oh Lord, that Your word will have free course in our lives in Jesus name. Lord God Almighty, deliver us from every form of unbelief and false belief in the Name of Jesus. Lord God Almighty, we pray that there will be an alignment of our mindsets with Your word this morning in the name of Jesus.
Thank You everlasting Father, thank You King of Glory, for in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
I’d like to thank God Almighty for this opportunity to share the word this morning, and I’m especially appreciative of our father in the Lord, the APICR in charge of Region 11 for this opportunity, thank you, sir, more grace, more anointing in Jesus mighty name.
Brethren, God has great plans for us, and He will bring it to pass in the mighty name of Jesus. We have prayer chain tomorrow by 6:30pm, and as you are all aware, we are not at work, it’s a public holiday, so we have no excuses, so let’s be here. And the theme is, ‘God Will Arise for You’, God will arise for you in the name of Jesus, and our text is Psalm 68: 1 – 4.
Brethren, we should be grateful to God for having brought us into the last quadrimester of 2024 which is the last four months in the year. A lot has happened this year, but brethren guess what, we are still standing, and we will not only stand, we will be soaring by the time this year comes to an end in the mighty name of Jesus. And you know we’ve been promised that in Haggai 2: 9, the latter part will be better than the former, and that is our portion in the mighty name of Jesus.
Brethren, this year will not end without you encountering your divine turnaround in the name of Jesus. And you know that Divine Turnaround is our theme in this assembly, and so shall it be in Jesus mighty name.
Brethren, our testimonies will come, but I want to warn you, do not let us jinx those testimonies with stories, superstitions and all of that, and let me quickly read our Bible text for this exhortation, 1st Timothy 4: 7, “But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness”, and Colossians 2: 8,
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ”. In the NLT version, it talks about ‘from the spiritual powers of the world’, and we know that these spiritual powers release their evil dimensions through the words and the things they seek to deposit in our mind, but we are free of such in Jesus mighty name.
The text for the sermon, if you need a text, because the text differs from person to person, is “Unlimited by Superstition in the Season”, nothing will limit your victory and breakthrough in this season, in the mighty name of Jesus.
So very quickly, the message is in two parts, I’ll talk very briefly about the issue of superstition, and then we’ll talk about the contemporary issue of this time, which is what we call the ‘ember seasons’, and be rest assured that victory is yours in the mighty name of Jesus.
What is a superstition? It’s a belief or a practice that is not based on facts, is not based on anything that you can evidence. It is somebody telling you from 2000 years ago or 100 years ago, this, this, this and that, and it holds, there’s no factual basis to it, I pray that God will deliver us in Jesus name. It is also a belief or a way of behaving that is based on the fear of the known – just fear, and God will help us.
A lot of us here are saying in our minds, thank God I am not superstitious, thank God this doesn’t concern me, but I’ll let you know that it concerns all of us, even I, yesterday, I got shocked about some of the things I do that were based on nothing and just superstitious stuff. And I’ll share some examples very quickly, because this is not the main issue for today; you know some of us, myself inclusive, until yesterday when I decided I will never do that again, if when we are discussing and you’re saying, you know what, knock wood, what is knock wood? What is touch wood? I thought it was something that was nice in the business context, until I discovered that some people say that because the tree has a certain power in some areas, and then when you say knock wood, you are asking for fruitfulness. Fruitfulness, favour, success only comes from God, not any wood or any tree. So when you knock wood, please stop knocking wood, like I said, I didn’t know until yesterday that what I was doing was superstitious.
Another, they say when you trip and you trip on your left leg, come on, please. (Please pardon me, it’s a contemporary sermon, so the APICR has given me some latitude), I reject evil, what is that? In fact, we should not trip and you will not trip in Jesus name.
The one I found interesting, they said that when you get off your bed on the left side, it’s a sign of whatever, and I’m wondering, so if I’m sleeping on the left side of the bed, I have to crawl over my wife to get up on the right stuff, may God deliver us in Jesus mighty name.
There’s another one, fingers crossed, may we not develop whitlow in Jesus name. What is ‘fingers crossed’? Let’s be careful about how we embrace some of these things.
Another one, do you know what happened on Friday? They said Friday that turns out to be the 13th is a dangerous combination. It was not for me, and I’m sure it was not for you, the Friday I’m aware of is called Good Friday, when we got our victory. I hear it’s so bad that some buildings skip floor 13, from floor 12, you go to floor 14, come on, what kind of superstitious stuff is that? May God help us in Jesus name.
Then there’s the issue of karma. I went to dinner with an Indian customer, ‘oh my, I believe in karma, you know the person has done wrong’, what kind of stuff is that? That’s not what my God says, let’s be careful.
Another one, we are all guilty, ‘I wish you luck’, what is you are wishing somebody luck? What does luck bring about? It’s the grace of God, and as Christians, let’s be careful about what we speak. Like I said, I’m guilty of this, but God will help me.
And then the Christian type, because we are all saying here, why is he using this example? For us here that profess to be Christians, some of us have these quasi superstitious views, my prayers can be answered only at Ori-oke Ijesha or Efon-alaye. I’m from Ekiti, so I go through Efon-alaye, and it’s a mountainous place, my prayers can only be answered there, I hope my family members are not going to watch this. When I was growing up, we had one of my aunts, we called her Mama Aladura, the prayer will only work when you go to bar beach or water place, what is that? And some of us, you can stretch it, and God will answer your prayers wherever you are; there’s no distance or any barrier between you and God, God will help you in Jesus mighty name.
Some of us have to proclaim some words seven times, where is that written? Matthew 7: 7 says ‘ask’, it didn’t tell me ‘ask, ask, ask, ask’, just ask. Psalm 55: 2 says ‘just cast your burden on the burden bearer’; it didn’t tell us to cast our burden on mountains or on water or something.
Another one, and please don’t try me with it, I’m begging you, don’t send me a message and tell me that if I don’t pass it to 40 people, something bad will happen to me, and guess what, it is we Christians that do that, and when you send it to me, anybody, I’ll just ignore it, and by the way, my mother sends it, I just ignore; my mother doesn’t listen to me at times, I try to warn her, what is the meaning of all these. And like I said, I would say it in Pidgin, when you send it to me, I jump and pass.
Another thing with we Christians is believe in certain artifacts; this element, this stuff, and we start worshiping the artifact instead of focusing on God. And some of us do this unconsciously, we’ve done bad things all through the day, we’ve manipulated figures, we’ve done all that, we then open our Bible to Psalm 91 and put it under our pillow, if you have never done it before, raise your hand, very few people.
Another one is some of us ‘were too holy’; we must not even be caught saying hello to an unbeliever, because it will stain our anointing. And some of you have references, you’ll say, at least I’m following Uncle Jonah, he didn’t want to go and talk to the people in Nineveh, may God deliver us in Jesus name.
And the different stories around superstition, you remember the story of the Philistines and their gods, because our God defeated their god, they then decided that they will not walk into their own church, they will be jumping in, superstitious stuff, and if you go to that place today, they’re probably still doing it and do not understand what happened, may God deliver us in Jesus name.
Another one, examples, magic charms. I don’t know what they call that one that they put on the hand, I hear some people, if they use X ray machines to allow you into the office, they will run because they will see all kinds of things that they have put on their bodies, it’s for real. I hear people go to board meetings in the past, they have some tortoise or whatever on their body, God help us. Ezekiel 13: 20 – 21, God speaks against it, “Wherefore, thus saith the Lord Go; Behold, I am against your pillows…”, God does not want it and some people do it, may God help us in Jesus name.
Some of us, again please I’ll tell you this, if it did not happen in your household, I bless God for you; growing up, like I said, I’m a hinterland boy, they brought brooms to my house, I don’t know if you know that because of those brooms, armed robbers will not come; the armed robbers would come, they will tell you to use the broom to sweep.
Because of my time, the man by the pool, oh, I can’t get healing until somebody stirs the water – superstitious limiting beliefs. But when he encountered Jesus, he received his healing. If you are here today, you’ve been working on different things, focusing on solutions other than Jesus, I pray that you would yield to Jesus and be free of any fables or any limitations in Jesus name.
We have the dangers of superstition; it tampers with our faith, fear, anxiety, blood pressure, issues over things that are not real. I think it was Sunny Ade that sang the song, ‘something in a bush that is making noise, and because of those noises you are getting alarmed, meanwhile, you have God on your corner’; God will help us in Jesus mighty name.
We then shift from God to routines. You know routines can be a problem, and some people think that their passport to heaven is attendance at church programs, please attend, but that is not a passport. If your life with Christ is not how it should be, may we not be disappointed in Jesus name. And we are deviating from the true worship of God when we believe in superstition and people who are superstitious, after a while, you start seeking occultic assistance, that’s why you find young people these days joining different things and saying that that is where they will get their power to move and rise, that is a lie from the pit of hell. May God help us in Jesus name.
Now let’s go to the contemporary issues of our times, which is the ‘ember months’ – September, October, November, December, if I tell you to tell me those months in Yoruba language, what will you say? Osu kesan, osu kewa, did you hear any ‘mber’ there? The Chinese and the Indians have the largest population, 2.8 or close to 3 billion out of the 7 – 8 billion, do they have ‘mber’ in their months? So why are we getting ourselves worried? And you know why we are worried? Because there’s superstitious beliefs that have been passed from time immemorial, may God deliver us from these in Jesus name.
And I just wanted to say something, when we were living in ignorance, some of these things didn’t scare us, it appeared that when we became Christians, we started becoming too conscious of some of this matter, and I’ll share a personal experience; when I was growing up in ignorance, my father will always take us to the village twice or thrice a year, and when we got to the village, myself and my brothers, we went to every house – my grandmother’s enemy, my grandfather’s enemy, we didn’t know anything, we ate and ate, drank and drank, nothing happened to us.
Now, when you tell me that there’s an event in my town, I should go, I will start praying and maybe fasting; in the days of ignorance, I didn’t even worry, now that I’m a Christian and I know that God is on my side, I’m still worrying, where did that worry come from? Just listening to superstitious thoughts and all of that, God will deliver us in Jesus name.
I want us to have a different perspective to ‘ember’ now using those words – Expect, Miracles, Breakthroughs, Exciting times and Rest on all sides, that is your portion, and so shall it be for you in Jesus name.
Meanwhile, a senior pastor told me during the week and said, look, even this ‘ember’ that we are talking about, ‘ember’ is in September, but there is no Ember in October, so where did they deceive us with this pattern that we are making to scare us?
The Bible talks about captains chosen for different months in the year; we have a captain of the eight month, captain of the ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th month, and you can read this in 1st Chronicles 27: 12, the captain of the ninth month is called Abiezer, and Abiezer means the father of help, our Father will help you, He will help me in this season in the name of Jesus.
The captain of the 10th month, (in verse 13) is Maharai, and that means from the hill, you will operate from the mountaintop in this season and beyond in Jesus name. The captain of the 11th month is Benaiah, Jehovah has built up. God will build you up, He will build me up in the mighty name of Jesus. And the captain of the 12th month, Heldai, it means robust, your blessings will be robust; the blessings in your business, the blessings in your workplace will be robust in this season and beyond In Jesus mighty name.
And honestly, you know at times we need to challenge some of these beliefs that come our way – oh, ember months, September to December, are we saying that God works between January and August, then goes on vacation between September and December? What does the Bible tell us? Psalm 121: 4, He neither sleeps nor slumbers, that means He doesn’t go on leave, He’s the God of all seasons, the seasons and times are under His control, and we can see that in Daniel 2: 20 – 21, so please, our God is ever present, He’s there with us through the year, so please, do not panic or worry.
And I want us to remember the promises of God in Psalm 91 (that Bible passage we all open and put under our pillows, rather than leave it there, maybe we should read it and internalize it), it says that He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide on the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in him will I trust, (not in stories passed down based on nothing). Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shall thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; when you’re on the road, no need to fear, He’s there with you; when you’re flying in the air, no need to fear, He is there with you. So let us know what God’s promises are and hold on to it. I pray that God will help us in Jesus mighty name.
Brethren, wisdom is profitable to direct for us in this season, and we see that in Ecclesiastes 10:10; you know what, yes, we have God’s protective care, we know God is there for us, but that is not a liberty for us to expose ourselves to danger. Because God is there for you, you then decide that in this latter part of the year, I will begin to do things that are reckless, that can cause harm, no harm will come your way in Jesus mighty name.
And there are things that I think we should avoid during this season and even beyond the season; we should avoid unnecessary travels, travel only when it is necessary. Even Paul, the great Apostle Paul, spoke about the perils of travels, and we see that in 2nd Corinthians 11: 26, minimize your travel, some of us are so restless we can’t stay in one place, I pray that God will help us in Jesus name.
What are the things we should avoid? Ostentatious spending, and I put it here ‘notice me by force’. They say in Nigeria, the crime rate actually goes up during this period, because some people want to buy things to go and show people that they have hammered, why do you need to embark on that? May God help us in Jesus name.
Some of the things to avoid are very practical things, so please bear with me. Being out at night; if you can help it, finish what you are doing; if you’ve come to church, finish and go home; you’ve finished work, go back to the house, stop running away from your house, and you know what, go back home and be with your family, there are a lot of dangers at night, during the daytime you can maneuver, but at night, what are you doing? What are you doing on Third Mainland Bridge at 12 midnight, except you’re coming back from a vigil.
Broadcasting your movement on social media, Luke 14: 11 talks about stop exalting yourself and your actions, you want to just demonstrate to people that you are doing things and you then start broadcasting – on my way to Ikeja, on my way to VI, at Banana Island gate, how does that concern me? During this season and even beyond, please stop broadcasting your movement, this is what is getting people to get attacked by kidnappers and the lots.
Solo driving or night driving, if you can avoid it, please, especially for our mummies in the house, driving solo at night is dangerous because people might want to take undue advantage.
Also stop displaying your iPhone 19 or iPhone 20, Androids, your bags and your valuables. At times it’s tough and I can understand, if you spent a lot of money to buy bags, how will people know? So I understand, but please.
Also during this season, there’s something we call mogbomoya, they did not invite you but you just heard and you go and gate-crash into the wrong thing, do you know what they are doing?
Cutting your Bible study time; you’ll say God, I’ve tried now, January to August, I’ve been doing this. I’ve been kabashing, I’ve been meditating, reading my Open Heavens, let me go on holidays, please; Joshua 1: 8 does not give us the permission to skip a Bible study.
Skipping church, same thing. APICR, you have seen me from January to August now, is it not enough? if I take off some time and watch virtually, is there anything wrong with that? But what does the Bible tell us in Hebrews 10: 24 – 25, that we should not forsake the assembly of the brethren, please do not skip church.
Over eating: some of us are going to be guilty of this, so I’m warning you in advance, please do not. Proverbs 23: 20 talks about overeating.
Malice and grudges, avoid it. Some of us have been keeping records, you have been waiting; in Yoruba land they call it ‘won ti n reke’, they have been keeping a score of the offenses people have been offending them and they want to lash out during this season, Colossians 3: 8 says that we should avoid and put away malice and grudges.
One other thing and this is very delicate, but honestly, we need to watch out for our mental health, and there’s a program on mental health coming up very soon, please try to attend. Try to avoid stressful and toxic relationships, Proverbs 22: 24 & 25, “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go”: you know what, we should be praying for them that God should intervene, but honestly, there are some people who are just so toxic and that they can infect you with their toxicity, I pray that God will grant us wisdom in Jesus name.
There are things that we should also do; let’s exercise regularly, most doctors will tell you that a sedentary lifestyle, so let us exercise regularly. Eat healthy, Proverbs 23: 20 – 21 like we’ve said, eat healthily, please. And this is very important for those of us who have domestic staff, be extremely careful with handling your domestic staff, Ephesians 6: 9 talks about the responsibilities of the man, “And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him”.
We’re all aware of what happened or have been happening in ParkView, where domestic staff have turned against their masters; one was lucky to escape, another wasn’t so lucky, and it can happen, this should not be found among Christians like ourselves, we should not be ill treating people who work with us, they are also children of God, may God help us in Jesus name.
We need to be very security conscious, Proverbs 22: 3, we should take precaution. A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: You need to hide yourself from danger as well, be security conscious, and 1st Peter 5: 8 talks about, you know, that devil, he’s going around seeking for a way to hurt us, we will not be victims to his antics in Jesus mighty name.
I’ve written here, let’s be careful about domestic accidents, cooking, how we handle things in the kitchen, let’s ensure that we have fire extinguishers, it’s not a lack of faith to have a fire extinguisher or a fire blanket in your house. And one of the things we need to do as the year is coming to an end, let’s take stock of the things we are doing in the various facets of our lives; know the state of your affairs, Proverbs 27: 23 – 24, “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds”; if you cannot take stock, how would you know whether you are improving or you are deteriorating? That’s something to do.
Then accountability is key during this season; gratitude, absolutely important, even when we haven’t gotten all we’ve been looking forward to, but we must be grateful for the gift of life, we must be grateful because we know that God knows what He’s doing and He will give us that which we desire in Jesus name.
We have to be prayerful during this season, 1st Thessalonians 5: 17, talks about us not ceasing in our prayers, please, and in it all, seek God. There’s a book I’ll recommend, it’s called ‘Jesus Plus Nothing is Equal to Everything’; even if the story has been nothing from January to August, the fact that you have Jesus, you have everything, and the year is not over yet, He’s saving the best for the last for you, and you will get that blessing in the mighty name of Jesus.
Brethren, what are you looking forward to in these last few months? I can tell you that in this local assembly, we have great things that we have programmed to do, if you have nothing on your own calendar, you can key in totally into the calendar of the church. But you know, September is back to school, it’s an activity we have; in this church, we have food palliative, we are distributing food to the needy in September, we have the helps weekend, and like I mentioned earlier on, we have a Mental Health program; December is the crown of it all, we have the Congress in December, we have our Christmas Carol in CTL, if you’ve never attended our Christmas Carol, please attend this year’s own, it’s very exciting. We have the ‘Let’s Go A Fishing’, which is the opportunity for most people, Lekki people, to see what a rural setting looks like, but it’s always something exciting to do.
In December, we have the crossover service; in December, we’re meant to be looking forward to spending time with our family. In this last four months of the year, we should expect fruitfulness, and you will be fruitful in Jesus name. We expect a divine turn around; we expect that we’ll encounter safety in all our travels.
And brethren, I’d like to let you know it’s a time to also relax and have fun; many people in Nigeria think that is until they board a plane that they will go and relax, and by the way, when they go there they are not even relaxing, they are shopping. There are a lot of places we can visit; you can do it at a departmental level in the church or gather your friends, there’s Lekki Conservation Center, fantastic view; the National Theater, sorry, in the industry I belong to, they’ve taxed us with money and we’ve refurbished the National Art Theater, go there, it’s a beautiful place to behold; Nike Art Gallery around us here in Lekki; the National Museum, some of us haven’t gone there since the 70s or the 80s; Olumo rock, there’s a train ride from Lagos to Abeokuta, you don’t need a car there; Badagry, there’s so many things to do to ensure that you have a wonderful time during this season. And one other thing I think we should also do is that we belong to families, let us hold a family conference, let us share our plans for the New Year, so that you know there is priority.
I am going to use an example: we have school fees to pay in 2025, it must take priority over asoebi, it must take priority over that bag, it must take priority over frivolities, and you know that a lot of marriages are going through problems these days because we have not come together to agree on a plan, meanwhile, we all work in organizations where they have strategy review sessions planning for the new year, but in our family, we just do things haphazardly; mommy hears that an alert has come into daddy’s account, then the next thing is let’s go shopping; daddy too hears that mommy has gotten a bonus, let’s go and buy a new car and all those kind of thing, but let’s plan in our families, and it’s important.
Setting clear goals, Habakkuk 2: 2 & 3; we should also encourage open communication, a lot of people now these days have learnt the hard way, I must confess, we shut our children out from the decision making and we then wonder when they start to rebel, let the children, let everybody be involved and be involved in that discussion and God will help us in the mighty name of Jesus.
Brethren, when we have Jesus on our side, He’s our refuge and our fortress, we need not fear, call it whatever name, ‘mber, ember’, whatever, we are protected in the mighty name of Jesus. Why? Because we are hiding under His shadow and His shadow is more than enough to protect us. So the question is, who is your cover? Who is watching over you? Who is protecting you?
Brethren, we can’t go through this journey alone, we need God on our side. So if you have been walking this journey on your own, I think it’s time to reconsider and yield to the Master Jesus, because He is shield, He is our deliver, He’s what we call ‘Jehovah Olugbeja’ in my local language, the One who fights for me, He’s more than able to change your story. I don’t know whether life has held you down, but Jesus can lift you up.
[Altar call]
For the rest of us, let’s pray and say, Father, arise and silence every evil voice speaking against my destiny in this season; Father, arise and silence every evil voice that has spoken in the past, that is speaking now against my destiny. Arise, oh Lord, and silence them in the name of Jesus.
Next we’ll cry to God and say, Father, I break every chain of limitation upon my life, upon the life of my loved ones in this season, in the name of Jesus; oh, You are the chain breaker, Lord, I break every chain of limitation upon my life, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Next we’ll cry unto God and say Father, I claim divine favor, breakthroughs, miracles, in every area of my life in this season in the name of Jesus.
My Lord and my God, You are the God that gave Elijah divine acceleration, whatever I have not been able to accomplish in the eight months gone by, Lord, grant divine acceleration to me and my family in the name of Jesus. Thank You everlasting Father, thank You King of Glory, for In Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
