Hallelujah! Everlasting Father, the King of glory, the God that is unlimited in might, unlimited in power, unlimited in grace; the God that can do all things, the God that has got our back, we come before You this morning acknowledging Lord that we depend on You, we rely on You, we can do nothing without You, we give You all the glory, we give You all the honor, we give You all the adoration, be thou exalted in the mighty name of Jesus.
Thank You blessed Redeemer, thank You King of glory, what a marvelous God You are, the God who knows our tomorrow, the God who knows our today and You knew our yesterday, we entrust everything about us to You in Jesus name.
Father, I acknowledge my weakness and my inadequacies, Lord, let Your people hear from You and not from me this morning in the name of Jesus; that word that we require let us get it this morning and move with it, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed. Praise the Lord! Praise the living Jesus!
I want to appreciate God Almighty for His goodness to me and His goodness to you as well; I appreciate Him for this opportunity to be counted amongst the living on this Palm Sunday, happy Palm Sunday! And I also like to appreciate our father in the Lord, the APICR Region 11 for this opportunity as well as the pastorate, I am grateful and I do not take it for granted. I also want us to give a special welcome to our parish pastor who has been on a spring vacation and he’s back, and so many of our ministers and members in CTL, they take spring vacation, summer vacation, that is how we’ll be rolling in Jesus name.
Brethren, just to remind you that we have prayer chain tomorrow, on Monday by 6:30 p.m and the theme is ‘Command your Mountain’, you will command your morning and things will work for you in Jesus name. Father, this morning shall be our greatest morning yet in the name of Jesus, and our text is Mark 11:23 and isn’t it instructive that that passage is the passage where we are told about Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, we would win on our victory parade in Jesus name.
Brethren, it’s Palm Sunday where we mark Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem and a few things, (that’s not the main theme for today), in Mark 11: 2 – 3, we see that a donkey had been tied down for a lifetime and had never been used, so I want us to pray this morning and say Father, stagnancy is banished in my life in the name of Jesus; wherever your blessings have been tied down, they are loosed right now in the name of Jesus, I say they are loosed right now in the name of Jesus.
The donkey had been tied down and the time came and Jesus had given the instruction that it be loosed so that He can use it; whatever of your talents, your gifts, that have been tied down, that have not been used, I command them to come alive now in the name of Jesus.
You also remember it’s our month of divine victory, and because it’s our month of divine victory we are going on our victory parade which is what happened on Palm Sunday and our victory parade will not be truncated in Jesus’ name.
On Palm Sunday 2,000 years ago, the cry was ‘hosanna, hosanna, hosanna’; you know what ‘hosanna’ means, ‘save us Lord, save us Lord’, and this morning if you have come here and you really need to make that cry that ‘save me Lord, save me Lord, save me Lord’, let Palm Sunday not just be a ceremonial day for you, let it be a day that you have that encounter, that people had who shouted hosanna and when it is time for you to respond, I pray that you will respond having reflected on the importance of this special day in the mighty name of Jesus.
It’s not a coincidence also that today, in our 100-day fasting, our prayer’s around divine repositioning; brethren, on that day, that Sunday more than 2,000 years ago, a number of people were divinely repositioned, these were people who were in opposition to Jesus but on that day they recognized Him as the King, I pray that you will be divinely repositioned in Jesus’ name. I declare concerning you that God will move you from every form of imprisonment in whatever shape or form to the palace in Jesus’ name. I pray that God will make a large room for you in the presence of those who are striving with you in the name of Jesus. Maybe you didn’t understand, I’ll repeat it again that God will make a large room for you in the presence of those things and those people that are striving with you in the mighty name of Jesus, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
So I thought it was important to speak a bit about what happened on Palm Sunday and we’ve prayed about it and as we starts that victory parade into the ultimate victory at Easter, God’s purposes for our lives would not be cut short in Jesus name. I also thought it was important as we’re in our month of divine victory to try and connect this with the economic summit we had and even the things that are going on in the country today that God will give us victory in Jesus name. I also realized that our Sunday school teaching for today is themed ‘financial independence’, so God is speaking to us and I pray that His words will germinate and produce fruit in our life in Jesus mighty name.
So the theme is ‘What Have You Got in Your Hands at a Time Like This’? What do you have in your hands? And I’m sure some of you are looking at your hands, I have a mic I’m not talking about the mic, what has God deposited in your life for the journey that He has proposed for you to take, and I pray that God will help us to use that which He has deposited in us to become victorious in Jesus name.
Three Bible readings; Exodus 4:2, “And the Lord said unto him, what is that in thine hand? And he said, a rod” (that’s God speaking to Moses), what have you got in your hand?” And I’m sure before then, Moses didn’t think much of the rod but the rod was used to do great and mighty things for the children of Israel in their journey. 2 Kings 4:2, “And Elisha said unto her, what shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, thine handmaid hath not anything in the house, (like many of us say, I have nothing, I know no one) (and she said) save a pot of oil.” And most of us I believe know that story, that pot of oil became many vessels of oil that was used to solve the problem of the widow and she had excess, that thing that you consider little that God has given you, you will begin to use it and get maximal value in Jesus name.
And the last reading is Matthew 14: 17, “And they say unto him, we have here but five loaves, and two fishes”, the context to this is there were a lot of mouths to feed but they had nothing but five loaves and two fishes and we saw what Jesus did with that, that little was multipslied, I pray that the gift that God has deposited in your life even from before you were created or born will be multiplied for impact in Jesus name.
Brethren, it’s not a new thing to say that we’re in tough times economically, things are improving, but even as things were improving, we then had a man who came up again and decided that he would just be uttering statements that almost brought the world to its knees and you know when the global economy sneezes, do we catch cold, but we children of God we will not catch cold in Jesus name. Because there’s a passage in the Bible which I’ll say is a revelatory passage to me in recent times at Christ the Lord Parish, 2 Kings 3:17, for thus saith the Lord, you shall not see wind, neither shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts and your children and your grandchildren and your neighbors and everyone that knows you in the mighty name of Jesus. No matter what is happening, no matter what the indices are saying, we shall flourish in Jesus mighty name.
So you’re beginning to wonder where is this going, what has God given us to deal with these issues, I’ll let you know that God has given us a lot and it’s important that we begin to recognize what God has given us and begin to use it so that we can get the outcome that God has proposed for us and so shall it be in Jesus mighty name.
Who do you have by your side as you go through this journey, it’s got to be Jesus, can’t be a godfather or a godmother or a parent or a child, it’s got to be Jesus and the passage in Psalm 23:4 says that when we go through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for who art with you? God is with you and His rod and His staff will comfort you in Jesus mighty name.
God has deposited certain things in us, He has given us what I call ‘different kinds of capital’, I’m in the finance world and for people who do business here it’s tough for you to do business without having capital, you need capital to set up your business, you need capital to grow your business but you know there are different dimensions of capital that God endows us with and I pray that we’ll take advantage of them in the mighty name of Jesus.
I have about five or six and I’ll go through them, like I said it’s just a link to our economic summit and the times that we’re going through; we have spiritual capital and this is the most important form of capital, that’s the capital that comes from our relationship with God, that’s the kind of capital when you arrive somewhere and somebody asks you who are you, who is your father, who is your mother and your response is God is my Father, Jesus is my Savior and things begin to happen for you, and I pray it will happen for you in Jesus name.
Matthew 6: 33 which I believe we all must be familiar with, but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added into you; Ephesians 1:3 says “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. He has blessed us, heavenly blessings are our portion and heavenly blessings translate into earthly blessings if we appropriate appropriately, the Lord will help us in Jesus’ name.
And how do we grow this spiritual capital? By doing what you’ve done today, by coming to church to listen to the word, with the time we invest in prayers, in Bible study, in building that strong relationship with God, the same God that will tell you move to the left, move to the right, go in this direction, make that call at this particular time; with spiritual capital we have boundless opportunities open to us and God will help us in Jesus mighty name.
The second capital is relationship capital; in the world we call it networking but it is the people that God has put in our paths that we ought to leverage that we’re not leveraging. Last week Sunday when we were coming from the workers meeting, I saw a young man in church, very young man walking with one of our legal luminaries and I decided to act like a fly on the wall, I won’t look in the direction of that legal luminary and they were talking, they were engaged in deep conversations and I reckoned that you know what many of us are in church, there are people we can engage, there are people we can talk to because God has put us into this family but what are we doing, we are coming to church, after the grace running out, not waiting for Sunday school and not willing to engage people.
I thought there was a Yoruba proverb that says that people are our cloth, eniyan ni aso mi, and how do you leverage, how do you build that relationship God has put you in this assembly at this time to build those relationships and how well are we doing this? Somewhere I spoke about a message like this, I’d said that if you are a security expert, your business is around security and you are in the Redeemed Christian church of God and you keep complaining and say no, things are not happening, I tell you that you’ve probably not thought about leveraging the platform that even the Redeemed Christian Church of God has to offer. In the last five or six years (if I’m not mistaken), two out of the three Chief of Defense staff have been members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God – one, a member of the region that you and I belong to, if you’re in the security business how well have you leveraged that? We are waiting for God to come and take our hands to go and meet the person.
What’s my point, God has put us in a place for us to be able to build relationships with people that He would want us to use to fulfill the purpose for which He has made us; I pray that God will help us in Jesus name. And I know a number of us love the solo movements but Proverbs 27:17 says that iron sharpens iron; can one piece of iron standing alone sharpen itself? Even with AI it won’t happen, so we need to come together and sharpen ourselves.
Many of us in church, you don’t know, if they tell you you’re arrogant you will say you’re not arrogant, arrogance is not when you snob people or you look down on people, arrogance is knowing that you have to go and meet someone and you’re saying ‘I will not go and meet them, I don’t want them to tell me no’, that’s arrogance, I pray that God will help us in Jesus name.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 tells us that two are better than one, why, because they have a good return for their labor; how well are you leveraging relationships? Some of us are in businesses, by the way where you have to deal with people and we have a transactional relationship with people, ‘oh I have served you, I’ve done my bit, I’ve earned my income’ and I move on and we forget about those relationships.
I had a boss who told me once you must maintain the relationships you build whether or not you’ve extracted value. Let me speak like daddy GO likes to speak at times; I know of a man for five years – one, two, three, four, five, that person was out of paid employment, when God was going to intervene He used people that that person had worked with or related with 15 years ago that he still continue to maintain the relationship, and that person that was out of paid employment for five years, in one year got two CEO roles in the industry in which he acts, why, because God had put people in that person’s path and use those people as the Aaron and the horse to make it happen. So I’m telling you, are you despising those relationships? Many of us belong to alumni associations, we do not want to deal with them, we say they are unbelievers, they are bad people, they were not good in school, why should I relate with them?
Can I share an example with you in the Bible that you can relate with, we all know Jesus had a John who loved Him dearly; you know Jesus had a Peter who fought for Him, who else did Jesus have, Jesus even had a Judas who betrayed Him, but you know what that Judas was the one that made Him to fulfill His purpose, it was not John, if it was because of John we will be waiting for Palm Sunday and Easter for some time to come; if it was because of Peter we will be waiting, Judas was there, please do not despise the relationships that you have, God will help us in Jesus’ name.
What about social capital which is also related to relationship capital; Matthew 5:14-16 says that we are the light of the world, a city built on a hill cannot be hidden; many of us are invisible in our neighborhoods, we do not build relationships with our neighbors and neighbors don’t know us, how are we being a light, how are we shining? And that’s why when we say that Vision 2032, bring one soul to church, many of us cannot invite our neighbors because our neighbors don’t even know us; in your neighborhood are people that God can use to move you forward.
I’ve said the story here, I’m trying to lose 10 kilograms, (pray for me that I achieve it, I want to be like some of our slim pastors here); so I go on my walk and when I go on walk I try to greet people, whether you are a maiguard or whatever you are, Jesus loves you and all of that and because I’ve been doing it in a consistent manner, one maiguard calls me one day and says oga, we have a property somebody wants to sell, can I link you up with the person? Maiguard and I, why, because I maintain eye contact with him and I greet, anyway, maybe the transaction will work one day but if it worked, you know the income that would have accrued to me was a 100 million naira, from what please, just being a good person, I pray that God will help us in Jesus name.
Please let us be relevant in the society that we belong to; at our morning dew today, the teaching was about building a legacy, what legacy are you building in the neighborhoods where you live? What legacy are you building even in the associations you belong to? Will people miss you when you have left? But God has put us in certain places so that we can shine.
Intellectual capital, Proverbs 4:7 says the beginning of wisdom is this, get wisdom, though it cost all you have, get understanding. James 1:5 also speaks to that, we are familiar with the passage God gives us witty inventions, great ideas, God has deposited great ideas in some of us but we’re not using it; some of us will say if I share that idea with the other person they will steal my idea, which is worse, for the idea to be stolen and it makes headway or for it to remain buried in you? God has given us those ideas but we are scared and we’re not applying it in the way and manner that we should; God has given us wisdom, knowledge and understanding, He has deposited great things in us that we need to use and I pray that God will help us to use them appropriately in Jesus mighty name.
And you know God is so kind, He said when you do not know, you do not understand, what is He telling you, come and meet Me, I will give it to you; you have an issue at work, you have a big problem you have to solve in your business, go to God and He will give you the idea. You remember our friend Joseph, what was his own, God gave him the skills to interpret dreams, if he was in today’s clime or he was in CTL, people might be mocking him and with that he liberated nations, he became the prime minister by using what God has deposited in him. I pray that we will not abuse the gifts that God has given us in Jesus name.
And the ones we want to hear, financial capital, very important; we need financial capital to do the things we need to do but you know what, God has given us a token, how are we using the token that God has given us? You remember the story of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, some people have buried what they consider to be little and they have not used it or what they have gotten they have handed over to the devourers.
I shared a message with some youths in the church yesterday where a couple of people put their monies into – I don’t know whether you’ve heard about it CBEX, have you heard about it? Since you’ve heard about it I hope you didn’t put money in it, but God has given us resources so that we can use it and even when you don’t have the resources God will make a way for you to get those resources to do that which He wants you to do, but it’s all about the little He has given you, how well are you using it?
You remember the story the General Overseer gave about someone who packaged the normal groundnut that you and I eat, and he coated the ground nuts, sugar coated and he started dispensing that at White House functions, but some of us if God gives us that idea we will say God this is not for me, I’m too big for this, I have a PhD, I cannot be coming to this and doing this, I pray that God will help us in Jesus name.
I know of someone, he’s a member of the Redeemed Christian church of God, many years ago when people were looking for jobs, he decided or God told him go into the cleaning service and he went into the cleaning service and became a leader there, but today God has used that to promote him to higher levels, when you see a number of armored vehicles in the country he’s the one doing it, God has deposited in us that which we need to fulfill His purpose for us and we will not waste it in Jesus name.
Physical capital, and when I talk about physical capital it includes our health, our time, our energy, it is only if you are well – have you seen a man on the death bed or in the hospital bed worrying about business, worrying about finances, worrying about the exchange rates? All of you came in here, did you come assisted? No, you came by yourself, so if God has given you that physical capital in the form of good health, what are you using it for? I pray that God will help us in Jesus name.
Emotional capital, our emotional well-being, our ability to relate well with others. Proverbs 17:22, a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones, do you have a cheerful disposition to life? Are you positive? Do you have an orientation that things will work with you? God has put that in us as His children and how well are we using it? If you come to approach me for anything and you are frowning, you are looking sad, chances are that I will not engage further with you and that’s a general stuff, but God has given us that confidence that should make us cheerful and have a good emotional disposition, so that emotional capital God has given to us.
Brethren, I ask a question, do you have something that you can use? Do you have something that God has given you that you can use? Is there anybody here who thinks that he doesn’t have anything? God has given us things to use to move us forward and propel us forward, and I pray that we will use it appropriately in the mighty name of Jesus.
So the question to you again is what have you in your hands and what are you going to do? Moses took the rod and did a lot of things in Pharaoh’s palace; Moses took the rod and pressed it in the direction of the Red Sea and it parted, what Red Seas do you need to part with what God has given you? And I pray that we will not bury that which God has given us in Jesus name.
But you know these gifts really are to people who God has acclaimed as His own, if you do not belong to Him, if He does not recognize you, even if you have a lot of money in your bank account, even if you have all the connections, life will not go the way you want, you need to connect to Jesus, absolutely important that you connect to Him, so while the rest of us stand up to take some prayers, if you are here you know that you need Jesus on this Palm Sunday like those people cried “Hosanna’, hosanna, save me Lord, save us Lord’, and you want to surrender to Jesus…
[Altar call]
Can we rise to our feet, James 1:17 says every good and perfect gift is from above, so let us say Father we thank You, we thank You for the resources, for the talents, for the gifts You’ve already placed in my hands, Father I thank You for these resources, I thank You for these gifts that You’ve already placed in my hands, Father help me to recognize their value in the name of Jesus; help me to recognize the value of that which You’ve deposited in my life, please help me Lord, please help me Lord, I do not want to be like that man that buried the talent, help me Lord, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Let’s cry and say Father, open my eyes to see what I have in my hand spiritually, practically, emotionally, financially, so that I may use it for your glory, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Brethren, often at times, one of the problems of we Christians is timidity; in the marketplace we’re timid, in Nigeria, they say that if you are not at the table you might be the feast, that will not be our portion in Jesus name; we must be at the table where they are making the decisions; they want to do Lagos – Calabar, why are we not there, our need is to be criticizing, I will not be a critic again in Jesus name, I must be a participant in the name of Jesus.
So let’s cry to God and say Father, give me the boldness to use what I have even when it seems small in the name of Jesus bread; and pray that God will give you the boldness to use what you have even when it seems small and insignificant, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Luke 9:16-17, so we’ll cry unto God and say Lord, I offer all that You have given me, Lord breathe on it, multiply it and let people see the great and mighty outcome in Jesus name, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
One more prayer point, Proverbs 16:3, we’ll pray and say Father, help me to surrender what’s in my hand back to You, trusting that You will use it in ways and manners that I do not even understand in Jesus name.
Father, we also pray for our great country Nigeria, You have blessed us with abundance of resources, help us to use it wisely in the name of Jesus.
