25th Convention Of RCCG – The Americas Themed: New Beginning

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VIRTUAL REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE 25^TH CONVENTION OF RCCG – THE AMERICAS THEMED: NEW BEGINNING ON THE 19^TH OF AUGUST, 2021

PROTOCOLS

Let me say how very honored I am to have been invited to speak at this 25th Annual Convention of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, the Americas.  I must begin by congratulating Daddy and Mummy, our Father-in-the-Lord and Mother-in-the-Lord on this landmark celebration of the 25th anniversary of the RCCG, the Americas, and thank you Daddy for the privilege of serving as Pastor in this great mission.

I thank the Continental Overseer, the Americas and Chairman of the Executive Council of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, North America, Pastor James Fadel and his wife, Pastor Manita Fadel.   Pastor Fadel is a man of God for whom I have the greatest admiration. Aside from his personal encouragement and godly counsel, he has made it his business to contribute both in terms of policy advice and practically to Nigeria’s economic development.

I especially extend my appreciation as well, to all the members of the RCCGNA Executive Council who are also Regional Pastors of the Church in North America.  I bring you all warm anniversary felicitations from the federal government of Nigeria, I also bring you warm, greetings from your brethren in Lagos Province 48, the best province in Nigeria, and I have the privilege of serving as the Pastor-in-Charge of Province.  Men and brethren good morning, although it is afternoon here in Abuja Nigeria.

I will be speaking for a few minutes on an aspect of the theme of the Convention: New Beginning. The defining feature of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the notion of new beginnings. Let me put that differently, the feature of the gospel of Jesus Christ that separates it from any other message or religion is the notion that God is always prepared to start all over again with us, forgetting the past, ignoring our past failures, and just beginning again. Every important part of the Christian faith is about new beginnings.  The resurrection marked a new beginning of God’s relationship with man. Salvation, being reborn or born again, is a new beginning. Scripture describes this phenomenon 2 Corinthians 5:17 in those terms: “therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

The enabling law that establishes this new relationship between God and the regenerated man is called the New Covenant, the New Testament, a new beginning after the old covenant.  So, our God is a God of new beginnings and He does everything to make sure that he offers us an opportunity for a new beginning.  But the best part is that the new is always better than the old, the new is promotion, the glory of the latter temple is greater than the former, and so it shall be for every one of us in Jesus’ name.

So how does one become a beneficiary of a new beginning? A more glorious beginning?  So, I would like us to take a quick look at the story of one man who got a new more glorious more victorious beginning, Gideon.

Judges 6:11-16:

11. Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.  12. And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!” 13. Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” 14. Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”  15. So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”  16. And the LORD said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” 17. “Then he said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me.”

Let us look at Gideon’s profile, so we can better understand the characteristics of those who God described as a mighty man of valour, and who God promises a new beginning

1. He was the very least in his families – Judges 6:15
2. He came from the weakest tribe – “my clan is the weakest, and I am the least in my father’s house.
3. He was full of fear – hiding away from the enemy
4. He didn’t even seem to have much faith –

Let’s look at the example in Judges 6: 36 – 40

The Sign of the Fleece

36 So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said, 37 look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground. (36-40)

Look at other mighty men like Abraham in Genesis 17:15-17

15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”

17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”,

Even Sarah herself laughed in Genesis 18:12-15 when God said she would have a child.

We also mustn’t forget that after waiting for a while For God’s promise on an heir and it didn’t come, Abraham made his own plans agreed with his wife to sleep with his maid Hagar and she bore a son.

How about David, a man after God’s heart? A man who got several new and increasingly more glorious beginnings with God, but he was an adulterer and a murderer. Think of what social media would have made of him when news of his adultery with Bathsheba became known. You would have seen headlines like “Man of God caught, falls to pretty Bathsheba another man’s wife.”

What about Samson in Judges 16?  A man who was anointed from the womb, a Nazrite to God from the womb, born with a mandate to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines. Killed a thousand of them with the jawbone of an ass, but ended going from one woman to another and ended up in the hands of the harlot Delilah, who finally handed him over to the enemies of Israel.

How about John the Baptist, who while in prison became so discouraged and disillusioned that he sent people to Jesus to ask him are you the one or should we look for another? This was the same John the Baptist in Luke 1:41, who even in the womb had leapt for joy when his mother Elizabeth was pregnant with him heard the greeting of Mary pregnant with Jesus at the time.

The same John who in Matt 3:13-17 after baptizing Jesus, heard a voice from heaven saying: “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” The same John who in John 1:33 after confirming that He saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove upon Jesus, said that although I did not know Him but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me “upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him. This is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”  In verse 34 of the same John 1, it says “and I have seen and testified that this is the son of God.

But this same John in John 11:3, who now sends to Jesus when he was in prison: “Are you the coming one or should we look for another?”

Think of what this would have sounded like today on social media “John, once a faithful disciple of Jesus, the alleged Christ the Messiah, now says that He may not be the Messiah after all”

Gideon said in Judges 6:13, “If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about?

All of these great men of valour who God did a new thing in their lives were not special in any way, and as you can see, they even sometimes, doubted God spectacularly. Here is what God says of them, they are listed with honours in the hall of faith.

In Hebrews 11, Abraham we are told was a man of great faith despite the fact that he laughed even when God repeated the promise that he had made to him before.

How about Sarah in Hebrews 11: 11, look at the way she was described despite laughing when she was told she would have a child in her old age.  The scripture says: “By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.”

How about Gideon, Samson, and David, how does God describe them?

In Hebrews 11:32-34, scripture says: “32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:” In the same breath, the likes of Gideon, Samson, are mentioned with Samuel. Scripture says in verse 33, “33. Who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34. quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.”

If you notice, not a mention of their past misdeeds, not a mention of their past failures and their spectacular doubting. In God’s eyes, they were great men and women of faith. Why? Because they received the mercy of God, received the gift of salvation by being deemed righteous. God Himself, by the great sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by causing these people to be whole, did something spectacular in their lives, and began something new in their lives so that even in the records of scripture, they are regarded as men and women of faith. Nothing is to be remembered of their past, but they received the awesome gift of salvation and the love of God.

So, are you afraid of the future? Do you feel small and inadequate? Do you also have little faith? Are you hiding away from the enemy unable to face the challenges that we are confronted with today? And there are many challenges men face today; the challenges of being able to be the breadwinner, the challenges of being able to meet the demands that life makes upon you, the challenges of being able to be the best professional that you can be, the challenges of being able to keep a job – to get promoted and be elevated even within our secular occupation, the challenge of being able to prove ourselves.

I have good news for you! You are qualified for a great new beginning. So, how does this work? God’s man for new beginnings is one who is weak or has many weaknesses so that God’s strength can show clearly and be demonstrated poignantly.

God did not create us to be independent of Him, He did not endow us with the strength to succeed without Him. The reason why we are afraid is because like Gideon, we think the battle is ours to fight, so we see how hopeless the fight is because we are so weak.

In Judges 6:15: “O my Lord how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest Manasseh. I am the least in my father’s house” But God corrected him Judges 6:16, “Surely, I will be with you and you shall defeat the Midianites.”

So, while Gideon kept thinking that the battle and thinking that the battle would depend on his personal strength, his family influence, or the power of his tribe, God kept saying “no, it’s not about you, but it is about Me.”

In verse, scripture says: “16 Surely I will be with you and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” to demonstrate to Gideon that his victory will not depend on himself in this new beginning that God was giving him. In this new beginning, God asked him to reduce the size of his army (just to prove a point to Gideon) that he was going to take to the battle to a ridiculously low number. God told him to reduce his men from 3,000 to 300 – reduce the people around you, reduce the number of people you think would exercise some kind of influence on your behalf. And God told him why in Judges 7:2: “And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’”

God told Gideon – take your hope away from what you have or who you have, all these contacts and connections. God is also saying the same to us, that we cannot depend on those we know and, on our flesh, and power. It is up to God, this thing is about God, in the new beginning that God gives us, it is about God.

The second point to note is that the God of new beginnings does not expect you to change physically or materially before your victory comes.

In verse, scripture says in verse 14 “go in this might of yours” and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.” With this little faith of yours, with these failings of yours, go ahead and you will win because I the creator of all things, the all-powerful will give you the victory. Your strength is irrelevant.

The third point to note is that the man who will have a new glorious beginning should not expect that he will not have troubles or problems. As noted in verse 13, scripture says: “O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about saying: “Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?”

There are those who will ask, why am I sick after all my prayers and fasting? Why did my wife/brother die? Why do I not have a good job? Why did my business fail? Why am I going through all these problems in my business despite everything that I have done? I paid my tithes, gave generous offerings, prayed, and fasted.

In the midst of your current travails, the God of new beginnings is about to change your story. He is about to do something new. Scriptures say that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. The morning is a new beginning, after the sorrow, God begins again with joy. Isaiah 43:19 says: “Behold, I will do a new thing,

Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

It is incredible what God is able to do and how He can He reassures us because it has nothing to do with us, but it is all about Him.

So often, we men of God, Ministers, Pastors are the ones who like Nathaniel, make some of history’s most faithless statements.  A classic like, “can anything good come out of Nazareth? Nazareth was southwest of the Sea of Galilee, and a very small community, probably less than 500 people during Jesus’ lifetime. It was located north of Jerusalem, well beyond Samaria, tiny not even near major cities, it was the last place one would expect anything significant to happen. So, Nathaniel asked, can anything good come out of Israel?

Today, many men are saying the same about our nation Nigeria, even men of God. But this is the textbook case of how God works. I am saying to you, especially to Nigerians who are listening, He is set to give Nigeria a new beginning!

I shared at an event last Sunday what God is showing us and what God will do and we are confident that God will do so. In Gen 1:1-4, we are told there was a beginning when he created the heavens and the earth, in that beginning in verse 2, the earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. In other words, in that beginning, there was confusion, darkness, crisis, problems all around, but He reminds us in that verse 2, that even then, in that crisis, confusion, the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Then God said in verse 3, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” A new beginning just by the spoken word. A new beginning that was good, so good God said so Himself. In verse 4, “And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.”

God is going to divide the light from the darkness in our country Nigeria and in our various nations, in the mighty name of our Lord Jesus.

So can anything good come out of Nazareth? We answer like Phillip “Come and see.” Come and see what Jesus can do. God is about to do something new in our country.

Let me reiterate the point I made earlier, the God of new beginnings did not create us to be self-sufficient, we need Him. Paul shares his own experience 2 Cor. 12:7-10 – “7. And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.”

“8. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. “

“9. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

“10. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul was simply saying that despite our problems, weaknesses and all the things that challenge us, even physically – telling us that we cannot achieve, God is saying to us, that it is in our weakness, that His strength is going to show. Let us rejoice even when we have weaknesses and problems. Hebrews 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Hear Paul again in 2 Cor. 1:8-9 “8. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.

9. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.”  So that we look unto Jesus, not to ourselves or our talents or gifting.

Jesus is the one who wrote the script and that is why we look up to Him. He is the author and finisher of our faith who will make sure you and I finish strong. He is the one who is going to make sure that at the end of the day, with this new beginning, we are going to experience the greatest victory of all.

Every one of us, just be depending on the Lord Jesus, by knowing it is not by our strength or flesh, by looking up to Him and relying on Him, I am sure we are going to experience an awesome new beginning in every aspect of our lives in Jesus’ mighty name.