 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 rejoicing with Daddy and Mommy, our father in the Lord and mother in the Lord on this landmark celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the Americas, and also to thank you, Daddy, for the privilege of serving as a pastor in this great work. I thank the Continental Overseer, the Americas, and Chairman of the Executive Council of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Gene 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 also extend my appreciation to all members of the RCCG, the Americas Executive Council. 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, maybe the best province in the world, where I have the privilege of serving as pastor in charge of province. Men and brethren, good morning, although it's afternoon here in Abuja, Nigeria. I'll be speaking for a few minutes on an aspect of the theme of the Convention, a 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 or the idea that God is always prepared to start all over again with us, forgetting the past, ignoring our past failures, and just beginning again. And every important part of the Christian faith is about new beginnings. Every part of the Christian faith is about new beginnings. For example, 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 in Second Corinthians 5 or 17, Second Corinthians 5 or 17 in those terms. It says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Even 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 new is glory. The new is greater achievement. The glory of the latter temple is greater than the former. And so it shall be for every one of us and every one of you in Jesus mighty name. So how does one become a beneficiary of this new beginning? How does one become one who benefits from a new beginning? How do you benefit from a more glorious beginning? I'd like us to take a quick look at the story of one man who got a more, who got a more glorious and a more glorious, a more glorious and a much better beginning. I'm going to ask us to turn quickly to Judges 6 verse 11 to 16. Judges 6 verse 11 to 16 to look at the story of a man who got a more glorious, a more victorious beginning. Of course we know the story of Gideon, but we'll just read a few of the verses. Judges 6, 11 to 16. Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the Terebranth tree, which was in Ophera, which belonged to George the Abbey's right, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of Valor. Gideon said to him, Oh 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 under the hands of the Midianites. 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? Verse 15, so he said to him, Oh 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. And in verse 16, and the Lord said to him, surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man. 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's look at Gideon's profile so we can better understand the characteristics of those who God describes as someone who God describes as a mighty man of valor and who God promises in new beginning, and in fact gave a new beginning. The first characteristic, first in that profile, is that he was a man who was the least in his family. So the characteristics of people who can in fact benefit from a new beginning is that they may well be the least in their families. Verse 15 of Judges 6 there, he was the least in his family. The second, he was the weakest tribe. He belonged to the weakest tribe. He said, my clan is the weakest. He was the least in his father's house, the least in his father's house, coming from the weakest tribe. The third is that he was even full of fear, hiding away from the enemy. The fourth is that he didn't even seem to have that much faith. He just didn't seem to have that much faith. If you look for example at Judges 6 verse 36 to 40, Judges 6 verse 36 to 40, and I'll just read that very quickly also. So Gideon said to God, Judges 6, 36 to 40. So Gideon said to God, if you will save Israel by my hand as you have said, look I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there's 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. 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 bowl full 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. Verse 40. And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground. So here was the man God described as a mighty man of value. Even his faith, as you can see, was slightly shaky. I mean to put it to put it as complimentary as possible for Gideon. He had to test and test and test and ask God to prove himself and prove himself over and over again. Look at other mighty men, men who are mighty, mighty men of value also. Look at Genesis 17 verse 15 to 17, Abraham, God Abraham, Genesis 17 verse 15. Then God said to Abraham, as for Sarah, your wife, you shall not call her name, Sarah, but Sarah shall be her name. 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. And here is Abraham several years old, so old in verse 17. He says, then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old and shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child. Even Sarah herself in Genesis 18 laughed when God told her she was going to have a child. Genesis 18 verse 12 to 15, Genesis 18 verse 12 to 15, she laughed. And if you look at Genesis 18 verse 12, if you say, when God said she would have a child, she also laughed. She just, I mean, and even after God had said that, even after God had said, was she laughing? She said, no, no, no, I didn't even laugh. She even lied again. We must also forget that after waiting for a while for God's promise for an air, and he didn't come, he made his own plans. Abraham made his own plans, agreed his wife to sleep with his maid Harga, and she bought 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 mudra. You know, sometimes I ask myself, think of what social media would have made of him when news of his adultery with Bathsheba became known. You'd have seen headlines like Man of God caught, falls to pretty Bathsheba, another man's wife. How about Samson in Judges 16? I'm sure, I mean, we're all very familiar with all these stories. Samson in Judges 16, a man who was anointed from the womb, a Nazarite 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 he ended up going from one woman to another and ended up in the hands of the hallowed Delilah, who finally handed him over to the enemies of Israel. But how about John the Baptist? John the Baptist, 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, who in Luke chapter 1 verse 41, in even while in the womb had left for joy when his mother Elizabeth, who was pregnant at the time with him, heard the greeting of Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus at the time. The same John, who in Matthew 3 verse 13 to 17, Matthew 3, 13 to 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 verse 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. And in verse 34 of the same John chapter 1, John chapter 1, he says, and I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God. But this is the same John, in John 11, 3, who now sends to Jesus when he was in prison. And he says, are you the coming one or should we look for another? Think of how this would have sounded today again on social media. They would have said something like, John, once a faithful disciple of Jesus, they alleged Christ, the Messiah, now says that he may not be the Messiah after all. That's how social media would have carried it today. Gideon said in George 6 verse 13, Gideon, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us and where all his miracles, which our fathers told us about, all of these great men of battle who God did a new thing in their lives were not special. They were not special in any way. They were not people who are necessarily people whose faith you would, without being told, would chair and say, yes, they were really men of great faith. And as you can see, they sometimes even doubted God spectacularly. But here is what God says concerning them. They are listed with honors in the Hall of Faith. In Hebrews 11, Abraham were told, in Hebrews 11, 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? Sarah in Hebrews 11 verse 11, Hebrews 11 verse 11, we are told that Sarah, and just listen to this description that God gives Sarah, Hebrews 11 verse 11, this same woman who laughed when she was told that she was going to 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. Haber Gideon and Samson, the same Samson, and David, how does God describe them? In Hebrews 11 verse 32, all the way to verse 34, Hebrews 11 verse 32, all the way to verse 34. In verse 32, the scripture says, and what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, and also of David, and Samuel, and the prophets in the same breath. The likes of Gideon, the likes of Samson are mentioned with Samuel and all the prophets, and scripture says in verse 33, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness, were made strong, became valiant in battle, and turned to flight the armies of the aliens. If you notice, not a mention of their past misdeeds, not one mention of their past misdeeds, not a mention of their past failures, and their spectacular doubting. In God's eyes, there were great men and women of faith. Why? Because they received the mercy of God, they received the gift of salvation by being deemed righteous. God, 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. He began something new in their lives, so that even in the records of scripture, they are regarded as men and women of great faith. Nothing is to be remembered about their past. The awesome gift of salvation, the awesome gift of the love of God. So are you afraid of the future? Do you feel small and inadequate? Do you also have little faith, you know, hiding away from the enemy, unable to face the challenges that were confronted with today? And there are many challenges that men confront today. Many. The challenges of being able to be the breadwinner. The challenges of being able to meet all of 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, to get elevated, even within our secular occupations. The challenges of proving 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 witnesses, so that God's strength can show clearly and can be demonstrated poignantly. God did not create us to be independent of him. He did not end ours with the strength to succeed without him. He didn't give us that strength. We cannot succeed without him. The reason why we are often afraid is because, like Gideon, we think the battle is our own to fight. So we see how hopeless the fight is because we are so weak. In Judges 6 verse 15, he says, Oh my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest manasseh. I'm the least in my father's house. So Gideon thought it was all about himself. He thought he was the one to want to live Israel. But God corrected him. In Judges 6 verse 16, God corrected him. He said, Surely I will be with you and you shall defeat the Midianites. Surely I will be with you and you shall defeat the Midianites. So while Gideon kept thinking about the battle and thinking that the battle will depend on his personal strength, on his family influence or the power of his tribe, God kept saying, No, it's not about you, it's about me. In verse 16 where he says, 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 the point to him. He asked him to reduce the size of the army that he was even going to take to the battle to a ridiculously low number. Reduce your men from 3,000 to 300. Reduce your contacts. Reduce all of these people who are around you and all of the people you think are going to exercise something, some influence on your behalf. And God told him in Judges 7 verse 2, Judges 7 verse 2, God told him, he said, 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 him the reason why you cannot depend on your own strength, you cannot depend on what you have or those you know or the contacts you have. God told him, take your hope away from what you have or who you have and all these contacts and connections. And I think God is also saying the same to us, that we cannot depend on those we know and all of the flesh and our power. It is up to him, this thing is about God. In the new beginning that God gives us, it is about God and we have to depend on him. The second point I like to like us to note is that the God of new beginnings does not expect you to even change physically or materially before your victory comes. He says in verse 14 to Gideon, he says, Go in this might of yours and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites, in this same small might of yours. With this little faith of yours, with these failings, go ahead and you will win because I, the Creator of all things, they all powerful, will give you the victory. Your own strength is irrelevant. The third point to note is that the man who will have these new glorious beginnings and who would enjoy these glorious beginnings should not expect, of course, that he will not have troubles or problems. As we noted in verse 13 of Judges 6, Gideon said, Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Were 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 am I sick? Why did my wife die? Why did my 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, paid my thanks, gave general's offerings, I have done everything, prayed, fasted. In the midst of your current reveals, the God of new beginnings is about to change your story. It's about to do something new. Scripture says 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. Of course, Isaiah 43 verse 19, where God says, Behold, I will do a new thing, and it shall spring forth. You shall not know it. Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. So often, you know, and it's so incredible what God is able to do, and how he can just so reassures, because it's all about him. It's nothing to do with us. Who else can make rivers in the desert? Who else can make rivers in the desert? Who else? You know, sometimes often we, even we men of God, pastors, ministers are the ones who, like Nathaniel, make some of history's most faithless statements. I want to repeat that. I'm saying that sometimes we pastors, ministers, men of God, are the ones who sometimes make some of history's most faithless lack of faith statements, like Nathaniel, the classic, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Nazareth was southwest of the Sea of Galilee, very small community. We're told it was probably less than about 500 people, during, especially during the lifetime of Jesus. It was well beyond Samaria, far away from Jerusalem, in many ways, not near any major cities. It was the last place that one would expect anything significant to happen. So Nathaniel asked, can anything good come out of Nazareth with all his problems or sorts of problems? Today, many men are saying the same about our nation, Nigeria, even some men of God. But this is the textbook case of how God works. I'm saying to you, especially the Nigerians who are listening, this is the textbook case of what God will do. He's said 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 as confident that God will do so. In Genesis 1 verse 1, Genesis 1 verse 1 to 4, we are told that there was a beginning. Scripture says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. There was a beginning. But when He created the heavens and the earth, in that beginning, verse 2 goes on to say that in that beginning, the earth was without form and void. And darkness was on the face of the deep. In other words, there was in that beginning confusion, darkness, crisis, problems all around. But He reminds us in that verse 2 that even then, in that crisis, in that confusion, the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then it says in verse 3, then God said, let there be light and there was light. A new beginning, just by this spoken word. A new beginning that was so good, God said so himself. And God said, and God saw the light. The Scripture says in verse 4, it says, and God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. And God is going to divide the light from the darkness in our own country, in this country in Nigeria, in the name of the Lord Jesus, in our various nations, in the mighty name of the Lord Jesus. So can anything good come out of Nazareth? We answer like Philip, come and see what Jesus can do. God is about to do something new in our country. Now let me reiterate a point I made earlier. The God of new beginnings did not create us to be self-sufficient. We need him. We need him. Paul shares his own experience in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7 to 10. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7 to 10. And I'll just read that very quickly. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7 to 10. Paul shares his own experience here in verse 7. Unless 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. In 8, concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And in 9 it says, and he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in your weakness. Therefore I most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 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 just simply saying that despite all our problems, despite all the weaknesses, despite everything that challenges us, even physically, telling us that we cannot achieve, we cannot achieve. God is saying to us, it is in that weakness, it is in your weakness that my strength is going to show. It is in your weakness. So let us rejoice, even where we have weaknesses and problems. Hebrews 4, verse 13. Hebrews 4, verse 13 says, I can do all three things through Christ who strengthens me. Here Paul again, Paul again in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 8 to 9, 2 Corinthians 1, verse 8 to 9. He says, for we do not want 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. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the death. So that we look onto Jesus, not to ourselves, not to our giftings, not to our talents. We look onto Jesus. Jesus is the one who wrote the script. He is the one who wrote the script. That's why we look up to him. And he is the finisher. He is the one who will make sure that you and I finish strong. So we look onto Jesus. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the one who is going to make sure that at the end of the day, in this new beginning, we're going to have, we're going to experience the greatest victories of all. And every one of us, every one of us, just by depending on the Lord Jesus, by knowing that is not by our strength or by our flesh, by looking up to him and relying on him, I am sure that we're going to experience a new beginning, an awesome new beginning in every aspect of our lives, in Jesus' mighty name. Shall we just bow our heads for a word of prayer? Look and live, my brother live. Look to Jesus now and live. It is recorded in his word, hallelujah. It is only that we look and live. Look and live, look and live. My brother live. Look to Jesus now and live. It is recorded in his word, hallelujah. It is only that we look and live. Almighty God, the God of new beginnings, behold your children who are here today. They've listened to your word and all over the places where they sit, everywhere where they've heard your voice, O Lord. I ask that you come and lay your hands upon each and every one of us. Lay your hands upon each and every one of us, O God. And come and separate us, O God, for your great mercies and for your great favour. We have no strength of our own. Everything that we have is from you. Everything that we own comes from you. You are the giver of all good and perfect gifts. And Father, we ask that you come and give each and every one of us a new beginning, a new beginning of victory, a new beginning of joy, a new beginning of success, such that indeed heirs would not have heard. Neither would eyes have seen, neither would it even have entered into the hearts or imaginations of men. What you, the Almighty God, is going to do for us. Let it be, O God, that when people even hear of the wonders that we have done in our lives and in our nation and in our nations, that they will say, surely this could only have been God. Blessed be your name, O God. In Jesus' mighty name we have prayed. Amen.