 Thank you. Let me say how grateful I am to the Bible Society of Nigeria for the very kind invitation to be here at this Leadership Summit. And I must take a minute to acknowledge the Chairman and Father of the Day, Chief Olushegun Aremor Basemjo, who, as you've heard, his birthday was only a few days ago. And we all saw the video of his bouncing around on the football pitch. No one was quite sure whether it was 85 or 58. Let me begin by acknowledging the very great work that has been done by the Bible Society of Nigeria since its inception in 1966. And a lot of that pioneering effort is attributable to Dr. Francis Akhanuibiam, the first indigenous governor of the defunct Eastern region of Nigeria. The translation of the full Bible in 26 Nigerian languages with ongoing translation projects. The New Testament has been translated, we are told, into 60 local languages, while some individual books of the Bible have been translated into 98 languages. The Bible Society is the first Bible Society in Africa, we are told, to build a deaf translation center. And that center has translated 145 Bible stories into sign language. And we are also told that, of course, the center is very active and has been doing a lot of great work. And the Bible Society of Nigeria, we are told, is the highest distributor of the English Bible in all of the United Bible Societies. The translation of the Igala language Bible in 11 years, first, I think, accorded you the honor of being the fastest translation society amongst the United Bible Societies. But we heard that in 2021 and we just heard that, that you broke that record on the Igala Bible translation by doing the translation in all of six years. So I think that, again, we deserve another round of applause. But I think perhaps more importantly, the BSN provides effective church support through outreach and programs for people in the hinterlands. And the Bible resource and Bible resource is also for evangelism. And this, of course, is one of the most important, in my view, one of the most important works that is done. But these are impressive, very impressive achievements. But as we've heard from several leaders of the Bible Society, there is a lot of ground to cover. And with over 500 languages in Nigeria, we've only done a fraction of what we are meant to do. And currently, most people, most people do not have the Bible in their local languages. More than half of these languages have not had a single verse of scripture in their own language, or translated into their own language. And this automatically places the scriptures out of the reach of a large percentage of Nigerians who do not possess formal education. So if so many of our people do not have direct access to the scriptures, how will they derive benefit from their salvation? And there is great benefit in the Word of God. And we've heard that several times today, which of course leads to the theme of this meeting, the Holy Bible, our reliable foundation for maximizing personal and national well-being. I must say that this is a most audacious assertion that there is a book that can actually do that, that it can actually be the foundation for personal and national well-being. But the good thing is that it is true. The Gospel is indeed the reliable structure on which personal and national development can be founded. And there is no developed civilization in the world that has not benefited from the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its development. Recent history will tell us how the Gospel of Jesus Christ transformed societies. The Protestant Reformation and those of us who are familiar with history shows us that when believers like you and I in Europe, in America, and later Asia, changed their world by observing the principles of scripture in their everyday lives. Some of the best writers on the subject, Ashton, Max Weber, for example, all agree that even the Industrial Revolution and the prosperity of the West benefited greatly from the observance of the principles of the Gospel, especially through the way the Puritans preached and practiced the Gospel. The strict observance of Gospel principles, especially righteous behavior, was so crucial. Scripture says in Proverbs 14 verse 34, it says that righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. But the principle was applied also to the individual, because when you hear righteousness exalts a nation, obviously we're thinking in terms of multitudes of people. But a nation is actually a person. And God speaking to Abraham in Genesis 12 verse 2, a part of Genesis 12 verse 2, actually says to him, I will make you a great nation, which of course means that the individual actually has inside of him the nation. So when the scripture says that righteousness exalts a nation, it says the same to an individual. So for those who practice these principles and we speak of the Puritans and the Protestant Reformation era and all of that, integrity was crucial in all things. Matthew 5 verse 37 says, let your yes be yes, and let your no be no, a simple definition of integrity. And of course the scripture goes on to say that for whatever is more than this is from the evil one. So honesty, righteousness, trustworthiness in business, in our social interactions were considered fundamental Christian behavior. Those were considered fundamental. There was no question at all that if a person described himself as a Christian or influenced by the gospel of Jesus Christ, he had to exhibit those attributes in business, respect for credit and obligation was key. If you borrowed money, you had to repay. After all the scripture says in Psalm 37 verse 21, that it is the wicked that borrows and does not repay. So these words made a difference in the lives of the Christians of that time. It made a difference in their business interactions. It made a difference in their social interactions. And the diligence with which believers worked in the factories, in offices led to the description of hard work and diligence and service as the puritanic work ethic. So when we hear the expression, the puritanic work ethic, it actually refers to the way that Christians of a certain period worked. And today it is used to describe hard work and diligence. So there's a lot to be said for the impact that the gospel of Jesus Christ made in transforming those societies. The principle of the gospel, especially those related to service, for example, and one of the major principles is that the leader, the greatest leader is actually the servant. So the leader must be prepared to be the servant of all. Mark 10.43 says, Yet it shall not be so amongst you, for whoever desires to be great amongst you shall be your servant. So the whole questions around servant leadership and all of those concepts that we hear today obviously have their roots in the Bible. That those who want to be considered great must be prepared to be servants of the people. The scripture goes on to say, for even as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. So the example in scripture, the example of Jesus Christ in scripture is of a servant leader, one who came to die for his friends, who came to die for us, and who came to die for us all. The concept of servant leadership, as I've said, has become a major pillar of Christian teachings on leadership. And it influenced the way that leadership has been perceived in many of societies that have benefited quickly from the influence of the gospel. But as we heard and as we've read, the influence of the gospel in Europe and America was just one part of the story. It actually also led to the transformation of Asia. Because when you read again, when you look at history, it's evident that something incredible was happening in the West. And of course, the Asians were looking at what was happening in the West. Don't forget that Asian civilization, the Japanese, the Chinese, etc., were very long established civilization, before Western civilization, very long established. Many of them highly developed ever before Western civilization became anything at all. But all of a sudden, especially after the Protestant Reformation, it became clear that the Asians were stagnating and the West were developing at a very rapid pace. So the Asians also had to pay attention to what was going on in the West. It was Alex de Tocqueville, the French philosopher, the French philosopher, who was trying to describe what he saw in America. Alex de Tocqueville, by the way, wasn't a Christian of any kind, but he went around trying to discover what it was, what was that component of American society that made it so great within a short period of time. And he said, I sought the greatness of America in her fertile fields and her boundless prairies. And it was not there. In her rich minds and vast commerce, it wasn't there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness, did I understand the secret of her genius and power. It was so evident to someone like him that the impact of the word of God on society could only be discovered when he went to the churches and saw the full gospel and heard the full gospel of Jesus Christ being preached. But it's important to remember and I've said that the way that the American society was transformed is exactly what happened to the Asian societies. So during the period, and I must take you through a bit of history, so during the period of what is called the Meiji Restoration, and the Meiji Restoration for those who might be familiar with it, is the Japanese, the emperor, the Japanese emperor was called the Meiji at the time. Now during that period, there was an interesting thing that happened. Of course, the Japanese realized that Western society was developing at tremendous speed and they saw clearly that Europe and America were going way ahead of them. So there was actually a mission called the Iwakura mission, which where the Japanese emperor actually sent about a thousand and eight hundred scholars, young men and women, to America and to Europe. And even if you google this, you'll find it all there. It's called the Iwakura mission, the Iwakura mission. It was named after the head of that mission, you know, Tomoni Iwakura. And what they did was that they actually visited America, visited Europe, trying to find what exactly made the civilization so different and so outstanding, and how they were able to make progress so quickly. And they found that it was the same, these principles, principles of righteousness, hard work and diligence, you know, the principles of integrity, etc. All of these principles, of course, were principles of scripture. They found that it was these scriptural principles practiced diligently by these people that made all that difference. By the way, the Chinese, of course, the Japanese, nobody copies like the Japanese, and they went back home and copied these principles and began to apply these principles. By the way, the Japanese did not take all of the gospel because if they did, they would also have taken salvation. And don't forget that the gospel, there are two aspects of it. One is that the gospel can actually transform society just by following principles. But the most important part of the gospel is salvation by grace, which entitles us to eternal life, or which assures us of eternal life. But there's also practice the principles alone. If anyone who practices the principles alone, of course, must know that you are missing the biggest part or the best part. The best part is eternal life in Christ Jesus. So this is why, and when you look at the way that these societies have been transformed, this is why the Great Commission is so important. Matthew 28, verse 18 to 20. And of course, all of us are familiar with that. Go ye there for and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all of the things that I have taught you, and lo, I am with you until the end of the age. The Great Commission is so important because this is really what we are about. This is what Christians are about. We are about teaching the Word of God, spreading the Word of God, which is why the Bible Society of Nigeria is so crucial because you cannot teach the Word of God, you cannot spread the Word of God without the Word of God. And that's why we need to have the Word of God in every possible translation in your possible way. But I just wanted to emphasize something that, you know, the Bible is not a book of philosophy, although of course you'll find a great deal of philosophy in it. Neither is it just a book of sound wisdom. There is, of course, sound wisdom, but it's not about that. And it's not meant to present a religion. And I think it's very important for us to continue to emphasize that. The Bible does not present a religion. It does not. And it's not meant to be. A religion is a belief system, under guarded by rules and regulations. That is not what the Bible is about. It is the message of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, taking upon himself the sins of the world, substituting his own sinlessness, for our own sinfulness, and giving us his righteousness, so that we can then be acceptable to the Holy God, and we can become truly children of God who will inherit eternal life. So it really is a gospel of love. And at the heart of the gospel is love of everybody, which is why the gospel is somewhat contrarian, because the gospel says we must love those who hate us. We must pray for those who curse us. Now that is very difficult, especially where you find that there are practical demonstrations of hatred in society. And it can be very devastating indeed. And you see it here and there. But that is what the Word of God is. And that is what we are called upon to present to the world. And especially a world that is full of division, a world that is full of conflict of various kinds. We are meant to present a gospel that says we must love our enemies. We must pray for those who curse us. Because that is Jesus Christ, the essence of Jesus Christ. He died for us despite everything, and all the wrong that we've done. And so I would just want to urge that, especially in the preaching of the Word in our society, we must get to the heart of the matter. Because the only thing that separates us from any other belief system is that there is a plan for salvation. And that plan is by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Because of that sacrifice, you and I need not pay anything else. It's given to us by grace. We will actually get to heaven, not by personal effort, not by anything that we've done or do, just by accepting Christ as Lord and Savior. So I think that it is so important that we keep emphasizing that the Word of God is not about religion, and that it is really about the love of Jesus Christ. So I would want to say, and I just want to add to all that has been said so far, that this Word must find its way into the hearts of men, but it must do so first by finding its way into their hands. We must be able to get the Bible across to people all over the world. And that's up to us entirely. We must actively and aggressively find the resources for printing and distribution of the Word. Technology will be a great help. We can crowdfund today. We can find, I mean, I'm sure that the Bible Society's website, we can get a full, we can do a page that's just dedicated to those who just want to, who just want to contribute something or the other towards printing and towards translation of the Bible. We can even do an app. We can do a competition. You will not believe the number of young men and women today who are doing incredible, who are writing incredible software, doing all sorts of apps. They develop those apps in record time. If we are to tell them that, look, we're looking for some, even for translation, if we are to tell them that there's a big competition to translate the Bible from English to a particular language. And let's just throw it open. The young people, you will not believe what is possible. Today with artificial intelligence, machine learning, et cetera, I'm sure that we can do these translations in less than six years. I'm sure we can do them in a year, maybe two years. And so there's so much out there that our young people can do and can help us with. So I certainly look forward to partnership with the Bible Society of Nigeria. And I hope that in the coming years, we will move much faster than we've moved in the past 100 years or so. Thank you all very much.