I MET THIS GREAT WOMAN (MAMA ADEFARASIN) 27 YEARS AGO AND ALL I SAW WAS THE OVERFLOWING LOVE FOR GOD IN HER LIFE.
SHE LOVED GOD, SHE EXHUMED THE LOVE OF GOD LIKE HER NATURAL BREATH.
SHE WAS OVERWHELMINGLY WELCOMING, JOYFUL AND ALWAYS WEARING A SMILE
THIS IS SIMPLY A WITNESS AND NOT A SERMON. I AM ONLY BEARING WITNESS TO WHAT I SAW IN THE LIFE OF THIS GREAT WOMAN AND WHAT WE ALL NEED TO MAKE THE MOST OF OUR JOURNEY ON THE EARTH.
FROM ALL THE TESTIMONIES WE HAVE HEARD TODAY, MAMA ADEFARASIN HAS DISPLAYED A LOT OF GODLY BEHAVIOURS.
GOOD WORKS CANNOT BE HIDDEN, THE SAME WAY EVIL WORKS CANNOT BE HIDDEN.
SHE HAS FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT, SHE FINISHED HER COURSE, SHE HAS GONE TO HEAVEN BUT WE SHALL MEET AGAIN.
MAMA GOOD NIGHT, WE WILL SEE YOU WHEN OUR JOB ON EARTH IS OVER.
MAMA’S CHRISTIAN LIFE ENDEARED ME TO HER. FROM THE FIRST DAY, I SAW HER, I SAW GOD AT WORK IN HER.
MY SPIRIT MAN WAS DRAWN TO HER AND I BEGAN TO JUST FALL IN LOVE WITH EVERY MEMBER OF THE FAMILY.
MY PRAYER IS THAT EACH OF US WILL LIVE A LIFE THAT PEOPLE WILL TALK ABOUT TOMORROW WITHOUT FLATTERY
ISN’T IT AWESOME THAT ALL HER CHILDREN ARE ON KEY WITH JESUS, EVERYONE SERVING GOD IN THEIR RESPECTIVE CAPACITIES AND DOING AMAZING THINGS IN THE KINGDOM.
WHEN A BELIEVER GOES TO SLEEP, HE GOES STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN.
HEAVEN IS REAL, MAMA IS NOT IN THE COFFIN. WE HAVE COME TO HONOUR HER PERSON THAT IS GONE. IT IS HER BODY THAT IS HERE, HER SPIRIT HAS GONE BACK TO THE MAKER.
PEOPLE DO THINGS FOR WHAT THEY WILL GET MOST OF THE TIME, VERY FEW PEOPLE DO THINGS TO BE A BLESSING TO OTHERS. MAMA WAS A LOVER OF GOD AND PEOPLE.
– Bishop David Oyedepo’s Sermon on ‘THE MEMORY OF THE JUST IS BLESSED’ at the Funeral Service of Mrs Hilda Victoria Joanne Adefarasin || Guiding Light Assembly || 17th March 2023
Shall we pray?
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this glorious time in your presence on this great occasion of the celebration of life. Church Gist. Bless each one of us this morning for the few moments that we have and let your name be glorified.
Let me at this time acknowledge all the dignitaries who are here in the service, for honouring the departure to glory of Mama Hilda Adefarasin. My prayer is that all of us who are here today will live longer, healthier, stronger and with more impact in Jesus name. Church Gist. Almost everything I want to say has been said in one way or another but I have this responsibility to share these thoughts with us.
I have been around this family for about three decades so I have some insights to how I perceive Mama Adefarasin. So I will just run through this for a few moments and I believe it will bless us. I have titled this short exhortation THE MEMORY OF THE JUST IS BLESSED. The remembrance of the just is blessed, the reflections of the just is blessed. Church Gist. Some day, someone will need to talk about us, we won’t have to be there. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. If you bear witness of yourself, your witness is not true. Somebody else has to say what he saw and how he sees you.
Proverbs 10:7 – The memory of the just is blessed. Hebrews 12:1. Paul said, “you are witnesses and God also of how holily and justly and unblameable we have behaved ourselves” (1 Thessalonians 2:10). So people watch us from outside to see how we behave ourselves, our manner of life. Our principles and manner of life can only be bore witness to by others, not us. Paul said to Timothy “you know my manner of life and my doctrines’ ‘ you know it. So it is a thing we display before others. Church Gist. From all the testimonies we have heard today, Mama Adefarasin has displayed a lot of godly behaviours and character. Good works cannot be hidden. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Good works cannot be hidden, the same way evil works cannot be hidden.
I met this great woman 27 years ago and all I saw was the overflowing love for God in her life. She loved God, she exhumes the love of God like her natural breath. She was after the things of God with all her heart. Church Gist. She was overwhelmingly welcoming, joyful and always wearing a smile. I have never met her any day in my life where she looks troubled. Her smile welcomes you any day you step in there. May the joy of the Lord be our portion today as individuals all through life.
According to scriptures, love is the overriding spiritual virtue in the Kingdom of God. Everything in the kingdom works by love. No wonder we saw all things work together for her. No wonder we saw things in her life that many may not see or hear all their life. We saw victory, we saw triumph because all things work by faith and faith works by love. So faith without love is vain. Faith will never work beyond our love level for God. Church Gist. She loved God, she displayed it that she loved God truly. This is simply a witness and not a sermon. I am only bearing witness to what I saw in the life of this great woman and what we all need to make the most of our journey on the earth. She was a genuine lover. The Bible says “eyes have not seen nor ears heard what God has for them that love Him”. She happens to be one of them. We know that all things work together for them that love God (Romans 8:28), she experienced that. No wonder she lived this long. Psalm 91:14-16. Being in love with God guarantees a long life. I pray that each one of us here will enjoy a long life.
As I mentioned earlier, love is the greatest spiritual virtue in the kingdom because all things work by faith and faith works by love. We live by faith, “the just shall live by his faith.” (Romans 1:17), we walk by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7), we are healed by faith (Mark 5:34), we overcome by faith (1 John 5:4), we see God’s word come to pass in our lives by faith (Luke 1:45). These are all blessings of love that are so hidden. People believe in so many things but there is no love to drive it. Love is the catalyst of faith. It makes faith work. When we are in love with God, we will be in love with men. You can’t love God and not love mankind. Anyone that loves God, loves his fellow brother also. Church Gist. Love always improves the environment wherever it is found. She lived that kind of life. Remember again, our faith will never deliver beyond the level of our love for God. I want to pick that from here. Mama really loved God, she maintained that fellowship for about 20 years, sharing with ladies, bringing them up in the Word of the Lord. Twenty years, she loved the Lord.
Moreover, love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:8. Love never fails. It is the failure proof realm of life. Get into genuine love with God and failure will stay clear of your environment. Just be in love. I saw all these virtues operating in her life. There are seven characteristics of love exemplified or enumerated in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. Love is patient, she was. Love is kind, she was almost to a fault. Love is not envious, she was ever content in her disposition. Love is meek, you can’t sense pride or arrogance in this great woman, so humble. Church Gist. Everybody seemed to deserve respect, how? Love is well behaved, that was her nature. Love rejoices in the truth and not in iniquity, you heard him say she is firm yet soft spoken, you can’t make her do what is not right. Love believes all things, hopes all things and bears all things, she exemplified that in every way. Again my prayer is that our Christianity will enjoy the aroma of love. The kind she carried and more than what she carried in the name of Jesus Christ.
Without any iota of flattery, I witnessed these virtues in this great woman’s life who has now ascended to glory enjoying the splendour of heaven with a crown reserved for her. She has fought the good fight, she finished her course, she has gone to heaven but we shall meet again. Church Gist. I said in my little clip, “Good night” when you say good night you soon say good morning. She is not gone so we are not mourning, she has only transited and some day when the trumpet sounds by His grace we shall all meet again.
Now as I begin to close, how do we get to possess the love of God? What does it take to possess the love of God? First, we must recognise that love is a vital component of the fruit of the spirit. Fruit not fruits, one fruit. One apple ball made of several components. At the fall of man, the spirit of man died. The day you eat of that fruit you shall surely die, so Adam died. What was it that died in Adam? His spirit man that connected him with God went off. He still had his soul, he had his body, he could think of what to cover himself with but he had no more connectivity with God. What we call new birth is that dead being inside our human being coming to life again by the power of redemption. You are saved and then that dead spirit bounces back to life and begins to manifest those characteristics of the newborn spirit which we call the fruit of the spirit. Church Gist. So it is impossible to flow in love with God which will translate to love with your fellow men without one spirit being born again. It is an inside out experience, it is not something from the exterior. It has to come from inside or it is fake. Untiring love, unpretentious love, genuine love, not love for what to get but love for what to bless with, only comes from God. After the fall of man, Adam became self centered. “Adam what happened?” “my wife.” “Eve what went on?” “the serpent” everybody went back to himself, there was no more care for anybody else. When you are born again, God’s love comes alive in you which is one of the nine components of the fruit of the spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, long suffering, all of that. Nine of them. So to work in genuine true love, one must be born again. Church Gist. People do things for what they will get most of the time, very few people do things to be a blessing to others. They do it for what they will get, everybody is about himself. Jesus came to be about us. He came to save us, He came to give us. He didn’t come to take a thing from us and that is the love of God. New birth is the only way to possess this virtue of love that brings a man into a failure proof realm of life. That keeps you going in season and out of season. That makes you genuine in your disposition at all times. No hypocrisy, no pretences, just being you and being openhearted to seeing others blessed and going forward.
The interesting thing is that salvation which we call new birth is God’s good will for all mankind. God has no favourites. John 3:16 – God so loved the world, black, white, the tribes, the races notwithstanding, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The way to it is simple, repentance. We don’t pay any price for it. He has paid all the price. They said on the day of Pentecost, what shall we do to be saved? He said repent. When we are humble enough to repent of our sins, He is always there to forgive us of our sins. Jesus, I repent of my sins. Now, this is what happens after repentance. It is repentance that leads to conversion. Acts 3:19. Many people claim to be saved but they are not converted because they will not repent. Repent and be converted then times of refreshing will come from the Lord. February 19th this year, I was 54 years in the faith. My God, I have been smiling all the way. Were there challenges? Plenty of them but that can’t tamper with your joy. Part of the component of your spirit man that makes you live above the things that others see. You just live above them. My admonition today is that anyone whosoever desires can be saved any day. My teacher witnessed to me, not in a church service. I gave my life to Jesus and I am still enjoying it today, she went to heaven at 92. We have come in now to this awesome service, you can decide to surrender your life to Christ and begin to live a new life. These times of refreshing are simply manifestations of the fruit of the spirit. Church Gist. They just take on your life and you begin to walk in the newness of life. Everybody loves peace, joy, money can’t buy it but you get them for free through the power of redemption. That is what I want to offer to every one of us who may not have experienced Jesus Christ as their Saviour. It is all for free. There is nothing in the Kingdom that comes with a charge on your life. It is all for free. I was born with tuberculosis, Jesus saved my soul and rooted it out of my life because it is not part of the new nature, it is not part of it. My own mother suffered rheumatism for 38 years, she was in church all the way but when she gave her life to Jesus he rooted it out of her life. Old things passed away and all things became new. That is what salvation does. It is not a thing you talk about, it is a thing you experience.
As I close in this brief charge that testified of Mama’s Christian life that endeared me to her. From the first day, I saw her, I saw God at work in her. My spirit man was drawn to her and I began to just fall in love with every member of the family. My prayer is that someone here will catch a testimony that will change your life also to live a life that people will talk about tomorrow without flattery. Church Gist. When you hear from ten people who lived there. Because you can be anything on the outside, what you are on the inside is far more important. People lived with her and they are still testifying that this is how she is.
Much more importantly, heaven is real. She is not in a coffin, she is gone. She is up there reigning with Christ. So it is not about guesswork. They said we should not mourn like unbelievers do, they don’t know what is happening. When a believer goes to sleep, he goes straight to heaven. Heaven is real, Mama is not here. We have come to honour her person that is gone. It is her body that is here, her spirit has gone back to the Maker. Heaven is real, no one here will miss it. Church Gist. Apart from all of the blessings of salvation on earth, the ultimate of it is to make heaven. We shall make it. When your spirit man is born again, you have a gross distaste for sin, you lose your taste for it. When you keep enjoying sin, there is a problem somewhere. The moment you are saved, anything that goes contrary to the will of God causes you to shudder.
Again, Mama Good Night. We will see you when our job on earth is over. No one among us today will miss the joy in heaven.
Heavenly Father, I pray on this great occasion while we are celebrating life. The transition of your great daughter who has come to heaven in glory. Let every one that turns their life to you today, stand with you for life. Let every one that prayed for continuity, enjoy your grace for continuity. Church Gist. Let none of us miss our place in heaven. It is said that by their fruit you shall know them. Let our fruit begin to manifest that we are children of God. Let old things pass away in our lives and let all things become new. Thank you heavenly Father for your presence in this service to you be all the glory.
PRAYERS FOR LEGACY SUSTAINMENT
Isn’t it awesome that all the children are on key with Jesus, everyone serving God in their respective capacities.
– No one here shall suffer wayward children.
– My prayer today is that this legacy shall continue in perpetuity.
The children of all the sons and daughters, some of them are already here and their great grandchildren shall all keep serving God in truth and verity.
– I pray that every member of this family shall live longer.
– None will drop out from serving Jesus.
– All the works she left behind shall be kept, none shall perish.
The same prayer I pray for every one of us, we have eminent leaders like our former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon who has been pushing the frontiers of the gospel tirelessly over the years and many others that are here with us, I pray that in the name of Jesus, each one’s legacy will keep speaking for perpetuity.
My prayer today is that sickness and disease shall not have a hold in this family. Not on the children, not on the grandchildren, not on the grandchildren. Church Gist. I pray that Jesus shall remain in the centre of this family and every member thereof in the name of Jesus Christ.
I also pray that if anyone has any trouble in their families, by being part of this service today those troubles are turned to testimonies.
– In our lifetime, our children shall be greater than us.
– Lord, I pray for peace and harmony among the immediate and extended family members of this great woman.
– I personally pray for continuous breakthroughs for every one of them in all areas of their endeavours in Jesus name.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, take all the glory and take all the praise.
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