‘WELCOME TO DOUBLE PORTION!’ WELCOME TO THE GREATEST WEEK OF YOUR LIFE THUS FAR!
THERE IS OIL THAT CAN PUT AN END TO SORROW. AS THE LORD LIVES THAT OIL WILL FLOW TOMORROW
GOD WILL ACCEPT OFFERINGS/SACRIFICES OF ANY TYPE BUT THE MOST ACCEPTABLE TO HIM IS THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE
ANGELS CAN SING BETTER THAN YOU AND YET, GOD ENJOYS YOUR PRAISE; HE DWELLS IN PRAISE
IF FOR ANY REASON YOU DECIDE NOT TO PRAISE HIM, NOBODY WILL NOTICE
Pastor E. A. Adeboye on “THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE” || DOUBLE PORTION || Redeemed Christian Church of God HOLY GHOST CONGRESS 2022 || December 5th 2022
Day 1, Evening Session
Let’s lift our hands to the Most High God and bless His Holy Name. The Ancient of days. Give Him glory, honour, adoration. Church Gist. The Bible says bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name. Let’s bless Him; give Him all the glory, adoration. Thank you Father in Jesus mighty name we have worshipped.
🎶 We give you all the glory, we give you honour 🎶
The unchangeable changer we say thank you. Thank you for the past Congresses, for what you are going to do this week. Thank you for our past, present and our tomorrow. Accept our thanks in Jesus’ name. Church Gist. Tonight all we have come to do is to praise you ad as we praise you we ask that you kindly accept our praises. As a result of our praising you whatever you choose to do, please go ahead and do it. Thank you Father, in Jesus’ mighty name we have prayed.
Let someone shout, “Halleluyah”
I thought I heard somebody say that if you want your blessing to be greater than that of your neighbour then your halleluyah will be louder. Shake hands with 7 people and say, ‘WELCOME TO DOUBLE PORTION.’ Welcome to the greatest week of your life thus far!
Tonight we will be talking about THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE because that is just what we want to do tonight. We just want to praise Him. It is going to be in 2 parts: we are doing part one now which will conclude with this short word of exhortation. Church Gist. Then, part 2 will begin and go on till you are tired. Tomorrow by the grace of God in the evening I will be talking about THE OIL OF GLADNESS. The opposite of joy is sorrow. There is oil that can put an end to sorrow. As the Lord lives that oil will flow tomorrow. I believe God that by the time you go to bed tomorrow, sorrow will have been terminated in your life. For tonight, Jeremiah 17:26 is a prophecy from the Most High God that I believe is going to be fulfilled here tonight. Church Gist. (When you put Jeremiah 17:26) in modern language God is simply saying people will come from all over the world. They will bring all manners of sacrifices to this special mountain of God. One of the things they will bring is sacrifices of praise.
Now, there are many possible offerings you can bring, many possible sacrifices that you can bring to God but which of them is likely to be the most acceptable to God? He will accept offerings/sacrifices of any type but there is a particular one that is most acceptable to Him and that is the sacrifice of praise. The reason is simple: when you bring money to Him, He accepts it but we all know they don’t spend Naira, Dollar, Pound, Euros in Heaven. In any case if you are bringing money to God, you must remember according to Haggai 2:8. So if you are bringing money to Him, you are bringing money to the one who owns all the silver, gold. In His city in Heaven the streets are paved with gold; He walks on gold. Church Gist. You want to bring clothes to God, you want to bring clothes to the one who is clothed in light; who wears fire. You want to bring food to Him, you want to bring food to someone who says, “Even if I am hungry I won’t tell you because the cattle upon a thousand hills are mine. All the fowls of the air, the animals, that if I want to eat, I know where to get my food from.” You want to build a house for God so you can brag that yea, I built a house for God. That would be wonderful but don’t forget that you are building a house for someone who says, “In my father’s house there are many mansions.”
So what exactly can you give Him that will really excite Him? I have heard one of my children say, ‘Daddy I went abroad. I don’t know what to bring you because you seem to have everything.’ I said, ‘Amen; keep on prophesying.’ What do you give to God who has everything? Praise! Why? Psalm 22:3 – He dwells in praise. Revelation 5:11-14 tells us that He has a mass choir that is made up of billions upon billions of angels and they just keep on singing nonstop. Church Gist. I am telling you, angels can sing better than you and yet, He enjoys your praise. He is still seeking for more people to praise Him because He loves praise. Like I have always said, because He has such a massive mass choir. If for any reason whatsoever you decide not to praise Him, nobody will notice. As few as we are today, (when I say few I know few is relative), if I ask that somebody will shout halleluyah and there’s somebody in the crowd who says, ‘I am tired; you have been asking me to shout since I came. I am not going to shout,’ who will notice?
Let somebody shout halleluyah!
When we talk about praise … and many at times we confuse praise and thanksgiving. Church Gist. I will explain that as we go along because thanksgiving means you are thanking him for what He has done for you.
Like after he has given you the victory, you are the one to thank Him. I mean, after he drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea in Exodus 14, the children of Israel in Exodus 15, they sang. They were thanking him for deliverance. He expects you to thank Him after he has given you a miracle. Church Gist. In Luke 17:11-19, when he cleansed 10 lepers and only one returned to say, ‘thank you’ he was pained. He said where are the other 9? Then he gave extra blessing to the one that came back to say ‘thank you.’
When you thank him even before he gives you a miracle, you please Him because you are thanking Him in advance and it shows that you have faith. Thanking him in advance is an act of faith like in Joshua 6:20. Church Gist. The children of Israel shouted even before the wall fell as an act of faith. If you believe that God is going to do something for you that he has never done before this week, let me hear you shout halleluyah! Now, that’s an act of faith and when you do something like that, you please Him. Hebrews 11:6.
The kind of thanksgiving that God likes the most is the one you give him when you are in the middle of a battle. You are fighting the battle, you haven’t won yet, you are thanking him. Church Gist. He hasn’t even given you a prophecy that he’s going to give you victory but you just choose to thank him in the midst of the battle. When you do that one you summon him to come and fight for you. For example in Psalms 18:1-3, David told us that he will continue to praise God and then will his head be lifted up above his enemies.
So, there are 3 categories of people that I am sure are here tonight: those who have just won a victory, those who are believing God for a victory and those who are in the midst of a battle – the battle is really hot. Whichever category you belong to, Let me hear you shout halleluyah!
Now very briefly, what exactly is praise? Praise is not thanksgiving and it is not worship. Worship is when you are telling him, ‘you are the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords…’ what is praise? Praise is when you are boasting about Him; when a child is boasting about his father. Matthew 21:15-16. We are going to be baby-like for some minutes tonight. I hope you don’t mind because I can’t see anybody here who is not a baby in the hand of God. Church Gist. I think the oldest person here amongst us is less than a 100 years old and as we are going to discover as we go along, my father is older than that man. How many babies are here tonight?
- Let me hear a baby-like halleluyah!
So you will please allow me to boast a bit about my father tonight. As I boast about him, I will be calling on you to join me in singing. The sermon is going to be … the scientist will call it, ‘interactive.’ I will tell you about my father and we sing a song to Him and if my father is your father, you will join me in repeating the song.
Let me start by saying, ‘My Father is the highest.’ Unless your father is my father, then my father is higher than your father. How do I know that? Psalm 91:1. My father is the Most High. Ecclesiastes 5:8. He is higher than the highest. So if there is anybody in the world who is saying, ‘I am the highest’ let him listen to My Father. Church Gist. My father will tell him in Isaiah 66:1, whichever President he may consider himself to be that even when you are sitting on your throne you are still under my feet because my own throne is in Heaven, your throne is here on Earth. Is your Father the same one as my father? Let me hear you shout halleluyah!
I’ve told you the story before, of 4 children who were playing in the state house and the son of the President said to the other 3, ‘My Father is the highest.’ They all said, ‘why?’ he said, ‘My Father is the first man of state.’ The second one said, ‘My father is higher than your father.’ He said how come? He said My father is your father’s physician. If he tells your father not to leave his bed for one week, your father must obey. The third one said, ‘But my father is higher than the fathers of both of you.’ They said why? Church Gist. He said because my father is your father’s witch doctor. He can kill your 2 fathers without using a cutlass. The fourth one said, ‘No no no, my father is the highest of all.’ He (the fourth one) happens to be the son of a messenger over there. They looked at him… ‘your father of all people?’ he said, ‘oh yes; because not only can my father kill, he can raise the dead.’ They all said, ‘But we know your father.’ He said, ‘no, you don’t know my father. I am not talking of the one here on Earth; I am talking of Jesus Christ the one who can kill and make alive.’
- If Jesus is your father let me hear you shout halleluyah!
🎶 My Father is the highest; He is higher than the highest 🎶
My father is not just the highest; he is the greatest. My father is greater than the greatest. You say, ‘how do you know?’ sometime ago in Daniel 3:15, the King said, “Who is that God that can deliver out of my hand? I am greater than your God.” Church Gist. My Father decided to reply Him in Daniel 4:29-36. Nebuchadnezzar is the name of that king. He ate grass for 7 years – stark naked. After that he came back to my father and apologized.
🎶 My Father is the greatest; He is greater than the greatest 🎶
The next time somebody in the office is threatening you, telling you he is going to show you pepper, smile and sing, ‘🎶 My Father is the greatest; He is greater than the greatest 🎶’
Do you know that my father is the oldest? In Daniel 7:9, the Bible calls him the Ancient of days. Meaning what? Psalm 90:1-7. One of the major things he says there is that, before the mountains were brought forth, my father has been around. Church Gist. Meaning what? That if you really believe that, any time you come face to face with a mountain tell the mountain, ‘🎶 My Father is the oldest; He is older than the oldest 🎶’ As you sing that song it will amaze you that mountains will begin to move.
Do you know that my father is not just the oldest? He is also the wisest. Job 12:13; Daniel 2:20-22; 1 Kings 5:12. I can tell you several examples of how God had shown that he is wiser than those who think they are the wisest. Particularly those of us who at one point or the other have come across situations we can’t handle; we don’t know the way out. Remember, you have a father. Church Gist. He is the wisest; he will show you the way out of your tight corners. After I became born again, (I am saying this with all humility), I dazzle my lecturers because God will just give me some solution to problems that will defy even my professors. So I have good news for those of you who are students. As we sing this song tonight, may be you will get a new brain.
🎶 My Father is the wisest; He is wiser than the wisest 🎶
You know what? My father is the richest. He is richer than the richest. Why? Psalm 24:1. You know all the crude oil in the whole world belongs to my father. Church Gist. He owns it all. not only that, Haggai 2:8, he owns all the silver and gold which is good news because you will see that some of these silver and gold right now, they are in the hands of the unbelievers.
- I believe that as we sing this song, wealth will begin to change hands!
Some of you who are old will remember me telling this story years ago. I was travelling abroad in first class apartment of the plane because somebody bought the ticket for me. I was sitting next to a man who must be stinking rich because the rings on his fingers, the jewellery alone, if I were for sale, he had enough money to buy me. Thank God I wasn’t for sale. But I wanted to witness to him because if I sit next to you in the plane, that’s an opportunity to win a soul. So I started by saying, ‘Sir, when you return from this journey I will like to introduce you to my father.’ Church Gist. Instead of saying, ‘who is your father?’ he said, ‘what does he do?’ He was only interested in business. I said my father is into this Oil and Gas business. He sat up straight; he knew that meant money. I said not only that, he also does some jewellery business – diamonds, gold, silver (because I was looking at all he had on). He said what does he do? I said he is also into all these cattle ranching; he has plenty of cattle. You know the cattle upon a thousand hills belongs to my father. It was at that stage that he said, ‘who is he?’
Now I know I had got him but I know if I say Jesus at that stage, he might get off the hook. So I said my father, his name is Chief Emmauel. Do you know as you sing this song by faith tonight, Chief Emmanuel can cancel your debt? You came here by bus tonight; Chief Emmanuel can make sure that by the time you are coming for the January Holy Ghost Service you will come in your own car? Church Gist. At least we have heard several testimonies of those who came to watch night service and the Almighty God says, ‘there is someone here who is having a problem paying his house rent. By the first week of next year he will be a landlord.
🎶 My Father is the richest; He is richer than the richest 🎶
When we talk about beginnings, I have heard people boasting that their father was the one who first established your village. Their father is the first one to be president of a nation. To talk about beginnings, you know my father is the beginning of beginnings. Genesis 1:1. In other words, before the beginning, my father was there. John 1:1-3. Church Gist. There are beginnings and beginnings but my father is the beginning of beginnings. The Bible tells us in Revelation 1:8 that his name is ‘Alpha.’ You know the implication of that for you? It is that (if you look at Jeremiah 1:4-5), anybody who is threatening your destiny is wasting his time. Why? It is because my father has settled it even before I was born.
🎶 My Father is the Alpha; The Alpha of Alphas, my father is the Alpha 🎶
Occasionally you will hear people say to you, that you are finished. They just look at you, consider everything and say, ‘You are finished.’ They don’t know anything because my father is the ending. Until my father says it is over, it is not over. My father decides when you end because he said it in Revelation 1:11. My future does not depend on anybody. Church Gist. Nobody can control when I end. The only one who can control my ending is the one whose name is Omega and that’s my father. I have good news for those of you who one fellow or the other has been threatening with death. You know what? Long after they are gone, you will still be around praising my father.
🎶 My Father is Omega; The Omega of Omegas, my father is Omega 🎶
I get excited when I am boasting about my father. People don’t know how great my father is but one thing about him is that he is unchanging. He doesn’t change – he is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Hebrews 13:8. Church Gist. The beauty of that is that: if there is anything in my life that I don’t like and I talk to him, because he doesn’t change he can change anything. That is why we call him the unchangeable changer.
🎶 My Father is unchanging; unchanging changer, my father is unchanging 🎶
- Everything that needs to be changed in your life, my father will change it this week!
Then there is one beautiful thing and that is, my father is coming again. Revelation 22:11-12. There are some people who think they are in control of this world and they are in control forever; but my father is coming and he is coming quickly. Church Gist. When he comes he is coming to take me to go and be/live with him in his house where there are many mansions. Mansions built with the purest gold. My father is coming again.
🎶 My Father is returning; he is coming back for me, my father is returning 🎶
May be you now understand why I am always singing and shouting halleluyah; because of the kind of father I have. Church Gist. The highest, the greatest, the oldest, the wisest, the richest, the beginning of beginnings, the end of endings, the one who is unchanging, the one who is coming again. That’s why I sing, 🎶 Halleluyah to my father; halleluyah halleluyah, Halleluyah to my father 🎶
When the second session of praising him comes, do it with all your heart. Boast about your father. Boast about the one who is the highest and he will promote you. Boast about the one who is the greatest and he will make you great. Boast about the one who is the oldest and he will move all your mountains. Boast about the one who is the wisest and he will give you the wisdom to succeed. Boast about the one who is the richest and very soon you won’t know poverty again. Church Gist. Boast about this your God, this father of mine who is the beginning of beginnings and he will make sure anyone trying to tamper with your destiny, he will deal with them. Boast about the one who is the end of endings and nobody can terminate your future or life. Boast about the one who is the unchanging changer and whatever needed to be changed in you, your body, your future, even in your marriage, he will change it today.
Boast about the one who is coming again very soon. When he arrives, it will be to take you home where there are many mansions. So when it is time to go to the second section, make sure you do the praise much more than that of the first.
ALTAR CALL
(Proverbs 21:27)
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