WE ARE NOT COMPETING WITH ANYBODY.
HOWEVER, THERE IS NO PLACE IN THE WORLD WHERE THEY ARE DOING WHAT WE ARE DOING AT THE SAME TIME WITH ALL OF THEM WORKING.

KENNETH HAGIN WAS ONCE INVITED TO A CHURCH WHERE EVERYONE WALKED OUT UNTIL IT WAS JUST HIM AND THE PASTOR, BUT GREAT MINISTRIES CAME OUT FROM HIM.
PART OF THE GLORY AND HONOUR OF THAT MINISTRY IS THIS PLACE TODAY. MY REVERED MENTOR, DR COPELAND ALSO CAME OUT OF THAT TEACHING CRUCIBLE.

29 YEARS AGO, GOD TOLD ME TO DEVELOP MYSELF TO ENJOY PERSECUTION.
HE SAID, “PERSECUTION IS A PROOF OF YOUR STRONG POSITION. DEVELOP YOURSELF TO ENJOY PERSECUTION, IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO SECURE YOUR POSITION.”

AT THE BEGINNING, SOME PEOPLE SAID THIS MINISTRY WILL BE NO MORE AFTER A MAXIMUM PERIOD OF 7 YEARS. ALL THEIR VERDICTS FAILED BECAUSE WE WON’T LOOK AT THEM.
THE MOCKERY WAS INTENSE, BUT SEE HOW INTENSE IS THE GLORY OVER THE MINISTRY.
-Bishop David Oyedepo at CHoP

*I told Jesus at the beginning of the year, “Lord, give me 140,000 souls this year”. Our team has crossed 133, 000.
*That you don’t like what I say doesn’t change it, I will be saying it forever because I found it, you didn’t tell me what to say when I began to say it and they were mocking us.
*Now they have seen God making us, we will keep saying it, it works.

You can’t keep appointment with God without preparation – Amos 4:12
He always reserves a blessing for His people, but it requires preparation to access them. You can’t have an encounter without preparation.
Deaf, dumb, being tormented by the siege of death, but had expectation in her heart and on the third day, heavens came down (documented testimony). The second day, she had a presence of heaven around her, the third day, the ears popped open, the mouth was loosed: Expectation!
Every Pre-Shiloh Encounter Service has a package for you, but it takes preparation for you to access them. There is no future for those side Christians who just wait, “let’s hear what they will say again, I don’t think anything is in this thing.” No expectation, no manifestation.
-May our hearts be ever prepared every time we are meeting with God.
If you come into Covenant Hour of Prayer, “O Lord, I need an encounter with you today.” Simple.
-No one will miss his portion.

Lord, speak to us again and let your name be glorified, in Jesus name.

SERVING GOD IS ESSENTIALLY FOR OUR BENEFIT.
Can we personalize it, “serving God is essentially for my benefit!”
We will look at two aspects of the benefits of serving God this morning.

1. Serving God turns our reproach to honour.
   In most cases, until we are reproached for serving Him, we can’t access the honour in service. Don’t let your personality get in the way or you live with your reproach for life. More often than not, we are first reproached before we can access heaven’s honour in our lives. Church Gist. I remember one of the stories of Kenneth E.Hagin, he was ministering in one place, everybody was going out one by one, one man now went forward to meet him on the altar with his cigarette, “shit.” Hagin kept ministering, so when it remained him and the Pastor that invited him to Church, the Pastor met him, “Sir, can we close?” Part of the glory and honour of that Ministry is this place today.
   My revered mentor, Dr Copeland also came out of that teaching crucible. More often than not, we are reproached first before we can access the honour of serving God.
   Psalm 119:46
   Paul the great, by grace said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes” – Romans 1:16
   Philippians 1:21 – He suffered grievous humiliation, but see Paul still alive and well today, speaking to us every day from scriptures.
   “And Paul said, and Paul said”: As if you met him last night.
   It’s very important.
   Mark 8:38
   Those who are ashamed of God never taste His glory.
   Hebrews 13:12-13
   You know many can’t put, ‘I am a Winner’ sticker on their door. Many can try it on their car, they are too civilized to do that.
   ‘Jesus is Lord’: They are very diplomatic because He is only Lord to you, He is not Lord to everybody.
   “Are you a Winner?” Yes, I go there once in a while. They are just ashamed of Jesus, they are ashamed of their identity.
   Someone crashed on his way to Abuja at Lokoja and a Winner was passing by, he saw, ‘I am a Winner’ sticker on that wrecked car; he said, “excuse me, where did they carry the bodies to?” He went to the mortuary, met him at the entrance, because the mortuary was full. As he got there, they were to dump him in the cage or whatever they call it, the fridge. The arrival of his fellow brethren quickened him, because ‘I am a Winner’, so he won in death. They rushed him to Emergency, “well he may live, he may not survive”, but he stood on this pulpit at the Faith Tabernacle, unaided, walked up by himself.
   You are ashamed of Him, He will be ashamed of you.

“The reproaches of them that reproached thee has fallen on me”: I want to write something like that before I go to heaven. I enjoyed plenty of it, plenty of open reproaches, an essential requirement for accessing the realm of glory. You are ashamed of Him, He will be ashamed of you.
Luke 9:26
He will be ashamed, there won’t be transaction because angels are the ones that transact answers between heaven and earth. They are God’s courier agents, “hey, don’t go there again, it is over. They can’t identify with Me, I can’t identify with Him. The honour in serving God stems out of going outside the gate and bearing his reproach.
“As MD, CEO, this is my concern about this Bishop. I go outside the gate and tell people on the street, ‘Jesus loves you’, No, I can’t. It is not ethical, my office doesn’t permit such things”: Well done for your office. All the places we used to go on foot, dusted and all that stuff, we fly over them today. Church Gist. You go through the reproach before you are able to see the glory. It is over to you.

A woman here that does not speak any English, in ‘Atan’ area here, went about carrying fliers about. The assault, the insult was much, “I know why you are carrying this thing around, you don’t have children.” She kept doing it, she became pregnant in the process and gave birth to her first child at 50. I saw the child myself.
“If your God is so good, why has he not given you children”: My daughter, Florence said, “Jesus, you are the one they are talking about”, the following Sunday, she went out again, the Sunday following she went out again. Before the 7 weeks were over, she was feeling funny, she became pregnant. She delivered a bouncing baby boy.
Let us go outside the gate bearing his reproach.
One trouser preacher, one trouser preacher: one trouser preacher is now with his team building 200 Megawatts solar power source. Not only Nigeria, they have outlets outside the country. From one trouser preacher that will not give up but kept on. That is the way it works.

Somebody’s child was about to die, doctors said they can’t do anything again, they heard me early in the morning saying, “go outside there. Tell somebody about Christ.” So husband and wife said, “Look, this is what Papa said. Let’s go out, leave this child in the hand of God.” They went out, by the time they came back, the child had sat up. They were discharged the same day, after the doctors never knew what to do about him.
“This Papa will kill you”: they told somebody like that, 2 of them were going about. It is raining, you are going about. They went on, one of them began to cry, the other one said, “this is the way to where we are going.” They went through, heavens came down, opened up their destiny, the ball is in your court. You are ashamed of Him, He will be ashamed of you, make your choice.
You want people’s commendation; your Christianity is moderate: “It is good to be moderate. All these things that Papa is doing, you know, it is too much, it is good to be moderate.” Only fools doubt proofs, what Papa is doing and what those who believe the Word of God as he is doing, it’s working. So what is your problem?
Can you imagine a man that never borrowed, was never tempted to borrow, never lacked, never went hungry and on the giving side of life forever? He will rather die than steal. Only fools doubt proofs. Wake up.
Only You I will serve, only You I will serve I have no other god.
Wake up and make your choice. I can’t serve God for you. No one gets paid on the behalf of another in a working place. You want your wages, enlist on the staff. Everyone shall be rewarded according to his own labour, so wake up – 1 Corinthians 3:8

Someone here had Elephantiasis, fat legs, had a boil on the nose and went out with that condition. You can imagine the mockery. Got back in pains, went to bed that afternoon, woke up: Elephantiasis vanished, boil on the nose disappeared, her beauty restored. Over to you.
Someone here was sent back home from America, “your case is beyond cure”: cancer of the mouth. Went out with cancer, your mouth has no cancer, went out with cancer of the mouth, slept in the night and the Lord appeared to her, “open your mouth” and ripped out that place a lump. Woke up in the morning, cancer free. Let us therefore go outside the gate bearing his reproach.

March 1, 1992, the Lord opened me to Luke chapter 6 verse 26. He said, “my son, develop yourself to enjoy persecution.” He said, persecution is a proof of your strong position and persecution targets to rob you of your position, ignore it. Develop yourself to enjoy persecution, it is the only way to secure your position. You know the opposition party is always against the ruling party. It’s the strength of the ruling party that stirs the opposition to rise. You are in the ruling party, so don’t mind opposition or you will lose your position, you will make many mistakes. Just face where you are going and you will get there.
I heard people saying, “when a Ministry is working like this, 3 years ‘patapata’, he is gone.”
3 years passed. “5 years, watch it. There is no way somebody can be working like that, that it will last.”
5 years passed. “Patapata (give or take), 7 years”
All their verdicts failed because we won’t look at them. The mockery was intense, but see how intense is the glory over the Ministry.
We are not competing with anybody but I don’t know where what we are doing now is being done around the world. Church Gist. All at the same time and all of them working.
You want the glory, enjoy the shame. Enjoy the shame and you won’t miss the glory, don’t react against it, just enjoy it. You will never hear me one day say, “why did you say something?” You are free to say anything, I got it here. No attack, no defence, just keep going, the future is bright.
-Your future is bright.
Proverbs 14:28
He that honours Me, I will honour: so when you are involved in the ingathering of people to Jesus, you will win His honour, you will be mocked in the process, but you will be made at the end. Follow what I tell you to do, don’t mind the mockery and I will make you. If you mind the mockery, you will miss the making. You can’t make yourself, I (God) will make you. Be a part, an excited part of ingathering of souls.

Somebody was giving money for transportation, some Christian friends, members of this Church, “it’s too much.” Did she collect it from you? She went ahead and God gave her a miracle child. The devil wants to rob her of that and he sent folks around, they don’t know the devil sent them. What is your business?
Somebody was dancing, we were doing a Miracle Praise, another person in the Service, not outside the Service, “Madam, ‘na soldier you be?’ (Are you a soldier?).” Int the Service, everybody is dancing his way to his miracle, he was checking, he was an umpire. Her set of twins came out of that. Give the Lord praise.

Ephesians 5:14
Serving God will always culminate in open rewards, that is where it ends. Open rewards, it is not hidden. Open rewards, undeniable rewards, rewards that even the blind can see. That is what comes out of serving God. God who sees your labour in secret will reward you openly – Matthew 6:6
Somebody’s brother died, told the house provider, “my brother just died, I was told. Please let us pray.” The house provider said, “look, we shall be praying Kingdom Advancement prayers, that is how God will raise him up.” Can you see the madness? So they began praying Kingdom Advancement prayers till the morning. In the morning, she sent the other brother to go there and check what is going on. He got to the mortuary, they had embalmed him, he didn’t know how to pray, what prayer to pray, he said, “Jesus Christ is here.” Is that prayer? He said, “I mean, Jesus Christ that Bishop Oyedepo serves is here.” They told him when he arrived that, “look, it’s too late. We embalmed him 24 hours ago.” Embalmment is to certify death and preserve from early decomposition. Jesus regathered him by doing that stupid, shameful thing: somebody you are not commanding death to run away, to flee; you are saying, “O God, build your Church, O God advance your Kingdom.” I mean that is a popular testimony here, you all saw it on the screen.

It will always culminate in open rewards. There is no one involved in gathering people to this Church who will have any trace of shame remaining in their lives. There is no one involved in bringing people into the Kingdom of God through their personal commitment to soul winning who will not enjoy open rewards. One of my friends came and said, “I can’t believe you are still doing this thing.” He knew how long ago we started, so he could not believe I was still in it. He is also a Minister of the gospel, but he is retired from doing it. I refused to be tired. I said to Jesus at the beginning of the year, “Lord, give me 140,000 souls this year”. Our team has crossed 133, 000. That you don’t like what I say doesn’t change it, I will be saying it forever because I found it, you didn’t tell me what to say when I began to say it and they were mocking us, now they have seen God making us, we will keep saying it, it works.
-Your Turnaround package becomes a reality if you will not ashamed of Him and of His Word.

Prayers: Receive grace to weather the shame and reproach so you can enjoy the honour that comes from God.
Thank You Jesus, glory to Your name.

The day is your day, you are breaking forth into new realms in your walk with God.
Every opportunity you have, the passion to share Jesus, receive it now.
By every means available to you, get somebody to come along with you to meet with Christ. Every such secret engagement entitles you to open rewards, you will not miss it.