RCCG 70TH ANNUAL CONVENTION 2022
THEME: PERFECT JUBILEE
MIMISTERING: PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE
DAY 2 (PLENARY SESSION 2 – WELCOME SERVICE) TOPIC: BORN FREE.
DATE: 9TH AUGUST, 2022
BIBLE TEXT: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17
I want you to Praise God tonight: if not for anything at all, but for the fact that He has destroyed Coronavirus for us. But for His Intervention, we would not be able to meet like this.
Using that as starting Point, I want you to Thank the Almighty God tonight for Preserving your Life.
That you are alive to see this Night, go ahead and give the Lord a big, big Thanks. Worship Him, Glorify His Holy Name.
Thank Him that He has brought you thus far. Give Him Glory, give Him Honour, give Him Adoration – Praise Him, Praise, Praise Him, Praise Him!
Bless His Holy Name, He is worthy to be Praised, He is worthy to be Adored. There is no One like Him. He is the King of kings, and the Lord of lords.
Thank Him for yourself – For Preserving your Life to witness this Occasion. There are several People who were at the Previous Conventions, but who are already gone! Out of His Mercy, He has kept you up till this moment.
Give Him Glory, give Him Honour, give Him Adoration!
And then go ahead and bless Him for the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) – Thank Him for Seventy (70) years of Existence. Bless the Lord, He is worthy to be Praised.
And then Thank Him for the Past Forty (40) years of holding the Convention on this Camp Ground – At the time when the entire surrounding was thick Jungle.
He has been with us when we were surrounded by snakes and pythons, and all manner of dangerous animals. He has been with us!
Bless His Holy Name, give Him Glory, give Him Honour.
And Thank Him for all those who are here tonight, at the very beginning of the Convention.
… If you turn to your left and right, you will see crowd at the very beginning. You can imagine what is going to happen before the Week is over.
Bless His Holy Name! And bless Him for Jubilee – Give Him Glory, give Him Honour, for not just Jubilee but Perfect Jubilee.
Let Him hear you – Say Thank You Lord! We Bless Your Name, we give You all the Glory.
Thank You Jesus! In Jesus’ Mighty Name we have Worshipped – Amen.
SONG:
We bless Your Name Oh Lord
And we confess You –
That You are the Lord (I bless)!
I bless Your Name Oh Lord
And I confess You –
That You are the Lord (I bless)!
Repeated!
OPENING PRAYER
Almighty God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords the Lord of Hosts. The Lord Strong and Mighty, The Lord Mighty in battle.
The King of Glory Himself; the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, the One Who was, the One Who is, and Who is to come!
Wonderful, Counsellor, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace; the I Am that I AM, the Ancient of Days, the Word from the Beginning. We bless Your Holy Name.
Accept our Worship, in Jesus’ Name.
Thank you for Seventy (70) years! Only You can do this. And Thank You for all Your Promises; concerning all You will do this Week.
Father, accept our Thanks in Jesus’ Name.
Tonight, even as we call it the “Welcoming Program”, Father, we want You to know that You are the One we are Welcoming.
Visit us tonight! In all our lives do something New tonight. Even before tomorrow morning, Please Lord, help us to sing New Songs.
Thank You Almighty! In Jesus’ Mighty Name we have Prayed – Amen.
Let someone shout Hallelujah – Hallelujah!
Now you are going to Prophesy to one (1) or two (2) People and say – Brother or Sister: I will be the first to receive a Miracle, and then you will be next – Amen.
If you believe that, then put your hands together and shout Hallelujah – Hallelujah!
And you are all Welcome, in the Mighty Name of Jesus – Amen!
BIRTH REPORT:
As of now (by 6pm this Evening) twenty-five (25) Babies have been born on this Camp – Fifteen (15) boys and ten (10) girls. Including two (2) Sets of Twins. The first Set of twins was one boy and one Girl; the Second Set of twins is a Set of two (2) Boys.
… It looks as if this Convention is going to be for who?
Let the Boys shout Praise the Lord! And let the Girls shout Hallelujah!!!
I am talking to you tonight for few Minutes, because I know many of you arrived today; and we want to release you on time.
2 Corinthians 5:17:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a New Creature: Old things are Passed away; behold, all things are become New.
From tonight onwards, everything will become New for you @ OPENHEAVEN.NET FAMILY – Amen!
The Topic for tonight is BORN FREE:
Because the first Night like this is really for the children. So, we want to look at – What the Life of a Child looks like.
1. A Child lives a Life of TOTAL FREEDOM.
And you know, Jubilee is made up of Principally, two (2) things – Restoration and a New Beginning.
These are the two (2) Basic things in Jubilee.
Oh then, several other things then come out, of it – Joy, Celebration, Jubilation and many more.
But the two (2) basic ingredients of Jubilee are:
I. Restoration, and
II. A New Beginning.
I. Now, when we talk about Restoration, it means you had something, then you lost it and then Miraculously, you got it back
… That is Restoration! – It is restored to you.
II. What do you mean by a New Beginning?
There was a situation, most of the time Good one at the beginning. For one reason or the other, the tide turned for the worse.
… And then through Restoration, you are given an opportunity to start afresh.
That is why I am Decreeing tonight – Everything that is not Good in your Life, the Fire of God will consume – Amen.
Everything Good that you have lost shall be restored – Amen.
And then God in His infinite Mercy will give you the Grace to start afresh – And OPENHEAVEN.NET FAMILY say Amen!!!
The Life of a Child is a Life of Total Freedom:
I. You eat without bothering yourself about where the food is coming from – itt’s none of your business.
For the first few Months of Living, you drink Milk and the Mother’s Milk.
And the mother’s milk, according to Scientists: is the best food you can ever think of.
One funny fellow said: The Mother’s Milk is a food Provided by God in the most beautiful container; free of any form of contamination (do you agree)? The ingredient is Divine; the Packaging is Super! The effect on your body (laughing) excellent!
At least those of us that are fed by breast Milk, we should say Thank God for Mummies.
Whether you believe it or not, I happened to be the last born of my Mom. I was still sucking breast at the age of four (4). And People tried to drag me away from it.
My mother said, “leave him alone, Nobody else is coming to take it from him.
II. You Dress without knowing where the dress is coming from – It’s none of your business.
III. You Travel without Paying a cost when you are a Child.
Even if they brought you from America to Nigeria, do you Pay for the Ticket? – No, You are a child! You want to travel from one Place to another, it’s none of your business who pays for the Tickets.
IV. And whether you believe it or not, when you were a Child, you have Divine Bodyguards.
The Bible says in Matthew 18:10; it says your Angels have direct access to God; constantly Monitoring what is going on around you.
V. You have Divine Defence as a Child.
According to Matthew 18:6, if anybody offends you as a Child, the Bible says it is better that they just tie a big milestone round the neck of that Fellow and throw him into the bottom of the sea, so that maybe on the day of Judgement, the stone won’t allow him to come up to face God.
… The Life of a Child, Oh! It’s the Life of Freedom – It was like that when you were born.
Unfortunately, as you begin to grow, you begin to lose some of these Privileges.
I. When you say “I am hungry” they ask you to go and cook.
II. When you grow older still, you have to go and find the food yourself.
III. By the time you are an adult, you have lost almost all the Privileges; and you spend most of your life looking for daily bread.
The Food that used to be free, now you have to Pay for it; the Dress was free, now you have to Pay for it; Transportation was free, now you have to Pay for it.
And if God one way or the other decided to make you Somebody; then you better get your own Bodyguards.
So, you see that Salvation is a great example of Jubilee.
The Bible says you now have a New Beginning, Old things have Passed away and all things have become New.
I. Infact, the Bible describes you when you have just been Born Again; as a Baby.
1 Peter 2:2 says: As Newborn babes, desire the sincere Milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby:
You just get Born Again, as far as God is concerned, you are now a Baby. What should you be drinking? Milk – Says The OPENHEAVEN.NET FAMILY!
To be Born Again means, you can now start afresh; you can begin again from a Brand New Beginning,
II. When you are Born Again, you get a New Name.
… This one given to you by God.
John 1:12 says: But as many as received Him, to them gave He Power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name:
When you were growing up in the world, you got all manners of name. You even Changed the name your Parents gave you.
You used to be Ade, now you are “Adesco”.
Some of you have become “Baba Kee”.
… All manners of New names you Picked up.
But once you are Born Again, when they say: “Who are you?” You can boldly say, “I am a Child of God.”
III. You get a New Provider.
Just like God used to Provide you with ready-made Milk; now you have Somebody who will Provide for your every Needs.
Philippians 4:19 says: But my God shall Supply all your Needs according to His Riches in Glory by Christ Jesus.
… And He Supplies all these Needs now according to His Riches in Glory.
IV. You get a New Protector.
Romans 8:37 says: You become More Than a Conqueror, through Him that loves you. And so on and so forth.
So, those of us who are not Born Again, you don’t know what you sre missing!
The day you become Born Again, that is a Great Day of Jubilee for you; that is why you hear the Bible talking about the Joy of Salvation.
But that’s not the Point I really want to make now. Because I believe that Majority of those who are here at the very beginning, you must be already Born Again.
… The rest of the crowd will come may be later!
WHAT ARE THE SIGNS THAT YOUR SALVATION IS GENUINE?
Because there are many People now who say they are even Born Again, and they don’t have the Signs of Genuine Salvation.
… Because the Signs of Genuine Salvation – you can find by Studying a Child.
That is why Jesus Christ said, unless you receive the Kingdom of God as a Child, you can’t go in.
And What are these Signs?
I will just mention some of them – Matthew 21:16 says, Out of the mouth of babes, God has Perfected Praise.
1. TOTAL ABANDON:
One of the Signs of Genuine Salvation is that when you Praise God, you Praise Him with Total Abandon.
I was in my Prayer Room at the beginning; when the Choruses were going on. And I just looked up to see the Monitor and what did I see?
… I saw Kabiyesi (Traditional Rulers) dancing like children
Ah! I said Father, Thank You! Thank You that these People now have finally got it.
As important as we are; as great as we are; we are children in the hands of the King of Kings.
Some of us, we even have to beg us before we can shout Hallelujah!
You watch children, when we are singing Choruses, they don’t look at you; they don’t care about what you think. They sing, they dance, they jump! They don’t look at anybody. They know they are Praising their Daddy.
How many children of God are here tonight? The OPENHEAVEN.NET FAMILY!!!
Show it by shouting Hallelujah – Hallelujah!!!!
2. COMPLETE SURRENDER.
One of the Signs of Genuine Salvation that you will notice in a Child is what you can call “Complete Surrender”.
Children are easy to carry,
The reason some of us can no longer be carried is because we are already too “big”. (Mark 10:13-16).
And yes, when they brought children to Jesus Christ and some People were trying to say, “Hey, don’t bring them near.” Immediately, Jesus jumped to their defence.
I have Good News for Somebody tonight – OPENHEAVEN.NET FAMILY; because you are going to surrender completely to Jesus Christ, He will begin to carry you – Amen.
… Some of us don’t know the meaning of that!
The Elders have a saying: “It is the child that lifts up his hands that can be carried.” It is the child that would say, “Hey, I am ready to be carried.”
And it is the child that God carries that He Blesses.
When God carries you, He carries all your burden with you.
I am sure you have heard the Story of Somebody who was having a big load on his head and then he saw a car driving by and he asked for a lift. And the driver obliged him. And he entered into the car and kept the load on his head.
“Why are you still carrying your load?” “Oh, you have done enough carrying me.” “If I am carrying you, I already carried your load (Laughs)!”
From this hour onward, the Lord will carry you; if you make yourself carriable – Amen.
I have told you this – Some of you have heard it before; when I was in the saddest Period of my Life, with so many Questions. And I know that even in my deep sorrow, some People were still laughing at me.
I got a text from one of my daughters; all she sent was – “Daddy, let God carry you”.
And that put an end to every Problem. It ended my sorrows, it renewed my Faith.
I am going to ask you a Question: How many of you want God to carry you? – The OPENHEAVEN.NET FAMILY MEMBERS!!!!
Let me hear you shout Hallelujah to Him – HALLELUJAH!!!!!!
… That means, you have to surrender to the One who wants to carry you.
If you want to carry a Child and the Child says no, then you will leave the Child alone.
3. COMPLETE RELIANCE ON GOD.
Another evidence of Genuine Salvation is Complete Reliance on God.
Matthew 6:25-34 says, take no thought, don’t worry; take no thought: “what am I going to eat? What am I going to drink? How am I going to survive?”He says, don’t worry!
You don’t survive because you are careful. You survive because there is Somebody taking care of you.
God brought you thus far; and He has not told you He is tired. He made a Promise, He said from your Mother’s Womb, I have been carrying you. If He wasn’t there when you were in your Mother’s Womb, you will be Stillbirth.
He brought you this far; do you think He is about to abandon you? – No way!
How many of you believe you are going to end well? – The OPENHEAVEN.NET FAMILY MEMBERS!
How many of you believe that your tomorrow will be alright? – The OPENHEAVEN.NET FAMILY MEMBERS!
… Let me hear you shout Hallelujah – Hallelujah!
“Oh Daddy, maybe you don’t know what is going on outside.
There are Terrorists here, there are bandits there. Some People are Planning to come and bomb my State …”
Is God on holidays? Answer my question – No!!!!
I think it was during the Ministers’ Conference, I was asking them – Are you alive today because you took Good care of yourself during the Pandemic? Is that why you are still alive?
And I said to them – Throughout the Period, I never saw a Single Fellow wearing a Nosemask in Ifewara (that is my Village). I never saw one! And I went home several times.
And you know what? Not a Single one of them died.
Who took care of them? – God!
If you believe that God is going to take care of you for the rest of your Life, wave your hands to Him and shout Hallelujah – Hallelujah!
… So, that brings me towards the Conclusion of the Message – I told you it will be brief.
When you got Born Again, you were like a baby – You Praised God like a baby, danced like a baby and Prayed like a baby.
And you know what? In those early days, almost before you stop Praying, the answer would come! You were having Testimonies almost every day; almost Per Second, Per Second.
Why? – Because you were a baby. When a baby cries, before you know it, the Mother has come running. But then, you began to grow!
SIGNS OF BACKSLIDING
So, I want to say, What are the Signs of Backsliding? How do you know you are Backsliding? How do we know that your Love is no longer like that of the Beginning?
Jesus wrote to a Church – “Oh you are doing great work. You have done this, you have done that. He said, I have one thing against you, “You have left your First Love and things are no longer as they used to be.”
OPENHEAVEN.NET NOTES: This was a Summary of the Letter that was written to the Church in Ephesus as documented in Revelations 2: 1-7.
What are some of the Signs that you have become Lukewarm; that you are no longer a Baby in the sight of God?
1. It is that now, you Worry about Many Things.
A child never worries – Never! It doesn’t matter what is happening; when it is time to sleep, the child is fast asleep.
And Jesus Christ said in John 14:1 – Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
Are worrying now? – You need a Jubilee!
2. Another Sign of Backsliding is that some People offended you; you have forgiven them; that only you have not forgotten.
At least you Pretendef that you have forgiven them; until the next time they do something and you say, “Hey, that’s what you did seven (7) years ago and I forgave you.” – You begin to harbour bitterness.
You will never find that in a Child!
You see two (2) children Playing and then you hear a cry, you go there and say, “What is the Problem?” – He took my toy, I am not going to Play with him anymore.
What happens two (2) Minutes later? They are already Playing again; they have forgotten!
As a New Baby in Christ, there will be no Bitterness in you.
Hebrews 12:15 says: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God; lest any root of Bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
… What is the next Sign that maybe”I am Backsliding, oooh I am here tonight?”
3. It is that your Faith is now Wavering: you are beginning to have doubts.
Children never know what is called doubt – Their Faith in their Parents never wavers.
Like I shared with the Pastors; Someone said, “when you throw up a Child, the Child will be laughing, enjoying the throwing up.” Why? Because the child is sure you will catch him; “Throw me up, throw me up higher…”
But then, even though you have read, “Forever Oh Lord, thy Word is settled,” (Psalms 119:89) you are beginning to say, well, maybe, Perhaps ….
That is a Sign of Backsliding!
If He says it, He will do it. He is not a man that He should lie.
“… But I have been waiting for some time.”
He is the Almighty God. He knows the End from the Beginning. When He said: say ye to the Righteous, it shall be well with him (Isaiah 3:10) – That is Settled.
It means, it doesn’t matter what is happening, if you are His baby, your tomorrow will be alright!
James 1:5-7 says: You want Wisdom, ask God. He will give you liberally. But when you are asking, don’t waver – ask Him in Faith, believe Him, don’t doubt.
“I have come to Conventions before, and I came trusting God for one thing or the other. Up till now, He hasn’t done it.”
Ha! Are you dead yet? Daddy is on His Throne.
He made a Promise to Abraham, He didn’t fulfill the Promise until Twenty five (25) years later. But He is still God!
And in this Particular Convention, in the Name that is above every other names, all your Prayers will be answered by Fire – Amen!!!
4. Another Sign that you are Backsliding is Hypocrisy.
When you begin to Pretend, you are one thing, you Pretend to be another.
You come to a Meeting, it is time to Praise God, you are Singing the Choruses correctly, but you are not even Paying attention to the words anymore.
And as far as God is concerned – In Isaiah 29:13-1, God says: if you draw near Me with your mouth and your heart is far from Me, then you are asking for trouble.
We know the Choruses offhand, we just sing it, it flows out of our mouth but it doesn’t come from our hearts anymore.
Some of us, we have already learnt the Language of a Christian, but the real Christianity is no longer in us.
… I will mention only one more, because of time:
5. Another Sign that you are Backsliding is Lying.
Children don’t lie – they don’t!
I am sure you have heard, maybe it’s true Story or a joke – That somebody came to collect house rent and the Mother saw the Landlord coming before the Landlord could see her.
So, she told her daughter; “go and tell him that I am not in”. And the daughter went to the Landlord and said, “My Mother asked me to tell that she is not in.” (Laugher)!
Revelation 22:15 made it clear that all liars will be outside the Kingdom of Heaven.
All liars – Whether the lies are White or Black, or what we call Business lies.
Just check – “Am I where I used to be when I got Born Again when I was a Baby in Christ? Do I wake up in the morning when I first got Born Again with a Song of Praise coming out of my mouth – Joy erupted in me?”
“Do I rely completely on God as I used to do when I got Born Again? Am I now living in fear? Do I have doubts as to my future? Am I beginning to put just a little bit of lies here and there?”
Then you need a Jubilee – You need a Restoration, you need a New Beginning.
And that Jubilee can begin today – For The OPENHEAVEN.NET FAMILY MEMBERS.
ALTAR CALL
So, I am appealing first and foremost to all those who have not yet surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ, come and do so now.
When a man is in Christ, he is a New Creature, Old things are Passed away, behold all things are become New.
You can have your Restoration tonight; you can have a New Beginning tonight – if you come to Him, this time Genuinely seeking for Salvation.
I am not going to make an Altar Call for Backsliders; if I do that, there won’t be enough space here.
But if you check yourself and you find out “Things are not the same as when I first gave my Life to Jesus Christ.”
Where you are, you will cry unto God for Forgiveness, for Restoration, for an opportunity to start Afresh.
But for those of you who want to give your Life to Jesus Christ, I am going to court from 1 to 10. You have to hurry up to come because I will be willing to join my Faith with yours, that tonight, you will get Genuine Salvation.
Shall we Please, Stand wherever you are now?
So those of you who want to give your Life to Jesus Christ, come forward very, very quickly: let your Jubilee begin at this moment.
Also, right where you are now or reading this Message now on the Label of OPENHEAVEN.NET: those of you who know that things are not the way it used to be. Even where you are, Stand and begin to cry to God. Ask Him to forgive and restore you.
Let’s begin to Pray!
Begin to cry to Jesus Christ – Say Lord; save my Soul. I want to become a New Creature, a Brand New Creature in You. Please Lord, save my Soul, receive me into the Family of God as a New Baby of the Most High God.
If you are here right now or reading on the Label of OPENHEAVEN.NET, and any of these Signs of Backsliding is not in your Life; then just keep on Praising God that He has kept you.
But if you know that things are not exactly the way they used to be – That now you doubt God, now your Faith has been wavering; you better cry unto Him and say Lord Restore me!
Thank You Father! In Jesus’ Mighty Name we have Prayed – Amen.
PRAYER FOR SALVATION.
Saviour I just want to say Thank You!
Thank You for Your Word. Thank You for these People who have decided to surrender their lives to you.
Please, receive them! Have Mercy on them, let Your Blood wash away their sins. Save their Souls, give them Genuine Salvation.
Receive them into the Family of God, give them Brand New Names from Heaven.
And from now on, anytime they call on You, answer them by Fire! And let them serve You forever.
Thank You Almighty God. In Jesus’ Mighty Name we have Prayed – Amen.
Now I want to rejoice with those of you who just surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ; Because I want to assure you, God helping me, I will be Praying for you everyday from now on.
So I am going to need your names, your Address and your Prayer Requests.
And from this Point forward, the Almighty God will begin to take care of you.
Now, the rest of us, How many of you believe that when God speaks it is done? – The OPENHEAVEN.NET FAMILY MEMBERS!
Do you really believe that? Yes Sir!
Then Stand on your feet!
In the Passage that one of the Brethren who came before me read to you – Jeremiah 29:10: For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and Perform my Good Word toward you, in causing you to return to this Place.
If you have already confessed to Him your lukewarmness, your doubts, and unbelieve; I believe He will visit you – Amen!
So I want you to cry to the Almighty God with all your heart;
… And you can pray for as long as you want!
But, I need to inform you that, after the Prayer tonight, the Drama Group of the Church have put together a very beautiful Drama – as a Film which they will show immediately after we finish here. And I think you will benefit from it!