Preacher: Pastor Tunde Jenrola

(Parish Pastor, CTL, LP 20)

Hallelujah! Jehovah Ropheka, we trust in You that even as we worship You, because there is healing in Your name, You will touch us in the name of Jesus.  We trust You already that there is healing in the bodies, healing in the soul, healing of the spirit, healing of businesses, healing of families, healing of careers, healing of wounded hearts, healing for our nation, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Father, we thank You; we thank You for Your presence in our midst, we thank You for what you have already done, we thank You for that which You will do; Father, thank You for Your Word; thank You because You are going to speak to us this morning; Father Lord, we ask for the grace of understanding and the grace for Your word to find fulfillment in our lives in the name of Jesus.

My God and my Father, Your desire for us is that we are winners in all circumstances of life, Father Lord, from today, if there is anything working against us winning, Lord God of heaven, take them away in Jesus mighty name.

Thank You my God and my Father, glory be to Your name forevermore, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed. Praise the Lord!

Thank God for the gift of life, thank God for the salvation of my soul; I would like to appreciate our father in the Lord, the APICR, for this privilege that I have to stand before you this morning, I pray that the mighty hands of God will be upon him continually in Jesus mighty name, Amen.

Brethren, before we go into the message today, I would want to invite all of us to the prayer chain tomorrow at 6:30 in the evening; the theme for tomorrow prayer chain is ‘You are a Divine Project’, Jeremiah 1: 4 – 12, praise God!

Numbers 13: 17 – 33 , “As Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain: ¹⁸And see the land, what it is: and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many; ¹⁹And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strongholds; ²⁰And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be good therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes.

²¹So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men came to Hamath. ²²And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt). ²³And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. ²⁴The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.

²⁵And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. ²⁶And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷And they told him, and said, We came onto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it flowerg with milk and honey: and this is the fruit of it. ²⁸Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. ²⁹The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.

³⁰And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. ³¹But the men that went up with him said, we be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. ³²And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, the land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof (how come the people there are still alive?); and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. ³³And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Praise the Lord!

“The Psychology of Winning”, that is our topic for today; quickly we will look at the two keywords there – psychology and winning, and then we’ll go into the word, the background of the message, and then go into the details of the message. I’m not an expert in psychology, so I consulted the dictionary to just look at the meaning of psychology; it says it is the scientific study of the mind and behavior. It looks at how the mind works and how that affects our behavior. So that says to me, psychology is about what is the mind saying, what is the mind doing? If you know what the mind is saying or what’s going on in the mind, then you can predict the behavior, the action that follows it.

I was trying to give examples here; some days ago, I was driving early in the morning to the office, and then I got to a point where there were people who wanted to cross the road, so I stopped, I was the next to the people crossing, so I stopped, because it was morning time, everybody was going to work, it was a rush hour, practically everybody was hurrying to cross, but there was this young man that was just doing like government pikin, in my mind, I was like go now, but something immediately told me, check his mind, the mind of this young man is ‘let us see if he will harass me, press the horn or do something’ and then the next action will take place.

I said okay, now that I understand, so I balanced also, I was also looking at him; when he finished and noticed I didn’t do anything, he looked back as if he was disappointed, but what had happened was, if I had done anything in a way to hurry him up, you don’t know who else was waiting elsewhere and then say he’s harassing, he’s doing this and that, that’s a kind of thing about psychology.

Another example, one that many of us are used to: if you are going and suddenly you see a dog, (I was laughing this morning when the APICR was making an example of a dog), the first instinct is you want to run, but the moment the dog sees you running, he runs after you, do you know why, the dog thinks you want to play; he’d say oh, I have not had a playmate for some time, so the dog is running after you. But if you understand the psychology of dog and say this dog wants to play and now you don’t have time to play, you will stay; if the dog is charging at you, look around for something like a stick and scare the dog away to go, but that’s psychology.       

Now when we talk about winning; winning, on the other hand, is gaining victory or something related to victory in the contest or a competition, and it is to achieve victory in a contest. Winning is an adjective from the word win, so all of us know the word win, other words for that is being victorious, prevailing, succeeding, conquering, triumphing. So to win, suggests that there is a competition, you can’t win when there is no competition, and you see sometimes, this competition that we talk about, you don’t even see it. For example, living is a competition; that you are alive today is a confirmation that you have won a certain battle, let somebody shout, Hallelujah. So I have winners in the house, because you have overcome certain things, praise the living Jesus.

So it may be competition that is seen or not seen, it may be simple, it may be in the office, it may be in the business – you bid for a contract, its competition, somebody eventually wins. From today, God will make you winners in the mighty name of Jesus.

Living is a contest; that you are alive today, like I said, is victory on its own; that you are well, you are hale and hearty is victory on its own. Because the Bible tells us in Psalm 34: 19 that many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord God delivered him from them all, hallelujah! So the psychology of winning speaks to how our mind can play a significant role in the result that we get out of my life, and I know that a typical man or woman wants to win, has a desire to win, so the psychology, what it does is the role that our mind plays in getting things done in our favor, in getting success, in being victorious, and the Lord will make us victorious in the name of Jesus.

Proverbs 23: 7, the Bible says as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he; Proverbs 4: 23, the Bible says keep your heart with all diligence: for out of it are the issues of life; Proverbs 22:29, the Bible says, seest thou a man who is diligent in his business… so there’s a psychology to winning, you do not only want it, you do not only desire it, you must grab it, praise the living Jesus.

There’s a story I have here about a certain man called Nabal; David sent people to him to say give us something out of your supplies, (I won’t be able to go into the scripture) and then he reacted somehow, and David was about to go and destroy him, but the wife Abigail heard and said ah, this man is coming to kill him, so she ran to David and calmed him down and then he spared his life.

But you know, the interesting things happened after – subsequently a few days after, the man died on his own, David did not touch him; subsequently also, as soon as the man died, Abigail became the wife of David, there’s a psychology to winning, she became a queen, praise the living Jesus! May the Lord teach us aright in Jesus mighty name.

So we’ll go into the passage we read from and take a bit of context from it: the background to that passage is that after the children of Israel came out of Egypt and they got into the wilderness, they’ve been there for some time, God has sustained them, and then it was about time to go into the Promised Land, because remember the wilderness was not where God promised him for them, the wilderness was just a pass through for them. So they got there and then one day God called Moses and said tell the children of Israel, the land I want to give to them, let them go and look at that land; so select one man from each tribe of Israel (that is twelve men), not just any man, select the leaders of the tribes.

So Moses selected the twelve representatives of the tribes, they were the ones that we saw in this passage now that went to spy the land. So they went to spy the land, I will put their activities of spying the land into three buckets; the first one is a preview, a preview is an opportunity to see something before it happens, hallelujah! So it was a preview, and God was saying, go and check the land before you will even get into it, go and check it and see what exactly is there; Luke 14: 28 tells us, if there is anybody who wants to build a tower, the person must first check the cost. God says you are going to a new place, you are going to a new land, just go and see it for yourselves.

In addition to checking the cost, He was passing three messages to them; first, He was saying to them, go and see it so you will understand the challenges that lie ahead of you. So many times brethren, when we see challenges, they are not actually the problem; they are actually a landmark unto our success. God says, go and see it, God knew that the children of Anak were there, God knew that the cities were walled, God knew the people were fierce and big, but He said go and see.

The second thing God wanted to do was to inspire them, because they saw the fruit; I asked you to take note of certain things – there was a bunch of grapes, they needed two soldiers to carry it, one on each shoulder and they put a stick in between, you can imagine how big that was; God wanted them to see how fruitful the land was, so that at least there will be some excitement and say ha, this is what we are coming to.

And then finally, God wanted them to now take a decision after seeing that. Take a decision, trust Him, because they knew that there were giants there, but they also knew that there was something good, how do I get the something good and defeating the giant, they needed to trust God for that. Remember the story of David, there was Goliath, the David wanted the prize – the daughter of the king, when the Goliath was standing in between, David trusted God.

Brethren, in life, there are opportunities and there are threats; there are things that, hey, this thing can kill, but if I overcome it, there’s a benefit. We need to trust God, that’s where the psychology comes in; our mindset should be such that if God has asked me to go in there, then God will give it to me, how He will do it I do not know, but surely, He will do it, praise the living Jesus.

So they went to the land, they tried to understand the terrain – how many people were there, are they small people, are they big people? They did that eventually, also, they went to bring the fruit of the land, they brought fruit of different types, and then when they came back, they gave everything and reported to Moses.

The second bucket is when they came back, they now decided to analyze their findings; so the first set of people came and said, all of them agreed that ah, that land is good – brethren, God is taking you to a good land, a land that flows with milk and money in the mighty name of Jesus. So they said that land is good, there is abundance, it flows with milk and honey, the grapes were so big that we needed two warriors to carry it.

Numbers 13:25 – 27, then they now said the people there are strong, they are very great, the cities are walled, the giants lived there, Amalekites and all those difficult people lived there, those were the analysis. Brethren, the facts and the truth, they are not the same thing; they stated the facts but God is the truth.

And that takes us to the third bucket of their findings, or their journey, which is now to take a decision based on their findings. So that split them into two categories of ten, they came and said we will not be able to go there, with all the goodies, me, I don’t want to die young; those giants, we look like grasshoppers before them, they will just crash us; the land, it is inhabitants, and I said to myself that haba, when you went there, didn’t you see people there? It would have finished eating all of them before you got there; then they went there again to say that all the people they saw there were men of great stature.

In summary, they were saying, God, You have said Your own, we do not want to die, we will remain where we are. Is there anybody like that in the house? God says go and do, and then you get there and see something difficult, and you say you back up because you can’t surmount the mountain; as God said it, will He not do it? If God asks you to do something, He knows already that there is a problem ahead, He alone knows how He’s going to solve that problem and indeed He will solve it, praise the living Jesus!

Then the second group of people, while that person was talking, Caleb came and said please hold it there, even though what you have said is correct up until the point that the people there were giants and all that, but we were able to take over the land. He now said you this small one, how? He said I have a Father who is the King of kings, who is the Lord of lords, who is the Almighty God, Arannibanise, that is His name, He is the One going to empower me.

Brethren, do you remember when David was meeting Goliath, King Saul said you this small boy, okay, if you want to die, go and die, but David said, when the lion came, God empowered me and I tore it; the bear came also, I defeated it, how much more. He is saying it is not by power, it’s not by might, but the Spirit of the living God.

          Brethren, when you face those giants in life, when you face situations that look as if they are going to swallow the inhabitants, when you face situations that make you look like grasshoppers, remember that you have a God who is the King of kings, who is the Lord of lords, who is the Man of war, who is the Almighty, the One who alone has the victory with Him, and until that’s what separated the two of them. Remember they were all leaders, so they knew the scripture, they had read the scripture, but in the face of opposition they forgot God; when troubles come, when challenges come, don’t forget God.

Those people forgot God, they forgot all the things that God had done, they forgot all His miracles, how He parted the Red Sea right in their presence, they forgot when they got to the wilderness, how there was no water and God took them to a place called Elim where there were 12 wells, (Exodus 15) and 70 palm trees; they forgot how when there was no water at a place called Marah that God brought out water out of the rock; they forgot when there was no food and God rained manna every day, morning and evening, flesh and bread, where was all these knowledge? The mountain before them blinded it, may the mountain not blind your sight in the name of Jesus.

2nd Corinthians 4: 3 & 4, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: ⁴In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not …” there is a power in this world that says oh, you’ve gone to church on Sunday, you’ve heard the scripture, you’re excited, and then it puts a screen and then when the issues of life come, you are running around like any other person, brethren, the Lord will lift that veil in the mighty name of Jesus; the Lord will make you who He wants you to be in the name of Jesus.

So the second group say we remember this God, we remember the miracles, we remember what He had done for our fathers, and we remember His words, Numbers 23:19, that He is not a man that He should lie, whenever  He says it, it is done already. Is there anything God has said concerning you? It is done already; they remembered Psalm 62: 11, it says once He has spoken, twice I have heard, that power belongs to God, there’s no power elsewhere but in God. They remembered all these and their strength came, they did not know what they were saying, they only trusted the Word of God and said we are able to take the land, praise the living Jesus!

Now you know what happened, the story continued and of course they took the land, and my mind was, those 10 people, where would they be, hiding. May you not go into hiding when you should be celebrating in the name of Jesus, and may you not lose your inheritance by reason of not understanding or bringing to bare the Word of God that you know in the name of Jesus.

So how does this pertain to us, brethren? We are living at a very auspicious time in the history, the things that we are seeing today, well, I’m not that old but I know that there are many people here who can tell us history, I don’t think we have seen it before, the difficulties, the challenges and guess what, the devil has become so bold that he’s flying different kites to people. You see youths, drugs, you see kidnapping and all sorts, we all know it, we’ve never seen this before and in the midst of it, God remains God, the word that God has given to you must come to pass, so if people are looking at these and are saying with this (dollar) economy that is this much, how am I going to buy a car? In this place where all companies are folding up, when I finish studying, how am I going to get a job? In this situation where families are fighting, is it worth it going into marriage?

Brethren, God has a purpose for your life, and that purpose He will surely bring to pass in the mighty name of Jesus. Remember, life itself is a battle and you must win because John 16: 33, the Bible says in this world, there will be tribulation, but be of good cheer because He has overcome. Those things that we are going through may be part of that story (for the children of Israel), for those spies, part of their story, the template God has written for them was to face those giants; God was going to save them anyway, but they needed to go through it. Maybe what you are going through now is part of your own story, why do you want to hulk when you have the big God, praise God!

I want us to remember that we have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit which other ally or greater ally can anybody have. Exodus 15: 3, the Bible says the God that we have is a Man of war; the Lord is His name; say it to the devil, bring it on, my God, my Father is a Man of war, Hallelujah!

I want us to remember that He demonstrated this in the case of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Daniel 3: 15 – 28; the king aid you will not bow down, okay let’s see who your God is. If there’s anybody who is asking, let us see who your God is, the extent that you are standing on the truth and you are right before God, God will prove Himself to them in the mighty name of Jesus. He demonstrated it in the lives of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and He will make a way for us in the name of Jesus.

In Isaiah 43: 11, it says even I, I am the Lord, and beside me, there is no savior. If Somebody is the Lord and no other person can save you, once you run under His cover, He becomes your cover; if anybody wants to come at you, first, they must break His hold upon you and nobody can do that, hallelujah!  

As we try to summarize and conclude, what are your challenges today, brethren? What are your problems? What are the difficulties? What are the mountains? What represents the children of Anak? What are the Canaanites before you? Many times, God wants to launch us but He tries us; God had purposed to give them the Promised Land anyway, but He wanted to see the spirit of those that were going to take what He’s going to give, but you know what happened to them, in Numbers 14, God was annoyed when He saw how the whole congregation of Israel took the story and they were saying, Moses, this is where you want to kill us, take us back, we would have stayed in Egypt; God was annoyed but Moses interceded  and said please, have mercy; He said okay, however, everybody who failed to appreciate and understand that I am God, will not see the Promised Land.

Brethren, and that happens to us in life, God has prepared a Promised Land for us, many times we get there, just a tipping point and then something happens, we are not able to take it, may you not miss your Promised Land in the mighty name of Jesus; every encouragement that you need, the Lord Almighty will give to you in the mighty name of Jesus.

As you go through the challenges of life, the message today is you must bring to bear that you are a child of God; you must bring to bear all the scriptures that you know; you must bring to bear the miracles that God has done in the past; you must bring to bear your knowledge of God – who is He, what is He able to do? And then we will overcome the mountains.

Think about the victories that He has given before; I told you about David before, 1st Samuel 17, he said lion came, I killed it, gear came, I killed it, this one will go the same way. He was a boy, the Bible says Goliath’s height was six cubits and one span, I went to look at what that is, one interpretation said 11ft, I believe David would be very short, praise the living Jesus! We must have faith in the presence of our opposition; in the presence of the current challenges, brethren, God still looks after His people, don’t give up, don’t take irrational decisions, don’t do anything that will not glorify God; God has your name written on His palm, He’s taking care of you and all that belongs to you, praise the living Jesus!

I want us to remember brethren, that winning, to win in life is an attitude, there’s a psychology to it, there is a mindset to winning, so if there’s anyone who’s already given up to that sickness, if there’s anyone who is already given away the possibility of making it in life, I pray that your spirit will wake up again in the mighty name of Jesus.

You must approach life with a positive mind, you must approach life in the perspective of a winner. I remember when I was preparing this, there’s something that happened to me in 1993, (31 years ago); I was going to get a job, so I went for an interview and it was a celebrated place at that time, but before I went there, the gentleman, my friend who submitted my CV had told me, this people like to brag about their building, the office, the beauty and all that, so when you come they will ask you what do you think about this building, so he had told me before; so when I got to the interview hall, after everything he said, by the way, what do you think about our building, do you like it? I smiled and said you people, God has given you to me today, so I said this one, what about the building, it’s okay, it’s fine but there’s nothing, I live in Ogudu, come there and see better buildings and all that.

So they all kept quiet, I didn’t come to say I’m like a grasshopper, I gave it to them, the next day they called me, when are you going to start? Brethren, you are not a grasshopper, don’t present yourself to anybody under any situation as though you are a grasshopper because the moment you come out as one, they will see you as it. You are a child of God, you are a winner, that’s who you are, go out that way, you are a giant slayer, you are not a grasshopper; and that situation marked the turning point because that was the beginning of change, not only in my life, in my family, my father and mother, that brought change, praise the living Jesus! 

I refer to a passage in 2nd Corinthians 4, it says that the god of this world has blinded the mind of some people so that the light of the gospel is not able to penetrate them, and when the light of the gospel is not able to penetrate, the truth in the gospel cannot make meaning to them, and if the truth in the gospel cannot make meaning to them, you cannot stand out there and declare the word, because you won’t even remember it, you won’t even know how to apply it, praise God!

The moment however, you become a child of God, this god of the world will not have control over you anymore, so he cannot blindside you and then Psalm 119: 130 will become real in your life, the Bible says the entrance of His words gives light and gives understanding;  so today, if you are here this morning, you do not know God, you have heard about Him but you’ve never accepted Him as Lord and Savior, so you don’t know Him, I want to invite you to a life where the light of God will shine upon your life, and then the scripture, the word of God will make meaning into your life and then in the face of opposition, you can say to the mountain, get off into the sea.

[Altar call]

Let’s begin to give thanks to God, for His mercy, for His faithfulness, for His love; ket us give thanks to God, Father, we, thank You; thank you for Your word, thank You for Your mercy, glory be to Your name forevermore, Father thank You, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.

We are going to take a few prayer points; when the ten spies got to the point and it appeared every word of scripture they knew flew away out of their mind and they began to say garbage, 2nd Corinthians 4: 4, the god of this world blinded their mind and the word could not illuminate their heart anymore. I don’t know, in the face of challenges you forget God, you forget the scripture, you forget what He has ever done for you, from today, that will be a thing of the past in the mighty name of Jesus.

So we are going to pray and say Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, every activity of the god of this world to blind my mind from the illumination of Your word, Father, put an end to it in the mighty name of Jesus; every activity of the god of this world to blind my mind from receiving the illumination of Your word, Father, put a stop to it in the name of Jesus, thank You Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.

          You know what happened to the ten spies and every other person who believed their story, someone who is (let us assume) coming from Awe in Oyo state, you want to come to Lekki, you’ve been on a smooth ride and then the person got to the gate of Lekki and had a car crash, just at the point of entrance, that’s what happened to those people, God only needed them to be inspired and then they move, because if you look at Exodus 14, later in that passage, the Amalekites came and God said go and attack them and that was the beginning of the journey into the Promised Land.

You are going to pray, Father, please don’t let me fail at the point of victory in the mighty name of Jesus. Father, please don’t let me fail at the point of victory anymore, thank You Father, in Jesus, mighty name we have prayed.

        Brethren, there is one thing that is common to every human being, and it is the desire to win, everybody wants to win but not everybody wins, because everybody does not exhibit the right attitude to win. But from today, you will start winning, and you will keep winning in the mighty name of Jesus.

So you are going to pray and say, Father, please imbibe in me the right attitude for winning at every time, in everything, and always in the mighty name of Jesus.

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Thank You Jesus,

Salvation Prayers

If you don’t Know Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour and would like to accept him into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, Please say this prayer:

Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from You. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward You. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that Your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send Your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your Will for the rest of my life. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

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