Transcription
[Applause] [Music] [Applause]
Thank you very much. Please sit. My dear father in the Lord, Bishop Michael Kong for doing me the exceptional honor of this invitation to deliver your 80th birthday lecture. And I must say that I would not have passed up this opportunity for anything for any reason. Why? And why is this? Bishop Okono has been an important catalytic part of my own journey spiritually and politically.
The first time that I heard Bishop Okono preach was on television. I was not a born again Christian. Then he was wearing a shirt with a tie and suspended. [Applause] He preached he preached for a few minutes about repentance and salvation in Christ. And he made an altar call. And when he finished praying for those who might have been saved, he said something that I had never heard before. He said, "Go to a Bible believing church near you. let the pastor know you have received Christ so that they can help you to grow in the faith." And it crossed my mind that this was unusual to pay for a TV broadcast and not advertise your own church. It remained with me for very many years after and subsequently in years to come I also became a Christian a born again Christian.
The the second notable encounter of course I'd interacted with uh Bishop Mike for you know several years after that. But the second notable encounter was when in 2014 2015 I was nominated as vice presidential candidate of the APC. There was a controversy at the time amongst Christian leaders as to whether our ticket that is the Bhari or Shiva ticket should be supported. Bishop M had made up his mind and made it clear that he was supporting our ticket because of me. [Applause]
A meeting a meeting of senior Pentecostal leaders was called to decide the matter. They were all men of God who I knew well and who knew me well. It was Bishop Mike who asked me to attend the meeting to make my case to the other leaders. I I arrived at the venue of the meeting and I sat in the waiting room. Many of the influential leaders at that meeting insisted that I must not be allowed into the meeting for and many of course considered my candidacy an aberration and they clearly did not support the ticket. Bishop Mike was so angry and he said he was shocked that a born-again Christian pastor who they all knew well would not be given an opportunity to speak to speak to Christian leaders about a matter of such great grave importance. When the matter was becoming a near altercation I was advised to leave. Bishop Mike remained adamant. I left of course but Bishop Mike remained adamant that I must be given a chance to make my case to the Christian leadership.
A few days a few days later he welcomed me to the meeting of regional heads of the Pentecostal fellow fellowship of Nigeria that was holding them at the TM headquarters. There he gave me an opportunity to speak. It was an important meeting because I was able to clarify several misconceptions about our party and its presidential candidate. Through the years, Bishop Mike remained a steadfast supporter, helper, and guide of my political journey until I left office. Sir, I am extremely grateful not just for your forthrightness and strong support even when it did not appear at the time that we could even win the election but even more for your constant support and encouragement till this very day. I want to thank you very much sir because not only did you stand up when very few were prepared to stand up but you spoke up courageously to people to many people who to many people at the time and you spoke in a manner that I think you know even I was surprised because several of those who you challenged on that occasion are people who usually are not challenged in that way.
So I want to thank you very much sir in your in your remarkable in your remarkable run in ministry you've had the unflinching love and support of our mother in the Lord Bishop Pison and I'm not sure I think the story I heard is true that when Bishop Mike was a poor struggling preacher after leaving his lucrative ative banking job in obedience to the call of God to ministry. Bishop peace who was then doing very well in England still left all her comfort and chose to join Bishop Mike here in Nigeria. Your steadfastness and loyalty and love then and since have birthed this lighthouse of the ministry whose impact continues to re reverberate all over the world. Thank you for being a beacon of exemplary Christianity for this generation. Thank you.
Those who like the two servants add value to the talents or resources they that they have and those who do not. So you take Africa's cocoa industry for instance. Africa produces most of the world's raw cocoa. In many cases, countries export raw cocoa, adding no value. However, countries that have no cocoa at all, but process cocoa into chocolate capture 96% of the profits. The raw materials producers receive only 4% of the value. So God gave subsaharan Africa 230 million hectares of arable land. He gave Israel only 440,000 hectares less than a million hectares of arable land. But Israel is a net exporter of agricultural produce and subsaharan Africa is a net importer of agricultural produce despite all the arable land. Now this illustration shows how adding value through processing creates wealth.
So the Puritans on the pool pits of Europe traditionally thought that this work-based approach to prosperity prosperity emphasizing hard work diligence adding value to resources building wealth gradually through consistent effort. So the meaning of the power to get wealth as is contained in Deuteronomy 8:18 is that God gives us the power of creativity and innovation to be productive as we work diligently. Now this is now this is this unfortunately is contrary or the opposite of messages that we hear sometimes on our pullpits in Nigeria and many parts of Africa. messages on miraculous wealth, messages on miracle, miracle money alerts, anointing for wealth and various versions of the doctrine that donations or sewing seeds will automatically return as wealth. Now these types of messages do not build economies or institutions. Rather rather they create a mindset that wealth will come by supernatural means and they urge that we ignore the work and productivity and that we focus on the miraculous. That of course is no way to build nations. And that is why the gospel that transformed other nations economically and transformed societies economically is powerless to do the same if we preach the gospel in the wrong way.
Second, the preachers of the reformation preached that every type of work, every legitimate occupation was a calling through which God accomplishes his purposes. So their message was that serving God was not necessarily being a full-time pastor or church worker, whatever your occupation was, so long as it was done faithfully as unto God. Martin Luther, for example, held that what seemed or is described as secular occupations um misnomer such as farming, trading, engineering, accounting or teaching or even household uh even household chores. He said that they are seen by God as praise to him when done faithfully and that they represent an obedience which is well pleasing to God.
So the preachers of the gospel also emphasized honesty and integrity in every aspect of life. The church in Germany for example had a catechism on the ten commandments which was taught regularly. So for example, the commandment thou shalt not steal was broken down into various practical implications. So if you're an employee and you use your employer's time for your own benefit, you're stealing because you are being paid and not working for your pay. And they give a practical example. They say even if you leave work to attend a church service without the permission of your boss, you are stealing because you are getting paid without working. So taking uh taking money that does not belong to you. Yes. No wonder the average German worker developed a strong work ethic and strong values of integrity.
John Calvin who established his ministry in the very important business and trading city of Geneva in the 16th century. He preached that honest and fair trading practices were important in glorifying God. So he preached to the congregations in in Geneva and of course this was a great influence all over Europe that even to glorify God that you cannot glorify God without being an honest person without being an honest trader. You cannot glorify God. He taught that cheating in commerce was a sin against the image of God in my brother. carving through his teaching and preaching and advocacy got the authorities of the state of Geneva which later became a part of Switzerland to enact laws to ensure that the use of standardized weights and measures in trading was came into force and also to prevent cheating and dishonesty. Calvin's model influenced Protestant towns across Europe. Many of them adopted similar ordinances and enforcement bodies and so they laid the early foundations for consumer protections and corporate accountability in modern legal systems. So when we talk about consumer protection today when we talk about corporate accountability today in our legal systems these foundations were laid by uh John Calvin and the protestants of that time.
The vigorous teachings from the pull pits on ethics in business, ethics in the factories and places of work led to a revolution in the work ethic in many parts of Europe. Which is why the work ethic of honest hard work and diligence was actually named after Christians of that era. It was called the puritanic work ethic. So all over Europe and later American uh America this was how Christian principles were taught and how the Christians in the marketplace in politics in the professions in entertainment were able to influence their societies and establish righteousness everywhere they were found. No wonder then that in those nations stealing of public funds, bribery and corruption were the exception and certainly not the rule. The church itself condemned dishonest practices and corruption openly. It was clear that you could not bring money which was the proceeds of corruption near the church because hard work and productivity and integrity were the only acceptable ways of acquiring wealth as a Christian. Any sudden or unexplained wealth would lead to ostracization. You will be ostracized from the church if you were found to have money that you couldn't explain.
The church in that era also preached the egalitarian notions of liberty, of justice, of fairness and equal and equality. The pullpits teaching from Genesis 1:27 that God created man in his own image meant that all men were equal before God and all the laws and actions must protect that equality. It was these principles that established the principles of fundamental human rights, the universal declaration of rights and equal treatment under the law. In the same way they preached that they preached what then became the founding uh principles of the rule of law. And this is found in Deuteronomy 17 18-20 that the king himself must obey the law so that no one is above the law. The law the and and and the law the law stands over all. The law stands over everyone. So the Magna Carta libertatum many of us lawyers are familiar with the Magna Carta which is the greatest charter of the liberties from which all of the other charters of liberties have been derived including the universal declaration of human rights and all other charters of freedom. All of them are founded on Christian principles.
How about taking care of the poor? How about taking care of the poor and the vulnerable? The Puritan preachers reminded their congregations that even in the Old Testament, God made it abundantly clear that caring for the poor was non-negotiable for his people and that he will bless those who did so. in Deuteronomy 15:7-11 lays out God's heart and he says, "If there is among you a poor man of your brethren within any of the gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly to lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs." Indeed, the only context where God promises to bless all that you do is when you are given to the poor. Deuteronomy 15:10. This theme echoes throughout scripture. Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and he will reward them for what they have done. Proverbs 19:17. If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and you satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness. Isaiah 58:10. God ties our light, our healing, and our blessing to how we treat the hungry and the afflicted. So the Puritans preached, they preached on their pulpits that the early Christians considered the welfare of the poor a cornerstone of the Christian faith.
Talking about the fresh mandate, Paul uh it was when he was talking about the fresh mandate that he received for his ministry from the elders of the church in Jerusalem. He said in in Galatians 2:9-10, he said that all that the elders in Jerusalem desired of him is that he should remember the Paul. The very thing which I also was eager to do. In James 1:27, religion, true religion is defined. It says religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless in very practical terms is what? To look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. So caring for widows and orphans, the people at the bottom of society is what God calls pure religion. And the Puritans demonstrated in their preaching how in Acts 4:32-35 the early Christians took responsibility for the poor in their midst. In verse 32 he says, "Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. Neither did anyone say that any of the things that he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked. None among the Christian population lacked. Why was there anyone who did? Was there no one who lacked? It says, "For all who were possessors of land or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at their apostles feet, and they distributed to each as anyone had need." And this is important because sometimes people give the impression that what is required is to sell everything, lay it at the apostles feet, and none will lack. No, that's not what the scriptures say. If you sell everything and put it at the apostles feet, people will lack unless the apostles share such that none will lack. That's what the scripture say. In fact, in fact, in fact, the distribution to the needy, the distribution to the needy was such a key part of church life that the apostles in Jerusalem created an official role for it. It was the office of the deacon in Acts 6. So, the office of the deacon initially was for people who would be distributing food. As you know in Acts 6, it was established specifically to manage the fair daily distribution of food to widows. And scripture says that they chose seven men full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom to oversee this task of distributing food. Why? Because making sure that the vulnerable were cared for was vital to the church's witness. This was the church. This is how the church is to operate. So only the very best were put forward to do that task. It wasn't a side project. It wasn't a a it wasn't a department. No, it was the core ministry of the church.
Jesus told two stories of persons who ended up in hell. They were stories of those who refused or failed to help the poor and the vulnerable. The first as you know is in Luke 16:1 19-31. The rich man who saw poor and sick Lazarus outside his house every day and he did not extend help. The second story that he told of course you know that what then happened was that Lazarus ended up in heaven. Not necessarily because he was poor but that's another matter but the rich man ended up in heaven. But in Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus concluded that those who ignore the poor and needy ignore him and that those who help the poor and needy give to him. So the definition of giving to God as described by Jesus Christ is given to the poor. That's the definition as described by Christ. Matthew 25:40 says, "Assuredly I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me." Whatever you do for the poorest, you do it for God. The consequence of ignoring the poor needed is according to Jesus, if you look at Matthew 25, hellfire. This was what the early church and the churches in the countries where the gospel transformed nations preached. It was this gospel that transformed Europe and America.
The framework for the formal government welfare schemes or social security schemes were developed by Luther and other reformists in the 16th century. So the early Lutheran reformers democratic processes and her matchless constitution and he was not there. Not until the new western civilization brought about by the principles and the churches especially during and subsequent to the reformation. Today many in the west many in western countries don't even practice Christianity anymore which is a big shame because we know the consequence of not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. But these principles have become cultural for them. and they are practiced as norms even where there is no specific law.
So the question then is simple. What is being taught on our pulpits? Is it the true and transformative gospel of Jesus Christ or a variant of that gospel that is lacking in power and even corrupted in his influence? Is it the gospel that transformed Europe and America and later Asia? Are we hearing the message that righteousness exalts a nation? Or do our holiness messages stop at adultery and fornication? Do we seem does it seem to us to be okay to receive stolen funds from politicians who refuse to build schools and hospitals but are prepared to give large amounts of money to churches and mosques. I fear that we are not hearing the true gospel frequently enough on our pulpits which is which will explain why despite the number of churches and religious institutions we still have a society whose values cannot sustain a modern economy where the elites of a society and by that I mean the political when I say the elite the political the religious and business leaders have come to accept corruption as the rule whether is it is to win elections or to win contracts or to win cases in court. Our society appears to have accepted bribery and graft as a standard and the lower levels of society copy the elite. So everywhere you go cheating, pilfering, petty embezzlement from driver, shop assistant to the security man at the gate, everyone saying well this is what all of the big people are doing. This was the kind of society, the kind of society that we're experiencing today, was the kind of society that Europe was before the Protestant Reformation. The gospel attacked corruption and cheating. It made it clear that no corrupt person can please God. And even those who knowingly take the benefits cannot please God either. The pulpits were afflicted that went down to the man in the market cheating with his rigged scales. Or the magistrate that was taking a bribe that without repenting no amount of giving of offerings or tithes or fasting will redeem him or her. Very clear.
Today what we hear from many of our pulpits is a gospel that is to the effect that the purpose of our faith is the attainment of wealth or at least physical or material well-being here on earth and that and that this material well-being can be attained by a transactional process of giving you know especially giving to the church institutions even in this we carefully ignore the fact that giving to the poor is more the heart of god So we no longer hear pointed condemnation of corruption in government or the judiciary. Many are more interested in benefiting from government than being the moral or spiritual check on government. No wonder the gospel has not had the same transformative effect on our society and government as it did on western civilization and all the nations that have followed the same principles.
But the lesson of history is unmistakable. When the true gospel of Jesus Christ is faithfully preached, nations are transformed, societies are renewed, economies are built on righteousness, hard work, and justice. But when the message of Christ is replaced with the pursuit of wealth and self, then corruption spreads like leaven through the whole lung and darkness covers the land. The Nigeria of our dream stands a better chance of emerging when the church of Jesus Christ in this nation reclaims her place as the salt of the earth and the light of the world. It will come. It will come when the flame of righteousness is lit on the pull pits, declaring without fear or favor that no thief, no brietaker, no unjust trader, no oppressor of the poor can please God, no matter the offerings they bring. It will come when we return to teaching that honest work is divine, that wealth is built through diligence and integrity, and that caring for the poor is at the heart of true religion. So the church, and by the church, of course, we mean every believer, must rise up as the responsible pathfinders for this nation. Let us preach the gospel that renews minds, that regenerates hearts and produces men and women of character. Let's raise a generation who know that righteousness exalts in nation and who are unafraid. A generation of men and women unafraid to leave a salt and light in politics, in business, in the professions and in the marketplace. If we return to this gospel, the same power that turned Europe from corruption to industry, that laid the foundations of liberty and justice in America and that inspired the rise of modern nations in Asia, will work in Nigeria also.
So I wish you a very happy birthday. I pray I pray that I pray I pray that as your days I pray that as your days so shall your strength so shall your wisdom and so shall your favor with God. And I pray that the Lord will permit you to see the Nigeria of your dreams. a land of justice, of prosperity, and of peace and of righteousness in your lifetime in Jesus mighty name. Amen.