RCCG 2020 Convention: Adeboye’s excitement about salvation

Give him a few moments in public and Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, will use part of it to win souls. He urges members of the church to be incurable soul winners; and so is he.

On the second day of the ongoing 2020 Annual Convention of the church, his session, which usually closes the day, was devoted to salvation; he had the whole night to do that and he was visibly happy about the opportunity.

“In the past, when I had the opportunity of talking about salvation, we had been limited by time,” he noted. “But now we have more time, so we are not in a hurry. We are happily settled in our homes for the Convention and so I can take much more time.”

He has often shared testimonies about such opportunities:

“Some years ago, I received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Ibadan. It was a large gathering with eminent personalities like the political elite, traditional title holders and academicians, all gracefully adorned in their beautiful gowns.

“At some point, they gave me the microphone and told me I had just five minutes to say something. I thanked them for honouring me and quickly added that but for Jesus I would not have received that honour.

“I went on to say that there is an honour waiting for some people in Heaven and that if they do not give their lives to Jesus, although they can be honoured here on earth, they would lose the honour of Heaven.

“I then gave an altar call.”

With ample time for him on Tuesday, Pastor Adeboye elaborated on the benefits of salvation, which he said are much more than rescuing people from hell and making them candidates of Heaven.

With the text 2 Corinthians 5: 17, he ministered on “The Wonders of Salvation.”

He said the position of a person who is unsafe is critically bad because according to the Scripture, God is angry with the sinner every day; angry with the wicked every day.

However, as the text says “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”

Then, he listed point-by-point, with explanations, the benefits of salvation.

· Upon Salvation you get a new name; you are called the son of God. A Change of name can seriously affect your future; a new name can mean some tremendous transformation coming your way, otherwise you won’t find God changing the names of people from Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah. Jacob, a cheat, was a weakling, afraid of his brother Esau, who was approaching his dwelling, but the dynamics changed after an encounter with God during which his name was changed to Israel.

· Salvation changes your accommodation from a world of darkness to one of light. You no longer live in the kingdom of Satan – which is the kingdom of darkness. You begin to live in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, who definitely is the Light of the world. As a matter of fact, not only do you now begin to live in Light, you will continue to shine.

· You come under a new management: from the management of Satan to the management of Almighty God. It is a dangerous thing to be under the management of Satan. And that’s where you are until you become Born Again. The problem with being under the Management of Satan is that he will abandon you at a critical moment; he will use you and abandon you; he will pay you with disappointment; he will pay you with evil and sorrow.

· When you are truly Born Again, you become a new creature; a new creation; a child of God. Before then you were an animal living a bestial, sin-ridden life of adultery, fornication hatred and envy – all of which lead you to self-ruin and hell. The reason a sinner is called a sinner is because, it is his nature to sin.

· The new Creation from Salvation belongs to God’s family; and is even joint-heir with Jesus. You are adopted into the Family of God. The Bible says you become the heir of God; you are now an inheritor of whatever God has.

· From a life of hopelessness, the New Creature has new hope in a God to who everything is possible. When you are truly Born Again, You have new hope. Before you are Born Again, you were hoping that sooner or later, trouble would come; witches would attack, enemies would start operating. That is why some people go to the herbalist to armed themselves but as you hope for danger it does come!

But when you are truly Born Again, you have a different kind of hope; you can say your tomorrow will be alright.

· Under Salvation one has a new influence because of the connection to the Most High God; one has new abilities and failure is not one’s portion.

· One is also gifted with the ability to hear inaudible things of the spirit realm; Jesus said His sheep hears His voice.

· With Salvation you have new joy – joy unspeakable; if you are one of His children, and when you are truly Born Again, you will be hearing his voice quietly. He will be guiding you, directing you.

· When you are truly Born Again, you suddenly develop new strength. Because the joy of the Lord is your strength, you wake up rejoicing; you go to work rejoicing; you return to bed rejoicing. You discover that your strength is being renewed day by day!

· When you become a new creation, you are clothed with the garment of praise. Most of the time, you will just find yourself singing and praising God.

· You get a new vision: you focus on the things of God; things of heavenly places, rather than earthly things. You have a new ambition and new plans for the future.

· You will begin to enjoy His friendship. it is a dangerous thing to be lonely; it is a very, very terrible thing to be lonely.

In conclusion, to enjoy all these wonders of salvation, we have to call on Jesus. To be saved, you must realize first that you are in serious trouble if you are not saved; you need to realize that you can’t change yourself without help; and then you need to know that only Jesus can save. He is ready to save you but then you have to call on Him to save your soul.

(The sermon was transcribed by the Discovery Media Crew for the public).

Like the day before, Day 2 of the Convention was packed from the morning with activities of the Pastors’ Seed Family (children of RCCG pastors); children and teens; and youths and young adults.