ikoyi baptist church

Romans 11:33 exclaims, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgment, and his paths beyond tracing out.”Few of the attributes of God are:God is Omniscient – He knows all things (Isaiah 40:28; Job 37:16; Psalm 147:5; I John 3:20; Rom. 11:33).God is Omnipotent – He has no limitations (Job 42:2; Gen. 18:14).God is Omnipresent - He is present in all places at all times. Heaven is His throne and the earth His foot-stool (Prov. 15:3; Jer. 23:23-24; Psalm 139:7-12).God is Immutable – God is unchanging (Psalm 90:2; Malachi 3:6).God is Holy – No evil found in Him (Psalm 99:9; Habakkuk 1:13).God is Love – This sums up His mercy, grace and loving kindness (I John 4; John 3:16; Rom 5:8).Our God is unlike the gods of other religions who are unpredictable. Though we can predict God yet he is incomprehensible. What an awesome God we serve.

Ikoyi Baptist Church Tehila Night 2017At the centre of Jubilee is deliberate Praise, Thanksgiving and Celebration... Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. (Psalm 67: 3)

Ikoyi Baptist Church Tehila Night 2017At the centre of Jubilee is deliberate Praise, Thanksgiving and Celebration... Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. (Psalm 67: 3)

Every Christian is expected to be an evangelist. If we are not making any effort to witness for Christ, we need to check our relationship with God. You cannot love God as you are supposed to and still be ashamed to proclaim His love to other people. In Matt. 28:19, every believer is commanded to go make more disciples.Interestingly, many of us Baptists believe in the “Priesthood of all believers” but we only claim to be when it is convenient. However, you do not have to be a preacher by profession in order to be a “reacher” of others who are lost in sin. Just open up to the Holy Spirit to direct you to someone He has prepared to hear the gospel message. Rather than sit down and be judgmental about the non-Christians going to hell fire, do all you can to save yourself from blood guilt (Ezekiel 3:18; 33:8). Whoever wants any human being to go to hell is worse than the Pharisees and Jesus said “except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:20).Be obedient to your Lord so as not to get disqualified before Him on the judgment day (Luke 9:26).

FIGHT AND RUN TO WINChristian walk is likened unto a warfare. We war against principalities and powers of darkness. Satan and his angels are always in opposition with God and those who are for God to live a holy life. We are warned in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that Satan is the god of this world preventing the glory of Christ who is the image of God to shine in this world. Eph. 6:12 tells us that we are at warfare, wrestling against Satan. I Tim. 6:12 says we should fight the good fight of faith and 2 Cor. 10:4 tells us that the weapons we fight with are not of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.Christian walk is likened to running a race. In I Cor. 9:24, we are challenged not to just run but to run to win. Obstacles may be on the way but we are to persevere by looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith. Paul declared that there is a victory crown from the King of heaven for all Christians who will run to finish well. So like Paul, let us run our earthly race to win and to please our King.

Wednesday Mid-Week ServiceBible Study Topic: Understanding Eternity and Pursuing it With Utmost PriorityAnchor Scripture: Matthew 18:1-10

Salvation is by faith in Christ Jesus alone. That is God’s provision for mankind.1.You must accept it (Acts 4:10-12; 2 Cor. 5:7).2.You must confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour (Romans 10:9).3.You are not perfect but forgiven (Romans 8:1).4.You are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).5.Eternal life is yours (John 3:16).6.You must keep living for Christ (Col. 1:23).7.You need to go to church regularly (Heb. 10:25).8.You need to pray daily (I Thess. 5:17).9.You need to read (study) the Bible daily (Ps. 119:105).10.You need to be baptized in water (Acts 2:38).11.You need to live a holy life (Col. 1:10; 2 Cor. 7:1).12.You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8).13.You need to tell others about Jesus Christ (Matt. 10:32-33).

Wednesday Bible StudyTopic: Believing FaithAnchor Scripture: John 3:1-17

PRAYER POINTS FOR THE SPECIAL WEEK OF PRAYERi.Pray that the Pastoral Search Committee will have the mind of Christ and agree.ii.Pray for wisdom to choose the right person.iii.Pray for discipline as a Search Committee and as individuals.iv.Pray that the pastor that will love God and love the church will be found as the church searches.v.Pray that the church will pray without ceasing.vi.Pray for patience that will commit to waiting for God’s timing.vii.Pray against any satanic influence in the selection of the church pastor.viii.Pray that God will help the church to accept His choice.ix.Pray that nothing will be done by the Committee and the church to incur the wrath of God.x.Pray that all things will go well from the beginning to the end to the glory of God

Wednesday Bible StudyTopic: Understanding AdoptionAnchor Scripture: Romans 8: 1-15Preacher: Rev. Ikechukwu Onyegbu

A LETTER TO THE CONGREGATION OF GOD’S PEOPLEDear People of God,We give thanks to God for keeping His church alive and well for the past 50years. The church has never lacked anything good these many years of our existence. In this year of our Golden Jubilee, we are operating on the highest budget ever, yet there are so many needs of the church that our budget cannot provide for.We believe that we face these needs because God knows that we can meet all of them by trusting in Him, by looking only inwardly and never to go out to solicit.Part of the list of things we are trusting God for, to do this year 2017 are:1.Expenditure for the Church’s 50years Anniversary Celebration.2.Purchase of land for Maitama Baptist Church (N40m is donated already)3.Purchase of CCTV4.Decking of the old sanctuary.5.Purchase of a Coaster Bus.6.Improvement of our acoustics in the new sanctuary.7.Repairs of leakage in the new sanctuary.Any money spent for God’s kingdom will not go unrewarded. As your Pastor, I appeal to you to open up your resources and give generously for this noble cause.God bless you dearly.

A disciple is defined as a learner, a pupil, one who comes to be taught. A disciple listens to the lecturer with attention and intention and the intention is to apply what has been learned.The requirements of a Disciple are to:Love God more than anyone else (Luke 14:26). Your love for God should be so strong that your love for others is like hatred by comparison.Deny self and take up the cross daily (Luke 9:23). The greatest barrier to discovering all that God has for us is our preoccupation with self. We have become self-obsessed human beings due to sin. Bearing our cross means dying to oneself.Forsake all that you have (Luke 14:33). To forsake means to surrender your claim to; to say goodbye to. Like Peter, Andrew, James and John, we must abandon our boat full of fish to become fishers of men (Luke 5:10).Count the cost (Luke 14:28). This point is illustrated in Luke 9:57-58. Salvation is free but discipleship costs everything we possess.Benefits:Matthew 6:33 sums it all up – “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.”

CHANGE IS INEVITABLEChange is difficult for many people to accept even though we all say that the only constant thing in life is change. In order to accept change in our life experiences, we need to deal with it positively. Here are few tips that will help us deal with change:1.Do not be hypocritical about your feelings but express it in a polite way.2.Understand that change is an inevitable part of life and it can bring new opportunities for better development.3.Do not let change take negative control of your emotions. Try to have a positive perspective of what is happening.4.Recognize your strength and ability to adapt. Instead of resisting change, try to look on the bright side because God knows what is going on.What we set out to do in the area of Evangelism and Missions will change the ways we do things in our Men’s Missionary Union and Women’s Missionary Union. I pray that oppositions will not come because “we are going to deviate from the Baptist Convention system”. Ikoyi Baptist Church is a Bible believing church so let the Bible guide us and not the traditions of men.God bless you all

MISSIONSToday, we take some time to focus on something that I believe is at the very core, or heartbeat of God, and it is Missions. Without any doubt in my mind, I believe that Missions is something God loves, and His stamp of approval is all over it! You see, I believe that before we can ever give our prayerful and financial support to something, we must first believe in it’s importance and value, and in the church, we must believe in it’s Biblical importance and value. As Christians, we have the mandate to propagate the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We see the Mandate clearly spelt out by Jesus Christ Himself, just after His Resurrection, and a few days before He ascended to Heaven in Matthew 28:18-20.For Missions to ever become important to us, we must ask the Holy Spirit to somehow open our eyes and heart to the immediacy of the need! The Bible says in John 4:35 “Do you not say, ’Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” The need is NOW!Jesus never asked us to “keep His good news to ourselves”, but to do our best until the whole world has heard the Good News that a Savior has come to bring not only life for the now, but also life for the hereafter! May God help us all in Jesus name. Amen.

Wednesday Mid-Week ServiceTopic: Laying Aside Every Weight & SinAnchor Scripture: Hebrews 12: 1-4Preacher: Rev. Adekunle Oyeniyi

LABOURING TO ENTER GOD’S RESTEveryone was born with a purpose. We all were created to answer a question! Whether we live our life to fulfill that purpose or not is subject to the various decisions we make in life. We have our opportunities and as such, we must labour! While it is day we will continue to labour, for the night cometh when men shall enter their rest. So, all that our hand finds to do, let's do them so that we will not be adjudged to have fallen short like some fell. How faithful we are at our duty posts will determine how we enter into our rest. God has reserved for us all a day of rest, while we are here we celebrate our 'Jubilee Rest' but we must never forget the 'Promised Rest' that God has assured us all.

Wednesday Mid-Week ServiceBible Study Topic: The Salt & Light of the WorldAnchor Scripture: Matthew 5: 1-16

BIBLICAL EVIDENCE OF GOD’S FAVOUR1.Joseph- God’s favour brought him supernatural protection and promotion2.The Hebrew Children- God gave them REST- “The Restoration of Everything Satan Took as they left Egypt for the Promised Land.3.David, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego: i) God honoured them in the meals of their adversariesii) God caused rules and regulations, laws and policies to be changed to their advantage even in foreign land.4.Esther: God gave her power for prominence and preferential treatment before a foreign king to save His people.5.Hezekiah and Jehoshaphat: God won battles for them without their lifting a finger in war against mighty opponents.6.David- God gave him recognition though he was the least among his brethren to become king.7.Paul- God called him, who was “the chief of sinners” to suffer for His cause among the Jews and Gentiles.Who can be favored? Read Psalm 5:12, Psalm 37:23-26; 2Cor. 5:21-22.

THAT YOU MAY KNOWMany of us may be knowing for the first time that Ikoyi Baptist Church was started under the leadership of our beloved father, Rev. J. A. Sholeye, who was sent by First Baptist Church, Broad Street, Lagos to begin an English speaking Baptist Church in Ikoyi. The first service was held on May 28, 1967 at Aunty Ayo Primary School, Ikoyi. This year, we shall celebrate 50 years of our existence and thus we have our theme for this year “Our Year of Jubilee”Jubilee connotes many good things. The Lord instructed the Jews to celebrate Jubilee every 50 years. 49 years they shall work and then on the 50th year, they shall sound the trumpet to mark the beginning of Jubilee for the whole year. During the year of Jubilee, all slaves and prisoners must be set free. All lands taken from their owners as surety for loans must be returned to their original owners. Families would be reunited. Lands will be left fallow-nothing must be planted and nothing must be harvested from it that year. The people are to rest from their labours for the whole year and Jubilee should be a year of celebration or rejoicing.We too, by God’s grace, will celebrate God’s mercy this year as a church. That is why we sing:This is my year of JubileeI shall return to my possessionI proclaim liberty in all my ways‘Tis my year of Jubilee.Happy celebration church!

WHEN JESUS CAMEOver 2000 years ago, the Saviour of the world was born. At His birth, the world was asleep only some shepherds, according to the Bible, were awake keeping their flock by night. While heaven came down to celebrate the birth of the King of heaven and earth, the people He came to save were snoring.Jesus Christ was born of a virgin of no popularity. He was from little town of no significance; Nazareth. He was given birth to in a dirty and smelly place; a manger. Trained by a Carpenter who did not care to send Him to school (which He did not need anyway). Became a grown man who had no where to lay His head. Went about doing good and yet was hated for it. Died the death of a criminal on the rugged cross. Buried in a borrowed tomb (He only had need of it for few hours). No wonder the Bible says He did it all for me. He became poor that I might be rich. He emptied Himself of all but love that I might gain everything with Him in glory. What a Saviour! What a Lord! My Jesus I love You!