Pastor Uyeh Launches The Annual Motto For Year 2024

By Victor O.A. Taylor

The LAWNA Territory Chairman and Vice President of The Apostolic Church Nigeria, Pastor (Dr) Senior Gabriel Okpako Uyeh, has launched the 2024 Annual Motto.

Pastor Uyeh performed this launching ceremony during the annual thanksgiving service held at The Apostolic Church Nigeria, Lagos Area Headquarters, 42 Cemetery Street, Ebute-Metta, Lagos, on Sunday 7th January 2024.

Referring to Jeremiah 50:34, where the Word of the Motto was drawn, the LAWNA Chairman told the congregation that both the National Executive Council and the LAWNA Executive Council had considered the Motto given by the Lord through prophetical ministry on the first day of the year and had consequently agreed to adopt the following as the way it should be chanted: “Our Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name; he shall surely plead our cause.”

The Chairman, who said he was launching the Motto on behalf of the National and Lawna Executive Councils also assured the saints that the Annual Motto would be published in all the major languages spoken in Nigeria and circulated throughout the Territory.

Explaining the background to the statement in Jeremiah 50:34 where the Word of the Motto is contained, the Chairman said because the Israelites had disobeyed what God commanded, the Lord allowed enemies from Babylon to carry them away captive to their country.

However, after the Israelites had spent seventy years in Babylon in fulfillment of an earlier prediction by prophet Jeremiah, the Lord had compassion on them and made a move to set them free from the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, their enslaver.

To plead the cause of His people, the Chairman said the Lord the great Redeemer does not need any human battalion, armoured cars, missiles nor any other weapons of warfare as humanbeings do.

To corroborate his statement, the Chairman gave three different instances in the Bible where God proved Himself as a strong Redeemer in the lives of His people.

The first one according to him was when the seventeen year old David killed Goliath the champion of the army of the Philistines with just one stone simply because the young man had exalted the name of the Lord God of Israel as in 1Samuel 17: 45-47.

The second occasion cited by him was when the Lord God tamed the arrogant Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon.

He said God changed the humanity of the King and allowed him to spend seven years eating grass with the beasts for seven years in the forest as recorded in Daniel 4: 28-37.

Followed the above was the humiliation of King Herod in Acts 12: 20-24. Pastor Uyeh said the Lord God, who is a strong Redeemer sent His angel to strike King Herod dead and also gave his dead body to be ridiculously eaten up by maggots.

Referring to the prophecies of the New Year’s First Day, the Chairman said God had told us not to fear the enemies in the year since He, the Lord, would fight our battles for us as our strong Redeemer.

Backing up the above claim, the Chairman led the congregation to sing the Redemption Hymn 383, whose part of its chorus says: “If God be for us, if God be for us, who can be against us, etc” as found in Romans 8:31.

Encouraging the saints to key to what God had promised His children for this year, the LAWNA Chairman affirmed that the year is a year of newness, a year of greatness, blessings and divine restoration of those good things that had been lost by the children of God.

As touching poverty, the Chairman assured the saints that those who put their trust absolutely in God would never experience poverty in the new year since God is the Owner of all blessings and wealth.

Pastor Uyeh who urged the saints to be righteous and trust God at all times said the unrighteous cannot benefit from the promises of God.

He also told the saints to buy the truth and sell it not as stated in Proverbs 23:23.
Thus still talking on the same subject, he said many do not know the truth. He said again that even many among those who know the truth are not ready or bold enough to defend the truth, hence the syndrome called “Hypocrisy” is gaining some ground in the Church today.

Stressìng the need to be upright and loyal to God, the Chairman warned that God will never plead the cause of those who are not at peace with Him. He therefore urged his audience to always be in good relationship with the Lord.

Then, comparing the Israelites of the Jeremiah’s time to the christians of today, the Chairman said, many are still being enslaved today because of their disobedience and stubbornness.

The Chairman said it is a pity that such people usually attribute their predicaments and misfortunes to the activities of witches and wizards, both of whom are imaginary enemies.

What God is expecting from whosoever has done any thing wrong is to repent and amend his or her ways and not to be blaming unreal enemies.

The LAWNA Chairman who said he used the opportunity of the Launching of the 2024 Annual Motto to thank God for his sixty years in the ministry testified that the Lord had been very faithful to him and to the Church.

He therefore appealed to the saints to always trust God and serve Him faithfully, assuring them that the new year would be a year in which God the strong Redeemer, would plead the cause of His people and set them free from their captivity.

Pastor J.A.O.Akingbade, the LAWNA Territory Deputy Administrative Secretary prayed over the sermon.