Sovereign Grace Community Church, Abuja

A Study Through Colossians: Praying Apostolic Prayers | Lord's Day Sermon | 11th January, 2026

Paul’s prayer for the Colossian church reveals a radically different framework for Christian spirituality. Moving from thanksgiving to intercession, the apostle models prayers shaped not by fear or circumstance but by God’s redemptive purposes. His petition centers on spiritual growth. This means for believers would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, walk worthy of the Lord, bear fruit in every good work, endure suffering with joy, and grow in gratitude for salvation.

This prayer exposes the heart of true Christian maturity: deep experiential knowledge of God that produces fruitfulness, endurance, joy, and thanksgiving. Paul does not pray for escape from hardship, protection from enemies, or manipulation of outcomes. Instead, he prays for inner transformation that enables believers to endure trials faithfully and glorify God through suffering.

Against this backdrop, the sermon confronts the prayer culture within the Nigerian church. While prayer is abundant, its framework is often shaped by fear, pagan religious instincts, and the desire to control outcomes rather than submit to God’s will. Many prayers mirror pre-Christian belief systems, focused on warding off danger, breaking protocols, securing material safety, or invoking ritual protection, rather than cultivating Christlikeness.

Paul’s apostolic prayers stand in sharp contrast. He prays for open doors to proclaim the gospel, not immunity from suffering. He prays for endurance, not convenience; for holiness, not escapism. True Christian prayer is not a tool to control God but an act of submission that aligns the believer’s heart with God’s purposes.

The sermon calls for reformation. A return to scriptural, apostolic prayer that dismantles pagan frameworks, confronts fear-driven religion, and restores confidence in the sufficiency of Christ. It challenges believers to examine what they are most desperate for God to change: circumstances or character. The mark of genuine spirituality is not answered prayers alone, but transformed lives marked by endurance, fruitfulness, and joyful submission to God’s will.

Sunday School | Evangelism: A Biblical Overview | 11th January 2026

Evangelism: A Biblical Overview 

A Study Through Colossians: Gospel Fruitfulness Part 3 | Lord's Day Sermon | 4th January, 2026

Pastor Adeola leads the congregation deeper into Paul’s letter to the Colossians, drawing attention to what it truly means to be a Christian in both belief and transformation. Writing in a context dominated by paganism, idolatry, and naturalistic thinking, Paul addressed a time when identifying as a Christian was costly and countercultural. Against this backdrop, Pastor Adeola asks a searching question: Who is a Christian? According to Scripture, a true Christian hears the gospel, receives it, understands it, and bears fruit as evidence of new life.

 

Focusing on Colossians 1:3–8, Pastor Adeola highlights Paul’s gratitude to God, not merely because the Colossians heard the gospel, but because they grasped its true implications. This understanding produced visible fruit in their lives. In contrast to today’s culture, where it is easy to claim Christianity, the sermon challenges listeners to examine whether they truly possess eternal rest in Christ. Has God created life afresh within the heart? Has a heart of stone been transformed into a heart of flesh? What fruit is being produced by one’s faith?

 

Unlike worldly hope, which depends on external circumstances or subjective optimism, biblical hope is a Spirit-produced expectation grounded in the promises of God. This was the hope that sustained the Apostle Paul. Anchored in God’s providence, provision, and promise (Romans 8:25; Ephesians 1:13–14), Christian hope is sealed by the Holy Spirit. What believers experience now is only a down payment; the fullness will be revealed when Christ returns, and believers are finally united with Him in glory.

 

Drawing from Romans 8:23, Pastor Adeola explains that the present Christian life includes both the first fruits of salvation and a groaning: a longing for the complete redemption that lies ahead. Scripture does not promise a trouble-free journey. Rather, it teaches that the path to heaven includes suffering. Believers are called not to fixate on times and seasons, but to faithfully follow Christ, trusting that God is with them in every trial (1 Peter 4:12–13).

 

The sermon concludes by clarifying the substance of Christian hope: God’s future promises; an inheritance kept in heaven, undefiled and incorruptible; freedom from the very presence of sin; the awaited return of the Messiah who will transform our lowly bodies into His glorious body (Philippians 3:21); and ultimately, the greatest hope of all, Christ Himself as our eternal glory (Revelation 22:5). This message calls believers to examine their faith, endure suffering with joy, and live with hearts firmly anchored in the living hope found in Christ alone.

He Who Has An Ear, Let Him Hear | New Year's Eve Thanksgiving Sermon | 31st December 2025

New Year's Eve Thanksgiving Sermon 

And There Was Light: Gen 1:1-4 | Lord's Day Sermon | 28th December, 2025 | Martin Obono

In this Christmas message, Pastor Martin Obono draws our attention beyond the familiar lights and celebrations of the season to the true Light that gives Christmas its meaning. While festive lights, gatherings, gifts, and carols mark the season, he warns that without Christ; the Light of the world, we miss the heart of Christmas entirely.

Beginning from Genesis 1, Pastor Martin shows that when God declared, “Let there be light,” He was not only initiating creation but also pointing forward to humanity’s ultimate need for redemption. The opening verses of Scripture establish God’s eternality, sovereignty, power, and authority, and reveal the Trinity at work in creation: Father, Son, and Spirit acting in perfect unity. This same Triune God is active in salvation, election, incarnation, and redemption.

Though creation was originally good, humanity’s fall in Genesis 3 plunged the world into darkness; sin becoming the root of pain, suffering, and brokenness. Yet God was not surprised by this darkness. In the fullness of time, He sent His Son. 

The birth of Christ in Bethlehem was the fulfillment of God’s ancient declaration: light entering darkness. Jesus Christ is the true Light foretold in Genesis and revealed fully in John 1, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Pastor Martin emphasizes that Christmas is not merely about historical knowledge, religious tradition, or cultural celebration. Like Herod and the religious leaders, one may know the facts yet fail to respond in faith. True celebration flows from recognizing Christ’s humiliation in the incarnation—God Himself taking on human flesh to redeem sinners and adopt them as sons.
The sermon concludes with a solemn call: God still speaks today, saying to darkened hearts, “Let there be light.” 

The same God who separated light from darkness at creation will one day separate the redeemed from the lost. This message urges listeners to examine whether they are merely celebrating Christmas outwardly or truly walking in the Light of Christ.

A Study Through Colossians: Gospel Fruitfulness Part 2 | Lord's Day Sermon | 21st December, 2025

This sermon reflects on the life of God in the soul of man and how that life inevitably expresses itself as love for all the saints. To be in Christ is not merely to believe certain truths, but to be relocated into a new reality—the Kingdom of God. Christianity does not preserve culture; it reshapes identity. Where the life of God dwells, faith in Christ is awakened and love becomes its fruit.

Grace does more than instruct the mind; it enriches the whole person, teaching believers not only to think like Christ but to live like Him. Love for the saints is therefore not optional or emotional, it is evidence of salvation, proof that the gospel seed is alive and bearing fruit.
Paul presents this love as divine in origin, flowing from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and shed abroad in believers’ hearts by the Spirit. This love is relational, active, and unmistakable. Faith, hope, and love are inseparable—but what God looks for is faith working through love.
This love is also universal, stretching across all of God’s people without distinction. It is the supernatural bond that makes the Church unique, a visible testimony that God dwells among His people.

Further, it is active and sacrificial. Christian love is not sentiment or display, but costly obedience. It expresses itself in provision, generosity, and shared burden. As seen in the Macedonian church, those who first give themselves to God inevitably give themselves to one another.

The sermon ends with sober reflection:
Have we chosen convenience or costly love?
Can our love for the Church be testified to?
Have our lives shown that the gospel is producing fruit?

According to Colossians 1:4, this love is heaven made visible on earth. It is not mystical experience but Spirit-empowered devotion to God’s people. Whoever loves his brother abides in Christ, and where such love exists, God is truly at work.

A Study Through Colossians: Gospel Fruitfulness Part 1 | Lord's Day Sermon | 14th December, 2025

This week we continued in our study of Colossians, now on vs 3 to 8. 

We have come to see that the gospel bares fruit and this fruit is evidence that we have not just heard but understood and believed. 

A profession of faith without an accompanying transformed life is questionable and scripture commands we examine ourselves to ensure we are not deceived. 

The devil intends to keep people deceived till death, it is not enough to say “I am saved”, are you acting as one that God has come to create a Holy character within?

Matthew 7:17
The person who is healthy bares good fruit. If you want to examine if you have to Holy Spirit, see if you are baring a heavenly inward character. It is necessary to make our calling and election sure. 

Gods main concern is that we are saved and baring the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

A Study Through Colossians: The Word Of Truth Part 3 Col 1:3-8 | Lord's Day Sermon | 7th December, 2025

Are you enjoying true freedom? Do you fear and cower at the unpredictability of life? Are you walking in true power? 

When Paul wrote to the church in Colossae, he was imprisoned, but his great sense of responsibility to the children of God, the body of Christ, to see them mature and grow did not dwindle. His desire and passion for the things of God did not retreat though he was in bondage. 

Paul’s spiritual life did not retard even in the presence of hardship because of the freedom and life he experienced in Christ, and his desire for all who have faith is to come to enjoy this freedom.

We ought to ask ourselves, is our understanding of freedom and life the same as Christ? Are we more enthralled by financial freedom, physical freedom, freedom from pain and suffering?

Jesus came to free us from the power of sin. We are called to live in the power of the resurrection and experience the abundant life Christ came to give us.

The Undershepherds of Christ: The Reward Of The Undershepherd | Bible Study | 3rd December, 2025

The Undershepherds of Christ

A Study Through Colossians: Introduction & Greetings Part 2 Col 1:1-2 | Lord's Day Sermon | 30th November, 2025

Every christain likely has opinions about themselves and other Christians. We fall under names and labels like, struggling, weak, sinner, forgiven but what about SAINT?

Going deeper in our study of Colossians we find that Paul is quick to acknowledge the identity of the church in Colossae as Saints. 

He recognizes that as Christians, old or new, mature or infant they have been set apart, consecrated by God for the purpose of his service. He affirms the God given change of identity, despite their struggles with sin and he affirms that in God eyes they are hidden in Christ. 

But this is not just for the Christians of Colossae, it is also for us today, to recognize that as Christians we are Gods Saints. The only people able to offer God acceptable worship, even in our struggles. Our days should be empowered with the knowledge that because we are in Christ, Gods posture towards us is fixed on continuous love and welcome. 

We are reminded that the one place the schemes and persistence of Satan can never penetrate is the body of Christ.