Covenant Mindedness 3 by Apostle Femi Lazarus: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Scarcest Resource Is Not Talent — It Is Faithfulness

Anywhere you find yourself, your gift is not rare. Your skill is not scarce. What is genuinely difficult to find — what the Bible identifies as hard to locate — is a faithful man.

Proverbs 20:6 — in the Good News translation: everyone talks about how loyal and faithful he is, but just try to find someone who really is. The Message says: lots of people claim to be loyal and loving but where on earth can you find one?

Go to any established organization. Ask those at the top what their pressing challenge is. The answer is consistent: loyalty. Not talent — loyalty. People have been blown out of the radar of life not because they lacked skill but because they could not be trusted.

Gift is not scarce. Skill is not scarce. Do not overrate them. The celebrated people building extraordinary things are not usually the most gifted — they understand commitment, human relationship, and covenant.

Covering Shame: The Practice That Unlocks God's Trust

There are depths of what you cannot pray into. God entrusts based on the heart. Certain dimensions with God are a product of entrustment — not of fasting length or prayer volume. God looks at a person and says: I can trust them.

Noah got drunk and lay uncovered. One son came and laughed. Another walked backward and covered him. This generation is too light. The problem that should be solved in a person's life becomes the reason people leave.

Years back, a young man who was living nearby had epilepsy. He had a seizure one day on the road. A crowd gathered. The pastor present carried him aside, cleaned him up, stayed by him — and when the crowd had thinned, lay down beside him while he was still unconscious. Nobody needed to know which of them was epileptic. A bike was standing by. When he got up, they left quietly. Years later, that young man was evangelising in the market — healed, free, bearing fruit.

• If you allow God to help your heart become a pillar for people — covering their shame rather than broadcasting it — he will make you heavy and plant you.
• Those who gossip about things heard in confidence cannot be people of covenant.
• Can you be trusted with words? With secrets? Train yourself to hold back.

The Loyalty Test: Doeg and the Priests of Nob

In 1 Samuel 21, David fled to Ahimelech the priest at Nob. Doeg the Edomite — a servant of Saul — was present and observed the encounter. Later, when Saul summoned the priests and accused them, Ahimelech replied simply: who among all your servants is as faithful as David? He told the truth and defended what was right.

Saul ordered the footmen to kill the priests. They refused to lift a hand against the Lord's anointed servants. But Doeg did it — and killed eighty-five priests that day.

People can bless you in prayer, in teaching, in support — but when the moment comes to hold the line the way only an insider can, some stab through. There is a God who sees all of this.

Anybody who tells others to you will tell others about you. It is just a matter of when. Build your life in such a way that there are places to which you have been genuinely committed — where your commitment has been felt.

The Door of Destiny Is Too Narrow for You and Your Ego

The door of destiny is too narrow to accommodate you and your ego. There will be junctions where what you want to say is your pride — and the door closes instead.

When Elijah and Elisha were moving toward the end of Elijah's earthly assignment, Elijah kept offering Elisha an exit: tarry here. Elisha kept saying: as the Lord liveth, I will not leave thee. Great men are used to people not going the whole distance. Elisha's response was covenant. The sons of the prophets knew about the transition intellectually but had not let covenant enter the depth of their hearts. Only Elisha was truly with Elijah — and only Elisha received the double portion.

• Stop overrating your own importance. You are a mortal man with breath in your nostrils — breath the one who placed it there can demand back at any moment. Let this humble you.
• Any form of despise you walk in is not a new trap — it is six thousand years old. Even demons are shocked you are repeating it.
• Whatever covenant God has made with you, tell your children. Pass on the practices.