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Video source: Elevation Church Nigeria SPEECH DELIVERED BY PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, IMMEDIATE PAST VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA TITLED: “STEWARDSHIP OF INFLUENCE” AT ELEVATION CHURCH’S EXPONENTIAL CONFERENCE 2025 IN LAGOS ON THE 25TH OF FEBRUARY, 2025 PROTOCOLS I would like to thank Pastor Godman and Pastor Bola for the very kind invitation to this Exponential Conference 2025. I am deeply grateful. Pastor Godman is a man for whom I have tremendous admiration. He understands the immense responsibility that we, as Christians, as leaders and Christians have to truly be the light in our society and the salt of our part of the earth. I am to speak on the topic “Stewardship of influence.” I will only speak on a part of the topic as you will see, is a broad topic and we simply will not have enough time to do justice to it. This is a conference of great weight; it is the sort of conference where we leave and go ahead to do things. the large majority of those of us who are here are Ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ or stewards of the gospel. We are meant to be stewards of influence. But the question is why are we stewards of influence? Is it because we are the smartest guys on earth? Or we are the most gifted or the best trained? No, it is because of what we are stewards of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it is that gospel that must form the basis or premise of our influence. But let me say up front that we may not be able to be as influential as we ought to be because the gospel we are carrying may be adulterated or a gospel is not correct. Generation by generation, the devil tries to pervert the gospel, because he knows the power of the real gospel! So, the case I want to make this morning is that to be effective stewards of influence we must fully grasp the true gospel of Jesus Christ, otherwise we will be stewards of a false or adulterated version of the gospel, and our influence will be entirely negative. The gospel of Jesus Christ is by far the most transformative text ever written or produced for man. It has been responsible for transforming nations and peoples. It is the most powerful force on earth and as scripture says in Romans 1:16 “it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.” The gospel may sound like foolishness, and we should recognize that it is not necessarily logical. 1 Corinthians 1:21, “For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” It is not logical, it almost sounds too simple to be true, “believe that Christ died and resurrected again, that he paid in shame and death for our sins, and if we do so, we are saved and we have a guarantee of eternal life.” Sounds too simple. This gospel of Jesus Christ is so antithetical to human wisdom and understanding that it is said that the gospel is contrarian. Contrary to our flesh, contrary to our own thoughts of how things should be done. It is spiritual, not carnal. So often it does not conform to human logic which is why the gospel says for example, “Humble yourself to be exalted.” Matthew 18:4. That is not the wisdom of man, the wisdom of man is to dress the part, look like a boss, talk like a boss, believe you are a boss and you will be a boss. The gospel says the greatest is the servant, and we are not talking of a fake servant, we are talking of someone who in his heart, sees himself as a servant. Mark 10:43-45, “Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” The gospel does not necessarily agree with us and that is why it is the power of God. If we were to write the gospel without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we would come to different conclusions, and have different approaches and different methods. Look at the question of acquisition of material things, the gospel’s response is in Matt 6:31-33: “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Read the full speech here: https://www.yemiosinbajo.ng/stewardship-of-influence-at-exponential-conference-2025/ **************************** The official YouTube channel for Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo is a Nigerian Lawyer and Politician who served as the Vice President of Nigeria from the 29th of May 2015 - 29th of May 2023. Follow Prof. Osinbajo online: Website: www.yemiosinbajo.ng Facebook: Professor Yemi Osinbajo Twitter/X: @ProfOsinbajo Instagram: @ProfOsinbajo LinkedIn: @Prof. Yemi Osinbajo