Reaching the Unreached in Nigeria and Breaking Free From the Limitations We Accept

Any time I stand in an American church, I usually say this first: I may not speak the way you speak. My frequency may be different. But just as I tune to your frequency when you are talking, you can tune to mine when I am talking. And when hearts are connected, understanding comes.

This message came from a place that means a great deal to me. Returning to Liberty Hill was not just another ministry stop. It was a homecoming. More than three decades ago, something began there like a seed planted in a small building along Leander Road. By the grace of God, that seed has grown into a ministry that now reaches villages, plants churches, supports the poor, digs wells, carries medical care into rural areas, and takes the love of Jesus to people many others will never reach.

A Homecoming Full of Gratitude

Driving in that morning, I felt deeply moved. It was one of those moments when your heart is full and you can hardly explain whether what you feel is joy, gratitude, awe, or all of them together.

Thirty-one years earlier, a church opened its doors to a young African preacher. That mattered more than many people realize. Sometimes a ministry changes because someone gave a platform, someone extended kindness, someone said, “Come in. We will love on you.”

That kind of welcome can change a life.

I am what I am today by the grace of God, but I also do not forget the people God used. There were men and women who loved me when I was still rough around the edges, still learning, still growing, still trying to find my footing. They were patient with me. They polished me. They encouraged me. They kept loving me.

That is one of the beautiful things about faithful churches. They do not only celebrate finished products. They make room for growth. They help shape people into what God has called them to become.

The Power of Faithful Partnership

I took time to honor people by name because gratitude matters. We often celebrate public ministry and forget the quiet acts of faithfulness behind it.

There was a pastor who drove me all the way to Houston in his green Toyota 4Runner years ago. At that time, both of us were still in process. But God used those early moments in powerful ways.

There were families who hosted me when I needed a place to stay. There were servants in the church who supported missions, kept serving year after year, and never retired from the work of God. There were practical gifts sent to Nigeria, even technical equipment that helped us continue using ministry tools in a different electrical system. Those gifts were not glamorous, but they were useful. And when something is useful in the work of God, it becomes holy service.

Then there was a man I had to honor specially, Bishop Ron, the father of the house.

Years ago, he came all the way to Africa and met me in my hotel room. Other missionaries were busy doing their own work, but he did something that marked me deeply. He did not come with a superior spirit. He did not come to lecture me. He looked at me and said, “I am not here to teach you. I am here to learn from you.”

That was not a small statement. At that point, I had already been in ministry for many years, and I had never heard a missionary speak to me that way. So many people want to use you, correct you, compare you, or remind you of what you lack. But humility opens doors that pride never can.

That moment began a relationship that has lasted for decades.

And that kind of love was still visible in the present. After travel delays, he and his wife waited late into the night for our arrival, standing by for nearly three hours. That is not duty. That is love.

What God Is Doing in Nigeria

The church’s support has not stayed inside four walls. It has traveled. Through prayer, giving, encouragement, and partnership, the ministry in Nigeria has continued to advance.

By God’s grace, the work includes:

• Planting churches in places where the gospel needs a living witness
• Raising ministries and strengthening believers
• Reaching poor and rural communities with the love of Jesus
• Digging wells to meet practical needs
• Taking medical teams into remote areas where care is often unavailable
• Bringing food and clothing to underserved villages
• Reaching the unreached and perfecting the saints, which has been the heartbeat of the ministry from the beginning

Some of these places are difficult to access. We are talking about jungle roads, villages where vehicles can barely pass, and regions where ministry requires effort, endurance, and a willingness to go beyond comfort.

But the gospel has always moved forward because someone was willing to go where others would not.

That is why partnership matters so much. Not everyone can travel to those villages physically, but many can still be part of the work. Prayer goes. Resources go. Support goes. Compassion goes. And in heaven, there will be many people surprised by the souls connected to their generosity.

Operation Christmas Blessing: Love in Action

One of the beautiful outreaches of the ministry is called Operation Christmas Blessing. It has become a powerful expression of Christian charity in Nigeria and a practical demonstration of the love of Christ.

For fifteen years, this outreach has taken blessing into villages that often feel forgotten. Food is shared. Clothing is distributed. Care is given. And people encounter not just words about Jesus, but the love of Jesus in visible form.

The impact has been profound.

Chiefs from some villages have stood weeping, saying they had never seen love shown this way before. Even witch doctors have given their hearts to Jesus. Not because someone delivered an especially polished sermon, but because the gospel was demonstrated with compassion.

That is something the church must never forget. There is power in preaching, yes. But there is also power in tangible love. When you pour out your heart, your time, your life, and your resources for others, doors open that arguments alone cannot open.

If you want a broader picture of Christian humanitarian work and how faith-based missions often combine evangelism with practical care, organizations like Samaritan’s Purse and research from the Pew Research Center offer helpful context on global outreach, persecution, and religious life around the world.

The Crisis in Nigeria Right Now

As encouraging as the ministry update is, it must be told honestly. Nigeria is going through a deeply troubling time.

Politically, the nation is in serious distress. Corruption is rampant. Lawlessness has spread. Resources are stolen while ordinary people suffer. On top of that, terrorist violence continues to devastate communities.

Across parts of the country, villages are being attacked. Churches are burned. People are kidnapped. Ransoms are demanded. And in some cases, even after ransom is paid, the victims are still killed.

There is mass killing, fear, and widespread instability. In many places, what is happening can only be described as a humanitarian and spiritual crisis. Areas once considered relatively safer are also being affected, including parts of southern Nigeria.

And yet in the middle of all of that, the mission continues.

Why? Because fear cannot be allowed to dictate obedience. When God says go, the church must go. When people are hurting, the church must reach. When darkness increases, light must not retreat.

A Prophetic Reminder: The Church Must Be the Light on the Hill

Returning to Liberty Hill also stirred an old prophetic memory in me.

I remembered the very first message I preached there many years ago. I believed then that God had spoken something about that church, that it would become a light on the hill and that development would come around it.

Coming back and seeing all the growth in the area, I was reminded of that word.

But there is a challenge inside that encouragement.

Physical development is happening all around many churches. Towns are growing. Neighborhoods are expanding. New families are moving in. New opportunities are opening up.

The question is not whether the city is developing. The question is whether the church is developing spiritually and missionally at the same pace.

The city should not outgrow the church’s vision.

The city should be influenced by the church, not the church shaped by the city.

Where there is light, there is life. And the church is called to be that light. We were not gathered by God merely to feel good on Sundays. We were placed where we are so we can become instruments in His hand, reaching the people around us with the kingdom of God.

As communities grow, the church must look outward more. More people moving into the neighborhood means more people who need to move into the kingdom.

Breaking Free From the Limitations We Accept

The central word of the message came from Genesis 27:39-40, especially this line spoken over Esau: when you decide to break free, you will shake his yoke from your neck.

That phrase carries enormous power. It points to a truth many people miss. There are limitations that come against us from outside. But there are also limitations we accept, internalize, and live under long after we had the capacity to break free.

That is the burden of this message: breaking free from the limitations we accept.

The Elephant and the Rope

There is a story often told in Africa about a baby elephant brought home from the jungle. The man tied that small elephant to a little stick with a rope. At that stage, the elephant was not strong enough to break loose, so it learned the boundary. It pulled, felt resistance, and stopped.

Years passed. The elephant grew into a massive bull elephant, powerful enough to pull down an entire structure. But its mind had already been trained by that early rope. Even though it now possessed enormous strength, it still lived as if the old boundary controlled it.

That is how many believers live.

They have the Word of God. They have the Holy Spirit. They have gifts, calling, grace, and spiritual authority. But because of words spoken over them, old failures, fear, shame, addiction, rejection, or labels they have accepted, they continue living below what God has made available.

They are strong, but bound in the mind.

And as Scripture says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

What Kinds of Limitations Do We Accept?

These limitations can take many forms. Some are verbal. Someone said, “You are not good enough,” and you believed it. Some are emotional. You suffered disappointment and concluded you will never rise again. Some are moral and spiritual. You have struggled with addiction, pornography, bitterness, or unforgiveness and started treating bondage like identity.

At some point, many people stop fighting. They begin to speak as if the rope is stronger than they are.

They say:

• I can’t do it.
• I will never change.
• This is just who I am.
• I have tried enough.
• I am not good enough.
• God can use others, but not me.

But Jesus did not save us so we could be tamed by bondage. He came to destroy the works of the devil. Scripture teaches that it was for freedom that Christ set us free.

So the right question is not only, “What happened to me?” The deeper question is, what limitation have I accepted that God never assigned to me?

Esau and the Power of Decision

Genesis 27 is a painful passage. Isaac had intended to bless Esau, but Jacob received the blessing instead. Esau wept, pleaded, and grieved. Then Isaac spoke words that are easy to overlook but impossible to ignore once you see them clearly.

He told Esau that he would serve his brother, but when you decide to break free, you will shake his yoke from your neck.

That means the yoke was not presented as permanent. Freedom was possible. But it was tied to a decision.

Notice what was not said:

• It did not say, “When God decides, you will be free.”
• It did not say, “When enough time passes, you will be free.”
• It did not say, “When other people feel sorry for you, you will be free.”

It said, when you decide.

There are things no pastor can decide for you. No mentor can decide them for you. Even though God gives grace and power, there are moments where responsibility comes directly to the individual soul.

Freedom begins when a person says:

• Enough is enough.
• I will not live under this yoke anymore.
• I will not continue excusing what God is calling me to confront.
• I will not keep blaming everybody else while refusing to deal with my own heart.

That inward turning is often the first real step toward freedom.

Decision is not a wish. A wish is passive. A decision is a commitment. It carries action. It moves. It confronts. It aligns itself with what God has said.

The Prayer of Jabez and the Refusal to Stay Defined by the Past

Another powerful example is Jabez.

His very name was connected to sorrow and pain. He was born in difficulty, and the label of grief rested over his life. For many people, a beginning like that becomes a sentence. They assume they must remain what their past named them.

But Jabez did not stay there.

He cried out to God:

• Bless me indeed.
• Enlarge my territory.
• Let Your hand be with me.
• Keep me from evil and from grief.

And God answered him.

That matters deeply. God did not tell Jabez to come back later. God did not say the timing was wrong. Once Jabez rose up and refused to remain under the old limitation, heaven responded.

The lesson is clear. It is never too late for God to change a story. But there must come a moment when a person refuses to stay chained to what has named them, wounded them, or reduced them.

Stand Firm in the Freedom of Christ

Galatians 5:1 says, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore stand firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”

That means freedom is both a gift and a responsibility.

Christ has made freedom available, but believers must stand in it. They must refuse to return to slavery. They must reject the old ropes, old agreements, old excuses, and old patterns that keep dragging them back.

This may apply to:

• An attitude that keeps poisoning relationships
• A secret habit that has become a private prison
• Bitterness that has held the heart hostage
• Unforgiveness that has blocked spiritual growth
• Fear that keeps silencing obedience
• False humility that sounds spiritual but is really unbelief

Whatever you tolerate will hold you captive. Whatever you confront and deal with, by the grace of God, you can master.

You Are Not What Fear Says. You Are What God Says.

There comes a point when every believer must settle this in the heart:

I am not what fear says I am. I am not what failure says I am. I am not what men said in my worst season. I am what God says I am.

And because He said it, I believe it.

That does not mean stepping out in your own strength. This is not self-help talk. This is not motivational language detached from God. The call is to simple obedience that aligns with God’s will and depends on His Spirit.

David defeated Goliath not by natural strength, but by the Spirit of God. Moses stretched out his hand over the Red Sea, and the sea parted by the power of God. In every age, impossible things happen when ordinary people stop measuring only by human ability and start moving in the strength of the Lord.

A Call for the Church to Rise

This message was not only personal. It was also corporate.

The church has been beaten down too long. It has accepted too many false boundaries. It has allowed fear, compromise, and passivity to shrink its witness. But the hour calls for something else.

God is calling for believers who will not hide under excuses.

He is calling for men and women who will square their shoulders and say:

• I am who God says I am.
• I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
• I will go where He sends me.
• I will speak when He says speak.
• I will serve until my race is finished.

That is the spirit required in difficult times, whether in Nigeria, Texas, or anywhere else in the world. Darkness may intensify, but the church is still called to shine. Opposition may increase, but the gospel is still the power of God. Fear may whisper, but grace still speaks louder.

The mission remains the same: reach the unreached, strengthen the saints, love people well, and be the light on the hill.

What About You?

That was the closing challenge, and it is still the right one.

What limitation have you accepted?

What rope has been around your mind, your calling, your obedience, your prayer life, your witness, or your future?

What has God been dealing with you about that you keep pushing away because you feel unqualified, weak, afraid, or unready?

The invitation is not merely to feel inspired for a moment. The invitation is to decide.

Decide to break free.

Decide to stop living below your potential in Christ.

Decide to throw off the yoke.

Decide to trust what God has said more than what fear has repeated.

Decide to rise.

Because when you decide to break free, by the grace of God, you can shake the yoke from your neck.