A Reflection on Micah 6 Part 6

[Speaker 2] Churches and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God waitly desires a godly home front. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] Teach us your ways that we may walk in your paths in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We are going to take the matter from where we left it last week. Last week we considered our main text was Isaiah 36 and chapter 37. We were looking at the instructions of God to Hezekiah and the encouragement of God and then the judgment of God upon Sennacherib. We were able to highlight some very close emphasis of humility before the Lord, before the Lord. We were able to highlight some major indicators again last week. And I said this week there is a scripture, still about one of the major indicators we discussed last week which was prayer, that I will show us a scripture this evening. I will continue from there today and then we will flow to look at Nebuchadnezzar. We will be comparing Jeremiah and Daniel. This is our focus for today. But as I normally do, I would like asking our brethren who are here physically if there is any point of lesson, anything that was a blessing to them that they want to share or they want us to know. Is there anybody like that that have anything to say before we move on into what we have for today? Just one person. Let's have you. Let me pass the mic to you over there. [Speaker 3] One of the things that I learned from last week's teaching was that everything that we are able to do, everything that we are able to accomplish is because it was God's plan all along. So it was a relation with the previous teaching before last week's one that if God is doing something before us for us, it is not because we are righteous or anything, but because God has a plan and it has been God's plan before the foundation of the earth was formed. Also from Luke 18:1, talking about men ought always to pray and not to faint, that if our prayer life is not consistent, it means that we are not men. And also if our prayer life is not consistent, it means that we are not praying enough. So it is what is required of men as long as men is man and woman together. It is required of us that we are to pray always and not to faint. [Speaker 1] Thank you very much. The two emphasis there, we should always in life understand the place of God's mercies. The place of the mercies of God is very important so that you don't unnecessarily boast. You don't unnecessarily think that there is something about you. And then number two, the place of prayer. The Lord said, "Because you have cried unto me concerning Sennacherib." Now let's look at 2 Chronicles 16:9 as we move on today. The background to understand 2 Chronicles 16:9 is to look at 2 Chronicles chapter 15. Let's look at chapter 15. Let's see something there. I think it will help us to get the true background to what God said in 16:9. In 2 Chronicles chapter 15, I read from verse 1: "Now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded. And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: 'Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law; but when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them. And in those days there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity.'" What just came to my mind as I am reading this thing, I am just looking at the state of the world today. Nation against nation, city against city, tribe against tribe. We are seeing something very important that it may just be bottom line from sin. It may be a bottom line from sin. Now let's go ahead. "'But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!' And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord." You will be wondering where this prophecy was coming from. This man prophesied onto Asa telling him that because you are seeking God, God is with you. I want to show you something about prayer. Now where was Asa coming from? What led to that prophecy that was given to Asa? Look at chapter 14. I want to give you the background so that you can properly appreciate chapter 16 verse 9 that we wanted to read. 14 from verse 2: "Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God, for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment. He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him. And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; and he had no war in those years, because the Lord had given him rest." May the Lord give us rest. Rest is a function of the Lord. Money cannot buy rest. Riches cannot do so. Rest is something God gives. And I pray may the Lord give us rest in the name of Jesus Christ. "Therefore he said to Judah, 'Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.' So they built and prospered." I want you to understand that prophecy vis-a-vis what is happening here now. He says because the Lord gave him rest. Now Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah who carried shields and spears, and from Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand who carried shields and drew bows; all these were mighty men of valor. Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million and three hundred chariots. Somebody came to attack them. So Asa went out against him and they set the troops in battle array. Now when they got to the place of the battle, the Bible says, "And Asa cried out to the Lord his God." Do you notice the possessive pronoun "his"? Asa cried out to the Lord his God. That is, Asa knew the Lord personally. He didn't cry to the Lord the God of Israel. That was the back he was crying to. But the Bible wanted us to see that Asa had a personal walk with God. He knew that God personally. Do you know those things that made him remove all those idols? That God that gave him rest. So he knew that God personally. The Bible says he cried to that God and said, "Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude." I hope you can now understand why the Bible gave us the number of his own army. That his army compared to those that are coming. I hope you can see the proportion. That someone who is coming with three men to meet someone coming with thirty men. I hope you get that kind of ratio. "Help us against this multitude, O God, for You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!" So what happened? "So the Lord struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled." When the Lord struck down your enemy, your enemy will not be able to recover. That is the truth about it. They could not recover for they were broken before the Lord and His army. So who was actually fighting the battle? What brought God into the battle? Somebody was walking humbly before Him. God came to the forefront. Exactly what James was telling us. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." It makes power to be available. The effectual fervent prayer. Not casual prayer. Not small-small prayer. Not prayer you are praying and you are making calls. Not that kind of prayer at all. Not start-up prayer. The effectual fervent prayer, a prayer where a man understands that it is God, it's all about God, God is at the center. That kind of prayer make power available. "And they carried away very much spoil. Then they defeated all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the Lord came upon them; and they plundered all the cities, for there was exceedingly much spoil in them. They also attacked the livestock enclosures, and carried off sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem." How do you explain this victory? Oh, honest, that is the best way to explain it. It was sweet and it was great. May that be our life testimony in every areas of life. Spiritually, physically, financially, materially, in all ramifications of life. May our victory be great and sweet in the name of Jesus. Now I am trying to position because we couldn't get here last week because of time. We would have read this place last week. We are still looking at the matter of prayer as humility before the Lord. You can see Asa. This one is no different from what happened with Hezekiah. You remember? He cried to God against Sennacherib and God struck down Sennacherib. It is the same thing. Then it was against this background that we had that prophecy in chapter 15. So he was coming from this victory. So that prophecy met him and said, "Look, you sought the Lord. Just continue and you will see what God can do." So the prophecy was to further encourage Asa in this path. I hope it's clear. Let's now go to chapter 16, the place I want you to see. Just trying to explain the dependence, this matter of God, to show you that the prayer is humility before the Lord and God take responsibility towards those who pray. Look at verse 1: "In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa." How many years has he reigned now? Thirty-six years. This man was going with God thirty-six years of his reign. "Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah." I hope you know Israel. That is their separated brothers. You know under Rehoboam, Judah, Israel. So it was like Yoruba rising against Igbos, something they are not far from each other. It was one nation before. So the other people were attacking these people. Not compared to an external war, it was an internal war. "Baasha the king of Israel came against Judah and built Ramah, that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah." Then look at Asa's action. "Then Asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king's house, and sent them to Ben-Hadad king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, 'Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold; come, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.'" Did that strategy prosper? It prospered, didn't it? It worked out well. "So Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali. Now it happened, when Baasha heard it, that he stopped building Ramah and ceased his work. Then King Asa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones and the timber of Ramah, which Baasha had used for building; and with them he built Geba and Mizpah." Did that strategy prosper? It worked out well. Verse 7: "At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah, and said to him: 'Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand. Were the Ethiopians and the Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.'" Are you seeing that not relying on the Lord is arrogance against Him? You can imagine what Asa felt. Making Asa to see that it's arrogance. It is out of place. You did not humble yourself before me. You did not. One way to walk humbly before the Lord is to rely on Him. When you don't rely on Him, it is not correct. From now on you shall have wars. Unfortunately for Asa, look at what happened. "Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison." May truth not provoke you. May you be a man who submit to truth no matter how it comes. Because sometimes when people speak truth with you, you just get angry. You just close up. You just slap the person or you avoid the person. You throw the person off. May the truth that will deliver you, may you not despise it. Because he was feeling he was a king, the person that rebuked him was a prophet. And I just look at who can look at this stupid, who is this person talking to a whole king that have ruled for thirty-something years. Are you the one that helped me to manage the kingdom? Do you know what you are talking about? Do you know what it means? I'm strategizing to make progress, something that worked out well. You are just coming and just putting your mouth into politics. What concerned you with political matters? I'm strategizing and doing my things. You are a fool. Put that man in prison for me. Arrogance. And you can see that part of what was also adding to this thing was because he had ruled for many years. There is something that can alternate God in how you now have political connection. There is now money. He sent silver and gold. There are better things to rely on. All those "our Father, Father" days, we have passed that stage. When we were small boys, that's when we do those kind of prayers. And so unfortunately for him, he was angry with the seer, put him in prison, for he was enraged at him because of this. "And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time." Note that the acts of Asa, first and last, were indeed written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. What happened? In the thirty-ninth year of his reign. Thirty-sixth year, thirty-ninth year. How many years after? I don't know, I want to show you the pattern. You remember we talked to Hezekiah. You remember Gideon. You know Gideon had many wives and so he had seventy children. But that was still not enough for him. If you don't know how to manage lust, more than one wife cannot handle it. He still went again and took another concubine. Do you remember that story now? He took another concubine that now gave birth to who? Abimelech. You get it? When they grew up, Abimelech now went to the people and told them that look, which is better for you? I am the only child of my mother. If me I reign, I will die, somebody else again will reign. But if you allow Gideon to continue, he has seventy sons apart from me. It means nobody else will reign. Is it true? They listen to him. So on a single stone, he killed the seventy sons of Gideon. But he was able to kill sixty-nine, the youngest one escaped. When Jotham escaped, he now went, he ran and climbed a mountain. He now told Abimelech and the people that okay, my father delivered you and everything for you. But now you have joined hands with Abimelech because he's only one person. If what you have done for my father is correct, may it be well with you. But if what you have done is evil, may fire come out of Abimelech and consume you, and fire also come out from you and consume Abimelech. Do you know what happened? Things went well until the third year. Go and read the story. After three years of his reign, God now brought a matter. Abimelech killed all the people that supported him, they too eventually Abimelech too was killed. So fire came from here and consumed this, fire came from that one too and consumed the other one after three years. You notice this place again. After three years. What I'm trying to say is sometimes when you cut down a tree or you cut down a plant, immediately it will still be green until after some time. You now begin to see that the thing will start getting dry, start getting dry. I am trying to make you understand something very well. Sometimes when we are doing evil, when we are doing what is wrong, it doesn't mean that we will not prosper. It doesn't mean things will not be well. Things may go well and then but it doesn't mean that you will escape. As Moses said, your sin, it will find you out. In the process, I want you to mark this truth that I'm telling you. That any sin that we don't repent for, we don't confess and repent from, no matter how smart you think you can run, that sin will find you out. So after three years, Asa became diseased where? In his feet, in his leg, in his feet, depending on the translation. And his malady was severe. Yet, look at the matter. Yet, in his disease, what did the Bible say? He did not seek the Lord but physicians. The Bible is speaking in a way that if you give attention to scriptures, you know the reason why the Holy Spirit sometimes call us to some of these things and to make us see this lesson. It's because whatsoever things were written aforetime, why were they written? They were written for our learning so that we will not do what they did. Particularly we that the end of the age has come upon us. These people they didn't even have example to follow. There was no pre-example. There was no book for them to be reading. They just had the law. The law itself is just something given and then but we, if you look at us, we have several examples to follow. Several things to learn from. They they could not have a generation before them to learn from. But we have things to learn from. And that is why our judgment will be severe. Maybe you don't know. Have you ever thought of that? To whom much is given, much should be expected. "Woe to you, Bethsaida! Woe to you, Chorazin! If what the miraculous work that was done in you, if it was done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would not have perished. They would have repented." He said, "Therefore, it will be better for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for you." So the more God give you privileges in life, the more you are accountable. The more you become accountable. That's the truth. So we are looking at these things because we are trying to understand walking humbly before the Lord. That's what we have been trying to explore all this while for almost three weeks now. And I tell you that we will not be rushing these things. We have no exam we want to go and write. We want to learn, we want to fellowship with scripture and learn as followers of Jesus and learn at His feet and see what has been recorded and how we can pick lesson about how God dealt with these people so that we can know what it means to be humble so that we don't begin to think, we don't begin to call humility what is not humility. We can understand what actually is humility before God. And you can see it here. Asa became diseased in his foot. His malady was severe. Even when the disease became life-threatening, that was the malady was severe according to New King James. When it became life-threatening, he did not seek the Lord's help but sought only from his physicians. My point is, what happened to this man's fellowship? Do you see that the issue of fellowship, when we say fellowship, walking with God, to show that a man is walking humbly before God, is when things come up, he's what? He's relying. This one come up, "God, please." This one come up, "God, please." So anybody who is relying on God will call on God, will talk to God about anything and about everything. That is humility. Talking to God about anything and talking to God about everything is humility before God. Anything, everything. He has okay, the issue of King Baasha came. You were rebuked that it's not correct. Okay, there's another one again, a disease, and what I'm trying to make you see, I don't know what happened in between, but what I want you to see is this: be careful about shifting your source of strength. Be careful because now when Asa was seeking physician, what will he be spending? Because he has grown. He has so much in his hand. And you know sometimes we do some of these things. When we have become very, very successful sometimes we begin to feel that, "Oh, what am I to pray for? Oh, loving your wife, I have been practicing that for the past sixteen years, there's no problem. You just go." You want to travel to Lagos. Lagos? Since when I've been driving. I got my driver's license twenty-five years ago. There's nothing much about Lagos. You begin to shift confidence. You suddenly have two billion in your account and then your source of strength just changed. And then you want to do anything, there's no problem. Is it not Nigeria? Who did they say is there? As for the person's account, I'm accredited now with five hundred thousand, he will give us that paper. You that will cry to God before, "God, let me find favor with this man!" I am trying to make you understand something. There is nothing wrong, and that is why somebody said, success is a good thing. Success is a good thing. But sometimes it is more difficult to manage success. It is more a very challenging thing to manage success. Managing success, when you begin to see that things are working, you are there, it sometimes becomes difficult to manage it if you are not very careful. And that is what is happening to Asa. He began to leave a very important line in his life: the place of walking before the Lord. Unfortunately, he continued like that. Of course, that thing continued. The Bible says so Asa rested with his fathers and he died in the forty-fourth year of his reign. So that happened two years later. Two years after the disease, he died. There was no turnaround from that thing and you can see how God handled it. So these are important lessons for us to see that the eyes of God run to and fro the earth. The eyes of God want to see how men rely on the Lord, how men see the Lord as a source of their salvation. And may the Lord help us in our own walk with God. These things they are written down for our learning. As I try to leave this thing that you find with Asa, I want to show you this thing vis-a-vis something again just came to my heart just now before I open up with Nebuchadnezzar. A scripture just came to my heart just now as I made reference to that statement just now. And I want us to look at that scripture together. Let's see what the Bible says in Ezekiel. Let's see Ezekiel chapter 28. Ezekiel 28. I just want you to look at something. I'm not too concerned with the prophetic interpretation of this chapter. But I want us to just look at the literal reading. I hope you are following me. Because we are not expanding Ezekiel chapter 28, but we just want to pick something in Ezekiel chapter 28. I want you to follow this story. We'll get up to around verse 17 thereabouts and then we will stop. "The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, 'Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, "Thus says the Lord God: 'Because your heart is lifted up, and you say, "I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods, in the midst of the seas," yet you are a man, and not a god, though your heart is set as the heart of a god. Behold, you are wiser than Daniel! There is no secret that can be hidden from you. With your wisdom and your understanding you have gained riches for yourself, and gathered gold and silver into your treasuries; by your great wisdom in trade you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches. Therefore thus says the Lord God: "Because you have set your heart as the heart of a god, behold, therefore, I will bring strangers against you, the most terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their sword against the beauty of your wisdom, and defile your splendor. They shall throw you down into the pit, and you shall die the death of the slain in the midst of the seas. Will you say before him who slays you, 'I am a god'? But you shall be a man, and not a god, in the hand of him who slays you. You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of aliens; for I have spoken," says the Lord God.'"' Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'Son of man, take up a lamentation for the same king of Tyre, and say to him, "Thus says the Lord God: 'You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you out as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, that they might gaze at you. You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading; therefore I brought fire from your midst; it devoured you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you.'"' You notice that there was a shift from a particular individual to something about talking about comparing that individual with Lucifer. Who was the anointed cherub? Who was the one that dwelt with God? Who was going back and forth before Him? The thing has moved from that king, speaking about a principal person, Lucifer. Now, what was the problem that made Satan, Satan? What led to the pride? I'm trying to make you understand Satanism. When you see a man beginning to shift, when you begin to alternate the Lord with some other things, you begin to have confidence in what the Lord gives. You begin to have confidence in success, in that which the Lord brings your way, in that how you are. You begin to shift confidence from the very God to those things that He made in your life, and your heart begin to become lifted up because of that. I am showing you, whose path are you treading? Whose path are you treading? That is why you notice what the Bible says about Jesus. He said though He was equal with God, He did not count equality with God as something to grasp. Satan was not equal to God. Jesus was equal with God, but He humbled Himself. I'm trying to make you understand this matter of humility, and I'm making you see it this and this. You notice what the Bible says in Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 3. Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. The same condemnation as the devil. Are you following me at all? What is this telling you? Make sure you want to make somebody a leader, make sure he's not a novice. Make sure he's not a novice, somebody who at least understands what it means to walk with God. Somebody who understands what it means to live in humility before the Lord, somebody who has the same mind as Christ. Be careful to note that he's not a novice. What I'm trying to make you see and make you see very clearly, please get this very clear: that I want you to realize that when you see any individual who because of certain success, certain positioning, he said if you make a novice a leader, he's likely to be puffed up. He's likely to become arrogant. So make sure he's not a novice, make sure he's somebody who have understanding. Now it's making you see something very well. When you see a man, when you see an individual, when you see anybody, who because of certain level of success and achievement begins to entertain a heart that is lifted up, you can be very clear that it's a man who lacks understanding. He's a novice. When you see anybody, no matter what they call the person, it may not be about leadership. It may be about riches. It may be about academic success. It could be about anything and begin to have this kind of, when you notice that the truth about that life is that that life lacks understanding, it's a novice. One major sign of lack of understanding is the heart that is lifted up because of success or position. When you see a life that has a heart that is lifted up, when you see a man that becomes arrogant because of position or success, he's a novice. One way to walk humbly before the Lord is to rely on Him. One great mark of understanding is humility. Humility is not weakness. Humility is a man who can bring everything, anything and everything, he wants to know what the Lord wants him to do. He's relying on the Lord, he's calling upon the Lord, he's calling the Lord into the matter, he's asking for the Lord intervention, he's seeking direction from the Lord. That is what humility, that is what we are seeing again. Seeking direction, seeking instruction. Humility before the Lord. And when you don't see that in your life and begin to see yourself beginning to rate, place your life over some things, you know how best we can describe you? You are a novice. You are a novice. You don't understand God. Any man who possesses or who have opportunity, who is placed somewhere, and then become puffed up, he's taking the path of the devil. Satan was a novice. He thought that because of all that he had, because of what he had been made, he can just displace. He's a novice. If he really understand, he know that he is a novice. That is why the person who share equality with God still say, "I do nothing but what I see my Father do." The Son of Man can do nothing and He said, "As I hear, so I judge." "My words they are not my own, but what my Father tells me." Humility from the Father. When He got into the temptation and they said turn this stone to bread, what was His response? "Man shall not live by bread alone." It should have been Satan, "Do you know who You are tempting? Do you know who I am? Do you know who You are tempting at all? Do you know who I am?" When He stood before those that were to kill Him and they said and said all kind of things and He was mute, He didn't say anything because He has nothing to say. The Bible says He understand the script for His own life. He says like a lamb dumb before its shearers, so He was before those who will kill Him. So He was just like that lamb, following the script of His life. That is humility. We will call it foolishness. "Say something!" He was following a script, humility. Brethren, as we close for today, I want you to look inward. We couldn't get to Nebuchadnezzar, we'll get there next week. But I just this direction just came to my mind as I was concluding with Asa, so we had to go this direction. I don't know what the Lord want you to learn or what you should make your heart to see from that which we have been. Maybe you don't understand what the pride of life is. Maybe Lord want you to understand that. Maybe you don't know what it means to be a novice. Maybe the Lord want you to understand that. I want you to talk to the Lord, just talk to the Lord. Talk to the Lord. One major sign of lack of understanding is the heart that is lifted up because of success or position. When you see a life that becomes arrogant because of position or success, it's a novice. One way to display that you are a novice, that you lack understanding, is when success, position, makes you to become puffed up. When those make you to have a heart that is lifted up. What is the pride of life? When people raise their life on the basis of their achievement. When it becomes difficult for you, maybe before you are thirty, God makes you a professor, and then you can look at a baba who can give birth to you because he's the gate man. "What is wrong with you, stupid man? You are talking to me?" Do you know who I am talking to? When you are rating your worth in life based on some material things, when you want to know the worth of a man, whether a man is empty, whether a man has worth, you don't rate it by some material things. So when you begin to shift your confidence, your personality, your person, begin to shift from who God is and what God can do for you to, "He doesn't know, I know what to do. With just my pen, I will finish him." Because you are now the HOD. With just your pen, you will finish him. You see how you are talking to life? With just your pen, you will finish him. You forgot that before tomorrow, you may not be alive. I am saying these things very clear. I'm trying everything to paint the picture of pride from God's perspective. That this thing has to do so much with the heart. It has to do with the heart. It has to do with a heart who rates itself based on certain successes, achievement, all of that, and because of that, there is this. That is what the Bible describes as the pride of life. It is in the world. It is not in God. How do you know that a man is walking, a man's confidence is not in that? How do you know that a man's confidence is not in that? Is that you notice that despite all of those things, you will notice that the man speaks from, "The Lord is my light and my salvation." So that for example, let me use example that somebody has annoyed the person and he just said, "God, how do I handle this situation?" Have you seen somebody who is relying on the Lord? "Don't worry, don't worry. Me, don't worry. I will finish him. Just two sentences from this table will destroy him." Where is his confidence? In his table. But a man who has not shifted, a man whose confidence is not in that, will be, "Lord, how do I handle this matter? Lord, please help me." And the Lord may just tell him, "Just set the man aside. When you see him tomorrow, just greet him. Leave him for me." There is confidence in the Lord, resting in God, that's why He said you will notice something about your life that you bring anything and everything before the Lord. Anything and everything is always brought before the Lord. And when you don't see that in your life and begin to see yourself beginning to rate, place your life over some things, you know how best we can describe you? You are a novice. You are a novice. You don't understand God. Any man who possesses or who have opportunity, who is placed somewhere, and then become puffed up, he's taking the path of the devil. Satan was a novice. He thought that because of all that he had, because of what he had been made, he can just displace. He's a novice. If he really understand, he know that he is a novice. That is why the person who share equality with God still say, "I do nothing but what I see my Father do." "The Son of Man can do nothing." He said, "As I hear, so I judge." "My words they are not my own, but what my Father tells me." Humility from the Father. When He got into the temptation, "Man shall not live by bread alone." He was following a script, humility. Brethren, I want you to talk to the Lord this evening, pour out your heart to the Lord. Talk to him this evening. Lord, help us. Help us, Lord. Let me invite our brother, Godwin Oluwafemi, to close this meeting for us this evening. [Speaker 4] Our Father and our God, we want to say thank you for Your word that have come to us again. Thank you for this word, this word are new every day. Thank you for sending this word to our generation again. We appreciate You, Lord. And as we come before You, we are asking that You help us. Help us, Lord, because Your word said You are the one that work in us, both to will and to do. We have no strength of our own to be humble, but we cry to You, we look up to You that this day You will help us. You will grant us grace to be humble in this journey of life, that we will never thought it or think it that we are something by ourselves. But it will be that according to Deuteronomy 8:17 and 18, that we should remember the Lord our God, verse 18, that You are the one that give power. That no matter what we are going to become on earth, it will be that we will remember every day of our life that You are the one that give power to become. Lord, help us. Help us in the name of Jesus Christ. And as we go today, Lord, go with us. Let this word stay with us. Let this word bear fruit in us in the name of Jesus Christ. We pray for Your son, Lord. You continue to bless him. You continue to anoint him and You continue to keep him ever fresh in revelation, in wisdom, and in understanding. Thank you, precious Father. We pray for Family Tent, You cause this work to begin to move forward, to go places in the name of Jesus Christ. Our desire is for this work to go places so that thousands of people will begin to hear and learn in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, precious Father. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore. Amen. [Speaker 2] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission heat. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class every Monday 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles Club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Very Joy filling station along Ije Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk; familytentministry01@gmail.com; www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.