AFFECTION vs LOVE

[Speaker 1] Trustees and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] We thank our God again for another time of our marriage forum. The marriage forum for the month of April. Very excited that it is also coinciding with the Easter. The Easter that marks the complete change in the calendar of God, calendar of man, and the offer of life and peace to man through the suffering, the death, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yesterday was Good Friday, and by the time we'll be talking about tomorrow, we'll be talking about the resurrection morning. My prayer is that the privileges, the benefits, the purpose of God in giving the Lord Jesus Christ will have its full realities in our homes, in our lives, in our marriages, in our children in the name of Jesus Christ. It is a Saturday of our marriage forum, and we want to pick the matter again gradually from where we left it last month in the month of March. In the month of March, we were able to conclude "Rest for Your Soul." We were able to bring it to a climax when we looked at learning the Lord in the manner of His death. For today's meeting, we are taking another focus, which is Love versus Affection. Affection versus Love. What we sent out yesterday as a kind of invitation and as a kind of putting forth what is the mind of today's meeting was: affection and love are often taken as meaning the same thing, but in reality, they are not. Transcending affection, love is the only solid basis for building a godly home. The burden of April 2023 marriage forum, which is today, the burden of today's meeting is to consider love and affection from scriptural point of view. So, let us have a word of prayer and then we begin to look at love and affection from the point of the Bible and see what the Lord can help us to learn in the matter of love and affection. Let us pray. Almighty God, we are grateful. We thank You for Your mercies. We thank You for Your love. We give You all glory, all honor, all praise. We thank You for the giving of the Lord Jesus, His suffering, His death, His resurrection that availed us life and peace. We thank You for the benefit of Easter, the privileges of Easter. Today, as we look into Your word to evaluate the matter of love and affection, Lord, we pray that You will grant understanding in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, we are trusting You for all of us together, we who are here physically, our brethren who are joining us online. Lord, we pray that You will meet with us all in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, Eternal Father. Walk in our midst, walk in us, walk through us. The very purpose of bringing this burden today in the name of Jesus Christ. Blessed be Your name, our God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. The first thing I want to do this morning in looking at this matter of love and affection—the first thing I want to do is possibly first make us look at the dictionary. Then we will now come to looking at the matter from scriptural point of view. That's why I emphasized yesterday that we'll be looking at love and affection from scriptural point of view. But let me, for the benefit of making clarification, let us look at affection and love in the dictionary. That's the English dictionary. From the English dictionary, "Love" has the following meaning: an intense feeling of affection and care towards another; a deep or abiding liking for something; a profound and caring attraction towards someone; the object of one's romantic feeling, a darling or sweetheart; a kind or friendly address regardless of feeling; a sexual desire or sexual activities. When you look at the dictionary, the dictionary is looking at love as a kind of affection. If you look at what we sent out yesterday, that was why I said love and affection are often taken by people to mean the same thing, but in reality, they are not. I just wanted to prove that point. That is why I decided to begin with the dictionary to make you see that love and affection, they are often taken to mean the same thing. But as we'll be looking into the scripture, into the word of God, we'll be realizing that in reality—because the only person who is wise is God. The only person that is wise is God. Until we begin to fear God, we can never be wise. So, want to look at the wisdom. When wisdom speaks about love, what actually did wisdom call love? Because God is the seat of wisdom. Now when you look at "Affection" from the same dictionary, affection comes to mean: an act of affecting or acting upon; it talks about a bent of mind, a feeling or natural impulse; a natural impulse acting upon and swaying the mind; any emotion as the benevolent affection, esteem, gratitude; then it comes to kind, kind feeling, love, tender attachment. So, you see that from the dictionary, affection and love, they are together. That love is affection, affection again is love. But what we said yesterday is that in reality, when you come to practical issues of this life, when you come to the matter of life not existing, not just existence, then we are talking about reality, not mere fact. We are looking at truth, not philosophy. When we choose not to live on our understanding, but to trust in the Lord with all our heart, we will realize that affection and love, they are two different things. They are two things very far apart from each other. So, we'll be looking at the Bible to help us see how God positioned these two things. The first thing I want to do is to look at a scripture that clearly separates affection and love. I want to start from there. I will begin to come to how this matter has implication for our relationships, how it has implication for our marriages, the implication of all of this for our homes. That is actually why we are considering it in this marriage forum. Let's look at the book of Second Peter chapter 1. Permit me to read from verse 1, even though my emphasis is somewhere around verse 10. *“Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue...”* What the Bible is making us to see is that we thank God who has brought us into a precious faith, who has brought us by adoption, who through the suffering, the death, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ has brought us into this faith. The faith in which we stand, the faith of being sons and daughters of God. Thanks be to God, He adopted us into this standing and has given us precious promises, that by these promises we can become the partaker of God's divine nature. So, since we have been given so great privileges and blessings from the Lord, we should not take it ordinarily. We should not take it lightly. We should begin to add different qualities, different things, different layers upon layers of pattern of life. We should begin to add it to that faith. What are the things we are to add to the faith? That began from verse 5. It says, *“But also for this very reason,”* since you have been given promises to escape the corruption that is in the world, let us because of this begin to bring all diligence, all hard work, making all effort. We must add to our faith virtue. We should not just leave our faith hanging or shallow or fallow. Rather, we should be adding some things to it. The first thing to add is virtue. When you add virtue, to virtue again you are to add knowledge. You don't stop there. To knowledge again you are to add self-control. You don't stop there. Self-control you add perseverance. To perseverance you are to add godliness. Now, to godliness you are to add brotherly affection, and then to brotherly affection, you are to now add love. So, when you look at the scripture, brotherly affection and love, they are not the same thing. Affection and love are not the same thing. You are to add affection, and then to affection you are to add love. If affection and love were the same thing, then this scripture would be a tautology, a mere repetition. This verse would be a mere repetition if brotherly kindness, if brotherly affection and love were the same thing. I want to see if we can have that reading in some other translation. In NIV, it says, *“add to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness add love.”* The Old King James says, *“add to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness add charity.”* The Amplified translation says, *“and in exercising godliness, develop brotherly affection, and in exercising brotherly affection, develop Christian love.”* You see something? So, you see that there are different qualities to add to our life when you look at it from the Bible point of view. Before I leave this place, I want to quickly make this comment. Brotherly affection has to do with a kind of feeling of likeness, a feeling of friendliness, a feeling of attachment. That's brotherly affection. Now you see, I like the way the Amplified puts it because it says, *“in exercising godliness, develop brotherly affection, and in exercising brotherly affection, develop love.”* Now, why must we develop love in exercising brotherly affection? The reason is that when we don't develop love in exercising brotherly affection, two things are likely to happen. The first thing that is likely to happen is that brotherly affection can become inordinate affection. The Bible talks about inordinate affection. If you look at some aspects of the scripture, still in the New Testament, you will notice that the Bible talks about the need to run away from any kind of inordinate affection. Let's see Colossians chapter 3, verse 5. It actually began from how we ought to live our life in verse 1. It says: *“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore,”* you see something? Because you have been raised with Christ, because your life is in Christ in God, *“Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth.”* And when he was mentioning these members which are on the earth, that was where he mentioned inordinate affection. *“Put to death your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection.”* One thing about affection is that when you don't add love to affection, on one hand, affection can become inordinate affection. That is what you find sometimes among believers. A development of likeness: "Oh, I like this brother," "I like this sister." Ordinarily, that likeness of brotherhood is brotherly affection. But because in doing that, love was not added—I've not defined love yet—that's why it says in exercising brotherly affection, develop love. But love was not added to brotherly affection. Gradually, before you know it, some unseen things will begin to happen. Some unchristian comments will begin to come. Before you know, the kind of physical contact you don't expect will begin to express itself. It is this feeling of likeness, the brotherly affection, that likeness of one another—"Oh, this brother, he cares, he does that," "This sister, she's so nice, she's so kind, oh, she's so—especially I like about her, I like being around her, in fact, her life encourages me, his life blesses my life"—before you know, we didn't know what happened and then I didn't know, it was just—I don't just know, we just got so attached and then she came to visit or I went to visit and then we started kissing. You start finding then it will look like, ah, is this Christianity? It is because what can regulate affection was not added to brotherly affection. So, brotherly affection became what? Inordinate affection. So, the Bible wants us that in exercising brotherly affection, be sure to add love. What is love? We are coming to define. The Bible also defines love for us. The other thing about affection when you don't add love to it—other thing that could happen is that brotherly affection, that affection, when you don't add love to it, other thing that could happen is that it can lead to what I call unnecessary tolerance for sin. The Bible describes that in the book of Revelation. I'm just taking time to mention all these things because they are very important for us. When you look at the message of John to the church, you will see where the Bible talks about unnecessary tolerance for sin. Let's look at Revelation chapter 2, verse 12. *“And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, 'These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword: "I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells."’* Now, the church has this good side. But look at the other side. *“'But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.’”* Let me read that same thing for you in the NLT translation. *“But yet I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you who are like Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to worship idols by eating food offered to idols and to commit sexual sin.”* He said, *“you tolerate those.”* That you have, that is they allowed them. They tolerated them. You see one thing about brotherly affection? When we don't add love to it, what happens again is that it brings unnecessary tolerance for evil. You will be tolerating evil. You see, they just tell you, "you know, you don't want to offend them, so that it won't look like—don't let them feel hurt. If you rebuke them about this thing now, it will look like—" you see? That is brotherly affection that is being exercised without developing love. You know what is in love? He says, *“As many as I love, I chasten.”* There is chastisement in love. But you don't have it in brotherly affection. Brotherly affection is something that if we are exercising it without developing love, these are the two possibilities. I'm telling you, for those of you who are not yet married, who are in relationship, or about to enter relationship, that is why you notice that for many believers who had kept themselves pure all the while when they were single, by the time they start a relationship, you will notice that before you know it, what they have been able to keep themselves from when they were single, that they never allowed—what sister cannot do to them, what brother cannot do to them because there was no affection—once they start this "he's my fiancé," "my fiancée," "God led me to her," "God led me to him," before you know it, "we don't know what happened and then we were just talking together and then—sir, it was the devil, the devil just took advantage of us." No, you know what happened? I'm trying to explain what happened. It is because you began to exercise brotherly affection without building the needed capacity. Love was not added to it. So when you were saying you were loving her, it was not love. It was brotherly affection that did not develop love. It is this same kind of thing that you find among even unbelievers. At some point in their life, you will hear, "You are the only cockroach in the cupboard." Of course, don't forget, cockroach, what cockroach does is that they destroy things. So, if he's the only cockroach in the cupboard, you know that he's the one destroying your life. But let me use a better one: "You're the only butter on my bread." And then all kinds of—oh sweetheart, oh heartthrob, oh this and that—they might have done that for two, three years. But mind you, while they are doing that for two, three years, go and check them. They will have exercised all kinds of inordinate affection. They would have been fornicating. They would have been—they would still be calling it love. "You know, I love." Because when you read the English dictionary for love, he said love is also sexual act. So they will say you are making love, "you know we're in love." But the Bible calls that what? Inordinate affection. Fornication. Lust. Inordinate affection. They will still call everything love. But as far as the Bible is concerned, it was an affection that became inordinate. We are looking at the wisdom of God to navigate the matter of life. That is why I said nobody can be wise except he comes to God. It is in God that we become wise. And they will say, "Oh, you are not—" and they will say, "Look, if you really love me, we should be able to have sexual intercourse. You need to express that love." You know, I did a research. We're looking at sexual relationship among young people. And then were asking, "Have you been involved in sexual intercourse?" They said yes. And interestingly in that study, when we said, "Was it planned or unplanned?" The one who said unplanned, they said when I went to visit, it happened. The one that said planned, we said, "Why?" He said, "To show love." So you see that their understanding of love is what God called inordinate affection. Now, after they have expressed all the so-called love for three, four years, they enter into marriage. They settle down to marriage. And then after some two, three years again of marriage, something begins to happen again. Say, "Look, the day I met you, I regret it. In fact, you are the death in my life. You are the devil I should not have met. You are the—" And then the question is, those things that happened, all those love that was overwhelming, overflowing before they entered the marriage—I'm talking about, look at the level of divorce today. Look at how ladies change husbands as if they are changing—what will you say? The way they change bags. Or which one do they normally change often? Is it bags or slippers or—sisters, please help us. Which one do you change often? Shoes. Thank you, sisters. The way ladies change shoes, they are changing husband like that. And you will see men, the way they change shirts. They wear this today, another one tomorrow. They are changing wives. And so we begin to ask ourselves, where is all this love that people are talking about? Society is pressurized with love. So where is the love? Is society pressurized with love? Or pressurized with inordinate affection? Pressurized with what the Bible calls inordinate, another word for it, what the Bible calls lust. Society is pressurized with the pull of emotion. And let me tell you one thing about emotion. Emotion is so strong that it can lead you into a particular act. But it's so weak that it cannot sustain you. Emotion. That is what is happening. What they are calling love is just an affection that was exercised without developing love. And unfortunately today, unfortunately, when you come to the Christian community, those who you now say, okay, we're coming to address believers, you find out that unfortunately, because what the Bible said in Ephesians chapter 2—let's go to that Ephesians chapter 2. I want to explain something about the believers that is very important for us. *“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”* So for us believers, where are we coming from? We were coming from the life of those unbelievers. We were all once there. He says, *“And we He made alive, who were dead.”* We were also dead. The life of unbelievers is a life of deadness. What they are doing is deadness. There is no life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have life. Life is only in Jesus. Without Jesus, there is no life. What you are talking about is existence, the animalistic life. It's just existence. They are dead. Everyone who continues in sin is a dead man. And you know what happens to dead men? When a man is dead, can he understand bad odor? When you even put what can destroy the dead man, can the dead man run? That is why you see them wallowing in the things that destroys them. They cannot even sense that what they are doing is shameful. They cannot smell it because they are dead. They do all kinds of shameful things and then they cannot see that it is abhorring. It's something like—you'll be wondering, what is the problem? The problem is that they are dead. If you throw a dead man inside a soakaway, will he complain? He won't complain because he's dead. So you see all kinds of disgusting things going on. So we were dead just like they were dead in trespasses and sin. Now, look at what it says to confirm it for us. *“In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.”* He's trying to make us see that even no man is actually free. Every human being you see is under the influence of a spirit. I want you to know that. All human action, there is no freedom. No, in the real sense of it, every human being is being influenced by something because he has spirit. We are not this physical body. There is spiritual environment where people work according to the course of this world. They are working according to the course of a spirit. There is a prince of the power of the air that they are working according to him. There is a prince of the power of the air that they are working according to him. The spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. So where you see disobedience, there is a spirit working. *“Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others.”* So, you know what happened? Because we are also coming from that background into Christianity, we don't understand that look, there is a background that we are coming from. Look at what he said: fulfilling the lust of the flesh and of the mind. So when we don't get our mind renewed—Bible says, *“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”* When you don't renew your mind as a believer, then there will be a problem. And that problem is that you will still be fulfilling the lust of the flesh and of the mind. The lust of the flesh and then lust of the mind. So you will not understand that look, if you don't renew your mind, even though you have come into Jesus, you will still find your running of relationship with the opposite sex, your fellow brother, your fellow sister, what will be controlling you will not be brotherly affection again. It will be brotherly affection turned inordinate affection. Brotherly affection turned lust. Brotherly affection that tolerates what it should not tolerate. You get the point I'm making? That is why you also find in Christian community, in the community of those that are born again, you begin to find all kinds of things. And you'll be wondering, "Are they believers? Are these ones Christians?" And when you ask them, "I'm born again, I'm born again, I'm born again." Honestly, it may not be that they are not born again. It may only be that they did not submit their life to correct teaching. They did not submit their life to discipleship. They did not submit their life to learn Jesus. They did not submit their life to know the way of the cross, the way of dying daily, the way of dying to ourselves, the way of renewal of the mind by the word of God. He says, *“How will a young man make his way pure, but by hearkening to Your word, O Lord? Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You. Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”* Because there was no systematic, continuous teaching to absorb, to take in the truth of the word, and so they were not set free. He says, *“You will know the truth and you will be free.”* Freedom is the ability to live right. Freedom is to live the life you ought to live. What do I mean by ability to live right? You know I've just said something, that no man is actually free, you are under the influence of something. So what does it mean to really be man? You have to go back to how we were created. Go and check. Fish or fishes were created to be in the water. He says, *“Let the water bring out.”* Fishes, where do they live? They live inside water. The water brought them out. The animal that land brought out, where are they living? They live on land. When it came to man, what did the Bible say? *“Let us make man in our own image.”* So where is the habitat of man? The habitat of man is God. Until man live in God, he is outside his natural habitat. He will be dying. It's like a fish out of water. That is why you see every man outside God living a dead life because they are actually dying, they are not living. They must come back to where they can live freely. When you throw fish back into water, what happens? Wow, you begin to see liberty, freedom, movement, on and on. So it is when we are under—when we are led by the Spirit of God, when we are under the influence of God and not under the influence of the spirit, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in children of disobedience. It is when we are not under that influence, but rather the influence of God's spirit that we are truly ourselves. I remember the word of Augustine, Saint Augustine. You know what he said? He said, man was created in the image of God and he will never find rest until he reflects that image. Man was created in the image of God and he will never find rest until he reflects that image. That is the truth. That's why Jesus said, *“Take my yoke, learn from me. I am meek and lowly in heart. What will happen? You will find rest for your soul.”* So, I'm imploring you as a Christian, you need to understand why we are also seeing inordinate affection, lust among us as believers. That is because that was the life we were living before. So many times, we will not realize that what we are calling brotherly affection is no more brotherly affection. When a brother becomes particular about a sister—in the morning, "How was the night?" In the afternoon, "How was the morning?" In evening, "How was the afternoon?" In the night, "How was the evening?" In the morning again, "How was the night?" And you begin to wonder, is that the gift of the spirit to raise the saint? Is it only about that sister? You need to check. Brotherly affection when you don't add love to it can become inordinate affection. And that is what at first we want to establish this morning. Because it is affection versus love. Affection versus love. What then is love? Because what we said in what we sent to you yesterday, what we sent out was that in order to build—I said transcending affection, our life must transcend brotherly affection. We must develop love. Transcending brotherly affection, love is the only solid basis for building a godly home. That is, love is the only thing that can help you to run a relationship as you should run it and then enter into a marriage and then also be able to sustain that marriage. But we are not talking this time about the one you call affection because he said add to brotherly affection, love. So we are leaving the place of affection now. We are coming to the place of love. What are you to add to this affection that we are calling love? The Bible itself defines it for us. And we are going to use the popular scripture to define it, to talk about it. What this love is. Let's go to the popular scripture, the scripture of First Corinthians chapter 13. Just to call our attention to a few things there and then we'll begin to see if there are questions, we respond to questions. If there are no questions, we close for today. Let's go to First Corinthians chapter 13. *“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.”* Let me read a simpler translation for that. I'm reading NLT. *“If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth—”* we normally speak in some of the languages. Whether in heaven or on earth, you don't have all. It is some you will have. But even if you have all, let's say that God gave you that you could have all the languages in heaven and all the ones on earth. By the power of the Holy Spirit you have the gift of speaking in tongues and you can speak all the tongues in heaven and you can also speak all the tongues on earth. I've not seen a man like that. But in case you are that man, let's say that you are that man, *“but didn't love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal.”* You'll be bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bong-bang-bang-bang-gong-bang-bang. That is what your tongue is. That is what you are, meaningless sound. May you not be meaningless. May your exercise of spiritual gift not be meaningless in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, it went ahead again to tell us that *“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and I understand all mysteries and all knowledge.”* You know that again is not possible. The Bible says we know in part, we understand in part. Even Apostle Paul who is telling us these things himself said he knows in part. That when the perfect shall come, they will take away childish things, then we will now know as we are known. But we are saying that maybe you are not one of us. You're above us. You are above all humanity. You have become God yourself who knows all mysteries and you have all knowledge. Even if you are able to have that. That's why I said many of these things, they are hyperbole. What we call hyperbole, exaggerated things to bring home the meaning of something. We want to bring home the power of love. They want to show you how important, how crucial it is to develop love. How crucial it is to do so. So, they are using hyperbole, exaggerated statement, that even if you can have all these and you don't have love—so, even if you can have all of these and you don't have love, you have faith that can move a mountain, but have not love, I am nothing. So faith, mysteries, knowledge, prophecy, a man can have all of that and still be nothing. Do you know how the man can be nothing? Let me give you a simple one from where we started from about affection. If the man have all this and he's exercising inordinate affection, is that man not nothing? When God hates immorality and the man love what God hates, when the Lord is to appear, what will He call him? "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity." So you can have all mysteries and all that. There could be inordinate affection in your life. Because what can—what can balance inordinate affection is love. So, you could have all that and still be nothing. You could have all that and not amount to anything as far as God is concerned because you don't have love. I want to ask you, when you talk about mysteries today, when you talk about powers doing all kinds of expression, do you think we can set the devil aside? Do you see the kind of powers that is expressed in darkness? Look at the powers, when we say "powers of darkness." Look at the kind of powers that is operated in darkness. Look at lying wonders. And yet, as far as God is concerned, God said He has reserved them in chains of darkness. Darkness is a chain. So they are in chain. And yet, look at the power that they are expressing. So, that you can express power, you can do wonders, you can make the dead to rise, you can do all—you can move all mountains—does not tell us anything about you. You can still be nothing. It doesn't really tell us anything that, no. That is why you will notice, Bible did not say God is power. Bible says God is love. But God has power. So God is not power. Hallelujah. God is powerful, He's the Almighty, but God is love. What I'm trying to make you understand is the place of love. What is this love that the Bible is trying to make us understand? It went ahead again and said, *“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and I give my body to be burned, but I have not love, it profits me nothing.”* You'll be wondering that it's possible to give all your life and still there is no love. I want to make you understand it. Have you not seen—let me go back to where we started from again about affection. "You're the only cockroach in my cupboard, the only butter on my bread." They will give all kinds of gifts, all kinds of everything. They will, in fact, the young man can buy a car for the girl he said he love. But yet take virginity away from the girl, sleep with her severally. They're expressing love. Is that really love? So the young man is giving. But that giving still makes him nothing because the giving don't have love. It is giving that is an expression of the lust that is going on. Expression of the sinful life that is going on. Do you know that you can also give to show off? You may give to impress. You know sometimes, let me give you a good example. You may give because you want to get something, investment. You say you are motivating the person. You see? I love this man, I gave him. The reason—you are just making way for yourself. So it's not about the person because your eye of giving is still on yourself, it's not on that person. Different ways it comes today. Look at sometimes that people want to give maybe 100 Naira before and then instead of envelope in the church or this deep offering bag, they bring a tray. As the tray is coming, you say, "Ah, no, I don't want them—how will I be giving 100 Naira? They will look at me." You quickly change to 500. That 500 is not what you wanted to give. You gave that because you wanted to impress the people around. You see? So I'm trying to make you understand something about giving. So a man can do all of this giving and yet it profits him nothing. It profits him nothing because God did not—God does not recognize that kind of giving. The giving is not on the eye—the giving is given with a eye on the giver. The giver is concerned about the giver. That is why the giver is giving. These are the issues. Now the Bible now comes to what love is. What now is this love we have been talking about? I will first quickly read through all of them and then I will—we'll now begin to ask ourselves important questions. It says: *“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”* Brethren, let me read that again in a simpler translation. NLT: *“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”* Are you following me, brethren? When you look at what we are reading, I want to ask us some questions having read through this thing. The matters that are mentioned here, do they look like feeling? The matters that are mentioned here, do they have to do with a feeling or they're looking like a behavior? Or they're looking like a decision? Or they're looking like a determination? Are they looking like a feeling when you say love is patient? What does it mean to be patient? What does it mean to be patient? When you say "he suffers long," he's patient, he suffers long. Because we talk again about perseverance. What does it mean to be—ordinarily, what does it mean to be patient? Not losing one’s temper, willing to wait. What I'm trying to make you see about patient—different from perseverance—is that patient has to do with dealing with unfavorable circumstance in dealing with human beings. When you are dealing with human beings and the circumstance is not favorable, the circumstance is not what you like, the circumstance is provoking, the circumstance is annoying, the circumstance is something that you dislike. What does love do? Love is patient. Love—love don't go mad. It remains calm. It remains calm. It's calm. You get the point I'm making? Now, I want to ask you, when somebody is provoking you, what kind of—what kind of feeling do you have? Is it feeling of likeness or feeling of hatred? Irritation. When somebody is doing what is annoying you, what kind of feeling do you have? Is it the feeling of brotherly affection—"Oh, you see, I like this"? Is that the kind of feeling you will be having? No. Which kind are you having? The feeling like "let me slap," "let me—" is not the feeling that you will be having. So when you say love is patient, please, what is love directed at in human beings? Is love directed towards their strength or towards their failure? Mind you, not just their weaknesses and failure, but their weaknesses and failure that are making you mad. So he says to brotherly affection, that is why you will see that when people exercise brotherly affection—I'm talking about Christian community now—and they don't develop love, you know what happens? When the sister, the brother does what you like, you will notice their fellowship will go well. By the time their weakness and their failure comes that is making you mad, you know what will come up? Gossip, backbiting. That's why you see it in fellowship. That's why you see all kinds of things in fellowship. And then when you say "my clique," go and check that their clique, it's where they are still exercising what? Brotherly affection. That is why you will notice there are some people, their ability to relate well with believers is only within a clique of people. They cannot—they cannot live peaceably with the body of believers. They start dividing them. "See this one... this one..." what is making you—what is making you to have restlessness, hot temper, all of those things is because you are not developing love. Something is not developing in you. What is in you is brotherly affection. It says to brotherly—that's why Bible says add it. You must add love to affection. And when love begin to come forth, you begin to see love showing up itself in the inabilities, in the failures, in the shortcomings of the person. When the person—the shortcoming, maybe the way the person talks. You don't like the way he talks. You feel he's too confrontational. Maybe you don't like the way the person—different thing about people just get us disgusted. You can't find anybody that everything about you you like, everything about the person you like it. There will be something—you see the way the person shouts? I even remember a sister was relationship with somebody and we were trying to—he call us because the person is our friend. Say, "Ah, there's something I want to discuss with you. Is there a way you can just discuss with this your friend? He's always shouting on me when he's talking." Ah, I laugh and I laugh and I laugh. I said, "Sister, he is not shouting. That is how he normally talk. We know him very well." "You see, look, even when we are inside the bedroom, when we—he would just—and he would start—everything about him—so, he irritates me." I said, "That is who he is." He irritates me about him and I've told him, I've told him, and it's like he doesn't see that I don't like people shouting on me. Sister, he is not—he is not shouting on you. It's just—different things about people. And what—this is what today is not making marriages to stand. What people are calling love is that they only want to enjoy what they like about the other person. They don't want to be patient with what they don't like. And you know the foolishness? They dreaming of their wife. What is their day dreaming? They will be changing wife and husband looking for the one that—they will not need to be patient with. They'll be looking for one. By the time they see another one, they say, "Oh, you see that former one? The only thing I like about her, she doesn't shout on me. You, I like you because you cook well, but I don't like this shouting. That's why I changed that person. Please look, be careful, else I will—" by the time they change that one again to another one, "that one cook well, she doesn't shout, but there's anything I hate about you, you don't think quickly." You will say let's go again. "I want people, thinking that are quick to think. Ah, why are you like this? This one I don't like. If you see that my first wife, ah, if I just think about it, she has judged me... ah, that's what I—" why did you throw her away? You don't understand. That's why you will keep going until you will die. You will not find one that will have everything. You will never find. That is why we said that the only basis for building a godly home is love. Affection cannot do it. Affection cannot do it. Because affection have to do with feeling of likeness, feeling of the things you like, something that is pleasant to you, something that is okay. That is where affection can work. But if you don't develop love alongside—so, I want to show you something. To be patient, is it not a choice? Is it not a choice? To be patient is a choice. It's not a feeling. Because you are not feeling like being patient. You are feeling like being mad. Am I not correct? Am I not correct? The feeling is like you want to be mad, but you chose to be patient. So love is a decision of will. It's a decision. You chose it. It's a decision, you decided. It's a commitment. You are committing yourself to something. It's a commitment to something. Oh, questions are already coming. Oh yes, yes, it's already 11:30. Okay, let's have the question. Please have it, let's have it. [Speaker 4] Thank you, sir. My question is, sir, we know that affection has to do with emotions. And that me myself as an example, there are some times that you have a strong liking for something and later, after some time, it's like you don't feel that way again. That’s true. So now, how can one now do to curtail this matter in marriage? Because there are definitely there will be some times that you no longer feel very strongly about some things, maybe activities, or maybe even maybe some things— [Speaker 2] Okay, let me try to understand the question. Are you saying that for example, people who are married and at one point you have this strong affection for your wife? But because some things happen, then the affection just—dislike. Apart from that also, I just discovered that maybe naturally, you don't just feel very strongly about some things. Maybe activities or maybe—at one point you just became bored with it. You are boring. I've been doing this thing for many years. Okay. You know, how do we deal with that? And that is why, thank you for that very important question because we are still coming to that place later. But it's a good question that you've brought it up. That is why we are telling people that affection cannot sustain marriage. Affection cannot sustain marriage because feeling, these things, like our brother said in that question, you know one thing about them? At one point, they are not just there. You just—that's why somebody say, "In fact, I've been married to her now, we are—there is nothing again. We have had sex, we have had everything. In fact, after she gave birth to the third child, the way she even look now self, what will you now find again self?" And that's why—that's why you see some, they start looking outside again for the one that look two-by-five-by-six again. You know she's no more looking two-by-five-by-six, no looking peperempe the way you met her. You just became bored about her. And it can be about the man too. When you married him, he was looking slim and good. By the time you begin to cook ogbono file, egusi for him, he begin to develop pot belly. And you start to—you did not marry him like that. Now you now look as if he's pregnant. And you are looking at the belly you married, it look like, ah, this brother self... ah, god help us! He say, "Ah, we are trying, we do exercise..." and it look like, ah, this brother self... Then you now see some brothers again who are now looking wow... oh, you look at your honey and go "fine... legon... fine..." different thing can make it die actually. That's why I tell people affection is actually a plant. Given the right condition it grows. If the wrong condition it dies. It's not stable. It's not stable. That is why it cannot carry, it cannot sustain. So, how do we deal with such things? Let me look at it in terms of—let me first look at it in terms of you are not in a marriage. Let me first say outside marriage. How do I deal with I don't have affection for something again? Let me first say maybe a person, maybe a brother, maybe a sister. It's not that the person did anything wrong, but you just get bored about the person, you don't have affection for the person again. How do you handle it? That is why you will notice something what he said about love. He says, love—he says it endures every circumstance in verse 7. It endures every circumstance. Some circumstance will come, it look like different things. I know a case when somebody was saying that look, "when I married you, you were looking—this one that you just built up," you know when she married the sister, the sister was slim and—after first and second and third issue, sister became so fat. And the brother just—you know, dislike, you know, "you're no more sister... one of the reasons why I made my choice then, but now..." So what will you do with the sister? Will you go and marry another one? He says love endures every circumstance. Amplified: *“Love bears up under anything and everything that comes. Ever ready to believe the best of every person.”* It's ever ready to believe the best of every person. Please, is that a feeling or decision? It's a decision. Love is a decision of will. That's what we are treating. Love is not an affection. It's not an affection. That is the mistake our generation is making. When you say "I love," you are talking about a feeling. No, "I have affection." That's what you should say. Love is in a class of its own. And if you don't have this thing, you are nothing. You have not become anything as far as God is concerned. Until you develop it. Now why did the Bible say we should develop it? I want to quickly handle that before we begin to look at—because I know we may not be able to finish all of these attributes because I want us to look at these attributes. We'll take this matter again to our next—please, questions are there? We'll be answering question as they come. It's already question and answer time. You have a question? Okay. Okay, maybe I will answer that too why should—why the Bible say "develop love." I will need to take that and then maybe we'll close. Let's take that question please. [Speaker 4] Yes, daddy, yes, I've been following the thing even though I went for assignment quickly in some place of work so I was bit—I was listening to the message from—I'm listening to it in my car. Okay. Sir, I want to ask, sir, can we as human beings that have flesh and blood, human being I'm talking about, not angel, can we really exhibit this attribute of love daddy you are explaining to us? Can we really, really attribute it? Because daddy forgive me oh, when Jesus was even in the flesh, Jesus Christ the Lord, He manifest that love too, he had some—at some point that He was provoked. He was provoked and you see Him only anger, I will just say only anger. But I believe that something as human being too must have definitely provoked Him to be—you know? Even when God said this hard—this people—if God say this hardheaded, these people, if Moses, with all his meekness—he can’t bear again. He beyond him as man. That was why he uttered that statement, called them stiff-necked people. And some of us preachers today, they are quoted, they quote against Moses, that he was trying to defend God, but as human being, he was the one that is leading them. So as husband and wife, sir, can we really manifest this attribute of love? Sir, this is a great revelation. That it's a revelation. And if you don't have that revelation, it's not possible to be operating in it. I'm seeing it as a revelation that it's a choice, it's a decision. It's what you must decide, you must deliberately say yes, you want to act... no, not looking at, as human being, sir, it's very hard to attribute, to manifest these attributes. [Speaker 2] Okay. Okay. Thank you, thank you very, very much. You are very, very correct. You are very, very correct in what you—in asking that question. That is making me to quickly look at one of the attributes of love again because you are talking about anger. It says it is not easily angered. It is not easily angered. It takes—before love can become angry, it's not easily angered. So you have mentioned that first, is it that in this love, this love cannot be angry? The Bible doesn't say love cannot be angry. The Bible does not say love cannot be angry. The Bible says, if you compare this with Ephesians, it said, *“Be angry, but sin not.”* Slow to speak, slow to anger. Again he said, *“Don't let the sun go down on your anger.”* So love can be angry. But in anger, love does not sin. Two, you know what again about this love is that the anger, the sun cannot go down on it. It said, *“Don't let the sun go down on your anger.”* That means no matter how much the anger is, that anger—what will happen to that anger? It will end that day. That day it will end. The sun cannot go down on the anger. Before the sun goes down, the anger is gone. Now, when it says it can be angry but it does not sin, that tells you that you know when we are angry and we are exercising this love, you will still see that we will not sin. I'm giving you an example of when we are angry. We can be angry and curse. Anger—so there's no more love. Because the anger is making you to sin. You can be angry and kill. The anger has made you to sin. That's not love. When love is angry, love will still not sin. It means when love is in operation, what happens? Anger—you know anger is a fire. It's when you take fire outside regulation. Fire is good. But only when it is regulated in stove to burn something, to cook something. But if fire is just burning everywhere, fire is no more good. Are you understanding me? So love can be angry. But because love don't sin in anger, you will discover that in anger, love will still be able to edify, will be able to do right. When you say, "Anger made me do it," the problem is you did not develop love. Hope I'm helping you somehow to bring out—then the other one that can human being practice it. That is where we are coming to. That's what I wanted to say when he said "develop love." I want to show you something about this love that we are talking about. Can we develop—can human being practice this love in flesh and blood? Please, look at Romans chapter 5. Can human being practice this love? Can human being practice this love? Look at what the Bible says. I would like to read the background to that verse so that we can get it. Romans chapter 5, I'm reading from verse 1. *“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, we also glory in tribulations,”* you know normally people weep in tribulation, people cry in tribulation. Not only so, we also glory in tribulation. Problem, trouble, he say endure every circumstance. *“knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”* And hope does not disappoint. Why? What is the reason? *“because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”* So no ordinary human being can exercise this love. Am I—am I answering your question gradually? No ordinary human being. It's not possible. This love is only possible in those who have been justified by faith, who God gave His Holy Spirit. He said, *“because love, the love of God has been poured into our heart by the Holy Spirit.”* So what actually happens is that when the Bible says that He came to His own, His own received Him not, but as many as received Him, He gave them power. So there's a giving of something. They had power. There's a—there's something—something was given to them to become, so that they can now begin to be able to behave like children of God. So what actually happens is that the Holy Spirit—it is by the Holy Spirit that we got this love. That is why you know when we began, I was defining love from the dictionary. That is why the English dictionary cannot define this love. It is not the one in the English dictionary. If you want to find this dictionary, you have to go—you have to add something for the English dictionary, you have to say "Agape love," God-kind of love. You have to put something. But when you say "love," English don't have that kind. English don't have this one because this one comes from God. The one they know is the emotion, the feeling, they say "I love her." Affection, you have sex with her, "I made love with to her." That's the one English have. That's why dictionary defined it that way. But this one is supernatural. It is when we come into Christ that the Holy Spirit does what? He pours it into our heart. So, and that makes you to understand something very well. It is the more—when the Bible say don't quench the Spirit, don't grieve the Spirit—it is the more we don't quench the Holy Spirit, we don't grieve the Holy Spirit, that this love manifests in us. That's why the dictionary was using "Agape." Agape in dictionary: spiritual, okay, the love of God for mankind. You see it now? Or the benevolent love of Christians for others, that is spiritual, altruistic, beneficial love which wills good for others. You get it? So you see they have to take it from the realm of love to Agape. They have to take it to that side. Because it's not the—the natural man don't have this one. It is the God kind. It is God that taught us, that is teaching us this kind of love. This is the real love. This is the one that God is talking to husband. When you say, "Husband, love your wife." So when God is talking about love, we're not talking about feeling. This is what God is talking about. Husband, when your wife makes you mad, be patient. That's what He mean when He say "Husband, love your wife." In any circumstance, in any situation. You get the point I'm making now? It can endure any situation. If that object happens that there will be no child, it becomes obvious that the problem is not even with the man. They even went to medical checkup. Because sometimes the problem can be the man, the woman may not have problem. But if even when they go and do checkup, because I've seen cases like that, they went to do checkup did everything, everything said the woman was normal, discovered that it was the man that have sperm problem. But even when they went—they go and do checkup, they now discover that, ah, the woman have a particular disease one time when she was a child, the parent did not treat it, she too did not know, and as a result, that thing have paralyzed everything she cannot give birth again. You know what love will say? Love will say, "Even if no issue will come out of you, I have chosen you." Because it can take—it is not the natural one. The natural one say, "Ah, I made a mistake. I made a mistake." You get the point I'm going to bring out? So it's not the natural thing. So I'm trying to respond to the issue of naturalness. It is something poured in our heart. Now, that's why he said to brotherly affection, develop love. You know what he's saying? I want to illustrate it with if I can get something like a container. A container. Let's take this—look at this container now. Let's take it to be a closed, a covered container like a bottle. If perfume is inside this bottle, covered, who will smell the perfume? Nobody. Now to everyone that is truly born again, the Holy Spirit have poured the love of God into their heart. It's inside. But it's—it's inside the heart. It's like a perfume inside the bottle. If they must smell this perfume, what will happen? This thing must open. If it opens small, the perfume will come out small. If it opens again, it will come out. If it now opens completely, then it does not stop there, it now begin to pour. Or you take the thing, instead of pouring, you break it now. What happens? The smell will be everywhere. So the more God breaks us, the more the love is perceived by others. God will be opening us up. That is the brokenness. God will be opening us. That's why he say develop it. It's something to be developed. It's not something we have. It's not natural. We don't have it. But to develop it—it's not as if—listen, that's where people are making the mistake again. You know what they will be praying? They will say, "God, give me Your love. Lord, give me Your love." No, the love has been given. Let me explain it again. You know when a child—when a egg impregnate—is impregnated by a sperm, everything to make that child become a child is already inside that thing. All it takes is just what? To be developing. So everything it takes for us to act like God, God kind of love, is already inside us. So the development is—if any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself. So as we begin to know, this is the interest of Jesus. Jesus says, "No, I should love. No, I'm asked to love." You are denying yourself. You are holding yourself. But you notice all of this thing comes as you commit yourself to God in prayer, as you study His word to renew your mind. So it is as we walk—W-A-L-K—with the Lord that we will become like the Lord. You know it's His own love that He gave to us. So He has given it to us. So as the more we begin to look at Him, the more we begin to have our mind transformed, we begin to know who we are, we begin to change into His own likeness, people will now be seeing this other one. So it's a development. Nobody gets there in a day. And let me tell you, you know what the Bible says? He gave gifts for the perfecting of the saint, for the edification of the church, till we all come to the unity of the faith, to the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ. It's a growth. We are increasing in that thing. But the truth is also that until we see Him, we will not become exactly like Him. No human being can love the way God love. We know—we are trying to become like Him. Until we see Him and we pull down this body, we will now become exactly like Him. So when you notice that you could not exercise this love, the problem is—it's a sign that your commitment, your walk with God is shallow. It's shallow. That's where we will stop today. We'll pick the matter again next month. We'll take it off from here. I believe that we have been able to answer two important questions today. Affection and a marriage, affection versus love in relationship and a marriage. We've been able to answer how do we deal with when affection is no more there? Can human beings exercise this love? And is it that there is no—is it possible for human being not to be angry? Out of love we saw that Jesus Christ was angry, like our brother said. So we made this clear from the Bible. It is that it says *“be angry but sin not.”* Be angry but sin not. So when love is there, anger will not make us to sin. Something was posted on the social media yesterday—I think it's my wife that posted it—a woman that was angry with her neighbor and then they got into fighting. In anger, she stabbed and the other person died. And then she was charged for murder. And when the judge was to read that judgment, they said they should also be killed. She began to weep and cry. But then, I'm sure she—she will be regretting her actions. But they cannot reverse it. So she's just waiting for when they will come and kill her too. What she might be fighting over maybe 200,000—I'm just trying to say because sometimes we even get mad, maybe even get to say 200,000—but sometimes people even go into fight because of 100 Naira. It became—became so angry. I tell people, what you stand to lose in anger is more than what you stand to gain if you set aside anger. I will leave it that way for this morning. What you stand to lose in anger is far greater than what you stand to gain. It's far, far, far greater. What you will lose. But when you are not angry, what you stand to gain is far greater than what you—you know? That thing you are trying to use anger—look, the Lord will help us. The Lord will help us. Anger is just a letter short of danger. Do you know that? What you put "D" to anger, it becomes danger. And when the Bible say, "Be angry and sin not," it means everywhere there is anger, sin is already at the corner. Let us always know that when we are angry, we are in danger. That will help you many times to regulate, to watch this matter of anger. When you are angry, you are in danger because sin is already around the corner. Yes, let us stop for today. Let me ask my wife to come and close the meeting. Till next month again when we meet for another marriage forum. Affection and love in marriage. May God help us to build godly homes. Amen. [Speaker 1] *Singing:* We are saying thank You Jesus Thank You our God We are saying thank You Jesus Thank You, thank You our God We are saying thank You Jesus Thank You our God We are saying thank You Jesus Thank You our God. Heavenly Father, we thank You. Thank You for this great privilege You have given us to be part of the children that You have poured out Your spirit into. And that is the reason why we know we can live this truth. Thank You to be able to live the love, live the life of love, the true love that is expected of us, the love of Christ, the affection that will be true and would not be inordinate when it is based on the love of Christ, the love of God that has given us in Christ Jesus. Father, we thank You for pouring Your Spirit into our heart. Blessed be Your name, O Lord, in Jesus’ name. Father, we also want to thank You because this grace, this open door, this blessing is still there, is still open for everyone that have not come to Jesus. There's this opportunity again that if anyone come, O Lord, You said if anyone open the door, You will come in, You will sup with him, You will—You will pour Your spirit upon whosoever. Even as we are remembering again the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus that has given us access to this life, this grace, Father, we remember everyone listening to us today that have not opened the heart—their heart unto You. Lord, please help them to know and realize that the Spirit of God, the life of God that can make man live the love and the life of Jesus is still available. Cause them, O Lord, to open their heart so that You can pour Your Spirit into them in the name of Jesus. Lord, as we go forth in this with this truth, Lord, we will showcase it. Our life will live it, we will display it in the name of Jesus. Lord, help us to really indeed have brotherly affection that is based on the true love, the love of God, the benevolent love of God, the spiritual love of God, the love that is intentional, deliberate, the love that surpasses feeling, the love that controls feeling, the love that brings feeling and emotion into order. Father, please cause our life to work out this love in the name of Jesus. We ask again, Lord, pour this love afresh into our heart. Pour this love afresh into the life of everyone listening today and cause—grant us understanding of this true love again so that we will be able to live it out. Thank You for every homes, every marriages, Lord, that have allowed this love. We pray, Lord, they will not fall short of the love of Christ in Jesus’ name. Lord, help them to put, O Lord, this love into use far above their feelings, far above our emotions, far above the way we feel, the way life—whatsoever life throws at us, but God help Your love to prevail. Let it Your love be the one that rules. Let Your love be the one that takes all. Let Your love be the one that is in charge in all of Your—of Your children’s home in the name of Jesus. Thank You for Your Son. We pray, Lord, more of You, more of Your love let it be shed abroad in his heart in Jesus’ name. We pray more of Your grace, more of Your inspiration, revelation of You, insight into the word for Your—for this generation in the name of Jesus. As we go now, Your presence go with us. Cause us all to gather again next month with new blessings from You, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Thank You, Father, for answer to our prayers in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. [All] The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forever more. Amen. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. [Speaker 1] 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 aid. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class, every Monday, 5:00 PM; Adolescent 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 out-reaches and every day counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite G-Rejoice Filling Station along Ijerere 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.