Dynamics of God's holiness 7

[Music] The church 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 on Family Tents Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] Hallelujah, we are grateful, O Lord. We are grateful, Jesus. We are grateful, O Lord. We are grateful, O Lord. We are grateful, O Lord. Oluwa, Olorun, for all you have done for us, amen, hallelujah, we are grateful, O Lord. We are grateful, Jesus. We are grateful, O Lord. We are grateful, Lord. We are grateful, O Lord. Oluwa, Olorun, for all you have done for us, amen, hallelujah, we are grateful, O Lord. We want to say that you are good, and another miracle you've done has brought us joy. And we are changed, another hope we have is resting in you right now. O Father, we declare, Father, we declare that we love all you. We declare an everlasting love for you, O Lord. We declare, Father, we declare that we love all you. We declare an everlasting love for you. Our Father, we are grateful unto you. We thank you for your love and mercy. We thank you for your goodness, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for all who you are, we thank you for all that you are. We thank you, Lord our God, again for the beginning of a new quarter. We thank you for your mercy, we thank you for your goodness, we thank you for preservation. Lord, it has been you. And even now, it is still you. And we are persuaded it will yet be you in the name of Jesus Christ. Our Father, as we commence again today, we ask that Lord you will move with each and every one of us in the name of Jesus Christ. We pray, O Lord, for who are here and our brethren who are linking up with us from various locations. Lord our God, we pray, you will work within us, among us for the benefit of your church, to the glory of your name, in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Eternal Father. Blessed be your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Praise the Lord! We thank God again. Last Monday was our last Monday of last month and also the last Monday in the first quarter of the year. We are commencing the second quarter of the year today, and like we discussed, like I said before, that this second quarter, our emphasis will be on biblical examples of the various, various lives, various lives that demonstrated how a man can miss out with God and how a man can follow up with God. We'll be looking at biblical examples for most part of this quarter, and different brethren will be speaking at different times about different biblical examples. So, what I want to do today is we have just a few things to round up the dynamics of God's holiness. Don't forget that a fortnight ago, we were looking at the matter of love, walking in love, how to handle your brother that offends you. How do we handle forgiveness? That was what we were looking at in the last two Mondays ago. So, we'll try to conclude that today, believing God that from next week, we'll begin to look at biblical examples of these things. And I pray, the Bible says these things they were written for our learning. They were written for us so that we don't miss out with God. As we'll be looking at those various examples, my prayer is that we will not miss out with God in the name of Jesus Christ. So, we want to open our Bible to the book of Leviticus, that passage that has been the focus of our discussion all the while. So, let's go to Leviticus chapter 19. Let's see what we have there in Leviticus 19 and then we try to see what God can help us to learn in that Scripture. Leviticus chapter 19. Now, when you look at the verses, Leviticus 19, verses 17, 18, 19, that is where we are considering. Okay, we are there. That's verse 17 and 18. Verse 17 and 18, where the Bible says: "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD." "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD." In verse 17: "You shall not hate your brother in your heart: you shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him." And this took us to Matthew chapter 18. We were looking at Matthew 18, the discussion of the Lord and the disciples. Let's see that Scripture, Matthew 18. We read from verse 15. "Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. If he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them." Then we notice in verse 21, then Peter came to him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." And that was where we stopped two weeks ago. Now, I want to read a little further, verse 23 downwards. "Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, 'Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!' So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had happened, what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?'" Now, when you look at this Scripture, you are looking at something very, very vital, very, very important. We are learning something very, very crucial. What is it that we are learning? What is it that we are seeing? We are seeing that there is a connection between our relationship with our fellow brothers and that which we have with the Lord. There is a strong connection between our relationship with fellow believers and our relationship with the Lord. There is a strong connection. What is this connection that we are seeing? What is the connection as we are seeing this evening? Is that the Lord was talking about what happens between the master and a servant and between that servant and another servant. And when you look at what is happening in that place, what the Lord is discussing, you notice that it is something very, very crucial. Something very, very crucial. Don't forget where we were coming from. We were coming from what we saw in the book of Leviticus. What we saw in Leviticus was that you must not bear any grudge against your fellow brother. You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must do everything not to hate your brother in your heart. And then another thing we saw in Leviticus is that apart from you should not hate your brother in your heart, it said you should surely rebuke your brother, discuss with him. That was what took us to Matthew 18. We began to look at what Jesus was teaching disciples in their relationship. And then Peter was asking the Lord, "How many times will I forgive my brother? Is it seven times?" And the Lord said, "Seventy times seven." Now, when you look at that, seventy times seven, when we discussed this matter two weeks ago, we said it means we should constantly forgive. In fact, the Lord wants us to endlessly forgive our brothers because nobody can actually offend you seventy times seven. Then we look at some practical things about it, that sometimes you must learn to know if something is offending us in our fellow brother but that thing is not a sin. Instead of seeing it as an offense, we should take it as the person's weakness so that we can live peaceably with that person. But today, we are now adding something further. The Lord was talking about the nature of the kingdom. And he said, "Therefore the kingdom of God is like the situation of a king that wants to settle his account with his servants." And then there was this servant that was owing him, to use today English, that was owing him thousands of naira or thousands of dollars. The king wanted to collect his money from that servant. The servant could not pay, and the king said, "Okay, go and lock him up, sell his wife, sell everybody, lock him up. When you lock him up, I'll be able to get all he was owing me." But the servant fell down at his feet, pleaded with him, and then the king said, "Okay, I release you, you can go." That same servant now went and then he saw another servant. This other servant was owing him just what you may call a hundred naira. A hundred naira. What does not even run into ordinary denarii. If you are talking about thousands to tens. And he said, "Pay me my money." And that one said, "Ah, I will not be able to pay." Then what did he do? He took that servant, put him in prison until he could pay. The other people now went to tell their master what had happened. That master now called that servant. "You, you were owing me thousands of naira and I forgave you. Now your fellow brother was owing you ordinary ten naira, twenty naira, ordinary denarii. And you went to put him in prison." That king now said, "Okay, bind this wicked servant, go and put in prison." The Lord now concluded in that place making us to see that that is how the Lord also deal with us when we don't forgive our brother. You notice that in the Lord's Prayer, this same matter was raised. "Forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us." Now, I want us to get something very, very clear. The Lord is teaching us about the nature of the kingdom. The Lord is making us to realize that the basis of our dealings with our fellow brother should never, ever be on what they are or what they did to us. It should be based on our own relationship with the Lord. I don't know whether you are getting that. The master was telling that servant that you are a wicked person. You are very, very wicked. Why is he a wicked person? What made him a wicked person? He said, "You were owing me thousands, I forgave you. So why can't you just forgive somebody that is owing you ordinary..." Now, it means the Lord was expecting that the basis for which that servant should have forgiven his fellow servant should be on the basis of what he had received from the master. I don't know whether you are getting that core principle. You see, one thing that gives us serious problem in our relationship with our fellow brother, because I'm telling you, one key issue today about godly Christian conduct, which is what we are calling the dynamics of holiness, what it means to be holy, what it means to live a holy life, we are seeing the matter of not bearing grudge in your heart against your brother, loving him as a very, very important thing. And we are seeing the matter also, in the matter like the Lord raised with the disciples. What are we bringing together this evening? What I'm trying to make you see is that the Lord is making us to realize that the basis of our dealings with our fellow brother should never, ever be on what they did to us. It should be based on our own relationship with the Lord. One thing that gives us serious problem in our relationship with our brother is when you try to relate with people on the basis of what they did, what was done, how it pained you. When you center your focus on that, you know what will happen to you? You yourself will go into error. That was the mistake of that servant. He shifted his focus from what the master did for him. His focus was on getting justice on what the fellow servant did to him. And I'm telling you, your major problem today about holy conduct in your relationship with people has to do with your focus. What you focus on determines whether or not your conduct will be right or your conduct will be wrong. One thing you must learn as a believer is that in relating to your fellow brothers, in relating to your fellow brethren, in relating to them, you must always ever focus on the pardon and the mercy you received from the Lord. Once you make that your consistent focus, "The pardon I received from the Lord." And why is the Lord wanting that to be a focus? Why? Is because the Lord is making us to see that as far as the kingdom of God is concerned, what God pardoned in your life is so much that there is nothing fellow believers want to do that can equate it. There is nothing any fellow believer wants to do that can equate it. What the Lord forgave, what the Lord did, there is nothing. And so, it becomes very crucial in our relationship with our fellow brother to never, ever, never, ever lose sight that you yourself, you are a pardoned creation. You are somebody that was forgiven. And every time you remember that I was pardoned, I was pardoned, on the basis of that pardon, you pardon fellow believers. And do you know one thing about the pardon of God? The pardon that God pardoned us. I just want to make you remember, if you can remember "Walk in the Light" that we discussed under this discipleship class one time, when we said God is light, in him - First John chapter 1 - in him there is no darkness at all. If anyone says they have fellowship with God and walk in darkness, that person is a liar and the truth is not in him. What is now the next thing? He said, "But if we walk" - where? - "in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all..." And I ask us the question that day, which sin is in the light? Do you still remember that topic? I said which sin is inside the light? And we were able to come to a conclusion that day that actually, even though God gave us righteousness and made us acceptable to him, it does not mean that everything about our life is right before God. So what God does is that God begins to sanctify us progressively. He begins to open our eyes to different things in our life. As he open your eye to this one, you see it, you turn away. He open your eye to this, you see it, you turn away. Is that not what we said? And you are growing, you are growing from earthly to heavenly. So I now said something that day, that if the blood of Jesus is not daily doing that work of cleansing, please, who can be able to walk before God? Who can walk? Nobody. Nobody. So, the point I am making brethren, as we try to round up this dynamics of God's holiness, is that see, the bottom line about our conduct, the bottom line about our conduct, is that the majority of the matter that has to do with holy conduct has to do with our relationship with fellow believers, our relationship with human beings, our relationship with people. And the way not to get it wrong with people, the way not to get it wrong, is to learn to deal with people on the basis of what? Of that which you received from the Lord. If you are somebody who don't always focus on the Lord, you will discover that human beings will make you miss your steps. They will make you miss your steps. That servant that we are talking about, what made him miss his step? A fellow brother that was owing him that did not pay. So, as we try to bring this matter to a close, I want to call our attention to something in Romans, Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13. He says, and I'm reading from verse 8. "Owe no one anything except the debt of love for others, for you can never finish paying that. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill all the requirements of God's law. For the commandment against adultery and murder and stealing and coveting and any other commandment are all summed up in this one commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to his neighbor. Love does no wrong to anyone. So love satisfies all of God's requirements." "Another reason for right living is that you know how late it is. Time is running out. Wake up, for the coming of our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand." I'm stopping at 10. Okay, thank you. I don't know whether you get what our brother was calling our attention to. In the verse 8, he said we must do what? We should pay all our debt. Pay all our debt except what? The debt of love for others. You can never finish paying that. If you want to ever finish, you can never finish it. Why is it that we can never finish paying it? Who can say something about that? Why is it that we can never finish paying it? Why? [Speaker 2] Praise the Lord. Yeah, we cannot start finish paying the debt of love because God himself had demonstrated his love for us by giving us his son, who is the greatest love. So there is no amount of love we want to show to our brother that can be compared to the one God or Jesus has given to us. [Speaker 1] Okay, that's one important way of looking at it. That since it is God who commanded us to love, and we are loving on the basis of what? The love that God loves us. And the love that God loves us is eternal. That love is so much that he died for us. So, when can you finish paying the one that human beings owe you? For that is actually the basis. We can never finish paying it because nothing can outdo the love of God. The basis of our loving other people is on the basis that God loved us. And that is why you cannot finish paying it because you cannot repay God. You see, I'm saying this thing because many times, you see the reason I'm saying this is that I've seen that one major problem people have today is that we find it difficult to relate to people on the basis of our relationship with God. We want to deal with people based on what they deserve. And many times, because - you know where the problem is? That's in James. What did James say about the law? Oh, I would like to read it. I'll come back to this place. James chapter 4. James chapter 4. Look at what he said. James 4 from verse 11: "Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of his brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is also able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?" Are you getting what he's trying to say? What he's trying to say is that you cannot really judge people according to what they deserve because you are not the one who made the law. So you cannot even interpret the law. The extent to which, the extent of punishment that person needs, you cannot get it right. And the way he should be punished, you don't even know. You want to do it the way you want. But the Lawgiver may have another way of the punishment because he gave - are you getting what he's trying to say? That's what I am seeing in that place, that I want to make you understand something. When you are full of trying to give people according to what they deserve, at the end of the day, you will end up yourself missing your way. Because the only person who can really give people what they deserve is the person who made the law. That is why, let me show you in everyday life. Even in normal human society, if somebody - God forbid - that somebody killed your goat. You also now you went. You said, "You killed my goat? I will show you." You now went and you killed three of his own goats because that goat that he killed, maybe the goat was very precious to you or perhaps the goat was pregnant, something like that. You now killed three of his goats. The person now charged you to court that you killed three of his goats. You now go to the court. You say, "The reason why I did that because he killed my own goat." They will say you can go? They will say you cannot go. They will say you have taken the law into - that's what I'm trying to say. That even in human society, they tell you that there are judges. Take it to the law court. That is human society. And when you take the law into your hand, the person slapped you, "Gwa! Gwa! Gwa!" then the person fell down and they die. They say, "What happened?" He said, "Because look at where he slapped me. Look at this here. That's why I did my own." They say, "Okay, okay, okay, you can go, you are free. Go." Is that what they will say? They will judge you for murder. So what I'm trying to make you see, I'm just trying to use practical thing to illustrate it for us. That it is very, very important for you to have that clear understanding that be careful. One strong dynamic, one thing, one important matter that guide the dynamics of God's holiness is this matter that we are using to conclude. You must ever remember that in your dealing with your fellow brother, you can never, ever, never, ever finish paying them the debt of love. You can never, ever. So, be careful about bearing grudges. Be careful about talebearing. Why normally brings talebearing? What normally bring gossip? What normally bring bitterness? What normally bring malice? What normally bring revenge? What normally bring all of these thing? It is that you want to make it even with the person who did something to you. And I'm telling you, that's the background. Go and check the background behind backbiting. Why do you get to somewhere, somebody just comes and some of you, some of you even sometimes when you see them, even your emotion will change. I don't know whether you have experienced it before. When you bear grudge against somebody, when you see the person your emotion will just change. If you have been free before, you no more be free again. I mean, you are even killing yourself. Your emotion and again will just change. If you have been smiling and laughing before, when that person enters into that atmosphere, bang! You just enter into one mood. One mood they call - I don't know what they call the mood - the mood of ignorance. That's how I want to describe it. It's a mood of ignorance. Ignorance of what? Ignorance of the basis of your relationship with people. If you are not ignorant, somebody will not control your mood in life. I'm telling you, it's ignorance. Somebody is controlling your life. They're controlling your mood. When you think you are not happy, when you remember you cannot laugh, when you - the person - so, the person has offended you and is still manipulating your life. Why is he able to do that? Because you are not understanding that this very important matter, there are a lot of people today who have locked up several people in the prison of their heart. But what they don't realize is that they are greater prisoners. Those who imprison people in their heart, go and mark my word, they are greater prisoners. Just imagine, you lock Sister Taye, you lock Sister Bose, you lock Brother David, you lock Brother Johnson, you lock your pastor, you lock your leader, you lock the politician, you lock the fuel dealer, you lock the kerosene seller, you lock Nepa, you lock this, you lock that. Please, how many part of your heart even remain? How many part of your heart is even remaining for you to rejoice, for you to use to smile and laugh? All of these ones, they're controlling your mood. They're controlling your emotions. I want to ask you, which day will the Holy Spirit have time to use your heart? Which day will the Holy Spirit have vacancy? Will there still be vacancy for the Holy Spirit to do anything with your heart? I keep telling - I read something in the office of somebody, I went to visit somebody and I read something in the person's office. I said this is a great wisdom. I can't remember very well, but I want to paraphrase. He said, "No matter what you have done, I hate no one and I forgive everyone. Not because of you, but because of myself." When I read that thing that day, it made a lot of sense. I just said to myself that this is a sign of wisdom, if it's coming from somebody who have deeply reflected. You do it, not because of the person, but because of yourself so that you can be free, so that you can smile, so that you can enjoy life. Now, so we are looking at something. He said owe no man nothing except to love one another, for he who loves does what? Has fulfilled how many law? All the laws. What am I trying to make you see, brethren? All the matter of correct conduct that we are talking about, they are actually born on the basis of love. All those things that we've been talking about, different points that we've been talking about all these days about dynamics of God's holiness. That is why you notice these four things working together. God is light. Is that true? In him there is no... Number two, God is holy. Is that true? Yes, there is no iniquity in God. Number three, God is love. Is it true? Yes, he's love. And then you find again that when you look at these three things, there is a connection with all of them. When you love, you are holy, you are light. A person who is love is a person who is holy and a person who is also in the light. The person who is love, that is God, for God so loved, is the same person who is what? Who is holy. It's the same person in whom there is no darkness at all. I'm trying to make you see the interrelationship between all of these things. What I'm trying to make you see is that the foundation for holiness is love. Holiness, love is the solid foundation for holiness. Holy conduct cannot be in a life that does not work in love. That is the bottom line. Just like the solid foundation for faith is what? Hope. Once you are hopeless, what will happen? You will be faithless. When you are hopeful, you will be faithful. The same way, love is the solid foundation for holiness. If you are full of love, what will happen to your conduct? Your conduct will be holy because once your conduct are lovely, they become holy. Once your conduct are not coming out of love, they cannot be holy. And that is what we are seeing today, that it's being very crucial for us to know that that life that you are struggling with, that thing about you that you are struggling with, why you are finding it difficult to live holy, is what? Is because you are not growing in love. He said, "For love" - he now summed it up for us here - "for all the commandment: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness." Is that not what we have been talking about all the while? Different points that we have been talking about, "You shall not covet. If there is any other commandment beyond those things that we have talked about that form holy conduct, all are summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" Brethren, what I'm trying to make you see today is very, very simple. Somebody said - I'm closing with this - somebody said, "Love is a gift of the spirit." I said no. I said no. Love is not a gift. We are talking about spiritual gift. People say one of the gift of the spirit is love. I said no. Love is not a gift of the spirit. I said rather, let me explain the reality to you. And that is where we are closing today. Brethren, what you need to do about your life is to ask yourself this important question: "Am I truly born again?" If you are truly born again, if truly you are born again, I want you to know what the Bible says in Romans chapter 5, verse 5. "Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by" - who? - "by the Holy Spirit." See, if you are truly born again, when you got born again, what did God do? What was done to you? The love of God was what? Was poured into your heart by who? By the Holy Spirit. Now, if you take a bottle, brethren, if you take a bottle, if perfume is inside that bottle, but that bottle is sealed, can you smell the perfume? Why? Because it is locked up inside the container. If you want to hear the smell of that perfume, what must you do? You must open. Let me tell you the truth. The reason why you are not loving is that you are not broken. Once we can break you open, the love of God will come out. What is locking up, what is making you the way you are, is your unbrokenness. The more broken we become, what happens? The more the perfume, the love of God can come out. And that love - I know at some point we'll take time to look at the matter of love in the Bible - that love many times today, we confuse it for brotherly affection. The Bible says add to brotherly affection love. Love and brotherly affection, they are not the same thing. Love is not an affection. Love is not a feeling. Love is a decision of will. Love is deciding to do something. And I trust the Lord, that over time we'll still come to look at the matter of love. But what we are concluding today, brethren, is that the more broken you are from self-centeredness, the more holy, the more godly, the more holy conduct emanate out of you. Because what is filling up the love of God that's not making us to see it in your life is your unbrokenness. What we pray, what we desire today, is more brokenness in believers. Brokenness. God need to break us. Break us from being self-centered to God-centered. When we are God-centered, we are love-centered, for God is love. Beloved, let us love one another, for God is of love. And whosoever love is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Let us pray this evening. Talk to the Lord, ask the Lord for brokenness. It is about brokenness. It's not, "God, give me more love." No. The love has been shed abroad in your heart, it's in your heart. But we need to be broken. How does that happen? By renewing of your mind. By seeing God better and better, by knowing who you really are. You need to be delivered from yourself. Until you are delivered from yourself, you can never be holy. Until you are broken, you cannot be holy. Oh, I remember this word of this actor, Leko Asikya, light stage drama. He was talking about the earthworm Christian, the Christian without a backbone. God can bend them anyhow. They are just soft like earthworm. A broken Christian, God has broken them. And it's such believers that you see the love of God. The love of God. And it's in them that you see holy conduct. Talk to the Lord, ask the Lord for brokenness. The matter is for you to be broken. Not "God, give me more love." No. The love has been shed in your heart. But we need to be broken. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Let me ask my wife to round up. Pray. [Speaker 3] Heavenly Father, we are grateful unto you. Thank you, Lord, for another time. Thank you for your word. Thank you for blessing us again. Lord, we commit ourselves into hand that Lord you will work in us and work through us the good pleasure of your will in the name of Jesus. Lord, your word, your commandment are not burdensome. Thank you because we - you have given us what it takes to live your life. Thank you for the love that is eternal. Thank you, Lord, for every help that we have. All that we need for life and godliness have been given to us in Christ Jesus by his spirit. Cause us, O Lord, to remember this truth about our life, about our state and live thereby in the name of Jesus. Lord, we pray you will break us where we are hardened. Break every murmuring of self-will. Break every self-selfishness, self-centeredness, every insecurity. Everything that make us self-important, every insecurity and everything that covers our heart and hinder us from pure thirst in you. You are God that can be depended upon. Your word will never fail. Please help us, Lord, in the name of Jesus. So that we will live above, above the seemly feelings, the seemly low life. It's a low life, any life that is different from the life of Christ, the life of love, the not being moved by things around. It's a low life. Lord, please help us, O Lord, to live above this low life. To live indeed as someone who is seated with Christ in the heavenly places. As someone who has the nature and the life of God, someone who's abiding, someone who's old and all that trusts in him is not here. O Lord, do upon our lives what you have done in the life of the men of old, O Lord, that they pass through this place, always setting their eyes on a better hope and seeing every other thing here as nothing. Lord, give this - is our mindset. Lord, we will be able to give the requirement of love in our relationship with our brethren, in our relationship in every way. Lord, work it into us, O Lord. Break us. Help us in the name of Jesus. We are not there yet, but we know you have taken us there in the realm of the spirit. We will work it out. You will work it in us, and we will experience it in the physical. Because this instruction is not for us to live in heaven. It is for us to practice and do it here on earth. And Lord, if you freely can give us Jesus, what will you not freely give us with him? We trust you, we believe you that you that began this good work will perfect it. O Lord, we will live this life to glorify you. And all men will know by the life of love we live that we are your disciples indeed in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Everlasting Father. Thank you for your servant, O Lord. We pray, God Almighty, you are a God that does not send any man on his own cost. You are the Lord that supply, you own all things concerning every of your messenger. Lord, we have no doubt that you that have sent him forth, you will back him up. You have begun this work, you will not fail nor falter. But Lord, he will finish strong, he will fulfill your purpose, you'll give the message for the every season and every hour. And at the end of the day, Lord, you will cause him to empty all that you have sent him to do and there will be a performance in the name of Jesus. We ask for more of you of you, more of your understanding, more of your grace, more of your life, more of your fulfillment in his life and ministry. Thank you, Everlasting Father. As we go, may your presence go with us. Guard our hearts, O Lord, with this word and cause us to receive fresh revelation, insight and inspiration in the name of Jesus. Thank you because our life shall be transformed by this truth, our life is healed by this truth. This truth will not work against us, will not stand against us on day of judgment, but rather, it will be, O Lord, our life will be testimony of whom the word of God has helped and changed and turned around in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Everlasting Father. For in Jesus' unfailing name we pray. Amen. [Speaker 1 & Congregation] 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. Surely God's 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. Praise the Lord! [Music] This message is coming to you from Family Tents Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the lives of singles and marriage through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission help. 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 counsel, you can reach us at our location, Light Camp by the First Bridge, Ilere Community, opposite Verajoy Filling Station along Ijede Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytents@yahoo.co.uk, familytentsministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentsministry.org. Our phone numbers are 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.