faithfulness

[Introductory Music] Churches and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home for you. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] First Saturday, this time for the month of August, the eighth month of the year. We are glad to be together again. The first Saturday in July, the first Saturday in August. And we gather again for another Singles Club, both for our physical members here and those seeing with us online. In church we will beginning this morning. It will be a time of blessing by the moving of God’s Spirit through the instrument of His word in the name of Jesus Christ. Let us have a word of prayer to commence the meeting for today. Precious Father, I am grateful unto You. We thank You for all You are. We thank You for Your love. We thank You for redemption. We thank You for Your goodness towards us. We are praying this morning that as we look into the scripture, particularly for our young people, we pray this morning that You will speak to our hearts this day in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, we trust in You that You will cause Your word to be fruitful in our lives in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I thank You for this morning. Be blessed in the name of Jesus. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. For today’s Singles Club, we are considering the topic: Faithfulness. Faithfulness. Faithfulness. I would want to begin with a little conceptual clarification, trying to define what faithfulness is. And then we will look at faithfulness as a fruit of the Spirit. Then we will go ahead to look at the place of faithfulness in the life of the believer. Then we will consider the blessedness of being faithful. I take that again. We will first do some conceptual clarification. We want to look at what faithfulness really is. We will be looking at faithfulness as a fruit of the Spirit. Then we will be considering the place of faithfulness in the life of the believer. And then we will look at the blessedness of being faithful. So we take the first part of our discussion this morning, which is faithfulness. What is faithfulness? The Oxford Dictionary looks at faithfulness or defines faithfulness as a state of being faithful. It also defines it as allegiance. Another word for faithfulness is loyalty. Another word for faithfulness again is fidelity. Faithfulness is seen as being faithful. So what does it mean to be faithful? To be faithful is to be loyal. To be faithful is to be reliable. To be faithful is to be worthy of trust. To be faithful is to adhere firmly to a person or a cause. And lastly, to be faithful is to protect the interest of a cause or a person whether or not the person is present. These are the various ways faithfulness can be defined. How faithfulness is to be faithful, to be loyal, loyalty, fidelity, reliable, worthy of trust. And from the point of the scripture, if we look at Galatians chapter 5, that is faithfulness as a fruit of the Spirit. In Galatians chapter 5, not 6, Galatians chapter 5. Now in talking about walking in the Spirit, from verse 16, the Bible talks about the works of the flesh and the works of the Spirit. The Bible says there, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” And then what are the works of the flesh? “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” When the works of the flesh are consistently manifested in our lives, it is an indication that we don’t have the Spirit of God. Then we move to that which is the fruit of the Spirit. It says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” So we can see that one of the fruits of the Spirit, but you need to note that we are talking about the fruit of the Spirit. The Bible did not say the fruits of the Spirit. The Bible says the fruit of the Spirit. It is a fruit. It is a fruit that has all of these dimensions. This fruit has the dimension of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, and faithfulness. So faithfulness is actually a fruit of the Spirit. And usually, you will agree with me that when you plant something, when you plant for example, if you plant different types of crop, if you plant something like maize, it is not at the point of planting that you begin to see the fruit. Fruit comes after a while. Fruit is as a result of continuous growth. Now, so faithfulness comes out of a life that is daily growing. When somebody gets born again and is not growing, at the point of born again, you have been planted in the Lord as a plant. If you are actually growing, the one evidence of that growth is that you will be bearing fruit. When a plant grows, it gets to a point where it starts bringing fruit. So when faithfulness is not in the life of a believer, it is an indication that the believer is not growing. When plant grows, it gets to a point that it buds, it blossoms, it brings out flower, later some time the flower falls off, and then the fruit begin to come. So at the point of being born again, the fruit may not be very very evident in the life of the believer. But if that believer is growing, if truly there is an encounter with Jesus, and there is a growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, the life will start bringing forth fruit. So the first thing I want to say this morning is that if faithfulness is not consistent in your life, it is not found in your life, it means you are not growing as a believer. It means your growth somehow had been truncated. If you are truly growing, faithfulness should manifest, there should be a manifestation of faithfulness in your life. You should be somebody over time if you are a growing Christian and you are growing in Jesus, over time you become somebody who is reliable. You become somebody who is worthy of trust. You become somebody who can be loyal to the cause of the Kingdom, to the cause of the Gospel. You become somebody who can be loyal to people. You can be true. There is no deceit, there is no lying, there is no insincerity in you. You become somebody that can relate both with God and with man sincerely. But if you have been born again and we are counting one year, two years, three years of being born again and these things are not coming out, people cannot trust you, heaven cannot trust you, you are not a reliable person, they cannot rely on you and be sure that no, this person will be truthful. They are not sure when you say “good morning”, people need to look at their time to be sure it is not afternoon. When you say “I am coming,” people just laugh, just watch, you will not see him. It means something, it is either you never got born again or you are not growing. Faithfulness is a fruit and any plant that grows must come to a point where fruit comes out of it. So faithfulness is a sign of a maturing believer. It is a sign that the person is growing and he is maturing. It is an indication that this person is growing in Christ. It is an indication that he is growing in grace. It is an indication that the person is growing in the knowledge of the Lord. Faithfulness. Faithfulness. So for instance, if a young man pass through the age of being a teenager, move to a young adult at the age of 20, 21, moves on, gets married, maybe 25, 26, and then moves on, has children, 26, 27 on and on like that, and then you still find out that the person is not true to the wife or the wife is not true to the husband, what that tells you is that all the while when he was born again, he is not growing. For all those years, faithfulness should have come forth. It should have come forth as a fruit of the Spirit. So when somebody gets to the point where he grows and grows and enters into marriage and he can still deceive, tell lies, is not sincere, tell lies, not sincere, not truthful, not trustworthy, children cannot rely on the father, they are not sure of his word, things are like that, or the mother is like that, it is an indication that all the while when they were inside the church, they were just growing in church. They are becoming more churchy but they are not growing in grace. They are just practicing what I call spiritism, they are not spiritual. To be spiritual is to walk in the Spirit, is to bear the fruit of the Spirit. So you need to check your life. When did you get born again? For how long have you been born again as a young man? You say, “Oh, me, I got to know the Lord when I was in secondary school around I think I should be in SS1 or I should be in JSS3.” Now you are a graduate or you are about graduating, or you are a youth copper, or you have finished service, and your life has not become a reliable life. You are still not worthy of trust. You cannot be loyal to a cause, either the cause of the Kingdom, you cannot be loyal to people, except they are there, they are not sure that you can defend their interest. You are neither here nor there. You are still not transparent and truthful. Then what that is telling you is that all the while you were not growing. You were not growing. You need to go back to the Lord’s presence to be sure if you have a correct foundation. Because sometimes if the foundation is destroyed, there is really nothing the people you call the righteous can do. Because if you don’t have a foundation in Christ, you say people backslided. How will you say somebody backslided when there was never a growth? He never knew Jesus. So it is not a issue of backsliding, it is an issue that there was no foundation in the first place at all. The person never got born again. So you need to check your foundation. Am I truly born again? Then if I have been born again, what is responsible for my not growing? Is it that I am not spending time in God’s presence? Why is it that the fruit of the Spirit is not manifesting in my life? I’m talking particularly today about faithfulness. Faithfulness. Faithfulness today is something that is so scarce in the land. Faithfulness is so scarce. It is scarce in the church, it is scarce in the land. It comes to public life. Nigeria today is dying, the society is dying, is going through all of this stress because people who make up the society are not faithful. Sometimes if we say we will begin with the politicians, the political leaders, how faithful are they? If a man is faithful to his country, will he be stealing the country’s money? Will he be diverting public funds into private purse? Will a man be using what is the common good of everybody and turn it for his own personal good? Will somebody call himself the governor of a state or the president of a nation and all he wants to do with his life is to support only his own ethnic group when there are diverse ethnic groups in the nation? It is because there is no faithfulness. Leave the political leaders. Come to other level of leaders. All around today you talk about civil servants. How faithful are they? Look at the level of corruption you talk about. Is it in the police? Is it in NEPA? Is it in among teachers? Just talk about it. You find all kinds of unfaithfulness at every level. Come to our university where graduates are supposed to be produced, worthy of them in whatever honors. You say BSc honors, the person have learned both in character and in character. But the lecturers who produced that character, they themselves are unfaithful, they are morally bankrupt. What do you say about a lecturer that will be sleeping with the student? What character is he developing in that student? So what I am trying to say is the decadence we are experiencing today in society is because faithfulness is scarce. People will write pastoral books, they will go outside of the church building, even inside the church building they are still deceiving themselves. Hypocrisy, malice, unforgiveness prevails. And yet we will be saying, “Brother, I love you, I love you.” Insincerity, unfaithfulness is everywhere today. Come to the marketplace, move around to see what is going on. What I am trying to say today is what we are experiencing in society is as a result of lack of faithfulness. And so faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit, and unfortunately today, faithfulness is not something that is a commonplace. It is not a fruit that you find very commonly. And if you look at a scripture that I quoted last week, in one of our programs I was talking about something and I quoted a scripture that every man will sing his own praise, but a faithful person, who can find? Who can find a faithful person? Every everybody will talk about his own praise, “I am this, I am that, I am this, I am that.” But the Bible says, “A faithful man, who can find?” Who can find somebody who is faithful? Faithfulness is something very very very very lacking. It is something very very very very far in society. And it is not a new thing today. Go and look at time immemorial. Take your mind back to as far back as the days of Joseph of the Bible. Potiphar’s wife was not faithful to her husband Potiphar. It was the servant Joseph that was faithful to the husband. So you can see that the matter of faithfulness, the matter of unfaithfulness or lack of faithfulness is something very common, is something immemorial. It is from time immemorial. But so you need to look into your life. You need to check. How faithful are you? This fruit of the Spirit, how much is it developing in your life? How much do you have this fruit? It is a fruit of the Spirit and that is why it is not a common thing today. It is not a very very common today because it is something that the Spirit produce, the Spirit produces in our life. Except you are walking with the Spirit of God, you are growing in the Spirit of God, you are walking with God, it is so difficult to develop this fruit. Everybody will seek his own personal interest over the interest of others. We want to move on to the next section. We have looked at faithfulness as a fruit of the Spirit. We move to the third section of our discussion this morning: the place of faithfulness in the life of the believer. Faithfulness in the life of the believer. And I want to refer us to some scriptures. The first I want to refer us to is Proverbs 28:20. Proverbs 28:20. In Proverbs 28:20, the Bible says, “A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.” Shall not be innocent. “A faithful man shall abound with blessing.” In other words, it is important for you to know as a believer that if you are thinking of blessing, the blessings of God, you know many times I see believers making haste to be rich. It is quite unfortunate. It is quite unfortunate. What makes it unfortunate is that the scripture says it is the blessings of God that makes rich. Believers should not be people who are making haste to be rich. They should be people who are doing everything to be blessed. Once they are blessed, the blessings of God will make them rich. It is the blessings of God that makes rich. The battle is not to the strong, the race is not to the swift. Favor is not always to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding. Bible says time and chance happens to them all. Again the Bible says it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of the Lord that showeth mercy. Again the Bible says no man can receive anything except it is given to him from above. Again the Bible says promotion come not from the east, from the west, or from the south, rather promotion comes from the Lord. It said the Lord is the righteous God who lift up one and bring down another. Again the Bible says that the earth belongs to the Lord and He gives it to whom He will, setting up on the basest of men, the basest among men. I am not saying hard work is not important. I am not throwing away diligence because laziness is a sin. But it is important for us to know that it is not the haste to be rich that really makes rich. In fact, he that make haste to be rich will not be innocent. We find himself coming under different piers, different things will destroy such a soul. But the Bible says a faithful man abound with blessing. It means if a man is faithful, if a man is faithful, then blessings will abound in his life. And it is that blessing or those blessings that will make him rich. The blessings of God maketh rich. So believers should seek to be faithful because once they are faithful, faithfulness will make blessings to abound and blessing will make them to be rich. That is the design. That is the design. Look at the way our Lord put it in Matthew chapter 6. He said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; [what will happen?] all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33) So those things people are making haste to pursue ordinarily, if you are a blessed person, they should follow you. You are not to pursue them. Goodness and mercy should follow you. They should be things that should follow you. They are not things that you are making haste to pursue. No, you when you are faithful, you are blessed and the blessings will make you rich. So I am just trying to make you put life into the correct perspective. You need to put life in its correct perspective so that you know exactly what you are pursuing, you know exactly what you are chasing after, you know what to set your goal upon and what to seek first and what to seek second and what to seek third. So the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 28 verse 20, the Bible says, “A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.” So one thing we are saying about faithfulness, number one, faithfulness and the believer is that faithfulness is the key to abounding in blessings. It is the key. It is an important key. It is a key that you need if you want to abound in blessing. You need to be somebody who is loyal, somebody who has integrity, somebody who is trustworthy, somebody who is who has good fidelity, somebody who adheres firmly to the cause, somebody who protect the interest of others even when they are not there. Faithfulness is a key to abounding in blessings. So if you are not a faithful person, it only tells you that you are only cutting yourself from a flow. You are cutting your life from a flow. There is a divine flow that comes to faithful men. And I pray that you will not be cut off from the divine flow of God for your life in the name of Jesus Christ. There is a divine flow. There is a divine flow that flows to men that are faithful. When men are faithful, a divine flow comes their way. It flows their way. But when men are not, they don’t abound in this flow. Don’t cut yourself from your source. Don’t cut yourself from the divine flow. The divine flow is there for men who are faithful. That is the first thing I want us to see. Speaking about faithfulness and the believer. Now I want us to go to the New Testament. We want to look at Luke chapter 16, what the Lord took time to explain during his days on earth, in his teachings to the people and to the disciples. Let us go to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. Let us take our reading from the verse 10. This is a direct word, a direct teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. Luke chapter 16 from verse 10. It says, “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?” Praise the Lord. We want to look at this statement of our Lord Jesus Christ. The statement followed a parable about a steward who had not been faithful and was asked to present the account of his stewardship. And so he quickly took advantage of that to meet those that his are that are owing his master to cut down on what they are owing, so that if in case the master throw him off, he can get a place with those ones that he reduced the what they are owing to his original master. And it was from there that the Lord began to the Lord began to make this statement. Now look at this statement in verse from verse 10. The Lord is saying that if a man is not faithful in what is little, you cannot trust that man for what is much. Number two is that if you have not been faithful with the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? Now we are trying to look at this statement a little closely. Faithfulness and the believer. What is the unrighteous mammon? The unrighteous mammon is about the wealth of this life. For Nigeria, the unrighteous mammon will be things like money, power, fame, name them. The unrighteous mammon, talking about the mundane things of this life, the riches of this life. You know one thing about riches and cares of this life, if you remember the parable of the sower, it says the riches and the cares of this life choked the word of life, such that the people who fell among thorns they could not bear fruit. So the riches, the cares of life, the material things, power, glamour, fame, they are unrighteous mammon. They are things that you need to be very very careful about. There are things that if you are not careful, you begin to trust in them. That is why the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 6 from verse 17, the Bible was warning those that were rich. It said, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share...” You know something about riches is that before you know you can be trusting in it. A man will think that because I have fifty billion in in my account by the first day of August, he can be sure that this year will go well for him. But little is he realizing that by the third of August, something can happen to all of all of that money and he will be he will be at zero account balance level. Things can just change. So the Bible is warning us not to trust in riches because actually they are unrighteous mammon. They are not things that are certain. That is why the Bible, Jesus also said that do not lay your treasures on earth where the thief can enter to steal, the moth will corrupt and all of that. He said lay your treasures in heaven because where your treasure is that is where your heart will be. If you put your treasures on earth, earth will control your heart. Be careful because the things of this earth they are unrighteous mammon. It has been subjected to vanity. It has been programmed to be burnt by fire. The Bible says the earth will burn in fire. Everything has been programmed, it has been subjected to vanity. And sometimes the more riches, the more anxiety. That is why you notice that it is the rich man that will do everything to build high sky scraper walls, look for big security doors, look for whatever can protect him. But go and check the poor. He that is down need fear no fall. The poor, they may not fence their house, sometimes they lock their door, there is nothing like burglary, and they sleep with ease. There is something about riches, it is an unrighteous mammon. There is something about it. So the Lord is telling us something that if therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? That means when we are not true in how we relate to people with the things of this life, money, academics, riches, wealth, power, when you are not true to people in the way you handle these things, you are not true in your relationship, all of that, can I also tell you that nobody will commit to you the true riches. Because God to measure how reliable you are, God measure it from the way you handle the unrighteous mammon. Do you know that God will look at how you handle the unrighteous mammon to give you the true riches? Let me give you a good example in the Bible. Maybe it has not occurred to you. But look at the relationship between God and Abraham. Abraham started the walk with God and they have been going together for years. And then it got to a point that God need to confirm the covenant to Abraham. And then the Bible says that it came to pass that God put Abraham to a test. What was the test? He told Abraham, “Take Isaac, your only son whom you love, go and kill him. Go and sacrifice that boy to me.” And then Abraham started the journey. And when he got to the spot where he was to sacrifice the boy, he took the knife. As he was about to slay the boy, the voice spoke from heaven. And God said, “Abraham, Abraham.” Go and check that scriptures in Genesis. Go and check that scriptures, please take time to go and check that scriptures when God tested when Abraham was tested. The Bible says and God said, “Now I know that you fear me.” How was God able to know that Abraham feared him? That Abraham really trust him? Abraham is faithful to him and will be faithful to his cause? He was tested with what? With the unrighteous mammon. He was tested with the things of this life. He was asked to go and kill the boy. God tested him with unrighteous mammon. Unrighteous mammon. And when Abraham was through and God saw that he was ready to kill the boy, God said, “Abraham, don’t kill him. It is our vision is not to kill him. We just wanted to know whether you are faithful to us. Whether if we tell you to do anything you will do it. Now,” what did God now say? God said, “Abraham, in blessing I will bless you. In multiply I will multiply you.” Do you see that it was after he was tested with what? With the unrighteous mammon that they gave him the true riches. It was after that that he was given the true riches. And I am trying to make you see the believer and faithfulness. The reason why many of us are cut off from revelation, from inspiration, from divine direction, from freshness from the Lord, you read the word of God everything is dry, nothing is coming out to you as the word of life, it looks as if there is no life in the word of God, it looks like nothing is coming from it, it looks like God is not guiding your way, God is not leading you, it looks like heaven is not there to back you up. Look, go and check. Nobody will give you the true riches if you are not faithful with the unrighteous mammon. This is the word of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody will give you the true riches. You will not be given except you are faithful with the unrighteous mammon. When you are faithful with the unrighteous mammon, with the unrighteous mammon, then then you are given the true you are given the true riches. Look at it again in that same scripture. It says, “If you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?” This is serious. This is serious. This is very very serious. I want to ask you, what is the pathway to getting your own in life? From this scripture, what is the pathway to getting your own? The pathway to getting your own is whether you are faithful in what belongs to another man. When you are not faithful in what belongs to another man, you will not get your own. I am showing you some some amazing things about life. Why it looks as if you say some people are lucky? It is not about luck. It is understanding the mysteries of God. It is understanding the mysteries of God. It is not about luck. I’m showing you something. Many times people by themselves block their own way in life. People by themselves be pouring sand inside their own gari. They will be pouring sand inside their gari and they want to drink the gari and they will be pouring sand inside it. Later they want to drink the gari, “this gari has sand.” While it is by their own hand that they they poured sand into their gari. The Bible says if you are not the Bible says if you are not faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you your own? Do you see that the pathway to your own is the extent of faithfulness to your neighbor, the extent of faithfulness to your brother, the extent of faithfulness to your sister, the extent of faithfulness to your wife, the extent of faithfulness to the government, the extent of faithfulness, the extent of loyalty a man has in his heart determines whether or not he will get his own. Please listen, you may get a lot of things but you may not get your own. And until you get your own, you cannot find rest. Maybe you are not understanding me. If a man make haste to be rich and then he becomes rich, go and check that riches that he got. Because the riches is not his own, you know what will happen? The blessing of the Lord maketh rich and add no sorrow. Go and check what that riches will do. That riches will add sorrow to his life. Until you get your own, the one that is your own, it will add sorrow to you. It is only your own that will not add sorrow. And the way to your own is to be true to what belongs to another man. The way to your own is to be true to what belongs to another man. When you are not true to what belongs to another man, you cannot get your own. I am showing you faithfulness. That was why I first read that scripture in Proverbs 28 verse 20. A faithful man shall abound with blessing. You know what it means? A faithful man will always get his own. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. A faithful man will always get his own. He will always get his own spiritually. He will always get his own maritally. He will always get his own academically. He will always get his own financially. He will always get his own materially. He will always get his own and what will happen? In his own there will be no sorrow. That is for a faithful man. That is for a faithful man. But for a man who is not faithful, he will not be innocent. The one who make haste to be rich, who cut corners, he is not faithful, not faithful to neighbors, not faithful to parents, not faithful to father, not faithful to mother, not faithful to uncles, not faithful to aunties, not faithful to colleagues, not faithful, everywhere just cutting corners, not sincere, here and there. Go and check them after some time, they will get but it is not their own so it will add sorrow to their life. They will get but it is not their own. Because the Bible says, “Who will give you your own when you are not faithful to what belongs to another man?” Who will give you your own? You forgot that it is only God that gives. And God is saying, “Who will give you?” Who will give you? You will get but you will not get your own. They will not give you your own. You will get several things but they are not your own. Maybe I should illustrate. A boy hastily try a boy whose size of his leg is maybe forty but he hastily move and he got a shoe and the size is forty-five. Of course he will wear the shoe. But how does it go? How comfortable is it working? He will be working it will be dropping. It’s adding sorrow because it is not his own. It is oversized. May you not get oversized. And may you not get undersized. May you get your own. Have you tried undersized before? You will be so tight. After some time you start having injury, bruises, at the point of friction because it is undersized. I pray for you that spiritually, maritally, financially, materially, every wise of life, may you get your own in the name of Jesus. Getting your own is a great blessing. Getting your own is a great blessing, I’m telling you. That is why the Bible says a faithful man will abound with blessing. It is a great blessing to get your own in everything. It is a great blessing to have children that are your own. It is a great blessing to have money that are your own. Everything when it is your own, it makes you rich and add no sorrow. It makes rich and add no sorrow. And the key to getting it is faithfulness. So let me illustrate with this for you. Have you ever tried to climb any height and then you have to make use of a ladder? You will notice that in the bid to use that ladder, you place it against the height that you want to climb up to. Then what is the first thing you do? What is the first thing you do after you have placed the ladder? You notice that normally, just naturally, you will look down to take the first step down. Then after you have taken the first step down, you begin to take the step, then you start looking up, you start looking up, you start looking up, and then up and up and up you climb the step. Now, you notice that without those steps in the ladder, you cannot rise step by step upward. You take each of the steps of the ladder: one, two, three, four, and you are going up, up, up. Good. Now, you see that ladder is just I’m trying to illustrate the way our life our lives are, or the way life is. Now, you see at every at every point of life, there is a ladder to climb to go higher. Now, but that ladder we are talking about, don’t forget, it is the step, not the vertical wood that you use to climb. It is the step, those one, two, three, four, those steps that you use to climb. Now, you see each of those step, they represent different level of faithfulness. When you are faithful in step one, when you are truly faithful, you know what will happen? There will be step two. It says he that is faithful over little, what will happen? Will also be faithful over much. So they will put step two, you be able to climb. When you are faithful again in step two, what will happen? There will be step three. Faithfulness is that step that make a man to truly increase. True increase the step in faithfulness. True increase. Once you remove faithfulness, you know what it means? It means the ladder of your life don’t have step. That ladder that you want to use to go up in life, it does not have step. And you know when ladder don’t have step, how do you go up? You cannot go up. If it looks as if you are going up, you know when a man steal to get money, it looks as if he is going up, isn’t it? When a student cheat in exam and have As, it looks as if he is going up. But in the actual sense, he is not going up, he is going down. He has not he has not made any progress in life. It only looks as if he is climbing. The ladder of his life don’t have step. He is not climbing, he is still at the same spot. He is only merry-go-rounding. He is not going up. When a man is not ascending towards God, in whatsoever he is ascending, in whatsoever he is ascending, that thing is useless and hopeless. I want you to get that from me. And I want you to note it. In whatever increase you are increasing, and that increase is not also taking you towards God, you are not increasing, let me announce to you, you are not increasing. You know what the Bible says? The Bible says like a partridge, Jeremiah chapter 17, that sits upon eggs that are not his own, so is he that get wealth but not by right. The Bible says he shall leave it in the midst of his days and at the end he will be a fool. May you not be a fool at last. So you are not you may only think you are climbing. You are not climbing, you are not going anywhere. You say, “Yes, I am making it financially, I am making it academically, I am making it maritally.” You are not going anywhere, you are still on the floor. Until there is faithfulness, the ladder of your life don’t have step. It has no step. Faithfulness is the step of true increase. Hallelujah. May you be found faithful. May you be found faithful. May you be found faithful. May you be found faithful in the name of Jesus. I want to close this meeting with just a very simple illustration from the Bible. Let us just look at an example in the Bible of this kind of faithfulness, to draw an illustration from the Bible. If the Lord permits by next month, we may still be talking about the matter of faithfulness. But let’s come to the close as we look at this final part: the blessedness and the blessedness that is in faithfulness. That’s what I want to close with today, which is the final part of our discussion. The blessedness of this thing. I want us to look at a biblical example. Let’s take an example from the Bible to consider the blessedness of faithfulness. And if the Lord permits, we might look at all of these things more and more next month if the Lord is still leading us in this direction. But let’s look at this biblical example to close for today: the blessedness of faithfulness. Can we go to the book of Esther? Esther chapter 2 verse 21 to 23. Then Esther chapter 5 from verse 9 to chapter 6. Let’s go there quickly. Esther chapter 2 verse 21 to 23. Let’s look at a the blessedness of faithfulness. Esther 2:21 to 23. It reads, “In those days, while Mordecai sat within the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, doorkeepers, became furious and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. So the matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name. And when an inquiry was made into the matter, it was confirmed, and both were hanged on a gallows; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king.” Let’s go to chapter 5 from verse 9. Chapter 5 from verse 9. “So Haman went out that day joyful and with a glad heart; but when Haman saw Mordecai [that’s the same Mordecai we just read about in chapter 2] in the king’s gate, and that he did not stand or tremble before him, he was filled with indignation against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and called his friends and his wife Zeresh. Then Haman told them of all his great riches, the multitude of his children, everything in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and servants of the king. Moreover, Haman said, ‘Besides, Queen Esther invited no one but me to come with the king to the banquet she prepared; and tomorrow I am again invited by her along with the king. Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.’ Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, ‘Let a gallows be made, fifty cubits high, and in the morning suggest to the king that Mordecai be hanged on it; then go merrily with the king to the banquet.’ And the thing pleased Haman; so he had the gallows made.” Chapter 6. “That night, that night, that night the king could not sleep. So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers, who sought to lay hands on the king on the king. Then the king said, ‘What honor or dignity was bestowed on Mordecai for this?’ And the king’s servants said, the king’s servant who attended to him said, ‘Nothing has been done for him.’ So the king said, ‘Who is in the court?’ Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. The king’s servant said to him, ‘Haman is there, standing in the court.’ The king said, ‘Let him come in.’ So Haman came in, and the king asked him, ‘What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?’ Now Haman thought in his heart, ‘Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?’ So Haman answered the king, ‘For the man whom the king delights to honor, let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, which has a royal crest placed on its head. Then let the robe and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble prince princes, that he may array the man whom the king delights to honor. Then parade him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him: “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!”’ Then the king said to Haman, ‘Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king’s gate! Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken.’ So Haman took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city square, and proclaimed before him, ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’ After, Mordecai went back to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered.” Praise the Lord. We are looking at the blessedness of faithfulness. The blessedness of faithfulness. We are looking at you see, I am making you to see these things because whatsoever things were written at former time, they were written down for our learning, so that we may receive instruction and correction for our life. Mordecai was a servant at the king’s gate. And he was faithful and loyal to the king. He learned that the king was conspired against, and he you know, he did not even fear what might happen to him if they get to know that he was the one that reported the case. He was faithful to the cause for which he was brought to that place. And he went and he reported. The case was investigated, the men were found, and they were executed. It was written down. I’m talking about the step. Faithfulness is the step by which we truly climb. May you build steps for your life. May you build steps for your life. Build steps today by faithfulness. Build steps by loyalty. Build steps because you will need step in life to climb. To climb higher and higher and higher in life you need step. Don’t make the ladder of your life a ladder without step. Several young men don’t have ladder, but their ladders don’t have step. So they they keep merry-go-rounding. They look as if they are they are progressing, but they are not progressing. They are handling so many things but without faithfulness. And they don’t understand that they can never get their own. They don’t understand that they can never get the true riches. They are just merry-go-rounding, merry-go-rounding, say, “Ah, I now have more money, I’m driving a car, I’m now a graduate, I have this, I have that.” They are only merry-go-rounding. Once you remove faithfulness from the life of a man, the man is only wandering in the wilderness, his life is not progressing no matter what he has. He is not making progress. He is not. And that is the truth of the matter. Young man, awake from your slumber and live correctly in the name of Jesus. So it came to pass there was a conspiracy against Mordecai. And Haman for him, the matter is a finished business. Mordecai was a finished business for Haman. But the Bible says that night, that night, the king could not sleep. Why? A man had been faithful and he that is faithful must abound with blessing. His own is to be promoted. His own is not to be cut down. He had been faithful. And what belongs to him was promotion. What belongs to him was not to be cut down. You know you will not be cut down in Jesus’ name. He was not to be cut down, that was not his own. He was a faithful man, he must abound with blessing. And so what happened? Since he had been faithful to what belongs to another man, who will give him his own? Is it not God? God is the one that gives. No man can receive except God gives. So the person who normally gives, that is God, needed to give him his own because to be cut down is not his own. So He arose. God arose for him that night. The king could not sleep. Someone must be given the correct reward. He is not to be cut down. May God undertake for you. May heaven undertake for you. May God see a reason to arise for your life. May you not be abandoned. May you not be forsaken in the name of Jesus Christ. God arose. This man cannot be forsaken. He cannot be abandoned. He is a faithful man, he must abound with blessings. He must get his own. And so He said, “That as at the time he got that message, it was already morning.” He said, “Please, who is there? Who is there? Who is there?” And at that same time too, Haman quickly came very early in the morning to come and tell the king how the man should be killed. “Oh, Haman is there, bring him, bring him. In fact, he is the best person. He is the most notable prince that will take yes, he is my right hand man. Please, what can be done for so and so?” And you know the end of the story. The blessedness of faithfulness. The blessedness of faithfulness. May your life abound with blessings. May your ways be blessed. May you experience the blessings of the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ. Awake today from whatever sleep that you are sleeping and make up your mind. Begin to build steps of greatness for your life. Begin to build steps of greatness. Mordecai began to grow. Mordecai began to grow. I don’t want to take the whole of the story from this point. Go and check it. Go and check it. I don’t want to take it from the very very beginning. I would have showed you that even Esther that became queen, and that brought that reported the case now to the king in the name of Mordecai, Esther was not Mordecai’s daughter. Esther was somebody else’s daughter. Mordecai stayed with Esther, brought her up like her own daughter. And so Esther became faithful to Mordecai. Mordecai was not like that those useless men that will be busy raping somebody else’s daughter. Esther was in his custody. Esther, the beauty of Esther was so much that the king made her queen. Yet Esther grew under somebody that was not his was not her father. And that person did not defile her. That person was faithful to was faithful to Esther, was faithful to the parents of Esther, was true to Esther. And look at how Esther became the means of his reward. Go and build the right things for your life. Go and build the right things for your life so that you don't waste. Go and build steps. Things don’t just happen. Things don’t just happen. You must have built steps. You must have built steps. Mordecai have built those steps. He built them. Faithfulness. Faithfulness to the father of Esther, faithfulness to the parents of Esther, truthfulness to Esther, raising Esther, truthfulness, truthfulness, instructing her, guiding her to the path to go. And that by the time he got the information reported to Esther, Esther mentioned her name like that and later, check it again, it was by this same Esther that Mordecai became a prominent man and a defender of the Jews. He says he is lucky. May God deliver you from blindness. It is not a matter of luck. Go and build the right steps for your life by faithfulness. Let us have a word of prayer. Let me invite Innocent to pray. [Speaker 3 - Innocent] Our Father and our God, Lord we thank You for this morning. We thank You for how You have opened our hearts again to Your word. Be exalted in the name of Jesus. Lord, You have reminded us again that faithfulness at all costs is the way forward. That if we are faithful in little, much more will be added unto us. Lord, we pray that You help us that we will get better in the name of Jesus. We know that faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is developed by a walk with You. Lord, You will help us, Lord, to continually commune with You in the name of Jesus. That we will set our priorities right and understand that the place of fellowship and communion with You is the most important in the name of Jesus. We will be faithful to assignments, to disciplines, to instructions that You have given unto us in the name of Jesus. Lord, You help us, Lord, to walk upright with You in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus we have prayed. Thank You, righteous Father, for all that You have done and all You will do. For in Jesus’ name we have prayed. Amen. [Speaker 1] Let us share the grace. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, rest and abide with us now and forevermore. Amen. And surely, God’s goodness and mercy is following us all the days of our life, and we are dwelling continually in God’s presence in Jesus’ name. Amen. [Outro Voice] 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 p.m.; Adolescent and Singles Club every first Saturday of every month at 10 a.m.; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10 a.m.; family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ile-Oluji community, opposite Very Joy filling station along Igbara-Oke 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, 070336113848. God bless you all.